Your VOTE needed by 15 Dec. – 2021 IEEE SMC Society Election

Dear IEEE SMC Society Members: 

It is that time of year for the annual SMC Society-wide election of 5 new Members-at-Large to the Board of Governors. The Society is counting on your participation in the form of your vote via the following URL. If you have not yet voted, please do so ASAP before the election period closes!

Cast your vote here!

While the IEEE elections process and policies ensure fair and transparent elections, our annual IEEE SMC Society elections for new Board of Governors (BoG) Members-at-Large are handicapped by low turnout with the participation of less than 1/3 of the total membership. The SMC Society needs your participation to improve on this and to more completely represent the preferences of its full membership.

Consider what is important to you regarding benefits and services from the SMC Society. Whether that includes particular existing or emerging technology focus areas, cost of membership, quality of conferences or publications, networking potential and opportunities, education offerings and materials, SMC Chapter support, or other benefits and services, your vote to elect new BoG Members-at-Large represents an opportunity to assert your preferences toward electing leaders who would most effectively improve the SMC Society for your benefit and that of others. 

For the 2021 election, open from November 17 to December 15, you have a slate of 13 candidates who are fellow Society members of which you are eligible to vote for 5 candidates. They represent new prospective voices with diverse interests and perspectives and are committed to improving SMC Society relevance and value 

As a preview, consider the excerpts below from candidates’ position statements for the election.

YOUR vote is both highly encouraged and essential. By exercising your right to vote, you play a critical part in steering the direction of the SMC Society by helping to select the leadership that YOU believe will best serve member needs and interests.

Please take the time to review the candidates’ biographical information and completed statements, and weigh in on the IEEE SMC Society’s future with ASAP at https://eballot4.votenet.com/IEEE using your IEEE Account login credentials.

Thank you for your participation in this election! 

Sincerely,

Edward Tunstel, Ph.D., FIEEE
Chair, Nominations Committee
IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society


Abbreviated Statements from 2021 BoG Member-at-Large Candidates

Dongrui Wu (China)
“I will continue supporting SMC Society educational and technical activities to extend our reach in the scientific community, while promoting real-world applications of systems and cybernetics technologies to enhance our credibility in the industrial community.” 

Yaoping Hu (Canada)
“Dr. Hu aims to uphold the reputation and professionalism of the SMC Society, influencing the future direction of the Society, and advocating values and governance of the Society to members.” 

David Mendonca (USA)
“I am particularly interested pursuing opportunities for diversifying the society’s membership, including via outreach to graduate students, junior faculty, and other professionals working in areas where SMCS has room to grow.” 

Ching-Chi Tsai (Taiwan)
“I hope to enhance both depth and breadth of our rich interdisciplinary society… I will aggressively foster technical interactions among SMCS members, technical committees, and local chapters.”

Plamen Parvanov Angelov (UK)
“SMC has a specific role historically in the development of the neural networks research and now during the revolution that deep learning is bringing I see the role of SMC to be very specific and the potential to raise its central position even more.” 

Barnabas Bede (USA)
“I plan to…continue to promote the importance of the field of Explainable AI and Explainable Fuzzy Machine Learning…especially in safety critical applications.” 

Kok Wai (Kevin) Wong (Australia)
“I would like to…contribute to…collaborations and connections with other relevant professional bodies and industries…” and to encouraging “more participation of women and young professionals in SMC activities.”

Christoph Guger (Austria)
“I will bring BCI & Neurotechnology topic, the industrial viewpoints, start-up opportunities and certification topics for international sales into the SMCS and will actively help to organize…BCI Hackathons and workshops.” 

Jelel Ezzine (Tunisia)
“IEEE and SMC can play a galvanizing role in encouraging engineers to take part in public policy and drive the development of their respective technological sectors…” 

Ming Hou (Canada)
Dr. Hou would like to work “in broad collaboration areas to support the efficient and effective transfer of laboratory-based scientific efficacy to practical effectiveness in the field applications…”

Syed Abdul Rahman Al-Haddad (Malaysia)
“I would like to…create activities for networking amongst chapters” and contribute to a focus on encouraging “more students to join SMCS” and on increasing “our strategic partnership…with leading industries.” 

Haibin Zhu (Canada)
“I consider the BoG position as an extremely important one in making the SMC Society better and better in serving its members…I am keen to continue my involvement in the promotion and advancement of the SMC Society.”

Subramanian Krishnamurthy (India)
“I promise to serve sincerely and honestly… I have a vast experience of more than 40 years in the area of SMC and Informatic programs in the government and Public sector domain and also educational activities.”