2022 SIGHT Volunteer of the Year – Dr. Jawad Siddiqui
Dr. Jawad Y. Siddiqui was selected to receive this award due to his outstanding contributions to IEEE SIGHT, his leadership in furthering the collaboration between IEEE HAC, SIGHT, and the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) to provide new humanitarian technology opportunities for IEEE members, and his dedication to serving his local community. Dr. Siddiqui was the founding Chair of a SIGHT Group in the IEEE Kolkata Section in 2016 and now serves as the Chair of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) SIGHT Committee.
Dr. Siddiqui has been involved with IEEE SIGHT activities since his early years as an IEEE volunteer. He successfully piloted the first AP-S SIGHT project on remote diagnosis of cardiac patients in rural India, for which he has won accolades. The project motivated other SIGHT volunteers in the region and later across continents to take up similar activities addressing local humanitarian issues through the application of technology. Since then, he has consistently worked in India, Canada, and around the world to motivate IEEE members to form SIGHT Groups and join SIGHT-related activities.
In 2021 and 2022, Dr. Siddiqui partnered with IEEE HAC and SIGHT leadership to strengthen the relationship with IEEE Societies, especially IEEE AP-S. He served as a member of the IEEE HAC Society Partnerships and Industry Engagement Committee, where he led the initiative to create a collaborative call for proposals to support IEEE members applying AP-S-relevant technology to address local community challenges. This unique and new funding avenue resulted in ten funded projects currently being carried out by AP-S chapters in five different countries.
Dr. Siddiqui has also represented IEEE SIGHT in a number of motivational lectures given at IEEE events. Some examples include the International Leadership Summit organized by the Kerala Section Women in Engineering affinity group, IEEE SIGHT Day, and the IEEE HAC Global Summit. He also conducted a poster competition among STEM students addressing challenging humanitarian issues aligned with UN sustainable goals.
A colleague states, “From my close observation of his professional activities and interaction with his colleagues and students, I realized that he is a great motivator and extremely passionate about humanitarian activities. He is currently the AP-S SIGHT Chair and has been diligently working towards his humanitarian goals and motivating volunteers around the globe.” Another fellow IEEE member describes him as someone who “has motivated young minds to take up humanitarian challenges.”
2022 SIGHT Volunteer of the Year – Honorable Mention
Dr. Darwin Jose Raju, India
Dr. Darwin Jose Raju has been selected as an honorable mention of the 2022 SIGHT Volunteer of the Year Award for his meaningful contributions in the last several years to IEEE SIGHT, and his dedication to furthering the humanitarian technology activities at IEEE as well as the SIGHT mission.