educational activities: helping careers f o€¦ · 6 ieee communications magazine • november...

IEEE Communications Magazine • November 20096

THE PRESIDENT’S PAGE

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES: HELPING CAREERS FLOURISH

ur world and its technology are in aconstant state of flux. This is particular-

ly evident for the communications and network-ing field. Society’s needs change, technologicalinnovation is ongoing, and businesses embracenew technologies to serve their customers whileachieving business goals. All these significantlyimpact researchers, engineers and practitionersas they work to maintain professional viabilityin an ever more competitive job market. “Keep-ing up” is the key phrase in today’s world. TheCommunications Society recognizes this, andthrough its educational activities strives to helpits members and others “keep up” with thetechnologies and skills necessary to establish,maintain and grow one’s career. This month, Iam pleased to share the President’s Columnwith Prof. Stefano Bregni, ComSoc’s Directorof Education, who will cover ComSoc’s educa-tional activities, aimed at helping careers flour-ish.

Stefano Bregni is Associate Professor atPolitecnico di Milano, where he teachestelecommunications networks and transmis-sion networks. He was born in Milano, Italy,in 1965. In 1990, he graduated in telecommu-nications engineering at Politecnico di Milano.Since 1991, he has worked on SDH and net-work synchronization issues, with specialregard to clock stability measurement, firstwith SIRTI S.p.A (1991-1993), and then withthe CEFRIEL consortium (1994-1999). In1999, he joined Politecnico di Milano as atenured Assistant Professor.

He has been a Senior Member of the IEEEsince 1999, and has been a Distinguished Lecturer of theIEEE Communications Society since 2004. In the IEEE Com-munications Society, he is Director of Education, Chair of theTransmission, Access and Optical Systems (TAOS) TechnicalCommittee, and a voting member of the GLOBECOM/ICCTechnical Content (GITC) committee. He has been the Sym-posia Chair of IEEE GLOBECOM 2009 and SymposiumChair in eight other ICC/GLOBECOM conferences. He wasalso TPC Vice-Chair of the IEEE Optical Network Designand Modeling 2005 conference (ONDM 2005). He is Editorof the IEEE ComSoc Global Communications Newsletter andAssociate Editor of the IEEE Communications Surveys andTutorials Journal. He was a tutorial lecturer in the IEEE con-ferences ICC 2000, GLOBECOM 2002, GLOBECOM 2003,and GLOBECOM 2005. He served on ETSI and ITU-T com-mittees on digital network synchronization.

Stefano is the author of about 70 papers, mostly inIEEE conferences and journals, and of the books Synchroniza-tion of Digital Telecommunications Networks (Chichester, UK:John Wiley & Sons, 2002; translated and published in Russianby MIR Publishers, Moscow, 2003), and Sistemi di Transmis-sione PDH e SDH - Multiplazione (PDH and SDH Transmis-sion Systems Multiplexing) (Milano, Italy: McGraw-Hill, 2004).His current research interests focus mainly on traffic modelingand optical networks

BACKGROUND AND MISSION

In 2008, the Vice-President for TechnicalActivities Andrzej Jajszczyk established anad-hoc working group to review and suggestways to strengthen the IEEE Communica-tions Society’s educational activities. Allmembers agreed that Education is an impor-tant area, which the Communications Societyshould further develop as a service to allmembers. A list of possible activities to pur-sue was also identified. Then, based upon therecommendation of Andrzej and approval bythe Board of Governors, the President DougZuckerman appointed Stefano Bregni Direc-tor of Education and asked him to set up arevitalized Education Board (June 2008).

The mission of the Education Board, inshort, is to set strategic directions for all educa-tional activities of the Communications Society,to coordinate ComSoc educational efforts withthose of IEEE and other Societies, but espe-cially to improve the quality and variety ofComSoc education products and services. Theaim is to provide better educational productsand services to ComSoc members, demonstratevalue to non-members so that they may decideto join the Society, and hopefully also derivesome revenue from the educational activities.

