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MTT-S Member & Geographic Activities (MGA) Committee
The Microwave Theory and Technology Society’s Member and Geographic Activities (MTT-S MGA) Committee is primarily responsible for promoting membership of the MTT-Society and for encouraging the formation of new Chapters to help serve the needs of members as well as helping the growth and success of existing Chapters.
For many members, the Chapter structure is a key part of their social engagement with the Society. At a local level, Chapters complement the services provided by the Society through its publications, conferences and other technical and professional activities. Chapters organize meetings and events, notably talks by outstanding technical leaders chosen by the Society through the Distinguished Microwave Lecturer Program and the Technical Committees Speakers Bureau. Chapters also help organise Workshops and Symposia and often provide a key resource in support of MTT-S sponsored national or international conferences. Sometimes they organize events just for fun!
Chapters exist in various forms, either as Single Society Chapters, Joint Society Chapters, Technical Council Chapters or Student Branch Chapters. At present, MTT-S has some 200 Chapters in every part of the world, of which about 50 are Student Chapters. MTT-S provides a high level of professional and administrative support to its Chapters and their leaders, and regularly organizes Chapter Chair Meetings to allow the Chairs and other senior officers of the Chapter to meet, discuss their challenges and successes and learn from each other in a friendly and supportive environment.
It is easy to form a new Chapter: just 12 MTT-S member signatories are needed, although these cannot be student members. Chapters are generally delighted to welcome not just new members but also volunteers to help with their organization and leadership. Getting involved in a MTT-S Chapter is a great way to make new friends among the technical community in your area, and to form lasting professional and personal relationships. For example, when being considered for election to IEEE Fellow (the highest grade of IEEE membership), having the support and endorsement of your local Chapter is an important advantage.
Aside from its role in Chapter formation and support, the MGA Committee works actively to promote increased membership of the Society. One way it does this is through membership Booths at the major MTT-S –sponsored conferences.
Two important sub-groups work within the MGA committee umbrella, namely Women in Microwaves and Young Professionals. Each of these are connected to wider IEEE structures that seek to promote an under-represented community (in the first case) and a group that need particular support and mutual encouragement at a particular phase of their careers (in the second case).
The membership of the MTT-S MGA Committee in 2016 is set out in Table 1.
TABLE 1
MGA Committee 2016
Chair: Tom Brazil
Past Chair: Daniel Pasquet
Vice-Chair: Shiban Koul
Vice-Chair: Atsushi Sanada
Vice-Chair: Jim Weiler
Advisor: Peter Staecker
Member-at-Large: Victor Fouad Hanna
Member-at-Large: Wei Hong
Administrator: Mike Golio
Region 1: Ajay Poddar
Region 2: Dru Reynolds
Region 3: Xun Gong
Region 4: Lora Schulwitz
Region 5: Charles Baylis
Region 6: Jay Banwait
Region 7: Raafat Mansour
Region 8: Daniel Pasquet, Jan Machac
Region 9: Silvio Barbin, Jose Rayas-Sanchez
Region 10: Atsushi Sanada, Shiban Koul, C. K. Clive Tzuang
Young Professionals: Tushar Sharma
Women in Microwaves: (WIM)
Co-Chair: Dominique Schreurs
Co-Chair: Rashaunda Henderson, Olga Boric-Lubecke, Wenquan (Cherry) Che, Reena Dahle, Rhonda Franklin, Sherry Hess, Vesana Radisic, Magdalena Salazar-Palma, Charlotte Blair
DML Speaker Coord.: James Hwang
SAMIEEE Database: Charlotte Blair
Chapter Awards Chair: Bela Szendrenyi
Within the wider IEEE organizational structure, most Chapters are technical sub-units of an IEEE Region. For this reason, the “Regional Coordinators” listed in Table 1 form an extremely important core of the MGA committee as they are the main liaison focus between the Society and its membership distributed across the globe. To give a better sense of what MGA does on the ground, the majority of Regional Coordinators have in the following prepared a short overview of their Region and also recent initiatives or activities that have been promoted on behalf of the Society’s members. Tushar Sharma has also provided a short overview of Young Professionals in Microwaves activities.
