CHAPTER NEWS
Singapore CAS Chapter: A Record 50% Increase in Membership!
Following the global trend of the decline of IEEE membership, the IEEE CAS Singapore Chapter witnessed a steady drop in its membership from 92 members (including student members) in 2004 to 77 members in 2005 and further to 68 members in 2006. In late 2006, the chapter committee, chaired by Prof. Bah Hwee Gwee, felt that something must be done to revert the trend of membership decline. The successful organization of the IEEE Asia Pacific Conference on Circuits and Systems (APCCAS2006) in Singapore from Dec. 4 to Dec. 7, 2006 by the CAS Singapore Chapter was a major turning point. With a record number of over 500 papers accepted and nearly 500 participants from over 30 countries, this conference had not only popularized the chapter among local CAS researchers, engineers and students, but also brought sufficient profit so that the chapter committee would be able to take a series of effective measures to increase its membership.
Continuing the effort of the 2006 chapter committee, the new 2007 committee, chaired by Prof. Zhiping Lin, has taken the following effective measures to increase its membership by 50% to 102 members in 2007:
1) CASS Distinguished Lectures and technical talks for CAS members and guests;
2) Cruise cum high tea – a social event for CAS members and families;
3) Graduate student workshop in circuits, systems and signal processing mainly for graduate students in Singapore.
Photo (right): CASS Distinguished Lecturer Prof. Pau-Choo (Julia) Chung gave her DL talk to CAS Singapore members and students at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, on August 7, 2007.
Another effective measure to retain existing members and attract new members is to organize social events for members, their guests and families. On August 4, 2007, the chapter committee successfully organized a social event: a 3-hour Cheng He cruise to the Singapore southern islands for CAS members, their guests and families, free of charge. Over 60 participants enjoyed the cruise, ranging from as young as 2 year old to over 70 year old. A high-tea was held on board the cruise and the exciting game of Bingo was played by all participants, making it a truly family event. This is believed to be the biggest social event ever organized by the Singapore CAS chapter and everyone was enjoying it.
Photos (above): CAS members and families were boarding the ship on the 4th August 2007 AND enjoying playing the exciting game of Bingo on board the cruise.
As the number of young researchers and engineers in CAS has grown rapidly in recent years, a key step in membership drive is to attract young people to join CAS. Towards this end, the chapter committee invited a GOLD member as well as a PhD student to join the committee this year to provide effective feedbacks on the needs and interests of potential young members. As a result, the committee recently organized the first ever graduate student workshop in circuits, systems and signal processing on the 25th September, 2007. Five PhD students, from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, were invited to present their researches. The workshop was sponsored by the CAS Society. The chapter committee had put in a lot of effort and the workshop was a big success. About 60 participants attended the workshop, mainly PhD students from NUS and NTU. During the workshop, the Chapter Chair Prof. Lin and the VP for Region 10 Prof. Yong Lian gave talks to introduce the IEEE, the CAS Society and the CAS Singapore Chapter with good response from the audience. We have announced benefits for joining as CAS student members, including allowance for attending selected conferences by excellent research students. The chapter committee is pleased to see the increase of the number of CAS student members in Singapore from 1 in 2006 to 20 now in 2007. We plan to make this workshop an annual event in the future.
Photos (above): CAS student member speaker Mr. R. Mahesh presented his research to the audience during the graduate student workshop on September 25, 2007 AND the five student member speakers received the certificates from CAS Singapore Chapter Chair Prof. Lin at the end of the workshop.
The effective measures by the chapter committee have led not only to the drastic increase in membership in 2007, but also to due recognition. The CAS Singapore Chapter has established itself as one of the most active IEEE chapters in Singapore and attracted attention. In a recent Singapore Section Committee meeting, the Section Chair Prof. Lalit Goel recommended CAS chapter as a model for other local chapters. We are very pleased that our chapter has recently been voted as the best local chapter among over 20 chapters in the IEEE Singapore Section.