IEEE SWYM Congress 2019

January 8, 2020 | Lamia Iftekhar

Organizer: IEEE Bangladesh Section

WIE AG, IEEE BDS

Venue: GP House, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Date: December 25, 2019

IEEE Students/Young Professionals/Women In Engineering/ Members’ (SWYM) Congress was held at GP House on 25th December by IEEE Bangladesh Section (IEEE BDS) and IEEE Women in Engineering Affinity Group of IEEE Bangladesh Section (WIE AG, IEEE BDS) had a dedicated track within the Congress. The total number of attendees in the Congress was 180. The WIE track brought in four dynamic speakers from a wide range of backgrounds (academia to industry to govt. sector). Two were currently working in Bangladesh and two were from abroad. The track also included interactive segments with the audience.

Dr. Lamia Iftekhar, the Vice-Chair (Technical) of Women in Engineering Affinity Group IEEE Bangladesh Section, hosted the session. After introductory remarks, she called in Dr. Sadia Afroz, Senior Researcher from International Computer Science Institute at UC Berkeley, USA. Dr. Afroz captured the audience’s attention with an engaging description of research in her field, utilizing machine learning concepts for security and surveillance purposes. She responded to several enthusiastic queries from the audience before the next speaker came in, which was, Mohasina Kamal Megha, PhD candidate at University of California Riverside. Mohasina is a former R&D Engineer at Energypac and had served as the Treasurer of WIE AG, IEEE BDS. Mohasina shared an illustrative presentation of her work with the student members in the audience. Her talk on the use of data in power and energy research was followed by a highly informative speech by the next speaker on the power sector in the context of Bangladesh. Jorifa Khatun, Deputy Director (XEN), System Planning Directorate of Bangladesh Power Development Board provided a clear picture of the power sector in the country and the opportunities of female engineers in this field. The final speaker was Farah Tanjeem, Deputy General Manager of Network Planning and Deployment, Grameenphone Ltd, who provided the audience with an introduction to transmission planning in the country. Dr. Lamia then asked the audience four questions, based on each of the presentations and the correct answer repliers were noted down. Dr. Celia Shahnaz, Chair, IEEE Bangladesh Section along with Anamika Bhakta, Chair, Women in Engineering Affinity Group, IEEE Bangladesh Section provided token of appreciation to the speakers. Concluding remarks were provided by Dr. Celia Shahnaz.