The California State University, Dominguez Hills student branch chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society has been awarded the 2014 IEEE Region 6 Outstanding Small Student Branch Award. The award was presented at a ceremony in San Jose on Feb. 1.
“This is a great achievement for our students,” said Computer Science Department Chair Moshen Beheshti. “It shows how active our students have been. They’re really doing a great job.”
The IEEE is the world’s largest professional organization for the advancement of technology, and its Computer Society is the leading computing membership organization, with chapters and student branches all over the globe. Region 6 comprises the western United States, from California to Oregon, New Mexico to Hawaii.
The Outstanding Small Student Branch Award comes within a year of the CSU Dominguez Hills’ Computer Science Department establishing its student branch chapter, which is part of the Region 6 Coastal Los Angeles Section.
“The student members received the award for their dedication and extraordinary accomplishment associated with organizing student activities in a short period of time,” said Mehrdad Sharbaf, adjunct faculty member in the Department of Computer Science who was instrumental in initiating the chapter on campus. “It’s also recognition of efforts to foster effective interaction between the student branch and the local IEEE section, and in recognition of efforts to instill leadership qualities in student officers.”
The new chapter has nearly doubled in size—to approximately 50 students currently— since they were being considered for the small branch award category, which is given to branches with 25 or fewer students as of the end of the prior year.
Since late last spring, the students have actively volunteered as tutors to their fellow students in computer science, taught and conducted outreach to high school students, and organized guest speakers, workshops and demonstrations, such as the Security Tools and Ethical Hacking Demonstration they put on in August and Computer Science Education Week and the Hour of Code Campaign events on campus this past December.
For more information on the IEEE Computer Society student branch on campus, contact John Harwell, information security specialist within the Computer Science Department who oversees coordination of the IEEE student branch activities, at jharwell@csudh.edu.
Student Receives IEEE Richard E. Merwin Student Scholarship
In addition to the award to the CSUDH student branch chapter, the IEEE Computer Society bestowed its Richard E. Merwin Student Scholarship to computer technology major Robby Spengler. Named for past IEEE Computer Society president the scholarship is given to active leaders of student branches who show promise in the field. The cash award also comes with an appointment as an official IEEE Computer Science Student Ambassador.
