NSA Bylaws
Charter of the Neural Systems, Applications and Technologies (NSAT) Technical Committee (TC) of the IEEE Circuit and Systems Society
5 June 2023
1 Preamble
The Neural Systems, Applications and Technologies (NSAT) Technical Committee (TC) is a Techni- cal Committee of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (CASS). The Neural Systems, Applications and Technologies Technical Committee (NSAT TC) is a subsidiary organization of the IEEE CASS and it is governed by the rules and regulations of the IEEE and by the Constitution and By-Laws of IEEE CASS, which take precedence over this Charter in case of a conflict.
TCs are established by IEEE CASS in significant fields of interest of the Society, through its Technical Activities Division (TAD), to advance the state of knowledge and educate Society members and the general IEEE membership.
To these ends, the NSAT TC plays a major role in creating a high quality technical program for the Society’s flagship conference, the International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS).
TCs also may organize or contribute to other workshops and conferences, special sessions at conferences, and tutorial programs, and undertake other activities to help better achieve their purpose. Further, the NSAT TC may act as a bridge between CASS and related IEEE Societies and Coun-
cils, and other institutions in the general area of the TC.
Purpose
Vision
The vision of this TC is to exploit the principles used by biological neural systems in developing new technologies and computing paradigms that can solve long-standing and challenging engineering problems.
Mission
Our mission is to encourage and support the development of novel and pioneering strategies for solving fundamental and applied problems, by means of circuits and systems that are inspired from biological neural networks. The agenda of the TC mission is defined around the following target areas.
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- Emerging learning paradigms.
- Neural systems for big-data problems.
- Implementation of neural circuits systems using emerging device and circuit technologies.
- Physical electronic models of biological neural systems.
- Neural systems for robust, energy efficient sensing and computing.
- Hybrid systems combining biology and neuromorphic technologies.
Goal
The goal of the Neural Systems and Applications Technical Committee is to promote and give recognition to activities in the field of Neural Systems and Applications in the Circuits and Systems Society. Areas of interest include but are not limited to theory, learning, algorithm, design, architecture, implementation, and applications of neural systems.
Membership
The NSA Technical Committee of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society shall have four officers: Chair, Chair-Elect, Secretary, and Secretary-Elect.
Membership of the NSA Technical Committee (which we shall call the Committee) is open to any IEEE member. Membership is approved by a majority of NSA TC Members (which we shall refer as Members) present at the Committee’s Annual Meeting (held during IEEE International Symposium of Circuits and Systems (ISCAS)) following an informal voting via emails conducted by the Secretary. Membership is by recommendation and by a majority vote of the Members present at the Annual Meeting.
All new Members to be nominated should express their interest to be active Members. A Member is said to be active if he/she either attends the Annual Meeting at least once every 3 years or submits a write-up for inclusion in the Annual Report at least once every 3 years. The Secretary will email to all inactive Members to encourage them to become active Members. A Member is said to be inactive if he/she had never attended the Annual Meeting in the past 5 years and had never submitted any write-up for the Annual Report in the past 5 years. In this case the Member is automatically removed from the Committee.
A subset of the Members of the Committee shall be designated as Regional Representatives, which function as regional contact points for information about the Committee and as coordinators of activities in the field of NSA within a designated geographical region. Regional Representatives shall be designated each year at the Annual Meeting with no limit on the number of times a Member can serve as a Regional Representative.
Annual Meeting
The Committee will meet once a year at ISCAS. All business requiring Committee approval will be transacted at this time.
Duties and Election of the Officers
The Chair will preside over an Annual Meeting and be responsible for all interactions with the CAS Society. With the assistance of the Secretary, the Chair will report the Committee’s activities in an Annual Report to the Board of Governors of the CAS Society. The Chair will also be responsible for recommending Associate Editors in the field of NSA for various Transactions of the CAS Society, and for recommending Regional Representatives to be designated in the Annual Meeting. The Chair or his/her designated Member will serve as the NSA Track Chair in the following ISCAS if requested.
The Chair-Elect, who must be a Member of the NSA TC and a Member of the CAS Society, will be elected by a majority vote from the Members of the Committee present at an Annual Meeting and will serve a two-year term (one year as Chair-Elect and then one year as Chair). The Chair-Elect will be the focal point for processing the nominations of various CAS Society Awards in the field of NSA. The Chair-Elect will be responsible for the NSA-TC-sponsored Invited Sessions, Tutorials, and Short Courses at ISCAS. The Chair-Elect will assume the Chair of the Committee after the ISCAS one year following his election.
The Secretary, who must be a Member of the NSA TC and a member of the CAS Society, will be elected by a majority vote from the Members of the Committee present at an Annual Meeting and will serve for a two-year term (one year as Secretary-Elect and then one year as Secretary). The Secretary, who will act as the Treasurer for the Committee, will record the minutes of the Annual Meeting and maintain an official list of active Members of the Committee. The Secretary will assist the Chair to prepare an Annual Report on the Committee’s activities to the Board of Governors of the CAS Society, and an agenda for the Annual Meeting. The Secretary is responsible to process the nominations of new Members through emails for official approval in the Annual Meeting, and to regularly update and maintain the NSA TC official web site. Immediately after his/her election, the Secretary-Elect is expected to assist the Secretary to carry out the Secretary’s duties.
Outside of an Annual Meeting, the four Officers can, upon a majority vote, undertake unplanned business on behalf of the Committee, provided that these activities will be reported to the Committee at the next Annual Meeting.
Activities
The Committee will be responsible for nominating individuals in the field of NSA for the various CAS Society Awards and for nominating deserving papers in the field of NSA for each of the CAS Society’s Best Paper Awards. Every Member will be solicited by the Chair-Elect to submit nominations. The Chair, the Chair-Elect, the Secretary, and the Secretary-Elect will decide from the submissions by the Members, the names/papers to be submitted to each CAS Society Award Committee.
The Committee will organize Invited Sessions/Tutorials/Short Courses in the field of NSA at each ISCAS. The Chair-Elect elected at an ISCAS will be responsible for organizing such activities at the following ISCAS, the Chair is expected to assist.
The NSA TC will recommend new Associate Editors in the field of NSA for the various Transactions of the CAS Society, and to the Editorial Boards of the CAS Society, if requested. The Committee will accept nominations for these positions and review them at the Annual Meeting proceeding the term of the incoming editors. The Chair will be responsible for learning when each Editorial Board is going to form and for soliciting nominations from the Members in a timely manner.
The Committee may engage in other activities such as editing of reprint books, organizing special issues of an IEEE publication, workshops, conferences, and other publication activities, etc. in the field of NSA.
Amendments
Future amendments will be by a majority vote from the Members present at the Annual Meeting held during the corresponding ISCAS or from the majority of the Members at large through emails. Any amendment can be introduced at the Annual Meeting, provided that at least one of the four Officers has been notified at least one month prior to the Annual Meeting. Approval by the four Officers is not necessary, but notification is required. An approved amendment will take effect the day following the conclusion of the Annual Meeting where it has been officially approved.
2004 revision, contact person: H. K. Kwan, University of Windsor (Email: (Click to show email))
1987 revision, contact person: Bob Newcomb, University of Maryland (Email: (Click to show email))