IEEE CS BRACU SBC organized a significant webinar regarding the IEEE Computer Society Richard E. Merwin Student Scholarship in order to pave the way for students to acknowledge the opportunity of one of the most prestigious recognitions available. This webinar allowed many students to explore the sense of serving as a regional student ambassador of the IEEE Computer Society, as well as of recognizing the recipients of the scholarship with a cash prize of US $1,000.
Jawaril Munshad Abedin, REM Scholar (Fall 2020), former Vice Chair of IEEE CS BRACU SBC 2020; Kazi Sajeed Mehrab, REM Scholar, of Fall 2020, former Program Coordinator of IEEE BUET SB, former Chair of IEEE CS BUET SBC and Ahmad Azuad Yaseer, REM Scholar, of Spring 2019, former Chair of IEEE IUT SB, former Chair of IEEE CS BDC Team SPARK were the speakers of the webinar.
The webinar was conducted on 23rd April, 2021 and students from different institutional backgrounds could attend the webinar with no registration fee. More than 150 students from different universities participated in the event and got valuable insights from the scholarship recipients on the requirements, application periods, evaluation criteria and benefits of attaining the scholarship.
The speakers enlightened the participants with the eligibility criteria to procure the award that included: being a volunteer of an IEEE SB or an IEEE CS SBC as an active IEEE CS student member having minimum CGPA of 2.5/4 or exam marks of at least 60% for undergraduate students who are in 3rd/4th year studying Electrical or Computer Engineering, Computer Science or a Computer Engineering related field. Members must have at least 3 months of membership prior to submission of application and have a minimum of one year studies left. It was also mentioned that REM winners of previous years cannot apply and a member can apply only once in a year either in the application period of April (Spring session) or in September (Fall session). In particular, official academic transcripts of all terms and letter of recommendations from SBC Advisor or SB Counselor are a must to apply. Moreover, evaluation criteria for the scholarship was highlighted as follows: IEEE Activities – 30%, Academic Achievements – 30%, Non-IEEE Extracurricular Activities – 10%, Letter of Recommendation – 20%, Vision Statement – 10%.
All of these criteria were long-windedlydiscussed by the speakers. Our honorable REM winner Jawaril Munshad Abedin from BRAC University shared her comprehension of receiving this scholarship by emphasizing on the IEEE activities, especially on the leadership roles in IEEE such as contribution as a volunteer, initiatives taken as an executive in the SB, participation in the activities of different SBs. Scholar Jawaril shared about the leadership roles during her IEEE journey as an EB including her contributions of organizing some noteworthy events. She mentioned one of the remarkable events that she contributed to organize, which was a project-showcasing contest named “COVID-19 Combatants Unification Competition – CCUC” in which more than 72 students throughout Bangladesh participated. Also, she highlighted the importance of non-IEEE extracurricular activities. In addition, she illustrated, a very crucial part for receiving the award, her unique vision statement that she would like to take initiatives to encourage more female students to participate in the field of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) who face the lack of motivation in the field of engineering in our country although profession has no gender. Finally, further to-dos and submission details were discussed along with the benefits of this scholarship comprising Regional Ambassadorship of IEEE CS, membership of IEEE and IEEE CS for 2 years and receiving up to 1000 USD.
The webinar happened to be one of the most important and informative events for students and we hope it facilitated the learning ground for the participants to achieve the most out of their career paths through ambassadorship.