Feature

Inauguration of the IEEE Student Branch @ BRAC University

Sahar Noor Abdal

THE Inaugural Session of the IEEE (Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers) Student Branch at BRAC University was held on the 6th of July at the Indoor Games room of BRAC University. The whole session turned out to be more interesting and informative than I had expected it to be. Members and non-members alike found the event to be educational and yet enjoyable with the range of different topics that came up in the speeches from the distinguished guests.

The event started with a warm welcome and a brief presentation by the President of the IEEE Student Branch at BRAC University, Mahdin Mahboob. Towards, the end of his presentation, he showed 'IEEE Evolution', a two-minute promotional video of IEEE showing the history of engineering, which, to budding engineers like me, proved to be a great source of inspiration!

Following that, the student branch was officially inaugurated amidst rounds of applause when Professor Saifur Rahman, Chief Guest of the event, launched the student branch website. Prof. Rahman is the Director of the Advanced Research Institute at Virginia Tech and is also the former Vice President of the IEEE Publications Board. The Special Guest on the occasion was Professor Aynal Haque from BUET who is currently the Chair of IEEE Bangladesh Section. Professor Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, the Vice Chancellor of BRAC University was also present in the event. Professor Sayeed Salam, Chairperson of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Professor Mumit Khan, and Associate Professor Dr. Akm Azad from the same department, were also present in the occasion and spoke about the importance of an IEEE membership and expressed their feelings about the new student branch at BRACU. Mr. Mahmood Hasan, Registrar of BRACU and faculty members from different departments of the university were also present in the occasion.

Afterwards, Prof. Aynal Haque gave a detailed lecture about IEEE and its background, which was followed by a power point presentation. His lecture had been very informative and the concept of IEEE was made clear to the audience. The next speech was delivered by Prof. Saifur Rahman and with his charming presence and interactive speech, the entire hall literally went into 'pin drop silence' mode. His speech was very interesting and informative to say the least. He caught everyone's attention with his beautiful examples of why students should become members of IEEE and how they will be benefited from it and the important aspects of networking through such a large organization. He mentioned that IEEE is not only for nerds alone, but it also had businessmen, lawyers and even dancers as its members!

Afterwards, the Vice Chancellor's encouraging speech also added up to the enthusiasm and he promised to provide the branch with financial help whenever it becomes necessary. It is also worth mentioning that without his support from the very beginning, establishing the student branch would not have been possible.

The event concluded with the 'Vote of Thanks' by the Secretary of IEEE student branch, BRAC University, Nabila Naushin. She specially thanked the Chief Guest and the Special Guest for making time from their busy schedules and being present at the event and thanked all others who helped establish the student branch. Finally, she called for refreshments and soon after that, a documentary titled 'Future World', was shown, thus bringing the event to an end.

The current Executive Body consists of Dr. Azad Akm, Faculty Advisor, Mahdin Mahboob, President, Sunjib Kumar Singha, Vice-President, Annajiat Alim Rasel, Treasurer and Nabila Naushin the Secretary of the branch. All of them, together with the help of a number of volunteers, worked day and night to make this event a total success. The IEEE Student Branch plans to arrange a host of events in the near future including industrial tours and seminars.