On 22nd May 2020, IEEE IUT Student Branch and IEEE Robotics & Automation Society IUT Student Branch Chapter collaborated with IEEE Bangladesh Section to organize an online insightful webinar as a part of IEEE PES Day 2020. The Webinar was entitled “Socio-Technical Innovations for tackling Covid-19” and was associated by IEEE SIGHT FLASH of IEEE Bangladesh Section, WePOWER and IEEE BDS HAC.

The main speaker of the webinar was Dr. Surekha R. Deshmukh, Dean of Industry Institute Interaction and Associate Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, COET, Pune, India. She is also a Senior Member of IEEE. This enlightening and informative event was moderated by Professor Dr. Shaikh Fattah, Member, PES Long Range Planning Committee and Chair, PES-HAC as well as Professor Dr. Celia Shahnaz, IEEE PES Women in Power R10 Representative and IEEE Bangladesh Section Chair. The event was successfully hosted by Humanitarian Activity Coordinator of IEEE Bangladesh Section A N M Nasimunnabi.


Figure 1: Presentation on Tech-innovations by Dr. Surekha R. Deshmukh

The webinar had a huge participation of almost 100 attendees including students, professionals from all over the Bangladesh as well as from India, Sri Lanka and other countries of the world.
Mr. Ajay Kumar, Chair, IEEE PES DAY 2020 attended the whole session of the webinar.

The webinar had 2 technical presentations:  The social-technical processes, industry assets and management for Power & Energy Society to tackle Covid-19 and the innovative works of IUTSB & IUT RAS members.


Figure 2: Participants attending the insightful  online webinar

After the presentation, Dr. Surekha answered the questions relevant to the topic that were asked by the participants. In between the sessions, there was a short quiz conducted by Dr. Shaikh Anowarul Fattah.


Figure 3: “IUT VENT & PPE” presented as innovative work of IEEE IUT Student Branch

The next segment started with IUT Mars Rover – Team Avijatrik consisting of core members from IEEE RAS IUT Student Branch Chapter who showcased a part of their innovative work. They displayed their idea and prototype for cost effective mechanical ventilator “IUT VENT”, which was the outcome of their month-long innovative project. Their such timely innovation created a huge impact among the participants. It was an inspiration for other student branch members to engage themselves to design and implement similar useful applications to prevent COVID19 pandemic.

Finally, the event ended with gratitude towards Dr. Surekha from IEEE IUT Student Branch for her descriptive presentation. Dr. Celia Shahnaz thanked her and wished for more collaborative events and projects engaging the student members in future.

Ahmad Jarif Yeasir
PES DAY 2020 Ambassador, Bangladesh, Region 10
Secretary, IEEE IUT Student Branch