region news
‘Wise and friendly counsel’ – Remshardt remembered
WITH the passing of Rolf Remshardt,
IEEE lost one of its most highly
valued volunteers.
His sudden death, only weeks
after he was a special guest at the
50th Anniversary celebrations
of Region 8 in Madrid, came as a
terrible shock to his many friends
across IEEE. For 30 years he was an
outstanding example of selfless and
ethical service to our Institute.
He was a major influence in
policy-making: eight regional directors benefitted from his wise and
friendly advice. His stewardship as
treasurer of the Region’s finances
for 15 years enabled a huge expansion of its activities, underpinned by
As Region 8 director,
Rolf Remshardt laid
the foundations for
the Region’s rapid
expansion into
Eastern Europe and
the Middle East
the substantial reserves he built up
by careful investment and budget
controls.
Rolf Remshardt earned a Diplom-Ingenieur degree and a PhD
in electrical engineering from the
Technical University in Stuttgart,
Germany. He began his career at
IBM in 1967, working as a development engineer, designing integrated
circuits and semiconductor chips.
Rolf joined IEEE as a Senior Member
in 1983, and was elected Region 8
treasurer. Rolf quickly demonstrated
his skill in managing the complexities of dealing with many different
currencies and exchange controls, in
an era before credit cards became
universal.
He was elected Region 8 director (1999–2000) at a time during
which there was a rapid expansion
in IEEE activity in Eastern Europe
and the Middle East. Under his
wise counsel, the problems of IEEE
membership in the ‘low-income’
countries were dealt with very effectively. This laid the foundations for
the success of the enlarged Region
8 as it reached its 50th year.
From 37 original
submissions, just
five authors were
left to battle it out
at the Oral Finals
in Zagreb
Student Paper Contest finals
take place at EUROCON 2013
THE Region 8 Student Paper
Contest, running for more than
45 years, is the traditional and
probably the oldest IEEE student
activity in the Region. The SPC is
designed for student members
and graduates who have yet to
start on their PhD.
Some 37 student papers were
accepted and graded, with contestants coming from 22 Sections and
34 different Student Branches.
The first phase finished in
March, with the selection of the
best five papers for Oral Finals.
They were from ISCTE University Institute of Lisbon (Portugal),
Isfahan University of Technology (Iran), KU Leuven (Benelux),
Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
(Benelux) and Technical University
of Munich (Germany).
The second phase, the Oral Finals, were held in Zagreb, Croatia,
on 1 July, during EUROCON 2013.
The Jury awarded three prizes
from the IEEE Life Member Fund:
first prize to Maarten Van de Put
from KU Leuven (Benelux Section),
second prize to Saeed Karimimehr
from Isfahan University of Technology (Iran Section) and third prize
to Diego Marmsoler from Technical University of Munich (Germany
Section). The KU Leuven Student
Branch also won the IEEE Region
8 Dick Poortvliet Award.
All of the finalists’ papers were
included in the EUROCON 2013
Proceedings.
George Paunovic
SPC coordinator
Rolf also served on many IEEE
boards and committees, including
the IEEE Foundation as a director
and vice-president for projects. He
was honoured by IEEE through the
Larry K Wilson Transnational Award
(2002) and the RAB Achievement
Award (2006).
We mourn the loss of one of
IEEE’s finest volunteers, and share
the grief of his wife Renate and
son Marc. We will all miss Rolf, as
a friend and colleague, and as a
happy companion.
Kurt R Richter
Region 8 director 1991–1992
Charles W Turner
Region 8 director 1993-1994
Galway academic recognised
for outstanding achievement
GER ARD Hurley, a professor
of electrical engineering at the
National University of Ireland,
Galway, received the IEEE Power
Electronics society’s RD Middlebrook Outstanding Technical
Achievement Award at a ceremony
in Denver, Colorado, USA.
Professor Hurley received the
2013 award to acknowledge his
pioneering contributions to high
frequency magnetic design, modelling of magnetic components
and analysis of planar magnetic
devices for power electronic applications. His work was essential
to the development of electrical
power supplies for smartphones.
He graduated from University
College, Cork, in 1974 and from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976, and was awarded
the DEng degree by the National
Prof Hurley (right) with IEEE president
Dr Peter Staecker at the Award
Ceremony in Denver
University of Ireland in 2011. His
work is acknowledged worldwide,
and he published Transformers
and Inductors for Power Electronics, Theory, Design and Applications. He is a Fellow of Engineers
Ireland and a Fellow of the IEEE.
This award is dedicated to
the memory of Dr R David Middlebrook, one of the founders of
modern power electronics analysis
and design.
Gerard Hurley
Helping SBs and conferences: Technical Activities update
THIS year, we’ve been really active in promoting and supporting technical activities
within Region 8.
The Chapter Coordination Subcommittee was increased to include a new position to oversee Student Branch chapters.
Workshops and a webinar were organised
to promote the awareness of these and,
at the Region 8 Committee meeting in
Sarajevo, it was decided to award a ‘Best
Student Branch Chapter of the Year’, starting in 2014.
The Conference Coordination Subcommittee published a handbook to help
conference organisers. It also conducted
some webinars to increase volunteers’
awareness about the systems and procedures for organising a conference.
We’ve seen a growth in the number
of conferences requesting support of the
Region, and an increase of satisfaction
with the service. In 2013, there were mor e
than 450 IEEE sponsored conferences in
Region 8.
The Educational Activities Subcommittee was very active in organising
workshops and increasing consciousness
of the teacher in-service programme and
EPICS-in-IEEE. Webinars are held on current technologies to support the lifelong
learning experience of members. A new
IEEE Academic project has just been
launched which will provide a web-based
platform of online education materials for
students in different languages.
The Industry Relations Subcommittee
has been working to strengthen the ties
between industry and IEEE Region 8. This
was done by promoting membership in industry and attracting support for activities.
I would like to thank all the volunteers
involved in the Technical Activities subcommittees for their great work.
Carl James Debono
Region 8 vice-chair for Technical Activities
IEEE Region 8 News December 2013
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