Technical Program Message — Call for Proposals

Greetings from TPC Co-Chairs: Larry Kushner and Mark Gouker. We hope everyone is having an enjoyable and relaxing summer. While the IMS 2009 steering committee took a vacation from our monthly meetings, activity has continued behind the scenes. The publications/promotion sub-committee has been busy developing our new web-site (http://www.ims2009.org) making it easier for you to get the information you need. We hope you find it a useful resource. Planning for all aspects of the Technical Program (TP) has continued as well.

While we hope that you have had the opportunity to take some vacation time as well, we know that many of you have spent some time this summer continuing the planning of workshops, short courses, and panel sessions started at IMS2008. Or perhaps an idea for a special session came to you while sitting on the beach relaxing. Now it is time to turn these ideas into reality, since our first TP deadline will soon be upon us. That’s right, shortly after we pack up the beach toys and send the kids back to school, the proposal deadline for workshops, short courses, panels and special sessions will be here on September 19th. Hard as it is to believe, September 19th is just around the corner. We wouldn’t want anyone to miss out and so the new web site has all the information (call for proposals) as well as the proposal submittal forms.

For most sessions, organizers submitting a proposal must include information such as name and contact information, whether the event (workshop, panel, short course) is a first year event, why the topic fits the focus of the symposium, estimated attendance, event abstract and list of speakers (where applicable). Details regarding content, focus and proposal submittal for each type of session are summarized below along with the subcommittee members available to guide you.

Workshops
The workshop subcommittee is led by Greg Lyons with help from Cheryl Liss, Matt Straayer and Doug Teeter. IMS workshops are an opportunity to bring together technical experts from a focused area in a highly interactive forum. Presented technical material must represent state of the art. Tutorial material may be included to assist attendees unfamiliar with the focused area to be quickly brought up to date. Workshops can be half-day or full-day. The main goal of a workshop is an instructive and interactive exchange of technical information. The workshop proposal process is open to all MTT-S members. Workshops are not a venue to promote commercial products. Workshop proposals will be considered from all technical areas within MTT-S as well as new microwave areas currently outside the purview of IMS/MTT-S.

Workshops will be held on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday of Microwave Week

2009. In addition to IMS 2009, the RFIC Symposium (rfic2009.org), and the ARFTG Conference (arftg.org) will sponsor or co-sponsor workshops during Microwave Week 2009.

RFIC workshops will be held on Sunday.

Short Courses
In addition to traditional “Workshops”, the Steering Committee is soliciting proposals for full-day and half-day short courses to be presented at IMS 2009 on Sunday June 7. Bob Jackson is the lead on reviewing proposals for short courses.

Please note the following distinguishing characteristics of short courses:

  • Short courses are coherent tutorial presentations of a single topic addressed to MTT-S members who are not currently specialists in that topic.
  • Short courses are offered by a single-area expert (or by a well coordinated team of two experts).
  • Learning objectives, prerequisites, and a detailed course outline are pre-announced.
  • Arrangements can be made with the IEEE Educational Activities Department for awarding of Continuing Education Units to students who require them.
  • The Steering Committee is considering the possibility of recording short courses in order to offer them on-line for Virtual Participation.
  • A nominal honorarium will be provided to short course presenters.


All proposals for short courses should include the detailed information listed below and should be submitted to jackson@ecs.umass.edu before September 19, 2008. Final selection will be made by the Steering Committee based on the quality of the proposal and the perceived benefit to attendees. IMS 2009 plans to have only a very small number of these short courses.

Please include the following in the proposal:

(a) Topic, theme, and syllabus for the courses being proposed; (b) A brief paragraph defining learning objectives/outcomes for the course; (c) Instructors’ biographies and competence relevant to the course material; (d) The method for course evaluation; (e) Method of presentation; (f) A description of the material to be distributed to attendees.

Panel and Rump Sessions
The panel session subcommittee is lead by Phil Smith with assistance from Frank Sullivan and Chris Liessner. As mentioned last month, Phil promises to add some new excitement and rekindle some of the controversy of previous panel sessions.

