SENSORS COUNCIL TAB SOCIETY REVIEW 2009

Transcription

1 SENSORS COUNCIL TAB SOCIETY REVIEW 2009 zaghloul Sensors Council Society Review Page 1 of 89 Issue 1 10/27/2009

2 Sensors Council - 39 Scheduled date of review 25 June 2009 Initial data request to S/C: 5 February 2009 Data returned by S/C: 26 May 2009 Review performed: 25 June 2009 Draft report to S/C: 7 August 2009 Report comments returned by S/C: (Date) Final report submitted to TAB Management Committee: (Date) TAB SOCIETY REVIEW COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Ellen J. Yoffa Chair David A. Castañón Member Peter N. Clout Member Henrietta L. Galiana Lead Reviewer Thomas G. Habetler - Member Alfred U. Mac Rae - Member Subrata Mukhopadhyay - Member SENSORS COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVES PRESENT AT REVIEW: Mona Zaghoul President Christina Schober President-Elect Bob Bannon Past President Mike McShane Secretary/Treasurer 1. SRC COMMITTEE REPORT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The overall impression formed by the SRC from the Sensors Council s (SC) report and inperson review is a lack of activity and influence, in both directions, between the Council and its member Societies. The Sensors Council has inadequate control over the participation of its members and the SRC saw little evidence that the societies benefit from membership. This situation is not unique to the Sensors Council. The Sensors Council needs to work more actively with the member societies the Council comprises. More volunteers, in particular, are needed to strengthen its publications activities. Providing a venue where readers from multiple societies can go for papers about sensors is a valuable service the Council provides. The Sensors Council is on the financial Watch List and is in serious trouble financially. TAB FinCom has suggested actions to get off the Watch List and the Council must act aggressively, working with TAB FinCom, to solve its financial problems. 2. FIELD OF INTEREST Remarks: The field of interest is succinct, appropriate, and reviewed from time to time. There are 25 Societies listed as formal members of the Council, and it is noted (p.5) that the FOI also overlaps with other IEEE societies who have not opted to join the Council. The Council claims that there are no FOI areas that may be under-supported (section (g)). This is surprising and requires clarification, given that the member societies admittedly do not cover the whole FOI. 2

3 Furthermore, many IEEE Transactions support all areas of the FOI, but certain areas which are covered well by societies, are not actively sought out by the Council as opportunities for collaboration. For example, EDS also covers sensors and has a large biannual conference. This conference is heavily MEMS/micro while Sensors Council has a narrower focus. Also the SC offers wide distribution of Calls for Papers to a broad range of authors across the spectrum of sensors. The participation of member Societies seems limited to sending representatives to the Council s AdCom meetings, participating in the organization of the Sensors Conference and providing editors to the Sensors Journal. During the review, SC representatives attempted to emphasize that links are very tight between almost all member societies, yet point 4.b focuses on the difficulties of keeping them engaged. Hence, it is not clear how strong or sustained is the support from member societies. Are all even engaged at all, and if not how many are true participants? Recommendations to S/C: Provide a status of activities supported by volunteers from member societies, listed by society, and denote which member societies remain uninvolved. The SRC recommends that the Sensors Council make this annual assessment and use it to update its membership if appropriate. This should be part of an annual status check and possible update of membership. Recommendations to TAB: As noted in the Executive Summary (Section 1 above), the Sensors Council is not unique in the nature of its relationship with its member societies. This problem may merit a TAB ad hoc subcommittee charged with defining the expected roles of member societies in a Council, and the expected benefits provided to them by a host Council. For example, it is not clear whether co-sponsorship of a Council Journal requires membership in the Council. Recommendations to IEEE: None. Response from Council: The SC member societies cover the core of the Sensors Council field of interest. The SC council engages several member societies in volunteer jobs as members of the Technical Program Committee (TPC) of the SENSORS conference, as members of the editorial board of the Sensors Journal, etc. The journal and the conference are the principal dissemination activities of the Council, and are therefore those in which member societies are most heavily involved through society members that are individually interested in sensor-related topics. Most member societies are more interested in the success and activities of the Council by requiring their representative to do regular updates to the Society President and/or board. To them, the Council is seen as more of a focused area of their broader society FOI. This provides a way to satisfy the deeper sensor-related technical interests of their members, without the need to create duplicate efforts. The SC FOI was circulated to all IEEE societies. A large number of these chose to become members. In some cases, similar efforts on sensors already existed within a society, and internal sensor-related activities were sufficiently strong and covered a broad enough range that their participation in Sensors Council was not seen to add significant value to their ongoing efforts (Example-Electron Devices Society). However, their internal coverage of sensors is limited to electronic devices, a small fraction of the SC FOI, and therefore the EDS sensors focus is insufficient to meet the needs of the IEEE sensors community as a whole. Therefore, while the SC would value EDS participation, we understand that their sensors needs are met internally. This is not viewed as competition, but complementation. Since the domain of EDS falls within the SC FOI, our conferences and journal still serve as an outlet for dissemination of their work, if they wish to use either. 3