EARLY STEPSIn line with the committee’s recommendation,

ComSoc’s new Education Board was formed dur-ing 2008. The first activity plan was drafted andapproved by the Board of Governors. A list of

tasks was defined and priorities were identified, also with the helpof the ComSoc Technical Activities ad-hoc group and the Society’sOperations Review Committee. One of the first tasks was toupdate the Society’s Policies & Procedures and the Bylaws to setthe stage for the overall educational activities program. The amend-ments were all approved by the Board of Governors.

The Education Board includes experienced members that arewell known for their continued commitment to serving the Commu-nications Society and for their long record of scientific and organiza-tional achievements. The Board includes four Members at Large:Celia Desmond (past ComSoc President and Vice-President forTechnical Activities), Mike Devetsikiotis (ComSoc DistinguishedLecturer), Abbas Jamalipour (ComSoc Distinguished Lecturer andGITC member), and John Thompson (GITC member and Techni-cal Program Co-Chair of ICC 2007). The Education Board alsoincludes representatives from other ComSoc Boards: Fred Bauer,Raouf Boutaba, and Merrily Hartmann (Directors of ConferenceDevelopment, Publications, and Operations, respectively), ShriGoyal (Director of Membership Programs Development), HarveyFreeman (IEEE TAB representative to the IEEE EducationalActivities Board), and John Pape (staff, ComSoc Marketing Head).

Within the Education Board, two Working Groups havebeen set up, entrusted with specific tasks. One, led by CeliaDesmond and including Irena Atov and Gustavo Giannatta-sio, has the responsibility to a) address coordination between

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ComSoc and IEEE educational programs, and b) to establishcontacts with other Societies to learn good ideas and integratecross-organizational efforts. Celia’s group also covers educa-tional products and services especially tailored to the Society’sWireless Communication Engineering Technologies (WCET)certification program. The other group, led by Mike Devet-sikiotis and including Fabrizio Granelli, Charalambos Skianisand others, focuses on exploring platforms for next-generationvirtual collaboration and on proposing ways to improve educa-tional content (e.g., live virtual sessions) and to facilitate par-ticipation by student branches and from disadvantaged areas.

In the next paragraphs, some of the most important initia-tives run by the Communications Society in the area of Edu-cation are outlined. All work is ongoing and underdevelopment; thus, readers are invited to check the indicatedweb sites for updates and further information.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMSCoordination with IEEE: First, it is very important to coordi-nate ComSoc’s educational activities with those of IEEE and,whenever possible, of other Societies. To this aim, HarveyFreeman represents the Technical Activities Board in theIEEE Educational Activities Board and is familiar with otherSocieties’ and Councils’ coordination efforts with IEEE.

Moreover, the Communications Society actively contributes toIEEE Expert Now, the online program of interactive learningcourses offered by IEEE, which includes the best IEEE education-al tutorials and workshops originally featured in IEEE conferences

from around the world. Several of our online courses, already partof ComSoc’s Tutorials NowTM program, have been or are beingrepackaged as part of the IEEE Expert Now portfolio. We arecurrently considering ways to further develop this cooperation.

The Tutorials NowTM Online Program: The flagship online educa-tional program of the IEEE Communications Society is the Tuto-rials NowTM program, launched about six years ago. The programpresents a series of engaging tutorials previously given at majorComSoc conferences and appropriately repackaged and recordedoff-line by the lecturer. The portfolio of tutorials covers the hottesttopics in all areas of communications and networking, from classicsubjects to state-of-the-art and emerging technologies.

About 90 tutorials are available to date in the TutorialsNowTM program. From two to five hours in length, they pre-sent the original visuals and voice-over by the lecturer. Thetutorials are available for purchase to everyone, with discountsfor ComSoc members. However, companies may sponsor andoffer free titles online for a three-month period. All lecturersare recognized international experts. This program reallydemonstrates the global nature of the Communications Soci-ety and its vocation to disseminate information worldwide.

Financial data reported for the last several years has shown thatthe Tutorials NowTM program has been not only an excellent ser-vice to our community, but also a source of revenue for the Com-munications Society. We intend to further develop this program.

