Nuno Borges Carvalho
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Several IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Society (MTT-S) conferences are colocated with exhibitions—our flagship conference, the International Microwave Symposium (IMS), the biggest of them—and many other conferences follow the same model. This is one way to further foster industry collaboration among our community’s constituents and show recent developments in the microwave industry. Most of the time, the conference exhibition is attended by the associated companies’ chief engineers and scientists, creating a delightful atmosphere where academics and industry meet and discuss important topics. Sometimes, academics such as I hear technical questions and challenges from the microwave industry, which challenges academics to work harder and improve research activities on specific issues. The same is true for industry: sometimes industry presentations can generate curiosity and new ideas for academics. A similar process happens when we walk through the exhibition and see the ideas that we read about in published papers real, alive, and sitting on industry tables.
But, as said before and similar to the IMS exhibition, other conferences also act as technical displays of our field. A conference exhibition usually brings in local industry. One example is the IEEE Wireless and Microwave Technology Conference (WAMICON), held in April (Figure 1). WAMICON is set in Florida in a friendly and comfortable environment. The mix of industry and academics is again a fruitful collaboration that allows the flourishing of ideas and new proposals for academic studies. At these conferences, industry shows up and tells us of its unique and exciting challenges, and most of the time, these discussions trigger new ideas for advancing technology.
Figure 1. MTT-S President and Plenary Speaker Dr. Nuno Borges Carvalho at WAMICON with WAMICON Technical Program Committee Chairs Michael Grady and Arya Menon, and at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University with Amelie Hagelauer, Holger Maune, and Eduardo Rojas.
At WAMICON, the organizers set aside an entire room of exhibitors with a nice mix of instrumentation, components, active devices, models, and characterization. The visit to WAMICON also allowed a group of AdCom colleagues to visit Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and give keynote talks to the local community, which is always an exciting way to meet and discuss future developments in our fields.
The same happened in May, June, and August in other parts of the world (Figure 2), with the 2023 International Wireless Symposium and the 2023 Microwave Wireless Industry Exhibition in China, the Wireless Power Transfer Conference and Exhibition in San Diego, the 2023 IEEE MTT-S International Conference on Numerical Electromagnetic and Multiphysics Modeling and Optimization in Canada, and the 2023 IEEE International Symposium on Radio-Frequency Integration Technology in Australia.
Figure 2. Conferences around the world with industry engagement.
The MTT-S is also starting a new concept to have industry panels at all of our conferences. These panels will be a point of contact with international and local industries to increase technology awareness and foster technical discussions that will allow the advancement of microwave engineering by bringing problems to engineers and discussing their resolution using engineering ideas.
We expect to see you all at one of our future conferences, or if you have an idea for creating a topical panel, a workshop, or a topical conference, please send us an email and tell us about your ideas.
I encourage you to visit our website (https://www.mtt.org) for more information about the MTT-S and volunteer opportunities.
Nuno Borges Carvalho (nbcarvalho@ua.pt), 2023 MTT-S president, is with the Department of Electronics, Telecommunications, and Informatics, University of Aveiro, Aveiro 3810-193, Portugal.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MMM.2023.3277674