Category: IEEE Page 2 of 3

Chiang Mai: Region 10 Annual Meeting

On 2013-03-09

IEEE Region 10 Meeting this year was held in Chiang Mai. This is an annual event, and formerly held in the city of Lapu Lapu, Yogyakarta, and Kolkatta. Besides all the Section Chairs in Asia Pacific, and the Officers of IEEE Region 10, also attended some VP of IEEE HQ. I recognised some familiar faces was, especially from the previous meetings in Lapu Lapu and Yogya. But none of the IEEE Presidents was present. But it’s OK. I’ve already meet Prof Peter Staecker, the Prisident, the previous weekend in Tanjung Benoa.

This year, the IEEE Indonesia Section received a special invitation to obtain the 25 Years Banner. When the invitation was received, M Ary Murti, who was serving as the Section Chair decided to invite all the previous section chairs to present in Chiang Mai. And all the former chairs agreed to attend. Later, the leadership was handed over from Ary to me (via election, certainly). So this time, I was the primary delegation of Indonesia, and the former chairs be the secondary delegations.

The flights we used were Garuda Indonesia for Jakarta – Bangkok, and Thai Airways to Bangkok – Chiang Mai, on March 1. We landed in Chiang Mai at night, and went straightly to Le Méridien. The meeting would began on Saturday morning, March 2, 2013.

IEEE formal meetings use the protocol called “Robert’s Roles of Order” that is used in some parliaments. This is an interesting protocol, which facilitates shared decision-making more effectively. On the first day, Region 10 evaluated the Budget 2012, proposed the Strategic Planning, and displayed the work plans of the units, as well as support from HQ and Region 10 to Sections. We also learnt best practices from the various Section and other task units. The activities of Women in Engineering (WiE), students, and GOLD (Graduated on Last Decade) were highlighted. Some incentives were also offered to enable the specific activities in the Section.

Later that evening, a gala dinner was held. At this dinner, presented a variety of awards, to the most active section, most active small section, best volunteer, and others. The banner of “25 Years Anniversary” was also handed over to Indonesia Section at this event. Ralph M Ford (VP MGA) handed the banner to me as Indonesia Section Chair, and we handed it to all of the previous chairs of the Indonesia Section. I asked Dr Wahidin Wahab to give a brief remark. Mr. Wahab presented a bit about the history of Indonesia Section and some gratitudes to those who helped the development of Indonesia Section.

The second day was started with a petition to award Prof Marzuki, a leader in Region 10 who passed away last year due to a long illness. In the midst of the pain, he did not stop doing organisational dan professional tasks, including supporting many activities for the Indonesia Section. Indonesia Section specifically stated a grief at the previous night. Then reviewed the Budget Plan for 2013, the report of Tencon 2012, and plan of Tencon 2013, and R10 Congress 2013 (Hyderabad).

I talked briefly to the Region 10 Director, the always joyous Prof. Toshio Fukuda; invited him to be the Keynote Speaker of the IEEE Cyberneticscom in Yogyakarta later this year. He confirmed.

Then presented the information and policy on the administration of Section and units under it. There were some new things, and some important repetitions. The meetings were closed after midday. After that, a brief tour around Chiang Mai.

APCC 2013 CFP

By Koen

On 2013-02-07

In IEEE

The 19th Asia-Pacific Conference on Communications (APCC 2013) will be held at Bali Dynasty Resort in Bali island, Indonesia, during August 29-31, 2013. Since 1993, APCC has been a technical forum for researchers and engineers to interact and disseminate information on the latest developments in advanced communication and information technologies. Prospective authors are invited to submit original technical papers for presentation at the conference and publication in the conference proceedings.

APCC – http://apcc.pro
Smart Communications to Enhance the Quality of Life

August 29-31, 2013
BALI Island, INDONESIA

Organised by: IEEE Indonesia Communications Society Chapter

IMPORTANT DATES

Paper Submission Deadline: April 26, 2013
Notification of Acceptance: June 21, 2013
Camera Ready Submission: July 19, 2013
Tutorial Proposals: June 30, 2012

Potential topics are solicited in, but not limited to the following topics:

Ad hoc and sensor networks
Antennas and propagations
Broadband wireless access
Cognitive radio and networks
Communication protocol and architecture
Communication theory
Cooperative communication and relaying
Future Internet and networks
Green communication systems and network
Information theory and channel coding
Mobility management
Multimedia communications
Multiple antenna techniques
Network and information security
Network applications and services
Optical networks and systems
QoS and resource management
Satellite and space communications
Signal processing for communications
Switching and routing
Wireless and mobile networks
Wireless communications

Paper submission process will be managed by using EDAS: http://edas.info/N13613.

