2018 Joint IEEE EMC and APEMC in Singapore
By En-Xiao Liu and Er-Ping Li
IEEE EMC
Magazine, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 96-100, 2018
Overview
Every EMC conference is a story ─ a story made by the participants, of the participants, and for the participants. The 2018 international EMC story was told during 14 to 17 May 2018 at the Suntec International Convention & Exhibition Centre, Singapore.
With the theme of “EM Interaction, Global Connection,” the 2018 Joint IEEE International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility & Asia-Pacific Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility (2018 Joint IEEE EMC & APEMC) is organised by IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Society and Asia-Pacific EMC (APEMC). The Symposium is also co-organised by Zhejiang University, EMC Laboratory of China, A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC), Nanyang Technological University and National University of Singapore. It was generously supported by the Singapore Exhibition & Convention Bureau, Singapore Tourism Board.
Fig. 1 The logo of the 2018 EMC Symposium designed mainly by OC members Siping Gao and Hui Min Lee and the header used in the Call for Papers flyers.
Fig. 2 The symposium event information was displayed prominently from 14-17 May on the huge digital screen at the entrance of the Suntec Convention & Exhibition Center.
The 2018 Joint IEEE EMC & APEMC is best described by one pseudo-equation as follows,
"Sixty" tells that 2018 marks the 60th IEEE International EMC Symposium; "nine" informs that it is the 9th Asia-Pacific EMC (APEMC) Symposium. These two symposiums come together in May 2018 offering a joint IEEE EMC & APEMC Symposium in Singapore.
This year marks the 60th edition of the IEEE International EMC Symposium. The IEEE EMC Society was founded 61 year ago and the first symposium was born in 1959 as a classified symposium attended by 250 delegates. In the past, the IEEE EMC Symposium is mostly held in USA, but it has also ventured into other countries for five times, i.e., Japan (1984), Canada (2001, 2016), Turkey (2003), Germany (2015). Therefore, the 2018 EMC Symposium in Singapore is the 60th international EMC symposium and the 6th venture out of USA.
Compared with the IEEE International EMC Symposium, the APEMC symposium is younger with the 2018 symposium as its 9th edition. It was originated in Singapore in 2008, and this year it is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
Fig. 3 The APEMC 10th anniversary logo and APEMC chart, designed by En-Xiao Liu.
The grand event of 2018 EMC Symposium in Singapore, made of two flagship symposia, has finally attracted 841 participants including exhibition visitors, of which 650 participants are formally registered conference delegates from 31 countries. Most of the attendees came from overseas countries, where China, Japan, Singapore and United States were on the top of the list.
One Coherent Team, Three Countries
The journey leading to the symposium is long, but it is fulfilling, all because of a delightful, diligent, and dedicated team. The organizing committee of the symposium consists of 27 members, residing in Singapore, USA, and China. Among other efforts, various organizing committee members have made dedicated drive in promoting the 2018 Joint IEEE EMC & APEMC Symposium overseas in China, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, South Korea, India, and USA. The promotion formats include exhibition and presentations at other relevant conferences and distribution of Call-for-Papers flyers at various occasions. The group photo below is the first and only chance that most of the members saw one other face to face.
Fig. 4 The organizing committee members posed for a group photo at the banquet dinner on 16 May. Front row from left: Caroline Chan, Janet O'neil, Jun Fan, Er-Ping Li, Bruce Archambeault, Richard Xian-Ke Gao, Xiaoning Ye, Mike Violette, Siping Gao. Back row from left: En-Xiao Liu, Chao-Fu Wang, Vignesh Rajamani, Xing-Chang Wei, Zaifeng Yang, Albert Lee, Hui Min Lee. Not present in the picture: Bob Davis, John Maas, Martin Leung, Chunfei Ye, Sara Gou, Yan Sun, Rhonda Rodriguez, Eng Kee Chua, Bonnie Brench, Bob Scully, Allison Law.
