In This Issue

Message From the Chair    Editor’s Column     WIE Engineering International Leadership Conference

Call for Nominations     Women in Engineering     Conferences/Summits/Call for Papers/Workshops/Tutorials

IEEE Happenings  2021 GreenTech & R5

IEEE Denver Social Media     Upcoming Events

Follow IEEE-Denver on Social Media!  by Jackie Adams
Facebook Page      LinkedIn Group     LinkedIn Page
Follow along with the local events and happenings of your IEEE Denver section by subscribing on social media. And don’t forget to “like” and share your favorite posts!

AGL eDigest Newsletter – Current Happenings in the Wireless Space

6G world  – A Look Into the Next Generation of Wireless

The IEEE board of directors has approved a motion authorizing a discount of up to 50 percent on student and graduate student member dues. This discount is being offered immediately to all renewing and first-time student members.

Students wishing to take advantage of the discount can do so by using the promo code FUTURE50 during the online check-out process for joining or renewing their IEEE membership.

This IEEE Board action is providing financial relief to students affected by the global pandemic and subsequent economic hardships around the world. The action empowers IEEE volunteer leaders with an additional tool to help students in need of IEEE’s resources, as well as assist students whose IEEE membership has lapsed.

Students who recently renewed or joined at full price can reach out to the IEEE Contact Center at: contactcenter@ieee.org and request a credit on future membership dues.

Message from Jim Sipes, Chair, IEEE Denver Section

Wow! Can it be that fully a third of 2021 is in the rearview? How time flies!

We have a lot to talk about. As Covid vaccinations progress, there is a light at the end of the tunnel promising a return to some degree of normalcy. It was very hopeful to hear comments on last month’s ExCom meeting like, “Now that I’m fully vaccinated, I can…”

I’m beginning to seriously think that, come fall, we can consider returning to in-person meetings of our chapters and groups. The new challenge will be to figure out how to evolve from purely virtual meetings to a hybrid approach so that we can have meetings that offer the networking value of being face-to-face but do not lose the value of geographic spanning offered by virtual meetings.

Greentech Success

The 13th Annual IEEE Green Technologies Conference (GreenTech) was held last month with the theme “Secure and Clean Energy for the 21st Century.” It was the first time that GreenTech was presented as a virtual conference. The conference was three full days with 21 industry and academic sessions.

For those not familiar with GreenTech, Region 5 sponsors this conference every spring, rotating among the four Areas of the Region (East, West, North, and South), and hosted by a section in that Area. This year was the Denver Section’s turn to host as representative of the West Area.

Planning for the conference had begun a couple of years ago, expecting to hold the normal face-to-face conference, and had progressed to having hotel contracts settled, etc. However, with the pandemic showing no signs of easing last year, the Organizing Committee (OC) decided in September to pivot to a virtual conference.

It was a quite hectic six months of learning how to do a virtual conference, finding the right platform and tools, etc., but the OC pulled it off. Because it was a virtual conference, there was a dramatic increase in international participation, with 91 papers from 25 countries being presented. There were 184 attendees “at” the conference, with attendance averaging nearly 40 per session. The conference was also successful financially, and, as the sponsoring section shares the financial risk/reward with the region, it will provide a nice boost to the section’s finances for this year.

The 2022 GreenTech will be held in Houston next April. Because of scheduling difficulties with the normal Area rotation, the 2023 GreenTech will be back in Denver. Planning that conference is just now beginning, so if you are interested in joining the effort, just give me a shout at chair@ieee-denver.org.

Region 5 also holds its Annual Meeting on the weekend days following GreenTech with student competitions that are arranged and managed by the section sponsoring that year’s GreenTech. This year’s student competitions included robotics, circuit design, ethics, and poster presentations, and were also conducted virtually. Entries are limited to undergraduate teams from student branches at universities within Region 5. Competition winners are awarded quite generously with cash prizes for their student branches.

The competitions went off very successfully. Conducting the robotics competition in a virtual environment was particularly challenging, as the goal of that competition was to use an autonomous drone to burst a series of balloons in a particular order in the shortest time possible. A video showing the work of one of the teams is at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1krAi27V3j8nrAtqknR9b57tJzz4IAk8M/view.

