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Candidates for 2006 IEEE President-elect
Leah H. Jamieson
Iextend my thanks
to the NPS Society for this opportunity to talk about my priorities
for the IEEE. I also extend my sincere congratulations to the Society
and to you, the NPSS members, for taking this extra step to be informed
voters in the election.
Over the next five years, the quality that will have the greatest,
longest-lasting impact on the IEEE will be our ability to navigate
change: our ability to turn challenges into opportunities. This
will determine our responsiveness to the changing needs of our members
and to the changing needs of the profession. My priorities are in
four areas:
Nimbleness in moving into emerging technology areas:
The rate of change of technology, already blindingly fast, is accelerating.
We must continue to improve our ability to identify new technologies
in the IEEE domain, create agile new technology communities, and
establish ourselves as the place to go for novice-to-expert information
about new areas. Similarly, we must forge partnerships and collaborations
that reflect the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of technology
solutions to humanity’s needs.
Opportunities:
- Increase our agility in new areas by creating “lightweight”
structures that allow the quick formation of interdisciplinary
communities in emerging technical areas. Foster collaboration
between Societies and Councils, both within and beyond IEEE, through
access to seed funds for new technology initiatives.
- Take advantage of the flexibility of the web to
quickly make visible our activities in new areas.
- Develop new technical content that focuses on newcomers
in a technical area; as we enter new areas, focus on both theory
and applications from the outset.
- Strive to become a trusted resource in new technology
areas for a wide audience that includes the media, policy makers,
and venture capitalists.
Deliberate agility in the continually changing
information culture:
Publishing is at the heart of both IEEE’s business and its
service to the profession. We must be at the forefront in using
technology to enhance access and use of our publications. Our content
and tools must be relevant to students, researchers, engineers and
professionals at all stages of their careers, and, increasingly,
to the public. We must also, with due deliberation, plot a course
that reflects a deep understanding of the changing economics of
publishing.
Opportunities:
- Develop our understanding of how people –
especially young people – access, use, organize, and share
information; use this understanding to develop benefits, products,
and services that put IEEE content and services at the center
of how people work.
- Increase our ability to develop and test a wide
range of new products and services through “rapid deployment”
experiments, including experiments with new web commerce and communication
capabilities. The IEEE Societies, as creators of most of IEEE’s
content, are crucial as the source and testers of publishing experiments.
We must work with our Societies and their publications to develop
an entrepreneurial culture, including an appropriate financial
culture, that fosters innovation in our offerings.
Support for engineers throughout their careers:
Current estimates put the half-life of engineering knowledge –
the time interval in which half of what an engineer knows becomes
obsolete – at between 2.5 and 7.5 years. Just as IEEE is the
preferred source for highest quality technical information, it should
also become the preferred source for highest quality educational
material for lifelong learning and professional development.
Opportunities:
- Provide continuity in members’ careers through
local and technical communities and internet/web services that
support professional development to bridge career transitions.
- Become an international leader in continuing education
and lifelong learning.
Global relevance, local needs:
IEEE’s structure gives us the opportunity to knit together
the global nature of engineering with an understanding of specific
local and regional needs. IEEE must use this structure to serve
both the global profession and the changing needs of members throughout
the world.
Opportunities:
- Take advantage of the global nature of the IEEE to enhance members’
ability to be effective in the global engineering profession.
- Recognize and work to meet specific local and regional needs in
technology development, education, accreditation, professional development,
information content and services, and technology policy.
There are guiding principles that I believe are essential to IEEE’s
success in meeting these challenges:
- Maintaining a strategic focus;
- Valuing teamwork, communication, collaboration,
and consensus-building among the many IEEE stakeholders;
- Promoting financial models that balance revenue
opportunities with member benefits and ensure the long-term financial
health of the IEEE;
- Paying constant attention to the value of membership,
the affordability of membership, and how the foundations of the
value of membership are evolving;
- Recruiting, retaining, and appreciating volunteers,
who are the heart of IEEE;
- Providing value to the global profession and to
society.
The role of the President of IEEE is to combine the
strengths of this outstanding organization with a vision for how
it can meet the challenges of the future. I will bring to the position
of President a record of strong leadership skills and a long history
of service to the IEEE. I will be guided by the key principles –
strategic focus, teamwork and communication, sound financial models,
value of membership, appreciation for volunteers, value to the profession
– in helping IEEE meet the challenges and realize the opportunities
that the changing world is presenting us.
Gerald H. Peterson
NPSS Newsletter readers,
I am honored to be a candidate for the office of IEEE President-elect
2006, and to have this opportunity to share a few brief remarks
on my candidacy - please see my web site: http://ghpeterson.home.att.net
Over 37 years, I have held positions in hardware and software design
and engineering management and hold one U.S. Patent in the field
of telecommunications. In the past 17 years I have specialized in
industry global strategic standardization. I currently hold the
position of Senior Manager Emeritus at Lucent Technologies Bell
Labs.
