Collaborative Student Initiatives Booster Program – IEEE Region 8

Introduction

The IEEE Region 8 Student Activities Committee is announcing the Collaborative Student Initiatives Booster Program. This program calls for section student activities leaders (Section Chairs, SSACs, SSRs) and student branch leaders (Student Branch Chairs and Counselors, Student Branch Chapter Chairs and Advisors, WIE Chairs and Advisors) to submit proposals for collaborative initiatives or project ideas in the area of Student Activities.

Goals

The program aims to:

Giving incentives to IEEE Region 8 Sections and Student Branches for collaboration on Student Activities and support them;
Provide an opportunity for IEEE Region 8 Sections and Student Branches to initiate collaborative programs in Student Activities;
Showcase the innovation and drive of IEEE Region 8 Sections and Student Branches to an international student audience;
Find, promote, and establish creative programs that provide value to IEEE students.

Rules

The program rules are the following:

The initiatives or project ideas shall be new and not from the existing pool of IEEE Students Programs;
Applicants to this program can be only Sections and Student Branches:
- For Student Branches, they must have submitted their annual report;
- In the case of Student Branch Chapters or Women in Engineering, their parent Student Branch is considered on the applicant on their behalf of.
One applicant only is considered as the financially responsible (FR) OU;
- The FR OU receives the funding from the program;
- If the FR OU is a Student Branch, an endorsement from its Section Chair or Treasurer should be included.
There should be at least 2 applicant OUs of the same level (Section / Student Branch);
Each OU can submit only 1 entry as the FR one and up to 2 entries in total;
Applicants who were funded in previous R8 SAC Programs and haven’t delivered the reports requested are not qualified to apply;
The application should include an endorsement from all applicant OUs:

For Sections, only the Section Chair, SSAC, or SSR can provide an endorsement;
For Student Branches, only the Student Branch Chair or Counselor can provide an endorsement.

For Student Branch Chapters or Women in Engineering, the respective Advisor can also provide an endorsement.

Judging

Proposals will be judged from R8 SAC in the following areas:

Innovation and Originality;
Solid content and Planning;
Usability and Benefits to Students;
Scalability and Sustainability;
Alignment with MGA SAC goals.
Full involvement of all parties in the organization of the event and participation.

Submissions

The proposal shall contain the following information:

Description of the proposed cross-sectional initiative or project idea
Goals and KPIs
- Provide a short timeframe with milestones
- The idea should be completed within the year of approval
How does the idea align with MGA Student Activities goals?
- Link to MGA Student Activities Committee Goals
- The idea doesn’t have to align with all goals.
What are the benefits for the students?
Provide a detailed projected budget
Additional information (optional)

The submission shall:

be a maximum of 8 pages (without endorsement letters);
be in Times New Roman font and 11 font size;
be submitted in pdf format;
include all the applicant OUs’ names;
include as attachments all endorsement letters.

Tracks

There are different tracks that you can apply for your initiative:

Section Student Initiatives Track;
- Only Sections can apply to this track.
Student Branch Initiatives Track;
- Only Student Branches can apply on this track.
Student Branch Technical Chapters Initiatives Track;
- Only SB Technical Chapters can apply on this track.
Student Branch Women in Engineering Initiatives Track;
- Only SB WIE AGs can apply on this track.
New Engineers Track.
- Both Sections and Student Branches can apply to this track.
- The New Engineers Track focuses on encouraging collaborations with pre-university students and teachers to establish educational activities that promote the benefits of being an Engineer.
- This track aims to help Student Branches and Sections organize educational programs with schools and encourage students to use different and more interactive teaching methods.

Funding

The best entries that exceed the minimum standards can receive up to 1,800 $ per initiative to be used as secured funding for piloting their proposals. The funding will be sent in the (parent) Section’s bank account after the submission and evaluation of the final report. The funding does not cover virtual platform costs. Funding Eligibility Criteria and Outcome Reporting Rules are applied to this program.

The final funding depends on the Student Branches involved (in the case of Sections the number of their Student Branches that have submitted their annual report is considered) and on the affected sections. In case of collaboration with local Young Professionals (endorsement letter from local YP Chair is required), a bonus of +100 $ is considered on the base funding. The maximum funding is calculated as <base funding> x <funding multiplier>, according to the following table:

# of Student Branches	Base Funding	# of Sections	Funding Multiplier
1	0 $	1	x 1
2 – 3	200 $	2 – 3	x 2
4 – 7	400 $	4 – 7	x 2.5
8 +	500 $	8 +	x 3