The Symposium received a record high number of paper submissions. Out of the more than 500 papers, 490 submissions were valid papers from 31 countries. Based on the feedback by 242 reviewers, the Technical Program Committee, chaired by Prof. Jun Fan and Dr. Richard Xian-Ke Gao, eventually accepted 382 papers as oral and poster presentations. It gave a paper acceptance rate of 78 percent. The breakdown of paper submission as per countries and regions was shown in the chart below.
The 382 paper presentations were arranged in 6 parallel sessions across three days. It was comprised of regular papers from various Technical Committees (TC), embedded SIPI conference papers, papers from 5 topical meetings and 14 special sessions. Furthermore, the first day of the symposium was fully packed with 7 workshops and 6 tutorials.
Opening Ceremony: The opening ceremony of the 2018 Joint IEEE EMC & APEMC Symposium was held on the second day (15 May) of the conference. Prof. Er-Ping Li, Symposium President, welcomed all the delegates to the symposium and also delivered an address about the APEMC roadmap and its recollection. Dr. Bruce Archambeault, President of IEEE EMC Society, addressed all delegates on behalf of the society. Dr. En-Xiao Liu, General Chair of the symposium, welcomed once again all the delegates by citing Confucius’s popular words: “How happy we are with friends from afar!”
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| Fig. 6 Left: Prof. Er-Ping LI, Symposium President, delivered an address about the APEMC roadmap & overview of its past 10-years. Right: Dr. Bruce Archambeault, President of IEEE EMC Society and General Co-Chair of the Symposium, presented an award plaque to Prof. Li in recognition of his exceptional contribution as founding General Chair of APEMC. | |
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| Fig. 7 Left: Dr. Bruce Archambeault (President, IEEE EMCS) addressed the audience. Right: Dr. En-Xiao Liu once again gave a warm welcome to all the delegates. | |
Fig. 8 Delegates attended the opening ceremony and the first plenary session.
Plenary Speeches: The Symposium featured 4 plenary speeches and the plenary speakers were: Dr. Mark Hayter (Google, USA), Prof Wolfgang J.R. Hoefer (University of Victoria, Canada), Prof. Weng Cho Chew (Purdue University, USA), Prof. Yueping Zhang (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore). Two plenary talked were arranged right after the opening ceremony, and the other two talks were arranged at the next day.
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| Fig. 9 Left: Dr. Mark Hayter received a plaque from Prof. Er-Ping LI after giving an interesting talk about signal integrity with his personalized story. Right: Prof. Wolfgang Hoefer received a plaque from Dr. Bruce Archambeault after giving a talk about time reversal, which got all the audience carried away. | |
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| Fig. 10 Left: Prof. Weng Cho Chew received a plaque from Dr. En-Xiao Liu after giving an insightful talk about computational electromagnetics for EMC applications. Right: Prof. Yueping Zhang received a plaque from Dr. Richard Xian-Ke Gao after giving an enlightening talk about a new paradigm for wireless radio communication. | |
Snapshots of Conference Sessions: The 4-day symposium provided all delegates an excellent forum for technical discussions and interactions. A selected snapshots of the conference oral and poster sessions, especially the Questions & Answers segments, illustrated some of those memorable moments.
Fig. 11 Snapshots of a few oral and poster presentation sessions.
Exhibition & Demos: Concurrently with the symposium, an exhibition is organised with over 30 booths spread across the Concourse Area, allowing delegates to mingle and view the displays at their free time. More than half of the exhibitors flew in from overseas to participate in the symposium. In addition, 6 experiment and demonstrations were arranged concurrently with the exhibition.
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| Fig. 12 Left: The technical exhibition was at its busy time. Right: Participants in one of the sessions of Experiments & Demonstrations. | |
One Big Platform, Many Networking Opportunities
Delegates including student delegates were also treated with two major social functions besides lunches and tea breaks. A Welcome Reception was held on 14th May at the Exhibition Hall at the Suntec Convention & Exhibition Centre. The Banquet Dinner cum Award Presentation was held on 16th May 2018 at the Raffles City Convention Centre. It was a surprising full house at the banquet dinner and more than 50 family members of the delegates also joined the event.
TPC Report: Prof. Jun Fan delivered his report on behalf of the symposium TPC committee, after the delegates enjoyed some food and music performance.
