IEEE President Elect speaks on smart buildings and IoT at IUB

Prof. Saifur Rahman of Virginia Tech University, USA was honoured at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) on December 15 for becoming the first Bangladeshi to become the President Elect for 2022 of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Prof. Rahman gave a talk on the potential of smart buildings and IoT both globally and locally. He stressed the need for concentrating effort in energy-saving technologies in Bangladesh to mitigate economic and environmental impacts. By utilising advanced building designs and automation, he said that Bangladesh can immediately save substantially on expensive fuel imports at nominal cost. 

The President Elect agreed to explore and potentially expand scope of cooperation between IEEE and IUB in areas such as academics, research, training and international publications. He also looked forward to university-wide access to IEEE databases of journals, conferences and publications for faculty members and students. 

Prof. Celia Shahnaz of BUET was also honoured for becoming the Chair Elect of Women in Engineering (WIE), IEEE. In her presentation titled "Deep Learning Applications to Support Fourth Industrial Revolution and UN Sustainable Development Goals", she highlighted the role of women in engineering, current initiatives by local engineers and the potential of greater involvement of IUB in IEEE. She identified that our manpower export can easily be shifted from unskilled labour to skilled labour by improving market-driven technical education.

IUB board member S.M. Al-Husainy (EE), twice president of the Institute of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB) appreciated that the IEB-accredited EEE programmes of IUB are having increasing involvement in the IEEE. 

IUB Board Member Javed Hosein (EE) voiced his continued support for the local initiatives of the President Elect and the Chair Elect. The host of the programme and Dean of School of Engineering, Technology and Sciences, IUB Prof. Yusuf Mahbubul Islam informed the audience of the substantial progress of IUB's Engineering School in the fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, internet of things and data science.

ESTCDT Member A Quaiyum Khan (IE) stressed the need for an interdisciplinary approach in expanding data science offerings at the university. Former UIU VC Prof. Dr. M Rezwan Khan and IUB's EEE Head Prof. Khosru Salim also spoke on the occasion.