In recent years, the IEEE has placed great emphasis on Humanitarian Technology Activities, instituting the Humanitarian Activities Committee (HAC). As part of a strategic effort toward member engagement, HAC instituted a program called Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technology (SIGHT). In order to foster humanitarian projects, IEEE HAC supports SIGHT projects up to a volume of $19,999. Proposals can be submitted to fixed deadlines throughout the year. With more than 130 SIGHT groups worldwide, SIGHT can be seen as very successful IEEE program. The SIGHT Germany Section is one of three European groups and was founded by eleven petitioners in 2017. The section got the approval in November 2017 by the IEEE operations center. Its structure is shown below:

The SIGHT Germany Section directly reports to the IEEE Germany Section and therefore, receives financial support. Main part of the SIGHT Germany Section is the Executive Committee, which contains of a general chair, co-chair, and treasurer. It moreover, has a student chair and co-chair in order to keep close contacts to the IEEE student chapters. Although Germany ranks among the most developed countries in the world, humanitarian issues arise every day. Among others, these issues mostly concern homeless people as well as disaster management and control of natural catastrophes. Next to the technical fields, national activities will also include the organization of workshops on humanitarian technology and activities in order to educate volunteers. Moreover, the group performs public relations work for attracting new IEEE members and SIGHT volunteers. Finally, the SIGHT Germany section will support other groups within the proposal phase of new SIGHT projects and will also establish contact to other humanitarian organizations. As second big mission, the SIGHT Germany section intends to start international projects in order to bring modern technology to rural areas in order to increase the people’s life quality. These projects will involve not only German volunteers and partners from the affected area, but also companies, NGOs, and other charity organizations. Therefore, the SIGHT Germany section operates a broad international network. The mentioned projects will contain either established or innovative technology and are self-operated or assisted. If you plan to set up a humanitarian project, please feel free to contact the IEEE SIGHT Germany Section for support in terms of collaboration partners and/or assistance for the application of SIGHT funding.