Paper length should be six pages at maximum including figures, tables, references, and appendices. Please use the standard IEEE conference proceedings templates for Microsoft Word or LaTeX format on A4 size pages founded at http://fk.vc/template. Accepted papers will be published in the APCC 2013 Conference Proceedings and in IEEE Xplore, for which at least one author is required to register for the conference at the full rate.

APCC 2012, Korea

By Koen

On 2012-10-23

In IEEE, Travel

The twin conference IEEE Comnetsat and IEEE Cyberneticscom in Bali last July, apparently leaving continuing effects. While the organisers evaluated that everything is far from perfect, the two keynote speakers might have different impression. Dr Ford said that Prof. Lightner (President of the IEEE, 2006) at a meeting in Hong Kong praised the twin conference as fully IEEE compliant, including small things like the visual designs; then suggested Indonesia to submit a proposal to host the IEEE TALE conference in 2013. Prof. Byeong Gi Lee (President of IEEE Comsoc, 2010-2011), in a communication after the Comnetsat, also encouraged Indonesia to host APCC 2013. Prof Lee himself is the General Chair for APCC 2012. Then we were invited to submit proposals, at APCC 2012. Prof Lee are extremely intelligent and gentle, but firm. So albeit his tone soft, we interpreted his message as a command.

APCC, Asia-Pacific Conference on Communications, is a very prestigious regional conference in one of the regions with the highest growth in the IT world. For the international level, the IEEE Comsoc has ICC and Globecom. For the general technical issues, the IEEE Region 10 Asia Pacific has IEEE Tencon (hosted by Indonesia in 2010). APCC is like a slice for both. However, due to its specific field, personal and professional relationships among its Steering Committee (ASC) are very closed. APCC, besides sponsored by IEEE Comsoc, also supported by the KICS in Korea, IEICE in Japan, and the CIC in China. APCC was first held in 1993 in Taejon, Korea. The 18th APCC is conducted this year in Korea too, but in Jeju Island.

Comsoc Indonesia (Indonesia IEEE Communications Society Chapter) has started the plan. Assessments has been conducted since Ramadan this year. But Comsoc officers in Indonesia are small and very busy. So we just made a brief proposal; expecting that we will have the opportunity to discuss with the ASC about it. After some discussions, Indonesia will send, as delegation to APCC 2012: me (as Past Chair Comsoc Indonesia), M Ary Murti (IEEE Indonesia as Chair, but indeed also a Past-Past Chair of Comsoc Indonesia), and Agnes Irwanti (Secretary of Comsoc Indonesia).

I departed from Jakarta on October 13 evening, had flight with Garuda Indonesia, and arrived at Incheon October 14. At Incheon, I joined Ary and Agnes. We had a small visit to Seoul, followed by Korean Air flight from Incheon to Jeju. Jeju is an island located in the south of the Korean Peninsula.

APCC 2012 commenced on 15th morning. Opening was conducted by by Prof. Jinwoo Park, President of KICS; Prof. Byeong G Lee, from IEEE; then Prof. Yang Zhen, Vice Chair of the CIC. Plenary session was presented by Prof. Tomonori Aoyama, who is also one of the pioneers APCC, with the theme New Generation Networking (NWGN) and Inter-Cloud Computing to Handle Big Data. NWGN, also called Future Internet, is not just a development of TCP/IP suit, but a design of new network architectures that might be based on Post-IP Network.

Break, we took pictures with some of the participants from Indonesia, who are students in Korea and Japan.

After the break, the ASC held a separate session, to discuss the organising of the APCC. Included is a discussion of the next APCC host. So the we joined the ASC meeting. The meeting occupied a seminar room; attended by the members of the ASC, the titan in Communications Technology. Beside them, the delegations from Indonesia and Thailand also attended the meeting to bid for the next host. Thailand performed first, with excellent presentation, detail, and supplemented with some souvenirs from their country. Presentation of the Indonesian delegation was presented clumsy Koen.

