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The 17th
International Zurich Symposium and Technical Exhibition on Electromagnetic
Compatibility (EMC Zurich in Singapore 2006) was held from February 27 to
March 3, 2006 at the Singapore SUNTEC International Convention and
Exhibition Center. As it turned out, SUNTEC was a perfect location for this
event as it provided great meeting rooms, is situated adjacent to the
Central Business District of Singapore with ample hotel space, and offered
a variety of restaurants to please the taste buds of participants. This was
the first time that EMC Zurich was organized outside Europe and Singapore
was an excellent host country that left a lasting impression on all
participants.
The Symposium was one of the largest EMC events in the Asia-Pacific Region
jointly organized by the Singapore universities, the A-STAR Institute, the
IEEE EMC Singapore Chapter, the Institute of Engineers Singapore, and in
close cooperation with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH
Zurich). The IEEE EMC Society as well as other societies provided technical
co-sponsorship. The general organization of the Symposium followed the tradition
of EMC Zurich with a clear focus on high quality technical papers and their
presentations by speakers from all over the world. Two-day workshops and
tutorials prior to the Symposium were conducted by 36 international
specialists which introduced participants to the latest developments in the
fields of Lightning EMC, Semiconductor Device EMC, Circuit Board EMC
Design, Transportation EMC, EMC Modeling and Simulation, EMC and Safety of
Wireless Communication Devices, Naval Engineering EMC, EMC and Signal
Integrity, Shielding and Protection, as well as System Level EMC Design and
Control. These events alone were well attended with over 220 participants
and provided some groundwork for the three days of regular EMC technical
sessions to follow. In addition, several topical meetings and special
sessions took place in the fields of Biomedical Electromagnetics, EMC in
Asia, Military EMC, Nanoelectronics EMC, and Wireless Communication EMC.
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The
President of the Symposium, Dr. Li Erping, giving the welcome address at
the opening ceremony on 1 March 2006.
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The General
Chair, Professor RuedigerVahldieck, addresses the audience at the opening
ceremony.
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In conjunction with the Symposium two important meetings were held: The
IEEE Region 10 EMC Chapter Chairs Retreat and the Asia-Pacific EMC
Chairpersons Meeting. Both were well attended and provided new information
on the status of EMC activities in the Asia-Pacific region. The Symposium
attendance with 450 delegates from over 40 countries was slightly smaller
than the 2005 EMC Zurich event in Zurich with 550 participants, but was
still significantly higher than the organizers had anticipated. Also the
exhibition, co-located with the Symposium, had drawn over 35 exhibitors on
1000 square meters of floor space.
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Dr. Peter
Siegel of the California Institute of Technology, spoke on “Terahertz
Technology in Outer and Inner Space” during his keynote speech at the
Symposium opening session.
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Dr. C. K.
Chou from Motorola presents “The Potential of EMC in a Seamless Mobility
Environment” for his keynote speech at the Symposium opening session.
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In his speech during the opening ceremony on Wednesday morning, Dr. Li
Erping provided some background on the idea to move the EMC Zurich
Symposium in even years from Zurich to Singapore. He described the
organization of EMC Zurich in Singapore as difficult at times and certainly
interesting, but also as one of the most challenging jobs he ever faced. In
light of this, he felt relieved when finally all the pieces of the work
fell into place and the Symposium ran smoothly. He thanked all the
organizing committee members for their great enthusiasm and hard work and
emphasized the fact that without their relentless effort, the Symposium
would not have been possible. On behalf of the organizing committee, he
also expressed his sincere thanks to the symposium sponsors namely,
Schaffer EMC Pte Ltd, Rohde & Schwarz, Singapore Technologies
Electronics Ltd, CST, EM Test, Swiss House Singapore and TME.
The General Chair, Professor Vahldieck, complimented the local organizing
committee for a job well done and announced that the 18th EMC Zurich
Symposium will be held in Munich from September 24-28, 2007, at the same
time of the world renowned Oktoberfest.
The Technical Program Chair, Professor Todd Hubing, outlined the technical
paper selection and review process. He pointed out that the technical
papers in Singapore maintained as high a standard as known from Zurich and
that about 30% of papers submitted were rejected.
The Deputy-President of Nanyang Technological University, Professor Er
MengHwa, the Swiss Ambassador to Singapore, Dr. Daniel Woker, and the
President of the IEEE EMC Society, Dr. Andrew Drozd, welcomed all
participants in the name of their respective organizations. The highlights
during the opening session were two keynote speeches. First, Dr. Peter Siegel,
of the California Institute of Technology, spoke on “Terahertz Technology
in Outer and Inner Space” and Dr. C. K. Chou spoke on behalf of Rob
Shaddock, CTO for Mobile Devices at Motorola Inc., on “The Potential of EMC
in a Seamless Mobility Environment.”
