WiCAS: Women in Circuits and Systems at ICECS 2019
During the 26th IEEE International Conference on Electronics Circuits and Systems (ICECS), held in Genoa (Italy), from November 27th to 29th, 2019, a Women in Circuits and Systems (WiCAS) event took place. The WiCAS events, often hosted in the frame of the flagship conferences of the IEEE Circuits and Systems (CAS) Society, aim to:
- inspire and motivate both students and young professionals in the domain of circuit and system to have efficient roles in their professions, by meeting successful female engineers and professors;
- enrich the audience knowledge through interesting technical talks in fields of interest of CAS Society;
- introduce the WiCAS group and its role, and motivate females’ researchers/scientists to be active members in conferences, events, workshops, providing guidance and support.
The ICECS 2019 WiCAS event was organized by Dr. Elena Blockina (University College Dublin, Ireland), Dr. Giulia Di Capua (University of Salerno, Italy) and Dr. Zeinab Hijazi (Lebanese International University, Lebanon and University of Genoa, Italy), thanks to the financial support of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society.
Figure 3. WiCAS session
The ICECS 2019 WiCAS event, held on November 28th, 2019, was driven by the theme “WiCAS careers in multi-disciplinary research fields” and included the participation of two recognized speakers, coming from both academia and industry, who provided two amazing talks on major fields of interest of CAS Society, like Neural Systems & Applications and Power & Energy Circuits and Systems. In particular, Mrs. Jutta Williams, Senior Program Manager at Facebook AI Infrastructure, USA, provided a passionate talk, exploring the advancements being made in the area of design, capacity, and performance for large neural networks supporting artificial intelligence, machine learning and augmented reality, with special emphasis on the contributions being made by extraordinary women. Mrs. Jutta’s talk inspired the audience’s heart and mind to embrace the technical and personal challenges of working in highly technical fields. Then, Prof. Sonia Leva, Full Professor at the Politecnico of Milan, Italy, talked about her research experience on the experimental investigation of electrical and thermal power generation systems based on solar energy. Prof. Leva’s talk provided a “possible recipe” made of multi-disciplinary teams and experimental laboratories where verifying models, methods and algorithms: like a “magnet”, such a recipe can potentially attract resources and economic contributions, allowing to favor and speed up research activities and academic careers.
During the event, promotional items, gadgets and gifts were distributed to all the attendees, and a cocktail reception was organized after the session, to welcome and thank all WiCAS event attendees for their participation.
A “WiCAS 2019 Best Paper Award” was eventually assigned to Dr. Erika Covi, postdoctoral researcher assistant at the Politecnico of Milan. Her paper entitled “A Volatile RRAM Synapse for Neuromorphic Computing” was awarded during the ICECS 2019 awarding ceremony.
The WiCAS co-chairs want to express their gratitude to the ICECS 2019 general chair, Prof. Maurizio Valle, and the conference organizing committee, for the technical support received in the definition of the WiCAS session and relevant social event. The WiCAS co-chairs also thanks the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society for the financial support that helped in making this event a great moment of professional and personal enrichment.
Giulia Di Capua, University of Salerno, Italy