REGION 1:
Ajay K. Poddar (MTT-S Region 1 Coordinator)
MTT-S Region 1 consists of total 10 chapters (Boston Section MTT, Buffalo Section MTT/AP, Connecticut Section MTT, Long Island/New York Section MTT, New Hampshire Section MTT, New Jersey Coast Section MTT/ED/LEO, North Jersey Section MTT/AP, Princeton-Central Jersey Section MTT/AP/ED, Rochester Section MTT/AP, and Syracuse Section MTT/AP/EMCS). Last year 2015, total 104 technical talks organized by 10 chapters (Boston-3, Buffalo-9, Connecticut-3, LI/NY-2, NH-4, NJ Coast-5, North Jersey-66, PCJS-2, Rochester- 2, and Syracuse-8). North Jersey and Long Island Chapter had taken lead in organizing MTT-S sponsored conference locally for the benefit of members and society.
For more than 5 years, I been working tirelessly to make MTT-S Chapters from Region 1 as an exemplary chapter in the MTT society. The IEEE North Jersey Section organized MTT/AP mini symposium in the first week of October; last year it had completed 30 years. The average number of attendees varies from 250-350 with 40-50 exhibitors. IEEE North Jersey MTT-S chapter is known for the record number of technical events 68 in 2015.
As proactive volunteer, I have been motivating all the MTT-S chapter chairs from Region 1, and helping those chapters who are behind. This year, I organized with Dr. Charlotte Blair 3 DML tour in the Region during April 2015, the speakers being Dr. Robert Caverly, Dr. John Wood, and Dr. Amir Mortazawi. The DML tour ended with the newly launched annual 2016 IEEE MTT-S Long Island mini conference in Hauppauge, New York, with the Long Island MTT-S ExCom with Sai P of Frequency Electronics as the Chair, Eric Darvin of Narda/L3 as Vice Chair, James Colletti of Telephonics as Publicity Chair, Santo Mazzola as a Treasurer and Tony Bocchimuzzo as Exhibits Chair. DML and SB talks are very effective way to attract new members and also help the community in building microwave culture.
Region 1 is very active in STEM program for high school students, last year more than 500 students were trained for different programs related with microwave communications. I want to thank MTT-S President Dr. Ke Wu and MGA Chair Dr. Tom Brazil for continuous support and help.
REGION 3:
Xun Gong (MTT-S Region 3 Coordinator)
There are 7 MTT chapters in IEEE Region 3: Atlanta, Central North Carolina, East North Carolina, Florida West Coast, Huntsville, Melbourne and Orlando. All MTT chapters are join chapters with other societies such as AP, ED, SSC, COM or CPMT. In addition, there is an MTT student branch at University of South Florida which was established in 2013. These chapters/student branches are primarily located in regions where there are microwave companies or major research universities such as Central Florida Area and Research Triangle Area in North Carolina. Among them, Atlanta, Central North Carolina, Florida West Coast, Orlando Chapters are led by research universities, while East North Carolina, Huntsville and Melbourne Chapters are more industry driven. However, most chapters in Region 3 have both industry and university existence which have provided a balanced and stable level of activities. The close proximity of chapters in the same area often allows for back-to-back seminars which are efficient for DMLs to use their travel funds. Particularly, Atlanta, Florida West Coast and Orlando Chapters are the most active ones in Region 3 due to the participation from Georgia Institute of Technology, University of South Florida and University of Central Florida. It is noted that Atlanta AP/MTT Chapter received the Outstanding Chapter Award at the Annual IEEE Atlanta Section Banquet on April 21st, 2016.
REGION 4:
Lora Schulwitz (MTT-S Region 4 Coordinator)
Region 4, which covers the Midwestern USA, is organized into 5 active IEEE MTT-S and joint MTT-S chapters which regularly host IEEE technical events and membership activities. Among the activities held in Region 4, in April 2016, the Chicago, Notre Dame, and Southeastern Michigan chapters each hosted Dr. Jose Pedro, MTT Distinguished lecturer, who presented lectures on “The Wonderful World of Nonlinearity: Modeling and Characterization of RF and Microwave Circuits.” In addition, in January 2016, the Twin Cities Chapter hosted Dr. Manuel Vazquez, who presented a lecture on “CoFe-based cylindrical nanowires.” In later April 2016, Dr. Amir Mortazawi will be presenting his MTT Distinguished Lecture on “Switchable and Tunable Ferroelectric Devices for Adaptive and Reconfigurable RF Circuits” at the Cedar Rapids, Iowa Chapter.
