Nuno Borges Carvalho
I have talked several times in this column about conferences and the good vibe we get by returning to in-person meetings. Nevertheless, online conferences can also be exciting, primarily to address audiences in certain parts of the world that cannot travel due to financial support or other matters, such as visa issues. This is one of the reasons why the IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Society (MTT-S) is thinking of launching a 100% online event that can accommodate members worldwide in an actual virtual microwave world congress.
In the middle, we have hybrid meetings, with people present and online (sometimes digitally, not online, but using video support). This is, by far, and in my opinion, the least interesting approach to organizing conferences. Not only because, most of the time, Murphy’s law applies, and the digital component does not work, but also because it destroys networking among the participants, and in certain situations when a video is shown in a room with actual attendees, the room appears empty, which is a strange situation for the chair of that session. On top of this, no follow-up of a specific paper presented online follows, mainly because the in-person attendees are not connected to the digital platform, so no interactions are possible, creating a separation of live local authors and online authors.
This brings me to the great solution that the 2023 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium (IMS), our flagship conference, made by being an in-person meeting only. This year, we were able to bring together more than 9,000 participants, with an exhibition not seen in the past few years and with a vibrant group of participants joining and getting together in a way that has been impossible until recently. Figure 1 shows the plenary session full of people at IMS. Next year, IMS will go to Washington, DC, USA, and we should make it the most interesting and biggest event in the microwave world.
Figure 1. The plenary session at IMS 2023, in San Diego, CA, USA.
This year’s second annual Administrative Committee (AdCom) meeting was held in San Diego during IMS and, with an actual in-person meeting, was able to bring together several MTT-S sister Societies, and several memorandums of understanding (MOUs) were signed among the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S), IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility Society (EMC), and IEEE Geophysical and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS). Figure 2 presents the signing of the MOU, including the AP-S and EMC presidents. Figure 3 illustrates the MOU signing between the MTT-S and GRSS.
Figure 2. The signing of the MOU among the MTT-S, AP-S, and EMC.
Figure 3. The signing of the MOU between the MTT-S and GRSS.
These MOUs are very important to bring together communities and join technical interests from different IEEE Members, whether on microwaves, antennas, compatibility, or applications and remote sensing. The MOUs clearly state our intent to have combined Distinguished Lecturers, combined panels, and other activities that can be of interest to all communities. In the MTT-S AdCom, these relationships are made and implemented by the Inter-Society Committee, chaired this year by Ke Wu.
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@av.it.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.2023.3297164