The President's Page - January 2013

From IEEE Communications Magazine January 2013

THE YEAR IN REVIEW 

The objectives of the IEEE Communications Society are to provide Technical Information, Education, and Professional Services to its members and the global community of Communications Professionals. At the midway point of my tenure it seems appropriate to reflect on what has been accomplished this year collectively by our volunteers and staff.

Technical
The year started off with the launch of the IEEE Wireless Communications Letters and E Wireless Communications Letters and ions Letters and the Communications Technology News (CTN). The former has relieved pressure on the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, while the latter is a monthly on-line summary of selected papers. The second edition of the Communications Society history, covering our first 60 years, was published. In house, digital production of Communications, Network, and Wireless Communications magazines has been accomplished. Best readings on Power Line Communications, Cogngnitive Radio and Broadband Access were completed in 2012. IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials topped the Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Report (JCR) Impact Factor rating for Telecommunications Publications.

After much work by previous presidents and VPs of Publications, a MoU was signed on 30 September 2011 with our Sister Society, the China Institute of Communications (CIC), regarding joint publication of China Communications. A final MoU was signed in Beijing this year and the first volume is slated to appear in January 2013. This English-language publication of the China Institute of Communications (CIC) will be fully co-sponsored by the CIC and the IEEE Communications Society. This is a major initiative for IEEE and ComSoc in China and we are expected to assume a significant editorial participation in this publication. Editorial procedures and quality will meet IEEE standards, and published papers will appear in IEEE Xplore and IEEE Electronic Library packages. China Communications is something between a magazine and a journal, but will gradually transform into a more clearly defined magazine that aims at industrial practitioners as well as academics.

ComSoc is an active participant in the IEEE initiatives on Cloud Computing. As a result, we are partners in the following periodicals to be launched in 2014: IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing; Cloud Computing (a magazine); and IEEE Transactions on Big Data. During this year, Cloud Computing and Communications conferences were organized in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and in conjunction with GlobeCom.
ComSoc is also one of the many societies supporting the IEEE Life Sciences initiative. While no new publications or conferences have resulted so far, there may be a possibility to collaborate with IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) on the IEEE Journall of Biomedical Health and Informatics and their conference.

Other new journals on the horizon include: IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Mesoscale Communications and Computing, and the IEEE Journal on Internet of Things.

This year we held our first paperless flagship conference at ICC 2012 using mobile devices rather than paper. We also held the second annual virtual conference (GreenCom 2012) with virtual networking sessions. SmartGridComm had the distinction of having the first mobile-ready conference website using web design.

The first ICCC was held in Beijing this August. Destined to be ComSoc s flagship conference in Greater China, it will be held in Xian next year.
The Standard Activities Council completed its first year in operation. It has been a productive year and our standard activities are now an important part of the IEEE Standard-ecosystem. Several standard projects are at different stagesss of completion.

Education
Tutorials and short courses offerings have increased. New courses have been developed on: Self Organizing Networks (SON), Voice over LTE, and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Communications. These courses have been offered in person as well as virtually. Successful Regional Webinars on important topics were held in the LA and AP Regions.

The Distinguished Lecturer/Speaker Program continues to be very successful, but funding ran out in the first nine months. This is a high profile, high visibility program and it merits further support.

Professional and Member Services

Our Facebook “likes” are now over 150,100 and counting. 
Several Sister Society Agreements have been renewed. Of particular interest is the agreement with the EastWest Institute where we may become a stakeholder in the Cyber Security ASPR (Agreements, Standards, Policy, and Regulation) domain.
A Sister Society Summit was conducted in October this year in Hanoi.
The North America Regional Chapter Chairs Conference was organized in conjunction with GlobeCom this December.

Governance
We had our first WebEX-enabled Board of Governors Operating Committee (OpCom) meeting in September. This Committee is a subset of the BoG and manages the Society s business between formal BoG meetings. It went well but there is room for improvement.
ComSoc released its Vision 2020 Report.

