George Ponchak, Samir El-Ghazaly
An earlier version of this column appeared originally in IEEE Microwave Magazine, vol. 24, no. 8, August 2023.
In the past, the Microwave Theory and Technology Society (MTT-S) established conferences in every region of the world except for the Middle East and Africa. Maybe it is a surprise to some, but substantial research in antenna and microwave technology occurs in Africa. To correct this oversight, the MTT-S and the Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) established the International Microwave and Antennas Symposium (IMAS), which will rotate around the Middle East and Africa and will be held every two years, but if demand is high, it may become an annual conference (Figures 1 and 2).
Figure 1. The IMAS conference organizers on a site visit to GUC in Cairo, Egypt.
Figure 2. The IMAS organizing committee.
The inaugural IMAS was held in Cairo, Egypt, on 7–9 February 2023 at the German University in Cairo (GUC). Two hundred researchers from around the world attended this inaugural conference. An IMAS steering committee chaired by Prof. Samir El-Ghazaly of the MTT-S and Prof. Yahia Antar of the AP-S and composed of four other members from both the MTT-S and AP-S guides IMAS. The goal of the conference is to provide a forum for the exchange of scientific and technical information, provide an overview of the current state of the art highlighting the latest developments and innovations required for future applications both at academic and industrial levels, encourage and stimulate students to study microwave and antenna technologies, and foster collaboration and cooperation in microwaves, antennas, and propagation within Africa and globally.
This year’s IMAS conference cochairs were Prof. Hany Hammad of the GUC and Prof. Ayman El-Tager of the Military Technical College of Egypt, and the Technical Program Committee cochairs were Prof. Hadia El Hennawy of Ain Shams University and Prof. Amr Safwat of Nile University. The conference was held under the auspices of His Excellency the Egyptian Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research. The conference included technical sessions, invited talks, poster sessions, workshops, student poster sessions, Women in Engineering and Young Professional sessions, Best Paper and Poster Awards, and a gala dinner held on the Giza Plateau, right at the foot of the Pyramids.
Preceding the conference, a full day of workshops on “Microwave Technology for Humanity,” sponsored by the National Science Foundation and organized by Prof. Samir El-Ghazaly, was held. The first workshop, on the topic of “Satellite and Space Communications,” was given by Prof. Aly Fathy. The second workshop was given by Prof. John Papapolymerou on “Recent Advances in Radars and Their Applications.” The third workshop was given by Prof. Ayman El-Tager on “High-Power Microwave Technologies.” These were followed on the first day of the conference by a full-day workshop on “Technology for Smart Villages and Smart Cities in Africa” chaired by Dr. Edward Rezek.
The conference opened with remarks from the conference chairs and the GUC president followed by an invited talk by the president of the AP-S, Prof. Stefano Maci, on “Self-Complementary and Duality in Meta-Surfaces.” (Figures 3 and 4). Throughout the three days of the conference, there were invited talks by Prof. Rafaat Mansour on “Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Phase Change Material Devices for Future Communication Systems,” Prof. Atif Shamim on “Microwave Water Cut Sensors for Oil Industry: From Design to Deployment in the Field,” MTT-S President Prof. Nuno Carvalho on “Backscatter Radios,” Prof. Qammer Abbasi on “A Next Wave of Wireless Communication Is Here: How 6G Will Evolve,” and Prof. Abbas Omar on “Health and Safety Aspects of Millimeter-Wave Radiation in 5G and Beyond.”
Figure 3. The conference chair addressing the attendees.
Figure 4. The opening session was well attended.
One hundred and fifty-eight papers written by 426 authors were submitted from 31 countries. As shown in Figure 5, the conference met the goal of being international and providing a great forum for authors from the Middle East and Africa. The papers were reviewed by an international review committee composed of 130 reviewers. This resulted in 80 papers being accepted for presentation and 40 being accepted for posters, resulting in a 75% acceptance rate. The papers were presented in 15 technical sessions, three special sessions, and two poster sessions. Maybe the most exciting session, at least for some of us, was the student poster session. These young engineers initiated discussions with everyone who passed by their posters and enthusiastically explained their research. There were also many opportunities for networking (Figure 6).
Figure 5. The distribution of paper submissions from around the world.
Figure 6. Lunches were a great way to meet new colleagues.
The conference ended with an awards ceremony with awards (first, second, and third) given for the Best Paper, Best Student Paper, Best Young Professional Poster for Graduate Students, and Best Young Professional Poster for Undergraduate Seniors (Figures 7 and 8). The ceremony ended with Prof. Samir El-Ghazaly presenting certificates of recognition to the IMAS chairs and Technical Program Committee chairs.
Figure 7. Students receiving the Best Paper and Poster Awards.
Figure 8. Students winning the Best Paper Award.
Overall, this conference was a great success. The audience asked many questions of the authors, and the session chairs allowed the questions to continue. Although this meant that some sessions ran over the allotted time slot, everyone was satisfied that they understood the work. Maybe the only negative thing that happened at the conference was that the weather was unseasonably cold. This caused some of us to wear hats during the gala dinner beside the pyramids (Figure 9). We may have looked funny, but everyone had a great time.
Figure 9. The gala dinner beside the Giza Pyramids.
George Ponchak (George.ponchak@ieee.org) is retired from the NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, OH 44135 USA.
Samir El-Ghazaly (elghazal@uark.edu) is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701 USA.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MAP.2023.3306189