In addition to local technical lectures, the chapters in Region 4 have been involved in organizing local workshops. For example, in November 2015, the Southeastern Michigan Chapter organized an event “Celebrating Maxwell’s Equations: 150 Years,” which included invited speakers Dr. Jim Rautio and Dr. Arthur Yaghjian, a panel session, and a student demo competition on the applications of Maxwell’s equations. The event was held during a Friday afternoon at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, with 126 attendees from both academia and industry. Furthermore, in September 2015, the Twin Cities Chapter hosted the “Wireless Medical Devices and Systems Workshop,” with speakers Dr. Donald Witters, Dr. David Nghiem, John Kruse, Tim Oshea, Dr. David R. Jackson, Dr. Daniel Ewert and Dr. Benjamin Braaten. The workshop topics included the future “Trends of wireless medical devices,” and “MRI safety and compatibility for wireless medical devices.”
REGION 5:
Charles Baylis (MTT-S Region 5 Coordinator)
Region 5 consists of the southwestern United States. The MTT Society has eight chapters spread across four different U.S. states in Region 5: Central Texas, Dallas, Denver/High Plains, Houston/College Station, Houston, Pike’s Peak, St. Louis, and a student branch chapter at the University of Oklahoma. Texas has the largest number of chapters of the states in Region 5, with four chapters. Many of the MTT chapters, as in many of the regions, are joint chapters with other IEEE societies, such as the Antennas and Propagation Society or the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.
Two recent activities bear mentioning, as they have shown the excellent synergy and collaboration between MTT-S, academia, industry, government, and students. One such activity is the formation of the new MTT-S student branch chapter at the University of Oklahoma in September 2015. Forming an MTT-S student branch chapter provides the opportunity for students to bring experts in microwave practice and theory to campus, enhancing the radio-frequency and microwave education they are receiving in the classroom. In addition, it provides enhanced opportunity for networking with some outstanding experts in the microwave profession. Such networking will serve the students well throughout their future careers in industry, academia, or government.
The second recent activity to report is the 2016 Texas Symposium on Wireless and Microwave Circuits and Systems, hosted by Baylor University in Waco, Texas on Thursday and Friday, March 31-April 1, 2016. 2016 represented the eighth year of this symposium, and the fourth year it has received the technical co-sponsorship of the MTT Society, allowing its papers to be published on IEEE Xplore. The 119 attendees of this year’s conference had the opportunity to participate in technical sessions with topics including wireless power transfer, active circuits and RF systems, passive circuits, antennas and propagation, power amplifiers, and a spectrum forum. Keynote presentations were given by Ken Corum of Texzon Technologies and Charles Campbell of Qorvo (also a Distinguished Microwave Lecturer). Additional student-focused features of the conference included a student poster competition (pictured) and an industry panel session, which allowed students to ask questions to wireless and microwave practitioners from industry and academia. The goal of the Texas Symposium is to provide an annual event in Region 5 that fosters technical wireless and microwave interaction between industry, academia, and government. The 2016 conference was partially sponsored using workshop funds from the Dallas MTT-S and Houston MTT-S/AP-S chapters, as well as from industry sponsors Maury Microwave, National Instruments, and Testech. We would like invite you to experience the microwave enthusiasm in Region 5 and submit a paper to the 2017 conference! Potential authors are encouraged to check the conference website, http://texassymposium.org, for 2017 conference dates and paper submission information.
Enthusiastic interaction at the 2016 Texas Symposium Student Poster Competition (Photo: Robert J. Marks II)
REGION 6:
Jay Banwait (MTT-S Region 6 Coordinator)
The MTT society chapters in region 6 have been very active in the last year with several holding monthly meetings throughout the year resulting in 8+ meetings. A number have taken advantage of the Distinguished lecturers from the MTT society as well as other societies to provide a broad spectrum of technical topics for their monthly meetings and technical seminars.
Recurring topics tend to be component design (ie Amplifiers, filters, mixers, etc), subsystems (transmitters, receivers transceivers, SDR). There is also keen interest in developing areas such as millimeter wave and the terahertz arena.
Not all meetings have been technical with student chapters have non-technical meetings in support of their membership.
Industry participation has been key for providing speakers in addition to Academia. However, the importance of the Distinguished Lecturers cannot be over emphasized and they are truly a pillar of support for those societies that may have difficulties finding speakers due to their geographic location and limited microwave/RF industry.
