The Student Branch of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) in Greece founded in 1979, but officially started in 1999. In addition, the Student Branch consists of more than 110 undergraduate and postgraduate students, most of whom study in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, part of the Faculty of Engineering at AUTh. Currently, it is the largest Student Branch in the whole country, while its mission is to motivate students to join IEEE and help them to take part in innovation and technological development. The Student Branch is responsible for the organization of technical, technological and scientific lectures, seminars and workshops, as well as entertainment events and both national and international educational trips, with the aim to impart knowledge within the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department.

Recently, the IEEE AUTh Student Branch in collaboration with Professor Alkiviadis (Alkis) Hatzopoulos organized with great success an international educational trip to Belgium and the Netherlands during the period April 19, 2018 through April 26, 2018. It is the first time the Student Branch organizes an educational trip of such a scale, i.e. into two different countries and four different cities. However, in the past it has organized successful international educational trips as well, to individual cities or pair of them, such as Geneva, Lausanne, Manchester, Leuven and Eindhoven. Concerning this year’s eight-day trip, the main purpose, as well as the motivation to organize it, was to bring students of the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department into contact with the educational systems of these countries and to interact with the corresponding schools, universities, institutes, organizations and companies. As to do so, the participants, as well as the Professor, went on a visit to the Interuniversity MicroElectronics Center (IMEC) and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), both in Leuven (Belgium), to the European Space Agency – European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESA – ESTEC), in Leiden (Netherlands), to the Technische Universiteit Delft (TU Delft), in Delft (Netherlands), and finally to the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e) and to NXP Semiconductors, both in Eindhoven (Netherlands). It is worth it to mention that during these visits the participants and the Professor had the chance to visit, among other places, various laboratories and two clean-rooms, one in IMEC and the other in TU Delft.

The educational trip this year was organized by Periklis Karavangelis, chief of the organizing committee, the rest of it being Nikolaos Anastasiou and Christos Skapetis, and leader of the participants’ group during the educational trip.

Regarding the participants in this year’s in the educational trip, the majority of them were undergraduate students, except for one postgraduate student, a total of nineteen men and women plus the Professor. It is worthwhile to mention that they appreciated a lot, during their stay in Leuven, the opportunity they and the Professor had to feel the most friendly and generous hospitality of the equivalent IEEE Student Branch of the KU Leuven.

The following link presents some photos of the educational trip : https://photos.app.goo.gl/G3PBCOtmiHJCIxkU2
Finally, it is of great importance to mention that the aforementioned educational trip was partially financially supported by the IEEE Greece CASS/SSCS joint Chapter annual funds.

IEEE AUTh Student Branch

Stathis Dimitriadis

Studying Computer Engineering at ECE, AUTH. Technical Activities Coordinator at IEEE AUTH SB, ex-Web Developer at TEDxUniversityofMacedonia.

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