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Professor
Joungho Kim from KAIST, Korea, presents his paper in Singapore.
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Professor
and Mrs. Yoshino join Professor and Mrs. Vahldieck at the reception held
during the Symposium.
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The following three days offered 45 well attended technical sessions and, in
parallel, the Topical Meetings on concepts in Biomedical EMC, Wireless
Communication EMC, Nanoelectronics EMC, Automotive EMC, and Semiconductor
Device EMC.
In the evening following the first technical session on March 1, the
delegates were invited to visit the Electromagnetic Environment Research
Lab (EMERL) located at the Nanyang Technological University, which is a
newly built EMC lab in Singapore. Delicious appetizers were provided to the
delegates prior to the lab tour. The delegates enjoyed the reception food
and the visit.
The Best
Symposium Paper Award was given to Professor Stefano Grivet-Talocia, Ms.
Silvia Acquadro, Mr. Carlo Peraldo, Professor FlavioCanavero, Dr.
IlkkaKelander, Dr. MarkkuRouvala, and Dr. Ali Arslan, all from the
Politecnico di Torino, Italy, for their paper “Parameterized Macromodels
for LossyMulticonductor Transmission Lines.” This selection was from 169
regular papers and 50 Topical Meeting papers reviewed by two to five
independent reviewers. From a short list of 10 papers the jury consisting
of Professor YoujiKotsuka, Dr. William Radasky, Professor Shen Zhongxian,
Professor Robert Weigel and Dr. Franz Schlagenhaufer, selected the
finalist. The jury commented that all the 10 short listed papers were
excellent and the decision was very difficult to select just one. To expose
the best Symposium papers to the international community, all authors of
accepted papers were invited to submit an extended version of their paper
to the IEEE Transactions on EMC for a possible issue on EMC Zurich in
Singapore to appear at the end of 2006. However, the condition is that
those papers submitted must have a significantly extended content (about
60%) over the Symposium paper and will go through yet another rigorous
review process after which only about 10 papers will be selected for
publication.
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The judges
working on the best student paper winners included, clock-wise from left,
Professor FlavioCanavero, Professor Peter Leung, Professor See Kye Yak,
Dr. Koh Wee Jin and Professor Todd Hubing (back to the camera).
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The first
place student prize winner, Mr. Kezhong Zhao (left), receives the certificate
from the Technical Program Co-Chair Professor Ma Jianguo.
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The Best Student Paper competition was an equally difficult task for the
judges. Here, 21 papers were short listed from 58 student papers. Besides
the oral presentations, the students were required to present their papers
in the poster session. The jury consisting of Professor Todd Hubing,
Professor Peter Leung, Professor FlavioCanavero, Professor See Kye Yak and
Dr. Koh Wee Jin selected the three best papers. The first prize went to Kezhong
Zhao and Jin-Fa Lee from Ohio State University for their paper “An
Accelerated Non-Conforming DP-FETI Domain Decomposition Method for the
Analysis of Large EMC Problems.” The second prize went to Stephan Braun,
Mohammed Al-Qedra, and Professor Peter Russer from the
TechnischeUniversitätMünchen, Germany for the paper “A Novel Real-time
Time-domain EMI Measurement System Based on Field Programmable Gate
Arrays.” Mr. Kin Seong Leong and his co-authors Mun Leng Ng and Professor
Peter Cole from the University of Adelaide, Australia, won the third prize
for the paper “Operational Considerations in Simulation and Deployment of
RFID Systems.” The associated prize money was 1000, 600, and 400 Singapore
dollars, respectively.
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An
elaborate banquet dinner titled “Singapore Night Safari” was held during
the Symposium.
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The dinner banquet of the Symposium was specially held at the world’s
premier Singapore Night Safari (a night zoo). Creatures from South America,
Asia, and India greeted visitors from their own naturalistic enclosures,
which simulate that of their own homeland. Even the tablecloths were
decorated using the tiger skin color.
In conjunction with the EMC Zurich in Singapore, the “Asia-Pacific EMC
Chairpersons Meeting” was held at Suntec City Singapore, with the goal to
address EMC collaboration, EMC enhancement, and unification of EMC symposia
in the Asia-Pacific region. The meeting was well attended with EMC
representatives from every major Asia-Pacific region including Australia,
China, Korea, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Thailand. Dr.
Andrew Drozd, the President of the IEEE EMC Society, ElyaJoffe, the
Vice-President for Member Services of the IEEE EMC Society, as well as
Professor RuedigerVahldieck, General Chair of EMC Zurich from ETH Zurich,
Switzerland, also attended the meeting. At the meeting, all agreed to start
planning for such an event with the goal to establish one united
Asia-Pacific Symposium on EMC that could be held every one or two years
moving from one Asian country to the next. A Steering Committee was formed
consisting of one representative from each country or region. The first
such Asia-Pacific Symposium on EMC will be tentatively held in 2008.
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