Region 8 Awards | UK and Ireland Chair Prof Izzet Kale reflects on the Section’s Region 8 Awards
Every year, Chapters have the opportunity to apply for the IEEE Region 8 awards which are intended to recognise the outstanding performance by Technical Chapters, Affinity Groups, Student Branch Chapters and individual volunteers in serving their members.
This year’s award ceremony held during the 119th IEEE Region 8 meeting in Cairo where the UK and Ireland Section were recipients of five awards.
- 2021 Region 8 Outstanding Large Section Award
- Region 8 Volunteer Award 2022 – Eduardo Audiche
- Region 8 Outstanding Women in Engineering Section Volunteer Award 2022 – Nagham Saeed
- Region 8 Outstanding Section SIGHT of the Year 2022 Award – United Kingdom and Ireland Section SIGHT
- Region 8 Special Recognition Award for Achieving the 20th Section IEEE Milestone – United Kingdom and Ireland Section and Izzet Kale, 2022-2023 Chair
Here Prof Izzet Kale, Chair UK and Ireland Section, gives his personal reaction to winning these prestigious awards.
I attended the Region 8 meeting in Cairo, between 13th and 16th October to represent our Section. The meeting schedules were intense with a lot of networking.
The gala dinner and awards ceremony was held on the evening of 15th October, with the awards ceremony taking place in the open-air amphitheatre of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation which houses the ancient Egyptian mummies.
I was already aware that we had won a couple of awards as this was communicated to the individual colleagues in advance which was fantastic news and I remember feeling very happy for them since all their efforts had been rewarded.
I was delighted to collect these awards from IEEE President-Elect Prof Saifur Rahman and Region 8 Director Prof Antonio Luque. As I started to head back to my seat in the audience I heard a gentle voice telling me not to go too far away…. and the excitement started kicking in.
After a few minutes, our Section was called for the third time which I was super happy about. But again as I headed back to my seat, the same voice issued the same gentle instruction to stay close to the stage… and then I realised we were in for a great achievement.
Our Section was called to the stage a total of five times that evening to receive five prestigious awards IEEE Region 8 Awards. It is safe to say that that evening will stay with me forever and the immense pride that I felt for our Section’s success was reinforced by the huge congratulations we received from our Region 8 colleagues.
My heartfelt thanks to all the volunteers from our Section, for the immeasurable hard work and dedication to delivering this tremendous achievement.
I am honoured and proud to be working with such a dedicated team!
