IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - May/June 2023 - 10

Past President's Message
chapter activities. However, we set the goal of
steadily increasing the membership by improving
service offerings, plus supporting chapter
activities to attract new members and retain
existing ones.
COVID-19 hampered all IEEE's society's
growth, however, despite this, we exceeded the
goal of increasing membership by the end of my
term. We did this because of all the good
changes made and the offerings given to our
members (including academics, practitioners,
industry professionals, researchers, women in
engineering, young professionals, and students),
such as enhancing benefits and developing
value-added programs; reducing CTSoc student
membership annual fees from US $10 to US $1;
offering substantial discounted fees to attend
CTSoc virtual conferences, free webinars, and
workshops; including, as part of the membership,
free subscriptions to CTSoc transactions,
magazine, open access/section, news on consumer
technology, and CTSoc world news. Also,
the creation of 15 Technical Committees in different
consumer technology fields to attract
potential members from industry and regain
industry's trust.
Also, to support our chapters, we established
four (4) Regional Directors, one each in the North
America Region (Regions 1-7), Europe/Middle East/
Africa Region (Region 8), Latin America Region
(Region 9), Asia Pacific Region (Region 10). The
support included: training of chapter officers as a
key responsibility and emphasis on ensuring openness,
diversity, equity, and inclusion in each chapter
and in all activities especially volunteer
selection and grooming of next generation leaders;
extending CTSoc relationship and coordination
with IEEE Sections and Regions (333 sections in ten
geographic regions worldwide R1-R10) to enhance
the CTSoc global visibility and membership; outreaching
to preuniversity and precollege students,
and supported IEEE student branch activities at
local academic institutions.
CTSoc worldwide now has 35 Chapters and
20 Student Branch Chapters across these
regions. It is important that CTSoc builds a profound
and successful correlation and interaction
between CTSoc and its chapters, and provides
the chapters with support, training, and tools to
increase the chapter activities and membership
as this is another key to a vibrant and growing
Society. At the same time, we needed to provide
10
support to CTSoc Women in Engineering-WIE
and Young Professionals-YP, and we have a
representative chair for each affinity group.
CTSOC EDUCATION ACTIVITIES
In a growing and rapidly changing arena, it
was important for CTSoc to help its members-
industry professionals and academic researchers-and
others interested keep current in their
skills and knowledge and to foster individual
commitment to continuing education in the area
of consumer technologies.
Thus, we strengthened the Distinguished Lecturer
Program (DLP), Distinguished Speaker Program
(DSP), Educational Activities & Webinars
(EAW), Education Resource Center, tutorials at
conferences, webinars, workshops, and panels
offered virtually and in person. The materials
and recordings of all these tutorials, webinars,
and workshops are available on CTSoc Education
Resource Center and IEEE Learning Network.
Also, unique to IEEE, we established the
CTSoc Young Prodigies Program as the young
prodigies are on the rise with special talents in
certain domains and will become the potential
expert and leaders in the STEM field.
CTSOC INDUSTRY AND STANDARDS
The consumer technologies industry is constantly
and rapidly evolving and revolutionizing
technology as global demand and expectations
from smart devices and systems such as augmented
reality, SmartTV, smartphones, mobile
computing, IoT, AI, Blockchain, games, autonomous
cars, smart cities, etc., grows. All these rapid
and dynamic changes negatively impact our Society
if we do not maintain ourselves as the premier
technical association in the consumer technologies
industry and strive for the advancement of the theory
and practice of engineering and technology. As
an international leading professional engineering
society, the goal for our Society is to continue to
deliver to our members, industry, government, and
academic communities the best professional services.
Increase prominence and visibility of CTSoc
within industry and academia, other societies, professional
organizations, and among media, as the
voice for technical professionals who can enhance
understanding of CTSoc technology for societal
betterment. Position CTSoc to provide technical
IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine
IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - May/June 2023

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