IMS to convene as MTT-S celebrates 60th anniversary

The International Microwave Symposium and associated Microwave Week events will take place June 17-22 in Montréal as the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society celebrates its 60th anniversary. This year's IMS continues a tradition begun with the first “Microwave Meeting,” held November 7, 1952, in New York, and sponsored by the Professional Group on Microwave Theory and Techniques, which was formed in March 1952 under the auspices of the Institute of Radio Engineers, a predecessor to the IEEE.

The 210 participants at the first Microwave Meeting saw the presentation of 12 papers. This year's symposium will include more than 600 papers and 40 workshops as well as panel discussions, special/focus sessions, and one rump session. In addition, exhibiting companies will present 79 “Microapps” sessions.

I spoke with Raafat R. Mansour, IMS2012 Technical Program Chair, about this year's symposium.

Q. The theme this year is “Microwaves without Borders.” How is that reflected in the technical program?

A. Indeed, it's reflected very nicely by the fact that we received submissions from 49 countries. We received a record number of submissions: 1225 papers. Typically the number of number of submissions has been averaging around 825 over the last few years, so we have seen a tremendous increase this year, from many countries. For example, U.S. submissions increased by almost 20%. Submissions from Europe almost doubled. From China, last year we got 27 papers, but this year we received about 125 papers. From Iran we used to receive a handful of papers. This year we got 18. These figures indicate how many submissions were received, not how many were accepted.

Q. What percentage of submissions is accepted, and has that changed from previous years?

A. The percentage is about the same. We have about 39 subcommittees, and each subcommittee has its own acceptance/rejection rate. It varies from 22% acceptance to 77% acceptance. The overall acceptance rate for the whole symposium this year is 50%. Last year it was 54%. It's been in the range of 50 to 54% for many years.

Q. So since the acceptance rate remains roughly the same, there are many more papers being presented this year—is that correct?

A. Yes. We had roughly last year 444 papers, and this year it's exactly 612 papers—almost a 50% increase. In addition we have 40 workshops and 17 special sessions. We also have many Microapps presentations. These are 15-minute presentations made by exhibiting companies. This year we have 79 Microapps presentations, and that again represents a record.

Q. How do the focus sessions, panel sessions, and interactive forums compare?

A. For the accepted papers, we divide them into two types of presentations: some are oral, or podium, presentations. This year we have 448 of accepted submissions selected for podium presentation. In addition, 164 accepted submissions will be presented in the interactive forums. In the interactive forums, authors will present posters, and attendees can discuss details with the authors over a two-and-a-half hour period while enjoying wine and cheese.

In addition, we are offering four panel sessions that each address a specific topic. The organizer invites six or seven people to try to answer specific questions. Each one presents a short, formal five-minute presentation, and then the panelists will remain for discussion with the audience. The panel sessions are held during lunch.

Q. And what is involved in the special sessions?

A. This year we are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the MTT-S, and we have invited key individuals in our community to come and talk about specific topics, We have one special session addressing evolution of key microwave components over the years. One session will talk about education and how it relates to microwave engineering, and one will talk about the theoretical aspects of the microwave technology. Two other sessions are memorial sessions honoring key people who have been active in the MTT society and who passed away over the last year.

In addition we have 12 focus sessions. These have been in form of technical papers. The organizers select a particular subject, and they organize a technical session on it. For each session there are about five papers.

Q. Based on submissions, are any topics of particular interest this year?

A. This year we received quite a large number of papers, as usual, on power amplifiers. The topic of power amplifiers has been quite popular at IMS. In fact we had to divide the power amplifier committee into two subcommittees to be able handle the number of papers we have. We received a large number of submissions as well on millimeter-wave and terahertz technologies and on traditional topics such as filters and passive circuits. For each of these topics, we had to divide the review responsibilities among additional subcommittees.

As for the review process, we have 39 subcommittees, for which we selected about 290 people—we call them the TPRC, or Technical Program Review Committee, so each subcommittee has roughly seven people. After reviewing all submissions, all subcommittee members met for one weekend in Santa Clara, spending one day finalizing scores. That's where we came up with the 50% accepted submissions.

Q. I notice there is an Emerging Technical Areas track this year. How did that get started?

A. For the Emerging Technologies Area, we collect all submissions for which we cannot identify a traditional subcommittee to which we can assign them. These submissions address a new topic or a subject that cannot fit into the subcommittees we have. We have added two areas this year. One is on wireless power transmission and energy harvesting, and the other is on RF devices for wireless health care applications and biosensing.

Q. Is there strong student participation this year?

A. Yes, it's interesting as well to note that we received about 350 submissions from student authors, which is a record number again. We have three types of student competitions. The first one is the “Best Paper” competition, where out of the 350 submissions we selected about 27 papers as potential candidates for the best paper award. Those 27 papers will be reviewed during the Symposium by judges from our community.

The second is the “Student Design Competition.” We had 11 topics for which we asked students to participate. In the design competition, students have to participate by building hardware, and they come to the symposium and do the testing and demonstrate that they have achieved their performance goals. This year we will see competition in nine areas. Two of the initial 11 topics did not attract enough entries.

The third competition is the “Student Challenge Competition.” The objective of this competition is to encourage teamwork. Students will team up with other students they haven't met before, forming groups that will attend papers during IMS. Based on that they have seen, group members will work together to come up with ideas on how to expand on this. This is a very interesting competition, with students working with people they haven’t met before and at the same time innovating in a very short time to come up with n

The International Microwave Symposium and associated Microwave Week events will take place June 17-22 in Montréal as the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society celebrates its 60th anniversary. This year's IMS continues a tradition begun with the first “Microwave Meeting,” held November 7, 1952, in New York, and sponsored by the Professional Group on Microwave Theory and Techniques, which was formed in March 1952 under the auspices of the Institute of Radio Engineers, a predecessor to the IEEE.

