Building Humanitarian Activities Through Technology

The IEEE Humanitarian Activities Committee (HAC) is working to build a comprehensive picture of current, planned and completed sustainable development and humanitarian technology-related projects or activities as well as to identify volunteers and staff already involved in such activities or who would like to get involved in such activities.  This will help the IEE HAC better understand the support (e.g. educational, training, mentoring, partnership, financial and non-financial aid) that volunteers and staff require to maximize impact.

If you are involved in humanitarian technology-related projects, please contact Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb, the UFFC Society President, to share your experience and perspective. Please also contact her if you are interested in getting further involved with humanitarian activities through IEEE.

If you are looking for inspiration in this direction, you may want to familiarize yourself with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Development of many of these goals could benefit from technology advances in UFFC. For example, the goal for widespread vaccination could benefit from research on transdermal drug delivery with ultrasound. Efforts for water purification with ultrasonics could contribute to cleaning up water supplies.  Low-cost medical ultrasound devices could be of immense help in developing countries. Ultrasonic non-destructive testing (NDT) is a key technology in traditional means of energy generation. Power Ultrasonics can be used as part of materials recycling processes. Ultrasonic NDT is widely used in train infrastructure for public transport, thus contributing indirectly to sustainable cities. Underwater SONAR is used to monitor the health of the oceans.

IEEE’s motto is advancing technology for humanity. Bringing your unique expertise and motivation to respond to humanitarian causes is a great way to contribute to making the world a better place for all!