Chi Kong Tse

Circuits and Systems in the Heart of London
Second IEEE UKCAS Workshop 2019

The second IEEE Circuits and Systems Workshop in the United Kingdom was organised in the spectacular Chelsea Old Town Hall in London on 6th December 2019. The theme of the workshop was CAS for Wearable Technologies. The workshop was chaired by Dr Sara Ghoreishizadeh (University College London) and Dr Hadi Heidari (University of Glasgow) and sponsored by IEEE CAS society (Seasonal schools scheme), IEEE Outreach, EPSRC eFutures Network IEEE UK and Ireland Chapter, and University College London. 

Left photo: Dr Ghoreishizadeh opens the IEEE UKCAS workshop

The event attracted over 70 attendees from within and outside UK and both academia and industry. This included a wide range of audience from junior researchers and MSc students to retired academics. Dr Sara Ghoreishizadeh and Prof Izzet Kale (IEEE UK&I CAS chair, University of Westminster) opened the workshop. The programme of the workshop included a poster session and three lecture sessions with talks delivered by internationally leading academics based at UK and Ireland universities. 

Left photo: Dr Pantelis Georgiou presenting the first lecture in IEEE UKCAS

In the first lecture session Dr Pantelis Georgiou (Imperial College London) presented Microchip Technology for rapid diagnostic of infection. This was followed by Dr Alex Casson (University of Manchester) who shared their research and vision on non-invasive bioelectronics for personal and precision health care. Prof Ian Underwood (University of Edinburgh) went beyond wearable technologies presenting two grand research projects involving Micro/Nano-Scale Bio-Sensors for selected applications in healthcare.

Poster presentation and networking session

The lunch break provided opportunities for networking and interactions between attendees and the speakers, in particular as it was joint with a poster presentation session. 

Left photo: Dr Elena Blokhina presenting the last lecture in IEEE UKCAS

The afternoon session started with Dr Elizabeth Rendon-Morales’s captivating talk on a novel technology to monitor the ECG in foetuses and neonates non-invasively. Moving to more invasive technologies, Dr Steve Taylor (UCL) presented an overview of instrumented orthopaedic implants fully developed and implanted in patients and discussed the importance of force measurement and remote sensing in the field. This was followed by Dr Hadi Heidari’s talk about both wearable and implantable microelectronics devices helping to rebuild the lives of disabled people. The third lecture session started with Dr Domenico Balsamo (Newcastle University) presenting on Energy driven computing for Internet of Things (IoT). Dr Elena Blokhina (Univeristy College Dublin) closed the session with her talk on kinetic energy harvesters and future challenges for IOT and wearable devices.

Mr Peilong Feng (Imperial College London), Dr Kylie de Jager (UCL), and Mr Salvador Barranco Cárceles (Univresity of Edinburgh) won the Best Poster Awards. The poster session and the award panel was chaired by Dr Kia Nazarpour (Newcastle University) and Dr Xiao Liu (UCL).

Right photo: From left to right Dr Sara Ghoreishizadeh, Dr Rishad Shafik, Dr Kia Nazarpour, the recipient of the Best Poster Awards:  Mr Salvador Barranco Cárceles, Dr Kylie de Jager, and Mr Peilong Feng, and Dr Xiao Liu.

The Circuit and System Society sponsored the publication of proceedings of the workshop as a CAS tutorial book. Thanks to the hard work of the speakers, the publisher and the editors, the book was prepared on time for the event and all attendees received a copy on the day. The details of the book are as follows and the electronics version of the book is available for all IEEE CAS members to download from the CAS website.   

• Sara Ghoreishizadeh and Kylie de Jager, (Eds), Circuits and Systems for Wearable Technologies IEEE UKCAS 2019, River Publishers, 2019 

The organisers of the workshop received several written feedback and notes from attendees thanking the CAS Society and other sponsors for organising this workshop and requesting more events in UK and Ireland in the future.

