The 2008 IEEE Region 8 Student Paper Contest received 12 papers from 10 Student Branches in 8 countries:

•     Austria, Graz University of Technology
•     Belgium, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (2x)
•     Egypt, Ain Shams University, Cairo
•     Egypt, Cairo University
•     Germany, University Karlsruhe
•     Malta, University of Malta
•     Qatar, Texas A&M University at Qatar
•     Slovenia, University of Ljubljana
•     South Africa, University of Pretoria (2x)
•     South Africa, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

The oral finals took place in Ajaccio, Corsica, France, on 6 May 2008, as part of MELECON 2008, the 14th IEEE Mediterranean Electrotechnical Conference (5-7 May 2008).

The three winners were:

• Geert Hellings (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium) AlGaN Schottky diodes for detector applications in the UV wavelength range: hellings
• William Vandenberghe (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium) Analytical model for a tunnel field-effect transistor: vandenberghe
• Herman Myburgh (University of Pretoria, South Africa) Near-optimal low complexity MLSE equalization: myburgh

The other two papers selected for the oral finals were:

• Mohamed Bahgat (Cairo University, Egypt) A simple implementation for unmarked road tracking: baghat
• Vukosi Marivate (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa) An intelligent multi-agent recommender system for human capacity building: marivate
  

The four jury members for the 2008 SPC were:

•     Martin Bastiaans, Eindhoven, Netherlands, IEEE R8 SPC coordinator
•     Kamel Hassan, Cairo, Egypt
•     Carlos López-Barrio, Madrid, Spain
•     Kurt Richter, Graz, Austria