IEEE Kerala Section History

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IEEE Kerala Section History
Established date 1983-11-18
IEEE Region 10
IEEE Council India
Geographic region Kerala
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IEEE Kerala Section – The Genesis

Background

Until early 1973 there were less than 10 IEEE members in the state of Kerala. However in 1973 many IEEE members came to Trivandrum to work with the newly established KELTRON (Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation). An effort was made to form a subsection as a part of the then India Section. However for various reasons including unrenewed membership of some of the signatories (minimum 15 required) of the application, led to a delay. Another effort was made with many extra signatures of members. By that time Bombay Section was formed and Kerala Subsection came into existence in early 1974. Mr M R Sitharaman then with KELTRON was the main person behind this.

Kerala Subsection

Mr KPP Nambiar was elected the Chairman, with DS Rane as Vice Chairman, RM Vasagam as Secretary and SP Rao as Treasuree. The Subsection became very active and had regular technical meets, some of them jointly with the Institution of Engineers. The activities increased manifold. In its first year itself the Kerala Subsection had the honour of hosting Dr Harold Chestnut (then immediate Past President of IEEE). He was accompanied by Mr FC Kohli. With the formation of India Council, Kerala Subsection was made a part of the Bangalore Section, The Kerala Subsection also hosted the ACE 1980 ( Annual Convention and Exhibition) of the India Section. The event was a grand success. IEEE President for 1980, De. Leo Young graced the occasion. The activities of the subsection increased further and a need was felt for conversion to a Section.

Kerala Section

The first petition for conversion to a Section was made in 1981, but for some reason or the other it did not progress. 2 more efforts were made. Finally, in 1983 Dr IG Sarma, then Chairman of Bangalore Section forwarded the application with the Section’s consent, and IEEE Kerala Section was approved. The office bearers were: KPP Nambiar- Chairman, DS Rane- Vice Chairman, NT Nair- Secretary, AA Suhair- Treasurer.

The section formation gave a big boost to the activities. The first IEEE student chapter was formed at the Engineering College Trivandrum with Dr Gomathy as the advisor.

IEEE Kerala – A special Note

IEEE movement in Kerala may be considered to have run parallel to the establishment of KELTRON, India’s premier electronics development corporation in govt. sector. The top management of KELTRON who had already understood the role of professional societies especially, IEEE in R&D, Management etc, encouraged more young engineers to get associated with it and enjoy the benefits of technology inputs flowing through IEEE. Other major organizations like VSSC, KSEB, Engineering colleges at Trivandrum (CET), Quilon (TKM), Calicut(REC) etc. also joined this movement and enriched the activities.

Weekly Technical Talks

Another unique feature of IEEE Kerala initiative was the joint working with other sister professional societies like the Institution of Engineers (India), Computer Society of India, and IETE, in organizing technical talks, seminars, workshops etc. This has been going on unbroken for the past 30 years and are open to public and held at a central location. In fact this model was later adopted in other parts of India.

Section Officers

Kerala Section Officers
Year Chair Vice chair Secretary Treasurer
2000 K G Kumar Ramanathan Narayanan U Keloth
2001 K G Kumar Ramanathan Narayanan U Keloth Sasi Meethal
2002 Ramanathan Narayanan Edward Rajakumar Madhu Mangal Sasi Meethal
2003 Ramanathan Narayanan Edward Rajakumar Sasi Meethal Meera Sidhardhan
2004 Edward Rajakumar Philip John Sasi Meethal Meera Sidhardhan
2005 Edward Rajakumar U Keloth Ajuthomas Kollarayam Unni Sankar
2006 U Keloth Amarnath Raja Ajuthomas Kollarayam Unni Sankar
2007 Amarnath Raja Sasi Meethal Subodh P S Shahid Iqubal
2008 Amarnath Raja Sasi Meethal Subodh P S Hemachandran Sreedharan
2009 Sasi Meethal Satish Babu Unni Sankar Senthilkumar K B
2010 Sasi Meethal Satish Babu Unni Sankar Senthilkumar K B
2011 Satish Babu Srinivasan Ravindran Senthilkumar K B Sarada Jayakrishnan
2012 Satish Babu Srinivasan Ravindran Senthilkumar K B Sarada Jayakrishnan
2013 Srinivasan Ravindran Unni Sankar Sabarinath Pillai Sameer S M
2014 Srinivasan Ravindran Unni Sankar Sabarinath Pillai Sameer S M
2015 Unni Sankar Sameer S M Sarada Jayakrishnan Jithin Krishnan
2016 K R Suresh Nair Sameer S M Sarada Jayakrishnan Jithin Krishnan
2017 K R Suresh Nair Sameer S M Bijuna Kunju K Jyothi Ramaswamy
2018 Sameer S M Sarada Jayakrishnan Shahim Baker Jyothi Ramaswamy
2019 Sameer S M Sarada Jayakrishnan Shahim Baker Sunitha Beevi. K
2020 Sarada Jayakrishnan Sabarinath Pillai Gilesh M P Sunitha Beevi. K
2021 Sarada Jayakrishnan Muhammed Kasim S Gilesh M P Biju K

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