I hold Electrical Engineering degrees from the University of Washington
and Rutgers University (both in the USA). I am a member of the Tau
Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society. In 2001 I was recognized as a
"Who's Who" in its publication, THE BENT of Tau Beta Pi.
Also in 2001 I received the American National Standards Institute’s
Finegan Standards Medal for leadership in the development and application
of voluntary standards. In addition to my leadership experience
in the IEEE, I have served in elected national and international
leadership positions that have delivered global technical standards
and fostered increased global cooperation.
We live in a time of accelerating change and globalization. The
IEEE must both respond to and help drive these changes if it is
to continue to be a preeminent technical society. Key among these
changes is how it delivers value to industry worldwide and, thus,
value to the members of the IEEE. I see this change to be focused
on the technical, educational, regional, publications and standards
services and products and in advancing, modifying and replacing
them as we evolve both the value of the IEEE and the business model
we use to support the delivery of value. Further, the IEEE must
continue to offer value to an expanding and changing set of technical
disciplines and I consider the NPSS to be one excellent example
of this open policy. The current IEEE Designated Fields of: Engineering,
Computer Science and Information Tech, Physical Sciences, Biological
& Medical Sciences, Mathematics, Technical Communications, Education,
Management, and Law and Policy is very broad, nevertheless I remain
open and proactive on expanding and changing our designated fields
as the future unfolds.
I know both the importance and the scope of the responsibility of
being IEEE President and Chief Executive Officer, and if elected
I am committed to giving my full time and attention to the office
of IEEE President in 2007. I appreciate your consideration and welcome
your questions, comments, and suggestions.
Jerry Peterson
ghpeterson@ieee.org
James M. Tien
Let me begin
by thanking those of you who collected signatures for my petition
candidacy; I am now a 2006 IEEE President-Elect candidate because
of your hard work!
My vision for the IEEE is based on the same reasons for which I
became a member in 1974 and why I became a volunteer in 1983. I
consider IEEE to be my “Global Resource of Choice” for
scientific, educational and professional products and services;
indeed, IEEE has played a critical role in my career – ostensibly
more for my academic than for my parallel industrial career. If
elected, I pledge to make IEEE more relevant and supportive of all
member careers. As examples, IEEE must offer more global and portable
member benefits (to support a typical career that includes multiple
employers); IEEE must meet the continuing education needs of our
members (who must update their knowledge base while being on the
job); and IEEE must think and act globally for the profession and
think and act locally for the members (who have different cultural
and professional needs).
One concern that will affect NPSS and all our technical societies
is the issue of “open access;” that is, publications derived
from government-funded research should be readily available and
accessible. Although as a researcher I can applaud this stance,
I am afraid that IEEE’s financial viability will be irrevocably
undermined unless we take immediate steps to change IEEE’s
current financial structure, one that is based on deriving more
than 50 percent of our revenues on the sale of our publications.
Even if open access does not necessarily imply “free access,”
it is obvious that we must curtail our dependency on publication
revenues. We must develop new intellectual products and services
that can be a source for new revenues. Indeed, in 2003 and as the
newly elected EAB/VP, I worked with EAB staff and volunteers to
launch IEEE/Thomson’s forthcoming Expert Now (formerly known
as XELL) web-based learning library; it will contain the best of
our conference tutorials and short courses. In addition to meeting
our continuing education needs, Expert Now will serve as a new revenue
source and possibly grow to replace the lucrative publication business.
I feel that I have the qualifications to continue to help IEEE become
the global resource of choice, as I have tried to do so in all my
volunteer activities, including in my recent positions as VP of
Publications and as VP of Education. I am culturally sensitive (having
resided for extensive periods in Regions 1, 9 and 10); technically
involved (having been active in 4 Societies); and professionally
involved (having been active on 4 of IEEE’s 7 Major Boards).
I possess a strong educational background (with degrees from RPI
and MIT); extensive industrial experience (having worked at Bell
Laboratories, at The RAND Corporation, and currently at Structured
Decisions Corporation, a company that I co-founded in 1974); extensive
academic experience (being on RPI’s faculty since 1977). Moreover,
I have extensive leadership experience (at IEEE, in industry, and
at RPI where I have been a Department Chair since 1985 and twice
the Dean of Engineering) and demonstrated excellence (having been
recognized with a number of IEEE and other technical awards, including
IEEE Fellow and election to the U. S. National Academy of Engineering).
Finally, I humbly ask not only for your vote, but also for your
involvement: Together, We Can Advance IEEE’s Global Value.
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