Membership in IEEE is again following its usual hockey stick pattern, with the low point occurring annually in February when those who have not renewed their membership are taken off the active roles and placed in arrears. Renewals and new adds are tracking slightly ahead of 2020, with worldwide end of March membership at about 313K. As of the end of April, the Denver Section is about two percent below the same point from 2020 with 2,673 active members. Thanks to all who did their annual renewals, and please encourage others to renew who have not. 

Active membership numbers drive the annual rebate dollars that we receive from HQ to support our section’s programs.

In closing, please note that there are still many opportunities to contribute as a volunteer to the section or to your chapter/group of choice, and all are welcome at our monthly virtual ExCom meetings on the third Tuesday of the month. And don’t forget our monthly WebEx and Learn (aka, Dine and Learn) technical presentations on the second Tuesday of the month.

From the Editor’s Desk, Ernest Worthman

The dangers behind the hype of fully autonomous vehicles

Most, if not all of us have, by now, heard of the fatal crash of the tesla a couple of weeks ago n Texas. This is not the first time Tesla has been in the news around its self-driving technology nor the first time it has had fatalities. While I took the liberty of using a shock intro, before I go any further know that I am not putting blame on both tesla and the occupants.

If one does a data search around Tesla accidents one will find that Tesla was involved in 50 fatal crashes in 2019. Of those, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating 28 of them with 14 focusing on the Autopilot. And, of course, this one is also being investigate as an autopilot failure – at least if one hears or reads the sensationalistic headlines around the accident.

But these headlines miss the point. Whether or not the autopilot was full engaged is secondary to the poor judgement of the individuals involved. I have a hard time understanding how anyone is foolish, or ignorant enough to vacate the driver’s seat while the vehicle is in motion.

It is not like information is sketchy. Tesla makes it very plain that there should always be someone ready to take the controls and never trust the vehicle to run without supervision. There are extensive writings in Tesla’s owner’s manuals describe when, where, and how the features should be used. It is made painfully clear that the driver must be fully attentive and holding the steering wheel, being “mindful of road conditions and surrounding traffic.”

It states further that the driver should not be near city streets, construction zones, bicyclists, or pedestrians. It is even on the website as, “The currently enabled features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous.” This one is on the individuals, not Tesla.

However, Tesla, and Elon Musk particularly is not lily white either. There should be a failsafe condition that prevents the car from moving if there is no one in the driver’s seat – period! And if someone vacates the seat when the car is in any self-driving mode it immediately pulls over and shuts off. And while we are at it, calls the authorities as well.

What makes this murky is Musk has been, shall we say, rather robust in his preaching’s of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Capability (FSD) mode. For example, recently he was quoted as saying, “I think Autopilots getting good enough that you will not need to drive most of the time unless you really want to.” Another remark is along the same lines is Musk promising, back in 2019, that Tesla would have one million robotaxis on the road by the end of 2020. But in the fall of 2020, the company noted that full self-driving will “remain largely unchanged in the future,” and that FSD will remain an “advanced driver-assistance feature” rather than an autonomous one.

So, there is that still-yawning gap between Tesla’s marketing of its technology and its true capabilities. And, like most marketing diatribe, Telsa’s FSD does not live up to the hype. In fact, Tesla’s associate general counsel, Eric Williams said, in a statement to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, that that the features are only level 2 autonomous.

For the longest time I have been skeptical of the claims that fully autonomous vehicles can exist today. This just adds more proof to the fact that we are not as far along the road as much of the hype claims. In fact, the most advanced cases of autonomous vehicles are level 3, maybe level 3.5.

There are some concerning issues that this accident points out, which seem to be systemic. The first is how can this vehicle even get on the road without someone in the driver’s seat, with or without the full auto-drive package (which adds $10,000 to the vehicles price, BTW).

the second is how anyone can buy one of these without being fully vetted in just what FSD is capable of (the premise that purchasers and potential drives are going to read the manual before they drive is presumptuous).