Lunchtime panel sessions and the Tuesday evening rump session will bring together experts in a particular topic to engage in a lively discussion on issues of contemporary interest to the MTT community. Audience interaction and participation are strongly encouraged. The topics may be technical in nature or may address issues in other areas such as education, business and career development. Panel sessions will run for 1 hour and 15 minutes during the lunch break, while the Tuesday evening rump session can run longer.

Considerations when proposing a panel session include:

  • A moderator should be designated to introduce the panel topic and guide the discussions. After the introduction, each panelist is given a block of time to state his/her point of view.
  • The balance of time should be devoted to lively debate among the panelists, with audience participation.
  • All organizers and speakers will be required to register for at least one day of the conference.
  • No financial support for travel or lodging will be provided.


Please e-mail panel/rump session proposals to the Panel Session Chair Phillip Smith at pmsmith@ieee.org by September 19, 2008. Downloadable form, indicating information required for evaluation of your proposal, is available. Click here to download: panel proposal form. Panel session proposals will be reviewed by the appropriate Steering Committee members. The responsible organizers will be informed directly by the Panel Session Chair if their proposals were accepted or rejected.


Focus and Special Sessions
Timothy Hancock is the Focus/Special Session Chair. Focus sessions are typically technical in nature and encompass a wide range of topics. They may include an emerging technology that is of interest to the MTT community or may group together multiple technologies/techniques that have relevance to a common application.

Examples of past focus sessions are:

  • Microacoustic Frontend Technologies
  • Advances in GaN Technology
  • Advances in Microwave Systems for Deep Space Missions
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • TeraHertz Integrated Circuits
  • Trends for Future Radar Systems with Electronically Scanned Arrays

Special sessions are different from focus sessions in that they may be historic in nature to highlight the technical achievements in a specific technical area, application space or region of the world. Additionally, special sessions may be in memory of an MTT member to honor the technical and/or service contributions to the MTT community.

Examples of past special sessions are:

  • History of MIC/MMIC Inventions
  • Microwave/Millimeter-Wave Activities in the Pacific Rim
  • A tribute to Dr. Leo Young
  • Submillimeter Wave Radio Astronomy and Mauna Kea
  • 50 Years of Microwaves in the San Francisco Bay Area

Each session is 80 minutes long to accommodate four 20 minute papers or three 20 minute papers and two 10 minute papers, for a maximum of five papers. Organizers and speakers will be required to register for at least one day of the conference and no financial support for travel or lodging will be provided. Paper submissions for Focus and Special sessions will be subject to the normal paper review process. When submitting papers via the website, in addition to the subcommittee technical areas, the titles of the Focus/Special sessions will be listed for the authors to choose. A subcommittee will be assigned to review the papers based on the technical area of the session. Please email Focus/Special Session proposals to the Focus/Special Session Chair, Timothy Hancock at hancockt@ieee.org by September 19, 2008. A submission template indicating the required information for evaluation of the proposal can be downloaded here.

Finally, we would like to mention that on the new site you will find the initial outline of the technical program (http://www.ims2009.org/tc.html), shown below. Last month in our news letter, we mentioned our intention to implement a number of changes to the technical program in order to make the symposium a better experience for all attendees. One leading concern was to develop a schedule that made it easier to attend the sessions of interest. Some of the highlights of the schedule include:

  • Technical session organized into focus tracks so that sessions with similar content are clearly identified
  • The focus tracks are scheduled so that there is minimal overlap of papers within a focus track
  • Interactive forum sessions are scheduled so they don’t overlap with the oral presentations

A breakdown of the daily schedule of activities is also listed on the new site as well as below.

Activities:
8:00 - 9:20 am Oral Sessions
9:20 - 10:20 am Interactive Forum
10:20 -11:40 am Oral Sessions
11:40 am -1:20 pm Panel Sessions
1:20 - 2:40 pm Oral Sessions
2:40 - 3:40 pm Interactive Forum
3:40 - 5:00 pm Oral Sessions
Evening Plenary and/or Social

On behalf of the TPC subcommittee, enjoy the remainder of summer and we look forward to receiving your proposals.

Larry Kushner and Mark Gouker, TPC Co-Chairs of IMS2009




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