REGION 8:
Daniel Pasquet & Jan Machac (MTT-S Region 8 Coordinators)
The life of the Chapters in Region 8 is coordinated by two MTT-S Chapter Coordinators: Daniel Pasquet (daniel.pasquet@ensea.fr), who is a Professor Emeritus at LaMIPS, Colombelles, and ENSEA, Cergy, France, and Jan Macháč (machac@fel.cvut.cz), who is a Professor at the Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic. There are 7 Ambassadors helping to manage the work with 50 chapters in Region 8.
The annual meeting of the Chairs and other Chapter representatives traditionally takes place in conjunction with the European Microwave Week. In 2015, EuMW was held in Paris. The Chapter Chairs’ Meeting took place at the Hotel Le Meridien Etoile on September 7, from 3 to 6 p.m. Organizing this useful and friendly meeting, which brings together representatives of Chapters and MTT-S officers, is one of the most important duties of the Regional Chapter Coordinators. It provides an opportunity to exchange experience among the individual chapters, to share best practices, to clarify what the Chapters want the officers and administrators of IEEE MTT-S to do, and to explain the support given to the Chapters by MTT-S and the conditions under which it is provided. This Meeting will be held in London on October 3, 2016. Every second year the Region 8 Coordinators organize the local CCM at the occasion of the Polish Microwave and Radar Week. The last one was in Gdańsk in 2014. In 2016 it will be in Krakow on May 9.
Jan Macháč represents MTT Society in the Region 8 Chapter Coordination Sub-Committee (that was chaired by Daniel Pasquet for three years) serving namely as the means of exchange experience from societies, identifying the chapters, organizing chapter chair meetings, ways of helping chapters.
All activities carried out and coordinated by the two Region 8 Coordinators are aimed to benefit all MTT Society members and to make membership of IEEE valuable for them. The main aim is to help Chapter Chairs in all fields of their life, as Chapter activities present the MTT Society to its members.
Participants in the Ambassadors Meeting in Paris on Sept. 3, 2015, from the left: Atsushi Sanada, Shiban Koul, Wojciech J. Krzysztofik, Jan Macháč, Daniel Pasquet, Jim Weiler, Shmuel Auster, Dominique Schreurs, Felix Yanovsky, Mike Golio.
Photo courtesy of Shmuel Auster, Israel MTT/AP Chapter Chair.
REGION 9:
José Rayas-Sanchez & Silvio Barbin (MTT-S Region 9 Coordinators)
The RF and microwave community in Latin America is relatively small in comparison with other regions of the world, however, it has a great potential for significant growth. IEEE Region 9 has officially established 10 MTT-S Chapters in five different countries (Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela). From those 10 Chapters, three of them have been formed in less than 2 years. Latin America covers a very large geographical area with clearly identified areas that have a significant number of academic and research programs in RF and microwaves [4].
MGA MTT-S has recently implemented specific initiatives in Mexico and Brazil to reach out to the RF and microwave local communities, to promote participation in global and local MTT-S activities, yielding successful measurable outcomes in terms of membership growth and formation of new chapters [5].
Extending these regional efforts, the MTT-S AdCom approved last year an initiative of its Meetings & Symposia Committee to create the IEEE MTT-S Latin America Microwave Conference (LAMC), to be held biannually, whose first edition will take place in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in Dec. 12-14, 2016 (www.lamc-ieee.org).
REGION 10:
Atsushi Sanada, Shiban Koul & C. K. Clive Tzuang (MTT-S Region 10 Coordinators)
Report on India & Srilanka (Shiban Koul)
There are currently about 31 Chapters in India and 1 Chapter in Srilanka involved with IEEE MTT-S activities. These include student branch chapters and also joint chapters with other societies. During the last year about 15 Chapters have been very active. A total of 177 activities has been reported by these chapters ( 172 in India and 5 in Srilanka). The Chapters invited several DML’s to give talks at their respective Chapters. Some talks were organized specifically for women in Microwaves. For young professional, hands on training was organized to give them a feel of RF circuit design using software tools. In addition, visits to industry and premier academic institutions were organized for college students to motivate them early on to pursue career in RF and Microwave Engineering. Talks were also organized for faculty and students about how to publish papers in quality Journals.
Highly successful conference IMaRC-2015 was organized in Hyderabad with participation of the MTT-S chapter and support from Hyderabad section from 10-12 Dec.2015. A special SIGHT activity event was organized for the students. In addition, Ham Radio Training Sessions for students were successfully organized during the IMaRC-2015 conference. Other conferences that were held in this region include: India Antenna Week (IAW-2015) in Kolkata from May 30-3 June 2015, IEEE International Microwave and Photonics Conference (ICMAP-2015) in Dhanbad from 11-13 Dec.2015, IEEE Applied Electromagnetics Conference (AEMC-2015) in Assam from 18-21 Dec.2015, International Radar Symposium (IRIS-2015) in Bangalore from 15-19 Dec.2015 and IEEE 10th International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems (ICIIS-2015) in Srilanka from 17-20 Dec.2015.
