First ComSoc Virtual School Series Event Is A Success!

The 7th Edition of the IEEE ComSoc School Series took place on 17-19 August 2020 and was a completely virtual event.  This 3-day event was organized by the IEEE ComSoc UK and Ireland Chapter in collaboration with University of Glasgow.  The program consisted of 18 live lectures and recorded demonstrations addressing 5G and related enabling technologies presented by experts from industry and academia.  168 ComSoc Student Members from 43 different countries attended the event and were able to submit questions during the live sessions receiving responses from presenters in real time.  Recordings of presentations delivered during this event will be made available to ComSoc Members soon.

IEEE ComSoc Autumn School 2019 Recorded Presentations Now Available

The 2019 IEEE ComSoc Autumn School was held on 5-8 November 2019 at Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions in Barcelona, Spain.  The program included presentations from seven university professors and industry experts, which focused on 5G cellular wireless networks, network slicing, data analytics, data-driven communication, Software Defined Networks (SDN), Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), and vertical applications.  You can now view a selection of presentations from this event on IEEE.tv as a benefit of your ComSoc membership.

iYES Initiative

The i-YES (Young Engineers and Scientists) Education & Training Program was created to inspire PhD students, researchers and young professionals through opportunities to interact with industry professionals and academics and learn about the benefits of and how to get involved in various volunteering, educational and standardization activities. i-YES events generally take place during the annual IEEE GLOBECOM and ICC conferences (every December and May/June, respectively).

i-YES was founded by Prof. Mike Devetsikiotis (University of New Mexico, USA) and Prof. Periklis Chatzimisios (International Hellenic University, Greece) back in 2016 and since then, seven successful i-YES Tracks have been organized in coordination with the leadership of distinguished colleagues such as Rhys Bowley (National Instruments, USA) and Nury Ramirez-Cely (Continental Automotive, Mexico). Currently, i-YES is being managed by Prof. Periklis Chatzimisios and Prof. Stefano Giordano (University of Pisa, Italy). The program of i-YES includes Keynote Speeches and Inspiring Talks from well-known academics and researchers, Panels, Hands-on sessions as well as time for Q&A.

The most recent i-YES event during IEEE ICC 2020 conference included a Panel on "Standards and standardization - The first steps."  IEEE Standards leaders shared their experiences in standards activities and discussed how to get involved.  Participants in this Panel session included:

• Rob Fish, President, IEEE Standards Association
• Alex Gelman, Member, IEEE Standards Program Development Board
• Robby Robson, Chair, IEEE Standards Education Committee
• Zander Lei, Editor in Chief, IEEE Communications Standards Magazine
• Glenn Parsons, Past EiC, IEEE Com. Standards Magazine.

Furthermore, a session on "IEEE Communication Society - A plethora of exciting opportunities" was also offered which featured talks by Stefano Bregni (ComSoc Vice President, Conferences), Nelson Fonseca (Director, Conference Development Board), Nirwan Ansari (Director, Education Services Board), Ricardo Veiga (Director, Member Services Board) and Ashutosh Dutta (co-Chair, IEEE Future Networks Steering Committee).

i-YES events will be planned for future IEEE GLOBECOM and IEEE ICC conferences so be sure to join us in these sessions.  If you have an interest in proposing an activity for inclusion in i-YES, please contact us.

New 5G Security Course Coming Early 2021!

A new ComSoc Training course focusing on 5G Security is currently in development by instructor Daniel Wong and will be available in early 2021.  Receive alerts on upcoming ComSoc Training courses including this new 5G Security course by joining the ComSoc Training mailing list.

