IEEE Robotics & Automation MagazineJUNE 2010 99

S T U D E N T ’ S C O R N E R

If You Are Not Afraid . . .

Tamas Haidegger

As I picture it, the world seemed to be a lot bigger, cul-tures and continents farther apart, space more untouch-

able, and careers more straightforward 200 years ago.An engineering job you had dreamt about as a kid still existedby the time you acquired your degree or finished your appren-ticeship and started your professional advancement.

Nowadays, it may be that the world is just changing toofast, fueled by technological innovation. Engineering hasbrought amazing new things to our lives, but it also makes usto face great challenges. New fields of sciences and industrialsectors emerge and old ones disappear year after year, whilejobs and research opportunities might hop a continent in theblink of an eye. Suddenly, you become just one cell of thecrowd of engineers on the planet; you are measured againstthe best worldwide; and you need to be better, smarter, andstronger. We need to face these challenges and turn them intoopportunities by focusing and adapting. We need to acquirenew skills apart from our narrow field of expertise, which is atough job. Engineers are expected to be managers, IP experts,pedagogues, professional fund raisers, and even more. Shouldwe be dispirited or intimidated? Not at all!

As my former professor said: “The source of happiness foran engineer is acquiring new knowledge.” Learning, self-training, and personal development are the key to becominga successful engineer these days, and the IEEE is there toproviding a solid and inspiring frame to do that. You areinvited to stand up on the shoulders of giants, look around,and see the perspective. We all need to grab the chance andstart forging opportunities for the future. If you are notafraid of challenges . . .

My name is Tamas Haidegger, a senior graduate student atthe Budapest University of Technology and Economics inHungary, with an electrical and biomedical background. Ihave been an enthusiastic member of the IEEE and other pro-fessional associations for many years. Beginning in January2010, I am serving the IEEE Robotics and Automation Soci-ety (RAS) community as the Student Activities Committee(SAC) chair. In the next two years, the two SAC cochairs,Michel Franken and Alejandro Perez, and I will do our best tocontinue the great initiatives of former chairs, Carol Reileyand Surya Singh, to launch new, exciting programs. I have aclear vision to make the IEEE RAS stronger, more active, andmore practical. When I applied for the position, I describedthree major focus points I want to work toward:

1) recruiting more students2) keeping Student Members active

3) providing values and training that last through their earlycareer.

We have many ideas and expectations on how to achievethese goals; however, we need everyone to join to make a signif-icant improvement. The great thing about professional organiza-tions is that the more you invest, the higher the return is.

Earlier this year, we started to organize project teams torealize our plans. Some volunteered already to invest more torun these programs, but we still need a lot of arms and brainsto build a bigger, better student community, thriving in anorganic harmony with current RAS initiatives and activities.Below, you will find a short description of the most importantareas identified so far:

u Recruiting: This is the priority for the whole term. Weneed swarms of talented students to make a change. Weare planning to organize electronic-based membershipawareness campaigns both for the general IEEE Mem-bers and outsider students. In addition, we are ready toprepare and use a RAS SAC logo, flyer, and tags andenhance the group Web site with great pictures andvideo clips from past events. Shashank Gaur alreadyvolunteered to lead these efforts.

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Have you ever spent days figuring out just one smallpiece of tricky code? Do you have a favorite implementationpolished over many years? Have you ever seen a code run-ning with so many glitches and twist that you would havebet it is impossible? Share it! Send in the best/worst/mostamazing/exciting piece of code you have to codehead@ieee.org. If yours is the best of the term, you will get acool RAS T-shirt. Look for the Code Head section in thenext issue.

