Conference Sponsorship Grows Sharply in Region 10 (Asia/Pacific)

Did you know that for the first time ever, more than half (55%) of our technically and financially sponsored conferences took place abroad? Of these events, 82% were held in the Asia/Pacific Region, including our first-ever solely-owned conference abroad. Such an evolution reflects the active technical engagement of our members, and the passion of our governing committees for enabling the expansion and reach of our Society.

In order to support such a vital trend for our Society, Dr. Jeff Voas (President), Dr. Carole Graas (Vice President for Meetings and Conferences), and Professor W. Eric Wong (Editor-in-Chief, IEEE Transactions on Reliability) traveled to Beijing, China, to attend the 2017 International Conference on Dependable Systems and Their Applications (DSA) on October 31, November 1 and 2. With the technical sponsorship from our society, the conference was organized by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in conjunction with the Key Laboratory of Space Applications, CAS; Institute of Automation, CAS; The Twentieth Research Institute, China Electronic Technology Group Corporation; AVIC Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute; Dalian University of Technology; and Wuhan University of Technology. Other supporting agencies included Beijing Watertek Information Technology, Shanghai Chuangjing Computer System, Shanghai Dizhen Computer Technology Co., Ltd, and Beijing Keyware Technology Co., Ltd.

Now in its fourth year, DSA emerged from the combination of two successful precursor conferences, TSA (Trustworthy Systems and Their Applications) and DCIT (Dependable Computing and Internet of Things), also both historically technically sponsored by the RS. Indeed, the technical focus of the conference, which highlights research in critical aspects of both hardware and software reliability for complex systems, represents one of the fastest-growing fields of our technical activities. Where hardware and software interact to determine the dependability of a system, our members’ expertise is most uniquely positioned to make key contributions. Such a regional interest is also reflected by growing RS Chapter creation and participation throughout China.

The following are pictures taken at the conference.

President Voas and Vice President Graas hosted a meeting with chairs/vice chairs of RS Chapters in China including Professor Yunwei Dong (Xi’an Chapter & 2018 newly elected AdCom member), Professor Jun Ai (Beijing Chapter), Professor Zhenyu Chen (Nanjing Chapter), Professor Yuanshun Dai (Chengdu Chapter), Director Chun-Hui Yang (RS member in Guangzhou), Professor Jianwen Xiang (RS member in Wuhan), and Professor Song Huang (RS member in Nanjing).

Meeting with Chairs/Vice Chairs of RS Chapters in China, November 1, 2017

On November 1, Professor W. Eric Wong, Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Reliability, organized the 2nd editorial board meeting for Associate Editors in Asia including those from China, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan.

We would like to give special thanks to our host the Chinese Academia of Sciences, in particular, Dr. Jinbo Wang and other organizing committee members such as Professors and Drs. Ming Gao, Ke Han, Zhenyu Chen, Jianwen Xiang, Song Huang, Sudipto Ghosh, Guangheng Zhao, Jian Wang, Yang Yang, Jianmin Wang, Ye Yue, Yihao Li, Shou-Yu Lee and Guigang Zhang. It would not be possible to have such a successful meeting without their dedicated effort and enormous support.

Look for more developments of our conferences next year and beyond, and the outstanding opportunities they provide to showcase your work, establish new collaborations, and learn about the interests of your professional colleagues.