Section News

Election of United Kingdom and Ireland Vice-Chair (2024-2025), Chair (2026-2027) | Meet Your Candidates

IEEE UK and Ireland SectionThe election of the United Kingdom and Ireland Vice-Chair (2024-2025), Chair (2026-2027) is now underway, closing at 5pm on 11 December 2023.

As a member you have the right to express your wishes about the IEEE UK and Ireland Section leadership by voting. Please do not miss this opportunity. Our duty and responsibility is to ensure that your voting rights are protected and that you are confident that your vote is accurately cast and tabulated.

Vice Chair Election – Vote Now

Here you can find out more about the candidates, view their technical talks and candidacy pitches as well as Q&As.

Candidates are listed in alphabetical order by last name.

Talk Title: Power efficiency in Hyperscale Data Centres – A monitoring perspective using Ignition SCADA System

Abstract:

The talk begins by highlighting the unique challenges posed by High-Performance Computing (HPC) data centres, emphasising the need for advanced monitoring solutions.

The talk focuses on the critical domain of power efficiency within hyperscale data centres. The Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) as a metric for efficiency is discussed, with a focus on practical strategies and insights for optimised performance.

The talk also showcases UK implementations, demonstrating how Ignition SCADA system’s real-time monitoring offers insights into power variables. By addressing power efficiency concerns, the insights shared aim to enhance sustainability, reduce costs, and contribute to the overall effectiveness of hyperscale data centres.

Candidates’ Technical Talk Q&A

Vice-Chair Pitch

Candidates’ Pitches Q&A

Related Technical Achievements & Experience

I have more than 21 years of experience in the energy sector working for electric utilities in Venezuela and for Renewable Energy / Power Management companies in Spain, UK and China.

I have held different technical/managerial roles apart from providing consultancy services. Previous roles include Operations Manager, Programme Director & Business Developer Director.

Currently I work as Senior Project Manager at E-TEC Power Management with implementation and management of complete Data Centre infrastructure solutions with focus on Ignition SCADA system where I have been awarded E-TEC best employee of the Corporation 2022 and received the DCS Data Centre ICT Management (DCIM) Innovation of the Year Award 2023.

Leadership Experience

Regarding my professional leadership experience, I have directed complex multi-million pounds technical projects including leading the PMO in the post-merger integration of 14 electrical companies (comprising the entire national grid of Venezuela) in addition to being overall responsible for the installation and implementation of complete environmental & power monitoring systems for hyperscale data centres for big data production companies that need a specialised architecture for advanced high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) implementations.

Regarding IEEE, I have been a volunteer since 2000, performing different leadership roles at Region, Section, Chapter and SIG levels (22 different roles so far in 23 years).

I showed great leadership and organisational capacity, as Venezuelan PES Chapter Chair by bringing the PES T&D Conference to Venezuela (only time this conference has ben hosted by a Latin-American country).

I’m UK&I SIGHT group Co-Founder. My proposal “Inclusive multi-sensor platform for autistic Children that encourage social interaction” was awarded in Dec-2019. I ran the project until completion Aug-2021. See Project Summary and Lessons Learnt HERE.
As UK&I Secretary, I played a key role in being awarded as R8 Section of the Year award 2020 & 2022. As UK&I PES Chapter Secretary, Vice-Chair and Chair, I was key in receiving the R8 Chapter of the year awards 2020 / 2021 and the PES Outstanding Chapter Award 2022.

As Venezuelan MD & PA Officer, I showed cross-reaching collaboration abilities in creating “The Innovation Network”, where students, industry and academy worked together in converting student’s proposals into reality.

Position Statement

Overview of Key IEEE roles and engagements

I have been an active IEEE volunteer for more than 23 years. Since day one, I passionately have dedicated my time to bring benefits to IEEE members and the general public, generating an exciting and motivating environment for volunteers to produce the best possible outcomes.

