42 Fall / Automne 2017 BEING RELATIVELY NEW to IEEE, Sections Congress was an amazing opportunity for me to learn and be inspired. The presentations, booths, learning hubs and other sessions covered a large pool of services provided to sections and members. There were longer sessions that began from the afternoon of the first day discussing various topics from increasing interaction with members to case studies and project funding. There were several breakout sessions on the second day of the congress that caught a lot of attention. One particular topic that interested me was the talk on how to make IEEE relevant to entrepreneurs. The IEEE Entrepreneurship initiative helps local engineering entre- preneurs find the information they need and helps them get in touch with more established entrepreneurs in their field. There were also helpful sessions I CONSIDER MYSELF FOR- TUNATE as this was not the first Sections Congress I have had the privilege to attend, and the depth and breadth of IEEE services and diversity of the IEEE volunteer base worldwide never ceases to amaze me. It’s interesting to meet other vol- unteers from other parts of the world that have the same chal- lenges I see locally. It was in- spiring to exchange ideas, best practices, and lessons learned with them.  Sections Congress is a special event where Sections from around the world have the op- portunity to bring recommen- dations on how to improve the IEEE. Over the event primary delegates from each Section vote on the recommendations which are most important to them and their Section. The IEEE staff and volunteers then prioritize and work on those recommen- dations in the years ahead. The top recommendation this year is one close to my heart, creat- ing a corporate IEEE member- ship, which I believe will better engage industry where I work and a topic I have had many companies ask me about. The recommendation process is an important part of Sections Con- gress and it gives a powerful voice to all IEEE Sections. on IEEE Day and the IEEE Xtreme programming competi- tion. I also learned about a var- iety of projects that improved communities around the world with the support of IEEE. In addition to the information I gained, Section Congress 2017 was a great opportunity for me to network with delegates from around the world. As part of the organizing team for IEEE Day this fall at the University of New Brunswick, I could speak first- hand about IEEE’s global impact, and how much opportunity there is for those who get involved. Chien Dat Nguyen Dinh M.Sc. in Engineering student at U. of New Brunswick IEEE UNB Student Branch I have been an active IEEE vol- unteer for close to 20 years and had the honour of Chairing the MGA Center for Leader- ship Excellence (CLE) commit- tee when it was first rolled out to the membership at Sections Congress in San Francisco giv- ing me a significant amount of experience with IEEE, its servi- ces, and its tools. I was pleased to discover that Sections Con- gress is still a wonderful learning opportunity even with all my experience. I was able to learn about new tools like IEEE Col- laboratecTM  and how to take advantage of it. I also learned lots about planning conferences and their associated challenges, which is an area in which I have less experience. Most important- ly I learned about resources like MCE and POCO that can assist in conference planning. Outside of volunteer tools and services I learned about newer technical issues facing our society that IEEE volunteers are starting to tackle, such as issues of who is responsible for decisions made by artificial intelligence or self- driving cars. It became clear to me that IEEE has an important role to play in addressing these types of technical/societal  issues, and I look forward to seeing the solutions IEEE members discover while I hope to see IEEE as an organization play an important role influencing related policies as they are created around the world.  Dan Coode SED Systems West Area Chair, IEEE Canada A student’s take BY CHIEN DAT NGUYEN DINH A veteran’s take BY DAN COODE IEEE Interregional Collaboration and Networking, What is involved in advancing technology for humanity? Allan Tear of RevUp describes how entre- preneurs can connnect to industry experts