99. IEEE Malabar Subsection , IEI Kozhikode Local Centre



Continuing my  note on  professional  society activities, a  few  more   I have  to record. IEEE, Institution  of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is the largest  professional society in the  world with its headquarters in New Jersey USA. Its origin dates  back to 1887 almost the same year  when the  first power system was set up by  Thomas Alva Edison  in Manhattan New York with a  DC system. Currently  IEEE  is involved  in publishing  more than 2/3 of all  publications in the areas under Electrical, Electronics and Computer Science and Engineering. It  has  more than 4 million members and it is spread over  10 regions.  India  belongs to  Region 10  Asia  Pacific and India  Council  is the  governing  part  in our nation.  Among the different  sections, Kerala  Section is one of the  most vibrant  which has won several accolades  because of its  professional and humanitarian activities.

However, the  head office  of Kerala section is located at Thiruvananthapuram  and   members  from the  Northern part  of Kerala  were not able  to participate  in many activities  in TVM. Very few  of us used to attend the annual  general body meeting once in a year with overnight  travel up and down. So,  some of my colleagues, me  and other IEEE  members thought  that  for better networking and activities  in the  Northern part, we could   start a  Malabar Subsection  under  Kerala Section. From NITC  itself, we had enough  members to file a petition for formation of a subsection. The geographical part   including the districts  of Palakkad, Malappuram, Wayanad, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasarcode  came under this section. When we filed the petition,  about  200  members and nearly 400  student  members were  present  in Malabar. With encouragement and support  from  Prof.V.K.Damodaran and P M Sasi, both hailing originally from Malabar, we could get the recommendation from Kerala section  and subsequent approval for the formation of the subsection in October 2010. Even  though I was  nominated as the  founder  Chair  of the  IEEE  Malabar Subsection, it was a joint  effort  of  many  members  like  Dr.Abraham T Mathew, Dr Lillykutty Jacob, Dr S.M.Sameer  etc  to name a few. Dr.Sameer  was  nominated as  the  Secretary  of MSS.
 Ever since, Malabar  Subsection  has  been very active  in conducting several activities for the  members, student  members  and the public  in Malabar area. One   of our flagship  programmes is   ‘Road  map to Success in Engineering Studies’ , an  awareness programme  for engineering aspirants in which we  conduct a  one- day workshop in which   the special features  of each of the engineering branches  are introduced and students are  helped to choose  the  branch that suits their special capabilities, rather than by  chances  of getting a  job immediately after. This  programme  has been conducted  every year  since 2011 in Kozhikode  and other places during May-June  just after the engineering entrance examination.  One student and a parent  are  admitted  with a nominal  registration fee. Senior   academicians and practicing engineers from different disciplines used  to interact with aspiring  students of engineering and their parents. Institution  of Engineers Kozhikode Local  Centre  has been our co-sponsor  for the event all these years.  There were other outreach programmes like LED assembling training housewives, motivating school students   to introduce them  to engineering branches etc conducted  by our volunteers.

Personally, I am happy  to see that  in the process of organizing IEEE  activities, I could  be  involved in motivating several committed  volunteers  like  Dr S M Sameer(NITC), Sri. R.Nandakumar(NIELIT) and others ( sorry I cannot list all)  who has been  doing wonderful work to carry out the  motto od IEEE, ‘Advancing Technology for Humanity’. Dr. Lillykutty Jacob, Dr. Abraham  T Mathew, Dr.S D Madhukumar, Dr.Gilesh M P etc were also active as  Chair  of IEEE  Malabar Subsection or  other office bearers od MSS.  Dr.Sameer  is the Chair of IEEE Kerala Section  for the last two years. Dr.Lillykutty  has been the Chair  Technical Programme  Committee  of several important conferences like TENCON  and  Workshop on 5G, to name a few.  I am very happy to see that  Malabar  Subsection of IEEE  is able to  do  wonderful work. Hopefully it will  become a section by itself.Incidentally I could  work with may volunteers from different  parts of Kerala as Chair,  Educational Activities of Kerala  section.  Sri. Nandan.S of  LBSCE, Thiruvananthapuram is  one outstanding volunteer with whom I could associate  myself.
I was also involved in the  activities of Institution of Engineers  Kozhikode  Local Centre. IEI  is the oldest professional society  in India and had been conduction the AMIE Part A & B examinations  for  working engineers  with engineering  diploma  or other  graduates to improve their qualifications  by  studying  during their  available time and passing these examinations. AMIE has  been approved as equivalent  to a basic degree in engineering  for employment  purposes. I was inducted as a Fellow of Institution of Engineers and was acting as the Chair  of the local centre for two years. The major difference in IEEE and IEI  activities is that  the majority of IEEE activities are for students of engineering whereas IEI  activities are for  professional engineers  working in PWD, KSEB and other organizations. My only  complaint was that these working  engineers  are  not very keen  to  involve in  serious academic discussions  but do not mind attending  get together  meetings. In spite  of this, we  have been conducting several  conferences. Conferences and activities in Architectural Division under the guidance of  Dr.T.S.Balagaopal  and  activities to save the environment  under the guidance of Prof.A Achyuthan are  worth mentioning.   We have also conducted several awareness meetings for  Energy Conservation and Environmental protection at  different engineering colleges and distributed leaflets in Malayalam  on these in the schools  to create an awareness among the school children. I  would   like place on my thanks to   fellow engineers  who has cooperated  with  me, especially  Dr.Gireesan, Sri,Jithesh (Hony Secretary) and Sri. Joseph  who was  helpful  in the conduct of AMIE  examinations. WE  have  set up a website  for IEI  Kozhikode  local centre  with  help from Dr.Reghuraj (Principal,  Govt Engg College, Srikrishnapuram , Palakkad) who  is  an alumnus of REC Calicut. This  available at : http://ieikozhikodelocalcenter.org/


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