During all different roles I have performed, my focus always has been membership satisfaction, membership recruitment/retention and being an enabler for others. My key objective has always been to maximise benefits to IEEE members and the general public.

I have been Section Secretary in Venezuela and the UK&I. My exposure to those different and diverse environments have given me a unique perspective to tackle a wide variety of challenges, teaching me how to achieve member satisfaction.

I have received the following individual awards:

  • IEEE Region 8 Outstanding Volunteer Award -2022
  • Honourable Mention of the SIGHT Volunteer of the Year -2020
  • IEEE UK & Ireland Power and Energy Society (PES) Outstanding Volunteer Award, -2020
  • IEEE / PES Student Prize Paper Award in Honour of T. Burke Hayes -2005
  • IEEE – INELECTRA Venezuelan Dissertation Contest -2004

Group awards:

  • IEEE PES Outstanding Chapter Award –2023
  • IEEE R8 Outstanding Section Award –2022
  • IEEE R8 Outstanding Section SIGHT Group of the Year Award -2022
  • IEEE PES Outstanding Chapter Award (Runners-up) –2022
  • IEEE Region 8 Chapter of the Year Award – PES –2021
  • IEEE R8 Outstanding Section Award –2020
  • IEEE Region 8 Chapter of the Year Award – PES –2020

Vision for the Section

Our Section just become the largest IEEE Section in the world and its potential still huge. Our vast geography and cultural diversity pose challenges that must be addressed to ensure we reach all of our members with the best possible approach. It is essential to work in a coordinated and complementary manner to understand the needs of our members and serve them efficiently and proactively. My commitment is to improve efficiency in internal processes by using our human and budgetary resources more effectively.
I will provide real engagement for first-time members, highlighting the importance of technical societies and volunteering within Chapters and Sections committees. I will address volunteers’ needs as they arise and support Section and OU officers to meet the needs of all members depending on their local specifics and differences.

I will promote cross collaboration among chapters with related societies including cross Sections collaboration within R8. I will promote more hybrid events and continual education programmes. I will promote and support topic areas for professional development, helping individuals develop skills that help them perform as well-rounded professionals.

I will promote humanitarian activities by supporting our SIGHT group with new project proposal applications. I will ensure LMAG committee has all the support for organising milestone events across the Section and total support to WiE activities apart from promoting the creation of new SIGs and Future Directions groups as well as support the current SIGs formed in the past years.

I will work tirelessly to ensure that our Section follows IEEE best practices and guidance with transparent management so we can lead by example.

Key policy initiatives and action plan

My plan is to boost member engagement, inclusion and transparency with focus on five priorities:

  1. Students and Young Professionals:
    • Increasing the number of student branches and especially SB Chapters as well as supporting the improvement of Section SAC and YPC structures by sharing best practices between sections. Also, by enabling new initiatives and developing training structure for student and YP leaders.
  2. Societies, AGs and SIGs – Cross collaboration among OUs:
    • Promotion of cross collaboration among related societies including also cross Sections collaboration within R8 and worldwide if applicable. Also, improve membership retention by incentivise and support Senior Member elevations.
  3. Educational and Professional Activities:
    • Promote and support Industry-led activities, technical and non-technical planned or organised by our Section’s officers and OUs with the highest quality and technical content.
  4. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:
    • Ensure Section leadership is engaged with DEI promoting/supporting all related activities and create opportunities to encourage inclusive participation in all committees.
  5. IEEE Volunteers
    • Creation and deployment of a Volunteer Development Programme and ensure our volunteers are supported and recognised across the Section and beyond.

I have the energy, the passion, the experience to keep improving our Section, I only need your support.

Talk Title: Engineering in the AI and Quantum Age

Abstract:

Hyperscale data centres play a pivotal, yet unseen role in modern society with most of us taking for granted the enormous computing and networking resources we have at our fingertips. These facilities consume more power collectively than the United Kingdom as a whole.

