Minutes of SPCOM-TC Meeting at ICASSP-2005, Philadelphia, PA, USA, Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Members attending (22): Ananthram Swami, Nicholas Sidiropoulos, Pierre Duhamel, Javier Garcia-Frias, Mounir Ghogho, Robert W. Heath Jr., Yingbo Hua, Visa Koivunen, Geert Leus, Jonathan H. Manton, Marc Moonen, See-May Phoong, Bhaskar Rao, Phillip A. Regalia, Brian M. Sadler, Ali H. Sayed, Anna Scaglione, Phil Schniter, Luc Vandendorpe, Xiaodong Wang, Xiang-Gen Xia, Zhengyuan (Daniel) Xu

Members absent (7): Naofal Al-Dhahir, Holger Boche, Helmut Boelcskei, Hesham El Gamal, David Gesbert, Franz Hlawatsch, Gregori Vazquez

Members who had conflict with other meetings (1): Constantinos Papadias came in for the first 15 minutes of the TC meeting, but then had to leave due to his participation as a panellist in the Smart Antenna Panel Discussion, which was running parallel to the TC meeting. Dr. Papadias did not participate in the voting.

Meeting commenced at 11:40

• Chairman circulated paper copies of the meeting's agenda, circulated before the meeting via e-mail.

• Chairman introduced the newly elected TC members and proposed a vote of thanks for retiring members. TC members thanked retiring members unanimously.

• First order of business was a discussion on the voting procedure for selecting 5 out of 10 ICASSP2005 student paper award finalists. Some TC members are co-authors of student paper award finalist papers in the SPCOM category. Process is different from SPS best paper and young author awards, because multiple award papers will be selected. Phil Schniter proposed that TC members that co-author finalist papers should not participate in the voting procedure. Bhaskar Rao seconded the motion. After discussion, the TC approved the motion unanimously. TC members without a conflict will vote for (up to) 5 out of 10 candidate papers. Nikos Sidiropoulos will coordinate the process, with help from Franz Hlawatsch.

• Allocation of TC tasks and representation was discussed. The following was agreed upon:

  Coordinating award nominations: Nikos Sidiropoulos + Franz Hlawatsch
  Maintaining pool of editors: Brian Sadler
  Maintaining web page: Geert Leus
  Technical Directions Committee: Ananthram Swami
  Publications Board: Ali Sayed
  Conference Board: Gregori Vazquez
  ICASSP Industrial Technology Track: TBD
  

• Brian Sadler updated the TC on the pool of AEs, and invited AE nominations. There was a discussion regarding whether or not SPS, and the SPCOM TC in particular, should assume a more active role in the nomination of suitable AE candidates for the IEEE Trans. on Wireless Communications. Brian Sadler and Ali Sayed will look further into this.

• Anna Scaglione and Xiaodong Wang updated the TC on progress towards SPAWC2005. Workshop received over 312 submissions. Organization is progressing smoothly.

• Dirk Slock updated the TC on SPAWC2006. Main development was the fixing of the workshop date. It was not possible to have it back-to-back with ICASSP2006, and the poll of TC members was mixed.

• Visa Koivunen announced a bid for hosting SPAWC2007 in Helsinki. Formal proposal to follow, likely at the SPAWC2005 TC meeting in New York. Interest in organizing SPAWC every year remains strong, as do paper submissions.

• Ananthram Swami asked the TC members for special session proposals for ICASSP2006. Proposals should reach the TC chair by end of April 2005.

• Nikos Sidiropoulos updated the TC regarding the IEEE-level and SPS paper award process. Voting for both in late May or early June.

• Ali Sayed updated the TC about the new Transactions on Information Forensics and Security.

• Ali Sayed asked how the TC members feel about the possibility of SPS paper awards being linked to individual Transactions. The consensus of the TC was opposed to this idea. It is best to simply pick the best papers irrespective of which Transactions they appear in.

• The relationship and overlap with SAM, SPTM TCs was discussed, in the context of emerging trends and the possibility of forming a new TC on sensor networks. Opinions were mixed. Nikos Sidiropoulos will update Alex Gershman (vice-chair, SAM-TC).

• The next face-to-face TC meeting will take place during SPAWC2005 this coming June.

Meeting adjourned at 12:50

Transcribed by N. Sidiropoulos

Submitted by A. Swami and N. Sidiropoulos