Category Archives: IEEE

CFP: Tensymp 2016

Aku mengakhiri masa jabatan sebagai Chairman di IEEE Indonesia Section di awal 2015. Pemilu elektronis nan demokratis telah memilih New Chairman, Satrio Dharmanto, buat tahun 2015, yang bisa diperpanjang di 2016. Tapi aku ternyata aku gak boleh meninggalkan aktivitas di IEEE. Dr Ford Lumban Gaol segera berkontak, menyampaikan bahwa tahun Indonesia akan jadi tuan rumah IEEE TENSYMP 2016, dan kami berdua harus jadi ketua bersama (General Co-Chair) buat konferensi regional ini.

Waktu aku masih jadi Chairman di IEEE Indonesia Communications Society Chapter; IEEE Indonesia Section pernah jadi tuan rumah untuk IEEE TENCON 2011. TENCON adalah konferensi resmi dari IEEE Region 10 (Asia Pacific), yang umumnya diselenggarakan di akhir tahun. Sukses dengan TENCON, IEEE Region 10 mendirikan konferensi regional seri kedua sejak 2013. Mula-mula seri kedua ini disebut dengan TENCON Summer, karena diselenggarakan di pertengahan tahun. Namun, karena seri kedua ini masih lebih kecil daripada TENCON, maka akhirnya konferensi ini dinamai TENSYMP, atau IEEE Regional 10 Symposium. TENSYMP diselenggarakan berturut-turut di Australia, Malaysia, India, dan tahun 2016 ini diselenggarakan di Indonesia.

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Tugas kami, tentu, adalah memastikan keberhasilan TENSYMP sebagai flagship conference dari Region 10. Paper harus diperoleh dari riset terbaru dan terbaik dari seluruh Asia Pasifik, pada tema yang sedang menjadi hal terpenting di Asia Pasifik. Asia Pasifik masih jadi salah satu pusat pertumbuhan bisnis dan ekonomi berbasis teknologi terbesar di dunia. Masalah energi, informasi, hingga teknologi untuk kemanusiaan jadi soal yang sama pentingnya. Namun akhirnya kami memilih fokus tematis pada prakarsa-prakarsa baru di bidang TIK.

Topik dibagi atas 4 track, yaitu Building Blocks yang mengkaji fundamental perbaikan infrastruktur informasi masa depan, termasuk jaringan 5G, IoT, hingga quantum networks; Architecture yang mendalami kerangka masa depan jaringan informasi, termasuk cognitive radio, cybernetics, dan big data; Critical Aspects yang mencoba menemu kenali titik-titik terpenting dalam pengembangan platform digital, termasuk pengoptimalan informasi konteks, ekonomika internet, dan green technology; serta Smart Applications yang mengeksplorasi berbagai peluang aplikasi dan produk yang memanfaatkan kecerdasan Internet masa depan.

Tensymp Tracks

TENSYMP akan diselenggarakan 9-11 Mei 2016 di Denpasar, Bali. Paper akan kami terima hingga 31 Januari 2016. Sebagai TPC Chair, kami memilih Prof Gamantyo Hendrantoro dari ITS, yang telah memiliki reputasi global, baik di sisi expertise maupun komitmen terhadap profesi. TPC (Technical Program Committee) diisi para expert dari kalangan akademisi dan profesional di berbagai negara, termasuk beberapa dari Indonesia.

Keynote Speaker untuk TENSYMP juga memiliki kelas berat. Prof Kukjin Chun adalah Direktur IEEE Region 10 di tahun 2016, sekaligus expert di bidang micromechanics dan microengineering. Prof Benjamin Wah adalah mantan Presiden IEEE Computer Society, juga expert di bidang artificial intelligence dan multimedia. Dr Rod van Meter, adalah bintang yang sedang bersinar dalam riset dan rekayasa quantum computing & quantum networks. Semua akan mewarnai TENSYMP dengan inpirasi terkini yang akan membekali para akademisi dan insinyur Indonesia dan dunia.

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Kami mengundang para akademisi dan profesional bidang TIK Indonesia untuk hadir dan berperan aktif dalam konferensi ini. Sungguh kesempatan menarik dan luar biasa buat kita semua. Sayang kalau yang hadir justru hanya para profesional dari luar negeri, terutama para kompetitor di MEA.

Informasi tentang TENSYMP 2016 dapat disimak di TENSYMP2016.ORG. Paper dapat dikirim melalui layanan EDAS, dengan alamat tertera di web TENSYMP. Seperti konferensi IEEE lainnya, paper akan diproses lebih lanjut di IEEE Xplore serta diajukan ke indeks SCOPUS.

Sampai jumpa di Bali, Mei 2016!

Section Chairmanship Handover

It has been 2 years that I had handled the chairmanship of IEEE Indonesia Section, i.e. 2013-2014. At the end of the year 2014, I seek the support of the Advisory Board to prepare the Election to choose the new chairman. The Advisory Board formed an ad hoc Election Committee, led by Mr Arnold Djiwatampu. They also nominated Mr Satriyo Dharmanto as the candidate of the new chair. Satriyo was the chair of IEEE Indonesia Communications Society Chapter (2012-2014). The committee also invited other candidates through petitions. One candidate was nominated this way, i.e. Prof Pekik Argo Dahono, the chair of the Join Chapter of Education Society / Electron Devices Society / Power Electronics Society / Signal Processing Society. The election was conducted online on January 2015 with a web tool provided by the IEEE. The result was announced by the committee, one day after the election due. Satriyo won.

