The IEEE Foundation cultivates relationships and resources to advance IEEE's core purpose to foster technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity.

To fulfil its role, the IEEE Foundation awards grants to new and innovative projects and administers more than 125 donor designated funds that support a variety of educational, humanitarian, historical preservation, and peer recognition programs of IEEE.

The IEEE Teacher in-service programme (TISP), which is a pre-university initiative of the IEEE Educational Activities Committee, IEEE South Africa Section, received support of US $ 15,000 (approx. ZAR 112,500) towards supporting the movement of educators and IEEE volunteers at a Technology Education: IEEE TISP Conference, to be held in Bloemfontein, South Africa in 2010.

"Over the past two years, the TISP sub-committee has been developing lesson plans, where some lesson plans are publically released and available via IEEE’s TryEngineering Portal, www.tryengineering.com, and during the Technology Education Conference, we plan to disseminate our work to the facilitators of our Dept. of Education, our IEEE volunteers, educators, and associated parties," said Prof. Nico Beute, the lead champion for the programme.

The TISP initiative, which was initiated by the IEEE Educational Activities Board (EAB), in Aug. 2006, is locally championed by Prof. Nico Beute, who is also the Assistant Dean: Faculty of Engineering, Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), Cape Town. The South Africa Section is privileged to have volunteers such as Prof. Beute, who strive towards not only coordinating our TISP, but also linking the programme with our Ministry of Basic Education. Recently, Dr Dick Gowen, the President of the IEEE Foundation, mentioned: “The support of the ministry is vital to providing the resources for major changes in the schools of South Africa.”

Newly appointed Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) CEO Dr Oswald Franks, has also committed towards supporting the TISP initiative.

Most recently, Prof. Beute received the IEEE EAB Meritorious Achievement Award in Informal Education for "exceptional leadership in pioneering, organizing and managing the IEEE Teacher In-Service Program in South Africa."

A position paper presentation on IEEE TISP in South Africa is provided here (~2 Mb).

For more information on sponsorship opportunities for our Technology Education: IEEE TISP Conference or TISP related activities in South Africa, please contact Nico Beute, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it