The third is that, like 5G, the autonomous vehicle industry is hyping the platform rather than being entirely honest about what can do and were we are in the development.

There is evidence that vehicles with various levels of autonomy are safer than those without. But one cannot ignore the ignorance of some drivers and that is where the real research needs to be done.

If one believes Tesla’s marketing, the public data suggests its vehicles are safer than the average vehicle. In fact, just before the fatal Texas crash, Musk said that Tesla is, with their autopilot engaged, nearly 10 times less likely to crash than the average vehicle. This data was the result of measured results by the feds.

However, back to the marketing perspective. While the data may be accurate, the conditions under which it was gathered are skewed. The Tesla data is bounded by highway driving conditions only.  The federal data captures all kinds of driving conditions. So, Tesla picks and chooses certain conditions from the whole data set to make its data seem more relevant than it really is.

Back to the Texas accident for a moment. One of the big questions I have is that, according to Musk, the autopilot was not engaged at the time of the accident. As well, the vehicle did not have the FSD package. So how was it that the occupants were able to vacate the driver’s seat and the vehicle continued to move. Other question arise such as did the vehicle continue to drive autonomously or did it immediately run of the road? And what was going on inside the cabin? Was they partying or just testing the car’s limits? It will be interesting to see the forensics once the investigation is completed.

That brings me back to my earlier statement of “what were these occupants thinking??? It also brings me back to the point of how the vehicle could even operate without a driver in the driver’s seat. So, the real issue become that any type of self-driving vehicle needs to babysit the occupants, not only for their own safety but other drivers and vehicles, as well. In this case the passengers were the only victims, fortunately.

That opens up a whole new pandora’s box with the primary concern of monitoring the occupants, which, tangentially puts a bullseye right on the most pressing issue beyond safety – privacy and security.

I will tantalize my readers with this in closing. On April 14, 2021, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) issued an Order waiving its Section 15.255 technical and service rules for unlicensed operation in the 57-71 GHz band to permit six equipment manufacturers to operate radar-based vehicle cabin monitors. Stay tuned.

Future City Competition Event Over the Top

Sponsored, in part by the Denver section, the Future City Colorado Virtual Regional Competition was held on Saturday, February 20th, 2021. Nine teams vied to represent Future City Colorado at the virtual national competition in April.

The competition challenge, Living on the Moon, asked middle school students to imagine a city on the moon 100 years in the future. Students worked to overcome the many daunting challenges of living on the moon as they created their city. Teams wrote an essay about their city, developed a project plan, built a city model, created a PowerPoint presentation of this model (with a video of a moving part) and produced a 7-minute video about their city. On finals day they participated in a virtual Question and Answer with judges before the final four teams were selected.
The winner of the regional competition was Mangata Subexo from Colorado Academy, a college preparatory independent day school in southwest Denver. You can see first-hand the creativity and engineering skills of the middle school students as they presented the video of the model of their city on the moon. Click here to watch the finals video.
Special awards sponsored by the following companies and professional organizations were presented to nine teams. Each team received a plaque and a monetary award.

•  Bentley Systems – Best Use of Sustainable Infrastructure
•  Team Rubicon – Resilient Cities
•  John Elway – Future Transportation Award
•  NCEES – Best Land Surveying Practices
•  ASCE Denver – The Dream Big Award
•  AIChE – Helium Recovery Potential on the Moon
•  Project Management Institute Special Award
•  The NRO STEAM Ahead Award
•  Gates Industrial Corporation Foundation Denver – Best Use of Innovative Materials on the Moon

We want to thank our individual donors, professional associations and companies for their financial support which made this year’s competition possible. Additional sponsors include IEEE Denver, F Cubed Foundation, Rocky Mountain Crude Oil and Holy Cross Energy. We produced virtual training sessions for teachers, provided printed program handbooks for the teams, created the technology infrastructure required to run the competition, presented trophies to the top four finalists and monetary awards to their school’s STEM programs and gave each team member, teacher and mentor a commemorative hoodie.
Thank you to all of the students, mentors, teachers, judges, and volunteers who made this virtual competition successful.
The theme for the 2021-2022 Future City Competition will be announced in late Spring.