In this talk I will discuss how hyperscale data centres have increasingly become a microcosm for the most advanced and disruptive technologies including artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and photonic integrated circuits, which are interconnected with light. I’ll also discuss some of the radical efforts to stem the rampant power consumption of these computing leviathans including liquid immersion.

Candidates’ Technical Talk Q&A

Vice-Chair Pitch

Candidates’ Pitches Q&A

Related Technical Achievements & Experience

I am engineer, scientist and director with over 23 years expertise developing optical, photonic and quantum systems and architectures for hyperscale data centre, HPC, 5G and IoT data-communications applications.

I am a Senior Member of the IEEE, Chartered Engineer, Fellow of IET, Fellow of Institute of Physics, Senior Member of Optica and SPIE.

I hold over 55 patents in diverse technology areas and have authored over 70 peer-reviewed scientific publications including conference and journal papers, 5 international standards and a book.

I have given over 100 public talks and organised 18 conferences and symposia including for the IEEE UK&I section.

Leadership Experience

I am the founder and CEO of Resolute Photonics, a photonics and quantum development company I formed in 2018. Prior to that I led the photonics research and development group in Seagate for over a decade.

I am the current chair of the BSI standards committees for Fibre Optics (GEL 86) and Fibre optic connecting devices (GEL 86/2) and I chair the international standards committee on optical connecting devices and components (IEC SC86B).

I am also the chair of the iNEMI optical technology integration board where I am leading a new project on optical interconnect in immersion cooling for future supercomputers.

I am a key contributor to UK and EU government strategy on High Performance Computing, optical, photonic and quantum technologies with a seat on the steering board of ETP4HPC, the Photonics21 Board of Stakeholders and the UK Photonics Leadership Group, regularly liaising with government committees.

An historic precedent

This year I organised and chaired the 9th International Symposium on Optical Interconnect in Data Centres at SEC, Glasgow, co-located with ECOC 2023, which was the first purely gender balanced photonics conference in history with half the speakers female. This was commended by Carol Monaghan MP who opened the symposium.

Position Statement

Overview of Key IEEE roles and engagements

I have been an active IEEE member for over 14 years and am currently a member of the Photonics Society, Electronics Packaging Society and Nanotechnology Council.

I have chaired the UK&I Photonics Chapter since 2017 and two years ago during the height of COVID I formed the UK&I Quantum Group, which I also chair. During this time I’ve founded and organised over 10 international conferences for the chapters including the flagship British and Irish Conference on Optics and Photonics (BICOP) for two consecutive years (pre-COVID) and the first-of-their-kind cross-standards development organisation (IEEE/ITU/IEC/ETSI) symposia on quantum technologies:

  • IEEE/IEC Joint Symposium on Optical Circuit Boards – 15/10/2020
  • IEEE/ISO/IEC/ITU-T Joint Symposium on Standards for Quantum Interconnect – 23/03/2021
  • IEEE/ISO/IEC/ITU-T Joint Symposium on Quantum Transport Technology – 28/04/2021
  • IEEE/ISO/IEC/ITU-T Joint Symposium on Harmonisation of Terminology in Standards for Quantum Technology – 23/06/2021
  • IEEE/ITU/IEC Joint Symposium on Quantum Photonic Integrated Circuits – 5/11/2021
  • IEEE/IEC/ISO/CEN/CENELEC/BSI Joint Symposium on Quantum Interconnect and Metrology – 24/03/2022
  • IEEE/IEC Joint Symposium on Quantum Technologies held as a two-day in-person event at NPL 13/09/2022-14/09/2022
  • I am also the current photonics committee chair of the prestigious 74 year old IEEE ECTC conference, in which we have broken the record for photonics contributions for ECTC 2024.

Vision for the Section

With emerging disruptive technologies such as AI, clean energy, quantum technologies and IoT, engineering is, without exaggeration, more critical now than it has ever been and the next generation of engineers will bear unprecedented ethical and moral burdens.