Sara Ghoreishizadeh and Hadi Heidari, IEEE UK and Ireland Chapter

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Second IEEE South East Asia Circuits and System (SEACAS) Hackathon

Monday, 16 December 2019:

On 16th December 2019, Hackathon participants from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam were shuttled to Malaysian Research Institute on Ageing (MyAgeing Research Institute) from respective hotels. All the hackathon participants and come symposium delegates registered at 9:00am at MyAgeingTM meeting room. The event started with a welcome speech from Fakhrul Zaman Rokhani, SEACAS Hackathon 2019 general co-chair, and highlighted the importance of technology in Ageing-in-Place and shared the hackathon challenges. Next, welcome speech by IEEE CASS President-Elect, Amara Amara followed by SEACAS 2019 general co-chair, Mohd Nazim Mohtar. Then, a technical talk on Ageing-in-Place challenges and potential solutions were given by the subject matter expert, Prof. Siti Anom Ahmad from MyAgeingTM. At 10:00am, participants were brought to visit different research labs at the institute to experience ageing issues in detail and various developed prototypes. By 12:00pm, all the participants and delegates were shuttled to the Lakeside of Engineering Faculty for lunch. The event continued back at 13:00pm until 17:00pm at Seminar Hall Engineering Faculty for the participants to work on their project ideas. Participants were divided into 10 different teams, with two students per team, where each team selected their own project topics. At 17:30pm, all the participants and delegates were shuttled back to their hotel. 

Left photo: Llab visit by the participants. Right photo: A participant experiencing elderly’s limited movement through wearing an Ageing Suit.

SEACAS Hackathon participants together with the MyAgeingTM Institute Director

Tuesday, 17 December 2019:

On 17th December 2019, participants were shuttled from their hotel to the Seminar Hall of Engineering Faculty and started to work on their project from 9:00am until 12:00pm. At 12:00pm, participants break for lunch, served at the Lakeside. Working session continued after lunch until 16:30pm and then wrap-up, review and redirection session was held by Hackathon organizer together with MyAgeingTM subject matter experts. Welcome dinner were held from 18:00pm till 20:30pm which gave a great opportunity to student participants to meet and greet with IEEE CAS Society top leadership – Yong Lian, Amara Amara, and Yoshifumi Nishio. The student participants were asked to compete in a social competition – ‘Best Selfie and Creative Caption Contest’ reflecting on their Hackathon experience. The participants were asked to snap pictures during event, upload in Facebook, and write a creative caption to stand a chance to win attractive prizes. All participants back to their hotels by provided shuttles by 21.00pm.

Students working on their project and Figure 5 shows the wrap-up, review and redirection session for each group.

Lunch and welcome dinner at the Lakeside of Engineering Faculty UPM.

Wednesday, 18 December 2019:

On 18 December 2019, provided shuttle service brought all the Hackathon participants from the hotels to Seminar Hall of Engineering Faculty at 8:30am. All students continued their project from 9:00am and break for lunch at 12:00pm. Working session continued after lunch from 13:00pm to 17:30pm. During this time, CASS officers came to seminar hall and met their students. The students had chance to discuss about their projects with the CASS officers, and then Wrap-up, review and redirection was held by Hackathon organizer together with MyAgeingTM subject matter experts. Then the participants proceeded to have Grand Dinner held at Le Meridien Hotel Putrajaya from 18:00pm till 21:00pm by provided shuttles. At the grand dinner, IEEE CAS Society leadership Amara Amara and Yoshifumi Nishio, together with SEACAS Hachathon general co-chair Mohd Nazim Mohtar gave welcoming speeches. During the dinner, students made some exciting performances, with special appearance by Yoshifumi Nishio. Representative CASS officers from different countries also gave a short reflection of the Hackathon program. The students totally enjoyed gathering and taking pictures, singing and sharing their experience with others. Instead of one promised prize, two prizes were given away to the winners of the ‘Best Selfie and Creative Caption Contest’. All participants shuttled back to their hotels by provided shuttles after the ceremony.

Exciting performances by the students and special appearance by Yoshifumi Nishio.

CASS officers and student participants attended the grand dinner.

Evaluation session by more than 80 senior citizens for the Senior Citizen Best Award project.

Presentation by one of the competing team during the final evaluation session and deliberation session by the juries.

Above: Hackathon participants posing with some of the senior citizen attendees during the event. Below: Final pose with all Hackathon participants and delegates at the end of the event.

