Establishment of the Section (History and Date)
During the IEEE workshop on Power Electronics which was held at University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan, during May 18-20, 1999, discussion took place to form an IEEE section in Jordan. A committee was formed to establish the section. The following names were the formed committee:
Prof. Omar Asfar
Prof. Mohammed Zeki Khedher
Dr. Abdullah Mehdi
Dr. Mohammed Abderrazaq
Dr Kamel Al-Tallaq
The committee communicated with IEEE headquarter and started the procedure for applying for section establishment. Signature of 52 IEEE members were collected and formal application was sent to IEEE headquarter. On November 12, 1999 the section was officially formed by the IEEE and Prof. Mohammed Zeki Khedher was named as the Interim chair. The IEEE Jordan Section was given a Geographic Code (R80079). The news was mentioned in REGION 8 NEWS BULLETIN – JANUARY 2000. A bank account was established and preparations took place for electing the first IEEE Jordan Section executive committee. Seed money for the section was received from IEEE and the first general meeting took place on 29 th of April 2000 to declare the section first EXCOM. The first IEEE Jordan Section EXCOM was as follows:
Prof. Omar Asfar Chairman
Dr. Mohammaed Abdelrazzaq Treasurer
Secretary
Dr. Gheith Abandah
List of Section Chairs, years in office and their affiliations:
Prof. Mohammed Z Khedher: Interim Chair (November 1999-April 2000)
Electrical Engineering Dept.
Faculty of Engineering & Technology
University of Jordan,
Amman 11942 , Jordan
khedher@ju.edu.jo
Prof. Omar Asfar: Chair (April 2000-December 31, 2001)
Electrical Engineering Dept.
Jordan University of Science and Technology
Irbid, Jordan
orasfar@gmail.com
Prof. Mohamed K Abdelazeez: Chair (January 1, 2002 – December 31, 2007)
Electrical Engineering Dept.
University of Jordan,
Amman 11942 , Jordan
abdelazeez@ieee.org , abdlazez@ju.edu.jo
Dr Ali El-Mousa: Chair (January 1, 2008 – December 31, 2010)
Computer Engineering Dept.
University of Jordan,
Amman 11942 , Jordan
a.elmousa@ieee.org
Dr. Gheith Abandah: Chair (January 1, 2011-December 31, 2011)
Computer Engineering Dept.
University of Jordan,
Amman 11942 , Jordan
abandah@ju.edu.jo
Prof. Issam H Zabalawi: Chair(January 1, 2012-December 31, 2013)
President, The Arab Academy of Banking & Financial Sciences
Amman, Jordan
zabalawi@aabfs.org
Major Activities of the Section During the Years
Since the establishment of the IEEE Jordan Section, we are trying to extend its activities to various sectors of engineering enterprises. We do have ambitious objectives and we are trying our best to meet these objectives. The IEEE Jordan Section cooperate with different universities
(Philadelphia University, Applied Science University,
Sumaya University for Technology and Jordan Engineers Association) in holding international conferences in the areas of electrical engineering, communication and information technology IEEE membership in Jordan is unique. The ratio of IEEE students to full members is one the highest in the whole world. Student branches are active in nine universities. The students hold activities in close contact with the IEEE Jordan section. Jordan is also known by its large number of public and private universities. It is the highest in the whole region compared to the country population. Nearly all of these universities have electrical, electronic or computer engineering as well as computer science and information technology departments and in some of them information technology colleges. The Jordanian engineers in general do not work after graduation in Jordan only but spread all over the Arab countries and specially in the Gulf countries, USA, Canada and Western Europe.
Listing of Chapters/Affinity groups/Student branches and year of establishment.
I. IEEE Jordan Section Technical Chapters:
IEEE Jordan Section – Computer/Computational Intelligence Joint Societies
1.
Chapter CH08396.
