In addition to its traditional character of being a "service" commission that provides technological background in the areas of electronics and photonics to other URSI Commissions for their benefit, Commission D has strengthened its stand-alone character. This is in response to an increased emphasis of the Union on telecommunication and wireless activities. Commission D has pay close attention to the new technological development in the respective scientific community. For instance, the low power electronic design of devices and circuits is gaining importance for wireless communication while the high bandgap semiconductor devices are seriously considered for high power microwave applications. The proposed Commission D program for the Lille General Assembly include these newer topics as well as more traditional subjects on electronics and photonics.
The major events during the past three years are the successful accomplishment of ISSSE '95 and the effort to collaborate with ICO (International Commission for Optics). In addition, Commission D supported a number of scientific and technical symposia and meetings throughout the world. These items are described below.
1. International Symposium on Signals, Systems and Electronics (ISSSE '95)
The ISSSE '95 (International Symposium on Signals, Systems and Electronics) was held at Parc Fifty Five Hotel in San Francisco on October 25-27, 1995. This meeting was organized jointly by Commissions C and D of URSI. (International Scientific Radio Union). This is the third of the ISSSE series originated in Erlangen, Germany in 1989 while the second was held in Paris in 1992. The 1995 meeting was held for the first time outside Europe.
The meeting was financially supported by URSI and Commissions C and D. In addition, it attracted an impressive array of financial co-sponsorship. The IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society provided co-sponsorship for 10% financial interest while United States Army Research Office and United States Office of Naval Research provided substantial financial grants. In addition, the following IEEE Societies provided cooperative sponsorship: Electron Devices Society (ED), Lasers and Electro Optics (LEOS), Circuits and Systems (C&S) and Communication (COM).
The meeting started with the opening session when Dr. J. Mink of North Carolina State University, General Chairman of the Steering Committee presented a short greeting that was followed by a congratulatory note by Dr. David Chang, President of Polytechnic University and Chairman of US National Committee of URSI. The first Keynote Session followed with Dr. Charles Rush of Compass Rose International on the topic "Global Information Infrastructures: Challenges and Realities. He described many issues and challenges related to the so-called information superhighway. The second and third days have also started a keynote session. On the second day, the keynote address was given by Dr. Andrew Viterbi of Qualcomm on "Universal Wireless Communication: Convergence of Technology and Market Forces." On Friday, October 27, the keynote was presented by Professor Alwyn Seeds of University College London on "Mining the Optical Fiber Bandwidth Goldmine." All keynote sessions were extremely well attended.
After the keynote sessions, four parallel sessions were run in the late morning, early afternoon and late afternoon for each of the three days. These sessions were roughly divided equally to Commission C subjects and Commission D subjects, although the Commission boundaries were less clear in a number of sessions. In addition, there was a poster session on Thursday evening in a relaxed atmosphere during the wine reception. The meeting was attended by 175. This number includes 8 Young Scientists who were provided a partial financial support.
The Steering Committee consists of: General Chairman, J. W. Mink, North Carolina State University; Vice Chairmen, T. Itoh, UCLA (Commission D) and P. H.Wittke, Queen's University, Canada (Commission C); Technical Program, A. N. Willson, Jr., UCLA (Commission C), M. Shur, University of Virginia (Commission D); Local Arrangement, A. P. Khanna and R. Soohoo, HP Avantek; Finance, H. J. Kuno, Quinstar; Publicity, J. Harvey and R. Trew, Army Research Office; Publication, W. Sander, Army Research Office; Executive Secretary, M. C. Wu, UCLA. Under the Technical Program Co-Chairmen, there was International Scientific Program Committee consisting of 22 scientists from US, Europe, Canada and Japan.
Due to the success of ISSSE '95, it is estimated that a loan of $5,000 be returned to URSI Headquarters and some fund will be left for the next ISSSE in 1998. At the time of writing, the accounting of ISSSE was not finalized, however.
2. Conference Support
Commission D supported a number of scientific conferences and meetings during the past three-year period. They are classified into three types, (a) ISSSE as the main conference of the Commission, (b) Support with financial assistance, and (c) technical cooperation.
(a) ISSSE
Commission D provided $4,000 which was matched by another $4,000 from Commission C as ISSSE is a joint meeting.
(b) Financial Assistance to Scientific Meetings
Commission D provided financial support (not a loan) to the following :
Commission D cooperate the following meetings on the technical aspects with technical liaison as listed :
3. Travel Grant Program for URSI Lille General Assembly
Because of favorable financial situation of Commission D due largely to the success of ISSSE '95, an amount of $4,500 is left over in the Commission budget. Commission D has decided that this amount be used to partially defray the cost of some of the Convenors and Invited Speakers for Commission D Sessions including the joint sessions lead by Commission D. At the time of writing this report, Commission Chair and Vice Chair are finalizing the award recipients. It is planned that 5 Category I awards ($500 each) and 8 Category II awards ($250 each) be awarded based on the following criteria [1] Economic hardship, [2] Only one award to an institution, [3] As much as possible, distribute equally to all sessions, and [4] Geographical distribution. Award will be announced soon through the respective Convenors. The awardee will be given the fund after the Lille GA by way of bank transfer from URSI Secretariat based on the bank information provided during the General Assembly.
4. Collaboration with International Commission for Optics (ICO)
In December 1993, URSI President, Dr. P. Bauer, was approached by Dr. P. Chavel, General Secretary of the International Commission for Optics (ICO), about a possibility of turning this commission into a new Inter Union Commission from its present affiliation with IUPAP. Subsequently, Commission D was asked by URSI President to study the impact in sponsoring the creation of a new Inter Union Committee, because of the interest of Commission D in the area of Photonics.
Commission D has taken a positive step to study the possible strengthening of the relationship between the ICO and URSI, particularly Commission D. A special Subcommittee was created consisting on Professor A. J. Seeds (University College London), Professor A. Michelson (University of Colorado) and Professor D. Jaeger (University of Duisburg) with Professor Seeds as Chair to extensively study this issue. They have studied the three items. (1) Whether the ICO is a suitable body for URSI to collaborate with? (2) If so, what areas of the ICO's work align with the interest of Commission D? and (3) What would be a suitable mechanism for collaboration?
The subcommittee found positive nature of the alliance with ICO. As a first experiment, Commission D organized a joint session D-ICO on "Nonlinear Optical Phenomena and Devices in Transmission Systems," at the Lille General Assembly with Professor Seeds as Convenor.
The positive value of the alliance of URSI with ICO was reported to URSI President. Commission D recommended a positive step toward realization of this alliance.
Prof. Tatsuo Itoh, Chair