The 2023 IEEE Awards Ceremony was held in Atlanta on 5 May 2023, where the IEEE Medal of Honor was presented to Vint Cerf, co-designer of IP and TCP.

The awards ceremony itself was preceded by the 2023 IEEE Vision | Innovation Challenges Summit. The 2023 VIC Summit consisted of a number of panels and presentations, beginning with a fireside chat with Dr. Cerf. Master of Ceremonies for the day was Charles Neal, President of the National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC), Atlanta Chapter.

The event brought back memories for me, as it was held in the same venue as the 1996 IEEE 46th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC’96). That conference was the second VTC I had ever attended—the first having taken place the previous year in Chicago, when I had only recently joined VTS.

Much to my surprise, during his introduction Mr. Neal harked back to his experience at VTC’96! He even gave a shout-out to the IEEE VT Magazine in his presentation (shown below).

I am excited to share this story, showing the positive impact that our efforts around the world can have on local communities, even decades later.

This experience underscores why it is still so important to actually travel to different places, and meet and share with new people. Of equal importance is participation in local events that draw a global audience, and welcoming those attendees from afar to our own communities.

It is indeed a small world!

NAMIC Atlanta Chapter President Charles Neal speaks about VTS during his introduction to the 2023 IEEE Vision | Innovation Challenges Summit and 2023 IEEE Awards Ceremony.

IEEE VTS Website