Keynote Speakers Announced - IEEE Women in Engineering
International Leadership Conference (WIE ILC)

We are proud to announce the Keynote Speakers for the 2021 IEEE Women in Engineering International Leadership Conference. These inspiring individuals have shattered boundaries and misconceptions, helping to pave the way for all women in technology and leadership alike.

Join us at the virtual conference taking place April 27-30, 2021, where you’ll hear directly from these trailblazers, plus more to be announced later. As an attendee, you will also have the opportunity to ask questions and gain personal insight.

View the full program here. Stay tuned for more speakers to be announced!

The IEEE WIE ILC 2021 theme of Accelerating through Change will focus on Executive Leadership; Increasing Inclusion, Intersectionality and Representation; Disruptive Technology & Innovation; and Accelerating Innovative Women Who Change the World.

IEEE WIE ILC 2021 Keynote Speakers include:

Registration is now open with  discounted rates for students, IEEE Members, and IEEE WIE members.

Call For Nominations

Nominations for Outstanding Section Awards – Deadline 15 May 2021

Each year, the MGA Outstanding Section Awards are presented to one large, one medium, and one small Section (across all Regions), to recognize their excellent work and successful efforts in fulfilling the educational and scientific goals of IEEE for the benefit of the public.  The recipient Sections are acknowledged for maintaining, enhancing, and supporting the Student Branches, Technical Chapters, and Affinity Groups within their geographic boundaries.

Three awards are presented, as follows:

• Large Section = 1,501 or more members (including Students) as of 31 December of the prior year;
• Medium Section = 501-1,500 members (including Students) as of 31 December of the prior year;
• Small Section = 500 or fewer members (including Students) as of 31 December of the prior year

To nominate your Section for the MGA Outstanding Large, Medium, or Small Section Award, please CLICK HERE!

Nominations for Friend of IEEE

MGA Awards

These awards are designed to specifically recognize support provided to IEEE and its members by firms, divisions of firms, or individuals. Nominators can submit individuals or organizations for a Friend Award at the supporting or sustaining level. Nominations for this award may be submitted at any time during the year.

To learn more about the Friend of IEEE MGA Awards CLICK HERE

To submit a nomination for the Friend of IEEE MGA Award CLICK HERE

 For questions, contact mga-awards@ieee.org

IEEE Awards is now accepting nominations for IEEE Medals and Recognitions. The deadline to nominate a colleague is 15 June 2021. Nominate a colleague today!

The IEEE Awards Program is more than 100 years old, a peer-recognized program of achievement that has recognized leaders and visionaries who have paved the road of discovery in ways no one would ever imagine. IEEE Awards inspire achievement and set a standard of excellence and a motive to aspire to shape the future for the benefit of humanity, one innovation at a time.

Click to submit a nomination today!!!

Celebrating Award Recipients During Women’s History Month!

March is Women’s History Month, commemorating the celebration of the vital role of women in history. The Awards Program has much to celebrate—six amazing women will receive some of the highest awards given by IEEE at the virtual 2021 IEEE Vision, Innovation, and Challenges Summit (IEEE VIC Summit) and Honors Ceremony on 11-13 May 2021!

Follow this link to the VIC Summit Website

IEEE Women in Engineering

Silver Linings

By Sarah Beckman, Chair, IEEE WIE 5280

Over the last year, we have all experienced adjustments in what life looks like. As our world opens a bit more, WIE 5280 continues to leverage a virtual platform to engage our community. On April 14^th, we experienced an amazing benefit to the virtual world in which we work. WIE hosted a Lunch Break on Zoom about leading with emotional intelligence. We had 25 men and women attend from California to Pennsylvania, and 20 more people across North and South America registered to attend the event for the video replay. This type of reach is something we would have never experienced a little over a year ago.

