Event Review | Community Engagement Meeting with Student Branches at the University of Edinburgh

During 2024 the UK and Ireland Section is organising meetings with IEEE Volunteers and Members around other meetings taking places in different locations.

The UK and Ireland Section Section organised a Community Engagement Townhall Meeting in Edinburgh on 25 April at 5pm, kindly hosted by the IEEE Student Branch (SB) at the University of Edinburgh.

The purpose of these technical meetings is to facilitate face to face engagement between Section Leadership, Chairs of Chapters and Affinity Groups, local Student Branch leadership (as well as local IEEE and student branch members). This will provide an opportunity to share insight into the Section, learn more about current and planned local activities and discuss ways in which the Section can support maximising the impact of Student Branch Activities as well as further strengthen engagement between Student Branches and Society Chapters.

The meeting was opened with a welcome address from Professor James Hopgood, University of Edinburgh followed by a presentation on IEEE UK and Ireland Section, by Paul Cunningham, Chair.

This was followed by brief presentations from Student Branches in Scotland

• University of Edinburgh SB, Ismail Darwish, Chair, University of Edinburgh SB
• Strathclyde University SB, Richard Nayer, Chair, Strathclyde University SB & James Irvine, Student Counsellor
• University of Glasgow SB, Abdul Jabbar, Chair, University of Glasgow SB
• Glasgow Caledonian University SB (tbc), Paul Ager, Chair, Glasgow Caledonian University SB

A number of UK and Ireland Section Society Chapter and Affinity Group Chairs also gave brief presentations:

• Miriam Cunningham, Chair, UK and Ireland SSIT Chapter
• Eduardo Audiche, Chair, UK and Ireland PES Chapter
• Beth Jelfs, IEEE UK and Ireland Computer Society Chapter
• Mark Plumbley, Chair, UK and Ireland SPS Chapter
• Princy Johnson, IEEE UK and Ireland Women in Engineering Affinity Group
• Richard Gault, Chair, UK & Ireland EMBS Chapter
• Nick Wainwright, Webmaster, IEEE UK and Ireland Section

The presentations were followed by a discussion session and networking.

The photos below are copyright Joseph Azrak, University of Edinburgh and used with permission.  The Section is grateful to Joseph for supporting the event.