IEEE CAS Society Nonlinear Circuits and Systems (NCAS) TC Annual Meeting 2011 – IEEE ISCAS 2011, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

May 17, 2011 (Tuesday) 12:10-13:15
Queluz IV, Windsor Barra Hotel

LIST OF ATTENDEES  (12)
Soumitro Banerjee
Orla Feely (TC-NCAS Chair Elect)
Zbigniew Galias
Henry Leung (TC-NCAS Chair)
Xiang Li
Jinhu Lu
Yoshifumi Nishio
Hiroo Sekiya (ISCAS2011 NCAS-Track Chair)
David Skellern
Ljiljana Trajkovic
Yoko Uwate
Christoph Zorn

Meeting Agenda
1. Opening of meeting
2. Introduction of NCAS TC officers and members
3. Approval of the 2011 NCAS TC meeting agenda
4. Reports on activities during the period from ISCAS 2010 to ISCAS 2011(H. Leung)
5. Report on paper submission/acceptance rate for NCAS track at ISCAS 2011 (H. Sekiya)
6. Membership and welcome to new members
7. Election of officers for the term 2011 – 2012
8. Any other business
9. Meeting adjourned

1.  Opening of meeting
The chair, Henry Leung, opened the Annual Meeting of the Technical Committee on Nonlinear Circuits and Systems (TC-NCAS) and expressed his welcome to all those attending.

2. Introduction of NCAS TC officers and members
All the attendees introduced themselves and the TC-NCAS member list was circulated for corrections.

3. Approval of the 2011 NCAS TC meeting agenda
The agenda was accepted by all the attendees.

4. Reports on activities during the period from ISCAS 2010 to ISCAS 2011
The draft activity report was presented by Henry Leung. Between ISCAS 2010 and ISCAS 2011, members of the TC-NCAS published two books, wrote four book chapters, edited five special issues, organized/took part in the organization of several conferences and workshops, organized several special and invited sessions, and delivered several invited lectures in numerous major conferences and workshops in fields related to nonlinear circuits and systems.

Additional discussions:
A. Potential for merger among NCAS, Cellular Nanoscale Networks & Array Computing (CNNAC), and Neural Systems & Applications (NSA).
-The attendees agreed that these committees represent different (though overlapping) communities, that TC-NCAS is a large committee and there is no reason for a merger.

B. 2020 Vision
The chair showed the “US national academy of engineering Grand Challenge (USA)”, which has 8 topics and indicates future directions.
– TC-NCAS puts emphasis on theories which can be applied to many topics. Actually, TC-NCAS includes different areas such as nonlinear phenomena, complex systems, and interacting systems. The memristor also came from this committee.

David Skellern summarized the discussions in the Vision Committee meeting
– It is important to come up with a five-year vision. New vision yields big challenges. TC-NCAS has different areas and different approaches.
-Target research areas are needed in order to link the challenges. For example, the area of complex networks relates to Smart Grids, which also draws on other areas.
– It is important to focus on innovation and how fundamental knowledge can be extended to apply to new challenges. We have to guide all CAS members that TC-NCAS, with its fundamental theoretical expertise, can contribute across a range of interesting topics.
– 100 word visions should be sent to the vision committee by September, 2011.

C. 2012 CAS-FEST
-Information on funding can be obtained from the CAS web page.
-It is good opportunity to collaborate with ISCAS and WiCAS. Face-to-face meeting is a very good idea.
– For example, Jinhu Lu got USD10,000 support for the International Workshop on Complex Systems and Networks from CAS society.
– It is suggested that a workshop on NCAS be hosted at ISCAS 2012.

5. Report on paper submission/acceptance rate for NCAS track at ISCAS 2011
Hiroo Sekiya reported that there were 92 submissions for the NCAS track in ISCAS 2011. Of these, 46 papers were accepted — 30 papers for regular sessions and 16 papers for poster sessions. The acceptance rate was 50 %. The NCAS track had 6 regular sessions and 2 poster sessions. Additionally, two special sessions were accepted, which are “Recent Advances in Complex Networks & Multi-Agent Systems” chaired by Jinhu Lu and Xiang Li and “Nonsmooth Dynamics of Electrical Systems” chaired by Soumitro Banerjee.

Ljiljana Trajkovic pointed out that this data should be compared with that of previous years, which can be obtained from the past chairs or past meeting minutes.

6. Membership and welcome to new members
The Technical Committee welcomed Damian Giaouris, Herbert Iu, and Soumitro Banerjee as new members.

7. Election of officers for the term 2011 – 2012
Henry Leung proposed Jinhu Lu to be Track Chair for Nonlinear Circuits and Systems at ISCAS 2012. All the attendees unanimously agreed to the proposal. Other officers for 2011-12 were elected according to the long-standing rotational rule, and are as follows:
Chair: Orla Feely, (Click to show email)
Past Chair: Henry Leung, (Click to show email)
Chair Elect: Francis Lau, (Click to show email)
Secretary: Hiroo Sekiya, (Click to show email)
Track Chair for Nonlinear Circuits and Systems at ISCAS 2012: Jinhu Lu, (Click to show email)

8. Any other business
Ljiljana Trajkovic reported that in 2009 (with a follow-up email in 2010) she emailed members of the mailing list, asking them to confirm their membership of the Technical Committee.  Members who did not respond were removed from the list.  Following this, TC-NCAS has 77 members and is still a large committee.

Zbigniew Galias stated that there was one case in which the officers of the committee did not accept an application for membership of the Technical Committee.

9. Meeting adjourned
The chair expressed his thanks to all those who had attended the meeting.

Recorded by Hiroo Sekiya