4 Every year, for the annual AdCOM meeting, the SC reminds and encourages the Sensors Council member societies to appoint appropriate representatives for a minimum of two years and to send them to the meeting. Member societies will be further encouraged to identify individuals that are already participating in SC activities (editing, serving on conference TPC, publishing in the Journal, or even attending the conference) so as to begin with some familiarity and genuine interest. The SC promotes joint activities between the Council and member societies through these representatives, so it is key that these individuals be chosen wisely. It has been SC practice to circulate the FOI on an annual basis at the time appointments of representatives are needed, such that member society presidents can choose their representative to meet their needs while matching one or more SC FOI areas. The Society Presidents can appoint whomever they wish to the IEEE Sensor Council, This has not always resulted in active participation. The Council can only reject appointments when they violate Council rules, such as a 5 th year appointment. To date, the SC has essentially accepted society representatives There is a term limit of 4 years when the appointee is required to take a 1 year break, but this has never been enforced. From Article III Membership of the Council (IEEE Sensor Council Constitution) Section 7. The term of office of a Member Society representative on the Council shall be two years. Societies assigned an even number for accounting purposes shall have their representative s term begin in even years, and societies assigned an odd number shall have their representative s term begin in odd years. No Society representative shall be eligible to serve more than four consecutive years. An unexpired term filled for more than six months shall count as a full year. This amendment shall be effective 1 January Reappointment after the completion of any term of four consecutive years may be made only after a lapse of one year. The other option for getting more active representatives is Article III in our constitution which allows the council to remove a society. This seems too extreme and we have not used it, but may consider it in the future. From Article III Membership of the Council (IEEE Sensor Council Constitution) Section 3. If a Member Society does not have any representative present at any of the Council AdCom meetings held during a calendar year and is inactive in Council affairs, the Member Society may be dropped from Council membership. Notice of such proposed action shall be given to the President of the delinquent Society at least twenty days before the Council AdCom meeting where such action will be considered. Such action must be approved by two-thirds of the AdCom members present and voting and by the IEEE Technical Activities Board before it becomes final. We have plans to make make further improvements to the process of soliciting representativesas a means to improve participation. Specifically, the SC President will request reconfirmation or new appointment for SC AdCom representatives from each member society. In the communication, which will be by phone, , and hard copy, the society will be asked to appoint representatives that will commit to AdCom attendance, preparation of reports, and initiating joint activities between SC and member societies (as appropriate to their individual society s goals). As examples, we note that the Sensors Council is actively recruiting several member societies to participate in joint special sessions of the SENSORS conference and joint special issues of the Sensors journal. This type of activity is facilitated if appointees are already active in SC conference organization or journal editing. The locations and dates of upcoming AdCom meetings will be included with the letter, and appointments will be requested to have accompanying confirmation of the society s intention to provide full or partial travel support for the rep to the meeting. We have typically requested 2-year appointments, but will consider 1-year appointments (renewable for up to 4 years) to enable presidents more flexibility and allow consideration for travel costs to different meeting venues. As noted, the council moves conferences (and AdCom meetings, since they are held in association with the conference) globally, which helps with recruitment of non-us members to societies. Finally, all reps will be asked to promote SC events (conferences) and products (journals, WWW site) at the member society meetings; likewise, member society materials may be distributed at the SENSORS conference in conjunction with the SC publicity group. 4

5 To answer the question about the strength and sustainment of support from member societies, weare collecting & analyzing the available data on the number of member societies engaged in SC volunteer jobs, and attendance at Adcom meetings. This data is not immediately available and will take some time to develop the database. For example our authors and technical program committee volunteers are not required to be members of a IEEE Sensor Council member society of the IEEE Sensor Council. 3. MISSION, CORE VALUES, and VISION Remarks: The mission and core values are well stated and good. Recommendations to S/C: None. Recommendations to TAB: None. Recommendations to IEEE: None. Response from Council: N/A 4. STRATEGIC GOALS, OBJECTIVES, and PLANS Remarks: The Sensors Council appears active in its FOI. Through special issues of the IEEE Sensors Journal, the SC has been prominent in disseminating developments in new areas (see 4.k below). As for the responses in the initial report to SRC, some of the questions must have been confusing to those writing the report, since they are often vaguely or incorrectly addressed. For example: Section 4.a in the SC report describes goals, not the strategy to reach them. Section 4.b does not argue for the uniqueness of the strategy, since there is no description of competitors (or lack thereof) to justify the claim. Section 4.c & 4.d are presumably linked, but 4.d does not connect to 4.c at all. The focus of 4.d here should be on the strategies to correct problems listed in 4.c. Section 4.e through 4.h presumably also are intended to address objectives for the three issues in 4.c. They do not do so in any convincing way. All responses are very vague with no explicit examples. Examples are needed in Section 4.f. Section 4.o General arguments based solely on impact factor are not convincing, since they do not mention the current numbers for their own journal nor those of their direct competitors to provide a numerical goal, if that is to be the emphasis. Recommendations to S/C: Address the missing or incomplete information described above in the final response to the SRC. Appoint a Web editor to update the information on the Council s Wikipedia site and maintain its data. Recommendations to TAB: None. Recommendations to IEEE: None. Response from Council: Section 4a: Our strategy to achieve our stated goals is to provide highly-valued services for sensor professionals around the world. We will do this by organizing and sponsoring a top-tier 5