A key goal of the Education Board is to further enrich theportfolio of Tutorials NowTM courses, keeping the set of topics

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fresh and timely. In 2008, for example, we launched a first trialto record live tutorials given at IEEE GLOBECOM 2008(managed by Joel Basco) for subsequent inclusion in the Tuto-rials NowTM program. We believe that live tutorials, althoughnot as polished and “perfect” as those recorded in the calm of alecturer’s home, may nonetheless be highly attractive and evendidactically effective, because of the live atmosphere capturedin the room. This ongoing trial has given promising results.

More recently, the working group led by Celia Desmondand in particular Gustavo Giannattasio, who is making an out-standing effort in this task, has worked on acquiring and devel-oping new tutorials by leading experts worldwide, specificallydesigned to cover WCET program topics. The first tutorials ofthis type are already offered in the Tutorials NowTM catalogue.Several others are under preparation and will be offered soon.

Webinars: IEEE ComSoc Webinars are free (corporate-sponsored),online, multimedia panel sessions open to all members. They fea-ture an audio plus slide show downstream and a text channelupstream (for questions and answers). They focus on technologies,products, and services of interest to ComSoc members. Typically,webinars last up to two hours and may cover three or four presenta-tions, with a moderator introducing speakers and facilitating ques-tions and answers. The moderator, usually a senior ComSocvolunteer, takes responsibility for organizing and running each webi-nar, including working with sponsors, recruiting speakers and work-ing with ComSoc staff on the logistics for the live event. Viewersand panelists participate from the convenience of their desks, with-

out traditional conference expense or travel. Moreover, free webinarplatforms have been tested, even in public trials, to allow chapters toorganize and offer online courses using similar technology.

Distinguished Lecturers Online: The Distinguished LecturersOnline Program is a Membership Development program, stem-ming from the well-known Distinguished Lecturer Program (man-aged by Shri Goyal, Director of Membership ProgramsDevelopment). Although it is not managed by the EducationBoard, it is worthwhile to point it out here, as yet another excellentexample of the educational effort of the IEEE CommunicationsSociety. Selected lectures given by ComSoc Distinguished Lecturersare offered for free to everyone on the ComSoc web site, as a ser-vice to the community and to present a sample of ComSoc’s offer-ings to non-members (who are encouraged to become members).

Other Efforts to Improve Educational Products and Services: Oneof the priorities determined in our plan is to improve the quality oftutorials and other educational products offered by ComSoc. Tothis purpose, for example, we are collecting relevant data abouttutorials at ComSoc’s major conferences (namely, attendance,appreciation by the attendees, etc.). Also, we plan to define a stan-dard evaluation form for tutorials given at ComSoc conferences.Feedback is always sought on all our educational programs. JohnThompson and Abbas Jamalipour are working on these tasks.

Exploring Ways of Virtual Collaboration for E-Teaching: TheWorking Group led by Mike Devetsikiotis is exploring envi-

ronments for virtual collaboration, aim-ing at identifying new ways to offeronline education, in particular for pro-grams such as Tutorials NowTM or Dis-tinguished Lecturers Online. Emphasisis given to the goal of facilitating partici-pation by student branches and fromdisadvantaged areas, to disseminateknowledge truly globally.

For example, in a first trial organizedby Mike and Gustavo, free seminarshave been offered to the Chapters ofRegion 9 (Latin America), experiment-ing with a platform for virtual collabora-tion (2009). Another trial, currentlyunder consideration by this workinggroup, consists of setting up a virtuallaboratory of internetworking aimed atstudents in the popular virtual worldSecond Life, where IEEE already ownstwo islands.

To Probe Further: For more informa-tion and updates, browse the followingweb sites:•IEEE ComSoc Tutorials NowTM:

http://www.comsoc.org/tutorialsnow/•IEEE ComSoc Distinguished Lectur-ers Online:

http://www.comsoc.org/socstr/mem-prog/dislec/tut.html•IEEE ComSoc certification for Wire-less Communication

Engineering Technologies: http://www.comsoc.org/cert/

•IEEE ComSoc Webinars: http://ww2.comsoc.org/webinars




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