IEEE Regional Exemplary Student Branch Awards

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Student Branches are pivotal in the growth and maintenance of IEEE student members. Each year, they put in extraordinary effort for the benefit of the ever-growing student community. To recognize their outstanding efforts, IEEE has instituted four Student Awards: Larry K. Wilson Regional Student Activities Award, IEEE Regional Exemplary Student Branch Award, The Darrel Chong Student Activity Award and IEEE Outstanding Branch Counselor and Branch Chapter Advisor Award.

Last year saw a remarkable amount of quality activities and initiatives being conducted by the Student Branches of IEEE Kerala Section, with nine of them receiving the Regional Exemplary Student Branch Award. One good thing about this award is that there is no numerical limit imposed on the number of awardees – all applicants who meet a certain set of criteria will be awarded.

The award aims to provide public recognition of exemplary IEEE Student Branch operations. To qualify for this award, a student branch must conform to IEEE bylaws, have an active program, and support IEEE goals. Only the activities, initiatives and accomplishments of the previous calendar year (i.e., from January 1 to December 31 of the preceding year) will be considered for evaluation.

Documents to be submitted

There are two categories of documents: (i). A set of 5 compulsory documents and (ii). A list of 32 documentation out of which a minimum of 12 need to be submitted.

  1. Required Documents:
    1. IEEE Student Branch Online Activity Report (PDF file): This can be obtained from the IEEE vTools Student Branch Reporting webpage (sbr.vtools.ieee.org) by entering the name of the Organizational Unit (OU) under the Submitted Plans tab. Note that the activity plan for the current year needs to be submitted.
    2. IEEE Student Branch officer reporting (PDF file): The list of officers reported under our OU can be obtained from the IEEE vTools officer reporting webpage (officers.vtools.ieee.org) under the Manage Officers tab. Since the webpage does not have the provision to download the list as a PDF, it is advised to take screenshots of the list showing details of the officer positions along with details of the Student Branch Chapters (if any), and compile it as a single PDF.
    3. List of current student members (Name and Member No) from OU Analytics: This can be obtained from the IEEE OU Analytics platform under the Member and Affiliates section. Clicking on the ‘Detail’ button will give the complete details of the student members under the corresponding OU, which can be downloaded as a PDF.
    4. Link to the active IEEE Student Branch Website or Social Media Channel: The link of active SB website or any of the links of the SB’s social media handles need to be submitted in the textbox available in the portal. For this, the one where all the activities of the SB are dynamically updated is to be preferred.
    5. Student Branch Retention Statistics and efforts: This is to be filled in in the document attached to the submission form.
  2. Additional Documentation:
    Even though only a minimum of 12 documents need to be submitted, it is advised to submit as many as possible.
    1. Student Branch Officers and Committee roster - this must be an Excel document that includes all leading members, positions and membership details
    2. Student Branch email address - this email address doesn't need to be an alias, but it should be an active account
    3. Published minutes of all Student Branch Officer Meetings (PDF file)
    4. Annual Budget (PDF file)
    5. Year-end Financial Statement for the Previous Year (PDF file)
    6. Fundraisers (PDF file with all activities performed to raise funds; you can include fundraiser name, date, amount of money invested, amount of money raised, profit and profit destination)
    7. Request for IEEE fundings (Requests done to the IEEE Section, IEEE Region, MGA, Affinity Groups or Societies for funding) - a copy of the request and the response received is to be attached
    8. Membership drive(s) (PDF file with the description of the efforts done to retain and recruit new members, as well as the number of new members recruited)
    9. Newsletter or similar promotional efforts (PDF file that contains at least one sample of student branch promotional efforts)
    10. Timely meeting notices (PDF file with proof that the Student Branch invites students to attend meetings they organize, be it via email, Facebook, website, etc.)
    11. Formation of a new SB Chapter / Affinity Group (PDF of the approval letter)
    12. Appointing and working with a Student Branch Mentor (PDF meeting report and mentor contact information) (Counselors and advisors are not considered mentors)
    13. Attendance at Section functions - List of events with dates, event name and count of attendees from the Student Branch
    14. Student Members attending the Region Student Congress or Cross-Section Congress ( PDF file with a list of names and copies of registration confirmations)
    15. Representative attending a Student Branch Leadership Workshop (PDF file with event agenda and attendee list)
    16. Events and activities reported on vTools Events (Report downloaded from events.vtools.ieee.org need to be attached)
    17. Hosting a Student Professional Awareness Conference (Funded by SPAA committee) - approval email and conference report to be attached
    18. IEEE Day Celebration (PDF file with the event program details, agenda and report with pictures)
    19. Participation of Student Branch Members in Humanitarian Activities (Brief report with pictures in PDF file)
    20. Student Branch Entry in the Region Student Paper Competition (PDF copy of the abstract)
    21. Student Branch entry in the Region Hardware Design Contest (PDF copy of the Abstract)
    22. Student Branch participation in IEEE Student Competitions such as IEEEXtreme, IEEEmadC, etc. (PDF report)
    23. Distinguished Lecture Program (Brief PDF report that contains the request and approval to host this program and describes how the students took part in it)
    24. Technical workshops (PDF file with a brief report with topics, description of the activities and pictures)
    25. Technical seminars (PDF file with a brief report with topics, lectures names and pictures)
    26. Technical visits to local industries and factories (PDF file with a brief report of the Activity and pictures)
    27. STEP Event (Official report submitted for funding and list of participants)
    28. Events organized with other organizational units (inside and outside IEEE) (PDF file with a brief report of the activity, pictures and the involvement of the other OUs)
    29. Application for any one of the following IEEE Awards submitted last year – IEEE Scholarships, The Darrel Chong Student Activity Award, Larry K Wilson Award, Branch Counselor/Advisor Award or any Sectional, National or Regional Awards (PDF copy of the nomination form submitted)
    30. Winner of Exemplary Student Branch Award last year (Certificate to be attached, if won)
    31. Nomination for Larry K. Wilson Regional Student Activities Award (PDF file with proof of submission for the current year)
    32. Nomination for IEEE Outstanding Branch Counselor and Advisor Award Recognition Program (PDF file with proof of submission for the current year)
    33. (Optional) Upload additional documentation of Student Branch activities – Attach a document with any other information which is not already submitted in the form

Endorsements

Two endorsements need to be submitted for the application to be complete. The endorsements can be from IEEE Student Branch Counselor or Dept. Head or Section SAC or Section Chair or Section Representative.

It is advised to inform the endorsement nominee beforehand before nominating them; make sure they are aware of the steps they need to follow, and provide them with a draft of the endorsement content if possible, as it will ease the endorsement process for the nominee.

An advice to the SBs: apply this year, and plan activities of the coming year accordingly to apply better next year. By the words of Mr Govindaraman S, Chair of IEEE MACE SB 2021, “All awards are a recognition of our past activities, and will motivate us to do better ones in the future.” Ms Haritha M E, Chair of IEEE GCEK SB 2021, adds,”Receiving an award at present will boost our applications for other awards in the future.” Both SBs are recipients of the IEEE Regional Exemplary Student Branch Award 2021.

All the best!