Minutes of the IEEE AGA, March 9th, 2016
IEEE Switzerland Section
Event:
IEEE Switzerland Section Annual General Assembly (AGA)
Date:
March 9th, 2016 14:00 – 20:00
NTB Campus Buchs, Buchs SG
(directions: https://goo.gl/maps/wkWqQj3ciBr)
Place:
Meeting
Chair:
Andreas Koschak
Minutes:
Dr. Maria-Alexandra Paun
Participants
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49 Attendees
5 Excused
Agenda
1.
1.
Welcome Address............................................................................................................ 1
2.
Approval of the Agenda .................................................................................................. 1
3.
Approval of the Minutes of the last GA .......................................................................... 2
4.
Chairman's report ............................................................................................................ 2
5.
Chapter foundation: IEEE Geoscience & Remote Sensing Society GRSS ..................... 4
6.
Reports from other chapters and affinity groups ............................................................. 4
7.
Treasurer's Report (Financial report for 2015 and Budget) ............................................. 6
8.
Approval of the financial report ...................................................................................... 6
9.
Discharge of the ExCom ................................................................................................. 6
10.
Election of new YP AG Chair ......................................................................................... 6
11.
Miscellaneous .................................................................................................................. 6
12.
Chairman’s Foils ............................................................................................................. 7
Welcome Address
The IEEE Switzerland Section's Chairman Andreas Koschak opens the General
Assembly by welcoming the participants.
2.
Approval of the Agenda
Andreas Koschak begins his talk and presents the Agenda for the Day, as follows.
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14:00-15:00 Official Part
15:00-15:30 Coffee Break
15:30-16:30 Talks and Demonstrations
16:30-17:30 Round Tour
17:30-18:45 Standing Dinner
Between 15:30-16:30, there will be Talks, demonstrations, and tours, organized by
NTB, including tours of research groups, laboratories and a NTB Cleanroom virtual
tour.
The standing dinner will finish in good time to allow the attendees to catch the trains
to Zürich, between 19:15 and 20:23.
The Motion to approve the Agenda is initiated. The Agenda for the present GA is
accepted with unanimous decision.
3.
Approval of the Minutes of the last GA
Andreas Koschak mentions that the Minutes of the last Annual General Assembly are
available at www.ieee.ch. The Motion to approve the minutes is initiated. The Minutes
are unanimously approved.
4.
Chairman's report
At the previous GA 2015, Andreas Koschak pointed out three Action points: Awareness
and Visibility Legal Status project, and Communication.
Firstly, Andreas Koschak introduces the main points of his talk. During his discourse,
he will touch upon the following subjects:
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General Information
Membership Development (Section, IEEE, Region)
Senior Member Grade / Elevation
2016 Fellows
Events in 2015
2016 Outlook – Events
Legal Status Project
Streamlining of Financial Reporting
Chapters / Affinity Groups
He then mentions the new postal address of Switzerland Section:
IEEE Switzerland Section
3000 BERN
Moving on, Andreas Koschak passes to briefly mention the IEEE Switzerland Section
membership statistics, in years 2000 and 2007-2015, with a total numbers of members
of 3015 at the end of 2015.
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Andreas Koschak talks about the statistics of the IEEE membership, both at R8 and
IEEE Switzerland section levels. On this subject, he presents some graphs. Regarding
the IEEE membershipdevelopment , there is always the deactivator which happens in
February. After the deactivator in February 2016, the IEEE Switzerland Section has
2483 members. The coat of USD currency may have impacted the figures.
Andreas Koschak talks about the IEEE memebrship, per type of membership. To learn
more about the exact figures, the reader is invited to consult the Chairman’s foils, at
the end of this report.
Andreas Koschak points out the increase of Women in Engineering Affinity Group
membership, with a significant percentage of 12.6 % globally. However, the total
membership of Young Professionals has suffered a 6.2% decrease.
