Skip to main content
Publications lead hero image abstract pattern

Publications

ComSoc Conferences

Sherman Shen

Xuemin (Sherman) Shen

Past President

2024

Nelson Luis Saldanha da Fonseca, University of Campinas

Nelson Fonseca

Vice President, Conferences

Conferences are where ComSoc members meet, network, and exchange ideas. They offer a premier venue for networking with our peers and learning about the latest developments in communications engineering. They play an important role in achieving ComSoc’s goals and serve a wider community by showcasing the most advanced technologies of our field.

The President’s Page this month is shared with Nelson Fonseca, ComSoc’s Vice-President Conferences for 2022–2023, who is at the State University of Campinas, Brazil. Nelson Fonseca has served as Vice-President Technical and Education Activities, Vice-President Publications, Vice-President Member Relations, Director Conference Development, Director Latin-America Region, and Director On-Line Services. He was Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, Senior Editor of IEEE Communications Magazine and the IEEE Systems Journal, and TPC Co-Chair of IEEE ICC 2016 and IEEE WCNC 2019. He received the IEEE ComSoc Harold Sobol Award for Exemplary Service to Meetings and Conferences and the IEEE ComSoc Joseph LoCicero Award for Exemplary Service to Publications.

The ComSoc Portfolio of Conferences and Events covers almost all areas in communications and networking, and draws more than 7000 attendees annually. The portfolio is structured according to the size as well as financial sponsorship (either fully or partially sponsored by ComSoc). ComSoc conferences are classified as Flagship, Core, Small, Workshops, Regional, Financially Co-Sponsored, and Events.

Flagship Conferences have a large international attendance and extensive coverage of the ComSoc technical scope and involvement of nearly all ComSoc Technical Committees (TCs). The ComSoc Flagship Conferences are IEEE GLOBECOM and IEEE ICC. These conferences typically receive more than 2900 paper submissions per event. ComSoc Governance meetings are co-located with the flagship conferences.

Core Conferences are those with more than 200 attendees, but with a narrower scope, centered on a specific subset of ComSoc’s technical areas. ComSoc Core Conferences include IEEE CCNC, IEEE INFOCOM, IEEE SmartGridComm, IEEE WCNC, IEEE/IFIP NOMS, and IFIP/IEEE IM.

Small Conferences and Workshops, often driven by a single TC, normally have fewer than 200 attendees and are focused on a very specific technical topic. Small conferences are significant for the technical area of the conference. Such ComSoc conferences and workshops have a good reputation in their respective fields and meet all ComSoc quality requirements. They include IEEE CAMAD, IEEE HPSR, IEEE ISPLC, IEEE LANMAN, and IEEE SECON.

Regional Conferences, which are always held in a specific IEEE Region, involve local IEEE Sections, ComSoc Chapters, and Sister Societies. Their main objective is to promote participation of members from all regions, striving to reach out to all countries and paying special attention to under-represented areas, and ultimately, to membership development. ComSoc Regional Conferences include IEEE LATINCOM in Latin America, IEEE BLACKSEACOM in the countries surrounding the Black Sea in Eastern Europe, IEEE ANTS in India, and IEEE Meditcom in the countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.

Co-Sponsored Conferences are a way to facilitate collaboration with other IEEE societies or other organizations (Sister Societies, ACM, AFCEA, OSA, etc.) whose fields of interest are shared by ComSoc. ComSoc financially co-sponsors OFC, IEEE/CIC ICCC, MILCOM, IEEE ICME, EUCNC, and IEEE PIRMC, among several others.

Several IEEE Events are co-sponsored by ComSoc such as 5G Summit, IoT Summit, IoT World Forum, and IEEE Sustainable ICT Summit.

Moreover, Technical Co-Sponsorship (TCS) by ComSoc is available for technical events in which ComSoc is not financially involved. However, TCS is only available for conferences that are financially sponsored by non-profit entities and whose scope is within the ComSoc field of interest. Stringent requirements on technical management of the conference have to be met before TCS is granted. These include the requirement that the conference must be endorsed by at least one ComSoc Technical Committee (TC), from which at least three members are nominated to have direct and substantial involvement in the organization and development of the technical program.

We invite you to visit the Conference Portfolio web page as well as the Conferences web page to learn more about the opportunities ComSoc can offer (https://www.comsoc.org/conferences-events). The ComSoc Conference portfolio is overseen by the Conferences Council (CON-C), which is responsible for addressing the needs of the Society and Society Members related to technical conferences, workshops, and professional meetings.

Chaired by the Vice-President Conferences, CON-C includes as voting members: the two Directors of the Conference Operations Board and the Conference Development Board, the two Chairs of the GLOBECOM/ICC Management & Strategy (GIMS) Standing Committee and the GLOBECOM/ICC Technical Content (GITC) Standing Committee, and at least five Members-at- Large, a representative from the Technical and Educational Activities Council (TEA-C), and the ComSoc Treasurer.

The Conferences Development Board is responsible for the strategic planning, technical scope, and growth of all ComSoc financially sponsored conferences (referred to as portfolio conferences). The Conferences Operations Board is responsible for the oversight and management of the operational, publications, and financial aspects of all ComSoc conferences. The GIMS Standing Committee is responsible for the continuity, successful conduct, strategic evolution, and policy recommendations of the IEEE GLOBECOM and IEEE ICC conference series. The GITC Standing Committee is responsible for the strategic vision and management of the technical content of the IEEE GLOBECOM and IEEE ICC conference series.

In this 2022–2023 term, the members of the Conferences Council include Stefano Bregni as Vice-Chair/Director — Conference Operations, and voting members Fabrizio Granelli as Director — Conference Development, Luis Correia as Chair — GLOBECOM/ICC Management & Strategy, Linda Xie as Chair — GLOBECOM/ICC Technical Content, Rolland Vida (Hungary), Lawrence Wong (Singapore), Larry Guoliang Xue, and Doug Zuckerman (USA), Hikmet Sari (France), Zhisheng Niu (China), Lisandro Zambenedetti Granville (Brazil), Abbas Jamalipour (Australia), Rose Qingyang Hu (USA), Robert Schober (Germany), Shiwen Mao (USA), and Halim Yanikomeroglu (Canada). In addition, we have two non-voting staff members, Kristine Chin — ComSoc Conference Director, and Bruce Worthman — ComSoc Director of Finance and Business Operations.

To achieve the goals of better serving our members and improving ComSoc conferences, the Conference Council aims at the following:

  • Guaranteeing the technical excellence of ComSoc conferences, improving procedures for organizers, authors, and attendees, and ensuring fair paper review
  • Facilitation of remote participation in the post-pandemic years
  • Improvement of academia/industry synergy in conferences, and development of programs aimed at both professionals and developers
  • Strengthening the participation of ComSoc Technical Committees and Industry Communities in ComSoc conferences
  • Lowering the expenses of attending conferences, avoiding as much as possible further increases of registration fees, and favoring affordable locations in all regions
  • Fostering regional conferences to encourage participation from all regions and to provide more opportunities for members in under-represented areas to attend top-level international events
  • Promoting the engagement of women and minorities and providing equal opportunities
  • Promoting the inclusion of economically challenged authors
  • Broadening the engagement and mentoring of students and junior engineers
  • Opening a channel of communications between members and Conference VP and Directors

Our objective is to improve conferences services for all our members. Nelson Fonseca, VP-Conferences, is at your disposal for any questions, comments, and suggestions that you may have. He can be reached at nfonseca@ic.unicamp.br.