I just completed an IEEE trip in Africa. I visited three countries. They were Tunisia, Kenya and South Africa. I was impressed with the energy and enthusiasm I saw with the IEEE volunteers in Africa. I believe that Africa offers a great opportunity for IEEE, both to pursue IEEE’s mission of advancing technology for humanity and for helping IEEE get and retain more younger members.
Africa is the continent with the youngest population. The UN says that 70% of the people in sub-Saharan Africa are less than 30 and the median age in Africa is reported to be less than 20 years old. We have quite a few student members in Africa, particularly in Tunisia. If we can get more of these student members to become full IEEE members after they graduate, that will help the IEEE to be relevant and vital for the next 30 years.
My first stop was in Tunisia. Thanks to the efforts of the Tunisia IEEE section the student membership in Tunisia has grown 775% from 2014 to 2024, probably the largest student membership growth for any IEEE section. Interestingly the higher-grade membership in Tunisia has also growth 71% over the same period. I wanted to meet the Tunisia section officers, talk with the student members and visit companies in the country about the value of IEEE membership. I think outreach to companies is particularly important because most IEEE students end up working in industry after they graduate.
On my first day in Tunisia, I visited Novation City in the city of Sousse. This is a technology incubator with several local companies hosted there, including early phase technology start-ups as well as some more established companies. The CEO of Novation City, Hichem Turki, said that among other developments, they are working with NVIDIA to enable AI development capabilities in the country and he showed me NVIDIA equipment in their data center. I spoke with Hichem about IEEE efforts to partner with companies.
I met with Enova Robotics, one of the more mature start-ups hosted at Novation City. They make private security and logistics robots and seem to be doing a good business. Below I am standing next to the Enova logo.
I participated in the IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Green Energy during my stay at Yasmine Hammamet, a bit North of Sousse and gave a talk about the evolution of digital storage and memory technologies and efforts to create a more circular economy and lower the environmental impact of digital storage in data centers, including the P2883 standard for data sanitization of storage devices.
I also spoke to student branches on why they should look at the IEEE as their professional home as well as speaking about creating a more diverse and inclusive IEEE to a Women in Engineering, WIE, event. I also gave a short talk to local teams for the IEEE Xtreme 24 hour coding competition on October 26.
After Tunisia I travelled to Nairobi, Kenya for the next leg of my Africa journey. While in Kenya, I had a meeting with University Deans from Kenya at Strathmore University and visited IBM Research Africa, see image from IBM Kenya below. Many thanks to Stephen Okwiri, secretary for IEEE Kenya for driving me around during my visits in Kenya and to the other members of the Kenya section who accompanied me.
I spoke with John Matogo from IBM about the work that they are doing and their work with the local Kenya section. I also spoke with John about having IBM, or at least working with the Africa office about becoming a corporate partner to the IEEE and possibly working with them on doing a corporate activity to make IBM IEEE members, senior members. I consider it important to establish good connections with companies where most of our student members go to work so we can retain more younger members and remain relevant in the future.
We also visited Oracle Kenya, where the Kenya section signed a memorandum of understanding, MOU, to offer a variety of Oracle classes with certification to local IEEE members at a discount. IEEE activities such as this could be done at a more global IEEE level, perhaps working with our IEEE Educational Activities Committee to provide such classes as part of our continuing education program and providing more value to our members. Below is a picture of me at Kenya Oracle headquarters.
After Kenya I travelled to South Africa, where I visited local section people in Johannesburg and Cape Town. In Johannesburg the section Chair Professor Bola Akuru and his colleagues arranged for me to give a talk on IEEE’s Ethical Design of Intelligent and Autonomous Systems activities at the University of Johannesburg and another talk on digital storage and a circular economy, same talk as in Tunisia, at Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria Campus, Professor Akuru’s campus. They arranged for me to have a driver to get me around, named Petrus, who was a very entertaining and safe driver.
From Johannesburg I went to Cape Town where Stephen Paine from the University of Cape Town, South Africa Section Vice Chair, was my host with help from many local colleagues. I gave my talk on Ethical Design of Intelligent and Autonomous Systems activities again and spoke with the local section volunteers about what was going on and opportunities and issues for their local section. There was a lively discussion about IEEE standards and AI after my talk at the University.
I enjoyed and learned a lot during my short visit to Tunisia, Kenya and South Africa to meet with local section members and find out how IEEE can better engage with our members and companies in Africa.
