It is a tremendous responsibility and also a great honor and privilege to serve the IEEE Circuits and Systems, CAS, Society as 2016-2017 President. I also find the two coming years to be of significant opportunities and challenges. Our society is a transnational community with more than 10,000 members worldwide that for more than 60 years has promoted for the scientific and professional standing of its members by supporting a wide spectrum of interests. This activity makes it the most technically vibrant and forward-looking society within the IEEE. Achieving and preserving the current success of our society is a challenging and rewarding task. For sure I will not sit back and relax because the CAS disciplines are always on the move. This, obviously, is what happened in the past but nowadays changes are much faster. The present trends on knowledge access, education, relationship with other communities, and the academia-industry cooperation require new mechanisms for better providing our members with improved or new products and services.
During the past two years, in the capacity of President Elect, I analyzed the society and together with the Long Term Strategy Committee we identified proper lines of action. I can say that the current status of our society in a reasonable shape but our analysis identified areas where we have to put much more attention and focus for having activity and execution processes leading to a better impact and quality of service.
During the next two years I will be working for improving the CAS Society leadership and offering superior and new services to CASS members; I will also operate for preserving and enhancing the technical excellence, and supporting young professionals.
The elements that will inspire my strategy and actions are:
- Focus on quality of services. The activity of all the society executives will be directed toward what CASS members perceive and appreciate. I am aware that the success of an organization depends on the ability to understand and match the changes of trends. They cannot be perceived by quantitative data or analysis (including statistics) looking inside the organization. They only result from the external reality. Thus, having feedback from the CAS Society members will be essential for obtaining optimal results.
- Members to be considered customers. What is important is to ensure that scientists and engineers desire to remain or to become members because of the outcomes of the CAS Society. Moreover, to ensure sustainable operation and make stronger the impact of CASS, new members need to be attracted from developing countries. This will bring new lifeblood and fulfill a fundamental mission of the CAS Society: fostering the progress of countries through a broader access to knowledge.
- Essential to engage people. The CAS Society must empower more and more people to engage, contribute and take responsibility so they experience an important role in serving and finding solutions. The role of the organization will coordinate and support them. I will conform my actions to these rules: create partnerships and give autonomy to volunteers; create cross-functional groups; provide feedback on performance; favor a productive environment with minimum bureaucracy; recognize contributions.
- Make things visible. Informing the community on actions and results will be a crucial concern of the managing organization (ExCom, BoG). Dissemination of results helps in obtaining support in membership and augments the sense of belonging. It will be important to enforce the CASS identity through the CASS Logo, website, presentations, poster and flyers. The use appropriate media and tools, published articles, advertisements and bulk mail-messages will be the natural implementation of this strategic view.
- Value the Society Distinguished Members. The rich history of the CAS Society and the important contributions to the science development of its prominent members recommends to properly recognize the excellence. This can be achieved through Awards, Fellow Grade, Plenary Invitations and Distinguished Lecturer Program. For the various initiatives it will be necessary to primarily focus on active CASS members because that will enforce the sense of belonging. The existing rules will be revisited so that Awards not granted will be an exception.
- To be more appealing to the industry. The relationship between scientific studies and the productive world is increasingly vital for the progress of humanity. The CAS Society is aware of this and the goal of an increasing participation of industrial members to the life of the CAS Community will be attained with specific actions like special sessions at flagship conferences, industrial plenary speakers, panel discussions and round tables with speakers from industry, and Industrial Lecturer programs.
The above guidelines shall be transformed into actions. I already have ideas on what can be done, among them
- Conferences. Establish feedback of attendees and close the loop with TPC chairs, track chairs and other top organizers. Organize round table and panel discussions to augment the conference attractiveness. Organize new top-notch small symposia on hot topics with features that distinguish them from other conferences already in existence.
- Journals. Speed up the reviewing process of TCAS II to make it competitive with existing Letters. Increase the page budget of all the publication for reducing the backlog and making room for Special Issues of flagship CASS Conferences. Add a CAS News item section in our CAS Magazine.
- Technical Activity. The Technical Committees are the backbone of our technical activity. Their already effective structure will be rearranged to increase visibility and coordinate initiatives. Any overlap of interests shall be avoided so that each committee will have a proper critical mass. Short notes and articles on the promoted activity will be published on the CAS Magazine, CAS Newsletter and other communication channels to publicize performed work.
- Regional Activity. The CAS Chapters are optimal organizations for favoring regional activity. They will continue supporting the Outreach Programs and through them in coordination with the Technical Committees summer schools and short courses will be organized. The initiatives should be able to bring added value to the CAS Society and its members in terms of visibility, educational material and increased membership.
My above ideas are somehow vague and need that kind of refinement that must result from the contribution of you, my customers. I really do hope to receive feedback, suggestions, proposal and willingness to contribute to this great community: the CAS Society. You can reach me via e-mail at franco.maloberti@unipv.it. Remember, my motto and my dream are “Members first”.
Franco Maloberti
President, IEEE CAS Society (2016-2017)
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Note: This article also appeared in the IEEE CAS Magazine, first quarter issue of 2016.