The 210 participants at the first Microwave Meeting saw the presentation of 12 papers. This year's symposium will include more than 600 papers and 40 workshops as well as panel discussions, special/focus sessions, and one rump session. In addition, exhibiting companies will present 79 “Microapps” sessions.

I spoke with Raafat R. Mansour, IMS2012 Technical Program Chair, about this year's symposium.

Q. The theme this year is “Microwaves without Borders.” How is that reflected in the technical program?

A. Indeed, it's reflected very nicely by the fact that we received submissions from 49 countries. We received a record number of submissions: 1225 papers. Typically the number of number of submissions has been averaging around 825 over the last few years, so we have seen a tremendous increase this year, from many countries. For example, U.S. submissions increased by almost 20%. Submissions from Europe almost doubled. From China, last year we got 27 papers, but this year we received about 125 papers. From Iran we used to receive a handful of papers. This year we got 18. These figures indicate how many submissions were received, not how many were accepted.

Q. What percentage of submissions is accepted, and has that changed from previous years?

A. The percentage is about the same. We have about 39 subcommittees, and each subcommittee has its own acceptance/rejection rate. It varies from 22% acceptance to 77% acceptance. The overall acceptance rate for the whole symposium this year is 50%. Last year it was 54%. It's been in the range of 50 to 54% for many years.

Q. So since the acceptance rate remains roughly the same, there are many more papers being presented this year—is that correct?

A. Yes. We had roughly last year 444 papers, and this year it's exactly 612 papers—almost a 50% increase. In addition we have 40 workshops and 17 special sessions. We also have many Microapps presentations. These are 15-minute presentations made by exhibiting companies. This year we have 79 Microapps presentations, and that again represents a record.

Q. How do the focus sessions, panel sessions, and interactive forums compare?

A. For the accepted papers, we divide them into two types of presentations: some are oral, or podium, presentations. This year we have 448 of accepted submissions selected for podium presentation. In addition, 164 accepted submissions will be presented in the interactive forums. In the interactive forums, authors will present posters, and attendees can discuss details with the authors over a two-and-a-half hour period while enjoying wine and cheese.

In addition, we are offering four panel sessions that each address a specific topic. The organizer invites six or seven people to try to answer specific questions. Each one presents a short, formal five-minute presentation, and then the panelists will remain for discussion with the audience. The panel sessions are held during lunch.

Q. And what is involved in the special sessions?

A. This year we are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the MTT-S, and we have invited key individuals in our community to come and talk about specific topics, We have one special session addressing evolution of key microwave components over the years. One session will talk about education and how it relates to microwave engineering, and one will talk about the theoretical aspects of the microwave technology. Two other sessions are memorial sessions honoring key people who have been active in the MTT society and who passed away over the last year.

In addition we have 12 focus sessions. These have been in form of technical papers. The organizers select a particular subject, and they organize a technical session on it. For each session there are about five papers.

Q. Based on submissions, are any topics of particular interest this year?

A. This year we received quite a large number of papers, as usual, on power amplifiers. The topic of power amplifiers has been quite popular at IMS. In fact we had to divide the power amplifier committee into two subcommittees to be able handle the number of papers we have. We received a large number of submissions as well on millimeter-wave and terahertz technologies and on traditional topics such as filters and passive circuits. For each of these topics, we had to divide the review responsibilities among additional subcommittees.

As for the review process, we have 39 subcommittees, for which we selected about 290 people—we call them the TPRC, or Technical Program Review Committee, so each subcommittee has roughly seven people. After reviewing all submissions, all subcommittee members met for one weekend in Santa Clara, spending one day finalizing scores. That's where we came up with the 50% accepted submissions.

Q. I notice there is an Emerging Technical Areas track this year. How did that get started?

A. For the Emerging Technologies Area, we collect all submissions for which we cannot identify a traditional subcommittee to which we can assign them. These submissions address a new topic or a subject that cannot fit into the subcommittees we have. We have added two areas this year. One is on wireless power transmission and energy harvesting, and the other is on RF devices for wireless health care applications and biosensing.

Q. Is there strong student participation this year?

A. Yes, it's interesting as well to note that we received about 350 submissions from student authors, which is a record number again. We have three types of student competitions. The first one is the “Best Paper” competition, where out of the 350 submissions we selected about 27 papers as potential candidates for the best paper award. Those 27 papers will be reviewed during the Symposium by judges from our community.

The second is the “Student Design Competition.” We had 11 topics for which we asked students to participate. In the design competition, students have to participate by building hardware, and they come to the symposium and do the testing and demonstrate that they have achieved their performance goals. This year we will see competition in nine areas. Two of the initial 11 topics did not attract enough entries.

The third competition is the “Student Challenge Competition.” The objective of this competition is to encourage teamwork. Students will team up with other students they haven't met before, forming groups that will attend papers during IMS. Based on that they have seen, group members will work together to come up with ideas on how to expand on this. This is a very interesting competition, with students working with people they haven’t met before and at the same time innovating in a very short time to come up with new ideas and propose applications based on the papers presented at the conference.

 For more information on IMS2012, visit http://ims2012.mtt.org.

ew ideas and propose applications based on the papers presented at the conference.

 For more information on IMS2012, visit http://ims2012.mtt.org.