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:
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.
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.
Aerial view of Jeju Island, South Korea
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
Apparently, our campaign last year (in Lapu-Lapu City, Philippines) in proposing Yogyakarta as the host of IEEE Region 10 Annual General Meeting this year, had been a success. So, last week (March 5th – 6th), Indonesia hosted the Region 10 AGM, with a venue in Sheraton Hotel, Yogyakarta, only some kilometres from the peak of Mt Merapi, that suddenly flew the hot lava those days :).
This annual meeting presented the President-Elect of the IEEE, Gordon Day; Director of Region 10, Lawrence Wong; the leaders of divisions, councils, sections, and chapters, and other representatives from almost all countries in Asia Pacific, including Indonesia. Indonesia representatives were led by IEEE Indonesia Section Chair, Muhammad Ary Murti. I myself represented the IEEE Comsoc Indonesia Chapter.
The meeting was held in accordance with Robert’s Rules of Order, which is widely used in the parliaments of many countries. Chairman Lawrence Wong commenced the meeting with a Call to Order, followed by Roll Call and some reports. Was interesting to see that the sequence of these activities can be done on time by the minute. Regardless of their position, all presenters could give only a 5-10 minute presentation. In his report, Gordon Day recalled the transformation that is still continuing within the IEEE. Expanding from the world of electrical engineering, IEEE now includes the fields of aeronautical, biomedical, electrical, electronic, computer, information technology, mathematics, physics, telecommunication, automotive and biological engineering. The number of members has reached 407 thousand. However, this number is only less than 10% of the engineers working in the fields of the IEEE. In the US, only 7.5% engineers in these fields are members of the IEEE. In Indonesia, only 0.5%.
Using a new tagline advancing technology for humanity, the approaches taken by IEEE are to strengthen the organisation to serve the new generations of engineers, particularly in new fields that will further improve the human life. IEEE is also directed to become more global, embracing the technological widespread throughout the world, and enhance its role and leadership. Economic, social, and cultural changes that are happening more quickly at this moment motivate the organisation to strategically improve the use of technology to support a better human life, individually and socially. The engineers must always be reminded that they still have a professional responsibility to support better life in the following centuries. Lawrence Wong continued by showing the uniqueness of the Asia Pacific region: this is the region with the largest number of members in the IEEE, and with the highest growth, especially among students and young engineers. This reflects the characteristics of this region which is the world’s most dynamic area of technology. What to do in this region is to increase the synergy between regions, especially with the Internet.
VP of MGA Howard E. Michel detailed that rather than taking care of membership, the IEEE will put more focus on its members: how to Inspire, Enable, Empower and Engage the members of the IEEE. One example is to use the IEEE Center for Leadership Excellence (CLE) to build members’ leadership. VP of Educational Activities Tariq Durrani explained several initiatives to develop engineering education before the university stage, for example with TISP, TryNano, TryEngineering, as well as other approaches such as accreditation, certification, WiE (women in engineering), etc. The meeting also discussed the report TENCON 2010 in Fukuoka, TENCON 2011 that will be held this year in Sanur (presented by TENCON 2011 Chairman Dr Wahidin Wahab), and TENCON 2012 plan in Cebu. And … hmm … many many more :).
The participants, which reached around 150 people, were also invited to visit Prambanan Temple and Yogyakarta Sultan’s Palace (Kraton), to understand deeper the local culture. Dinner was also served in the Sultan’s Palace. In addition, some participants independently took visits to other interesting places, such as Borobudur Temple, and Malioboro Street. Yogyakarta was really successful as a host to the IEEE Asia Pacific. Thank you, Yogya:)
Cebu Island. Its name immediately reminded of my teacher in junior high school who taught history with such enthusiasm. She told us about the exploration of Fernão de Magalhães, a Portuguese sailor who had reached Malaka with d’Albuquerque, and then served Isabel the Spanish Queen, and explored to the west to prove that the earth is round. The mission was accomplished quite successfully. But from the hundreds of sailors, only a dozen could return to Spain, led by Juan Sebastian Elcano. Magellan (that’s how his name is spelled in English) was too busy conquering the islands around Cebu. But at the beach of Mactan, Magellan was killed in a battle against the leader of the Mactan tribe: Lapu-Lapu. Of course at last Spanish conquered the islands, which was later called the Philippines. Spanish colonialism was replaced by the United States, and is now replaced by the local rich people. Mactan has become an integral part of Cebu, which is connected with two major bridges. Cebu Airport was located in Mactan. In the city of Lapu-Lapu :).
At a resort at one end of Lapu-Lapu City, only about 5 minutes walking from the location of the Battle of Mactan, the IEEE Region 10 Annual Meeting was held last week. Indonesia Section sent 2 representatives, plus 1 from Indonesia Comsoc Chapter, and 1 from the organiser of TENCON 2011 (that will be held in Bali in 2011). The conference was quite comprehensive. In addition to the Officers of Region 10 and the entire Sections below, also attended the IEEE President Elect Moshe Kam, and a representative from Region 8 (Europe Africa) Joseph Modelsky.