6 sensors journal, a world-class sensors technical conference, and educational programs such as distinguished lecturers and exciting tutorials. The conference and journal are very effective, while the impact of tutorials has been growing and is expected to increase even more as electronic delivery becomes possible. The DL program is a relatively new endeavor, but one that we are committed to sustaining and growing, again expecting electronic dissemination to be very helpful in reaching a wider audience. Section 4b: The SC strategy is uniquely that of the IEEE Technical Activities infrastructure. We are using tried and true methods developed by our predecessors over the last 100 years. Providing these services will enhance the core value of the SC as a resource for the global sensing community and to emphasize the global nature and the multidisciplinary character of the Council. The uniqueness is in the breadth of the sensors and sensing fields across other IEEE Societies Section 4c: Describe the three most important issues facing the S / C. 1. Dealing with increasing competition outside the IEEE 2. Keeping members societies engaged 3. Organization and financial management of IEEE SENSORS Conferences Section 4d: Describe the strategies to address these three activities. 1. A principal aim is maintain our competitive edge by providing high quality technical publications and educational programs, with an emphasis on novelty and technological innovation, particularly in the realm of electronic media. The annual IEEE SENSORS Conference is now one of the world s top sensors conferences. It is highly international, rotating between three geographic areas, the Americas, Asia/Pacific, and Europe/Africa. The SC publications are already of high quality and high impact factor. We are constantly looking for ways to add value to the standard journal and conference paper, including integrating multimedia presentations for authors to deliver presentations via PowerPoint, add movies to text/image files, etc. 2. The Council is currently aggressively promoting joint activities with the member Societies. We want our AdCom members to actively engage their society s leadership in finding ways to use Council activities to promote their society, and vice versa. We will promote our publications and conferences as a means to attract more volunteers from other Technical societies. To measure our progress in this area, we are collecting data on Technical Society membership for all our Council volunteers (Associate Editors of the Journal and Conference Technical Program Committee members). The collection and evaluation of these data will take time, but at our next review, the Council will have specific metrics to report regarding our progress in this area. 3. As noted in Section 7 and 15, SC finances are under the direct purview of the VP Finances, yet conference activities has historically fallen under the direction of the VP Conferences, with each conference having a separate treasurer. Our recently established guidelines for conference organization and required MOU will ensure conference chairs understand all expectations and have proper guidance in conference organization. The MOU places the VP Finance on the conference committee as the conference treasurer, such that s/he will have direct oversight over the conference budget and all related agreements and expenditures will be continuously monitored to ensure compliance with the established budget. This, as well as contracting with a reliable and experienced conference management company are the main tools to control conference costs. Section 4e: Describe the near- and far-term objectives that support these activities. Currently the IEEE SENSORS Conference is scheduled to rotate its annual venue among the Americas, Asia/Pacific, and Europe/Africa. The Technical Program Committee for the IEEE 6

7 SENSORS Conference is composed of representatives of all those geographic areas, which will ensure visibility in all regions of interest. The SC publications are of high quality; the impact factor is consistently increasing. Several special issues of the Journal are being organized jointly with the Council s member societies as are several special sessions at future SENSORS Conferences. The recently developed guidelines for conference organization will be regularly reviewed to ensure appropriateness and effectiveness for both general organization as well as financial management of the SENSORS conferences. Section 4f: Describe the plans to achieve these objectives. In the years since its inception (in 2001) the number of pages published by the IEEE Sensors Journal more than quadrupled. The papers quality went up significantly as well, as represented by the Journal s Impact Factor. Current plans call for continuing in the direction of increasing the Journal s Impact Factor, via a special effort that will focus on actively attracting submissions from well-known researchers and on publishing special issues on important emerging topics in the field of sensing. To maintain and improve the quality of the IEEE SENSORS Conference, special attention is being placed on selecting experienced General and Program Chairs and on strong continuity from year to year of the Conference Program Committee. Section 4g: Describe how the expected outcomes of these three plans further the S / C s Strategic Objectives. The above plans represent the core of the Council s effort on providing the Council membership (via our 25 sponsoring societies) with the highest quality professional products. The Sensors Council has been consistently moving toward becoming the top player in the field of sensing, as evidenced by the growing number of published papers in Sensors Journal, its improving Impact Factor, and successful annual IEEE SENSORS Conference. The above plans will help us achieve more success in these directions. h. Describe the S / C s position in the global technical world. In the field of sensing the S/C is recognized today by the international technical community as a major player in the global technical world. This is evident from the high stature of our Sensor Journal: the growing number of downloads of its papers, its growing Impact Factor, and its globally international Editorial Board. Our annual IEEE Sensors Conference is also highly successful, thanks to the conference global geographical location rotation, and careful selection of high quality of its Technical Program Committee and Conference General and Program Chairs. Section 4o: Our primary area of growth has been the Sensors Journal. In the last five years the number of pages published by the Journal increased by the factor of three. This has been followed by a growth in the publications quality as attested by the Journal s reputation in the sensing community. Over the next five years, the Journal is expected to grow by 20% to 30%; our conference is expected to double in size to > 1,000 attendees. Our distinguished lecturer program will also be expanded as financial resources become available. The Journal will focus on improving quality and increasing its Impact Factor. Specific actions include placing an increased emphasis on sensor review papers and inviting keystone technical papers from the leading sensor research laboratories around the world. 7

