IEEE Volunteers are dedicated to a variety of engineering outreach initiatives. Specifically, many participate in outreach programs aimed at supporting STEM in pre-university students. Heba Shaban was a 2021 IEEE STEM Champion from R8 (Egypt) dedicated to many such programs. In particular, Shaban is most proud of her pre-university STEM program Mu Beta Kidzineers. 

“This program engages Pre-U students, teachers, parents, IEEE student volunteers and professionals,” Shaban stated when recently asked about her involvement in STEM programs at the pre-university level. “The program helps Pre-U students to learn, engage, and compete in solving real-life problems. The first group of mentored Pre-U students participated in IEEE-YESIST12 Junior Einstein Track global challenge, and they were able to think of future transformative technologies, learn how to design and implement their ideas, and compete on local and global levels. One of the participating teams was able to achieve honorable mention in the global challenge after competing with 61 teams from 6 different countries.”

Shaban also shared that the most rewarding part of engaging in IEEE STEM outreach is seeing pre-university students believe in themselves and seeing the potential they have for a future in technology. 

Dr. Heba A. Shaban (S’07-M’10) is a Lecturer with the department of Electronics and Communications Engineering, Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport (AASTMT), Alexandria, Egypt. She received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. (with Honors) from AASTMT in 2000 and 2003, respectively. She received a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in 2010. Her current research interests include Body area networks (BANs), gait analysis, multi-carrier CDMA, free space optics, public-key data encryption and authentication, and Ultra Wideband (UWB) receiver design, ranging, and tracking.

Heba Shaban was selected as a 2021 IEEE STEM Ambassador as part of the former IEEE STEM Ambassador Program (now known as the IEEE STEM Champion Program).