We added a new elected ComSoc Officer, VP Standards Activities, and added a new appointed director responsibbbing this year and the first volume is slated to appear in January 2013. This English-language publication of the China Institute of Communications (CIC) will be fully co-sponsored by the CIC and the IEEE Communications Society. This is a major initiative for IEEE and ComSoc in China and we are expected to assume a significant editorial participation in this publication. Editorial procedures and quality will meet IEEE standards, and published papers will appeale for Standardization Program Development.

Challenges
From the above it can be seen that we did many good things to meet the objectives of the society and the goals that were set for this year. The credit for this goes to our volunteer leaders and staff. However, these accomplishments have been somewhat diminished because of the looming budget deficit. To improve the situation we need to enhance on-line ad revenues and find ways to increase them.

2012 IEEE Global Communications Conference: Recently, during December 3-7, ComSoc staged one of its two flagship conference, IEEE Globecom, at the beautiful Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. Over 2100 attendants from 64 countries around the world gathered at the Disneyland Hotel to participate in this cutting edge technological conference.

The main attraction, as usual, was the plethora of technical papers, workshops, and tutorials: a total of 1279 papers were presented. However, this year additional efforts were maade to attract industry participation. As a result, there were 34 sessions consisting of forums, tutorials as well as dialogs with communications industry leading CEOs and CTOs.

The conference had five keynote speakers, all celebrities in the communications community: Henry Samueli, Vinton Cerf, Krish Prabhu, Hossein Eslambolchi and Stephen Alexander. Each keynote session was very well attended.
During the banquet, Pierre Perra, Globecom 2012 Executive Chair, passed on the traditionnditional globe to Lajos Hanzo, the Executive Chair of the next ComSoc flagship Conference, the 2013 IEEE International Conference on Communications which will be held during 9-13 June in Budapest, Hungary.
By all accounts  content, venue, and participation   IEEE Globecom 2012 was a resounding success. Our sincere thanks and congratulations to Conference Executive Chair Pierre Perra and his team for a job well done. 

2012 North America Region Chapter Chair Congress (NARCCC): The ComSoc NA Region Chapter Chair Congress (NA RCCC) was held on December 6-7, 2012 in Anaheim, California in conjunction with GlobeCom 2012. NARCCC’s focus was on retaining and expanding ComSoc’s membership base and enhancing chapter activities through good chapter organization. The Congress encouraged sharing feedback, and networking among chapter chairs, staff,
and ComSoc officers.

Thirty two North America chapter chairs and other NA region officers attended the congress. I and President-Elect Sergio Benedetto made presentations on ComSoc overview, membership development, and future directions. ComSoc VP Nelson Fonseca and Membership Program Development Director Mehmet Ulema summarized ComSoc membership overview, current programs, and strategies. Market and Industry Relations Director Stan Moyer presented ComSoc market and membership related programs. ComSoc staff members Bruce Worthman, JohnPape, and Carole Swaim presented ComSoc finance,
administration, and support/training to chapter chairs. In two sessions, chapter chairs presented their organizations’ activities, experiences, and challenges. Group discusssions identified many common issues and concerns, such as organizing successful chapter level events, fund raising, Distinguished Lecturer Tour (DLT), and Distinguished Speaker Program (DSP). A technical talk on “Nanoscale and Molecular Communication Networks” by Steve Bush,
and a presentation on the Wireless Communication Engineering Technologies (WCET) certification program by Marilyn Catis and Rulei Ting, were well received by chapter chairs.

Chapter chairs attending the meeting were satisfied with it and found the presentations, discussions, and training to be very useful. They felt inspired and took action items back to their chapters with a view to enhancing membership development and chapter growth.

NA RCCC 2012 was hosted by NA Region Director Yigang Cai, and we offer our sincere thanks and congratulations to him for a job well done.