IEEE Foundation President is Empowering Future Engineers

All through his 30 years of volunteering, Delimar has labored to construct a group for college kids. He based the College of Zagreb’s IEEE student branch and later grew to become its chair. He went on to grow to be the department’s counselor and a member of the IEEE Croatia Section’s pupil actions committee. He has held quite a few IEEE management positions, and he served on the group’s Board of Directors.

To interact extra student members and assist join pupil branches worldwide, he helped discovered the IEEEXtreme programming competition, an annual, 24-hour digital contest during which groups compete to resolve pc coding issues.

He’s persevering with his mission because the 2025 president of the IEEE Foundation, specializing in how the group’s charitable companion might help college students and young professionals prosper. Due to donations, the Basis is ready to fund scholarships, analysis and journey grants, and fellowships in partnership with IEEE societies and sections.

“Supporting IEEE applications is one thing that I’m very pleased with,” Delimar says. His targets as president, he says, are to extend consciousness of the Basis’s donor-supported applications and to steer extra individuals to assist its causes.

Supporting the following era of engineers

After studying about IEEE from a number of of his professors who have been members, Delimar joined the group in 1994 throughout his second yr on the College of Zagreb. However with out a pupil department on the faculty, there was no local people for pupil members. That yr he efficiently petitioned IEEE to determine the primary pupil department in Croatia. He served as its chair till he graduated along with his EE bachelor’s diploma in 1996.

By his involvement, he was concurrently “studying concerning the group and volunteering,” he says, including that it helped him higher perceive IEEE.

After graduating, he joined his alma mater as a instructing assistant and researcher. He was later employed as a school member. He additionally performed analysis in power engineering beneath his former professor, IEEE Senior Member Zdravko Hebel, who is thought for his work on the Croatian power transmission community.

Delimar continued to volunteer, serving as chair of pupil actions for the IEEE Croatia Part till 2001. He additionally was the counselor for the scholar department.

“For me, IEEE Foundation Day highlights how the IEEE Basis is greater than a charitable group—it’s the coronary heart of IEEE’s philanthropic efforts, the place generosity meets influence.”

Inside 4 years of his steerage, “the department was collaborating with different branches in not solely Region 8 [Europe, Middle East, and Africa] but in addition around the globe,” he says. He determined it was time to unfold his wings, and he started volunteering for the area.

His first place was because the 2005–2006 vice chair of the IEEE Region 8 student activities committee, which is liable for pupil applications and advantages. On the time, IEEE was having hassle retaining pupil members, he says.

“College students would graduate and never renew their membership,” he says. “There was additionally a problem with a few of the pupil branches, as they weren’t speaking effectively or collaborating with one another.”

Delimar and IEEE Member Ricardo Varela, who was additionally on the committee, brainstormed tips on how to higher have interaction college students and enhance their participation. The 2 males wished to create an occasion that may enable college students the world over to take part on the similar time.

“It gave the impression of a really loopy thought,” he says, “as a result of it’s nighttime for one half of the world and daytime for the opposite half. You possibly can’t even maintain a gathering on the similar time all over the place, not to mention an exercise.”

To beat the time-zone situation, Delimar and Varela devised a 24-hour competitors on programming, which was well-liked amongst engineering college students on the time, Delimar says. Having the competition happen over 24 hours ensured all members have been on equal footing, he says.

Forty groups participated within the first IEEE Xtreme competitors, which was held in October 2006. It has since grown in recognition. Final yr almost 8,800 groups from 75 international locations participated.

Though he’s not concerned within the contest anymore, Delimar says he’s pleased with its success.

In 2007 he grew to become vice chair of the IEEE Region 8 membership activities committee, which plans occasions for members. He was then elected because the 2010–2011 Area 8 director, and in 2013 he grew to become IEEE secretary. Each are Board-level positions.

“Being part of the IEEE Board of Directors gave me the chance to study and serve on a number of fascinating committees that have been making an attempt to achieve specific targets on the time, similar to rising member engagement, enhancing coaching for brand spanking new IEEE officers, and refining IEEE’s capacity to rapidly adapt to the fast-changing surroundings,” Delimar says.

His time on the board impressed him to advocate for the formation of an advert hoc committee on European public policy actions. He served as its chair, and in 2018 it grew to become a everlasting committee. Renamed the IEEE European Public Policy Committee, it helps members of the European Union and European Free Trade Association in creating technology-related insurance policies. Delimar was its chair till 2020.

“IEEE has been capable of present a united, unbiased voice of what’s good for know-how and what’s good for Europe,” he says. “It has been very effectively acquired by the European Commission.”

In 2016 Pedro Ray, the 2010 IEEE president, requested Delimar to be a volunteer for the IEEE Basis, and he joined the board the following yr.

“It’s been a really rewarding expertise,” he says.

Main the IEEE Basis

Delimar says that his principal aim as president is to extend consciousness amongst IEEE members of the Basis and its applications.

“The Basis helps greater than 250 funds and applications, and I need to strengthen its connections and partnerships throughout IEEE,” he says.

To perform that aim, the Basis has been elevating its visibility. In 2023 it celebrated its 50th anniversary with a reception in New York City. Different celebratory actions have been held that yr on the IEEE Vision, Innovation, and Challenges Summit and Honors Ceremony and the IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting.

Final yr the Basis established 16 February as IEEE Foundation Day. The annual celebration marks the day in 1973 when the philanthropic group was launched. The inaugural occasion was designed to mirror the Basis’s imaginative and prescient of being the center of IEEE’s charitable giving. This yr’s celebration targeted on college students and younger professionals, highlighting beneficiaries of scholarships, grants, and fellowships and the influence they’ve had on the recipients.

“For me, IEEE Basis Day highlights how the IEEE Basis is greater than a charitable group—it’s the coronary heart of IEEE’s philanthropic efforts, the place generosity meets influence,” Delimar says. “Our donor-supported applications—like scholarships, journey grants, awards, analysis grants, and competitions—are greater than monetary assist for our college students and younger professionals; they’re catalysts for making desires come true.”

He says he desires to interact members who aren’t usually donors and thus increase the Basis’s attain.

“I need to allow individuals with totally different skilled journeys, financial backgrounds, cultures, and geography to have the ability to take part as donors for the IEEE Basis,” he says. “Each donor—whether or not they’re a pupil, younger skilled, or IEEE life member—is vital.”

Go to the IEEE Foundation website to find upcoming occasions, be taught methods to make a present, and see how the group’s charitable efforts are making an influence.