What Is Region 9?

Region 9 is the IEEE geographic unit covering Latin America and the Caribbean. It is one of ten IEEE regions worldwide and serves the engineering and technology community across Central and South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean island nations. The region is formally organized through IEEE Region 9, which coordinates sections, student branches, and affinity groups across a territory that spans a wide range of economic conditions, educational systems, and engineering traditions.

A distinctive feature of Region 9 is the prominence of student membership within its ranks: students constitute approximately 40 percent of the region's total IEEE membership, and since 1998 a student representative has held a voting seat on the Regional Committee. This student voice in governance reflects the region's long-standing emphasis on developing engineering talent and supporting university-based technical communities.

Geographic Structure and Sections

Region 9 encompasses sections in every country of mainland Latin America as well as the Caribbean, organized by national or multi-national groupings. The sections with the largest membership concentrations are in Ecuador, Peru, and southern Brazil. Each section manages its own chapter affiliations, event programming, and student branch network, while the Regional Committee provides coordination, funding support, and training resources.

The IEEE Region 9 Latin America history page documents how the region grew from a small group of nationally organized sections into a coordinated regional structure with active technical communities across the continent.

Technical Activities and Conferences

Region 9 organizes and supports a range of conferences and symposia at both regional and national levels. Long-standing student conferences include CONESCAPAN (Central America), INTERCON (Peru), and INGELECTRA (Chile), each representing years of student-organized technical programming supported by sections and the regional committee. National and international professional conferences are also held across the region in fields including electrical engineering, telecommunications, power systems, and computer science.

The region publishes technical content through several outlets, including IEEE Latin American Transactions, a peer-reviewed journal, as well as regional magazines and newsletters. These publications support knowledge exchange within the Latin American engineering community and connect regional researchers to the broader IEEE publication network.

Committees and Governance Focus Areas

Region 9's committee structure addresses priorities specific to the Latin American context. Active working areas include new section officer training, educational activities, humanitarian technology, and industry engagement and entrepreneurship. The industry engagement committee supports connections between IEEE members and the technical sectors active across the region, including energy, mining technology, agri-technology, and telecommunications infrastructure.

IEEE Foundation grants administered through Region 9 support local sections in carrying out educational outreach, student branch programming, and community-oriented engineering projects. The region also coordinates Women in Engineering and Young Professionals affinity groups, which run mentoring and career development programs tailored to the professional landscape in Latin America.

Applications

Region 9 supports professional and technical activities across a range of domains, including:

• National and regional technical conferences in electrical engineering, telecommunications, and computing
• Student branch programs at universities and technical institutes across Latin America
• Peer-reviewed publication through IEEE Latin American Transactions
• Humanitarian technology projects coordinated through section networks
• Industry-academia engagement in energy, telecommunications, and emerging technology sectors