IEEE GOLD Humanitarian Workshop

One of the grand challenges facing the IEEE is recruitment and retention of younger IEEE members.  A common theme of interest and passion for this population is a compelling desire to improve our world, contribute to society, and benefit humanity.  The current generation of students, young professionals, and women are driven to join organizations and volunteer their time in support of these worthy activities.

Thus, MGA GOLD Committee partners with a number of organizations, such as Engineers Without Borders-USA, and UN Foundation to put together a 1 day workshop on October 18, 2008 at Boston University in Boston MA. The purpose of this pilot humanitarian workshop is to provide an IEEE-sponsored venue that supports young members to contribute to society and humanity. At the end of the workshop, attendees will be more informed on how humanitarian organizations use technologies to positively impact the world we live in. Eventually, we hope the attendees will obtain a more holistic understanding of how they can play a part in humanitarian efforts, and even be inspired to do so at the end of the workshop.

This pilot program was a complete, self-contained project including a workshop that informed the audience of the opportunities for humanitarian engineering opportunities through the actual engagement of volunteers in a humanitarian project.  The lessons learned from this pilot program would disseminate throughout the IEEE through the IEEE Foundation, the IEEE MGA, and the IEEE-USA.  The project process and results captured and used to solicit other industrial and possibly academic, government and other professional society partners in the next iteration of the project.