This WIE Break featured Colorado Springs-based executive coach, Sandy Lamb. Sandy had 27 years of Engineering, Construction, and Project Management experience before establishing Altitude Business Coaching as owner and CEO. She spoke to the group about understanding and leveraging emotional intelligence to have a positive leadership impact using Daniel Goleman’s five main elements. Though the session went quickly, we had a great turnout and are excited to bring Sandy back in June for a longer 2-hour EQ program in partnership with the Society of Women Engineers Rocky Mountain Section.

We have an excited and passionate group of women – and we are looking for more women and men to join our group and develop a great network of people and support through IEEE.  We look forward to expanding our team, hosting engaging events, and developing a larger support network for women in the engineering industry.

If you are interested in joining or learning more about upcoming events, please e-mail WIE@ieee-Denver.org for more information and to sign up for notification

2020 WIE Award Winners

The IEEE Women in Engineering awards program recognizes WIE members and WIE Affinity Groups who have made an outstanding contribution to IEEE WIE, their community, and the engineering profession, through their dedication and involvement in projects or activities directed toward fulfilling the IEEE WIE goals and objectives.  Women engineers are among some of the most distinguished contributors to the engineering profession. Here are the 2020 award winners.

WIE Inspiring Member of the Year Award:
Winner: Lee Yoot Khuan (R10)
Honorable Mention: Divya M G (R10)
Honorable Mention: Simay Akar (R8)

WIE Inspiring Student Member of the Year Award:
Winner: Indhumathi Gunasekaran (R10)
Honorable Mention: Ana Hellen Carvalho dos Santos (R9)
Honorable Mention: Rossana Gauto Moran (R9)

WIE Affinity Group of the Year Award:
Winner: WIE Ottawa AG (R7)
Honorable Mention: WIE Argentina AG (R9)
Honorable Mention: WIE Malaysia AG (R10)

WIE Student Branch Affinity Group of the Year Award:
Winner: WIE Universidade Federal de Campina Grande UFCG SBAG (R9)
Honorable Mention: WIE Unidad Profesional Interdisciplinaria en Ingeniería y Tecnologías Avanzadas UPIITA SBAG (R9)
Honorable Mention: WIE Universidad Don Bosco SBAG (R9)

Click here to be taken to the site for more details.

Conferences/Summits/Call for Papers/Workshops/Tutorials

The IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) is one of the two flagship conferences of IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc). ICC 2021 will be held virtually 14-23 June.

Themed “Connectivity-Security-Privacy,” ICC 2021 will feature an extensive high quality program of keynotes, tutorials and workshops covering a

 range of topics including: 5G, 6G, AI, Sensing, Internet of Things and so much more.

Join us online or in Montreal to share ideas, learn the latest research, innovations and hear insights from the experts at ICC 2021.

ICC 2021 will feature more 25 workshops on a wide array of topics. Workshop paper submissions are still being accepted through February 19, 20

21 (FIRM).

WORKSHOPS

TUTORIALS

ICC 2021 will offer 30 tutorials covering 6G, machine learning, AI, MIMO, UAV cellular and more.

INFOCOM 2021 – Bridging the Digital Divide – Quality, Reliability and Secure Access for All

INFOCOM 2021 is a top-ranked conference on networking in the research community. It is a major conference venue for researchers to present and exchange significant and innovative contributions and ideas in the field of networking and closely related areas. IEEE INFOCOM covers both theoretical and systems research.

INFOCOM 2021 will feature a main technical program, a number of workshops, a keynote speech, panels, a student poster session, and demo/poster sessions. The program will cover a wide range of topics, including: network virtualization, information security, big data, cloud computing, machine learning and so much more!

