Published: May 3, 2022 by IEEE Newfoundland and Labrador Section

In their April AGM and Board meetings, the IEEE Canadian Foundation approved the awarding of three Special Grants, two of them to NL student groups aiming to participate in international competitions for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

The MUN Robosub AUV team is an engineering student group at Memorial University, comprised of engineering students designing a bio-inspired AUV to represent Memorial University in the RoboSub Competition. RoboSub is an international student competition by RoboNation, a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote hands-on educational experiences that empower students. The competition is held each summer at the U.S. Navy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific’s TRANSDEC Anechoic pool in San Diego, California. Student teams design and build autonomous underwater vehicles that can identify and distinguish objects through machine learning, pick up objects, drop markers, monitor subsea structures, collect data and touch buoys under the water, thus mimicking those of real-world systems. The aim is to challenge students and advance the field of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV), which are widely used for underwater exploration, seafloor mapping, and sonar localization, amongst many others.

Phoenix Aerospace is an aerospce club run by Memorial University Students, with the goal of “creating a safe space that opens up new opportunities for students to explore the inner workings of UAVs and aerospace applications.” The team received the IEEE Canadian Foundation Special Grant to compete in the 2022 IEEE Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) Competition. The goal of this year’s competition, named “Research Infrastructure for Real-Time Onboard Vision Enabled Robots” (Ri4rover), is to have “autonomous drones actively track one of several ground robots in a miniature city”.

According to their website, “[t]he IEEE Canadian Foundation awards “Special Grants” to an IEEE Student Branch, an IEEE Section, an IEEE Canada Committee, a non-IEEE entity such as a high school , or in rare cases an individual, all in Canada. Special Grants are intended to partially fund one-time new and innovative projects that advance IEEE’s core purpose to foster technological innovation and excellence to benefit humanity.”

Published: Apr 18, 2022 by IEEE Newfoundland and Labrador Section

In their April AGM and Board meetings, the IEEE Canadian Foundation extended the deadlines of four different scholarships, as reported in IEEE Canada’s April Newsletter. Of the four scholarships, IEEE NL Undergraduate and Graduate student members are eligible to three: the IEEE Canadian Foundation Dr. Raymond D. Findlay Scholarship, the Nick Cercone Graduate Scholarship in Computer Science, and the Gargantini-Strybosch Scholarship. More information on the scholarships can be found below:

• IEEE Canadian Foundation Dr. Raymond D. Findlay Scholarship: One scholarship each year, value $1,000.
  • Eligibility: The nominee must be an undergraduate IEEE Student Member in good standing, registered in their penultimate year of an accredited Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering or Engineering Science/Engineering Physics undergraduate program offered in a Canadian university, a citizen or permanent resident of Canada, enrolled as a full-time student.
  • Purpose: To encourage leadership, creativity and enthusiasm for the engineering profession.
  • Deadline (EXTENDED): August 15, 2022
• Nick Cercone Graduate Scholarship in Computer Science: This scholarship is sponsored by the Friends of Nick Cercone One prize each every second year, the initial value of $6,000.
  • Eligibility: PhD students in computer science at a Canadian university.
  • Purpose: To recognize a computer science PhD student at a Canadian university.
  • Deadline (REVISED): May 31, 2022
• Gargantini-Strybosch Scholarship: This scholarship is sponsored by the Gargantini Fund, one scholarship each year, value $5,000.
  • Eligibility: A student member of IEEE (or agree to apply for membership), enrolled full-time in his or her second undergraduate year, first generation in the family university student, completing a Canadian university program in a field of interest to IEEE.
  • Purpose: To recognize a student who shows brightness, integrity, engagement with community and enthusiasm for undergraduate study.
  • Deadline (EXTENDED): August 15, 2022

All application and nomination forms are consolidated at the IEEE Canadian Foundation Website.