8 Conferences will add new features such as open poster sessions and late news papers (being trialed at SENSORS 2009). In addition, conference venues will be selected at sites which have proven financially successful for IEEE-sponsored conferences in the past. Specific focus will be sites for conferences in the range of 800 to 1200 attendees. A new emphasis on exhibits is being organized for IEEE SENSORS Also in 2010, our first trial of recording tutorial for web posting will be implemented. These enhancements should accelerate the natural grow rate of the Conference and allow it to double in size by GOVERNANCE Remarks: The Report of Sensors Council is to the point, and the elements of its governance were examined in the context of IEEE guidelines. The Exec Com consists of President, President-Elect, Past-President, 4 Vice Presidents looking after Technical Operations, Conferences, Publications, and Finances, and a Secretary- Treasurer. All of them are Council Officers. Out of these Officers, the President-Elect is elected and s/he successively becomes President and Past-President, each position with a two-year term to gain experience, and then passing it on. The 4 Vice Presidents are elected by the AdCom, some in odd-numbered and some in even-numbered years. The Secretary-Treasurer is the only position appointed by the President, acting on recommendation from the Council nominations committee which solicits nominees. ExCom serves only to approve the President s choice. It would seem that such an important position should instead be a recommendation by all of ExCom, with election by AdCom. Under Bylaws ARTICLE III - NOMINATIONS, ELECTIONS, AND APPOINTMENTS, Section 10 shows some contradiction by mentioning: As needed, elections shall be held separately for the offices of President, President-elect, Vice-President for Conferences, Vice President for Publications and Vice President for Finances, in that order. Since only the President-elect is formally elected, Section 10 could read instead: As needed, elections shall be held separately for the offices of President, President-elect, Vice- President for Technical Operations, Vice-President for Conferences, Vice President for Publications and Vice President for Finances, in that order. In light of the above, Section 8 too should be re-phrased to ensure the Vice-President for Technical Operations appears in the election cycles for even and odd years. Recommendations to S/C: Make necessary changes in the Bylaws, and consider same election rules for all officers, including the Secretary Treasurer. Recommendations to TAB: None. Recommendations to IEEE: None. Response from Council: The language of Section 10 in the bylaws has been reworded to reflect the process for electing President-Elect and the additional Vice Presidents. The Sensors Council election rules apply to all Vice President positions. Similarly, Section 8 was edited to include VP for Technical Operations. We are satisfied with the process for selection of the Secretary/Treasurer, given that the VP for Finances is elected and has primary responsibility for Council finances. However, the description of the appointment of Secretary/Treasurer was reworded to clarify that the position is filled by selection from a group of nominated individuals by the President, and confirmed by a vote of confidence by the AdCom. 6. INTERACTION WITH TAB and IEEE 8

9 Remarks: Several of the members of the SC serve on IEEE and TAB organizations, including John Vig, the current IEEE President, who is the founding President of this Council. In addition, the Council has many young leaders in its AdCom. These are all healthy signals. On the other hand, despite stating that the SC is pleased with all the help that they have been receiving from IEEE staff and organizations, there are signs of outstanding issues that could affect the Council s survival. These issues include the Council s interactions with its member societies and it financial difficulties. The Council is faced with unique challenges. The member societies may not want to offer their best volunteers, since they may be lost to them and focus only on the Council. This makes the Council leadership pipeline more challenging, and advancement of members to TAB positions less likely. Though the Council indicates several areas where TAB and IEEE are providing solid support, the Council offers no suggestion for how TAB and IEEE support could help with the issues the Council is facing. Recommendations to S/C: Rethink how TAB and IEEE could improve the environment for Councils, in particular the SC, and provide recommendations in the finalized report to SRC. Recommendations to TAB: None. Recommendations to IEEE: None. Response from Council: The SC has had numerous ExCom members serve on TAB, in their roles as Council members as well as Society members. We believe there are some areas where TAB can be a more useful resource for the SC, and Councils in particular. Suggestions for TAB: 1. Have more direct involvement at the formation of new Councils, providing leadership on best practices for successful startup 2. Devote more time to communicating to Societies the benefits of involvement with Councils. Promote the Councils as value added to Societies, encourage global representation in appointments of representatives. 3. (Related to #2) Make a commitment to real interaction with and between councils, so they can assist one another. Establish a separate group of Council Presidents with formal interactions at TAB meetings, as a means to exchange best practices. At least once a year, have a special session devoted to discussing the differences between societies and councils, describing the unique challenges of councils 4. For the 5-year Council Review, use a separate review form that is appropriately tailored for Councils (remove questions related to membership, address unique problems). A separate review committee that focuses on Councils only would also help. 7. CONFERENCES Remarks: The procedures described for the solicitation and review of papers are well conceived and facilitate the preservation of high-quality technical content. The SC s main conference is well attended, with regularly more than 500 registrants. Also, most years, the meeting has generated a financial surplus, except for 2008, despite similar attendance. During the SRC review, the SC staff clarified that the 2008 loss was due to a one-time bad experience with the local (Italy) conference planners that incurred large management expenses and did not properly vet operations (technical content and site capacity) with the VP of Conferences. These problems are now being addressed by the VP-Conferences, to ensure that the general conference chair is properly selected and to ensure an adequate conference planning experience for future meetings with appropriate Council oversight. 9