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| Fig. 13 Left: Chinese musical performance with three-piece pipe and string instruments. Right: Prof. Jun Fan, TPC Chair, happily gave his TPC report on behalf of the symposium TPC committee. | |
Awards Presentation: IEEE EMC Society has the tradition of presenting its annual awards through international EMC Symposium. This year’s awards were presented in Singapore during the banquet dinner on 16 May. Among other personal and achievements awards, Best Student Paper Awards Best EMC Symposium Paper Awards were presented to authors of 6 papers. In addition, APEMC presented its traditional “APEMC Young Scientist Awards” to 7 outstanding young researchers. The readers may refer to the IEEE EMC Magazine for the detailed awards list and pictures.
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| Fig. 14 Left: Dr Vignesh Rajamani, VP of the IEEE EMC Society, announced the award list. Right: Dr. Bruce Archambeault, President of IEEE EMC Society, who was giving out the awards, was watching in smile the enthusiastic awardee Mike Violette to come on stage. Mike was the General Chair of the 2017 EMC Symposium in Washington and Publicity Co-Chair of the current symposium. | |
Fig. 15 Prof. Er-Ping Li, Prof. Wolfgang Hoefer (at the center), and Dr. Richard Xian-Ke Gao (at far right) posed for a group photo with the APEMC Young Scientist Awardees.
Fig. 16 On behalf of the symposium, Dr. En-Xiao Liu, Symposium General Chair, presented tokens of appreciations to the symposium sponsors: Rohde & Schwarz (Platinum Sponsor & Bag Sponsor), CST (Gold Sponsor), ETS-Lindgren (Lanyard Sponsor). Not in the photo: e2i (Gold Sponsor) and Ametek (Silver Sponsor).
Fig. 17 Delegates enjoyed a relaxed night at the banquet dinner.
Luncheon Meeting of APEMC & IEEE EMC Society Board:
On 16th May, the APEMC committee and IEEE EMC Society board gathered
for a working lunch at the NUSS Suntec The Bistro. Matters of the
current and future APEMC symposiums were discussed over the meeting.
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| Fig. 18 Representatives from APEMC and IEEE EMCS Board enjoyed the gathering over the luncheon meeting. | |
City Tour: A city tour was organized mainly for accompany persons on 15 May. The participants visited the Merlion Park, Thian Hock Keng Temple, Little India and Singapore Botanic Garden. They were also treated with a dim sum lunch at the end of the tour.
Fig. 19 The city tour participants took a group photo at the Singapore Botanic Garden.
One Happy and Memorable Ending, Many More Future Opportunities
At 6 pm on the last day of the symposium, i.e., 17 May 2018, the last
few delegates were leaving the conference venue. Interestingly, they
were still wearing big sunny smiles! Dr. Flavia Grassi was taking a
picture of the OC members including Richard Xin-Ke Gao, Siping Gao, Eng
Kee Chua, who were bidding goodbye to them; while En-Xiao Liu was
taking a picture of Flavia and colleagues, whose departure nicely
wrapped up the symposium.
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| Fig. 20 We took picture of them, they took picture of us: [Left] Delegates took pictures at the banquet dinner; [Right] At about 6 pm on the last day of the symposium, the final group of delegates were leaving the symposium venue, but without wasting the chance of taking pictures of one another. | |
The EMC Story is Going On and On:
Quoting Dr Bruce Archambeault, President of the IEEE EMC Society, in
the 2nd Quarter issue of the IEEE EMC Magazine: "I am very pleased to
report that the first-ever Joint 2018 IEEE EMC Society/APEMC Symposium
held May 14-17 in Singapore was a huge success.”
One last time, the organizing
committee of the 2018 Joint IEEE EMC & APEMC Symposium in Singapore
sincerely thanks all the speakers, authors, paper reviewers, delegates,
sponsors, exhibitors, technical committee members, volunteers,
visitors, companions, and friends for making the 2018 Joint IEEE EMC
& APEMC such a memorable and fulfilling event! See you at the 2019
EMC Sapporo & APEMC in Japan, and many more future EMC Symposia!
Last update: 22 Oct 2018 by APEMC webmaster