Workshop Highlights

Full-Day Workshops

AoI: Age of Information

BigSecurity: Security and Privacy in Big Data

CNERT: Computer and Networking Experimental Research using Testbeds

DroneCom: Drone-Assisted Smart Backhaul Solutions for 5G and Beyond

GI: Global Internet Symposium

ICCN: Intelligent Cloud Computing and Networking

Half-Day Workshops

FOGML: Distributed Machine Learning and Fog Network

MobiSec: Security, Privacy, and Digital Forensics of Mobile Systems and Networks

WiSARN: Wireless Sensor, Robot and UAV Networks

  IEEE Internet of Things (IoT) Vertical and Topical Summit for Tourism

The Summit aims to bring together experts from academia and industry from around the world that can contribute to the development of the Hospitality Industry 4.0. The hospitality industry has to meet a broader set of needs than almost any other industry, but technology can help. With the pervasiveness of smart devices, the hospitality industry can have access to an avalanche of information about individual consumers, thus bringing a digital revolution into the tourism sector.

The IoT Vertical and Topical Summit on Tourism (IoT-VTST’21) solicits proposals in five selected segments of the tourism vertical that are an important component of the worldwide hospitality industry as the focus of the Summit. The IoT can impact and transform the tourism industry by:

• Personalizing the tourism experience
• Improving the transport services for tourists
• IoT and tourist hospitality
• Digital tools for tourism
• Enabling a more accessible tourism

For more detailed information about these Summit Theme Related Ideas visit the website here.

Important Dates:

Paper Submission: 17 May 2021

Acceptance Notification: 28 June 2021

Camera-ready Submission: 19 July 2021

IMS 2021 Paper Submission

International Microwave Symposium  6 – 11 June 2021, Atlanta, GA

You are cordially invited to join us in Atlanta at the intersection of communications, aerospace, automotive, IoT and other emerging technologies to learn the latest developments in MHz-to-THz theories, techniques, devices, systems and applications. Please consider submitting your paper to the premier RF and Microwave event!

Please see links below to various materials helpful in completing your paper submission.

• Download the IMS2021 Call for Papers
• Double Blind Instructions
• Word Template
• LaTeX Template

New this year:
For the initial submission deadline, the paper length is three pages maximum. Papers longer than three pages will not be considered. For accepted papers, a fourth page can be added, but may be used ONLY for references (inclusion of any material except for references will not be accepted for publication).

IMS will be a hybrid conference — both face-to-face and virtual. We are 100% committed to our authors to give them the opportunity and forum to publish and present their work in a manner they feel most comfortable. Authors of the papers selected for presentation at IMS2021 may elect to present either live or virtually upon final submission of the manuscripts.

NEW MWCL Special Issue of “Top IMS 2021 Papers”! IMS2021 TPRC will select a number of high quality papers (estimated 50 papers) for MWCL editorial review. The corresponding authors will receive email invitations to publish their IMS papers at the MWCL special issue on “Top IMS 2021 Papers”.

Click here for more information.

IEEE ComSoc International Communications Quality and Reliability Workshop

13 May 2021 // Virtual Conference

Call for Papers

The 35th IEEE International Workshop on Communications Quality and Reliability (CQR2021) will be held virtually on 13 May 2021. The workshop will offer technical sessions, original paper presentations, and keynotes panels designed to further career opportunities and the in-depth understanding of key issues impacting communications networks quality and reliability.

Continuing the tradition of this series of workshops, CQR 2021 will provide an international technical forum for experts from industry and academia to exchange ideas and present results of ongoing research in the areas listed below.

You are invited to submit a paper related to various aspects of QoS and Reliability for the following networks/services, but are not limited to:

-Grid and Distributed Cloud Computing – Software Defined Networks -Network Function Virtualization -Data Center Networks -Information-Centric Networking -Vehicular Networks -Cognitive Radio Networks -Delay Tolerant Networks -Internet of Things (IoT) -5G/B5G Mobile Networks -Network Slicing -Edge/Fog Computing -MIMO Communications -Robotics -Application of Data Analytics -Network Architecture and Design -Network Security and Reliability -Network Survivability -Operations, Administration and Maintenance -QoS Metrics and Measurement -QoS Policy and Assessment -QoE Assessment and Management-Resource Allocation and Management -Anomaly Detection -Intrusion Detection -Impact of Security on QoE -Scheduling and Buffer Management-Traffic Control -Traffic Modeling and Characterization -Service Level Agreement -Machine Learning for Networking -ML-based Operations

SUBMISSION DEADLINE:  5 February 2021

The 2021 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium (RFIC 2021) will be held in Atlanta, GA, on 6-8 June 2021.

