On July 9, 2012, after a motivational speech given by Dr. Peter Magyar, an IEEE fellow and IAS Chapters and Membership Development Department Chair and Dr. Mark Halpin, an IAS Past President and an Alabama distinguished Professor, we founded our IAS Student Branch Chapter in cooperation with our chapter’s advisor Assistant Prof. Athanasios Karlis, Director of the Electrical Machines Laboratory, Division of Energy Systems, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace.
Our vision is to provide knowledge to our members with the cooperation of distinguished professors, to give them the opportunity to become acquainted and work with experts in the field of industry, to inform them about the latest technological and industrial applications and help them to create a connection with industry professionals.
From the day our SBC was founded, we are trying to be as active as possible. We try to organize activities, lectures and broadcasts in a regular basis.
In addition to our activities, in November 2012 we applied a proposal for hosting the IAS Executive Board meeting in Region 8-10 in conjunction with a technical conference about Electric Mobility and the Supporting Infrastructures which was considered excellent. We also applied to IAS Chapter Web Contest where our site was awarded with the first prize and last but not least for our activity through 2012, our chapter was awarded as an IAS Outstanding New Student Branch Chapter.
Moreover, three of our members have participated to international conferences SBC Madrid 2012 (25 - 29 July 2012) and IAS Annual Meeting 2012, Las Vegas, NV USA (7 – 11 October 2012) where our presentation won the second prize. Furthermore, three of our members are going to attend the IAS Annual Meeting 2013, Orlando, FL USA (6 – 11 October 2013).
Our first activity as a newly founded Student Branch Chapter was a live broadcast from NTUA’s lecture given by Prof. Shmuel Oren on “Smart Markets for a Smart Grid” and it took place on June 6, 2012 in the Electrical Machines Laboratory.
When the summer vacations were over, we came back more dynamic than ever and we organized the first Annual Presentation of our Student Branch Chapter on October 31, 2012. Our students were informed about IAS, the reasons that they should be a part of our society, the foundation of our Student Branch Chapter and our past activities.
On November 9 we organized a seminar on “The admission to an organization and structure of a successful presentation of ourselves: Tips and proper placement of candidate partners” by Dr. Georgiadis. During this seminar we had the chance to learn the functions and the goal of Human Resource Department, its objectives and the challenges that a new engineer will have to face in the labor market. Dr. Georgiadis informed us about the selection mode during an interview and he also gave us some tips concerning our CV. We also had the opportunity to see a role play interview.
Moreover, on December 7, 2012 a lecture on “New technologies in energy and transportation” where Dr. Kiartzis informed us about the investments of Hellenic Petroleum in the renewable energy sources and the new technologies that are now used in the field of transportation.
On May, 2013 we created our Chapter’s magazine called DIPLOMA. DIPLOMA has news about IAS, news concerning our chapter and topics related with engineering and industry. Since we would like to create a connection with other chapters we have dedicated a section in our magazine to news from chapters in other countries and regions.
Last but not least, on June 3, 2013 we had the honor to attend a workshop by Mr. Blake Lloyd, IAS President and Dr. Peter Magyar, IAS CMD Chair about IAS, Student and Chapter Activities and a lecture by Dr. Magyar on “The Electric Car and the Renewable Energy Sources - Hype or Solution?” During this workshop, we organized a visit to a local photovoltaic park and the local company Sunlight.
