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Giving Back is the Key to Opening Doors
Muhammad and Fatema Rashid Establish Support for PELS Students
Muhammad H. Rashid, PhD, is an IEEE Life Fellow, a long-time member, and an active member of IEEE’s Power Electronics Society (PELS), Industrial Applications Society (IAS), Power & Energy Society (PES), Solid-State Circuits Society (SSCS), and the IEEE Education Society. Dr. Rashid has boundless energy and passion for both power electronics and the Education Society (ES). This is what led him and his wife, Dr. Fatema Rashid, to establish the IEEE PELS Drs. Muhammad Harunur and Fatema Rashid Student Program. This program will enhance student participation at PELS conference activities and encourage interaction between the students, faculty, and practicing engineers. The Rashid Student Program will initially support student project demonstrations at PELS flagship conferences. Over time, the Program is expected to add additional elements such as student travel support and student mentoring programs.
This generous gift is not a first for Dr. Rashid, who has established awards and projects to support engineering students at Florida Polytechnic University, Florida, USA, where he is currently a professor of electrical and computer engineering, and the University of West Florida, Florida, USA, where he was formerly a professor. When asked why he has devoted his career to teaching and his philanthropy to students, he shared this:
“Education was the key for me. Coming here from Bangladesh, I consider education the key to opening a door to my future pathway. Once I had an undergraduate degree, it opened a door for me to do my master’s and PhD in the United Kingdom. And those degrees opened doors to work in other countries – I could apply for immigration to Canada.”
Dr. Rashid is a prolific teacher, lecturer, ABET evaluator, and author in the fields of electronics, power electronics, and professional ethics. He taught at Purdue University Calumet, Indiana-Purdue University Fort Wayne, the University of Connecticut, Concordia University, and King Fahd University. He has published 29 books and more than 160 technical papers. His book, Power Electronics, has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Turkish, Indonesian, Korean, Italian, Chinese, Persian, and Indian editions.
His exceptional career as an educator was honored in 2002 with the IEEE Educational Activity Board (EAB) Meritorious Achievement Award in Continuing Education and in 2008 with the IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award. Both awards cited his outstanding contributions to the design and delivery of quality education, whether for continuing education or aimed at undergraduate students.
“I tell my students, when the finals come, that this is your test to prepare yourself for real life – when you will have to balance your job and a family,” shares Dr. Rashid when he was asked how he juggled all his many roles. “I’m fortunate. My wife took care of everything on the home front.”
This is why it was important that the name of their program included Fatema alongside him. A doctor in her own right, she stepped back from her career to help raise their three children – two girls and a boy. Both of their daughters entered the medical field, while their son followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming an electrical engineer before earning his law degree from Boston University.
With the establishment of this program, Dr. Rashid hopes to encourage more students to pursue power electronics. He explains that many don’t understand how the field combines power and electronics and touches anything that uses a semiconductor, which is just about everything today!
“I believe we need people in the future to sustain the production of innovative ideas, to take us beyond the current boundaries,” muses Dr. Rashid. “Many people ask me, What do you think the future of power electronics is? And often answer that by stating how fast a car can go often depends on the intelligence of the driver. How far power electronics can go is limited by the innovation of those working in the field. That’s why I wanted to give to a program that would provide the innovations we need to take us beyond the limits.”
Dr. Rashid often tells his students to become IEEE members because the society has been a lifeline for him. As things become obsolete quickly in the field, IEEE publications have kept him abreast of the latest developments. Learning and encouraging others to learn is a perpetual state of being for Dr. Rashid.
“The last thing I want to share is that we should try to share our knowledge and help these young people explore their true potential,” concludes Dr. Rashid. “Give them the opportunity. Some people will say, give them a golden key. I say, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a golden key or a silver key or a rusted key as long as they can open a pathway to something. We just have to give them the opportunity!”
Join Muhammad and Fatema Rashid to help others open doors to their education and career pathways by making an impactful difference through the IEEE PELS Drs. Muhammad Harunur and Fatema Rashid Student Program Fund.