This chapter was established in 2003 and the different chairs for this Chapter are:
Majid Al-Taee (interim chair)
Majid Al-Taee (2004-2005)
Mohammad Hamdan (2006- August 2010)
Majid Al-Taee (October 2010 – Present)
The major activities of this Chapter over the years are in holding more than 5 lectures every year presented by well known figures from local, regional and international universities or/and companies. Also in October 2010 one day workshop, in collaboration with Microsoft, was organised; which involved 5 specialized lectures on the subject of automatic translation of Arabic language. In May 9/10, 2011, the chapter participated in organising a National Universities Robotics Competition in collaboration with Philadelphia University and the National Robot Centre in Jordan. This event was
University.
2. The IEEE Jordan Section – Power Engineering/Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Joint Societies Chapter CH08397
This chapter was established in 2003 and the different chairs for this Chapter are:
Dr. Mohammad H. Abderazzq
Dr. Kamel N Al-Tallaq
Dr. Yaser Anagrehy
Dr Nabeel Tawalbeh (Present Chair)
The major activities of this Chapter over the years are in holding more than 5 lectures every year presented by well known figures from local, regional and international universities or/and companies. Also a workshop was held in corporation with cigre Jordan in Yarmouk University.
3. The IEEE Jordan Section-Communications Society Chapter
This chapter was established in 2009 and the different chairs for this Chapter are:
Dr Jamal Rahhal,
Dr. Ghazi Alsukkar (Present Chair)
The major activities of this Chapter over the years are in holding more than 5 lectures every year presented by well known figures from local, regional and international universities or/and companies.
II. IEEE Jordan Section Affinity Groups
1. The IEEE Jordan Section-Graduate of the Last Decade (GOLD) Affinity Group
This Affinity Group (AG) was established in 2003 and the different chairs for this AG are:
Dr. Mohammad F Hawa
Eng. Mohd Khawaja
Eng. Mohammad Salah (Present Chair)
2. The IEEE Jordan Section-Women In Engineering (WIE) Affinity Group This Affinity Group (AG) was established in 2003 and the different chairs for this AG are:
Eng. Ranna Ramadan
Eng. Hanan Hasan Al-Tous
Eng. Bushra Habashneh
Eng. Arwa Al-Abbadi (Present Chair)
This unit is one of the most active units in the IEEE Jordan Section over the years. The section was lucky to have both Rana and Hanan who work very hard in organizing different meetings and workshops. They tried their best to promote IEEE between students, female engineers. They were very active members in the Jordan Engineers Association (JEA)
succeeded in bridging the gap between
Recently, in July 2010, a self-confidence workshop was organized by WIE. The workshop focused on women empowerment in a male-dominant society.
The IEEE Jordan Section would like also to recognize the remarkable efforts performed by both Bushra Habashneh and Arwa Al-Abbadi.
III. IEEE Jordan Section Student Branches
(i) University of Jordan Student Branch
(ii) Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) Student Branch
(iii) Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUCT) Student Branch
(iv) Yarmouk University Student Branch
(v) Hashemite University Student Branch
Balqa Applied University Student Branch
(vi)
(vii) Al-Ahliyya Amman University Student Branch
(viii) Mutah University Student Branch
(ix) German- Jordanian University Student Branch
The IEEE Jordan Section is very proud to have 9 Student chapters and in fact our student members and student chapters are, in general, very active at the local, regional and international levels. They arrange local annual fairs in which many local and international companies do participate and in this fairs they arrange an
students who are expected to graduate and executives of the
interviews between
different companies. Recently they arrange to hold and organize the
Middle East Student Branch Congress (MESBC) in May 2009 which was hosted by the Princess Sumaya University for Technology, were 120 student delegates participated from 10 different middle-eastern countries. In this MESBC, training sessions were held in different areas including team work, role of women scientists in the region, student branch sustainability, presentation skills, entrepreneurship and inspiration (success stories).
The number of IEEE student members in Jordan exceeds the regular members; in fact the ratio reached 8:1 in favor of student members (at present it is 1.66:1). Student chapters were established in some Jordanian universities before the establishment of the IEEE Jordan Section.