Interesting to listen to Kam’s presentation. The IEEE is the result of the merged AIEE and IRE. AIEE was a classical organisation occupied by an electrical engineers; while IRE was the organisation that possessed the young engineers who focused on electronics technology. Just like NEFO and OLDEFO, haha. Both had a growing number of members; but IRE grew much faster than AIEE. The mergers in 1963 to form the IEEE could overcome the problem of dualism. Then the societies, regions, sections, etc were formed. The IEEE is now recognised as the authority holder in various fields of science and engineering. From 20 most referred journals in electrical engineering, 16 is from the IEEE. From 20 most referred journals in telecommunications, 15 is from the IEEE. And so on. But from 20 most referred journals in medical informatics, only 2 is from the IEEE. And from 20 most referred journals in nanoscience, none is from the IEEE. Kam concluded: IEEE could have become the established power as the AIEE before the merger; white the life science develops in the direction that is favoured by young scientists and engineers, just like the IRE before the merger. Then he delivered the BOD mandate: the IEEE must be directed to the relevant technology. IEEE is not just an association of the learned, but an organisation of engineers and professionals. Related to it, Region 10 launched programmes that lead to increased benefits to members and the community through the development of the organisation, profession, and technologies that are relevant to the present.
What is the benefit IEEE membership? This is a question that was examined even since I was an Associate Member. I stay here long enough, with my own reasons. But I don’t think my personal reason could effect the same to my colleagues, or make the other engineers interested in and participate actively in the IEEE. Some interesting things often mentioned include: access to engineering knowledge, increased professionalism, networking opportunities, community service, career opportunities, and others. But for the engineers in Indonesia, maybe they are not enough, especially since this organisation apply an ‘attractive’ annual fee. So we in Indonesia Section (and the Communication Society Chapter I am managing now) wish to create more benefits: opening new opportunities for networking, increasing professional image of IEEE members (technical expertise combined with the human communication expertise), and arranging a series of activities to share knowledge.
These strategies, and others, were explored and discussed those days, to form a breakthrough in the development of organization, profession, and technologies. Other things include the concerns over the lack of role of women engineers, and has been embodied in the Women in Engineering (WIE). Also the necessity to increase the role of new engineers (GOLD – graduation of the last decade). IEEE philanthropy-wing is also in development by the HTC (humanitarian technology challenge). And many other ideas.
BTW, I like Cebu. The people is friendly. They speak English quite well, but they speak Cebuanos among themselves, with some similar vocabularies to Indonesian. Haha. Almost all essential information is written and printed in English. Unlike other cities in South-East Asia; Mactan and Cebu sprinkled with warm sunshine all day, with almost no clouds. The sea sent cool breeze all day. The atmosphere of the city is a bit like small cities in Indonesia, with various types of public transportation (the Jeepney), the food sellers on the edge and in the middle of the streets, the taxi drivers who charged with no rule.
I spent two weeks discussing the infrastructures for network services & contents in Gegerkalong Campus, the Learning Centre of Telkom. On the last day, almost without break, I had to fly to Surabaya for preparing a seminar. This seminar is a part of the seminar series Opening The Gates to 4G Mobile Technology that we have carried out in Jakarta, Bandung, and Yogyakarta. In Surabaya, the seminar is hosted by Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH Surabaya). It was held at Hotel Mercure Surabaya on 20 February 2009.
The seminar was coordinated directly by Vice Rector of UPH, Prof John Batubara. Unlike the previous seminars in this series, this one was attended by the IEEE Indonesia Section Chair, Mr Arnold Ph. Djiwatampu, and the Rector of UPH Jonathan Parapak. The presenters, in succession:
Arnold Ph. Djiwatampu (IEEE Indonesia Section Chair), Opening Speech
Jonathan Parapak (Rector of UPH), Welcome Speech
Muhammad Ary Murti: Introduction to the IEEE, societies, Indonesia section, chapters, membership.
Kuncoro Wastuwibowo (IEEE Comsoc Indonesia Chapter Chair): 4G Mobile Technologies, network & service aspects, cognitive radio, 4G candidates
Arif Hamdani Gunawan (IEEE Indonesia Section Vice Chair): LTE -> evolution, features, architecture
Prof. Dr. Dadang Gunawan: IEEE Student Branch
Arif Hamdani Gunawan: LTE -> radio access, OFDMA & SCFDMA, implementation plan
Kuncoro Wastuwibowo: WiMAX II -> evolution, features, architecture
Participants came from UPH Surabaya and other campuses around Surabaya, as well as some professionals who study the field of mobile telecommunications. And just like the way I came — i.e. with almost no break — I also had to leave Surabaya the same way. Signed the certificates, and run for the flight under a heavy rain under Surabaya sky. But I was delighted — it was a very successful seminar. Thank you, UPH Surabaya :).
