The final part of the IEEE Region 8 Student Paper Contest, SPC 2022 oral finals, was held within the frame of the IEEE R8 flagship conference MELECON 2022, in Palermo, Italy, on June 14-16, 2022. After two years of adverse circumstances caused by the pandemic (SPC 2020 was held online and SPC 2021 was held in hybrid form), this year we gathered all the finalists and jury members allowing the event to be completely in person. It was the 55th edition of this traditional and important technical activity of the IEEE Region 8.

Members of the international jury who assessed the student papers in the first (written) part and presentations in the second (oral) part of the contest were Prof. Paul Micallef from Malta, Prof. Mike Hinchey from Ireland, Prof. Giambattista Gruosso from Italy and Prof. Vera Markovic from Serbia, who is also the SPC coordinator. Many thanks for their efforts and dedication!

We were very honored by the presence of Antonio Luque, IEEE Region 8 director, Vincenzo Piuri, IEEE Region 8 Director elect, Simay Akar, IEEE Region 8 Student Activities Committee Chair, Habib Kammoun, R8 conference coordination committee chair and Theodoros Chatzinikolaou, Regional Student Representative, at the SPC 2022 oral finals.