IEEE President-Elect Candidate Forum Region 1 August 28, 2004 IEEE Region 1 Northeastern United States - Center of Technology Roger K. Sullivan, Director

Michael R. Lightner Candidate for 2005 IEEE President-Elect University of Colorado, Boulder ECE, CS, Rehabilitation Medicine Denver Section, Region 5 Local arrangements, 2005 Region 5 conference Circuits and Systems, Computer, Communication, Signal Processing, Engineering Medicine and Biology, and Education Societies ece.colorado.edu/~lightner/IEEE/

This is a Time of Change for IEEE l Major strategic studies on membership publications, conferences and societies l Expect changes this year and next l Board is listening and supporting change l Retiring ED allows revisioning IEEE staff leadership l This is not business as usual l We must take advantage of this openness to change

What are the Challenges l The value equation for IEEE is broken l The value and importance of volunteers is not adequately acknowledged l Challenges to our publishing activities l This is a $30M net to IEEE that is at risk l The pipeline for engineering and computer science is too small l The reputation of engineers and computer scientists

The Value Equation l Need more options for members at reasonable prices l Professional Education l Personal HomePages l Personalized Information Services l Goal - General member fees $40-$60 (?) (Spectrum, Institute, TBD,,,), l then buy services from menu l gain additional services and recognition based on volunteering

The Volunteers l Volunteers -our most valuable resource - est. at $750M/yr ! l IEEE needs volunteers. l Mechanisms for attracting volunteers l Reputation for excellence, community of peers l Chance for leadership and making a difference l 15% of members are volunteers. 50% of volunteers are not members. l Reviewers <50% IEEE members, authors ~50% IEEE members, conference committees - no requirement to be IEEE member l We need more creative thinking to attract and retain volunteers l Senior Member & Distinguished Member based on Service

Publication and Information Access l Products and Services - Future is providing solutions not papers, journals, etc. l Open access movement a challenge to our publications and membership l My proposed response l We should not have a library of publications, but rather an evolving and richly featured research tool. l Possible ‘iTunes’ model $1/paper download plain pdf l Combining solution packages with iTunes downloads gives us Open Access without charging authors and maintains our net revenue from publications.

Publications and Information Access l We must capture the tremendous educational activities of the IEEE l for professional education l as a member benefit l as product for non-members l Build on partnership models of Computer Society and LEOS, connecting with chapter and section activities and others l Building the reach of our Standards activities l Participating globally in the future of engineering education

Pipeline and Reputation l We must build a serious effort in pre- college education l Language in pre-college should have recognition and respect for engineering and computer science and not just a general science orientation l We have to be in primary schools as well as secondary schools

Pipeline and Reputation l Engineering and Computer Science must be viewed with respect and trust by the general public l Don’t just be known because of bugs, malware, major failures l Challenge the commodification of engineering l This is a long term effort that is necessary for the future of the profession

Summary l IEEE is the defining organization for our profession l As such it must embrace l Change l Opportunity l All elements of the profession l Members, non-members, industry, other organizations, customers and partners l We must set professional standards l Now is the time to look to the future, building on our inspiring past and current strengths l We need your ideas, questions, participation and leadership. Without you the IEEE would not exist l I would appreciate your vote and help in building the IEEE of the future

Thank you for your attention, leadership and invaluable contributions to the IEEE! ece.colorado.edu/~lightner/IEEE/