The Institute - March 2020 - TI-3

editor's note
Practical Solutions
to Thorny Problems
BY KATHY PRETZ

RANDI KLETT

Editor in chief, The Institute

working in dynamic industries such as computers, power and energy, telecommunications,
robotics, consumer electronics, biomedical systems, software development and engineering, and
semiconductors.
We must also address emerging and crossdisciplinary technical opportunities, as we do in
our successful Future Directions initiatives.
During the strategic discussions held by the
IEEE Board of Directors in January, we focused
on rethinking the way we address the lifelong
educational needs of technical professionals and
engineers and, in particular, on expanding opportunities to provide continuing education as
a unique member value
IEEE
proposition.
SHOULD BE
All of IEEE can
A TRUSTED
play a part in elevatPARTNER
ing the role that our
FOR OUR
continuing educaMEMBERS
tion programs play
IN THEIR
in delivering value to
JOURNEY OF
our members. This
LIFELONG
is an opportunity for
LEARNING.
our major operating
units-Member and
Geographic Activities, Technical Activities, IEEEUSA, Publication Services and Products, Standards Association, and Educational Activities - to
work together around the goal of improving the
value of membership through education.
I believe that the best scientists and engineers
working today are those who recognize that education is a lifelong journey. No matter how much
they learn or how much they contribute to the
advancement of science and technology, there
will always be a need to acquire more knowledge
and sharper skills to make the next innovation
even more beneficial to our world. IEEE should
be a trusted partner for our members in their
journey of lifelong learning.
Share your thoughts with me at president@
ieee.org.
-TOSHIO FUKUDA,
IEEE president and CEO

Many IEEE members are hard at
work on projects designed to solve
some of society's most pressing
problems with technology-whether
in struggling villages around the world
or in their own backyard.
The projects include bringing reliable, affordable electricity and Internet access to remote
communities; helping farmers combat the Mediterranean
fruit fly while protecting the environment against pesticide
overuse; and installing sustainability systems.
Martin Murillo has been volunteering for several years to
bring Internet connectivity to remote areas [page TI-7]. He
and other volunteers are now working on CamachoNet, a
project that involves building a regional communications
network designed to provide affordable Internet access
to health centers and other entities in the Bolivian Andes.
Mediterranean fruit flies are destructive pests that can
wipe out an entire year's worth of crops. The only efficient
way to kill the flies is to use pesticides, but some farmers are
spraying too much of the chemicals, destroying plants and
polluting the environment. On page TI-10, read about the
Internet of Trees, a startup that Christina Chaccour helped
to found. IOTree's traps detect when an infestation has
occurred and can send farmers information via a mobile
app about how much pesticide to apply and where to use it.
Many remote communities that lack reliable access to
electricity still use candles and kerosene lamps as light
sources at night. On page TI-12, read about how members
of the IEEE Southern Alberta Section in Canada volunteered for the IEEE Special Interest Group on Humanitarian
Technology to install a solar-panel system in Peru.
On page TI-14, learn about sustainability projects in Brazil
that Thiago Matheus Martins de Moraes and a team of students and faculty members introduced on the São Paulo
State University campus.
Why should members look to IEEE to get involved with
humanitarian projects? Murillo says the organization is
poised to make an impact with such projects because it
has a secret weapon: its members.
"There's no other organization," he says, "that has the
knowledge and the resources to do what we can do." n
FOR UPDATES ABOUT IEEE AND ITS MEMBERS, VISIT US AT
SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG/THE-INSTITUTE
THE INSTITUTE | MAR 2020 | TI-3

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The Institute - March 2020

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