IEEE Industry Oriented Events Foster Engagement

Creating greater engagement with industry is an important element in retaining younger members in the IEEE. The majority of our IEEE student members are employed in industry and if we are to keep them as members and volunteers in IEEE once they start working, we need to provide value to people engaged in the practical applications of technology.

IEEE has many events that provide value to researchers both in academia as well as in industry where original research can be presented and published. There are also some IEEE events put on by IEEE societies and other organizational units that provide value to industry. Some examples include conferences put on by our Power and Engineering Society, PES, Microwave Theory and Technology Society, MTT-S, the Electron Devices Society, EDS, and several others. If we want to get younger folks more engaged with the IEEE we need more industry oriented events.

This year there has been a focus on increasing the number and diversity of industry focused events. I want to talk about some of these, in particular the World Technology Summit, WTS, organized by members of the IEEE Industry Engagement Committee and held in San Jose, CA, the New Age AI events that have been held and organized by the IEEE Seattle section, and the SC24 conference jointed organized by the IEEE Computer Society and the ACM in Atlanta, GA.

I was able to attend some of the WTS and SC24 this year. Doing more events like these that provide value to those working in industry is an important element in demonstrating the value of being part of the IEEE to those involved in the practical applications of technology.

Sheree Wen, former Seattle IEEE section chair and active IEEE volunteer was the instigator and a major organizer of the New Age AI events in Seattle this year . The image below was used to advertise these events. They began with an in-person event in August, the IEEE New Era World Leaders AI Summit that featured industry keynote talks, workshops and hands-on classes on using artificial intelligence in industry. The event was also tailored to help people laid off to be able to gain skills and make contacts, which could lead to new opportunities.

Following the larger event in August, there were additional industry in-person workshops held in Seattle in October and on-line workshops held in November. The cost of these workshops and events was kept low to encourage people to come, particularly people looking for work.

The IEEE Industry Engagement Committee, IEC, is a committee of the IEEE Board of Directors tasked with helping IEEE have greater relevance to industry. This year the IEC provided funding for a new type of industry-oriented conference which resulted in the World Technology Summit held in San Jose, CA on November 12-14. The image below is from my talk on the 13th where I talked about IEEE priorities this year with a focus on IEEE's value and engagement with industry.

The WTS had sessions from distinguished experts from industry on AI infrastructure, ranging from AI requirements for computing and networking as well as memory and storage, silicon technology developments to support AI workflows, dealing with the projected power requirements to support AI development and data security and standards.

The 2024 Super Computing Conference, SC24, organized by the IEEE Computer Society, CS and the ACM was held in Atlanta, Georgia November 17-22. This is a conference that explores all aspects of high-performance computing, HPC, hardware as well as software and provides a major forum for those involved in research and development as well as deployment of computing, including AI. The event is huge with over 16,000 attendees expected to attend many parallel tracks on various topics and with about 500 exhibitors, mostly companies involved in various aspects of computing.

I was able to participate in some interesting events at SC24, and I was able to give a short talk to high school and middle school teachers and soft university students on AI and HPC in the classroom with material from the IEEE Education Activities Board, EAB, and participate in some of the follow-on activities, including creating a human neural network, see image below, where I was a node in a hidden layer.

I was also able to visit the large exhibit floor and talk with some industry participants, tour the network that powered SC24, listen to some keynote talks and attend some workshops. The energy and innovation in these events will help to develop important technologies that, if used properly, will provide benefit to humanity, creating new opportunities and helping us to solve some of the world's biggest issues.

IEEE needs to create more industry-oriented events geared to people who are involved in the practical applications of technology. This will be a key element in retaining younger members and pursuing our mission of advancing technology for humanity!