As a result of recent advances in MEMS/NEMS and systems biology, as well as the emergence of synthetic bacteria and lab/process-on-a-chip techniques, it is now possible to design chemical “circuits”, custom organisms, micro/nanoscale swarms of devices, and a host of other new systems at small length scales, and across multiple scales (e.g., micro to macro)

IEEE Medals are the highest recognition within the IEEE awards hierarchy, with the prestigious IEEE Medal of Honor as the premier award. IEEE Medals embrace broad and significant contributions within the technical fields of interest of IEEE. Nominations are due 1 July 2015 for the 2016 IEEE Medals and Recognitions.

The IEEE Signal Processing Society Chapter of the Year Award will be presented for the fifth time in 2016. The award will be presented annually to a Chapter that has provided their membership with the highest quality of programs, activities and services. The award will be presented annually in conjunction with the International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP) to the Chapter’s representative. The award will consist of a certificate and a check in the amount of $1,000 to support local chapter activities. The winning Chapter will also be invited to publish an article in the IEEE Inside Signal Processing eNewsletter.

The special issue of Proceedings of the IEEE in April is the first of two special issues providing an in-depth treatment of the subject of reconfigurable systems as enabled through advancements in the electrical engineering field, as well as the approaches we use to manage complexity in systems having millions of fixed and programmable elements. This issue serves as an immersion into the subject of reconfigurable systems, both for the purposes of gaining familiarity with essential theoretical elements, the key developments in the field, and the potential future directions (not just the next few years, but decades beyond the present).

As part of the January 2015 Board Retreat, IEEE President and CEO Howard Michel convened a diverse group of participants including the IEEE Board of Directors, the executive staff team, and select volunteers to engage in a candid and productive dialogue around IEEE’s future direction and strategy. A three-day retreat resulted in 12 strategic topics, each with recommendations and perceived importance of the recommendations.

The latest IEEE Biometrics Council (BMC) newsletter reports a welcome message from Venu Govindaraju, the new president of the IEEE BMC, latest datasets for fingerprint algorithm evaluation and a large biometrics-based human identification initiative in India.