Volunteering

The majority of the people who work on the IEEE CTU program are volunteers, and the three primary types of volunteers are mentors, judges, and committee members. 

Volunteer mentors are experienced individuals and/or entrepreneurs who can provide valuable advice to our competition winners and finalists.  For our CTU winners, mentorship could mean the difference between a brilliant concept “on paper” and a successful real-world deployment that provides life-changing benefits to unconnected/under-connected communities. Depending on a mentor’s background and/or experience, they will provide guidance on overarching technical advice, financial sustainability, expansion strategy, go-to-market strategy, business development planning, and other areas.

Mentors are assigned to winners shortly after the IEEE Connecting the Unconnected Summit. We anticipate that you will be engaging with the CTU awardee over several mentoring sessions during a 3- to 4-month timeframe (e.g., checking in once a month). We also anticipate that the mentor will provide the CTU organizing committee occasional, brief progress updates upon request.

Volunteer judges are the individuals named to our Selection Committee. Judges are experts on internet connectivity either from a technical, business model, or digital inclusion perspective (or ideally, all of the above). Judges read through the submissions and score them according to a rubric, and also attend live/virtual sessions in the final phase of the competition.

Committee members are the backbone and lifeblood of the CTU program. These volunteers put in many hours throughout the year to manage operational and development details of the competition, summit, website, publicity, sponsorship, content, and more. 

To join us, please email [email protected] with a brief introduction of yourself and the area(s) in which you would like to volunteer. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about the program. It would be our pleasure to have you join our team.