Changsha Chapter: Establishment and Path Forward

On April 9, 2015, the Changsha Chapter (the Fourth RS Chapter in China after the Beijing, Nanjing, and Xi’an chapters) was officially established. During the last two years, many RS officers and ExCom/AdCom members have worked together with Professor Ji Wang (Chair of the Changsha Chapter) and Professor Wei Dong (former RS AdCom member in 2014, and Vice Chair of the Changsha Chapter) on this initiative.

The following table lists the twelve founding members of the Changsha Chapter and their affiliation.

We would like to give special thanks to Dr. Jeff Voas (RS Senior Past President) and Professor Christian Hansen (RS President), who made special trips to visit Changsha in 2013 and 2014, respectively, to give technical seminars, to meet with local RS members, to encourage application for the establishment of an RS chapter, and to provide continuous support for this initiative.

Figure 1: Dr. Voas gave a lecture on Information Assurance
at the National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, China
on May 7, 2013. More details can be found in the 2013 May issue of
the RS Newsletter (Volume 59, Number 2).

Figure 2: Professor Hansen and Professor Wong held a round table
discussion with RS members in Changsha, China on December 15,
2014. More details can be found in the 2015 February issue of
the RS Newsletter (Volume 61, Number 1).

To explore how the IEEE Beijing Section could support the establishment of the RS Changsha Chapter, Professor Christian Hansen (RS President) and Professor Eric Wong (RS Secretary at the time) had a meeting with Dr. Jinjun Feng (Chair of the IEEE Beijing Section) and Dr. Yinfu Hu (see Figure 3) in Beijing on December 18, 2014. With their assistance, the application was expedited. On behalf of RS, we thank Dr. Feng and Dr. Hu for all their help.

Figure 3: Meeting between IEEE Reliability Society and IEEE Beijing
Section on December 18, 2014, in Beijing, China (from left to right:
Dr. Yinfu Hu, Professor Jinjun Feng, Professor Christian Hansen, and
Professor Eric Wong).

We also thank Loretta Arellano (RS Chapter Coordinator), Marsha Abramo (RS VP for Membership) and all those who worked with us throughout the entire application process. Without their support, establishment of the new RS Chapter in Changsha would not have been possible.

All the members of the Changsha Chapter are very excited to have a home within the Reliability Society and look forward to hosting more events in the coming months. To all RS members, we invite you to contact us if you happen to visit our city – Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province in China.