I had only a simple presentation, but I put the focus on the selection of the theme, time, and the situations. I guess both delegations could show good plans and commitments. Soon, we were asked to leave.

About fifteen minutes later, we were asked to enter the meeting room. The ASC had decided to choose Indonesia as the host for APCC 2013, with Comsoc Indonesia as the organiser. We were also asked to give a short speech at the banquet the next day.

On 16 morning, I still attended the Plenary Session. Prof. Zhisheng Niu discussed the theme of Rethinking Cellular Networks – A Novel Hyper-Cellular Architecture for Green and Smart ICT. Then I just realised that I was a bit tired. We took time to freshen up with a walk to the beach just about the hotel.

That night, we were invited to attend the Banquet of APCC. As the next host in 2013, we were asked to sit at one of the VIP tables. Of course in such events, toasts were so routine. Kempai! But they provided a bottle of Coca Cola for people like us who does not drink alcohol. I asked Mme Agnes to represent us giving a speech about APCC 2013. Some VIP also came to our table, discussing the next plan for APCC 2013.

The next morning, I woke up very early, and ran away from the hotel. I found almost no taxi in Jeju that early. But there was a Korean asked me to join him with a cab to the airport. From Jeju Airport, Korean Air flew me to Gimpo within 1 hour. After a brisk walk about 500 meters, I got into Arex (Airport Express). Arex is a train connecting Gimpo to Incheon, in about 40 minutes. At Incheon, I simply checked in on Garuda, walked fast immigration desk, walked faster to the connecting station, and got by Gate 107 when the passengers started boarding.

Seven hours later, I’ve arrived in Jakarta.

Cyberneticscom & Comnetsat

By Koen

On 2012-08-05

In IEEE

It was only on the early days of August, we could at last complete the report on the accomplishment of the IEEE CYBERNETICSCOM and the IEEE COMNETSAT, and sent it to the IEEE.

On the same month last year, we began to plan these conferences. However, the preparation and execution of the IEEE TENCON 2011 has inevitably delayed the preparation of these twin conferences. So at the beginning of this year, we started distributing information on COMNETSAT and CYBERNETICSCOM. The papers started to come, but we received the majority of papers in injury time just before April. Luckily we’ve got strong supports from the organisations and from our colleagues. IEEE sent its Letters of Acquisition to each conference rather quickly. They seemed impressed by the success of the IEEE TENCON 2011 we carried out last year. The former president of the IEEE and the IEEE Communication Society gave their willingness to present as Keynote Speakers. We then organised the Technical Programme Committee, and began inviting the Track Chairs from universities and institutions. The track chairs, as the guardians of the conference quality, then did their first tasks to select the paper reviewers. Those reviewers went on duty to review the papers and to submit the results. At the end of May, the paper authors have received the results of their submissions. Only about 50% of the papers are passed in this stage. Then the authors had only a short time to fix the paper according to reviewers’ feedback. Meanwhile, the conference organisers started to prepare the event conferences. With the adrenaline triggered the pursuit of quality and time, we finally left for Denpasar. The show must go on.

IEEE CYBERNETICSCOM and IEEE COMNETSAT are officially launched on Thursday, July 12, 2012. The conferences were located at Inna Grand Bali Hotel, Sanur Beach. COMNETSAT is the IEEE Conference on Communication, Network, and Satellite; while CYBERNETICSCOM is the IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Cybernetics. Jumped out from my role as TPC member and Organiser, I served at the opening ceremony as the clumsy MC. The General Chair, Dr. Ford Lumban Gaol, formally opened the conferences. M Ary Murti, the IEEE Indonesia Section Chairman, delivered a welcome speech, including a brief about the IEEE and the Indonesia Section.

The first keynote speaker, Prof. Michael Lightner, the IEEE President in 2006, delivered a keynote speech for CYBERNETICSCOM, titled Machine Learning for Assistive Technology. Lightner began with a concern that a very large number of humanity experience disabilities at various levels. Researches in the field of assistive technology lead to some improvements to the value of human life by various measures. Initially we applied some tools for the improvement; but then also we use some agents implanted into the human body. One material that was presented but-not-shared related to a research to bypass the brain to overcome the problems caused by short-term memory impairment.

