The IEEE SA is enthusiastic about the flood of interest in standards collaboration by IEEE’s large and expanding constituency in India. These opportunities are fueled not only by the region’s growing technical leadership, but expanding engagement the areas of smart grid, cloud computing and design automation. In addition, new opportunities for information exchange in the area of nuclear power have opened doors for standards adoption and collaboration.
The IEEE SA is responding to this growing interest by taking active measures to support not only IEEE communities and members in India but also Indian organizations, industries, and universities interested in relationship building and standards development. To this end, the IEEE SA Corporate Advisory Group (CAG) conducted meetings in Bangalore and Delhi in March 2010. This resulted in the formation of a Standards Interest Group (SIG) for India, which is dedicated to facilitating SA activities in the region. To capitalize on this momentum, the IEEE SA International Program conducted a three city outreach in India last month. The outreach occurred adjacent to the IEEE SA Board of Governors Meetings, held in Delhi 7-9 February 2011.
February’s outreach consisted of an array of meetings and receptions, as well as six workshops held in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. These workshops focused on introducing the IEEE SA and its activities in nuclear power, smart grid, cloud computing and design automation. They were also structured to engage participants in open dialog regarding current needs, challenges and how the IEEE SA may help them in addressing these needs in the future.
The response to the outreach was highly positive, resulting in workshop participation of hundreds of attendees, from students, engineers, developers and other industry leaders. There was strong recognition of the significance of IEEE SA activities and offerings, the prospective value of engaging with the IEEE SA in standards development and the benefit of using IEEE SA standards, especially in the area of nuclear power.
We remain actively engaged and optimistic about growing collaboration and will work cooperatively with the India SIG to further involvement in the region. We are currently looking into other opportunities for 2011 and the possibility of returning to India. We look forward to sharing more results from this outreach in future posts.
