Dear Members,

Welcome to our June IEEE WIE newsletter. IEEE WIE International leadership conference (WIE ILC) way forward, more engagement and partnership with IEEE WIE Forum USA East and IEEE WIE magazine, collaboration initiatives with other organizational units, such as TAB (societies), IEEE EAB, IEEE HKN, IEEE HTB, IEEE MOVE, IEEE Foundation, IEEE Standards Association, IEEE MGA Training – CLE and VoLT , IEEE Smart village, IEEE REACH, IEEE Future Directions Committee, IEEE New Initiative Committee, IEEE Entrepreneurship Committee, IEEE Industry Engagement Committee have been the priorities of IEEE WIE in the previous months.

IEEE WIE membership and AG status

There were 31,699 WIE Members as of April 2023, a 19% increase in WIE membership Year-over-Year (YoY). There are 1,188 WIE Affinity Groups and WIE Student Branch Affinity Groups as of May 2023. There continues to be steady growth in WIE Affinity Groups with 27+ new groups (4 Section WIE AGs) formed already in 2023.

A Recap of Important WIE Happenings

To celebrate IEEE Education Week 2023, IEEE WIE conducted an interview session with Dr. Rabab K. Ward, VP, IEEE Educational Activity Board (EAB) to foster collaboration between IEEE WIE and IEEE EAB.

IEEE WIE International Leadership Summits (ILS) 2023 were kicked-off with a suggestion to focus on special events related to climate change and sustainability. During training webinar for 9 ILS organizers on 27th April , guidelines about special events related to climate Change during ILS were provided, namely technology based engagement activities (such as, climate change assessment), contest / trivia, etc.

“Ask the Specialist” sessions (such as, Climate change and sustainability related panels).

ILS at Uganda was successfully organized during , 16-17 June, 2023 with keynote talk, panel discussion and students presentation on climate change and sustainability.
Please join the IEEE WIE ILS closest to you for professional advancement and networking with role models and peers.

After two years, the IEEE WIE Committee held its hybrid annual meeting (in person and virtual) successfully on May 5-6, 2023. This event was co-located with the IEEE VIC Summit and Honors Ceremony at the Hilton Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. View pictures here.

An ad hoc committee for the future of IEEE WIE international Leadership Conference (ILC) was formed and discussion items were brainstormed during IEEE WIE Annual meeting, May 5-6, 2023.

IEEE WIE magazine June 2023 issue has been launched with Full IEEE WIE committee information and my (Chair’s) 2023 plans.

For launching IEEE WIE day, Enhancing regional WIE meet ups and WIE rebranding, IEEE WIE has secured MGA surplus funding.

For IEEE Women in Technology and Leadership Award, there are 34 nominations and for Manga Story Contest 2023, there are 43 entries received.

Future WIE Events

Two virtual Panel Sessions by IEEE WIE and IEEE YP climate change and sustainability task force (CSTF) are planned as follows
Panel 1:
Topic: Promoting Diversity and Inclusion for Climate change and Sustainability, 28th June, 10 AM ET.
Panel 2:
Topic: Pioneering the Path to a Sustainable Future: Empowering Next-Generation Leaders in Climate Action, July 6th, 10 AM ET.

As a discussion outcome of IEEE WIE annual meeting, It was announced on June 2, 2023 that Women in Leadership Community in IEEE Collabratec is now IEEE WIE Global Network.

The IEEE WIE Forum USA East , 26-28, 2023 in Pittsburgh, is inviting participation in suggested topics with a deadline on 28th June. Please widely share it to your networks and join as a contributor.

IEEE WIE is going to celebrate the inaugural IEEE WIE day on June 29th, the day when IEEE WIE was formed back in 1997. It is a great honour that IEEE MGA has supported this new initiative from IEEE WIE. The theme of this year’s IEEE WIE Day is “Engaging Women in Mitigating Climate Change & Building Climate Resilience”. IEEE WIE is going to celebrate the inaugural IEEE WIE day on June 29th, 2023, the day when IEEE WIE was formed back in 1997.  IEEE WIE is encouraging WIE members, Affinity Groups, and Student Branch Affinity Groups to organize their own events aligned with the theme of the IEEE WIE day until 31 July 2023. The plan is to be announced on 23rd June (International Women in Engineering day). Let me introduce IEEE WIE Chair, ChaitaliNaik , https://www.linkedin.com/in/chaitali-naik-electricalengineer/

The IEEE annual ballot will include candidates for the position of 2024 WIEC Chair-
Elect listed at https://www.ieee.org/about/corporate/election/candidates.html. If you are a voting member, please do not forget to exercise your right this year to vote for the IEEE WIE chair-elect 2024.

Thank you all for your extraordinary contributions to IEEE WIE!

Celia Shahnaz

Website: www.celiashahnaz.com, Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/celia-shahnaz