I attended this 12 months’s IEEE Vision, Innovation, and Challenges Summit and Honors Ceremony on 23 and 24 April on the Hilton Tokyo Odaiba resort. The occasion celebrates pioneers in engineering who’ve developed know-how that adjustments the way in which individuals join and study concerning the world. This 12 months’s celebrants included the engineers behind the first digital cable set-top box modem chipset and the James Webb Space Telescope.
The occasion included the inaugural IEEE Distinguished Young Professionals and Laureate Forum. Fifty young professionals attended the networking occasion with IEEE leaders, IEEE Medal of Honor laureates, and award recipients.
Listed here are highlights of the sessions, which can be found to observe in full on IEEE.tv.
Networking alternatives for younger professionals
Earlier than the VIC summit obtained underway on 23 April, the networking discussion board happened that morning.
In her speech welcoming the attendees, Sophie Muirhead, IEEE govt director and chief working officer, inspired the younger professionals to have interaction in IEEE’s mission of growing know-how for the advantage of humanity.
The contributors heard from 2020 IEEE President Toshio Fukuda and award recipient Aishwarya Bandla about their careers and volunteer work. Bandla obtained this 12 months’s IEEE Theodore W. Hissey Young Professionals Award for her “management in patient-centric well being know-how innovation and galvanizing IEEE young professionals to drive significant change.” The award is sponsored by the IEEE Photonics and IEEE Power & Energy societies, in addition to IEEE Young Professionals.
She is an IEEE senior member and the scientific innovation supervisor at Paxman, a medical tools producer headquartered in Huddersfield, England. She is growing a wearable gadget that cools an individual’s limbs. The Paxman limb “cryocompression” system helps stop nerve injury related to sure forms of intravenous chemotherapy.
As somebody who follows the Japanese idea of ikigai—a way of objective—Bandla mentioned her “ardour and career intersected not at know-how within the lab however at bringing know-how to the individuals.”
She reveals related ardour in her position as chair of IEEE Region 10’s Young Professionals group. Encouraging attendees to turn into energetic within the group, she mentioned IEEE has given her a objective and the chance to provide again to the neighborhood.
Fifty yong professionals attended the inaugural IEEE Distinguished Younger Professionals and Laureate Discussion board.Junko Kimura; Tomohiro Ohsumi
Attendees have been shocked by a visitor speaker whose title is well-known outdoors of the know-how and engineering fields: Steve Wozniak.
The summit’s emcee Miho Noguchi interviewed the IEEE Fellow and Apple cofounder about what impressed him to pursue a profession in engineering and launch a startup. Noguchi, a former Japanese radio broadcaster, is the voice for Google Maps navigation in Japanese.
Wozniak mentioned he was impressed by his father, who was an engineer at Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, Calif.
“I visited the corporate a number of instances and watched him work and began asking him what engineers did,” he mentioned. His father informed him engineers construct issues that make life simpler for individuals.
When requested what career advice he would give to younger professionals, Wozniak mentioned, “At all times be a great individual. Even when somebody is dangerous to you, at all times be good to them.”
Reflecting on the advantages of IEEE membership, he mentioned being an IEEE Fellow is crucial honor he has obtained.
The discussion board concluded with a networking alternative. Every desk was given a set of questions to interrupt the ice. Attendees paired up and got 10 minutes to ask one another about their education, work experiences, and profession aspirations. When the time was up, they switched companions.
A number of younger professionals I interviewed about their expertise mentioned they loved the occasion. One mentioned she actually favored studying about the place everybody got here from, their work, and their passions. All mentioned they have been in awe that they obtained the chance to see and listen to Wozniak.
Governing AI and a telescope’s foray into the previous
The summit featured a “hearth chat” with Henry Samueli, this 12 months’s IEEE Medal of Honor recipient for his “pioneering analysis and commercialization of broadband communication and networking applied sciences” and his promotion of STEM education. He’s the primary recipient of the award since its monetary prize was increased to US $2 million from $50,000.
Glenn Zorpette, IEEE Spectrum’s editorial director for content material growth, interviewed Samueli, who reminisced about working in his dad and mom’ liquor/grocery retailer in Los Angeles as a young person, the place he stocked cabinets, operated the money register, and helped out with the bookkeeping. He informed Zorpette that his dad and mom impressed him to turn into an entrepreneur and {that a} hands-on undertaking in a seventh-grade store class prompted him to turn into an engineer.
Samueli helped to discovered Broadcom in 1991 in San Jose, Calif. The corporate developed the primary digital cable set-top field modem chipset, which served because the cable sign receiver. At present he’s chairman of the corporate’s board.
When requested about the way forward for broadband, he mentioned the appliance of present know-how is extra vital than its development. He added that he’s excited to see what the longer term will deliver.
An viewers member requested him what advice he would give to engineers in developing countries.
“Take it one step at a time and let [your career] unfold how it’s meant to,” he mentioned.
The dialog was adopted by keynote speeches and panel discussions with award recipients on matters together with artificial intelligence and space exploration.
