Are you an undergraduate student and hesitating whether to to do postgraduate study or an industry job? Are you a postgraduate student and hesitating whether to have an academic career or industry career? The Student and Young Professionals Event may be for you!

The IEEE New Zealand Central Section Young Professionals and Student Branches (VUW, MU) will help you answer the above pivotal questions by organising an event, “Success After Graduation”. The event benefits a wide range of students, including undergraduate and postgraduate students. We invited four speakers who have extensive knowledge in both academic and industry environments to offer a broad view from both perspectives. We can also provide a Zoom link for people who cannot attend in person. Following the discussion, free pizza is provided for networking and any further discussions.

If you are interested in the event, please register by May 12, 2021.

Date: 5:00-7:00 pm, Thursday, May 13, 2021
Venue: AM106, Alan MacDiarmid Building, Victoria University of Wellington, Kelburn Campus
Title: Success After Graduation
Cost: Free
Registration: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/event/register/271432
Zoom link: https://vuw.zoom.us/j/8441867488

Speakers:
1. Dr Murray Milner: He is widely recognised within his profession for his leadership in ICT development in New Zealand, including being presented with the Chairman’s award by the Telecommunications User Association of NZ (TUANZ) 2005. He has been awarded Fellowships to work and study in both the UK and USA during his career. He is a Fellow of IPENZ, an active member of IET and IEEE and is on the editorial panel for the Telecommunications Journal of Australia. He is currently serving as Secretary and Immediate Past Chair of IEEE NZ Central Section.

2. Prof Bing Xue: Professor Xue received her PhD degree in 2014 at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She is currently a Professor in Computer Science at VUW and leading the Postgraduate Artificial Intelligence program at VUW. She is active in IEEE activities and is now leading the Women in Engineering group, IEEE NZ Central Section.

3. A/Prof Ramesh Rayudu: He is currently an Associate Professor with VUW. He has more than 15 years of industrial work experience both in India and New Zealand. He is also involved in consultation work for several international firms in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, India, and the USA. He is a very active IEEE member and is currently the Chair of the local PES Chapter.

4. Dr Yi Mei: He is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Engineering and Computer Science, Victoria University of Wellington (VUW), New Zealand. Before joining VUW, he worked as a Provost’s Research Associate (2010-2012, Financial Optimization) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and ARC Discovery Research Fellow (2012-2015, Large Scale Optimisation) RMIT University, Australia. He is an IEEE Senior Member and is currently serving as chair of the IEEE NZ Central Section.

Event report:

Description:
The event was organised for both Young Professionals and students from IEEE NZ Central Section. The students were mainly from Victoria University of Wellington and Massey University. For students, especially those graduating soon, knowing precisely what they want to do or having a good understanding of the types of jobs and careers available upon completing university study is essential for their professional lives. However, many students are not aware of which career paths (industry or academia) are available to them, which prevents them from preparing for their chosen paths during and after their studies. Thus, this event provided students with more knowledge about both academic and industry paths. We invited the four speakers, listed above, from both academia and industry to offer a broad view from both perspectives.

Organisers:

  • IEEE Young Professional Affinity Group, IEEE NZ Central Section
  • Student Branch, Victoria University of Wellington Student Branch, Massey University
  • Computational Intelligence Society (CIS) Central Section Chapter

Attendees:
There were 34 attendees including 30 people attending in-person and 4 people attending via Zoom. The attendees were from diverse levels of students including both undergraduate students (13 out of 34) and postgraduate students (21 out of 34).

Agenda:
The event went smoothly with the four talks given by our four speakers from both industry and academia sides. All the talks were very informative with much useful advice from the speakers for the students. After the four talks, there were many interesting questions from students, ranging from what they should prepare in their undergraduate studies, to what kinds of research topics to select for their postgraduate studies. The interaction between students and speakers was fascinating. Finally, everyone enjoyed the pizza party and networking. The whole event lasted for almost two hours.

+1
1
+1
0