Advancements in Technology: Innovations, Challenges and Future Directions

The IEEE North Macedonia Section will organise a Local Student Paper Competition (LSPC).
We aim to raise the academic excellence and innovation to a higher level by encouraging students to engage in cutting-edge research and contribute to advancements in technology. As a symbol of academic and professional growth, this competition aims to provide engineering students the opportunity to engage with peers, educators and industry leaders. By participating in the competition, students and young engineers can improve their research skills and expand their professional network. The competition also aims to inspire students to continue developing innovations that have the potential to make a significant impact on society. We strongly believe that this is a great opportunity for students to present their latest research achievements and innovative ideas in the rapidly evolving fields, as well as to get valuable feedback from distinguished researchers.
This Student Paper Contest is intended for IEEE North Macedonia Section student members or graduate student members who have not yet started their Ph. D. studies.

Local Student Paper Contest 2023 – Finalists

Matea Marinova, winner of the LSPC 2023, presenting her work at the R8 SPC 2024, during MELECON 2024, Porto, Portugal

Topics

The call is focused, but not limited to the following topics:

• Signal Processing
• Image Processing
• Human-machine Interface Theories and Methods
• Human-machine Interface
• Adaptive User Interfaces
• Computational Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence
• Data Science and Machine learning
• Artificial Intelligence in the Audiovisual Sector
• Artificial Intelligence and IoT
• Explainable AI and Human Centered AI
• Extended Reality, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality
• Artificial Intelligence in Video Game Programming
• Biomedical Signal and Image Processing
• Intelligent Applications in Healthcare
• Biomedical Engineering
• Communication Technologies and Networks
• Information and Encoding Theory
• IoT and Blockchain – Smart Living Technologies
• Power Electronics and Control
• Renewable Energy Systems
• Energy Storage Systems
• Advances in Power and Energy Systems 

Who can participate?

This Student Paper Contest is intended for IEEE North Macedonia Section student members or graduate student members who have not yet started their Ph.D studies. The work presented in the paper has to be completed before the student receives the engineering degree that entitles them to start preparing a doctoral thesis and it should be not published previously. The submission of a paper for SPC must be no later than 12 months after graduation.

Papers should cover technical and engineering aspects of a subject within or related to the listed topics. The work need not be strictly original in the scientific sense, but it should be original in the treatment of a certain topic and the author’s contribution to that topic should be clearly seen.

At initial submission, only students can be authors of the IEEE North Macedonia Section SPC papers and each author must be a member of an IEEE Student Branch. However, in the second SPC phase, after five finalists are selected, the rules allow a supervisor/mentor to be added as a co-author in the final version of the paper. This does not change in any way the basic rule that the submitted paper is the work of the student. At the time of the oral finals, each finalist must be still a member of IEEE.

Competition procedure   

Submitted papers will be graded by eminent university professors. The review will be double-blind, which means that the judges will handle the papers without knowledge of the identity of the authors/institutions. Based on grading, the top 5 papers will be selected. All five finalists (one author per paper) will be invited to present their papers.

The oral presentations will be also graded and both, written and oral parts, will be considered. On the day of the unveiling of the plaque, the ranking list will be published and the winner will be announced. There are prizes for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. The winning paper will get the opportunity to participate in the IEEE Region 8 Student Paper Competition 2025, in conjunction with EUROCON 2025, which will take place in Gdynia, Poland.

Guidelines

The paper submitted for the IEEE North Macedonia Section SPC must not contain any data about authors and their institutions due to the double-blind reviewing process. It should be 4-6 pages and must be written using the two-column IEEE Transaction style.
The paper must be typewritten on A4 size paper (210 mm × 297 mm), with the text width equal to 183 mm and the text height equal to 243.5 mm; a font size of 10 pt or larger should be used. The two-column IEEE Transactions style (with the space between columns equal to 4.1 mm) is required. All submitted papers must be written in English.

Submissions are to be made by email to katarina.trojacanec@finki.ukim.mk and gogacvet@feit.ukim.edu.mk.