Prof. Periklis Chatzimisios, International Hellenic University (GREECE)

Being an academic and an active researcher, I am very passionate about activities that provide quality education and added value to young people. A major life milestone is serving as a member in the IEEE ComSoc Education Services Board (ESB) since the end of 2014. My main involvement includes the organization of educational events (such as training schools and webinars) as well as on the review/update of training courses that are offered by ComSoc. Another exciting activity that I was involved in the past was the organization of 2 Special Issues in the IEEE Communications Magazine on the topics of Telecommunication and Network Engineering Education (2019) and Telecommunication Standards Education (2017). One of the initiatives of ESB that I am very proud of is the "Young Engineer & Scientist Initiative (i-YES) Education & Training Track" that was founded by Prof. Mike Devetsikiotis and myself back in 2016. Currently, I am managing i-YES with another member of ESB, my good friend Prof. Stefano Giordano (University of Pisa, Italy) and we plan to have the 8th edition of the i-YES Education & Training Track in the upcoming IEEE Globecom 2020 conference. I am looking forward to continuing to work with my ESB colleagues and ComSoc staff on exciting education projects.

Stefano Giordano, Università di Pisa (Italy)

I began my work as a Telecommunication Engineer 30 years ago working on the Metropolitan Area Network, interconnecting the towns of Pisa, Florence and Siena within a project on the National Research Council on “Telecommunications.”  My group was the first in Italy to demonstrate packet voice and video on a multicast IP environment that we were obtaining with “tunnels,” at that time, as a part of the MBONE (the global IP Multicast backbone).  Participating in inspiring discussion and work in this area, I was convinced that it could be possible to have voice and video for distance learning and remote collaboration particularly in the field of Telemedicine and … smart working!  What an enthusiastic experience for a young engineer!

It was at that time that my interest started shifting to “learning” not “teaching.” In thinking about how Technology Enhanced Learning was always paired with actions on the methodological aspects, I began to understand how there was an immense gap in applying that innovative approach within the education sector.  We ask industry to revolutionize their approaches and processes thanks to ICT, however I was finding that we are often weak in introducing “evolutionary” processes in education.  In 2003 I began teaching via distance learning and in 2005 was awarded the HP grant for Technology for Teaching.  In 2007 I started the first European Juniper Networks Higher Learning Center within a University. I was impressed by a Confucius quote “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”   That is probably misattributed but I noticed that it probably comes from - rough translation - "Not hearing is not as good as hearing, hearing is not as good as seeing, seeing is not as good as knowing, knowing is not as good as acting; true learning continues until it is put into action."

My interest in ComSoc and the Educational Services Board (ESB) began to grow thanks to one of its directors, Prof. Tarek S. El-Bawab.  Prof. El-Bawab had started an innovative action in distinguishing and accrediting Telecommunication Engineering university programs separately from Computer Science & Engineering and Electronics Engineering programs. I then began to learn more about ComSoc’s activities in the realm of education. 

I have found that action is tremendously relevant for Science (no science without experimental validation) but it is for sure something tremendously relevant in learning activities. This is one of the reasons why I began to get involved in the i-YES (Young Engineers & Scientists) initiative that my fellow ESB members and colleagues Prof. Periklis Chatzimitios and Prof. Mike Devetsikiotis began in 2016.  Our goal was to provide a forum at ComSoc’s flagship conferences for researchers and representatives from companies to present their best practices on educational activities, describe their progresses in carriers, and provide hands-on activities that could be replicated worldwide for young professionals. The sparkling result was tremendously interesting activities, engaging the interests of young professionals and undergraduate to PhD students.

I’m very grateful to ComSoc and to the Educational Service Board where I’m serving under the lead of Prof. Nirwan Ansari to the actions related to the internationalization of Telecommunication culture. It is not only a question of “technicalities'' but of engineering activities and professional peculiarities of a domain that in each country is surely among the most relevant for the development of economies and societal aspects. We are no more “postman of bits'' and now processing, storage, and communication will be more and more integrated thanks to the “cloud continuum” that will be exploited by our infrastructures. Network Function Virtualization, Software Defined Networking, Cyber Security, and network automation at any level thanks to Artificial Intelligence solutions will require new effort in adapting our traditional courses to the new era of “enabling platforms'' for the Internet of the future.

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Renew Your Membership Today for a Chance to Win a USD $50 e-gift card!

ComSoc Members who renew by 2 December 2020 will be automatically entered to win a USD $50 electronic gift card*. A winner will be selected at random, notified via email, and announced on the COMSOC website. 

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