10 In addition, a manual has been prepared to address the requirements for the publication of conference papers as full papers in the Sensors Journal. This can be considered a Best Practice as it seems to take care of the issues of copyright and duplication often voiced in this context at TAB and to IEEE. There are some minor issues that should be corrected: Financial data in the Conferences and Finances (conference-related) Sections of the Council s report do not appear to match, and this is pertinent since the SC is on the Watch List Some clarification and specific information of the strategy to double the conference attendance to >1,000 should be provided in the finalized report. During the SRC review, the Council representatives mentioned changes in conference activities such as open poster sessions, and late news papers. They also stated that site selection will focus on accessibility to the majority of potential attendees (e.g. near major airports). Any other planned activities expected to double conference attendance should be described in the Council s response to this report. Recommendations to S/C: Update tables and respond to comments above in appropriate sections of the final report. Recommendations to TAB: None. Recommendations to IEEE: None. Response from Council: (Note: This response relates to both Section 7 and Section 15, as similar issues were identified by the review for each.) In the Sensors Council Review report, Section 15 contains a table that was provided by IEEE TAB showing a financial summary for the Sensors Council covering In the "2008F" (Forecast) column, Sensors Council shows $465.8K for "Conference and Conf Related" Income. The same table also shows a $268.4K "Conference and Conf Related" Expense. In the "Conference" section (Section 7) of the TAB report, there is another financial table that summarizes the IEEE SENSORS conference financials. In that table, we show $411.3K revenue and $480.5K expenses for SENSORS Consulting with Mr. Richard Januzzi, the IEEE Financial Analyst assigned to Sensors Council, we identified two reasons why the dollar values in the TAB financial summary does not match the audited conference financial results: 1. The Conference results are initially recorded in the year the event is held, and trued up in the subsequent year as all expenditures and income are finalized. As a result, part of SENSORS 2008 was recorded in 2008 and part will be recorded in The conference financial summary (Section 7) is not constrained by this periodicity. 2. There are other entries into the IEEE financials in the Conference lines besides SENSORS Conference Publications are the most significant, but there can also be prior year conference adjustments (such as part of the surplus from SENSORS 2007) as well as any events in which Sensors Council participated as a sponsor/cosponsor. In addition, the IEEE TAB financials, provided by IEEE at the time of preparation of the Sensors Council Review report, did not yet reflect the $69.2K loss incurred at the SENSORS 2008 conference. Part of this conference loss will not impact the reported financial statements until

11 The attached financial summary reflects the IEEE TAB financial summary for up to the date this response was prepared (August 27, 2009). Conferences will be adding new features such as open poster sessions and late news papers (being trialed at SENSORS 2009) as a way to encourage additional participation. For the 2009 meeting, 20 Open Posters Abstracts (15 accepted) and 48 Late News Papers were submitted (6 accepted). Thus, the later deadline generated ~6% more submissions. We expect continuing this practice will result in 10-15% more submissions in later years, once the community becomes familiar with the process. In addition, future conference venues will be selected at sites which have proven financially successful for IEEE-sponsored conferences in the past. Specific focus will be sites for conferences in the range of 800 to 1200 attendees. These enhancements should accelerate the natural grow rate of the Conference and allow it to double in size by PUBLICATIONS Remarks: The PRAC report on the Council s publication is generally positive, and the periodicals are in the black. However several recommendations made by the PRC in this and the previous report remain poorly addressed: Recomm 1) asks for time-to-print to be tracked from first submission and not from revised submission. The SC claims many other OUs use this practice, and refuses to change their practice until TAB creates metrics for author-caused delays. This is not acceptable. Author-caused delays at any stage in the manuscript process is under the control of Journal editors who can set deadlines at all points for submissions/resubmissions. For example, if one month is the deadline for revisions, then any violation could switch a paper from revision to rejection. Whether it is a regular issue or a special issue is irrelevant. The only uncontrolled variable for pubs is the time to press after final submission of an accepted paper;this is not in the hands of any S/Cs and all suffer under the same handicap. Recomm 2) asks for an analysis of competitors to set pub goals and metrics (e.g. target impact factors or delays submit-press). The response is unsatisfactory as it vaguely mentions increasing the impact factor (from where to what and why?). For example, what is the time-to-press of competing 11

