Chapters Make SSCS Vital Around the World

Bangalore Chapter—The two-year-old Bangalore Chapter, along with the IEEE Students branch of the Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering (SJCE), Mysore, completed a three-day workshop on VLSI and MEMS 1–3 May 2003. The audience for the workshop included postgraduate students and faculty from different engineering colleges. Dr. C.P. Ravikumar from Texas Instruments, India, delivered seminars on “Introduction to VLSI,” “CAD tools,” and “VLSI architectures and applications.” Dr. P.R. Suresh from Texas Instruments, India, held a seminar on “Layout verification.” Dr. Navakanta Bhat from the Indian Institute of Science delivered seminars on “Subthreshold MOS circuit design” and “RF circuit design and MEMS.” Dr. D.V. Poornaiiah from the Indian Telephone Industries gave a seminar on “VLSI for wireless communication.”

The three-day workshop on VLSI and MEMS was held at SJCE, Mysore, India. From left to right: Professor Shanmukhaswamy, Professor Venugopal, Dr. Basavarajaiah, and Dr. Ravikumar.

West Ukraine Chapter—The chapter hosted a meeting of the IEEE Poland and Ukraine Sections at National University “Lviv Polytechnic” (NULP) on 16 May 2003. The section officers and chapter representatives met to discuss cooperation between sections and chapters, organization of joint scientific conferences and education meetings, IEEE membership development, and the exchange of students between the Warsaw University of Technology and the NULP.

The Poland and Ukraine Sections Meeting was held at Lviv Polytechnic to organize activities of mutual benefit and exchange students. From left to right: Dr. Ihor Isayev, Counselor of the West Ukraine Student Branch; Dr. Mariusz Malinowski, Secretary of IEEE Poland Section; Professor Ryszard Romaniuk, Student Counselor of IEEE Poland Section; Professor Petro Stakhiv, Chair of Theoretical and Applied Electrotechnics Department of NULP.

Nizhny Novgorod Chapter—The international meeting “Scanning Probe Microscopy,” was held 2–5 March 2003. There were 26 contributions, four poster sessions, and a great spectrum of topics. Details can be found at www.ipm.sci-nnov.ru/. The sponsoring organizations were the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Ministry for Industry, Science and Technology of the Russian Federation, Nizhny Novgorod State University, the Ministry for Education of the Russian Federation, the IEEE Electron Devices and Solid-State Circuits Societies, and NTI (Nanotechnology Instruments), and NT-MDT (Nanotechnology – Molecular Devices & Tools Co.) Zelanograd, Russia.
Novosibirsk Student Chapter—This chapter sponsored many activities this year. The chapter organized and provided technical support for the 4th Siberian Russian Workshop and Tutorial on Electron Devices and Materials (EDM 2003). One of the main topics of this conference was the development of modern solid-state circuits—fifteen papers on this topic were presented. The chapter also established the SSCS Student Chapter Award. Daniil Vorozheikin, a fourth-year student, received this award for outstanding success in establishing, ISE TCAD (Integrated Systems Engineering Technology CAD) program at the NSTU Semiconductor Devices and Materials Department. Three students from our SSCS chapter participated in the all-Russia Conference of Physicists and Young Researchers (VNKSF-2003) on 28 March–3 April 2003 in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Ms. Viktoria Mallutina-Bronskaya took first place in the student paper competition. Oleg Lobach, a PhD student from the chapter, took part in the 4th Russian Conference of Young Specialists in Semiconductor Physics, held in St. Petersburg 3–6 December 2002.
Yugoslavia Student Chapter—The chapter organized a campaign to promote IEEE membership with former or current student members speaking about the value of IEEE membership during courses they taught. The campaign ended in April 2003 in the main lecture hall of the University of Nis with the presentation of benefits of IEEE membership and the IEEE mission and goals by Professor Ninoslav Stojadinovic and Ms. Tajana Pesic. The meeting ended with videotapes (borrowed from EDS Videotape Lending Library) on the IEDM Short Course “System On a Chip.”
Kansai Chapter—The Kansai chapter held a technical seminar on low-power digital design techniques on 19 June 2003 in Kyoto. Professor Tadahiro Kuroda of Keio University, Yokohama, Japan, provided a well-organized tutorial talk titled “Tips and techniques for low-power CMOS design.” This covered topics ranging from device properties and circuit designs to architecture selections. Professor Hidetoshi Onodera of Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, gave another informative lecture. The talk, titled “High-performance design using cell-based design environment,” discussed an in-depth study on the relationship of cell design and large-scale digital circuit performance. The seminar targeted students and young professionals and resulted in a very active Q&A session among the lecturers and 129 attendees, including 56 students. The seminar concluded with a ceremony that praised Professor Hidetoshi Onodera, the former chapter chair of the SSC-Kansai, for his successful leadership in starting and organizing the chapter. The past chapter-chair pin and certificate were presented by the current chair, Dr. Masao Nakaya to Professor Hidetoshi Onodera.

Dr. Masao Nakaya, left, chair of the Kansai Chapter, presenting the past chapter-chair pin and certificate of appreciation to Professor Hidetoshi Onodera, right.