Commission D
1999-2002 Triennium Report
by Alwyn Seeds, Chairman
[Download a print friendly version of this report in MS Word 97]
The growing importance of wireless and optical communication technology coupled with the internet growth has led to continued strong interest in the activities of Commission D, "Electronics and Photonics".
We have continued the successful policy of providing technical co-sponsorship to a number of meetings of interest to Commission D while focusing financial sponsorship on the established International Symposium on Signals Systems and Electronics, ISSSE, jointly sponsored with Commission C. For this triennium we also provided financial sponsorship to the 2001 Asia-Pacific Radio Science Conference (AP-RASC'01).
1. ISSSE’01,
The 2001 International Symposium on Signals, Systems, and Electronics- ISSSE'01 - was held on July 24 - 27 2001 at the Hotel Grand Palace, Tokyo, Japan with conference theme "Questing More Significant Harmony and Integration: Systems/Devices and Softwares/Hardwares". The Co-Chairmen were Professors M. Akaike(Science Univ. of Tokyo) and K. Kikuchi(Univ. of Tokyo), with Thechnical Programme Committee chaired by Dr. H. Ogawa (Comm. Res. Labs). Other sponsors included the Institute of Electronics,Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE), Communications Society and Electronics Society, with co-operative sponsorship by Science Council of Japan and IEEE Japan Council.
The symposium topics were:
The number of registered attendees was 117 and 114 papers were presented from 26 countries in 6 regions, as follows:
There were two Tutorial Sessions, the first by Dr. M.Fujise, CRL, Japan on "Millimeter-Wave ITS Communications" and the second by Dr. K.Yoshida, JTDC, Japan on "New Trend Scenarios and their Devices for Bluetooth Wireless Technology". A special session was also presented on "R & D Activities at Yokosuka Research Park (YRP) -Broadband Wireless Access Technologies"
A banquet was held on July 26 where the ISSSE’01 award was presented. A proposal is being prepared to hold the next ISSSE, ISSSE’04 in Vienna, Austria.
2. AP-RASC’01
The meeting was held at Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan on August 1-4, 2001. The Conference Chairman was Dr. Y. Furuhama, supported by an International Advisory Board (Chairperson: H. Matsumoto), an International Steering Committee (Chairperson: Y. Furuhama) and an Organizing Committee (Chairperson: S. Okamura). Other sponsors included The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE).
The meeting was very well attended with 704 participants from 34 countries/regions, with 48 young scientists from 17 countries/regions, whose travelling expenses were partly supported by the Conference Organizing Committee.
The AP-RASC’01 was the first Asia-Pacific regional URSI conference to be held between URSI General Assemblies. The objective of this conference was to stimulate and to coordinate the research activities of radio science in the Asia-Pacific area. The main theme of this conference was "Radio Science - Communications, Environment, and Energy".
A total of 599 regular papers were presented (oral: 404, poster 195). A total of 86 sessions were organized; one was a union session entitled "Solar power satellite and wireless power transmission", and the other 85 sessions were organized corresponding to each commissions of URSI. Nine joint-commission sessions were also included. In addition to these sessions, one large unified poster session was held on Friday afternoon, August 3, 2002.
Two General Lectures were presented; one was "Mobile Communications Technology – Most Brilliant Application of Radio Science" by Prof. Yasuhiko Yasuda (Waseda University, Japan), and the other was "Challenges at the Frontiers of Science and Engineering in Radio Astronomy" by Prof. Govind Swarup (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India).
The conference began on the afternoon of 1 August, and was followed by Welcome Reception, both at Chuo University. A Banquet was also held on the evening of 4 August at Tokyo Dome Hotel and all participants were cordially invited. Although Accompanying Person’s Program and Scientific Visits were not prepared, a demonstration of the wireless power transmission simulator (SPRITZ) was held during the conference.
Although AP-RASC’01 was its first meeting, the conference was very successful. The Joint Meeting of the International Advisory Board and the International Steering Committee for AP-RASC’01 was held on 2 August and it was agreed unanimously that AP-RASC be held triennially between two consecutive URSI GAs. After this meeting, negotiation for the next meeting was made among related nations and it was decided that the next AP-RASC would be held in China in 2004. This decision was announced by the Conference Chairperson, Dr. Furuhama, at the Banquet on the evening of 4 August. Details of the next AP-RASC will announced soon.
3. 2002 General Assembly
The technical areas of interest to Commission D have been well-supported for the Maastricht General Assembly, with 92 papers scheduled in the following sessions:
We are delighted to have Dr. Hideyuki Sotobayashi, (Communications Research Laboratory, Japan) give the Commission D Tutorial on the subject of "Ultrafast Photonic Networks based on Optical Code Division Multiplexing".
As at previous General Assemblies we shall provide limited financial support to invited speakers in cases of need.
Alwyn Seeds, Chairman, Commission D
15 June 2002.