Prof. Byeong Gi Lee, the Past President of the IEEE Communications Society (Comsoc), then delivered a keynote speech for COMNETSAT, themed Convergence of Communications Toward Smart Era. BG Lee described how the revolutions in communications and digital information had affect each other in the cultural and social life of human being; how the context processing becomes increasingly important for the development of intelligent systems that will better understand and enhance the human life.

After the opening session, the conferences were spread into paper presentation sessions in several rooms. As a member of the Technical Program Committee of COMNETSAT, I was active in COMNETSAT. I occasionally served as a session chair, or to appoint session chairs from the conference participants at each session, or just as an observer. Between there were networking, gaining new friends, gossiping the future of cognitive radio and various variants of 4G, and sharing some technology updates. Between sessions, I also saw Prof. Lightner and Prof BG Lee being active in the sessions, put sparks in the discussions. In some ways, these conferences were more amazing than TENCON :).

On the last day, Saturday, July 14th, we held a Plenary Speech of Prof. Pramod K Varshney. In his speech, he explored the philosophy and implementation of Cognitive Radio Networks. An interesting topic. Indeed I myself has discussed it at an IEEE Public Lecture session carried out at ITTelkom Bandung the other month.

The Sanur Beach was still as cool as what I saw previous years. Soft and white sands help to banish fatigue and tension result from the conference. The squirrels (yes, messieurs et mesdames, squirrels) jump among the coconut trees and frangipani trees to make fun of the days. But surely there are many other cool places throughout Indonesia for the COMNETSAT, CYBERNETICSCOM and other technical meetings we will carry out the next years. For the advancement of the profession, technology, and humanity.

IEEE Senior Member

By Koen

On 2012-06-15

In IEEE

Today I got a message from the IEEE. The message was like a welcoming letter to new member. But attach to it was my new IEEE membership card. And printed in it is my new level as IEEE Senior Member. Wow, thank you, IEEE !

[Update: Then I’ve got also a plaque sent from Piscataway, signed by IEEE President and Secretary, certifying my election to the grade of IEEE Senior Member]

As mentioned in IEEE site, the grade of Senior Member is the highest for which application may be made and shall require experience reflecting professional maturity. For admission or transfer to the grade of Senior Member, a candidate shall be an engineer, scientist, educator, technical executive, or originator in IEEE-designated fields for a total of 10 years and have demonstrated 5 years of significant performance.

The only higher grade than Senior Member is IEEE Fellow. The grade of Fellow recognizes unusual distinction in the profession and shall be conferred only by invitation of the Board of Directors upon a person of outstanding and extraordinary qualifications and experience in IEEE-designated fields, and who has made important individual contributions to one or more of these fields.

For this elevation process and approval, I’d like to express my many thaaaaaanks to my seniors who have provided me with reference:

Prof. Dr. Dadang Gunawan, University of Indonesia
Arnold Ph Djiwatampu, TT Tel
Dr. Lukas Tanutama, Bina Nusantara University
Dr. Wahidin Wahab, University of Indonesia

And surely, many gratitudes to my colleagues, the Indonesian engineers, who have had collaborations with me during my professional years to make this elevation possible.

IEEE Tutorial Series: April

By Koen

On 2012-04-26

In IEEE

The year 2012 almost ruthlessly enforced to work hard without leaving time to spare. April is like its peak. I have to prepare at least two new products, do some administrative affairs, and other things. But there’s still time devoted for the IEEE.

IEEE COMNETSAT and IEEE CYBERNETICSCOM are now in the phase of paper reviewing, after paper submission had been closed on 15 April. I have contacted all the COMNETSAT’s Track Chairs, and they had begun to contact the reviewers. In early May, all the paper should have got status of acceptance into the conference. COMNETSAT and CYBERNETICSCOM are the first two conferences established by IEEE Indonesia Section. Previous conferences, including the TENCON 2011 last November, were sometimes hosted and organised by IEEE Indonesia Section; but they belong to the IEEE (centre), one or more of of its Societies, or Region. Anyway, both these conferences has obtained Letter of Acquisition from the IEEE, and thus have the status as IEEE Conferences.