12 journals? If the Sensors Journal delays are not competitive, the Council should suggest possible ways to correct this problem. Impact Factors follow naturally from a good position in the market and solid FOI. Is there serious overlap in FOI in competing journals? How is the new EiC going to address/measure impact factors? Recomm 3) recommends that the O/U provide additional members to its Publications Committee to broaden it beyond publication editors and provide a more-unbiased viewpoint. Modifying the publications committee for more diversity is in practice ignored in the Council s response. A goal for the % composition of this committee with editors and other BOG/Council members should be stated clearly and a plan to implement it provided. A general statement such as modify... As needed in the Council s response is not sufficiently explanatory. Currently the Publications Committee committee is staffed only by AEs and EiCs. The Publication Committee should provide strategic direction and advice to editors by including a broader membership from AdCom say 30% from a volunteer pool. This role should not be the task of ExCom alone. Recommendations to S/C: All three recommendations from the last PRAC review must be addressed with thoughtful and productive responses in the final report to SRC. Additionally, the Sensors Council voiced a lack of participation by its member societies, especially in publications. The onus is on the Council to build stronger bridges to motivate volunteers for this purpose. Consider seeking advice and counsel from other Councils on how they engage their member societies in the area of publications. Recommendations to TAB: Provide a firm policy to all S/Cs on the formula to calculate time-to-press and time-toacceptance/rejection. Calculation variations between S/Cs distorts the evaluations of the PRAC and can lead to misleading and disparate conclusions. Recommendations to IEEE: None. Response from Council: Recomm 1) At the April POE meeting, this issue was discussed, and about 30% of the editors there do exactly as we do. There was no pressure placed upon us at that meeting to change our policy. If S/Cs adopt the recommended policy, IEEE Journals will reject many more papers and irritate many excellent authors who need more time to complete their revisions. We believe our policy is best for all IEEE S/Cs and would be happy to argue such before TAB. Recomm 2) To accept this recommendation will require the Council to do an extensive competitive market analysis, something we are not equipped to do on our own. None of the publications volunteers are qualified to do such a market survey, nor do we have access to the type of information required. The commission of an expert consultant to do this is on the agenda for discussion at the Fall AdCom to be held this month. Recomm 3) The VP Publications has formed a new Publications Committee in response to this recommendation. Our goals were: 1) increase diversity by adding members not affiliated directly with the Sensors Journal; and 2) make sure the committee has enough expertise in the publications business. Today s Committee seems to balance these goals well: six of its seven members are not affiliated with SJ Editorial Board, and four of its members have either worked before at SJ (Nagle, Lumelsky) or are running other SC publications (Abedin, Simin).Two additional members were selected from Council officers to ensure sustained involvement and familiarity with Council needs, while diversity of interests was obtained by identifying individuals with widely varying backgrounds (as evidenced by home society). We will consider adding additional members at the Fall AdCom meeting. Publications Committee September 2009 Name Position Home Society. 12

13 Vladimir Lumelsky - Chair Evgeny Katz - Editor-in-Chief, Sensors Journal Troy Nagle - former Editor-in-Chief, Sensors Journal IES Nurul Abedin - Editor, Council s Newsletter Grigory Simin - Editor, Council s Web site Michael Shur - Member Michael McShane - Member EMBS 9. MEMBERSHIP N/A 10. CHAPTERS Remarks: As a Council, the SC is only beginning to form chapters. It currently had two Chapters installed very recently. It would be instructive to hear how the Chapters were formed. Were member societies involved? Recommendations to S/C: In the final report to SRC, provide details on how the Sensors Council chapters were formed and the level of involvement of the member societies. Recommendations to TAB: None. Recommendations to IEEE: None. Response from Council: After some prior informal exchange and preparation, in November 2007 SC received a formal request from the IEEE Richland Section of Power and Energy Society to form an IEEE Sensors Council Richland Chapter. (The group covers the Southeast Washington and Northeast Oregon areas.) The Section had much professional interest in sensing technology; starting a chapter was seen as a tool to satisfy and expand those interests. It took about a year for the request to go through all relevant IEEE procedures. The IEEE Sensors Council Richland Chapter was approved by SC President in The work on the second chapter started in 2008, from the SC side the idea was to build on the high sensing content in the membership interests of the then-existing Northern Virginia- Washington DC-Southern Maryland chapter of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS). The joint SC-RAS Chapter was approved in late In creating both chapters we capitalized on the high density of technical professional talent in the two corresponding geographical areas, and on the interest of those people toward local professional activities. Today both of these SC chapters are quite active, featuring regular seminars, online newsletters, and even co-sponsored larger meetings (like the regular NISTsponsored Performance Metrics for Intelligent Systems Workshop). It is clear that the chapter activities could further benefit from an infusion of financial resources. (There are, for examples, plans for technology competitions, prizes for best presentations, etc.) So far SC was unable to provide such extra resources. Our experience suggests that the key component in producing a successful chapter is a preliminary careful cultivation of a few interested, competent, and highly active individuals who have already access to a group interested in building up local professional activities, and who are prepared to lead the newly-established units during their starting stage. 13

