The IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) awards program recognizes WIE members and WIE Affinity Groups who have made outstanding contributions to IEEE WIE, their community, and the engineering profession, through their dedication and involvement in projects or activities directed toward fulfilling the IEEE WIE goals and objectives. Women engineers are among some of the most distinguished contributors to the engineering profession.
2018 Inspiring Member Of The Year
Winnie Ye, IEEE WIE Ottawa AG (R7)
Dr. Winnie Ye is an exceptional role model and mentor for women in engineering. Under her leadership as the Chair of the IEEE WIE Ottawa Chapter since 2012, she organized seven major seminars/workshops and social events, of three are international. For example, the “International Forum for Women in Photonics” held at the Photonics North Conference is the first International Forum of its kind. Her initiative in holding the IEEE WIE TechW event in Ottawa not only exposes Ottawa as the technology hub in Canada, but also creates excellent opportunities for bringing together Canadian women to network with other women around the world. IEEE Ottawa Section recognized her efforts and officially appointed her as the General Chair of the IEEE WIE TechW event, to be held in 2019. These successful events have national and international impact on promoting women in engineering and science. Acknowledging the achievements, the WIE Ottawa Chapter won the 2017 Outstanding Affinity Group of the Year Award from the IEEE Ottawa Section. In addition, her leadership in the IEEE Photonics Society Ottawa Chapter contributed towards the winning of the 2015 IEEE Photonics Society Chapter of the Year Award, honoring the achievements and educational activities conducted by the Canadian team. Dr. Ye is an advocate for women in engineering, as evidenced by her contributions to various activities as outlined in the achievements mentioned above. For example, the presentation on “IEEE Women-in- Engineering” for the Advancing New Canadian Women in Technology (ANCWT), provides training and guidance for new female Canadians. Her participation in Media Action’s panel discussion promotes gender equity through media analysis and action.
Honorable Mentions
- Maryam Davoudpour, IEEE WIE Toronto AG
- Zuhaina Zakaria, IEEE WIE Malaysia AG
- Mehrnaz Shoustarian, IEEE WIE Victoria AG
2018 Inspiring Student Member Of The Year
Elena Uchiteleva, IEEE WIE London AG (R7)
Throughout the past several years, Elena has substantially and consistently contributed to the expansion of the IEEE WIE in the R7. She tirelessly worked on organizing multiple local- and regional-level activities, which promoted women in STEM, increased visibility of WIE in Canada, and grew WIE membership base. Elena built teams of volunteers to facilitate proper administration of growing WIE activity in London Section and in R7.She has also approached every Canadian IEEE Section without active WIE engagement to encourage and help them start WIE groups or invigorate the dormant ones. In addition, she set a personal example of a strong and vibrant leader for the WIE Canada Chairs to follow. Despite her busy schedule as a doctoral student, Elena enthusiastically takes on leadership of large IEEE WIE events in her Region.
For example, she has organized the WIE Canada Congress in 2016, and in the beginning of 2018, she took on a journey of initiating and co-Chairing one of the most prominent events in the IEEE Canada WIE – the WIE ILS Toronto’18. This is the first Summit of this kind in Canada. She also introduced new IEEE awards and grants to support WIE leadership in sections and nominated her peers for the IEEE WIE awards to recognize their achievements. In her commitment to promoting women in STEM, Elena does not restrict herself only to the IEEE activities. She engages in a diverse range of outreach programs to the general community, throughwhich she promotes engineering to the public and advocates for the important role of women in this field.
Honorable Mentions
- Chirra Akanksha, Goud IEEE WIE Hyderabad AG
- R Ankayarkanni, IEEE WIE Madras AG
- Mayssa Mannai, IEEE WIE Tunisia AG
2018 Affinity Group Of The Year
IEEE WIE London AG
One of the most significant accomplishments of IEEE London WIE was the increase in the WiE London Membership in 2017 (almost ~40% increase). We reached out many students and IEEE members through the annual Electrical and Computer Engineering Departmental symposium of the University of Western Ontario with providing a booth where they could stop by and get pamphlets, advertising goods and talk to one of our executive members and gain information about WiE objectives and goals, membership, perks and benefits and other related information. It was a very successful 2-day event where we promote WiE membership which results is significant membership increase. Increase in the number of activities (13 activities in 2017) with the variety of technical, professional and social events was another great achievement of IEEE London WIE affinity group. We were very successful in organizing events with the current trend technology topic and professional development events. We gain lots of great feedbacks from the attendees. Out team were highly motivated to provide the best experience for our members and to improve the quality of the events to attract more members to participate and, in fact, increase in the number of attendees was another achievement of our section WIE in 2017.
Honorable Mentions
- IEEE WIE Toronto AG
- IEEE WIE Honduras AG
2018 Student Branch Affinity Group Of The Year
IEEE WIE Vimal Jyothi Engineering College SBAG
Increase in the membership is a great accomplishment of the group, and the socially relevant programs and other events , making the young volunteers, personally strong , both in technical knowledge and interpersonal skills.
Honorable Mentions
- IEEE WIE University of Moratuwa-Sri Lanka SBAG
- IEEE WIE Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology SBAG