Our section has the crucial responsibility to make sure everyone with an aptitude for engineering is given the opportunity to discover their potential at an early age and pursue it. There is a strong disparity today in STEM teaching between tech centres like Bristol and Galway, and large pockets of the countries, which for one reason or another have limited technology company presence. This means that huge numbers of young people with an aptitude for engineering are deprived of the opportunity to discover their potential.
My vision is that by identifying “STEM-deprived” areas and targeting those areas with STEM promotion initiatives such as organising regular STEM talks by visiting professionals and teachers and proper teaching kits and teacher education we can substantially increase the numbers of young people discovering their aptitude.

We will also pursue opportunities to increase collaboration with parallel organisations, in order to create a “united front” in promotion of science and engineering. This will also include assistance to and collaboration with government committees, which promote science and engineering policies.

Key policy initiatives and action plan

  • Levelling up in STEM-deprived areas

My leading policy will be to bring STEM to non-tech areas through

1) Identification of most STEM-deprived areas in UK and Ireland,
2) Organisation of a network of volunteer STEM professionals and teachers able to travel and give inspirational talks at schools,
3) Engagement with educational authorities in those areas to put in place measures to disseminate STEM in schools including arranging regular talks by visiting inspirational tech professionals or teachers from the STEM network and increasing distribution of teaching kits to schools in STEM deprived areas.

We also need to start engaging properly with national STEM events such as the Big Bang fairs and organising our own IEEE events to engage young people such as invention competitions. This is an area where we can really make a difference as a section.

  • Emerging engineering disciplines

The section will spotlight emerging technology areas with high societal impact, such as green technologies, AI, IoT, 6G and quantum technologies and promote new engineering disciplines based on these areas.

  • Setting the precedent on gender balance

Having set the precedent for the first gender-balanced photonics conference, I will pursue initiatives to promote increased gender balance across the section, in particular encouraging more females to enter science and engineering at a young age.

Talk Title: Sustainable Smart Cities (SSC): Shaping the Future for the Benefit of Humanity

Abstract:

In the talk, Nagham will explore the nexus of technology and urban living in our digitised society. An SSC is a sustainable city that uses smart technology to provide a high quality of life for citizens, reduce overall costs, and reduce infrastructure costs.

Starting with the Smart Grid highlighting its transformative impact on energy management. Shifting to Intelligent-Transportation-Systems, delving into Smart-Parking utilizing IoT, AI, and blockchain. Then Smart-Industry investigating leak detection and Battery-Monitoring Systems to aid resource conservation.

Finally, Smart-Education explores IoT systems to optimize teaching and learning where Nagham evidenced how her research is an EDI enabler carried by the joined workshops with by the IEEE Women In Engineering (WIE) UK & Ireland AG.

Candidates’ Technical Talk Q&A

Vice-Chair Pitch

Candidates’ Pitches Q&A

Related Technical Achievements & Experience

Nagham, an associate professor at the University of West London, earned her PhD in 2011, specializing in optimizing wireless communication networks.

With 15 years dedicated to advancing electrical and electronic engineering, she holds a Senior Fellowship from the Higher Education Academy.

Recognized for teaching excellence, she won the UWL SU Best Academic/Tutor Award in 2021 and received subsequent nominations.

Nagham’s research, emphasizing energy-efficient intelligent systems in smart cities, is evident in her diverse publications across domains like wireless communications, modeling, simulation, BMS, information, and smart power.

A frequent speaker at IEEE conferences such as WIECON-ECE’22 INTELLECT’22, Smart Cities’23, and WF-IoT’23.

Leadership Experience

Nagham established the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) group at the University of West London which focuses on industry-driven research. The group research specifically centres on developing innovative solutions to enhance efficiency and sustainability. The group collaborated with partners from the UK’s; BT Research Group, FB Group and Slingshot Simulations Ltd, South Africa’s (Technology Innovation Agency), Malaysia’s (Universiti Sains Malaysia), and Jordan’s (Applied Science University). The research’s group membership quadrupled from the time Nagham joined.

