NCAS TC Minutes 2015

Location: Lisbon, Portugal (in the framework of IEEE ISCAS 2015)

Date: May, 25th 2015

Time: 12.50-14.00 UTC/GMT +0

Members participant at the meeting (23)

  • Michael Peter Kennedy
  • Sergio Callegari
  • Giancula Setti
  • Xiang Li
  • Wallace Tang
  • Francis Lau
  • Dimitri Galayko
  • Abdelali El Aroudi
  • Zbigniew Galias
  • Michael Green
  • Yoshifumi Nishio
  • Yoko Uwate
  • Joos Vandewalle
  • Krishnaiyan Thulasiraman
  • Wei Xing Zheng
  • Henry Leung
  • Hiroo Sekiya
  • Marco Storace
  • Alessandro Colombo
  • Herbert Iu
  • Federico Bizzarri
  • Jinhu Lu
  • Elena Blokhina

Guests present for part of the meeting

  • David Skellern (IEEE CASS VP Technical Activities)

1. Opening, Introduction and Welcome

At 12.55, the Chair Jinhu Lu opened the annual meeting of NCAS TC and welcomed all participants, also presenting the agenda. All the attendees introduce themselves.

2. Appointment of New NCAS TC Members

One nomination of new member, Dr Federico Bizzarri, was approved.

3. ISCAS 2015 Report by Track Chair

NCAS Track Chair Elena Blokhina gave the ISCAS 2015 track report, also highlighting some issues she had observed during the setup of the track and offering ideas for their addressing. Main issues that got highlighted are:

  • Subtrack 9.0 “Nonlinear Circuits and Systems” (with no specific topic indication) is in substantial overlap with 9.10 “Other Areas in Nonlinear Circuits and Systems” for papers whose topic is not listed in other subtracks. Furthermore, it may result in authors not better specifying the topic of their submissions even when there is an appropriate subtrack.
  • Subtrack 9.1 “Oscillators and PLLs” tends to get any paper even remotely related to Oscillators and PLLs even if no nonlinear aspect is explicitly discussed (e.g., papers about implementation details or technologies).
  • Distribution of submissions among subtracks is very non-uniform, complicating assignment to Review Committee Members. Some subtracks (9.7, 9.8 and 9.9) are in strong decline, not receiving a significant amount of papers. Particularly, subtrack 9.9 “Graph Theory” got no submission in 2015 and only 2 in 2014.
  • Subtracks 9.4 “Modeling and Simulation of Nonlinear Circuits” and 9.6 “Analysis, Implementation & Application of Nonlinear Circuits” are on two very closely related areas.
  • There is no subtrack for emerging topics in the NCAS area.

The floor was then opened for discussion.

  • Gianluca Setti suggested that subtrack 9.1 should not be changed. Other members supported this suggestion.
  • Sergio Callegari suggested that a more detailed description of the sub-track should be provided during paper submission to aid authors in choosing the most appropriate track/subtrack for their work.
  • Gianluca Setti suggested that in case changes are made, these could be across all tracks and in coordination with other Technical Committees.
  • Sergio Callegari mentioned that for subtracts 9.7-9.9, we need to be proactive with researchers to get more submissions.
  • Gianluca Setti suggested that subtracts 9.5 and 9.7 could be be merged.
  • Michael Kennedy mentioned that for subtract 9.1, oscillators and PLL could be separated; and there is no need to limit the scope only to papers where nonlinear aspects are at the focus. Other suggesting a separate subtrack for papers focusing on implementation/technological matters, otherwise it is hard to get the appropriate competences in reviewers.

The discussion was eventually posponed by the Chair because of lack of time.

4. Approval of Minutes and Reports

The minutes of the meeting at ISCAS 2014 were approved.

The Chair of the Committee, Jinhu Lu, presented the 2015 annual report. He invited the members to add more items by emailing him before 30 June 15.

The floor was opened for discussion:

  • Sergio Callegari also invited everybody to send more comments, particularly trying to highlight how the Committee helped achieving results that would have been harder or impossible to get otherwise (e.g., fostering cooperation, providing adequate forums, sessions and initiatives, helping networking).
  • Marco storace suggested that in the future the report could be distributed in advance, keeping it open before the annual meeting for at least 1 week for corrections.

5. Discussion of New TC Bylaws

The Committee Chair reported on the need to Amend the Committee Bylaws in agreement with the new Technical Committee Charter valid across all the Circuit and System Society Technical Committees. He also indicated that for some aspects, there is no choice to be made, as the Charter strictly specifies some rules. One of them is a two year term for the Chair and Chair Elect Officers.

6. Voting on New TC Officers Setting

To make a transient towards the new rules that need to be implemented because of the Charter, the Committee Chair made the following proposal:

  • the current Officers, rather than end their mandate with ISCAS 2015 are confirmed in their duties for another year with the following arrangement:

2015-16: Chair – Jinhu Lu; Chair Elect – Sergio Callegari; Secretary – Herbert Iu; Secretary Elect – Elena Blokhina. [Transition Period]

2016-18: Chair – Sergio Callegari; Chair Elect – Herbert Iu; Secretary- Elena Blokhina.

Gianluca Setti and Francis Lau showed disagreement with this proposal stating that there was no need to extend current duties beyond their original appointment term and made another proposal:

  • the new two year regime is immediately started, with the following arrangement:

2015-2017: Chair – Sergio Callegari; Chair Elect – Herbert Iu; Secretary – Elena Blohkina; Past Chair – Jinhu Lu

During this part of the meeting, David Skellern IEEE CAS Society Vice President for Technical Activities participated to the discussion. Specifically, he recalled that the new Charter:

  • every two years the current Chair Elect is upgraded to Chair; at the same time a new Chair Elect must be elected (namely, no automatic appointment is possible, e.g. following a charge rotation);
  • Apart from the Chair and Chair Elect, there can be Other officers, with terms, duties and appointment rules decided by the Technical Committee.

The Committee Chair pointed out that the new Charter also requires a mechanism for removal of inactive members. He also indicated his intention to send to all members the BOG documents, including the new Charter.

Eventually, the Chair indicated lack of time for continuing the discussion, or to vote among the two Officers setup proposals for 2015-2016 and decided to adjourn the debate moving it to electronic means in the immediate future.

7. Other matters

The Committee Chair indicated lack of time for any further discussion, so no other business was managed.

The Committee Chair, Jinhu Lu, thanked everyone who attended the meeting. The meeting was concluded at 14.00.

No officers were appointed for 2015-2016 for the meeting. No appointment was made for the ISCAS 2016 Track Chair.

Prepared by Herbert Iu and Sergio Callegari in July 2015.