Last week (14 April), IEEE Indonesia Section held a Public Lecture on Small Cell. This lecture took place at GSD ITTelkom, Dayeuhkolot, Bandung. The main speakers were Arief Hamdani who presented the introduction of the Small Cell, which was formerly known as Femtocell. Anto Sihombing then continued to provide some updates from Small Cell Forum that he attended last March in Taipei. Then I gave a little extra on Cognitive Radio, which will somehow closely link to the use of spectrum within the framework of Small Cell.

My slide for Cognitive Radio lecture:

The next Saturday (April 21), the IEEE Indonesia Section in cooperation with IEEE Women in Engineering carried out a joint activity to commemorate Kartini Day, which was the IEEE Tutorial Series on Advancing Technology for Humanity, at the Orchid Auditorium Campus, University of Bina Nusantara. Ms Nelly, the Vice Rector of the University of Bina Nusantara commenced the programme; then I spent 5 minutes as the Vice Chair of the IEEE Indonesia Section to welcome the participants. However, all materials were presented by the women-engineers, with styles that show the strength of women engineers in Indonesia:

Dr. How Wie Chie, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Binus
Hardyana Syintawati, VP of MarCom Erickson
Erina Tobias, Director of Engineering TVRI
Agnes Irwanti, Multikom Business Development Director

After lunch break, in the same place, the IEEE Indonesia Section and IEEE Comsoc Indonesia Chapter held an IEEE Tutorial Series on Cloud & Ubiquitous Computing. Speakers on this afternoon sessions:

Kuncoro Wastuwibowo – Ubiquitous and Context-Aware Computing
Satriyo Dharmanto – Cloud Computing
Arief Hamdani Gunawan – Ubiquitous Mobile Computing

My slide for Ubiquitous Computing lecture:

After the lecture, we went up to 8th floor, to attend the first Officer Meeting of the IEEE Indonesia Section of the year 2012. This meeting was attended by the Advisory Board, the Executive Committee, the Activity Committee, and representatives from Chapters (Comsoc, MTT / AP) and Student Branches (UI, ITTelkom). We discussed the 2012 work program, plus a plan to amend the Bylaws that have been aged — it almost 25 years old.

Tencon 2011 in Bali

By Koen

On 2011-11-24

In Event, IEEE

Last week, Indonesia hosted some regional events: SEA Games, ASEAN Blogger Conference, ASEAN Summit. These days, the IEEE Region 10 (Asia Pacific) carries out its official annual conference IEEE TENCON on Sanur Beach, Bali. This conference has been prepared since a couple years ago, starting by submitting the proposal from Indonesia to the IEEE Region 10, bidding, recording in the IEEE, and the processes that include the calls for papers, paper reviews, event planning, and event organising. The whole process has involved senior academics in various parts of the earth. The event is organised by the IEEE Indonesia Section and University of Indonesia. Two IEEE society chapters are also involved as technical sponsors: the Comsoc Chapter and the MTT / AP Joint Chapter. Since the event is held Denpasar, Udayana University sends some volunteers to support the conference. Busy days :).

I jumped from Jakarta to Denpasar last Sunday. I saw the valley in the vicinity of Mount Ijen, Bali Strait, 10 minutes southwest coast of sunny, clear, sloping, sandy white, soft, and wavy beaches, and then finally the Ngurah Rai airport. Apparently ASEAN Summit still left some activities, so we had to revolve around Bali’s southeast coast for 40 minutes before landing. Then travel overland to Sanur Beach: Inna Bali Beach Hotel.

Unlike 2009, this year I can not seem up to enjoy the magnificent nature and culture of Bali. Representing IEEE Comsoc Indonesia Chapter, I had to prepare a tutorial session, then assist the event organising. Even today! 🙂

The tutorial was held on Monday, November 21 at 10:00 sharp. Prof Dadang Gunawan opened the session; then I took over to deliver a lecture on Digital TV and IPTV. My presentation focused on the network architecture, standards, how-it-works, services and content, and to the issues of convergence. Quite a lot, considering the time the tutorial was quite long. The next tutorial session was then filled by Mr Satrio Dharmanto Ms Agnes Irwanti, with emphasis on migration into DigitalTV.

The conference was officially commenced on 22 November. As the organising chair, Dr. Wahidin Wahab open the conference with his typical fun and exciting speech. The plenary session was then filled by four keynote speakers, with two moderated by Mr. Arnold Djiwatampu (himself the general chair of the event), and two by me.