14 11. EDUCATION Remarks: The Sensors Council has a limited educational program. They have a recently established Distinguished Lecturer Program, with a single Distinguished Lecturer that has an active schedule. They have produced an Expert Now module. Their primary educational focus centers on activities at the SENSORS conference, with several pre-conference tutorials averaging attendees per tutorial. The Sensors Council provides access to slides from tutorials to the general public through its web site. As a Council, they view their education activities as complementary to those of its affiliated societies. Eight tutorials are provided each year as part of the conference program with about attendees/tutorial. The tutorial slides are put on the SC website. More of this is encouraged. Recommendations to S/C The Sensors Council should consider expansion of its Distinguished Lecturer program to achieve broader coverage of its members. Given the limited number of Distinguished Lecturers that the Council can support, it should explore ways to provide electronic distribution of distinguished lectures and preconference tutorials to its members. The Council should also articulate a clear focus for its education activities, with a vision as to how these activities augment and complement the activities of its member societies. It could explore Camtasia software as a potential solution to distribute tutorial presentations and special sessions or invited talks. Also, additional advertising of the courses and access without conference registration (course fee alone) should be considered. Recommendations to TAB: None. Recommendations to IEEE: None. Response from Council: Starting in 2008, Camtasia was test-run for capture of live presentations during the conference, with the ultimate intention of packaging video content with paper downloads for registrants and post-meeting proceedings subscribers. The Sensors council offers one-day tutorials prior to the opening of the annual IEEE SENSORS conference. These can be attended for a separate fee, independent of conference registration. We will work toward the electronic distribution of Tutorials, similar to conference proceedings content. We currently have tutorial links on the SC website, which will be expanded as additional tutorials are developed. The focus of the tutorials will be our FOI which emphasize the Sensors components. This complements the activities of other member societies. We are considering expanding the DLP to provide broader coverage of the FOI. A main limitation has been the expense of travel for DLs. However, the SRC recommendation for virtual DLs is excellent, and one that will be considered for immediate implementation. We believe this is also an area where member societies can contribute beyond the current single representation, as multiple sensors experts from societies can participate as DLs in this way. 12. STUDENT AND GRADUATES OF THE LAST DECADE (GOLD) ACTIVITIES Remarks: The Sensors Council has established annual student paper awards at the SENSORS conference banquet each year to recognize contributions by students. It has also appointed a GOLD representative to present information about the IEEE GOLD program at the 2009 IEEE SENSORS conference. The Council has no GOLD representation on its AdCom or ExCom. They have established the IEEE Sensors Council President s Award to recognize outstanding undergraduate or graduate research in sensors during the past calendar year. They expressed concern that there are few nominees for their President s Award. It would appear that GOLD issues are low on the SC list of priorities at this time. 14

15 Recommendations to S/C: The Council should consider establishing awards targeted at GOLD members, possibly by changing the scope of its President s Award to an Early Career award for achievements by a member that graduated in the last decade. This would allow for easier nomination of individuals with continued accomplishments in the field, and continue to engage those individuals. The Council should also consider establishment of appointed positions for GOLD representatives on their AdCom, and possibly initiating activities at the SENSORS conference targeted to recruiting GOLD members into active Council participation. Recommendations to TAB: None. Recommendations to IEEE: None. Response from Council: Recently the Sensors Council named a GOLD representative, for the primary purpose of attending the AdCom meeting and advertising in a GOLD booth. In this way, we will try to recruit additional GOLD members into active Council participation. Our expectation is to have a GOLD representative regularly included on the AdCom to ensure needs of the GOLD community are met. 13. GLOBALIZATION EFFORTS Remarks: Since Sensors Council does not have regular members, only society members, its global participation can only be judged by the home regions of its AdCom members. Here we find that regions 1, 8 and 10 are well represented. However, region 9 needs attention. It is understood that Sensors Council does not have total control of the regional distribution, since AdCom members are appointed by member societies. Most appointees are from US. However, some effort at regional equalization could be made by making suggestions when societies nominate their AdCom representatives. Participants in the Council s conferences and its journal s authors are quite global. Recommendations to S/C: Attempt to make Regional adjustments by asking for society AdCom members from under-represented Regions. Recommendations to TAB: None. Recommendations to IEEE: None. Response from Council: This issue was addressed, in part, in the discussion for Section 4, and again in Section 6. We can only encourage the current presidents to appoint representatives, and have previously experienced that society presidents do not always appreciate suggestions for appointments. TAB may be helpful in applying pressure from above to achieve better geographic coverage. Regarding Region 9, we are working to identify an appropriate means to hold a future SENSORS conference in this region. However, we need an active conference chairman volunteer, attractive conference location, and some familiarity with the locale to make this a success. 14. AWARDS AND RECOGNITION 15

