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by Nick Massetti, NTC Chapters Chair
The San Francisco Bay Area Nanotechnology Council Chapter was awarded the 2019 Outstanding Chapter Award for the third time since 2014. The chapter was formed in 2005 as the inaugural chapter of an IEEE Council rather than an IEEE Society. Since then, the chapter has hosted a continuing string of monthly events comprising single speaker lunch time talks, an annual full day symposium of talks in the Spring and an annual half-day symposium in the Fall. Located in a unique global technology center its mission has been mission is to enable nanotechnology engineering by building bridges between industry, academia, and government, through the facilitation of education, networking, & entrepreneurship. It provides valuable education, networking opportunities, and services through these events helping attendees develop and nurture professional relationships among peer working engineers, scientists, technologists, academics, and entrepreneurs. Most event speakers are recruited from local universities and companies as well as the occasional IEEE Distinguished Lecturer. Event attendance typically includes more non-IEEE members than members representing a broad audience and demographic which strives to fulfill the goal of advancing technology for humanity. The chapter also holds joint activities with other member societies, engages with students and provides a forum for job seekers.
The quality and longevity of the chapter is directly related to a large and active Executive Steering Committee, many of whom were among those chartering the chapter in 2005, by dividing responsibilities among their members to address event logistics, event promotion, speaker acquisition and venue management as examples. New volunteers are continuously added and they assume roles with increasing responsibility and further develop their professional networks.
In keeping with the times events are promoted on its own IEEE Listserv and on social media such as:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2631226
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/Nanotechnology-Council-San-Francisco-Bay-Area/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bayareanano/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NanoSFBA
For full list of current chapters and contacts, click here.
How to start your own Chapter
Since this first chapter was formed, NTC has grown to include 29 Chapters worldwide and another 14 Student Chapters. Any member of the IEEE NTC can file a petition to form a chapter online at https://www.ieee.org/communities/forms_petitions.html. The IEEE Petition Team takes care of acquiring supporting signatures from neighboring members of NTC Society Members. The Outstanding Chapter Award winner might provide a useful model. For more information or inquiries of general chapter interest contact Nick Massetti, NTC Chapters Committee Chair, at nickmassetti@ieee.org.