The theme of the keynote speakers were very interesting. Prof. Nurul Sarkar discussed a breakthrough in engineering education strategies. Prof. Ke Wu explored IC Substrate (SICS) that are applied for future electronics and photonics in GHz and THz scale. Prof. Rinaldy Damini detailed energy scenarios taken by various countries after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. And Prof. Jong-Hwan Kim explained and demonstrated the robot-that-thinks (RTT). More than that implied by the titles, each presentation provided interesting inspirations. Prof. Ke Wu, for example, explained by pictures the history of waveguides: metals, coax, intrachip waveguide, etc. Meanwhile, Prof. Kim, who is also called the Father of Robot Football, explained the philosophical level of how the minds are recomposed by contextual info, fuzzy logic, and social intelligence.

After the photo session, the conference was splitted into seven rooms, each with its specific focus. I chose Room 5, which is focusing on the architecture, traffic, and other aspects of the wireline and wireless networks. In Room 5, dozens of papers are presented in several sessions from Tuesday to Thursday (today). Each presentation sets out in 20 minutes, followed by questions and answers. The theme is no longer a matter of philosophy or research direction, but instead the details of research results. The presenters are researchers, engineers, geeks, etc, so you can imagine how their presentations are. Just totally like me 😀

There was a dinner session, for networking while observing a small part of Balinese culture. There were a couple minutes (only) to walk to the Sanur beach not far from the hotel. But the rest are continuous controlling on the event.

Hopefully IEEE Tencon will result well, improving the good reputation for Indonesia that is capable to organise an international academic event almost with no sponsor, improving the interests for the Indonesian academics and engineers to consistently do the researches, and transforming Indonesia to be a respected technology innovation and development country.

The next Tencon will be carried out in Cebu and Mactan islands in the central part of the Philippines. See you next year in Lapu-Lapu city!

IEEE Day in Jakarta

By Koen

On 2011-10-07

In Event, IEEE

Since 2010, the IEEE celebrates its own IEEE Day in October. This year the celebration day is on October 6th 2011. So this week we planned, arranged, and carried out the event titled IEEE Day Lectures on LTE Development. The organisers are the IEEE Indonesia Section and the IEEE Comsoc Indonesia Chapter, supported by IEEE Student Branch University of Indonesia and IEEE Student Branch Telkom Institute of Technology.

The venue was at @America. @America is a public room owned and managed by the US Embassy in Jakarta. Located in a business centre just in the centre of Jakarta, it is a high-technology cultural centre where people can explore, experience, and express their interests in fresh and exciting ways. In its physical and virtual spaces, the visitors can experience cool and cutting-edge technology, interactive games, and live events designed to generate interest and create communities.

Since my chairmanship at Comsoc Chapter, we have carried out a series of lectures, seminars, and technical meetings discussing the aspects of 4G Mobile Networks. This year, some network providers have started to implement some of the technologies discussed. The IEEE Day Lectures was to open the discussion of current implementation of technologies related to 4G Mobile in Indonesia. It would start a series of discussion about many aspects, including the LTE Deployement, WiMAX positioning, IPTV implementation over 4G, cognitive radio, policies on spectrum, context-aware applications, etc.

The IEEE Day Lectures itself presented the speakers:

Kuncoro Wastuwibowo, Introduction to IEEE, and 4G Mobile Technology
Anto Sihombing, Digital Video Broadcast over LTE Network
Hazim Ahmadi, Lesson Learnt from LTE Trial in Indonesia
Arief Hamdani Gunawan, Regulatory and Industry Aspects of LTE

The attendance number is about 50. Attendees include those who come from universities, government, operators, consultants, and other parties who have interests in LTE and its implementation. Thank you for @America, for the IEEE volunteers, the attendees, and the speakers. We have celebrate the IEEE Day quite successfully!

Comnetsat

By Koen

On 2011-08-12

In IEEE, Technology

This morning (12-08-2011) I attended an IEEE Indonesia Section officer meeting. Held in UI Salemba, the meeting continues the discussion on our plan to carry out our own conferences. The conferences themselves will be carried out next year, optionally in Bali. The proposed names will be:

International Conference in Communications, Network, and Satellite (ICCNS). Site = comnetsat.org
International Conference in Cybernetics, Information, and Computing (ICCIC). Site = cyberneticscom.org

Also in that meeting, I met Mr Arifin Nugroho for the first time. He’s a prominent expert in satellite communications. I guess I would get some more tasks in technical issues with ICCNS.