Continuing in 2021: RFIC has expanded its focus to include systems, applications, and interactive demonstrations, including 5G systems, radar systems, terahertz systems, biomedical systems, and optoelectronic systems.

The 2021 symposium is currently planned as a hybrid event with both in-person and virtual activities. More details to follow. In person events will be held at the Georgia World Congress Center, in Atlanta, GA. RFIC 2021 starts on Sunday, June 6, 2021 with a large selection of workshops followed by two plenary talks and a reception featuring our top industry and student papers. Monday and Tuesday, June 7-8 will consist of oral presentations, an interactive demonstration, and panel sessions.

We invite authors to submit their technical papers via the RFIC 2021 website, where both the author’s guidelines and Call for Papers can be found. Complete information on how and when to submit a paper will be posted on the RFIC 2021 website. The symposium solicits papers describing original work in RF integrated circuits, systems engineering, design methodology, RF modeling and CAD simulation, RFIC technologies, device technologies, fabrication, testing, reliability, packaging, and modules to support RF applications in areas such as Wireless Cellular and Connectivity, Low Power Transceivers, Receiver Sub-Systems and Circuits, Mixed-Signal RF and Data Converters, Reconfigurable and Tunable Front-Ends, Transmitter Sub-Systems and Power Amplifiers, Oscillators, Frequency Synthesis, Millimeter- and Sub-Millimeter Wave Systems, and High-Speed Data Transceivers. The new extended RFIC scope now includes papers on systems and applications in 5G, radar, imaging, terahertz, biomedical, connectivity, and optoelectronic areas.

As with last year, a double-blind review process will be adopted to ensure anonymity for both authors and reviewers. Detailed instructions on how to submit a paper compliant with double-blind rules are found here.

Electronic Submission Deadlines:
Technical Paper Summaries in PDF format:                        11 January 2021
Final Manuscripts for the Digest and Attendee Download:     22 March 2021

All submissions must be made at rfic-ieee.org in pdf form. Hard Copies are not accepted.

Download the RFIC 2021 Call for Papers

Brian Floyd
RFIC 2021 General Chair

7^th IEEE International Conference on Network Softwarization (IEEE NetSoft 2021)

This will be a hybrid event, held in Tokyo, Japan, from 28 June to 2 July 2021. The conference’s theme is “Accelerating Network Softwarization in the Cognitive Age,” a reflection of the current trend of research in the area of network softwarization.

Like in past years, IEEE NetSoft will host a set of workshops to complement the conference program with in-depth or integration forums that are dedicated to emerging topics and/or topics specifically related to IEEE NetSoft 2021. Accepted and presented workshop papers will be published in the conference proceedings and will be submitted for inclusion in IEEE Xplore.

Workshops

• TaPoPF: Workshop on Theory and Practice of Programmable Forwarding
• S4SI 2021: 4th Workshop on Advances in Slicing for Softwarized Infrastructures
• SecSoft 2021: 3rd International Workshop on Cyber-Security Threats, Trust and Privacy Management in Software-Defined and Virtualized Infrastructures
• SoftIoT 2021: 2nd Workshop on Network Softwarization Techniques for IoT

WIN: Workshop on Intent-based Networking

IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM 2021)

CALL FOR PAPERS AND PROPOSALS

The 2021 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM 2021) will be held in Madrid, Spain, from 7 -11 December 2021. Themed “Connecting Cultures around the Globe,” this flagship conference of the IEEE Communications Society will feature a comprehensive high-quality technical program including 12 symposia, selected areas in communications track and a variety of tutorials and workshops. IEEE GLOBECOM 2021 will also include an attractive Industry program aimed at practitioners, with keynotes and panels from prominent research, industry and government leaders, business and industry panels, and vendor exhibits.

Industry Forums and Exhibition Program

Proposals are sought for forums, panels, demos, seminars and presentations specifically related to issues facing the broader communications and networking industries.

