IEEE Product News

 March 2008 – In a shining example of what can happen when industry meets academics, four Uruguay universities have come together to form IEEE’s first corporate-sponsored university consortium. The consortium, funded by Uruguay’s telecommunications giant ANTEL, includes four schools, both private and public. ANTEL, which has its own corporate subscription to IEEE, provided funding for the venture with hopes of furthering engineering education and technological growth within the Latin American country and surrounding regions.

A university consortium is a distinct group of universities who subscribe to a specific library collection in an effort to save money on subscription costs. IEEE currently works with university consortia in over 25 different countries. First conceived in 2006, the Uruguay Consortium represents an important partnership between IEEE, private industry and the academic community in Uruguay. Like most of Latin America, Uruguay has been experiencing an emigration trend, with a large number of highly skilled professionals moving to more developed countries, particularly the United States. This “brain drain” has recently been the topic of numerous political and academic discussions throughout Uruguay as the country tries to create a more globalized society within the technology community.

The IEEE Uruguay Consortium, by bringing together leading universities and one of the country’s largest companies, is a significant step towards providing more exciting and positive opportunities for the nation’s emerging generations within both academia and industry. Enrique E. Alvarez, IEEE 2008-2009 Region 9 Director expressed his excitement about the consortium, saying the new endeavor “Is a clear example of IEEE’s mission. IEEE's core purpose is to foster technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity.” The consortium has been made possible by a number of individuals, including Maria Simon, President of ANTEL and Past President of the Uruguay IEEE Communications Chapter; Osvaldo Novoa, Sub Gerente General Comercial at ANTEL; Celia Desmond, IEEE Director and Secretary; and Gustavo Giannattasio, past IEEE Uruguay Chair and candidate for Elected Regional Director, IEEE Region 9.

The IEEE/IET Electronic Library (IEL), which the Uruguay Consortium subscribes to, is one of the most comprehensive and value-driven literature databases available, delivering nearly a third of the world's current literature in electrical engineering, communications and computer science. IEEE offers research that fuels more new patents than any other publisher at a substantially lower cost than the average electrical engineering or computer science journals. A faculty member in engineering at the Universidad de la República expressed excitement about the IEEE electronic library, saying “I am so grateful to ANTEL for making the IEEE subscription available to us. I can assure them that we are going to use this excellent tool a lot for our work.” The IEEE Uruguay Consortium will provide the universities full access to more than 1.7 million full-text searchable conference and journal articles, including articles from the top-cited journals in a variety of technology fields.