He also mentions the five new fellows from 2015, namely David Atienza (EPFL),
Sandro Carrara (EPFL), Stefan Ritt (PSI), Juergen Brugger (EPFL), and Adrian
Ionescu (EPFL). We congratulate them on their achievements. To be also noticed that
The President of ETHZ, Lino Guzzella as well as the newly appointed President of EPFL,
Martin Vetterli, are Fellows of IEEE.
The last year’s report is focused on presenting the main events which the IEEE Swiss
Section held in 2015. Between January 1 and December 31 2015, the Section
organized 26 events, excluding the GA and Excom meetings/administrative events
(please check www.ieee.ch for news on events).
Andreas Koschak highlights three events from the last year, namely the IEEE Xtreme
2015 programming competition, the “50 years of Moore’s Law” Seminar in
collaboration with FAEL/Swiss (Zurich, Nov 11, 2015), where the Section was coorganizer and co-sponsor, and “EMC and Harmonic Mitigation: Forthcoming
Standards and Advances in Filter Technology” Workshop at Schaffner EMV AG, on
Nov 19, 2015. The 24h IEEE Xtreme programming competition was first organized at
EPFL (and in Switzerland) by Maria-Alexandra Paun in October 2011, it was the fifth
edition of the IEEE Extreme in 2015, when a team from EPFL came second and a
team from Politehnica University of Romania came third in global ranking. The latter
event was highlighted because it was organized by one of the new chapters and at a
company site, receiving very positive feedback from both academic institutions and
industry.
Additionally, Andreas Koschak mentions some future events, such as First Meeting of
the IEEE Switzerland Section Geoscience and Remote Sensing Chapter (February 11,
2016, ETHZ), AES Lecture: Modern Passive Radar and Multistatic Tracking (March 01
2016, ETHZ), 2016 International Zurich Seminar on Communications (March 2-4, 2016,
Zürich), UWB Nano-Antenna Arrays (March 4, 2016, EPFL).
In conclusion, there was a high level of activity within the Section, more involvement
of industry is welcome. Also, he encourages the people to visit our website
www.ieee.ch, to learn more about future events.
At this point, Andreas Koschak moves onto presenting the Legal status of our section.
The IEEE HQ forced us to have a legal status. A large law company looks at bylaws,
and these documents are now being finalized. They will be available to vote on at the
GA 2017. We strive for new, simpler bylaws. We are also putting a disclaimer on the
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website and think about the legal protection of volunteers. Being a “Verein”, Swiss
taxes might allow deduction for donation to IEEE foundation.
Regarding the Financial Reporting of Subunits, there is a new financial reporting since
2011, when Section takes over some accounts of society chapters with the goal to have
less work for volunteers.
Andreas Koschak now moves onto the Society Chapters/Affinity Groups Reports. In
2014, we had 2 new Society Chapters and the restart of EDU Society Chapter. In 2015, we
had 1 new Society Chapter and Restart of YP AG. At this point, a highlight on the
activities of some of the most active chapters is presented.
5.
Chapter foundation: IEEE Geoscience & Remote Sensing Society GRSS
Othmar Frey, Chair of Geoscience & Remote Sensing Society GRSS, begins his talk.
On Oct 21, 2015, the petition to form the Chapter was approved by the IEEE Member
and Geographic Activities (MGA) board. The Chapter had its successful inaugural
meeting held on Feb 11, 2016, with approximately 35 participants. At this point, they
also had a technical talk by Prof. Devis Tuia, University of Zürich, on “Multitemporal
land classification and change detection with different sensors”.
Othmar Frey also announces 2 upcoming talks (joint events with the “Geomatics
Seminar”, ETHZ), “Correlating Synthetic Aperture Radar (CoSAR): A radar mission
concept for geosynchronous earth observation”, on 17.03.2016, by Dr. Paco LopezDekker, and “SAR Polarimetry: from Basics to Applications”, by Prof. Dr. Eric Pottier
(IEEE GRSS Distinguished Lecturer), on 21.04.2016.
Further on, Othmar Frey talks about the GRSS flagship Conference, IEEE Int.
Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), and presents some figures
from this 2015 conference in Milan. Also, he points out some Geoscience and Remote
Sensing Society Publications such as TGRS, GRSL, JSTARS and GRSM.
