IEEE Travels In July (Japan, China And Greece)

The first part of July 2024, representing IEEE, I visited Japan, China and Greece. In particular I was in Osaka, Tokyo, Shanghai and Athens through July 14. In Japan I gave a talk at the IEEE COMPSAC conference, put on by the IEEE Computer Society.

At the COMPSAC conference I gave a keynote talk about the IEEE, talking about the overall organization and in particular about our push to keep more or our younger members, including through stronger engagement with industry, where most of the younger IEEE have their careers. The image below shows me in front of a banner for the conference. I also participated in a panel on diversity and inclusion in virtual words. In particular I discussed possible responsibilities of user’s avatars to reveal more information about who they represent, in some circumstances.

After a short trip in Osaka at the COMPSAC 2024 conference I went to visit Softbank headquarters in Tokyo with Yui Nozue from the IEEE Japan office. One of the executives we wanted to meet was sick, but we met with another one and spoke with him about the IEEE and exploring how IEEE could be valuable to his company. One of our goals this year is to expand the companies with which IEEE has corporate partnerships with. Matching what we can offer to what individual companies are looking for, but making sure to include support for membership of their employees as part of the package. The picture below shows me next to the Sofbank sign in Tokyo.

After my visit to Japan, I flew to Shanghai in China in order to participate in the World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance (WAIC 2024). This was a big event with lots of press coverage and the Premier of China gave a talk at the opening ceremony. I also gave a short, 5-minute, talk at the end of that opening ceremony on digital frontiers and IEEE’s role leading in the development of digital technologies and their applications and how this can be used to create a circular and sustainable economy, which can serve our mission of advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. The picture below shows me next to a poster about the WAIC 2024.

Besides this talk, I participated in a tour of the large exhibit hall, which featured digital technology and AI work by major companies in China, including Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent and also featured many Chinese made chips for AI applications. There were also several posters there showing applications of AI and other digital technologies for professional media and entertainment (which greatly interested me).

I also gave a 5-minute presentation on IEEE and progress on humanoid robotics in another session, during the afternoon, featuring the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society. After the WAIC 2024 event I flew overnight to Athens, Greece, where I gave out an IEEE medal at the IEEE Information Technology Society’s International Symposium on Information Technology (ISIT), attended the opening of the IGARRS conference, put on by the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society GRSS. I also attended a workshop on DNA storage jointly organized by SNIA and the IT Society. Afterwards I had a dinner with a view of the Acropolis with ISIT and conference leaders as well as Aylin Yener, Division IX director who was also at the IGARRS opening ceremony.

I also participated in a discussion with several Greek government officials, a power consultant from California and Greek shipowners and their representatives about electrifying Greek ports so ships can run their electricity off the grid rather than running their engines to generate power. This could also serve for some level of charging of electrical ships, particularly for shorter run vehicles.

The meeting was instigated by Ioannis (John) Prousalidis, professor of Marine Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens. The meeting led to continued calls to John about implementing electrification of the Athens port during much of the rest of the week. I was happy that my presence at the meeting helped bring these parties together and they were able to have a meaningful discussion on how this could be accomplished.

The next day I presented the Leon K. Kirchmayer Graduate Teaching Award to Professor David N. C. Tse from the School of Engineering at Standard University during the ISIT awards evening event. Professor Tse [Shay]is an inspirational teacher and groundbreaking innovator who has made transformational contributions to wireless communication, power systems, computational biology, and blockchains.

After these meetings were over John and a local lady working with the IEEE Standards Association, Depinia Travlou took me to see some of the sights around Athens. Below you can see us next to the well-preserved temple of Hephaestus in the Greek Agora. The weather was hot, so we visited outdoor locations during the early and later parts of the day and spend the hottest part of the day in air-conditioned museums.

Early to mid-July saw me in Japan, China and Greece for various IEEE activities. For the later part of this month I will be in Grenoble, Florence and four cities in India.