Code should be created by the submitter, or they shouldbear the rights for publishing. Codes in any programminglanguages are welcome, preferably not exceeding 30 lines.Enough comments should be provided to readers to beable to understand the magnificence/crux of the code.

u Local Chapter Activities and Initiatives: All support should begiven to active and newly forming student Chapters. Wewant to boost the numbers and the level of general activ-ity. We are looking for a talented student to be the contactperson for RAS student Chapters, to make it easy to con-nect individuals with local groups or national Chapterswith each other. He or she should be willing to create aknowledge base for general ideas how to create a Chapter,how to find members, get funding, and manage resources.

u Professional Events: The primary goal here is to makeRAS a knowledge hub for information-thirsty students.We plan to organize tutorials and lectures (teamed up

with current efforts), arrange a well-categorized databaseon all robotics topics, include external links, wiki pages,and course materials. Project leader Angelos Wafik willalso find ways to motivate members to create their ownmaterials. Students will be encouraged to join a RASTechnical Committee (http://tab.ieee-ras.org/) rele-vant to their field of interest to get actively involved inprofessional activities. The successful Fostering Interac-tion Between Robotists and Students (FIBRS)—Student/Chair Mentorship Program continues this yearagain (see “Find Your Mentor!” for details).

u Publications: We are willing to create a monthly newslet-ter, including RAS news, conference deadlines andreports, call for grants and scholarships, exciting roboticsnews, and articles interesting even for the widercommunity. Marcelo Moreyra will coordinate activities.The “Student’s Corner” column in IEEE Robotics andAutomation Magazine will provide exciting interviews,tutorials, and prospective writings. A new initiative—

Code Head—was launched to feed you curiosity forextremities in coding.

u Online Presence: The SAC made a great effort in recentyears to extend its online presence through the RASWeb site, RAS wiki, Facebook, and LinkedIn. We arelooking for a suitable person to manage our online ava-tars, to help make our site a virtual robotics oracle, togenerate useful pages, and to accumulate know-how.

u Industrial Relations: Last but not least, we hope to have apowerful leader to be in charge of the industrial relationsof the SAC. We believe in the potential interest of com-panies toward a crowd of smart students who are tech-nologically educated, socially sensitive, and IEEEenthusiastic. We wish to find sponsors for RAS studentactivities, to team up with corporations willing to investin the next generation of engineers.

Beyond these projects, we are working on a handful ofother issues, and, still, we believe we will always be open fornew ideas. Volunteers for any particular task are welcomed, orjust share your thoughts with us directly or via any onlineforums. There will be a special student get-together eventorganized at the next IEEE International Conference onRobotics and Automation in May, where we are both doingsome team building and also putting our heads together tobecome something more than a pack of smart individuals: aliving community.

The essence of the IEEE is the people involved. Either as afanatic servo tuner or a control theory guru, you will findmembers you can share your enthusiasm with, to exchangeideas, and learn about cool stuff. Use this potential! Open youreyes and begin profiting from the community!

Start it today: get involved, get active, get connected! Feelfree to contact me any time.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Find Your Mentor!The successful FIBRS—Student/Chair Mentorship Programcontinues.

SummaryAt this year’s IROS, students can get involved in a fun wayagain. Get the behind-the-scenes exclusive of a confer-ence. Students will get to directly see how sessions aresynthesized, organized, and structured. This program willalso give you a chance to interact with key researchers inyour field.

Shadowing a Session ChairStudents will be paired with a session chair, where you willlearn how to run a session. After arriving early to the ses-sion you have signed up for and introducing yourself to thesession chair, you will have the opportunity to observe howthe chair is coordinating the session up close. Afterwards,depending on the session chair’s schedule, you shouldhave the opportunity to ask questions relating to the ses-sion such as questions brought up in the session setup.

Students who are interested should first find out whothey would like to work with by reading the session guideand selecting a chair that they would like to be their men-tor. Please e-mail the name of the session, the date, andyour relevant contact information to fibrs@ieee.org. Keepin mind that people are occasionally very busy, so you mayalso wish to provide an alternative mentor name.

The great thing about professional organizations thatthe more you invest, the higher the return is.

Engineers are expected to be managers, IP experts,pedagogues, professional fund raisers, and even more.

Learning, self-training, and personaldevelopment are the key to becominga successful engineer these days.

IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine100 JUNE 2010