Published: Apr 18, 2022 by IEEE Newfoundland and Labrador Section

In their April Newsletter, IEEE Canada congratulated Dr. Octavia Dobre for her appointment as Interim Dean of Engineering and Applied Science. “Big congratulations to Dr. Octavia Dobre for being appointed Interim Dean of Memorial’s Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science,” wrote IEEE Canada. According to Memorial University’s Gazette, Dr. Dobre “has been appointed interim dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, effective May 2, 2022, until April 28, 2023,” replacing Dr. Greg Naterer, who has been appointed vice-president, academic and research, at the University of Prince Edward Island. As announced by Dr. Naterer, Dr. Dobre is the first female Dean of Engineering at Memorial Univeristy.

Congratulations and best wishes to Dr. Octavia Dobre, Interim Dean of @MUN_Engineering, @MemorialU 's first female Dean of Engineering, and a distinguished researcher (wireless communications), teacher, and leader - to all women and young girls, dream big, the sky is the limit! pic.twitter.com/KDGAAeUjqS

— Greg Naterer (@GregNaterer) March 19, 2022

A Fellow of the IEEE, Engineering Institute of Canada, and the Canadian Academy of Engineering, Dr. Dobre is currently professor, research chair, and associate dean of research in the Memorial University Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science. Her research interests include various wireless technologies, such as NOMA and full duplex, machine learning for communications, blind signal identification and parameter estimation techniques, physical layer security, transceiver optimization algorithms, resource allocation, as well as underwater and optical communications. She is also the inaugural Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of the IEEE Open Journal of the IEEE Communications Society, and an Editor with the IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials, IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine and IEEE Systems. She was the EiC of the IEEE Communications Letters and served as Senior Editor/Editor/Guest Editor for the IEEE Communications Letters, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Communications Magazine, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics on Signal Processing, IEEE Wireless Communications, and other prestigious journals. She has been the General Chair, Tutorial Chair, Technical Committee Chair or Technical Symposium Chair at numerous conferences, such as IEEE ICC, IEEE Globecom, IEEE WCNC and IEEE I2MTC.

Published: Aug 24, 2021 by IEEE Newfoundland and Labrador Section

After a successful in-person event last year, the 30th edition of the Annual Newfoundland Electrical and Computer Engineering Conference (NECEC 2021) opens its Call for Submissions. NECEC 2021 will be held on November 18, 2020, at the Holiday Inn St. John’s Conference Centre.

The event is a forum where students and professionals from Electrical, Electronic, and Computer Engineerings and Information Technology can present their work to the province’s growing technical and academic communities.

The conference accepts papers and poster submissions, as well as industry presentations in a diverse array of topics related to electrical and computer engineering. For the first time, the event will have a dedicated section on Analytics, Data Science and Machine Learning. A complete list of submission topics and more information on the event can be found in the Call for Submissions or in the event website.

The deadline for submissions is September 10, 2021.

NECEC 2021 is presented by IEEE Newfoundland and Labrador Section in cooperation with Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Published: Jan 30, 2020 by IEEE Newfoundland and Labrador Section

IEEE Newfoundland and Labrador Section Annual General Meeting will be held on February 5, 2020, at 7pm in the board room of the Engineering Building of Memorial University (EN4002). Christopher Whitt who is the SC2020 Program Chair, R7 Secretary and OES AdCom member will attend on behalf of IEEE Canada. The evening will start with a presentation from Dr. Meisam Amani on the topic of Remote Sensing for Newfoundland and Labrador

Speaker Bio: Dr. Meisam Amani is a Senior Remote Sensing Scientist at a global consulting company, Wood. His research focuses on remote sensing applications in environmental science. He has over ten years of experience in processing, analyzing, and understanding satellite data for various applications. Since September 2015, the date that he started his PhD at the Electrical Engineering Department of MUN, he has worked on different remote sensing projects in NL and has tried to advance remote sensing technology in this province. Dr. Amani’s presentation starts with introduction of remote sensing and mainly discusses the remote sensing projects that he has been involved thus far in the province of NL.

After the technical presentation we will hold a business meeting to update the membership of the activities held throughout 2015. This is a great time to ask questions and make suggestions.

We will end the night with some refreshments. This is a good opportunity to network and discuss further questions or concerns you might have with the Section executive.

Event Details (Save to Google Calendar)

• Date and Time: Wednesday, February 05, 2020, 7:00 PM
• Location: Main Engineering Boardroom (EN-4002), Engineering Building, Memorial University