President's Message

Over the past few months, we experienced an important milestone in the life of our Society. On 14 June, we had a meeting in which IEEE, through its Society Council Review Committee (SCRC), reviewed the activity of our Society. This is an institutional process that is carried out periodically every five years, and the recommendations received serve as a primary source for the Education Society's strategy over the next five-year cycle.

At this meeting, the report that we delivered to the SCRC in May was reviewed and discussed. This report was the result of a joint effort since February 2021 by all the officers, chairs of the standing committees, and our Operations Manager. The initial assessment we received from the Committee at the Society Review meeting, pending the report that we will receive soon, was very positive. In addition to recognizing the progress made in the Society objectives proposed 5 years ago at our last review, the following Society activities were applauded: our draft of the strategic plan to be approved soon, the value of adding a staff Operations Manager, the management of the governance of Society, the activity of young professionals in our standards working groups, the good health of our publications as shown in the recent reviews by the TAB Periodicals Review and Advisory Committee (PRAC), the attractive list of webinars and other educational resources offered, highlighting those carried out in collaboration with IEEE Educational Activities, the good retention data of our membership and our financial management.

Some of SCRC’s recommendations were already on our radar before the Society Review meeting, such as continuing with the inclusion and diversity policy of our leaders and members or increasing collaboration with other Societies. We will continue working on these issues over the year to come.

Additionally, on the first day of July, we held the first of the two meetings of the Board of Governors of 2021 in virtual mode. From this meeting I wanted to highlight, among all the topics discussed (you can find in the minutes here), the approval of the IEEE Education Society Technical Committee (TC) on Immersive Learning Environments (TC-ILE). This is the second TC in the IEEE Education Society. The TC-ILE would focus on the relationship of learning with the technical, narrative, and engagement aspects of immersive environments.

Also, at this meeting, we had the pleasure of having Jennifer Fong, Director of Education Product, Sales, and Marketing IEEE Educational Activities as a special guest. This is another example of the importance we give to reinforce the Society’s strategic partnership with IEEE Educational Activities (EA). Jennifer introduced us to the collaboration opportunity in the next IEEE for EdSoc that would help Education Week.

The IEEE Education Week program will be a week-long celebration of IEEE’s impact globally in Pre-University STEM, University, and Continuing Professional Education in the Spring of 2022. IEEE EA will work as a partner with EdSoc to plan and promote this program.

Finally, I encourage you to read the rest of the sections of this newsletter hoping that the news and opportunities for your professional development presented here are to your liking.

I remain, along with our Board of Governors, and our Society Operations Manager, Madison Musselman, at your disposal.

Thank you for your commitment to the IEEE Education Society.

Edmundo Tovar
IEEE Education Society President 2021-2022