F2F | EdSoc - Face to Face Meeting

IEEE Education Society (EdSoc) Kerala Chapter organized a Face to Face (F2F) meeting of its execom members on Sunday, 24th April 2022 at the IEEE Kerala Section Office, Kochi Centre. The primary aim of this meeting was to provide an opportunity for the Student Leadership Team of 2022 to interact with the Student Leadership Team of 2021 and the Professional Execom of IEEE EdSoc Kerala Chapter. The meeting was presided over by professional exec members of IEEE EdSoc Kerala Chapter, namely Er. C M Varughese, Er. Jithin Krishnan, Prof. Maya Menon, and Dr. M V Rajesh. 

To commence the meeting, the Chairperson of IEEE EdSoc Kerala Chapter, Er. C M Varughese was invited for the inaugural talk. Er. Varughese began his note by giving a brief introduction to the objectives of IEEE EdSoc. Following that, he pointed out some ways for the IEEE EdSoc Kerala Chapter to achieve these objectives. Some of them were through introducing an industry culture and through bridging the gap between industry and academia. After that, he gave a glance into the achievements of the IEEE EdSoc Kerala Chapter in the previous year. The glories of the innovative initiatives like the Rural Student Technical Enhancement Program (R-STEP) and EdSoc – Kerala Integrated Training for Engineering Students (e-KITES) were part of this note. With that, Er. C M Varughese concluded his note and requested all the members to introduce themselves. 

In response to the request, the Professional Execom Members, the Student Leadership Team of 2021, and the Student Leadership Team of 2022 introduced themselves in the meeting. After the introduction, the meeting was opened for a discussion. In response to that, Dr. M V Rajesh came forward and provided some suggestions. In his note, Prof. Rajesh mentioned the need for an improvement in the educational system to cope with the needs of Industry 4.0. For this, he suggested an improvement in the teaching-learning process. Along with that, he also pointed out the need to shift education from a boss-centric system to a 360-degree registration system. He stated that only such a system can ensure maximum efficiency. In addition to this, he also pointed out the current trend of boomerang employment that is being adopted globally and also suggested some methods to use this trend for our benefit. With that Dr. Rajesh concluded his talk. 

Adding on to this, Prof. Maya Menon conveyed her solidarity with the opinion of Dr. Rajesh. She also pointed out the need to reform the education system of our society. Finally, with advice for the new Student Team to thrive forward, Prof. Maya concluded her note. Following that, Mr. Sajin S, Student Representative of the Student Leadership Team of 2021 came forward and shared his views on the matter. Mr. Sajin also pointed out several faults in our education system and suggested some solutions to address these. Following that, he gave a note on his previous experience in the Chapter. In this note, he also mentioned some of the great initiatives that the Chapter has put forth, namely R-STEP and e-KITES. Following that, the other members of the Student Leadership Team of 2021 and 2022 came forward and put forth several suggestions to achieve the objectives of IEEE EdSoc. Some of the suggestions were to focus on events oriented specifically for school students, introduce training programs for teachers, and bring up peer-peer learning initiatives. In response to this, Er. Varughese also suggested a few initiatives that can be implemented. They included programs to address the needs of students from non-recognized institutions and industry-oriented training programs. With all these suggestions and feedback noted, the open discussion was concluded. 

After the discussion, an award ceremony was conducted to honor the Student Leadership Team of 2021. During this ceremony, mementos and certificates of appreciation were presented to each member of the Student Leadership Team of 2021 for their dedicated contributions to the Chapter.

 Following that, the Student Activities Chair of IEEE EdSoc Kerala Chapter, Mr. Sarath S, and the Student Representative of the Student Leadership Team of 2022, Ms. Ayisha E A came forward to provide an update on the activities of the Student Team.Updates regarding the event activities, newsletter, website, and MD slides were provided there. The updates were timely monitored through a Google Sheet and the Sheet was presented in front of the Professional Execom for further clarification on the matter. Along with that, Mr. Sarath brought the attention of the Professional Execom to the pending works. They were newsletter for the years 2021 and 2022, website updates, and pending SBC formations. He asked the Student Team to look after the pending works. 

After that, a couple of suggestions were put forward by the Student Leadership Team for the Professional Execom. The suggestions included more cooperation from the Professional Execom, reduction in work during exam time, minimizing the number of webinars, support for coordinating events from the Professional Team and addressing the delay in e-Notice delivery. After that, on behalf of the new team, Ms. Ayisha expressed her gratitude to Mr. Sarath S for supporting all the initiatives of the Student Team, Prof. Gayathri M, and Er. N P Subheesh for guiding the research activities and the YP team for guiding the awards and proposal petitions. Following this, a training session was organized by Er. Jithin Krishnan, Secretary of IEEE EdSoc Kerala Chapter on VTools. Along with the VTools training session, an Execom training session was arranged for the Student Leadership Team of 2022. During this training session, orientation was provided to the new team on the responsibilities of each role. After the session, the meeting was dispersed and the members were provided with lunch. With that, the F2F meeting of the IEEE EdSoc Kerala Chapter was concluded.