MIT IEEE URTC 2018 — The Life of a Conference Chair
This past weekend, October 5th-7th, the MIT IEEE Undergraduate Research Technology Conference was hosted in the MIT Stata Center. It was the 4th edition of the conference and biggest one yet. We had roughly 300 attendees from all over the country and some even across the globe. The event featured 5 keynote speakers: Maura Moran (Partner at Cambridge Technology Law), Dr. Saman Parvaneh (Senior Research Scientist at Philips Research), Karen Bartleson (former IEEE President), Phillip Nadeau (Research Scientist at Analog Devices), and Dr. Lisa Amini (Director of IBM Research Cambridge). As for the conference itself, there were 67 papers, 59 posters, and 16 lightning talks across the 8 technical tracks: ML & AI, Security & Communications, Robotics & Controls, HCI & Graphics, BioEECS & Applied Physics, Computer Systems, Circuits & Materials & Nanotech, and Math & Theoretical CS.
As the Conference Chair, it was my responsibility to make sure everything ran smoothly and all the loose ends were tied up. Unfortunately over the course of spring semester and summer, when we were planning and coordinating the conference, I realized just how hard it is to lead a large group. People said they were committed but then didn’t do their designated work. A few of our core members even dropped at the beginning of the Fall semester, just a month before the conference. I had to scramble to find new committee members and was fortunately able to pick up a few dedicated freshmen. Of course none of it would have been possible with the help of Soon, our IEEE liason. In the end, the conference ran pretty smoothly, despite the late opening of the registration booth and a last-minute scramble for LN2.
As was the case last year, it was extremely satisfying to watch everything come together. Although it was stressful and time consuming, it was extremely gratifying to see all the students who had traveled so far present their awesome work. It was particularly rewarding when a conference attendee would come and thank me personally for my effort. Although I enjoyed the position and feel like my leadership and management skills really developed over the course of the year I was in this role, I am happy to have passed on the position to Ivy and Jack for the 2019 conference. I do intend on remaining on the committee and will probably serve a mostly advisory role, passing down knowledge to our new chairs. With the growth we have seen over the past 4 years, I am excited to see where the conference will go next. :)
Below are just a few photos I got on my phone during the conference (my actual phone broke a few nights before the conference so please excuse the quality).