All the above activities have motivated students and faculty in pursuing career in RF and Microwave Engineering. A noticeable outcome has been publishing of quality publications in IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques and Microwave Guided Wave Letters. A Mini issue of IEEE Transactions from IMaRC-2015 is in the pipeline. A recent initiative has been to organize summer workshops to guide and mentor students to undertake community projects related to RF. It is worthwhile mentioning that Hyderabad Chapter received the best Chapter award from IEEE MTT-S.
Report on China (C. K. Clive Tzuang)
There are 7 sections, 67 chapters, and over 12000 IEEE members in China. Nearly 200 activities were held by sections and chapters in China last year. One of the most featured conferences is IWS (IEEE MTT-S International Wireless Symposium) held in Shenzhen from 30 Mar. to 1 Apr. 2015. IWS is held annually in China to provide an international forum for the presentation and exchange of the latest technical achievements in microwave circuits, hardware, and RF systems related to the physical layer aspects of existing and emerging wireless systems. Other important conferences held in China sponsored, co-sponsored, or technically sponsored by MTT-S include: IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Workshop Series on Advanced Materials and Processes for RF and THz Applications (IMWS-AMP 2015) in Suzhou from 1-3, Jul. 2015, International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves (IRMMW-THz 2015) in Hong Kong from 23-28, Aug. 2015, Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (2015APMC) in Nanjing from 6-9, Dec. 2015.
YOUNG PROFESSIONALS:
Tushar Sharma
The Young Professionals in Microwaves, YPM, is envisioned as a comprehensive approach to improve member benefits, interaction as well as holistically improve the status of Microwave related technology from the perspective of both industry and academia. The program is designed with 4 major focuses viz, Conference Focus, Involvement Focus, Entrepreneurship Focus and Humanitarian Focus. A strong set of sustainability initiatives like a dedicated YPM blog backs the whole project. Young Professionals in Microwaves Blog (https://www.mtt.org/blog) was launched this year for showcasing the achievements and participation of microwave community from all over the world. YPM has maintained a very active presence at the major conferences, most notably at the International Microwave Symposium 2015, IMaRC’15 and has a strong panel assembled for the IMS 2016. For IMS 2016, a panel session has been organized with the purpose of elaborating and highlighting key areas in mm-Wave research for Young Professionals and students. The key focus will be on mm-Wave research goals and objectives as defined by industry, academia and government agencies for the short and long term. Apart from MTT-S conferences, the Young Professionals in Microwaves group has been active in regional student congresses across the globe. There is a lot of support and encouragement given to various Humanitarian initiatives with a special emphasis on popularisation of Amateur Radios aka HAM and setting up HAM groups in various locations.
References
[1] J. Macháč, D. Pasquet, Region 8 MTT-S Chapter Representatives Met in Rome on 6 October 2014“, IEEE Microwave Magazine, Vol. 16, No. 1, Jan./Feb. 2015, pp. 146-149.
[2] J. Macháč, D. Pasquet, S. Barbin , MTT-S Chapter Representatives of Region 8 meeting in Paris on Sept. 7, 2015“,IEEE Microwave Magazine, Vol. 17, No. 2, Feb. 2016, pp. 75-78.
[3] J. Machac, J.C. Pedro: Distinguished Microwave Lecturer in Central Europe and Balkan Countries, IEEE Microwave Magazine, Vol. 16, No. 9, Oct. 2015, pp. 92-93.
[4] R. Murphy, R. Torres, J. E. Rayas-Sánchez, A. Reynoso, M. Maya-Sánchez, A. Henze, A. Zozaya, P. del Pino, J. Pena, and G. Rafael-Valdivia, “R&D in Latin America: RF and microwave research in Latin America,” IEEE Microwave Magazine, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 97-103, May 2014.
[5] J. E. Rayas-Sánchez, D. Pasquet, B. Szendrenyi, and M. S. Gupta, “MTT-S Mexico trip: addressing the RF and microwave community in Mexico,” IEEE Microwave Magazine, vol. 16, no. 7, pp. 104-107, Aug. 2015.