IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Fall 2023 - 69

IEEE SSCS Online Mentoring Program: Past, Present, Future
M
Mentorship is a powerful tool that
leads to significant personal and professional
development. Having a mentor
who can provide guidance and
support at key moments is invaluable.
Introduction: What Is Mentorship,
and Why Does It Matter?
Mentors offer personalized advice,
insights, and a fresh perspective to
help their mentees overcome obstacles
and gain confidence. The benefits
of mentorship are numerous.
With guidance from a mentor, mentees
can accelerate their learning and
growth, achieving their goals more
efficiently. They can gain valuable insights
into their desired industry and
field, which can be instrumental in
shaping their careers.
The Genesis And Evolution
of the IEEE SSCS Online
Mentoring Program
After several years of having in-person
micromentoring and networking sessions
at major solid-state circuit conferences,
the SSCS online mentoring
program began in 2019 (Figure 1), initiated
by Sevil Zeynep Lulec and Alireza
Yousefi with support from Emre
Ayranci, the past SSCS Young Professionals
chair, and Kenneth O, the past
SSCS president. The main goal was to
develop an online platform enabling
mentoring connections between SSCS
members globally.
After evaluating options, an awardwinning
mentoring software, Chronus,
was selected due to its optimized features,
including the following:
■ artificial intelligence-powered
matching technology that helps
mentees find the best mentors
who fit their specialties, strengths,
and needs
■ integrated communication tools,
compatible with famous video conferencing
software, such as Google
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSSC.2023.3315949
Date of current version: 14 November 2023
Meet, Skype, and Zoom, all in
one platform
■ tools and resources to set goals,
schedule meetings, track the mentorship
progress, and share feedback.
In January 2020, initial small-scale
testing by eight volunteer mentors
and mentees provided valuable feedback
for platform refinement prior
to the public launch (many thanks
to Shanthi Pavan, Ka-Meng Lei, Rabia
Tugce Yazicigil, Alice Wang, Damla
Dimlioglu, Wei-Han Yu, Cheng Wang,
and Danny Zhang). The SSCS Chronus
platform was opened to all SSCS
members in mid-2020.
The timing of the launch coincided
with the COVID-19 pandemic,
which forced many universities and
companies to close and most SSCS
members to work and study remotely.
This created a high demand for online
mentorship among young SSCS
members who were looking for
guidance and support during those
challenging times. As a result, the
number of users surged rapidly during
2020 and 2021.
However, as the pandemic situation
improved and businesses started
reopening in 2022, the number of active
users and interactions between
them began to decline and plateau,
similar to other online services (e.g.,
300
200
100
Netflix digital streaming and Amazon
e-commerce). By the end of 2022,
the platform had about 273 mentors
and mentees in total, but only 40% of
them were active users. Therefore,
in January 2023, the idle users were
pruned to reduce the maintenance
cost and improve the platform's efficiency
and growth.
Although the program has unfulfilled
potential, it established
the first online mentoring platform
across all IEEE Societies. As pioneers,
we have helped several IEEE
Societies create their own online
mentoring programs, including the
SSCS Woman in Circuits (WiC) group,
IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology
Society (MTT-S), and IEEE Power
and Energy Society (PES). (Also,
thanks go to Aeisha VanBuskirk,
Abira Altvater, Korkut Kaan Tokgoz,
Hui Jiang, Mohsen Shahghasemi, and
Enis Kobal.)
Joining and Using the SSCS
Online Mentoring Program
It is very easy to join this growing
group of mentors and mentees. All
you need is to be an SSCS member
and have the desire to participate
in the program. Go to the website,
click " Join, " and enroll as a mentor,
mentee, or both (Figure 2). Complete
Users
Mentors
Mentees
FIGURE 1: The SSCS mentoring program: Membership over time.
IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE
FALL 2023
69
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IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Fall 2023

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