Dear Members,

On behalf of the IEEE, the IEEE R7 and the IEEE Ottawa Section, I wish
you all a Happy and prosperous New Year.

The past year has been extremely productive. The Section did very well by
meeting the goals set out for 2011. We met our goals for promoting senior
members and had the highest number of senior member elevations in R7. We
had 3 out of 9 Fellow elevations from the Section. We managed our
finances prudently and supported our student activities. Our student
branches and clubs did extremely well, got several commendable
recognition. Some of our chapters got recognition world wide and our
Section was recognized as the Best Large Section in IEEE. Our members
were recognized through awards and nominations to positions outside of
the Section and also the Region. We hope to have a repeat performance
this year.

This year, with your support, the Section has set the following vision:
Connect, Communicate and Collaborate. The Section plans to Connect with
every member to increase its VISIBILITY; Communicate through various
means including programs for public and IEEE members to bring IMPACT;
Collaborate with industries, academia, school and the city to bring
GROWTH in economy and membership.

This vision of the section is aligned with the vision of the incoming
director, Dr. Keith Brown: “Visibility + impact = Growth”

The Section plans to achieve the vision in the following manner through
its programs:

Connect with People: Advancing Technology for Humanity through
Humanitarian Activities; Connect with Schools, School board and
Universities through Teachers-in-Service Program, Ottawa Robotics
Competition (partnership with other related Robotics competitions). Use
STEP-UP initiative to educate school students to embrace technology
streams at Universities and Colleges

Connect with Industries: Developing a closer relationship with OCRI;
Working closely with Government Research Labs; Improving ties with PEO
and EIC; Engaging industries in Technical Conferences; Helping in
Recruitment Events. In order to achieve all this, the Section may develop
relationships through memoranda of understanding, if possible.

Connect with City: Continue to foster closer ties with OCC, Ottawa
Tourism and grow our relationship with Science and Tech Museum

Communicate Through Programs With public, using Humanitarian Initiatives
use technology to solve world problems, deliver implementable and
sustainable solutions through creation of Open source research/licensing .

Communicate Through Programs with educators: by making their lives easy
by providing useful web tools; aid in sustaining student-research-money
cycle through scholarships, student-exchange programs with sister
sections; help connecting with peers through technical activities

Communicate Through Programs with Industry by providing relevant
Technical conferences (such as ICC 2012) with forums, support Tech
Exhibitions/Expo; Help elevating accomplished members as seniors and
fellows; help employees to be relevant and current with the technology
through seminars.

Communicate Through Programs with Members by delivering quality programs
that are meaningful; providing networking opportunities; providing
Help/Benefits whenever and wherever needed

Communicate Through Programs with Students by exposing them to
advancements in science and technology; providing hands on experience,
One-One networking, Recruitment and placement

Communicate Through Programs with City by providing economic benefits
through conferences, symposia and workshops

Collaborate for success With Academia, Industry, Government Labs, and the
City: Section will connect with them and discuss their needs

To accomplish our vision, we need to:

  Increase Membership
  Increase Visibility
  Increase Engagement
  Increase Outreach

and last but not the least, we need more volunteers. Please consider
joining the existing team of volunteers and gaining leadership roles as
part of your professional development. I am looking forward to working
with you to have another successful year.

Sreeraman Rajan