Call for applications/ nominations for IEEE India Council Awards - 2024

 IEEE, world's largest professional organization, works for advancing Technology for Humanity. It operates in 10 regions across the globe and IEEE India Council (IC) comes under Asia Pacific Region 10.

IEEE IC acts as a consortium of 13 Sections in India which collectively have around 50000 members and this is the largest count among Asia Pacific countries. The council undertakes tasks that can be best done together by the Sections. It enables mechanisms to supplement initiatives and programs of these Sections. Membership development, involving students in IEEE activities, encouraging young professionals to innovate, organization of flagship conferences, etc., are some of the important activities of the Sections.

IEEE IC honors achievements of IEEE Members through Lifetime Achievement Awards, Technology Awards, Volunteer Awards, and Student Branch Awards. The following specific awards are constituted to recognize the individual or collective efforts of the membership in promoting the Mission and Vision of IEEE as reflected in the operation of the India Council and its entities.

A. Life Time Achievement Awards

1. IEEE IC- Life Time Achievement (LTA) for Council Chairs: This award is to recognize an exceptional individual, who was a past Council Chair, and has done outstanding career-long contributions in electrical, electronics, or computer science engineering areas at the national level. The individual should have continued to significantly contribute to a Section/ Sub-Section, India Council, MGA, and Region-10 even after finishing term as Council Chair.
   2. IEEE IC- LTA for Sub-Section/ Section Chairs: This award is to recognize past Section/ Sub-Section Chairs who have significantly contributed to IEEE objectives by volunteering activities through various positions and by significantly enhancing
   his/her Section's activities and outreach. The individual should have continued to
   significantly contribute to his/her Section/ Sub-Section and India Council
   even after finishing term as Section/ Sub-Section Chair.

B. Technology Awards
1. Technologist of the Year: The objective of this award is to recognize individual technical excellence from a professional leading to societal benefits in the field of electrical, electronics, and computer science engineering areas. 
2. Woman Technologist of the Year: The objective of this award is to recognize individual technical excellence from a female professional leading to societal benefits in the field of electrical, electronics, and computer science engineering areas.
3. Technology Start-up Award: The objective of this award is to recognize contributions of technology start-up organizations, registered in India and operational at least for two years, leading to societal benefits in the field of electrical, electronics, and computer science engineering areas. For Technology Awards, contributions should have been made while working in India, preferably in last three years. An applicant under this category of awards can apply to only one award.

C. Volunteer Awards
The primary criterion for selection for the following five volunteer awards is enthusiastic support of volunteers to the IEEE activities. Volunteering at the Section/Chapter/IC level can be at various forums like conferences, seminars, symposiums, technical talks, etc., organized by the branch, subsection, and section. The Outstanding Volunteer Award (1st in the sequence) is for volunteers greater than 35 years of age (as on 01-12-2024).

1. Outstanding Volunteer Awards
   2. Outstanding Student Volunteer Awards
   3. Outstanding WiE Student Volunteer Awards
   4. Outstanding WiE Professional Volunteer Awards
   5. Outstanding YP Volunteer Awards

For Volunteer Awards, contributions should have been made while working in India, preferably in the last two years.

D. Outstanding Student Branch Awards
The following two awards are for recognizing contributions made by the IEEE student branches in increasing the awareness about IEEE and the value addition the branches have brought into the campus. The award will be decided based on various factors like the current membership count, growth of members, membership retention, number of seminars/ symposiums/ colloquiums conducted, papers published/ presented in various forums by members, awards won by members, and significant value addition to the campus. For qualifying for the 'Emerging Student Branch Award', the Branch should not be more than three years old.

1. Outstanding Student Branch Award
2. Outstanding Emerging Student Branch Award

For Student Branch Awards, contributions should have been made preferably in the last one year.

Eligibility
For the Life-Time Achievement Awards for Council Chairs, the selection is conducted by the Award Committee members, based on the contributions of the nominees (past council chairs) to IEEE.
For the Life-Time Achievement Awards for Sub-Section/Section Chairs, applicants must submit the nominator's covering letter along with a recommendation and two endorsements.
For Technology, Volunteer and Student Branch Awards (Categories B, C, and D), any IEEE Member including Student Members can apply.
Candidates applying for an Outstanding Emerging Student Branch Award are not permitted to apply for the Outstanding Student Branch Award.
All candidates must upload proof of age and CV. The CV should include the date of birth, IEEE number, and an indication of whether the candidate has received the award in the particular category within the past two years, all at the beginning of the document. A
candidate/startup who/which has received an award under a particular category in the last two years is ineligible to apply for the award under the same category. This rule does not apply to section/branch awards.

Application Process
Applications have to be submitted online at the Awards Management Portal of IEEE India Council: www.ieeeicawards.com 

An applicant or nominee should select the most appropriate award. An IEEE Member will be considered for only one award in above categories. Details for awardees of previous years can be seen at https://site.ieee.org/indiacouncil/student-activities/awards/ 

When one logs into Awards Management Portal, there would be a few text boxes with limits on characters, wherein information needs to be filled in. It is suggested that information should be typed in any text editor, the number of characters should be checked, and then the information can be copy-pasted into the text boxes. Also, one pdf file containing CV and endorsements should be uploaded at the interface
(size limit: 2 MB). Maximum two endorsements from professionals can be submitted. 

A. LTA for Sub-Section/ Section Chairs: An IEEE Senior or higher-grade Member can nominate any IEEE Member (who had been past Section Chair/ Subsection Chair of the same section) for these awards. Nominees (applicants) must be IEEE Members from India. An applicant must also upload (as a part of the same PDF file) a forwarding cover letter of the nominator on a letterhead highlighting important contributions while recommending for the award, without which the application will not be considered. Two endorsement letters from working professionals (one from outside the applicant's
organization) are desirable. 
B. Technology Awards: At least one endorsement letter should be from a beneficiary of the developed technology.
C. Volunteer Awards: One endorsement from Section/ Sub-Section/ Chapter Chair or any
responsible senior IEEE volunteer, who is aware of applicant's volunteering work, is
desirable. In case of student volunteers, an endorsement from Student Activities Chair is
essential.
D. Student Branch Awards: An endorsement from the Student Activities Chair is essential. 

Applications can be submitted online on the portal between 1st October, 2024 to 23rd October, 2024.

Candidates should apply or be nominated only if they agree to the following:

• Candidates are solely responsible for entering correct information and ensuring that they meet all the eligibility requirements for the award. Candidates submitting applications with incorrect/incomplete data may please note that such applications may be rejected at any stage of the application process, and any awards granted may be revoked if the application is found to be faulty after the grant of the award. The same condition holds for applications not meeting the eligibility criteria.
• All decisions of the IEEE India Council Award Committee or the IEEE India Council Chair will be considered final.