Who Are the Members of SSCS and What Are They After?

As reported previously, SSCS recently conducted a survey of its members to develop a profile of the membership and understand their needs and interests. This article reports on some of the results of that survey.

SSCS members are more highly educated than most IEEE members. 64% of our members have at least a master’s degree or equivalent. The detailed breakdown shows that 35% have a doctorate, 50% have a master’s degree, and 14% have a bachelor’s degree. A smattering of our members have no formal degree equivalent or list their educational background as “other.” See the table for the education of SSCS members as compared to IEEE overall.

In general SSCS members are satisfied with their membership and are more satisfied than the average for IEEE members as a whole.

However, the higher the education of SSCS members, the greater their satisfaction in the Society. Increasing educational events for those with bachelor’s and master’s degrees is one survey recommendation that has attracted the attention of President Charlie Sodini.

SSCS membership: 64% have at least a master’s degree.		Work experience of SSCS members.
Size of firms employing SSCS members in industry.
Membership employment.
The vast majority, over 93%, are satisfied or very satisfied with their SSCS membership, would recommend membership to a colleague, and plan to renew.

The percentage of SSCS members work in academia—14%—identical to the percentage for IEEE membership overall. However, a greater percentage of SSCS members work for than IEEE membership overall; 75% of SSCS members compared to 60% of IEEE members. The remaining are employed in Government and consulting. A similar percentage of IEEE and SSCS members work for firms with more than 500 employees, 63% and 65% respectively.

The professional experience of our members is equally distributed by decade about one-third of our membership is represented in each of three decades. Those with their first decade of professional experience under their belts are slightly more numerous, with 37%. An additional 4% of our members have more than three decades of experience.

Satisfaction with the Journal of Solid-State Circuits is better than 90% in all criteria queried: • The content of the Journal of Solid-State Circuits (JSSC) is useful to me in my work. • The technical information in the JSSC is current. • I am satisfied with the level of sophistication of technical information in the JSSC. • The annual CD of the JSSC is useful to me. • Electronic access to previously published JSSC articles is important to me.

Better than 90% are satisfied that the JSSC provides useful, current content at an appropriate level of technical sophistication. They also are pleased with the delivery of the JSSC on CD and online electronic access.

Members also ranked 16 subjects on interest in seeing more content coverage. The top five topics requested for more content were mixed signal circuits, analog integrated circuits, IC technology trends, wireless communication circuits, and wireline communication circuits. The bottom five topics, which members felt needed no change in coverage or less coverage, were memory, computer-aided design software, image sensors, microprocessors, and micro-electromechanical systems.

Journal of Solid State Circuits

Members rely on the Journal to keep them informed of advances in the field. More than 90% are satisfied with the JSSC as shown on chart above. Better than 35% of subscribers read a quarter or more of the JSSC.

3% Read 76% to 100%
13% Read 51% to 75%
19% Read 26% to 50%
41% Read 11% to 25%
23% Read less than 10%

Conferences

Conferences attendance in the last three years.

75% of our members attend a conference at least once every three years. 6% attend the equivalent of more than two conferences a year. This is comparable to findings of the IEEE Member Segmentation Study of 2001 that found 50% attended at least one IEEE-sponsored conference in the past two years. 35% of the SSCS members have attended the ISSCC at least once in the last three years. The CICC and Symposium on VLSI Circuits attracted 9% and 8% of the respondents, respectively, at least once over the last three years. Of those who had opinions of these meetings, impressions were favorable to excellent. Better than 60% agreed that SSCS conferences provide information at the right level of technical sophistication, are useful, and are scheduled at convenient times. More than 50% agreed that conferences are at appealing locations and are appropriately priced, although price is the least agreeable trait of conferences. Still, conferences are perceived as appropriately priced by more than two to one of those expressing an opinion.

Asked to rate twelve conference traits, the four most important features motivating conference attendance were: the subject area of the conference, a session in the attendee’s specialty, the technical paper presentations, and professional networking. Less important traits to most respondents were CEU credits, social opportunities, poster sessions, and vendor booths, although at least 30% thought the last three were important.