Welcome to the homepage of the IEEE New Zealand North Section.

As a paying member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, otherwise known as the IEEE, have you ever wondered about where you and your yearly dues fit into the organisation?

The IEEE is a world-wide organisation facilitating activities aimed at keeping electrical and electronics engineers technically and professionally updated on current trends and technology in the industry. The yearly dues each member pays helps to fund such programmes as:

• IEEE Standards
• Magazines (Spectrum, The Institute, etc.)
• Conferences
• Employment Opportunities
• Technical and Professional Forums
• Expert Technical Assistance
• Distinguished Lecturers

With over 400,000 members world-wide, the organisational structure which is required to supports its members and its various activities is quite extensive.

Unless one is actively involved in the management of the IEEE, its structure can forever remain a mystery. With the exception of a few key staff to handle Customer Services, the IEEE is a non-profit, volunteer organisation responsible to providing the above mentioned services to paying members. In order to facilitate this enormous task, the IEEE has divided the world into 10 separate geographical areas called Regions. Every two years each Region elects a volunteer, Regional Director, who reports to the volunteer IEEE President, who is also limited to a two-year term.

The 10 Regions are then broken down into more manageable sizes called Sections. New Zealand is grouped into Region 10 Asia Pacific and has three sections — the New Zealand North, Central and South Sections. Each of these Sections are coordinated by the New Zealand Council to form a cohesive committee reporting to the Region 10 Director.

The Sections are the active body responsible for developing and offering the following areas of interest to members of the Section:

• Technical Programmes
• Technical Papers
• Engineering Conferences
• Workshops
• Colloquium
• Student Activities
• Professional Programmes

In order to facilitate the technical organising of the above programmes, the New Zealand North Section has an alliance with the Electro-Technology Group (ETG) of IPENZ. This alliance gives IEEE New Zealand members notice of speakers, papers, site visits and conferences organised by the ETG. In addition, the Section itself hosts conferences, distinguished lecturers, workshops and technical papers.

Sections allow for all disciplines of the engineering fields to be represented. In order to address specific disciplines, Chapters have been developed to focus on these areas of interest. The role of these chapters is to facilitate the specialized interest in their various fields of expertise. Details can be found under the ‘Groups’ top menu item.

There are active student branches that provide a forum for student networking and exchange of ideas. Details can be found under the ‘Student Branches’ top menu item.

Also, there is a ‘Women in Engineering’ Affinity Group, whose details can be found under the ‘Groups’ top menu item.

The IEEE structure exists for members to have access to information on technology in the electrical and electronic engineering fields in their particular geographical locations throughout the world. The New Zealand North Section Committee has addressed this objective with our New Zealand North Section web site. This site outlines upcoming events, workshops and conferences. In addition, it provides a forum for information on various aspects of interest to the electrical and electronic engineering fields.