Asia
Pacific EMC (APEMC) 2013 Symposium in Melbourne
By Mark, Mifsud, IEEE Victoria EMC Chapter Chairman
IEEE EMC
Magazine, vol.2, no.3, pp. 79-82, 2013
The Victorian Chapter (Australia) of the IEEE EMC Society recently hosted the 2013 Asia-Pacific International Symposium and Exhibition on Electromagnetic Compatibility. APEMC 2013 was held on 20-23 May 2013 in Melbourne. The event was the 5th APEMC Symposium and followed previous conferences in Singapore (2008, 2012), Beijing (2010) and Jeju Island, South Korea (2011). It was hosted by the EMC Society of Australia, with the IEEE EMC Society as Technical Co-Sponsor.
The Chairman of the Organising Committee, Franz Schlagenhaufer, was ably assisted by Mark Mifsud and Paul Payne (sponsorship and trade show), Kingsley McRae (Treasurer), Paul Kay (Secretary), Gordana Felic (Publicity), Chris Zombolas (Workshops), Mirerva Holmes (Engineers Australia), as well as Bill Radasky and Christophe Fumeaux (Technical Committee Co-Chairs). Waldron Smith Management was appointed conference organizers, and Engineers Australia through Mirerva Holmes assisted and provided financial support. Faraday Pty Ltd was our Gold Sponsor and ETS-Lindgren also provided sponsorship support.
The Symposium took place at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and included a plenary session with two keynote presentations, 25 technical oral sessions and one poster session, 16 tutorials and workshops, and a trade exhibition. A welcome reception with a tour through the MCG, and a Symposium Dinner were the highlights of the social program. The IEEE EMC Society conducted a Chapter Chair Retreat, and the APEMC Steering Committee had a meeting during the Symposium.
A total of 132 papers had been submitted from 21 countries. Of those 118 had been accepted, some after mandatory changes had been requested by the reviewers. Countries with the highest numbers of accepted papers were Australia (23), Japan (20), and China (17). The number of papers was down compared to the 2012 APEMC Symposium in Singapore, but there was a good mix of countries and topics; as the name of the conference suggests, Asian countries dominated, but Europe and America were also well represented. Topics which attracted large numbers of submissions were Measurement, Computation, EMC in Radio Astronomy, and High Power Electromagnetics.
The four days of EMC activities started with workshops and tutorials on Monday, 20 May 2013. Workshops and tutorials were also presented parallel to the technical sessions on the following three days during the Symposium. The Symposium was accompanied with 17 exhibitors who presented their products and services at the technical exhibition from Monday evening until Thursday afternoon.
The Symposium officially started with a plenary session on Tuesday morning, 21 May 2013. First Dr. Erping Li gave a short overview of the history of the APEMC Symposia. Then the Chair of the EMC Society of Australia, Mark Mifsud, greeted the delegates and officially declared the Symposium open. Ghery Pettit, the President of the IEEE EMC Society, delivered a welcome address in which he greeted the delegates and stated that Electromagnetic Compatibility will certainly continue to play an important role with the APEMC conference in the future.
Ghery Pettit, the President of the IEEE EMC Society, delivered a welcome address at the APEMC 2013 openning ceremony
Two keynote presentations opened the technical part of the symposium. Dr. Erping Li, Principal Scientist and Director of Electromagnetics and Photonics at A*STAR-IHPC, Singapore, talked about “Advances of EMC in Semiconductor Devices.” Semiconductor technology will continue to develop and the through-silicon via (TSV) technology represents an example for this. However, the development of nano-scaled integrated circuits and 3D integration faces several challenges in terms of electrical performance, such as EMC between circuits, signal integrity and power integrity.