6.
Reports from other chapters and affinity groups
AESS Heinz Wipf, the Chair of Aerospace & Electronic Systems Society (AESS) Chapter
begins his talk. Since its creation in 2014, the AESS Chapter has organized 7 lectures,
whereby 3 were AESS-Distinguished Lecturers. Within AESS, there was exchange
with Germany's AES and the VP AESS on education. The Chair wishes a more active
exchange in Region 8.
As past events organized by AESS, Heinz Wipf mentioned the Joint Lecture with ION-
CH “Automatic Design of Navigation Systems - A Dream or Near-term Future” by Dr.
Zeev Berman Berman Consultant Israel (25.07.2015), the Joint Lecture with ION-CH
“GNSS Signal-in-Space under Threat - A Quality-of-Service Issue for Aviation” by
Dr. M. Scaramuzza and H. Wipf El Ing HTL (06.10.2015), and the Joint Lecture IEEE
with AOC and the Institute of Geodesy Photogrammetry, ETH Zürich "Modern
Passive Radar and Multistatic Tracking" by Dr. Wolfgang Koch, Fellow IEEE and
Distinguished Lecturer of the AESS Fraunhofer Gesellschaft (01.03.2016).
Attendance is mostly between 20 to 30 persons for joint lectures, which allow for
some social interactions among and between members of related associations.
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Regarding future events, Heinz Wipf speaks about the Distinguished Lecturer Program
event at ETHZ, on March 14th, by Dr. Alfonso Farina. He then speaks about the
European Navigation Conference (ENC), to be held on May 30-June 02, 2016 in
Helsinki, Finland, with IEEE AESS co-sponsorship.
CPMT The Chair of CPMT Chapter, Daniel Thommen, will present their activities in
2015, and focus on three events. The first entitled “Packaging for Active Implantable
Medical Devices”, was held at ETH Zurich, on 28th January 2015. The talks were:
“Fabrication Process for Hermetic Biocompatible Miniature Implant Enclosures”, by
Niklaus Schneeberger, “Experiences with a Non-Hermetic Active Implant” by Thomas
Degen, and “Wireless Brain Interfaces & Challenges for Hermetic Sealing in Chronic
Use” by Prof. Arto Nurmikko. This event attracted 45 participants.
The second event entitled “Packaging and Components for Medical and
Pharmaceutical Devices”, was held at Roche Diagnostics Rotkreuz, on 18th June
2015. The talks were: “Stretchable electronics for spinal cord stimulation activities”,
by Prof. Janos Vörös, “Sweat sensors on flexible substrates for healthcare
applications” by Dr. Hoël Guerin, and “Bloodgas Analytics at Roche - Present and
future challenges”, by Dr. Rainer Jaeggi. This event attracted 25 participants.
The third event highlighted is the CPMT General Assembly, held at ABB Corporate
Research, Baden-Dättwil on Nov. 5 2015. At this moment, the ABB presented
packaging R&D activities (Franziska Brem / Slavo Kicin). Other talks were “Transient
liquid phase bonding – assembly technology of the future?” by Adrian Lis. This was
followed by IEEE Overview & General Assembly by Daniel Thommen) and a visit of
Pearl-lab (semiconductor cleanroom, packaging cleanroom and converter lab). This
event attracted 21 participants.
The CPMT Chapter has 42 active members, with the board meeting by-monthly via
telco. For more Chapter information, please visit: www.ieee.ch/chapters/cpmt/.
SP/C/COM Further on, the SP/C/COM Joint Chapter, established in 1973, will talk
about its activities, through his new Chair, Prof. Thomas Mittelholzer. Within their
Chapter, they have organized the 2016 International Zurich Seminar on
Communications, held on March 2-4, 2016. The 2016 IZS benefited from 91
registered attendees from, 5 invited sessions with totally 23 talks, 5 normal sessions
with totally 27 talks and 3 keynote lectures.
