IEEE Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference in Atlanta
The 11th annual IEEE Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference (BioCAS 2015) took place in Atlanta, Georgia, USA on October 22-24, 2015. The conference was a huge success, and broke multiple records in the history of the IEEE BioCAS. With a focus on “Engineering for Healthy Minds and Able Bodies”, BioCAS 2015 signified the impact of biomedical circuits and systems on advanced medical devices, research tools, and new therapies for neurological diseases and cognitive disorders, as well as rehabilitation tools and assistive technologies for improving the quality of life for those with disabilities.
The 2015 edition of the rapidly growing IEEE BioCAS established a new record in terms of attracting contributions from the circuits and systems (CAS), life sciences, and engineering in medicine and biology (EMB) communities to the conference technical program. A total of 328 papers were received by the technical program committee from all across the world, an increase of 22 percent from the previous year, which also set its own records for paper submissions. Out of these submissions, the technical review committee, helped by 528 expert peer reviewers, selected 163 top quality papers for presentation in this highly selective single-track conference, dropping the acceptance rate down to 49.7% for the first time. The IEEE BioCAS 2015 also set a new record in terms of the conference registration, with more than 310 researchers, faculty, post-docs, students, and invited speakers attending this 3-day content-packed conference.
This effort was organized through a concerted scientific and financial involvement from both the IEEE CASS and IEEE EMBS, underscoring the important role of the synergy between technology advances in circuits and systems, and applications to biomedicine and clinical practice capable of impacting health and wellness globally. This year, for the first time, the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society (SSCS) also got involved by technically sponsoring BioCAS 2015, underscoring the expansive outreach and multidisciplinary nature of the conference. The conference also received the seal of approval from the heavyweights in the medical device industry by receiving financial sponsorship from Medtronic, St Jude Medical, GlaxoSmithKline, as well as the National Science Foundation.
The BioCAS 2015 conference provided a great opportunity to disseminate information about our societies among the attendees and strengthen the relation among members with multiple activities. In fact, IEEE CASS sponsored a number of events at IEEE BioCAS 2015, including the refreshments at the conference Gala Dineer (Fig. 2-4) as well as the Farewell Reception (Fig. 1) held on the final day of the conference. These two events functioned as an occasion to recruit new society members.
BioCAS 2015 offered a multitude of unique opportunities for the attendees to gain knowledge and useful information about the hot topics in biomedical circles, including a parallel workshop organized by veterans of medical industry on "Lessons Learned on The Translational Highway" emphasizing the importance of transferring novel medical devices from laboratory bench to bedside. Moreover, during the Gala dinner event, a panel of experts talked about "The Most Important Problems to be Tackled by the BioCAS Community." This Q&A-style session gave younger aspiring researchers a chance to further discuss these problems with pioneers of the field and experienced clinicians in order to identify the most impactful problems to tackle, those that are most worthy of their time, attention, and talent.
Photos and videos from the IEEE BioCAS 2015 can be found on its website- http://biocas2015.org/biocas-2015-photo-galleries.