In the summer of 1993, during a technical meeting
of a 5th European Framework Research Project at the University
“La Sapienza” in Rome (Italy), Professor Marcello
D’Amore proposed to organise a European Symposium on EMC.
The perception at that moment was that there was a need for a
European Symposium, as the European Directive on EMC (89/336/EEC)
would become active and mandatory from January 1996 on. An international
steering committee was formed by the management committee for
the referred Research Project and an existing network of Erasmus
(now Socrates) student exchange program. Following the discussions,
it was clear that the new symposium should be of a high level,
but also focused on practical aspects and implementations concerning
EMC. It was decided to organize it for the first time during the
month of September of 1994, at the venue of the “La Sapienza”
University in Rome. It was a nice location, with an old cloister
and near the church of San Pietro in Vincolis (housing the Moses-statue
by Michelangelo) and near the famous Coliseum. About 220 participants
attended this first edition of EMC Roma 1994. Professor Marcello
D’Amore was serving as the chairman of the organising committee
and Professor Mauro Feliziani was serving as the secretary.
Given this successful start, it was decided to organize the symposium
on a bi-annual basis. So, the second and third edition of EMC
Roma took place in 1996 and 1998, with an increasing number of
participants.
As the year 2000 was the Catholic Holy Year, organising a symposium
in Rome was impossible at reasonable conditions for hotel accommodations.
So, it was decided to move over Europe, and the symposium became
EMC Europe from that moment on. It was organised in 2000 in Brugge
by Professor Johan Catrysse. More than 450 participants were welcomed
in this old medieval town.
As the move out of Rome was successful, it was decided that there
should be an alternating system of locations between “northern”
and “southern” Europe. And consequently, the EMC Europe
2002 was organised in Sorrento, with Professor Mauro Feliziani
acting as local chairman and the EMC Europe 2004 was organised
in Eindhoven with Professor Alex Van Deursen as chairman.
In the meantime, the symposium got an organising structure, with
an International Steering Committee (ISC), a Local Organising
Committee (LOC) and an Advisory Board (AB). Professor D’Amore
(“La Sapienza,” Rome, Italy) served as the first chairman
of the ISC until September 2004. Professor Catrysse (KHBO, Belgium)
is the current ISC chairman. Professor Feliziani (L’Aquila,
Rome, Italy) is the secretary.
The Local Organising Committee has a flexible membership, depending
upon the venue of the next symposium. For example, EMC Europe
2006 is chaired by Professor Silva (Technical University of Catalonia,
Barcelona, Spain), due to the fact that is hosted by his university
in Barcelona.
While a bi-annual event seems sufficient concerning the high quality
papers to be submitted, the EMC community needs a quicker response
to some hot topics arising from the application of new technologies.
Therefore, a workshop was organised in September 2005 on an emerging
topic: “EMC Related to Wireless Communications.” This
workshop was held at the “La Sapienza” University
in Rome, September 19-21, 2005. With more than 180 participants,
it proved that “hot topics” need an appropriate forum
for discussion and exchange of knowledge.
In this way, EMC Europe is providing the EMC community with a
forum for scientific and technical discussions.
It is my pleasure to invite you to the next EMC Europe Symposium
2006, September 4-8, 2006, and I am hoping to welcome you in Barcelona.
EMC
