A Call for Volunteers
T
he IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS) has nearly 10,000 members who benefit from technical and professional information available in CSS publications and at CSS-sponsored conferences. The high quality and reasonable cost of these member benefits are made possible through the generosity of many members who volunteer their time and effort. These volunteers find that working for the Society is professionally rewarding and builds warm friendships with colleagues throughout the world. People who review papers for conferences and journals are kept up to date with new ideas and improve their own expository skills through the process of developing suggestions for authors about how to improve their papers. CSS committee participation develops leadership skills that can be valuable in work activities and in community organizations. Volunteers find that interaction with our Society’s dedicated and overachieving colleagues is inspirational. The organization chart in Figure 1 shows the vast array of volunteer tasks that sustain the CSS. Subsequent paragraphs elaborate on some of those activities and identify who you should contact to volunteer for technical committees, publications, conferences, or member activities. Further information is also available at the CSS home page (http://www.ieeecss. org). Entry-level volunteer activities include reviewing conference papers in your area of expertise, helping with local arrangements for a conference, helping student members learn more about the field of control systems, and organizing presentations at local Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MCS.2014.2360780 Date of publication: 13 November 2014
Chapter meetings. Your contributions at that level will quickly lead to positions of more responsibility in the volunteer hierarchy. Those people who persevere can aspire to elected positions on the Board of Governors and as Society officers.
Member Activities Members who support the many activities and initiatives of our Society are its greatest asset. To better serve membership needs, the Society has set up committees to address the needs of constituent groups such as women members, student members, and international members. Other committees have responsibility for fostering local Chapter activities, nominating candidates for awards, and collecting information and documentation on the history of control and its pioneers. The chairs of those committees collectively make up the Membership Activities Board (MAB), headed by the vice president for Membership Activities. The Membership Activities Web page, accessible from the CSS home page, provides further information about these committees and their objectives. Because of our determination to make CSS a more truly international society and to provide more visibility to women, students, and members from developing countries, volunteers for these committees are particularly welcome. If you wish to become active in one of these committees, please contact Vice President for Membership Activities Sandra Hirche (Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Technische Universität München,
[email protected]).
Technical Activities Another way to become an active participant in CSS activities is to join
many of your colleagues in working groups within the structure of a technical committee. The CSS has 20 technical committees whose purpose, with their associated working groups, is to facilitate the exchange of information among members and to promote particular areas of control engineering. The technical committee activities include the organization of special meetings, such as symposia and workshops, and organization of invited sessions at the American Control Conference (ACC), the IEEE Multiconference on Systems and Control (MSC), and the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC). Furthermore, each technical committee is charged with providing leadership in its technical area; many distribute newsletters or use Web sites for exchange of information. A list of technical committees and contact information for the committee chairs is available at the CSS home page. If you are interested in participating in the activities of a technical committee, please contact either the technical committee chair or Vice President for Technical Activities Kirsten Morris (Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Waterloo,
[email protected]). Please include your contact information, names of the technical committees of interest to you, and a brief description of your professional background and work experience.
Publication Activities Reviewers are constantly in demand for papers submitted to CSS journals and conferences. Serving as a peer reviewer is a great way to get involved and build a reputation for technical competence and professionalism. Word about a reviewer who is reliable, courteous, and competent spreads fast
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Standing Committees
Other Subcommittees
Standing Committees
VP Publication Activities
Standing Committees
VP Financial Activities FAB
Fellow Nominations Fellow Evaluations
IEEE Press IEEE Transactions on Image Processing PAMI Editorial Board IEEE TAB Magazine Committee IEEE TAB Newsletters Committee IEEE TAB Transactions Committee IEEE Xplore-Enabled Learning Library Initiative IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology Bioinformatics AE
TAB
George S. Axelby Outstanding Paper Award Control Systems Technology Award CSS Transition to Practice Award MSC Best Student Paper Award CDC Best Student Paper Award CSM Outstanding Paper Award TCST Outstanding Paper Award Antonio Ruberti Young Researcher Prize
*Awards Committee
Director of Operations
IEEE Systems Council IEEE Nanotechnology Council IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology SIAM/SIAG IEEE TAB Ad-Hoc Committee on Outreach Activities IEEE Committee on Women in Engineering INFORMS Standing Committees
Liaison/External Com
VP Technical Activities
Nominating Committee
Immediate Past-President
Publication Editors
Technical Committees Aerospace Controls Smart Cities Smart Grids Automotive Controls System Identification and Computational Aspects of Control Adaptive Control Systems Design Systems Biology Control Education Systems with Uncertainty Discrete Event Systems Variable Structure and Distributed Parameter Systems Sliding Mode Control Hybrid Systems IEEE-USA Committees Intelligent Control Standards Manufacturing Automation and Communication Policy Robotic Control Energy Policy Medical and Health-Care Systems Medical Technology Policy Networks and Communications Career and Workforce Policy Committee Nonlinear Systems and Control R & D Policy Power Generation Transportation and Aerospace Policy Process Control *Consult with President on CSS Technology Award
Figure 1 The IEEE Control Systems Society administrative organization chart.
IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology IEEE Control Systems Magazine IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems IEEE Systems and Control E-Letter *Consult with President on TAC, TCST, and CSM Outstanding Paper Awards
President
Appointed Members
Awards Committee* AACC Director/Alternate Director EUCA and SICE Liaisons
Executive Committee
Liaison/External Committees
*Consult with President on CDC and CCA Student Best Paper Awards
Electronic Information Publication Editors
PAB
General Chair, MSC General Chair, CDC
VP Membership Activities
Chapter Activities Distinguished Lecturer History International Affairs Student Activities Women in Control
MAB
Conference Operations Conference Editorial Board Conference Publications
Conference Chairs
VP Conference Activities
Standing Committees
CAB
Long-Range Planning Future Appointments Outreach Task Force
President-Elect
Elected Members
Board of Governors
among editorial boards and makes an immediate positive impact on that person’s professional reputation. The many technical papers submitted to Society conferences must be reviewed thoroughly and quickly. The three conferences that produce the majority of papers are the CDC, ACC, and MSC. Your involvement in the reviewing of conference papers not only provides service to the community but also keeps you in touch with the latest research. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer for conference papers, you should contact the chair of the Conference Editorial Board, Alessandro Astolfi (Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, a.astolfi@ imperial.ac.uk). Include your contact information, three to six keywords indicating your areas of expertise relevant to the review process, and a brief description of your professional background and work experience. Among the CSS publications, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, published monthly, emphasizes theoretical aspects of control systems. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, published bimonthly, emphasizes the technology of control systems. IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems, published quarterly, emphasizes systems with interconnected components. The IEEE Control Systems Magazine, published bimonthly, emphasizes tutorial and expository articles on all areas of control system design and applications. A manuscript submitted to any of these publications is sent to three or more reviewers who have special knowledge in the subject of the article. The reviewers have approximately four to six weeks to evaluate the manuscript and make a recommendation. In making the recommendation, a reviewer evaluates the technical content of the manuscript as well as the quality of presentation, including the abstract, in-
Members who support the many activities and initiatives of our Society are its greatest asset. troduction, organization, figures, and references. The reviewer is also expected to provide written comments to help the authors improve the manuscript. The reviewers’ criticisms and suggestions are forwarded anonymously to the authors by the editor-in-chief, senior editor, or associate editor handling the paper, who provides a final decision on the fate of the manuscript. If you wish to volunteer as a reviewer for one of the three CSS publications, please contact the appropriate editor-in-chief using the contact information available in the publication or on the CSS Web site. Include your contact information, a short description of your areas of expertise relevant to the review process, and a brief description of your professional background and work experience.
Conference Activities The CSS sponsors or cosponsors several conferences, symposia, and workshops every year, as listed on the CSS Web site. These meetings are largely planned, organized, and operated by Society volunteers. Opportunities for participation include activities on the operating committees (local arrangements, publications, registration, finance) and program committees (session organization and the activities of the Conference Editorial Board described above). Members are also encouraged to contribute to conferences by organizing a session or workshop or by serving as a session chair. Interested members should contact Vice President for Conference Activities Anuradha Annaswamy (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
[email protected]).
Conclusion Volunteers are the glue that holds our community together. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of CSS volunteers, we have journals with some of the highest impact factors, as well as highly acclaimed conferences at surprisingly affordable registration fees. To maintain these distinguishing features, it is extremely important for our Society to continue to grow the volunteer base so that as the current volunteers and leaders serve out their terms, the next generation of volunteers is ready to take over and lead the Society. There are numerous opportunities in the form of annual appointments to CSS ad hoc and standing committees, external committee and liaison positions, conference committees, and editorial boards as indicated by the organizational chart in Figure 1. If you have a special interest or talent and want to participate in one of these areas, I invite you to join hundreds of CSS volunteers who are enjoying professionally satisfying service to the control community and stimulating personal interactions. Do not hesitate to contact me at
[email protected]. Please provide your contact information, a brief description of your professional background and work experience, and information describing how you might provide special expertise to the CSS activity in which you are interested. The more you do for your Society, the more the Society can do for you! Maria Elena Valcher
2015 CSS President
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