16 Remarks: The SC has several awards, ranging from technical achievements, service and best paper awards, but should consider an early career award to reinforce young member involvement Recommendations to S/C: Consider an early career award, even if in place of standing awards, for impact in the field. Recommendations to TAB: None. Recommendations to IEEE: None. Response from Council: The SC is seriously considering elimination the President Award and replacing it by an Early Career Award. A proposal to create this award and to eliminate the President award will be presented during the AdCom meeting this October. 15. FINANCES Remarks The SC reserves to expense ratio is slightly over 1.0, which exceeds the IEEE minimum recommended level of 0.40 for a council of its total expenses. The SC is on the Watch List because it ran a deficit in 2008 and has a budgeted deficit in TAB Fincom has suggested actions to get off the watch list, to which SC responds with the following comments: o Editorial cost has increased with addition of staff and IEEE costs. o Global Adcoms are expensive with committee expenses currently at >$175k. Plans are to reduce this expense to prior year levels. o Conference surplus is planned to be increased. New vendor bids are being considered for management (3 yr. contracts are desired). Conference costs will be decreased. o Journal prices will be increased. o $664k is actual 2008 final reserves. o Exhibits are suggested to improve conference revenue. The SC hopes that these plans will help to keep the budget actuals in the black for 2009, despite the current budgeted defecit. However, despite these declared intentions, the July 2009 financials provide a less than positive picture. Additionally, no details were provided by SC on how they expect to achieve their goals. The Council admitted that their greatest challenge was meeting the IEEE guidelines for a 30% surplus at their annual conference (see attached budget update) Recommendations to S/C: TAB FinCom has suggested actions for Sensors Council to get off the Watch List and the Council must act aggressively, working with TAB FinCom, to solve its financial problems. Cross-check and correct as required the financial tables related to finances in the report sections, especially the final 2008 actuals. (For example, the conference-related expense and revenue in the Table in the Finances section of the Council s report do not match the table provided in the Conferences section). Please explain the source of any discrepancy remaining after verification (e.g., are different items included in the conference revenues and expenses in these two tables? The Council should clarify this issue in its response below, using updated financial data from TAB FinCom. Recommendations to TAB: None. 16

17 Recommendations to IEEE: None. Response from Council: Some of the financial issues were addressed in the response for Section 7. The Sensors Council has implemented organizational changes to ensure closer management of conference financial performance. First, the Council has contracted with a conference management company (PMMI) to ensure continuity of best practices from year to year. The Sensors Council VP of Finances also serves the role of Finance Chair of the SENSORS conference. In addition, the Sensors Council VP of Conference has proposed additional measures to increase industry participation in the conference. For example, a SENSORS Conference "Guide" has been written to document and instruct local conference chairs on our best practices, and to define the boundaries about what activities are handled by local organizing committees. A goal of 30% surplus for the SENSORS conference is our goal. Increased participation will be encouraged starting in 2009 through the acceptance of late news papers, an open poster session, and requirement for program committee members to attend the meeting. Additional incentives for repeat attendance and corporate sponsorship will be proposed at our next AdCom meeting. However, we note there are peculiarities with international meetings that complicate this matter, to the point that even strictly watching all expenditures cannot account for all variables. For example, we budgeted for a break-even point of 300 registered attendees for this year s meeting at a time when the NZ/US dollar exchange rate was 0.5. That rate has changed nearly 50% since that time (now 0.74); hence even with over 500 registered participants, we can now only hope to break even! 16. WEB SITE Remarks: Structurally the website home page allows good navigation to other pages for details. However, the content is not always up to date. For example, the current Meeting Schedule (of 2009) should appear instead of that of Older information could be moved to a history link. Similar comments hold for volunteers: the current Council Committee Members, with staggered terms indicated, should appear on the home page as 2009 current with details on Council elections, Bylaws etc left to a details page. The Webpage on Distinguished Lecturers speaks of duties and appointments, but fails to give a list containing names and areas they are covering. Additionally, every sub-page of the web site should include a link to the home page. Some indication about when website was last updated is desirable on the homepage. The Council is not taking advantage of the opportunity to publicize its activities in Wikipedia, where it has an overly brief web site. At the review, the SC representatives commented that it is a burdensome task to update this information. Nevertheless, Wikipedia provides an opportunity to publicize the Council s mission and activities. Recommendations to S/C: Costs are low for web designers (if no follow-up management is required). It is recommended the Council consider hiring a web designer to create the feel of the site and organize themes, and then find a volunteer to act as the Web Editor to keep the site up to date. It is important that a web site is updated frequently as outdated information makes visitors question the integrity of site content and may adversely effect traffic to the site. 17