Thursday, 19 December 2019:

On 19 December 2019 at 8:00am, Hackathon participants arrived at MyAgeingTM institute and proceeded with demonstration booth setting up. Between 11.00am and 12:30pm, each team was given 5 minutes to pitch their project ideas and then demonstrated their prototype at their booth in front of more than 80 senior citizens, for the Senior Citizen Choice Award. The first team was from Philippines, presented about “Easy Shower: Gesture Identification Using Photo resistors as Bathing Aid for Older Adults”. Second team was from Malaysia presented about “AI Meal Tracker and Social App”. Third and fourth team were from Indonesia presented about “Heart Disease Monitoring and Alert System” and “Sensor Stick”. The fifth team was from Vietnam presented about “The Magic Spoon”. The sixth team was from Philippines presented about “Sweat Escape: Sweat Detection and Notification System”. The seventh team was from Thailand presented about “Smart Housework Sensors”. Then, eighth team was from Singapore presented about “Smart Bathroom”. The second last team was from Thailand again with the title “Smart Toilet”, followed by the last team from Indonesia. Upon completing all 10 presentations, senior citizens went from booth to booth to experience the prototype and evaluated these projects for the Senior Citizen Choice Award. The event then break for lunch between 12:30pm and 14:00pm. Following the lunch break, final evaluation session by an evaluation panel comprised of IEEE CASS officers (Amara Amara and Yoshifumi Nishio, ) and MyAgeingTM subject matter expert (Mohd Rizal Hussin). Each team was given 7 minutes for presentation, 8 minutes of demonstration, question and answer. Next, between 16:00pm to 17:00pm, jury convened for complete deliberation to select the winner for SEACAS Hackathon 2019, then followed by closing ceremony. The Best Design Award (i.e. Winner of SEACAS Hackathon 2019) went to Vietnam team with the title of “The Magic Spoon”. Then, the first runner-up and the second runner-up went to Thailand teams with the title of “Smart Housework Sensors” and “Smart Toilet”. For the Senior Citizen Choice Award went to Philippines team with the title of “Easy Shower: Gesture Identification Using Photo resistors as Bathing Aid for Older Adults”. All the winners received cash award and IEEE CAS Society student membership for 2020. The Best Design Award winning team were selected to represent South East Asia for the final IEEE CAS Society Student Design Competition at ISCAS’20 in Spain. At the end of the event, we took some pictures with everyone that contributed to this event, including the delegates, participants, volunteers and the organizers. 

Fakhrul Zaman Rokhani, CASS Malaysia Chapter

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Third IEEE South East Asia Workshop on Circuits and System (SEACAS)

On the morning of 18 December 2019, all of CASS delegates arrived at Engineering Faculty, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). The delegates are CASS officers representing six SEA (South East Asia) countries, which is from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. At 9:00am, opening ceremony held at engineering conference room started with welcoming speech by Mohd Nazim Mohtar, chair of CASS Malaysia Chapter.  The speech continued with remarks given by Fawnizu Azmadi Hussin, chair of IEEE Malaysia Section. Next, the President of CASS, Yong Lian gave an enlightening talk on “Introduction of CAS Society” to CASS officers and hackathon students. The talk continued with CASS President-Elect, Amara Amara whom gave an exciting talk about the “Strategy of the CAS Society”. The final talk was by the CASS Vice-President Regional Activity and Membership with an entertaining speech on “Regional Activities of the CASS Society”. Between 10:30am to 12:00pm, a session on CASS chapter presentation to share the best practices on chapter activities by their respective countries. The discussion break at 12.30pm for lunch at the Lakeside of Engineering Faculty. The symposium continued with technical presentations and discussions by each CASS chapter representative from 13:00pm till 17:00pm. 

Left photo: Welcome remarks by chair of IEEE Malaysia Section. Right photo: Talk by IEEE CASS President Yong Lian.

Left photo: Talk by IEEE CASS President-Elect. Right photo: IEEE CASS VP Regional Activity and Membership.

Above: Collage of SEA chapter presentations, outlining best practices on chapter activities in respective countries. Below: CASS officers and student participants attended the grand dinner

Then, the delegates proceeded to have Grand Dinner held at Le Meridien Hotel Putrajaya from 18:00pm till 21:00pm by provided shuttles. At the grand dinner, IEEE CAS Society leaderships Amara Amara and Yoshifumi Nishio, together with SEACAS Hackathon general co-chair Mohd Nazim Mohtar gave welcoming speeches. During the dinner, representative CASS officers from different countries gave a short reflection of the Hackathon program. The dinner ended at 21:00pm and all delegates were shuttled back to their hotel. 

Fakhrul Zaman Rokhani, CASS Malaysia Chapter