The global IEEE Young Professionals Committee would like to congratulate the following three Young Professionals Affinity Groups as winners of the 2016 IEEE Young Professionals Affinity Group Hall of Fame Award: Egypt (Region 8), Kerala (Region 10), and Tokyo (Region 10). Each winning affinity group will receive a cash price of $500 USD to be used for future Young Professional activities in their Section.
This year, we received 18 nominations for around the world: 3 from the United States, 1 from Canada, 6 from Europe, 2 from Africa, 2 from Japan, 3 from India, and 1 from Australia. The judges would also like to acknowledge the following groups for their strong nominations: Bangalore (Region 10), Bulgaria (Region 8), Dallas (Region 5), Madras (Region 10).
Hall of Fame applicants geographic distribution
The IEEE Young Professionals Affinity Group Hall of Fame Award was awarded for the first time in 2011 to officially recognize an Affinity Group’s contributions to the IEEE Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD) program. In 2014, IEEE GOLD was rebranded as IEEE Young Professionals to better identify the group’s purpose and intended audience. Since 2011, 14 Affinity Groups worldwide have received this award: Argentina, Croatia, Egypt, Finland, Kerala, Lahore, Malaysia, New Zealand North, Nicaragua, Santa Clara Valley, Southern Alberta, Tokyo, Toronto, and Tunisia.
Kerala Young Professionals
Over the past 5 years, the IEEE Young Professional s Affinity Group Hall of Fame Award has become a prestigious token of appreciation given only to the most active and committed groups around the world.
The awarded groups demonstrate exemplary organization, vision, motivation, and devotion to engage IEEE’s young members. Both the number and caliber of nominations has increased significantly over the past couple of years, making it much more difficult for judges to decide on the top three teams each year.
Tokyo Young Professionals
The nominations were evaluated based on a number of criteria, including: activities, membership growth, financial sustainability, and the “wow” factor. Judges are particularly interested in understanding the impact of events and how those events contribute to the future of the IEEE. It’s quality over quantity in this case, with more points awarded for creativity and innovation. Finally, online presence is one of the factors that significantly affects judging decisions. Fortunately, all featured groups are perfectly aware of the importance of communicating with members through social media channels and generally do a fantastic job in the virtual world.
The application for the 2017 IEEE Young Professional Affinity Group Hall of Fame Award will become available in early 2017. We encourage you to continue to host exciting events for our Young Professional members throughout the remainder of 2016, and apply for the award in 2017. Winning affinity groups from 2014, 2015, and 2016 will not be eligible for the 2017 award next year. Congratulations to all of the awarded groups in 2016 for their fantastic work in making the IEEE a better organization.
