Written by: Lwanga Herbert, Uganda Section SIGHT

The IEEE Radio and Antenna Days of the Indian Ocean (RADIO) 2019 international conference was held on Reunion Island from 23 to 26 September 2019. The conference was attended by participants from around the world: Australia, Canada, China, Europe, India, Japan, Mauritius, Reunion Island, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Uganda, and the USA.
IEEE RADIO 2019 covered technical presentations on diverse topics related to antennas, propagation and radio frequency engineering. Awards and cash prizes were presented to students, scientists and researchers for their outstanding research and papers presented during the conference.

IEEE RADIO 2019 featured a SIGHT Event organized by IEEE SIGHT Indian Ocean and sponsored by the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) SIGHT. It was held on the first day of the conference after several presentations by radio amateurs.

During my presentation, I had the privilege and opportunity to discuss several themes:

1. First I shared about an impact assessment methodology called “Social Return on Investment (SROI).” I began by giving an overview of the SROI approach and then presented the details of how it was applied to one of the IEEE SIGHT & IEEE Humanitarian Activities Committee (HAC) funded project (Neopenda) in Uganda.
2. I also gave an overview of IEEE SIGHT that included what SIGHT is all about, how to establish a SIGHT group, how to access and utilize the various opportunities, and resources available at SIGHT.
3. Finally I concluded by observing that several conference participants had presented very good papers and that it was time to consider collaborating in line with the SIGHT humanitarian spirit to convert these wonderful ideas into problem solving solutions to benefit the various communities within our respective countries.

While attending the conference, I also took the opportunity to recognize the valuable efforts of IEEE SIGHT Indian Ocean for having organized such a successful event. I proposed that IEEE SIGHT Indian Ocean and other SIGHT groups form collaborative partnerships to create and promote joint efforts in deploying widespread humanitarian technologies.

With this in mind, I met with members of IEEE SIGHT Indian Ocean for a brainstorm session whereby we determined to come-up with a joint project proposal for possible support by SIGHT and other partners. Now that the conference is over, the various event participants are developing this proposal, to be shared with IEEE SIGHT when it is ready.

As I come to the end of this report, I wish to take this opportunity to sincerely thank IEEE SIGHT leadership, IEEE SIGHT Indian Ocean and any other parties, for facilitating my attendance of the event.  I therefore wish you all the best of luck and success in all that you plan and do for the sake of promoting humanitarian technology in uplifting humanity in all key spheres of life.