IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, today announced that Dr. Howard E. Michel, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UMass-Dartmouth and engineering consultant, has been elected 2014 IEEE President-elect. Nominated by the IEEE Board of Directors, Michel will begin serving his one-year term on January 1, 2015, and will succeed 2014 IEEE President J. Roberto B. de Marca of Pontifical Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Michel plans to focus on four key initiatives, which include providing tools and educational resources that will facilitate career security for all IEEE members worldwide, boosting local and global membership, delivering a high-quality user experience for IEEE publishing and conference businesses, and increasing prestige, recruitment and employer support for IEEE across the globe.
“My mission as president is to ultimately enhance the engineering community worldwide through first-rate offerings that help advance our members’ careers and encourage them to share their world-leading technical expertise,” said Michel. “To be successful, it will require the collaborative dedication of IEEE’s staff, its volunteers and its more than 420,000 members, who are respected experts in numerous technical areas, including consumer electronics to sustainability to driverless vehicles and beyond. I am confident that we can spark progress not only within the organization, but will also continue to benefit humanity as IEEE has done for more than 125 years.”
Michel has been an active IEEE member for more than 35 years and has held a series of leadership positions within the organization. Previously IEEE Vice-President, Member and Geographic Activities, Michel also served on the IEEE Board of Directors for four years, held the position of IEEE Region 1 director (Northeastern U.S.), and was a past chair of IEEE Public Visibility Committee. On the local level, he previously served the organization in several capacities, including Providence Section ExCom member, Central New England Council Vice-Chair and Providence Section Program Activities.
In his professional career, Michel retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1994, having served as a pilot, satellite launch director, engineer and engineering manager. Michel also successfully launched seven U.S. satellites by directing launch-base test and integration involving booster, satellite, and range hardware; and developed Department of Defense engineering processes for mission-critical computer systems. He also holds two patents and has published a textbook, 15 refereed journal papers and 70 conference papers, posters or abstracts. Currently, Michel is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UMass-Dartmouth, and has secured research funding from U.S. National Science Foundation and U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In addition, he is an embedded systems, avionics, instrumentation and systems engineering consultant for the Department of Defense and private industry.