She is active in organising and hosting technical workshops in flagship IEEE conferences including IEEE Smart Cities’23, WCNC’23, and WF-IoT’23. Moreover, she serves as a technical and diversity chair for a good number of conference such as the IAER iCCECE ’23 and Cyber-RCI, she is editorial board member of a number of journals such as Smart Applications of 5G Network and Engineering Future Sustainability.

Nagham successfully orchestrated joint events across IEEE societies nationally and internationally collaborating with YP, the student branch, the Communication Society, the PES Society, the Nanotechnology Chapter, WIE Romania, WIE Portugal, and WIE Oman such as Women in Smart Communications, Women in IoT, and Women in Smart Cities fostering global unity and engagement.

Position Statement

Overview of Key IEEE roles and engagements

Nagham joined the IEEE WIE UK & Ireland Steering Committee in 2018 and then became the chair by August 2022. In her impactful role as the chair of the UK & Ireland Women in Engineering (WIE) committee, the Affinity Group has flourished.

She initiated and led the Ambassadors’ network (2019), and IEEE UKI WIE Early Profession Work Group (2020), organising over 30 activities, workshops, and seminars that aligned with the IEEE WIE values. Through COVID-19 these webinars garnered substantial online participation and viewership, filing in the gaps of the participants’ learning process.

The Ambassadors’ YouTube channel significantly increased engagement. Through “Early Career Talks” workshops, she provided a unique platform for female students and early-career colleagues to inspire, create industry links, and share their experiences.

In the “Challenges and Opportunities” workshops she not only gave opportunities to students/ younger engineers to participate but also offered more senior engineers the chance to participate as speakers to further the diversity of our community. Within these events, she supported and mentored ambassadors, helping them to develop leadership skills.

Recognized with the prestigious IEEE Region 8 Outstanding Women in Engineering Section Volunteer Award in 2022, Nagham feels honoured to be a role model for young women with so much potential.

Vision for the Section

Her vision extends beyond, aspiring to contribute more to IEEE’s mission by becoming the Vice Chair of the IEEE’s UK & Ireland section.

With her university support and a fresh perspective.

  • Nagham aims to replicate the success achieved with the IEEE WIE UK & I AG, fostering connectivity and support within the Section’s Communities.
  • Driven by gratitude for the IEEE communities that support her, Nagham aims to evolve communities throughout their professional services.
  • Envisions becoming a lifelong partner for all IEEE members, Nagham plans to establish a lifelong environment for our members.
  • Nagham is committed to enhancing women’s involvement in technical fields globally, envisioning a vibrant IEEE community where women and men collaboratively innovate for humanity’s benefit.

Nagham’s narrative aligns with IEEE’s mission, positioning her as a compelling candidate. To her, IEEE is more than a technical organization; it’s a platform for individuals to transform adversity into triumph, and she is poised to contribute significantly to this transformative narrative.

Key policy initiatives and action plan

  • Strengthen the collaboration with UK & I chapters, communities, and affinity groups by continuing to host joint inter-discipline events.
  • Grow the Section’s Communities by delivering high-quality services by setting guidelines aiming to support impactful conferences, workshops, and events.
  • Provide continuous support for growth and opportunities to members as students, then young professionals, then senior members then life members.
  • Sustain our ongoing commitment to achieving gender balance within the section/chapters/affinity groups communities by actively engaging our members through our section initiatives and the reach-out channels.

  • Voting closes:  17:00 11th December 2023 UK time (automatically)
  • Please select one candidate
  • Your vote is important; we encourage you to exercise it

Please don’t hesitate to contact the Section Secretary at secretary@ieee-ukandireland.org, or Nominations and Appointments Chair at nominations@ieee-ukandireland.org if you have a question, comment, or complaint regarding your voting experience.