I
am pleased to report that the SMC Society has elected
five new members-at-large to its Board of Governors: Keith
Hipel, Hideyuki Takagi, Wil Thissen, Ljiljana Trajkovic,
and MengChu Zhou. I look forward to working with each
of these dedicated members during my term of office.
Recently,
SMC members from Canada, China, and the United States
met in Vancouver to conduct a study of the Society’s
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Under
the capable leadership of Keith Hipel, the Strategic
Opportunities and Initiatives Committee developed recommendations
that will become the core of the Society’s revised
strategic plan. As indicated by the Committee’s
study, a major strength of the SMC Society is its global
presence. The SMC Society is one of the most international
societies in the IEEE. As shown by the latest membership
report, 72% of our members reside outside of North America.
Because of this fact, our annual conference alternates
between Europe, Asia, and North America: SMC04 in The
Hague, Netherlands; SMC05 in Hawaii, USA; SMC06 in Tapei,
Taiwan; SMC07 in Montreal, Canada; and SMC08 in Singapore.
We also sponsor a large number of regional conferences
such as the IEEE International Conference on Machine
Learning and Cybernetics held annually in China. During
August 26-29, 2004, the third ICMLC will be held in
Shanghai.
Another
important strength of the SMC Society is the increasing
number of members from industry. The latest membership
numbers indicate that 32% of our members have industrial
affiliations, compared with 57% belonging to academic
organizations. To provide greater service to our industrial
members we are developing new technical activities,
symposia and workshops, and publications that target
the application interests of our industrially affiliated
members. We are encouraging application sessions and
tracks at SMC conferences and workshops and we are providing
startup funding for the events. More than 1300 papers
were submitted to SMC04 to be held in The Hague, The
Netherlands, on October 10-13, 2004 (www.ieeesmc2004.tudelft.nl,
including application papers from industrial organizations.
We are taking steps to publish a larger number of industrially
oriented papers in the IEEE Transactions on SMC, Part
C: Applications and Reviews. We shall soon be launching
a Distinguished Lecturer Program that will provide SMC
chapters throughout the world with the opportunity to
schedule prominent speakers who are internationally
known for their contributions to theory and applications.
Finally, a major revision of the design and content
of the SMCS web site is planned for completion during
2004.
This
is a very exciting time for the SMC Society and we look
forward to serving you. Please contact me by e-mail
(w.gruver@ieee.org) with your suggestions for improving
our services, including those for members from industry.
I also would welcome hearing from you if you would like
to take an active role in any of the activities that
I have mentioned above or others that you believe would
enhance our Society.
