The Montreal Chapter of SSCS was honored to be the winner of the 2007 Outstanding Chapter Award announced at ISSCC in February, 2008. Founded in 1999, SSCS-Montreal includes over forty SSCS members and hundreds of students, and spans several industrial companies and universities in the greater Montreal area.

The Montreal Chapter credits its success to the interest of its members in remaining up-to-date with the latest technological achievements and breakthroughs in the design of solid-state circuits.

Invaluable Support from the Microsystems Research Alliance of Quebec
The co-sponsorship of Montreal chapter  activities by the Microsystems Research Alliance of Quebec (ReSMiQ) has been key in enabling the organization to enjoy  a broad range of activities. ReSMIQ  comprises 39 researchers from seven Quebec universities working in the area of integrated microsystems. ReSMIQ has provided financial and logistic support to the Montreal Chapter. More importantly, ReSMIQ members have supported the Montreal Chapter, by helping to organize and participating in the Chapter’s activities. The achievements of the Montreal Chapter are the result of the support of ReSMiQ members. We feel very indebted to all of them for their help and support.

Activities Focus on Networking and Education
SSCS-Montreal aims at raising the profile of SSC engineers within the local industrial and academic communities. Towards this aim, the Chapter has striven to organize at least one monthly activity for its members. The diligence of Chapter officers and the “charm” of the city of Montreal have helped to attract a large number of SSCS distinguished lecturers and many other delegates from both SSCS and CASS. Moreover, the Montreal Chapter organizes meetings to provide the latest information and material to SSCS members who are unable to attend SSCS conferences. In addition, the Montreal Chapter and ReSMIQ have co-sponsored several conferences in Montreal, including the international IEEE NEWCAS Conference (held annually in the province of Quebec) and, most recently, the 2007 IEEE MWCAS and the 2007 IEEE BioCAS Conferences.

We believe that the key for managing an effective SSCS Chapter is to create and sustain interest and enthusiasm for custom solid-state circuits, through serving the learning needs of current Chapter members and attracting new members, especially students and engineers. Montreal Chapter members have expressed increasing interest in the seminars and short-courses co-organized by the Montreal Chapter and ReSMIQ. Therefore, this will be an area of increasing chapter focus.

We would like to thank all the SSCS distinguished lecturers for their generosity and time to visit the Montreal Chapter. Finally, we would like to thank SSCS for its annual financial support and for giving us the opportunity to establish an SSCS Chapter in Montreal.

Prof. Anas Hamoui (at right) Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering McGill University anas.hamoui@mcgill.ca Prof. Mohamad Sawan Dept. of Electrical Engineering Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal mohamad.sawan@polymtl.ca Co-Chairs of the SSCS Montreal Chapter