Message from the Chair

The very first full-member IEEE Women-in-Engineering (WIE) Affinity Group in Australia and New Zealand was formed in Victoria on the 22 July 2005.

The WIE Affinity Group aims to focus on important issues for women engineers, ones that are particularly related to self-development and career management, and to serve as a driving force that establishes engineering as a highly desirable career aspiration for young women. We have formally constituted a committee and have started organising events and innovative programs in support of our goals. Events will include: networking meetings with exceptionally successful women invited to share their professional experience, provide ideas for our own career development, and answer questions we may have; technical talks; and outreach efforts to encourage girls to pursue a science or technology career. We're also planning on adding even more events, working with other non-IEEE WIE organisations to collaborate on more programs, and promoting our Affinity Group to everyone in Victoria with a view of substantially growing our membership.

We hope other women in Victorian Section will support WIE and will contribute their ideas and thoughts towards the activities that the WIE group could run and the directions which it can take. If you would like to be put on the mailing list or if you have colleagues who would like to become friends of WIE please contact wie.victorian@ieee.org.

I hope you will come along to WIE meetings, contribute to the debate and make the WIE website an exciting place for sharing news, ideas and learnings, and creating friendships! As well, we recognize women's roles and achievements, and promote women's leadership in engineering and science.

I look forward to your suggestions.

Dr Irena Atov
Chair, IEEE Victorian Section Women-in-Engineering
wie.victorian@ieee.org