EDS Region 9 Chapters Meeting Summary
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| EDS Region 9 Chapters Meeting on September 7, 2003, Sao Paulo, Brazil |
The EDS Region 9 (Latin America
and the Caribbean) Chapters Meeting was held on Sunday, 7 September
2003, at the Blue Tree Conventions Center in Sao Paulo, Brazil,
in conjunction with SBmicro2003 (18th Symposium on Microelectronics
Technology and Devices). The meeting was attended by Cor L. Claeys,
Chair of the Regions/Chapters Committee; Magali Estrada del Cueto,
EDS Chair of the R9 Sub-committee for Regions/Chapters; Francisco
J. García Sánchez, Vice-Chair of the R9 Sub-committee
for Regions/Chapters, and CAS/ED/PEL Venezuela Chapter Chair;
Rodolfo Quintero, ED Mexico Chapter Chair; Jacobus W. Swart, ED
South Brazil Chapter Chair; Miguel Alemán Arce and Antonio
Cerdeira, CINVESTAV-IPN Mexico Student Branch Chapter Chair and
Faculty Advisor, respectively; as well as several special invited
guests, i.e., Sergio E. Barbin, Chair of the IEEE South Brazil
Section, Nilton Morimoto, of the Escola Politecnica da Universidad
de Sao Paulo, who coordinated local arrangements for this meeting,
and Oliver Bonnaud of the Université de Rennes.
The meeting was convened to bring together R9 Chapter leaders
to discuss a variety of challenging issues confronting EDS activities
in the Latin American and Caribbean Region, its chapters and especially
their members.
After Cor L. Claeys, the EDS Regions/Chapters Chair, presented
the welcome and opening remarks, the meeting started with a discussion
of several general issues of interest, such as: chapters placement
within IEEE's regional and societal structure, EDS' organizational
structure, nature of its different activities, procedures, and
relationships among chapters, committees, sections, societies,
etc. Cor Claeys went on to describe EDS chapter growth history
by region, and commented on the 2001 peak and the outstanding
increase experienced by Regions 8 and 10, specifically the former.
Magali Estrada del Cueto presented, on behalf of Ilesanmi Adesida,
a description of the Educational Committee's Activities, including
the Distinguished Lecturer Program. Francisco García Sánchez,
on behalf of Region 9 EDS Newsletter Editor Adelmo Ortiz, talked
about the importance of sending timely reports of chapters' activities
to this newsletter.
Following the general discussion, three active chapters (Mexico,
South Brazil, and Venezuela) and one student branch chapter (CINVESTAV-IPN
Mexico) reported their recent activities as well as their future
plans. Additionally, Hugo Martín Fernandez and Carlos Vega,
both of Cristóbal Colón University in Vera Cruz
(Mexico), Edval J. P. Santos of Universidad Federal de Pernambuco,
Recife (Brazil), and José Camargo da Costa of Universidad
de Brasilia (Brazil) presented their ongoing work towards the
forthcoming establishment of three new EDS Chapters at Vera Cruz,
Recife and Brasilia, respectively. The Venezuela's Chapter Chair
advised that the Fifth IEEE International Caracas Conference on
Devices, Circuits and Systems (ICCDCS2004), biannually held with
EDS technical co-sponsorship, will take place in November 2004
in the Dominican Republic.
One of the critical issues discussed at the meeting was the effect
on R9 EDS membership of the relatively onerous IEEE membership
fees, which many members in Region 9 find very difficult to afford.
In the view of the participants, this poses a serious problem
for the Region that is not being effectively addressed by the
present IEEE "minimum income" policy.
The meeting participants unanimously agreed to submit for immediate
approval to EDS and IEEE for the creation of an annual "Region
9 EDS Outstanding Student Paper Award" to encourage student
ED related activities and to promote much needed EDS membership
growth in Region 9. If approved, the award is expected to be conferred
for the first time in 2004 at one of the EDS sponsored international
technical meetings regularly held in Region 9.
As part of their goals for the coming year, the members of the
R9 Sub-committee for Regions and Chapters (Chair, Vice-Chair,
and all R9 Chapter Chairs) will undertake actions to identify
and promote the formation of new regular and student chapters
in strategic regional areas, starting with Argentina, Chile, Colombia,
Peru and Puerto Rico. They will also continue to assist some chapters
to become more active, and to promote the more organized chapters
to further their activities.
It was decided to create a Region 9 EDS web site, to be maintained
by the R9 Sub-committee for Regions and Chapters. It will contain
up-to-date information about ED related activities, including
announcements, bulletins, meetings, awards, etc, as well as direct
links to all R9 Chapters and other EDS and IEEE sites of interest.
It was also agreed that each Chapter would continue and strengthen
the efforts to increase the number of Senior Members in the Region,
as well as the number of Distinguished Lecturers.
The formal meeting was adjourned late in the afternoon, after
having covered all the agenda's items. Later the meeting continued
very informally at a local "currascaria" during a good
part of the evening.
Francisco J. Garcia Sanchez
University Simon Bolivar
Caracas, Venezuela