This is a biennial IEEE conference since 1970, which has been organized by IEEE
Switzerland Chapter on Digital Communications since 1974. The main focus is on
Coding theory and its applications, Information theory, Multi-user and network
information theory, Detection and estimation,Wireless communications, Cryptography
and Data Security.
The Keynote Lectures at IZS 2016 were “On Decoding Reed-Solomon Codes Beyond
Half the Minimum Distance”, by Martin Bossert (Univ. Ulm), “An Information
Theoretic View of Fronthaul-Constrained Cloud Radio Access Networks”, by Shlomo
Shamai (Technion Haifa), and “Common Randomness, Querying and Large
Probability Sets” by Prakash Narayan (Univ. Maryland).
At this point, Andreas Koschak thanks the Chapters and Affinity Groups Chairs for
their great work. He offers a Micro-Award for the most active chapters (Society Chapters
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with the most reported technical events in 2015): AESS (Heinz Wipf), EMB (Volker
Koch), R (Mauro Ciappa), CPMT (Daniel Thommen).
7.
Treasurer's Report (Financial report for 2015 and Budget)
Danilo Zanatta points out that IEEE Switzerland Section received highest possible
Rebate in 2015 and that many events were sponsored in 2015. He will talk about the
legal issues also present the budget for 2016.
Danilo Zanatta presents the last year’s budget, as well as gain/loss and balance sheets
for 2014-15. The Financial Report is done using Netsuite tool. He mentions that the
lawyer expenses are paid by IEEE Head Quarters. Also, he briefly points out the
Reserve Allocation Expense, which is reserved money for some events. If we spend
more on events, the reserve allocation expense will become lower. The Reserve
Allocation Expense is added to the balance (liability: the reserve is not transferred to
IEEE HQ, but cannot be spent).
Danilo Zanatta also presents the Budget for 2016 (more details on the slides at the end
of these Minutes). This budget includes travel costs to the IEEE Region 8 Student &
Young Professional congress in Regensburg (DE) and Reserve (other costs), regarding
ongoing effort to clarify the legal status of IEEE-CH as a “Verein”.
8.
Approval of the financial report
Since we do not have auditors, Andreas Koschak ask if anybody wants to put forward
a motion to discharge the ExCom for their handling of the affairs of the Association in
2015. The motion is initiated and the approval of the financial report is unanimous
(approved by acclamation).
9.
Discharge of the ExCom
The motion to discharge the ExCom is put forward and the motion is approved
unanimously (approved by acclamation).
10.
Election of new YP AG Chair
Now we proceed to the election of new YP Chair, Jaison Sabu. Jaison Sabu, new proposed
Chair of Young Professionals Affinity Group, introduces himself, his current position
at GE (former Alstom) and his research interests. He also briefly talks about future
plans within YP CH. His position will now be validated through vote at the General
Assembly. There is unanimous approval of the new YP chair.
Andreas Koschak also mentions that there will be elections at the GA 2017.
11.
Miscellaneous
Andreas Koschak warmly thanks the audience for their presence at the IEEE
Switzerland Annual General Assembly 2016 at NTB Buchs. Andreas Koschak also
thanks again the whole ExCom (Vice-Chair & Secretary: Maria-Alexandra Paun,
Treasurer: Danilo Zanatta) plus all the Chapters and Affinity Groups Chairs, for their
great work in 2015.
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The official part of the General Assembly is now finished. There is now the time for
the coffee break, until 15:30, followed by presentations from NTB.
The institutes/laboratories to present their activities will be: “Institute for Electronics,
Sensors and Actuators” (ESA), “Institute for Production Metrology, Materials and Optics”
(PWO), “Institute for Micro & Nanotechnology” (MNT) and “Institute for Development
of Mechatronic Systems” (EMS).
The floor will be open for the Talks, demonstrations, and tours, organized by NTB
until 17:30 and later (after 17:30) for the Standing dinner at NTB Buchs. There will
also be a virtual tour of the brand new Clean room facilities, of 620 m 2, with the
possibility to produce wafer of 4-8 inchs.
***The meeting/official part adjourns around 15:10 ***
12.
Chairman’s Foils
Please find below the Chairman’s slides.
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