Ashutosh Kedar, Chandrakanta Kumar, Puneet Kumar Mishra
The emerging trends in today’s complex engineering scenarios strongly assert “collaboration” as the buzzword of the day, mandating closely associated technical communities to join together and meet bigger goals and widen their scope. The IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) and Microwave Theory and Technology Society (MTT-S) are two such technical societies, sharing many common interests by being a part of the RF and microwave domain. These two vibrant societies of IEEE India followed the world’s demand and agreed to merge the two successfully running conferences, InCAP and IMaRC, forming a combined entity, aptly named the IEEE Microwave, Antenna and Propagation Conference (MAPCON). The IEEE Joint Chapter MTT-S/AP-S, Bangalore was entrusted to host the inaugural edition in 2022 (MAPCON 2022, www.ieeemapcon.org). The team, under the leadership of Puneet Mishra, chair of the IEEE Joint Chapter AP/MTT-S, decided to hold MAPCON during 12–15 December 2022.
The team’s vibrant and energetic members met the first challenge and came up with a logo for the conference, which aptly described pictorially the merger theme of the two societies (see the middle panel at the top of Figure 1). The IEEE Organizing Committee (OC) decided that MAPCON 2022 would be held under the able leadership of Puneet K. Mishra and Mrinal Kanti Mandal (general chairs), Ashutosh Kedar [Technical Program Committee (TPC) chair], and Chandrakanta Kumar (finance chair), along with the supervisory panel, combining expertise from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), IEEE OC, and industry. (The left side of Figure 1 shows the MAPCON 2022 brochure.)
Figure 1. Left: The MAPCON brochure. Upper middle: The MAPCON logo. Lower middle: (from left) OC members (including Mohit, Yogesh Verma (past chair, InCAP), Dr. Gautam Chattopadhyay (NASA/JPL), Dr. Ashutosh Kedar (TPC chair), Puneet K. Mishra (general chair), Chandrakanta Kumar (finance chair), Dr. Chengappa M.R, Dr. A. Mahesh, and Kishore Kumar at the hotel entrance on the eve of MAPCON. Upper right: A glimpse of the sponsors’ team. Lower right: An aerial view of Leela Bhartiya City Hotel in Bhartiya City, Bangalore, India. (Source: Internet.)
Figure 1 also shows the photograph of the core OC members on the eve of MAPCON 2022 (see the bottom center panel). The conference was organized with the immense support of industry, academia, and media sponsors who believed in its vision (see the top right panel of Figure 1 for a list of sponsors). Apart from these, a few startup industries were also given a chance to showcase their products to encourage companies under the “Make in India” initiative by the Government of India. It provided an international platform for worldwide experts from the RF and microwave industry and academia to collaborate and to share their vision and expertise.
MAPCON 2022 was held in the luxurious and meditative environment of Leela Bhartiya City, nestled in the primeval lifestyle commune of the lush green Bhartiya City, very near to the Bengaluru International Airport, away from city crowds (see the aerial view on the bottom right of Figure 1). It allowed a place for the attendees (more than 750 in number) to rest, dine, discuss, and have long technical sessions in comfort and quiet. The first call for papers was well received, with a response of more than 750 papers, putting forth a Herculean task before the TPC to scrutinize these papers. The TPC selected 472 papers, with a rejection rate of approximately 30% based on criteria such as plagiarism, value addition, and concepts, following a single-blind peer-review procedure. The review procedure was concluded in record time under the general chair and TPC chair. The next important task before the TPC was to organize the papers under apt themes and plan the MAPCON sessions during the three days (December 13–15 2022) of the conference as the first day, 12 December 2022, was reserved for various workshops and tutorials.
MAPCON-2022 was inaugurated on 13 December 2022 following the lamp lighting ceremony by Puneet Mishra and Prof. Mrinal K. Mandal (general chairs), Saifur Rahman (2022 IEEE president-elect), Stefano Maci (IEEE AP-S president), Rashaunda Henderson (IEEE MTT-S president), and Ashutosh Kedar (TPC chair) (see Figure 2). The day followed the inaugural addresses by the ISRO and DRDO chiefs, along with other dignitaries, as shown in Figure 2. They emphasized the need for MAPCON and its relevance with respect to (w.r.t.) today’s technological scenarios worldwide. A technical exhibition comprising more than 45 sponsors (see Figure 1) was inaugurated by P. Radhakrishna, the director of LRDE, displaying the cutting-edge technologies available within India and worldwide in the field of RF and microwaves. The patrons asserted the role of India as a technology leader w.r.t. the global scenario and its attitude on collaborating with worldwide technology leaders looking forward to holistic worldwide growth.
Figure 2. Glimpses from the inaugural day of MAPCON 2022. Top right and top left: Talks by the chief patrons, S. Somnath, ISRO chief (top left), and Satheesh Reddy, DRDO chief (top right). Bottom right: The patrons, P. Radhakrishna, director (LRDE) and M. Sankaran, director (URSC); Puneet Mishra, the general chair; Rashaunda Henderson, IEEE MTT-S president; Stefano Maci, IEEE AP-S president; and Saifur Rahman, 2022 IEEE president-elect. Bottom right: The lamp lighting by (from left) Ashutosh Kedar (TPC chair), Puneet Mishra (general chair), Mrinal K. Mandal (general chair), Saifur Rahman (2022 IEEE president-elect), Stefano Maci (IEEE AP-S president), and Rashaunda Henderson (IEEE MTT-S president).
