MESSAGE FROM THE 2008 CAS SOCIETY PRESIDENT
Serving the Circuits and Systems Society (CASS) and its members as 2008 President is a great privilege and honor. It is a great opportunity and also a great responsibility.
During my 25+ years’ professional career, I had opportunities to work as an educator and researcher in several different countries, mostly in Europe and also in the US, Japan, and Hong Kong. Experience at various volunteer positions in the Circuits and Systems Society, ranging from Regional Activities and Chapter Coordination to Secretary-Treasurer and an Associate Editor of the Transactions and Editor-in-Chief for the CAS Magazine, gave me an in-depth insight and understanding of problems and needs as well as potentials of local electrical end electronic engineers' communities and the role that the Circuits and Systems Society could play.
The Circuits and Systems Society is facing many challenges. They are related to two important issues:
  1. 1. We have entered the era of electronic communications and multimedia that are imposing revolutionary changes in the publications and conference sectors thus having enormous impact on operations of the Society.
  2. 2. There are new challenging research areas  such as  “bio”, “nano”, “tera”, and “organic” electronic circuits and systems, and, above all, new cross-disciplinary topics–booming in the scientific communities. They should and will have an impact on CASS present and future: we have to adapt to fast changing research directions and goals. We need to bring them to the attention of our members and encourage new activities.
My belief is that the role of President of the Circuits and Systems Society should be proactive in creating new vision for the future of our Society, most important being the technical vision, and in identifying new cutting-edge research opportunities and new areas of applications. We should encourage activities, workshops, conferences, and publications in these new areas. The IEEE Circuits and Systems Society encompasses several domains and has in the past served as an incubator for new research areas.  The creation of the new Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems and Technical Committees on Biomedical Circuits and Systems and Life-Science Systems and Applications, should encourage development of conferences and workshops in these new and fast developing areas –including building a new flag-ship conference for our Society.
 
CASS should be attractive to people and current and potential new members should have a clear vision of the benefits associated with membership. It is very important to encourage new groups of volunteers to join CASS for the improvement of our services to members: bridging the gap between the executive bodies and the chapters and individual members is of paramount importance. I will follow the footsteps of my predecessors, Presidents Ellen Yoffa and Ljiljana Trajkovic, fostering work with students and GOLD members. We need to create a convincing mechanism and communication links for locally grouped members and chapters to work with the ExCom and BoG: the Society cares about them not only by offering the DLP program and by providing on-request service, but also by maintaining continuous feedback mechanisms tailored for local needs.  Improvement of contacts with local Chapters and between Chapters should be also encouraged.
 
I believe that there is place for many new actions and improvements, with the goal “to serve the members.” I look forward to serving you and working with you. I count on your help and feedback.
 
All the best wishes for 2008.
 
 
Maciej Ogorzalek
President, IEEE Circuits and Systems Society
 
 
VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1, FEBRUARY 2008