Kyoto: Comsoc AP-RCCC

By Koen

On 2011-06-19

In Event, IEEE, Travel

This year the IEEE carried out the annual ICC conference in Kyoto, Japan. As usual, this greatest infocomm conference is accompanied by a couple of technical and organizational meetings, held by the IEEE or IEEE Comsoc. Representing the IEEE Comsoc Indonesia Chapter, I had to be present in Comsoc AP-RCCC. I got the invitation on April, so I had enough time to renew my passport, prepared the visa, airline tickets, hotels, etc. However, these are also the busiest month here at Multimedia Division of Telkom. I could not find enough spare time to relearn hiragana, katakana, kanji, and basic Japanese expressions, or to prepare the social visits.

I got the most affordable airline. It took me from Jakarta to Tokyo via Kualalumpur, and landed at Haneda Airport around midnight. I took the first Shinkanzen super-express train from Shinagawa to Kyoto. I reached Kyoto on June 8th at 9 o’clock. After reporting my attendance to the organiser, I took a couple hours to explore Kyoto.

ICC and the other meetings were held at KICC, a quite vast resort in north-east end of Kyoto. Apparently this place is well prepared to carried out international scale conferences and summits. I did not attend any ICC sessions more than some workshop sessions. But the AP-RCCC I attended was held in the same place.

Last March we had conducted the IEEE Region 10 Meeting in Yogyakarta, which was the highest annual organizational meeting of the IEEE in the Asia Pacific region. IEEE Comsoc AP-RCCC is the annual organizational conference of the IEEE Communications Society in the region. Focusing on the issues in Asia Pacific region, the meeting was attended by President of the IEEE Communications Society, the VPs and directors, a representative of both North America and South America, and the chairmen or other representatives of the Asia-Pacific Comsoc chapters.

Comsoc President, Byeong Gi Lee, keynoted by describing the current challenges in the field of communications field. The convergence has been passing some stages in the digital information, and now we are in the middle of the convergence of digital services and management. The convergence is not just among the fields of communications and computing, but extends also to consumer electronics, media, and other areas. Comsoc has anticipated this with various approaches: educational approach and content, industrial approach, and the standardization approach. This is also trailed by restructuring the organization of IEEE Comsoc. Various aspects relating to further convergence has sparked fairly interesting discussions.

Then, some VPs and directors presented some reports and guidances. And each chapters presented their reports, plan activities, and other things. The first chapter to deliver the report is Indonesia. From Indonesia, I delivered a report, exploring the chapter’s activities that are still focused on technical and organizational campaigns, including our supports in the formation of the first four IEEE student branches in Indonesia, serial roadshows, and other approaches. Our plan ahead includes the preparation of a larger conference (more than the current form of thematic seminars or lecturing). However, it would require assistance and support from the Region 10 and neighbouring chapters. Also presented are the preparation of TENCON in Bali in November 2011, and our request for distinguished lecturer & distinguished speakers on recent progress in the field of infocomm. Some officers expressed their support for IEEE Comsoc activities in Indonesia.

After the conference, I returned to the Kyoto centre by the MRT with Prof. Hsiao-Hwa Chen of IEEE Comsoc Tainan Chapter. I know this gentlemen even before the conference. Last year we made some correspondence to arrange a seminar in Singapore. But in MRT, he showed his other side: an avid culture observer. After talking about chapter management and infocom platform management, we spent the time to talk about the history of Japan, Kyoto, etc. He suggested me to spend more days to explore Japanese cities and cultural centres.

So the next day I spent my time to pay a visit to historic areas: Nara (the first capital of Japan as an emerging imperial), Kyoto (the capital of Japanese Imperial for 1000 years), before finally returned to Tokyo (the capital of Japan since the Meiji Restoration). In Kyoto, I got the opportunity to visit the Imperial Palace for about 1 hour. An excellent palace, I must admit. Also I visited Tokugawa shogunate palace.

I know I should now spend more time to report my cultural journeys. Indeed I have written them in my travelling blog, koen.cc, but only in Indonesian. I guess I will someday translate them and put them here.