The exhibition was well appreciated by attendees and commented on as a miniature glimpse of the International Microwave Symposium by many dignitaries from around the world. The MAPCON 2022 team planned and collaborated with REVA University as an academic partner and Microwave Journal as a media partner for logistic arrangements and publicity. All student attendees were provided free accommodations inside the REVA campus and a travel grant to attend MAPCON as a part of the humanitarian initiative of the MAPCON team. The young and energetic team of engineering students from REVA formed a brilliant and hardworking team of volunteers, which helped the IEEE Joint AP/MTT-S Chapter team to manage the complete event seamlessly and efficiently.
The TPC organized seven regular paper parallel sessions every day along with dedicated sessions for keynotes, special sessions (see Figure 3), and special initiatives on burgeoning humanitarian requirements, as per IEEE policies, spanning over the complete day, starting early in the morning until late in the evening. The regular paper sessions were organized under different themes: namely, defense antenna technologies, passive components and circuits, metamaterial-based technologies, metamaterial-inspired antennas, active circuits, microstrip antennas, dielectric resonator antennas, satellite payloads, energy-harvesting systems, biomedical antenna and devices, satellite antennas, RF systems and characterization, wideband antennas, semiconductor devices, shared aperture antennas, multiple-input, multiple-output antennas, phased array antennas, ultrawideband antennas, high power sources, substrate-integrated waveguide antenna/arrays, optimization/computational techniques, propagation in different mediums, 5G antennas, leaky-wave bistatic and small antennas, radars and related technologies, reflectarrays and leaky-wave antennas, integrated transceivers, and antenna characterization and measurements.
Figure 3. Speaker details of the plenary talks, keynote addresses, banquet TED talks, and the Fireside Chat (www.ieeemapcon.org).
Apart from these, special sessions on 6G technologies, antenna arrays, gallium nitride monolithic microwave integrated circuits and application-specified integrated circuits, measurements, and defense radar technologies were organized every day. More details of the lectures and authors are available on the webpage (www.ieeemapcon.org).
The workshops hosted on 12 December 2022 were on “Comprehensive Solutions for Communication and Radars” and “Fundamentals of Antenna Measurements” for students and academia, exposing them to the latest technologies by industry and academic experts. A tutorial in parallel was conducted as well, consisting of lectures by Prabhakar H. Pathak, professor emeritus [The Ohio State University (OSU)); John L. Volakis [dean, Florida International University (FIU)]; Vignesh Rajamani (president, IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility Society); Arun K. Bhattacharya (Lockheed Martin, USA); Jiro Hirokawa (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan); Nemai C. Karmakar (Monash University, Australia); and Amir Boag (Tel Aviv University), covering the latest state-of-the-art techniques in electromagnetic theory, metamaterial and Floquet mode theory, body-wearable electronics, electromagnetic interference/electromagnetic compatibility aspects of electric vehicles, large quantum systems, and advances in RFIDs (see Figure 4).
Figure 4. Photographs from workshops and tutorials during MAPCON-2022.
A special Fireside Chat was hosted by Tushar Sharma, Renesys, with Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Union Minister of State for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (see the right-most panel in Figure 5). R. Chandrashekhar commented, “We are no longer a back-office support to the world. Our skilled engineers are now being encouraged to innovate and start their own ventures. And the government is all prepared to support their initiatives. The Digital India program supported by future design, future labs, and future skills shall act as an enabler for India to become a semicon nation” while virtually addressing the MAPCON 2022 event (see the right-side photograph of Figure 5 showing a press release). He also inaugurated a skill development center at the REVA University, Swanson Analysis Systems Inc. Center of Excellence for students (see the left side of Figure 5), another humanitarian initiative of MAPCON.
Figure 5. A Fireside Chat with Shri Rajeev Chandrashekhar (right side), Union Minister of State for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. (Source: ETGovernment.com).
A special session on Women in Electromagnetics and Microwaves was chaired by Rashaunda Henderson, including talks by women scientists and leaders. A special mentor-mentee program was hosted on all three days, offering one-to-one interaction of students with experts from IEEE, including Fellows and Senior Members, which greatly helped the young students (undergraduate and postgraduate levels) to clear the clouds of doubt from their minds and to better focus on their career growth in the field of RF and microwaves.
There were several other events organized, such as a Young Professional panel discussion titled “Future of RF and Microwaves Research in India: Towards Stronger Collaboration Between Academia and Industry,” a Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technology meeting, an IEEE Indian Chapter chairs meeting, a panel discussion titled “Unlocking of Space Sector and Opportunities for Antenna and Microwave Startups and Established Players,” an industry sponsors’ presentation, and a Ph.D. initiative evaluation for best thesis. Apart from these, several awards, amounting to more than 200,000 Indian rupees for students, academia, and industry under the oral and interactive sessions categories, were distributed on the awards night, along with acknowledgment of all sponsors at a cocktail dinner party.
A special cultural evening by students from REVA University was presented, illustrating a beautiful depiction of various forms of Lord Shiva from Hindu mythology (see Figure 6), familiarizing the foreign dignitaries with strong Indian culture and heritage. Several moments in the form of dinner parties, open discussions, and cultural interactions were organized for the informal interaction of attendees. Figure 6 presents a collage of such events, presenting many fond memories from MAPCON 2022, and it has set a benchmark of the quality and quantity of technically strong papers as well for forthcoming editions in the future.
Figure 6. A collage of events with photographs of a panel discussion, special sessions, the industry sponsors’ presentation, the cultural evening, the awards dinner night, the crowd of attendees, the exhibition inauguration, the dinner night, and the exhibit area.
MAPCON handed over the baton to the next committee for organizing the next edition of MAPCON in the last session. MAPCON 2023 is scheduled to be held in the heritage city of Gujarat, Ahmedabad, during December 2023, hosted by the IEEE Gujarat Section, India.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MMM.2023.3256819