“[The IEEE Nick Holonyak Medal for Semiconductor Optoelectronic Technologies] represents the ability of collaboration, the energy of shared innovation, and the enduring spirit of those that dare to dream.”— Frederick A. Kish Jr
Throughout a presentation on artificial intelligence, Tshilidzi Marwala, rector of the United Nations University in Tokyo, led a deep dive into how lawmakers can create insurance policies to control AI use.
Whereas AI is already being utilized by Google, Microsoft, and X, in addition to college students and professionals in numerous fields, Marwala famous there are nonetheless many considerations surrounding the know-how, particularly in the case of security and knowledge accuracy.
He burdened the significance of worldwide collaboration, and he known as for lawmakers to contain technologists when creating coverage.
AI is difficult, he identified and “wants consistency in the case of writing guidelines for its use.”
AI could be the longer term, however improvements such because the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are serving to individuals perceive the previous.
The telescope, which gathers images of stars and galaxies created soon after the big bang, took 20 years to develop and construct. Its growth was led by Bill Ochs, Mike Menzel, and Scott Willoughby at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. For his or her work, they obtained this 12 months’s IEEE Simon Ramo Medal, sponsored by Northrop Grumman.
Ochs, who was a undertaking supervisor on the flight middle throughout its growth, is now the principal engineer at FTS International, in Chantilly, Va. Menzel is the telescope’s mission programs engineer, and Willoughby is vice chairman and undertaking supervisor on the flight middle.
In a panel session moderated by Noguchi, the three talked concerning the challenges they confronted in the course of the JWST spacecraft’s growth and launch.
One hurdle was the lack to check the telescope’s flight capabilities earlier than launch, Ochs mentioned. The telescope was constructed to orbit the solar, and it isn’t doable to simulate that surroundings on Earth. Subsequently, Ochs mentioned, the staff accomplished assessments and analyses on the telescope’s elements and programs to mitigate potential dangers.
The Webb telescope, which launched in 2022, remains to be gathering information.
The three engineers additionally shared recommendation about what it takes to be a undertaking supervisor. Take one huge downside and break it down into a number of small issues you may resolve, Willoughby mentioned. He added that managers want to speak with the whole staff and “get empirical, quick.”
A royal customer and honoring innovators
This 12 months’s IEEE Honors Ceremony, held on the night of 24 April, acknowledged individuals who spearheaded improvements in areas together with solid-state circuits, wireless communication, and broadband know-how.
The opening speaker was Hisako, Princess Takamodo of Japan. “It’s a nice honor that Japan has been allowed to host this premier occasion,” she mentioned.
This was the primary time the ceremony was held in Asia.
“I stand right here in complete awe of how far the human brain has come up to now century,” the princess mentioned.
LEDs play an vital position in sustainability, as they scale back power consumption and could be recycled, in contrast to incandescent lighting. The know-how wouldn’t have been doable with out photonic integrated circuits developed by Frederick A. Kish Jr.
Kish, an IEEE Fellow, additionally superior telecommunications know-how by creating and integrating a full optical system for transmissions onto a single chip, lowering manufacturing prices and enabling considerably larger bandwidths and sooner data transfer speeds. For his improvements, he obtained the IEEE Nick Holonyak Medal for Semiconductor Optoelectronic Technologies. The award is sponsored by Associates of Nick Holonyak Jr. The 2003 Medal of Honor recipient invented the primary sensible visible-spectrum LED.
Kish thanked his former colleagues at Agilent Technologies, Hewlett Packard, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and different organizations.
“We’ve labored collectively to go away the world brighter, greener, and extra related,” he mentioned. “This medal represents the ability of collaboration, the energy of shared innovation, and the enduring spirit of those that dare to dream.”
Honoring work that helps join the world continued with the presentation of the IEEE Mildred Dresselhaus Medal to IEEE Fellow Andrea Goldsmith, who obtained the award for “contributions to and management in wireless communications idea and follow.” The award is sponsored by Google.
Whereas at Stanford, Goldsmith developed foundational mathematical approaches for rising the capability, velocity, and vary of wi-fi programs. She helped discovered two communications startups: Quantenna Communications of San Jose, Calif., and Plume Design of Palo Alto, Calif. This 12 months, the present dean of engineering and utilized sciences at Princeton was appointed president of Stony Brook University, in New York. She is about to begin her new place on 1 August.
“Mildred Dresselhaus was a pioneer within the days when there have been only a few girls in science and know-how,” Goldsmith mentioned. “She was a job mannequin and an early champion of variety, making certain the very best and the brightest might enter the sphere and thrive inside it. Her contributions to science and engineering are unparalleled, and receiving an award named for her is deeply significant to me.”
The ceremony concluded with the presentation of the IEEE Medal of Honor to Samueli, who obtained a standing ovation.
On the finish of his speech, he introduced that he was giving his $2 million prize to IEEE–Eta Kappa Nu, the group’s honors society.
“I used to be made an eminent member of IEEE-HKN in 2019, and [the Samueli Foundation] has supported [the society] for years,” he mentioned. “It’s actually an honor for me to endow such a beautiful scholar group.”
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