The IEEE Buenaventura Section Receives the 2019 Section Professional Development Award from the IEEE Educational Award Board

Thousand Oaks, CA, September 12, 2019 --(PR.com)-- In Ventura County, more than half of the 636 IEEE members have 30 years or more of experience in engineering with 26% being Life Members. This creates an engineering cohort nurturing their technical relevance with an eagerness, affinity, talent and time to be of value to the community.

Nathalie Gosset, who chaired the IEEE Buenaventura Section from 2015 to 2019 explains, "Aging-Graciously-with-Technology is a program that brings IEEE members and students under the same umbrella to think about solutions to simplify the life of their older parents or grandparents." Technology can diminish the isolation of the elderly, help adults with older parents care for them more efficiently, and lower the dependence on costly services provided to home-bound senior citizens.

The Engineer-To-Entrepreneur workshops have become a series of interactive hands-on meetings to learn and discuss the recipe around creating tech startups and leading them to commercial success. This is the vision of the Section’s Life Members Affinity Group’s Chair that has become a reality and is a channel for helping launch technologies in service of aging gracefully.

The IEEE Buenaventura Robotics Chapter congratulates the Section for results that have exceeded all expectations. In 2018, 556 people attended 25 presentations organized on technologies that can assist independent living, increase mobility, and improve social connectivity. Girls Make STEM with Heart and two youth events attracted 278 students from 12 middle schools and 4 high schools with the partnership of the Ventura County Office of Education and the involvement of several IEEE societies, the Life Member Affinity Group and the section society chapter officers. The Engineer-To-Entrepreneur workshops gathered in 2018 a total of 130 members over 7 workshops to discuss the techniques and recipes of entrepreneurship. These have been running for three years at Hub 101, a co-share space for entrepreneurs under the umbrella of the California Lutheran University and where the university's MBA classes are taught.

The Buenaventura Section wants to recognize the support from the IEEE Foundation that has been instrumental in helping develop the Aging Graciously with Technology program.

Appreciation is also extended to the IEEE Life Member Affinity Group for its funding to the Buenaventura Section LMAG activities to deploy its Engineer-To-Entrepreneur workshops.