Prof Erping Li gave a keynote talk at the APEMC 2013
Prof. Peter Quinn, the Director of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Perth, and West Australian Scientist of the year 2012, talked about the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) project in his speech titled “New Era in Radio Astronomy.” Astronomers and astrophysicists are searching for new types of matter and energy that are needed to describe the Big Bang which formed the universe 13.7 billion years ago, and allow a consistent picture of its evolution. The Square Kilometer Array radio telescope is currently planned and being designed, and will be built in Western Australia and South Africa. It will increase the ability to explore, map and make discoveries within the Universe by a factor of 10,000, and thus push the boundaries of our knowledge back in time to the formation of the first stars and galaxies. It will also push the boundaries of our technology and will provide new industrial, scientific and technological opportunities in the 21st century - and new challenges for EMC.
Prof. Peter Quinn, talked about the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) project in his speech titled “New Era in Radio Astronomy
The social program started with a tour through the MCG followed by a welcome reception on Monday evening. Delegates had an opportunity to find out why Melbournians are so proud of their MCG and the role this venue played and still plays for the city. The Melbourne Cricket Club was founded in 1838, just three years after the foundation of Melbourne, and is regarded as the oldest sporting club in Australia. It was involved in drafting the first set of rules for Australian Rules Football in 1857, hosted the first Test Cricket in history between Australia and England in 1877, and hosted the first One Day International Cricket Match in 1971. The stadium was the main site for the 1956 Olympic Games and the 2006 Commonwealth Games. And the MCG makes a great venue for an EMC Symposium, as all delegates at APEMC 2013 discovered.
The other highlight of the social program was the Symposium Dinner on Wednesday at the Zinc at Federation Square, within easy walking distance of the MCG and many of the recommended hotels. Entertainment was provided by a typical Australian bush band. During the dinner Christophe Fumeaux as the Chair of the APEMC 2013 Awards Committee presented awards for the Best Symposium Paper (“The Practical Measurement Setup of DPI Method above 1 GHz for ICs”, by Yin-Cheng Chang, Shawn S. H. Hsu, Kang-Chu Peng, Yen-Tang Chang, Chiu-Kuo Chen, Hsu-Chen Cheng and Da-Chiang Chang) and Best Student Paper (“Modeling Absorbing Materials in Cavities with Apertures Using the Thin Sheet Approximation”, by Alexander Vogt, Heinz-D. Bruns, Helge Fielitz and Christian Schuster). Mark Mifsud and Kingsley McRae and Mark Mifsud presented a unique award on behalf of The EMC Society of Australia to Prof. Erping Li in recognition of his contribution to EMC in the Asia Pacific Region and his role in establishing the APEMC symposium series. Tzong-Lin Wu of the National Taiwan University, the Chair of APEMC 2015, invited the delegates to the next APEMC Symposium to be held in Taipei in 2015.
The Technical Program Committee had assembled an interesting program covering a wide range of EMC areas. There were fewer papers on Semiconductors and related topics compared to the previous APEMC Symposia, but Measurement, Computation, and High Power Electromagnetics were well represented. Australia is an important player in the international radio astronomy community, and the Murchison region in Western Australia, together with South Africa, has been selected as site for the Square Kilometer Array radio telescope, also mentioned in one of the keynote presentations. EMC, or more precisely the protection against radio frequency interference, is an essential part of radio telescopes and radio astronomers showed much interest in, and contributed to APEMC 2013.
APEMC 2013 provided a platform for lively interaction to the EMC community. Representatives from academia and industry, from research organizations and test laboratories could be seen in discussions and small talk. The technical program is certainly important but a symposium must consist of more than formal presentations. Often the chance encounters with colleagues over a cup of coffee or during lunch, or the in-depth discussion with an author after a presentation, is of most benefit. APEMC 2013 is over; it was a successful event, and we look now forward to the EMC 2014 in Kyoto which is sponsored by co-APEMC ,and the APEMC 2015 in Taiwan.
The Symposium Chair, Franz Schlagenhaufer, Janet O'Neil of ETS-Lindgren, and Er-Ping Li at the APEMC Exhibition
Last update: 20th Feb 2014 by APEMC webmaster