Tutorials

Proposals are sought for half- or full-day tutorials in all communication and networking topics.

Workshops

Proposals are sought for half- or full-day workshops in all communication and networking topics.

-Cognitive Radio and AI-Enabled Networks –Communication and Information System Security –Communication QoS –Reliability and Modeling
-Communication Software and Multimedia –Communication Theory –Green Communication Systems and Networks –IoT and Sensor Networks
–Mobile and Wireless Networks –Next-Generation Networking and Internet –Optical Networks and Systems –Signal Processing for Communications
–Wireless Communications

Selected Areas in Communications:

           – Aerial Communications – Big Data – Cloud Computing, Networking and Storage – E-Health – Full-Duplex Communications – Machine Learning for                Communications – Molecular, Biological and Multi-Scale Communications  – Quantum Communications and Computing – Satellite and Space
communications – Smart Grid Communications -Social Networks

IEEE International Black Sea Conference on Communications and Networking (BlackSeaCom)

24-28 May 2021 // Virtual Conference

**CALL FOR PAPERS**

With the theme “From the Historical Black Sea for a Future World of Communications”, the 9th International Black Sea Conference on Communications and Networking (BlackSeaCom), is seeking original, completed, and unpublished technical papers not currently under review by any other journal, magazine, or conference. Besides the regular technical papers, the conference also welcomes the submission of poster papers that present work in progress, with preliminary results, tutorials, and demos.

Technical Scope:

-Software Defined Networks, Network Virtualization, and Network Slicing -Communications for Cloud, Edge and Fog –Social networking, connected health and multimedia communications –Optical Networks and Systems, Radio over Fiber –Mobile and Wireless Communications and Networking
-Image, Speech and Signal Processing for Communications –Molecular and Nanoscale Communications –Modelling, Semantic Web and Ontologies for the Internet and its Applications –Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and data analytics in wireless communications and networks –Big Data analysis, processing and transmission –5G and beyond Mobile Systems –Internet of Things and Sensor Networks –Smart grids, M2M and Vehicular Networks
–Future Internet and Testbeds –Network and Service Management –Communications and Information Theory –Cognitive Radio and Networking –Security, Privacy and Trust –Sustainable Communications and Computing –Edge/Fog computing and networking –Drones, UAV, V2X communications –Tactile Internet, Ultra-Reliable Ultra-Low-Latency Communications

Submission Deadline: 28 February 2021

10^th IEEE/CIC International Conference on Communications in China (ICCC2021)

28-30 July 2021 // Xiamen, China

**CALL FOR PAPERS**

Submission Deadline: 1 April 2021

The 10^th IEEE/CIC International Conference on Communications in China (ICCC2021) will be held in Xiamen, China, 28-30 July, 2021. This conference will feature world-class plenary speakers, major technical symposia, industry and academic panels, workshops, tutorials and invited tracks. The technical program chairs invite the submission of original papers to following symposia for presentation and publication in the conference proceedings and IEEE Xplore. Best paper awards will be selected from accepted papers. Both the symposia and workshop papers will be published in IEEEXplore and indexed by Engineering Villiage (EI).

Communication Theory (CT) Symposium

Wireless Communications (WC) Symposium

Mobile and Wireless Networks (MWN) Symposium

Internet of Things (IoT) Symposium

Communication and Information Security (CIS) Symposium

Selected Areas in Communications (SAC) Symposium

Next Generation Networking and Internet (NGNI) Symposium

The submitted papers should be original, not published or current under review for publications in any other journal or conference. All submission must be formatted in standard IEEE camera-ready format and must be written in English and be at most six (6) printed papers in length, including figures. Papers should be submitted through EDAS System.

IEEE Happenings

Nothing here this issue but stay tuned

GreenTech 2021 & R5 Annual Meeting

Denver Section will be again hosting the GreenTech & R5 Annual Meeting in 2021.  The Students Robotics Competition is an exciting part of the the R5 Annual Meeting. The Conference Organizing Committee is forming up if you’d like to be involved in making this great fun conference happen, please contact conferences@ieee-denver.org.

by Ian MacMillan