Dr. Kapil Dandekar, associate professor of the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and associate dean of research for Drexel University’s College of Engineering, has been awarded the IEEE Educational Activities Board (EAB) Meritorious Service Citation. Dandekar and will be presented with the award at a ceremony on November 9, 2012 in New Brunswick, NJ during the week of IEEE’s meeting series that will include a private reception and dinner. This honor recognizes IEEE members who are past members of the EAB or current or past members of EAB Committees for outstanding and sustained service to the aims and objectives of the EAB.
Dandekar has been acknowledged for his work in “spearheading the incorporation of the Engineering Projects in Community Service program in IEEE’s educational activities and expanding the program to Africa and South America.”
Between 2009 and 2011, Dandekar and Saurabh Sinha from the University of Pretoria managed to start 20 new humanitarian engineering projects in Africa, Europe, Asia and South America. Currently, they oversee 27 active projects, ranging from development of devices to assist spastic children with communication in Hyderabad, India, to deployment of sensor networks for air quality monitoring in Philadelphia, PA. These projects involve close to 350 university and pre-university students. The societal impact of the project reaches several thousands, from high school students who use wind-energy operated computer laboratories in Cape Town, to residents of Bagaya, Senegal who were provided by an EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service) project with solar energy for lighting and appliances.
Dr. Dandekar received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Virginia with specializations in communications and signal processing, applied electrophysics and computer engineering and his master’s and doctoral degrees in ECE from the University of Texas at Austin. In 2001, Dr. Dandekar joined the ECE department at Drexel University. He is the director of the Drexel Wireless Systems Laboratory.
To learn more about the IEEE EAB Meritorious Service Citation, click here.