I have just completed a three week tour of universities, research laboratories, and companies in Taiwan and China, including a visit to the 2004 IEEE International Conference on Networking, Systems, and Control in Taipei, one of the many regional symposia and workshops sponsored annually by the SMC Society. Afterwards, I visited major universities and companies in Tapei, Hsinshu, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Baoding, Tianjin, and Beijing to speak about the SMC Society and encourage the development of local SMC chapters. Due to the diligence of the Vice President of Technical Activities, Daniel Yeung, plans are underway to establish new chapters in China that we expect to announce in the near future. Asia continues to offer the SMC Society significant opportunities for membership growth. The Vice President of Membership and Student Activities, T. T. Lee, is promoting new chapters in this region and elsewhere in the world.

The SMC Society continues to attract committed volunteers and leaders. The editors, Don Brown, Larry Hall, and Chip White, have worked hard to ensure the quality of the SMC Transactions so that these publications continue to be highly respected with a reputation for innovative ideas. SMC is one of the few societies in the IEEE with fully electronic reviewing, an important feature that has contributed to a dramatic increase in submissions. During 2004, the SMC Transactions, Part B Cybernetics, is scheduled for 2,500 pages, a 150% increase over 2003. SMC is one of the most global societies in the IEEE, with more than half of our members coming from countries outside of North America. Our annual conferences offer a wide breadth of topics in systems engineering, human-machine systems, and cybernetics with active student participation. I encourage you to participate in our IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, a world class conference that has been held annually for 33 years. This year SMC04 will be held in The Hague, Netherlands on October 10-13 under the leadership of Wil Thissen, General Chair, and Peter Wieringa, Program Chair.

I congratulate Ferat Sahin, secretary, and Dilip Kotak, treasurer, on their appointments to the Executive Committee. Another new appointment is Keith Hipel, Chair of the newly formed Strategic Opportunities Initiatives Committee that will be identifying opportunities that are relevant to the future growth of the SMC Society.

During my term as president, I shall work with our newly elected society officers to achieve more effective use of technical activities and global membership development, with an emphasis on the development of local chapters, technical committees, and establishment of a Distinguished Lecturer Program. Because students are the emerging leaders for the future, I will encourage student activities by the technical committees, annual conferences and workshops, and our local chapters.

In order to increase our promotional activities to attract new members and enhance our image internationally, I am working closely with our newly appointed webmaster, Cash Wang, to further develop and update the SMCS web site (www.ieeesmc.org), and enhance and maintain its content, including the development of separate web pages for each of the technical committees. I would welcome receiving your suggestions for improvements. The SMC Society’s Electronic Newsletter, under the leadership of its editor T.T. Lee, is now entering its third year. To assist the editor in providing our membership with timely information, I am working with the Vice Presidents to coordinate the preparation of articles describing news from technical committees, annual conferences, regional symposia and workshops, and activities of local chapters. I encourage you to submit articles to the Newsletter editor on projects and products of general interest from your laboratories and companies, and news about innovative educational programs being offered at your universities and colleges. Finally, I am working with the Vice President of Membership and Student Activities to develop programs and activities that will attract new members with industrial experience.

I would like to thank Michael Smith, for his strong leadership as president and treasurer during the past years and the support that he continues to provide. I appreciate the opportunity and honor to serve the SMC Society. With your continued support I am confident that our Society will continue to be the leading professional society in systems engineering.

Sincerely,

William A. Gruver
IEEE SMC President
gruver@cs.sfu.ca
Vancouver, April 7,2004