Volunteer Of The Year Award

The IEEE SIGHT Volunteer of the Year Award was established in 2019 to recognize a professional or student member of IEEE who has made an outstanding contribution to IEEE SIGHT and a local community through the development or deployment of technology. The individual consistently, actively strives to further the SIGHT mission in some, or all, of the following ways:

• Strengthening the SIGHT network through building relationships with local community entities;
• Acting as a leader within their SIGHT Group;
• Participating in sustainable (economic, environmental, social) activities in close partnership and coordination with a local community;
• Recruiting new SIGHT individual members or SIGHT Group members;
• Contributing to the overall SIGHT program through active participation on the IEEE SIGHT Committee.

Volunteer of the Year recipients will receive a certificate of appreciation and official recognition on the SIGHT website, social media platforms, the monthly Humanitarian Technologies (HT) newsletter, and in various printed and digital reports as appropriate.

• Active IEEE member
• Active participant in a SIGHT Group or past member of the IEEE SIGHT Committee (current Committee members are not eligible to receive the Award).
• Has not previously received the IEEE SIGHT Volunteer of the Year Award.

Self-nomination is allowed. Two letters of endorsement are required, and may be submitted by the nominator. Letters of endorsement should be in English, on letterhead, and include the title and signature of the endorser. Endorsements may be submitted by another member of the nominee’s SIGHT Group, an IEEE Member in a position of leadership, or a representative of an external organization that is familiar with the nominee’s contributions to IEEE SIGHT.

Candidates will be evaluated based on their IEEE SIGHT volunteer participation and local community involvement, not on professional achievement. The award recipient will be recommended by the IEEE SIGHT Committee, and approved by the IEEE Humanitarian Technologies Board (HTB) Programs Committee.

Please note that members of the same household may not nominate each other for this award. Current members of the IEEE SIGHT Committee, HTB, or the HTB Programs Committee shall be ineligible to receive the SIGHT Volunteer of the Year Award, per IEEE Policies. Any member of the IEEE SIGHT Committee or the HTB Programs Committee that acts as a nominator or endorser for an Award nominee, shall recuse themself from the decision process. Additionally, no member of the IEEE staff shall act as a nominator or endorser or be a candidate for any award covered by IEEE Policies 4.8 and 4.9.

All nominees with a complete nomination form submitted by 16 March that meet the eligibility criteria, and are not selected as the Award recipients, will be entered in a raffle to win one of three IEEE SIGHT promotional item kits. Groups and individuals will be selected at random. Shipping limitations to certain countries may apply per IEEE Legal and Compliance policies on Sanction and Export Control Laws.

All Groups and are not selected as the Award recipient, will be entered in a raffle to win one of three IEEE SIGHT promotional item kits. Groups will be selected at random. Shipping limitations to certain countries will apply per IEEE Legal and Compliance policies on Sanction and Export Control Laws. Please see the official contest rules (PDF) for more information.

SIGHT Award nominations will be accepted from 20 February 2025 – 16 March 2025. All nominations must be submitted via the appropriate process on the HT online platform.

Learn more about the achievements of past SIGHT Award winners and how they made a difference in their local communities. Ready to be inspired?