Then it was my turn to prepare the chairmanship handover process. I chose Jakarta Digital Valley (the HQ of Indigo Accelerator) as the venue for this handover. It was a symbol that this engineering professional organisation should put more attention to entrepreneurship based on technology innovation; without losing focus on academic research and industrial development. The handover ceremony was carried out as an IEEE Indonesia Section Member Gathering, conducted on 15 February, just a day before the Section’s anniversary. The IEEE Indonesia Section was established on 16 February 1988, through an approval letter published by the IEEE MGA.

IEEE Indonesia Section Member Gathering 2015

To symbolise the handover process, Dr Wahidin Wahab (member of the Election Committee) put the Section Chair pin on Satrio’s jacket, and put the Section Past Chair pin on mine. So we have a new chairman! Then I handed over the Section banner (symbolising the life of the Section) to the new chairman.

Meanwhile, Dr Ford Lumban Gaol will retain his position as the Section Vice Chair. Dr I Wayan Mustika will be the new Secretary, and Ms Agnes Irwanti be the Treasurer.

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What’s the duty of a Section Past Chair? We have never defined it. Obviously, the previous chair will support the new one with advices, guidance, and networking with the Region, neighbouring Sections, and the HQ. Some years ago, the Section established an Advisory Boards, populated by some former Section Chairs. I haven’t known yet whether I will be appointed as a member of this board. You know: as a chairman, I was not too warm hearted.

IEEE Engineering Management Review

However, I will still work for the organisation (and, obviously, for the profession). Even after understanding that I would no more be a Section chair, some conference organisers have appointed be as a member of their TPC (technical program committee), scientific committee, or even steering committee. Here are some of such conferences:

Bandung: IC3INA 2014

IC3INA (International Conference on Computer, Control, Informatics and its Applications) is an annual conference, organised byResearch Center for Informatics, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI). Since 2013, the IEEE Indonesia Section co-organised this conference as technical sponsor. This year, IC3INA was conducted in Bandung, October 21st-23rd.

I attended this conference as one of Scientific Committee member, and as the chair of the IEEE Indonesia Section. Last year (2013), they made me the moderator of all keynote speech session on opening day. But this year (2014), they only wanted me to present a 5 minutes speech as an IEEE representative.

IC3INA 2014 v01

Here’s what I read:

Assalaamu’alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakaatuh.

Distinguished Ladies & Gentlemen,

It’s always enchanting to be around the community of scientist, researchers, academicians, and technology professionals. Representing the IEEE, and especially the IEEE Indonesia Section, I would like to express our gratitude to be involved for this distinguished event, the IC3INA 2014 in Bandung, Indonesia, organised by LIPI.

We have known that the IEEE was established more than 125 years ago. This organisation is a home for scientists and engineers from the industrial world and academic domain to synergise their idea, and to collaborate their efforts to understand more about the nature and to engineer it toward a better life. In Indonesia, the Section was established only 26 years ago, and is now actively fostering the academic and professional engineering activities in Indonesia with its 10 chapters representing 15 different fields, and 7 student branches. It is a place for the engineering ecosystem to work in partnership and collaboration to enhance the dynamics and quality of our researches, our academic and professional works, for our mission to advance the technology for humanity.

The second decade of the 21st century has been witnessing new paradigms for the Information Technology. The Internet, which has previously revolutionized the communication and interaction among people, has started its next evolution to be the Internet-of-Things (IOT), with the ability to connect any digital entity or virtually anything to the network of information and knowledge. Information processing does not stop with just doing computation over data input, but would also enrich the information with aggregation of various supporting knowledge, with context-awareness. Big data technology allows the aggregation of large amounts of information from various sources intelligently to obtain results that are sometimes unpredictable.

But the challenge is to develop and to implement those new computing paradigms in real applications to enhance the value of human life. While we carry out researches on Big Data, we keep in mind that this is one of the key technologies to improve the quality of life. We expect better understanding to the universe and human, better education approach, personalised health care, smart city integrated with ubiquitous sensing networks, smart businesses that understand their customers in person, better approach for environment conservation, and others. The interesting thing about Big Data is the necessity on its implementation to maximize the role of the ecosystem, to involve all stakeholders in designing a disruptive lifestyle with this technology.

So let’s have some discussions, and warm networkings. All the best for you; all the best for the profession. Thank you.

Bandung, 21 October 2014

Kuncoro Wastuwibowo
Chair, IEEE Indonesia Section
IC3INA 2014 v02

Bali: APCC 2013

Alhamdulillah, we have finished APCC 2013. Just like TALE 2013 was somehow related to CYBERNETICSCOM 2012; then APCC 2013 was like a continuation of COMNETSAT 2012, when Prof. Byeong Gi Lee suggested the IEEE Comsoc Indonesia Chapter to host the APCC. This suggestion brought us to attend APCC 2012 in Jeju Island, where we won the bid to host the 2013 APCC. It was followed by a series of activities, including event organising and paper management. The IEEE Comsoc Indonesia Chapter appointed Dr. Wiseto Agung, an avid scientist an researcher from Telkom Indonesia, as the General Chair of the conference. Another strategic step taken is to arrange a partnership with ITTelkom (now the University of Telkom) as a co-organiser on both the technical issue and event organising. Originally, the number of submitted papers raised very-very slowly. A bit stressed, indeed. But a few days before the deadline, hundreds of paper came through the EDAS. From all over the world, those most educated human beings still chose to wait until the final second before submitting their papers. We collected a total of 309 papers. The Technical Program Committee was chaired by Dr Arifin Nugroho, with some vice chairs. The most active TPC vice chair was Dr. Rina Puji Astuti. Meanwhile I held the position of Chair at IEEE Indonesia Section, so I must share my resources (time etc) with many other IEEE activities. The Comsoc Chapter Chair  (Satriyo Dharmanto) and the Past Chairs (Muhammad Ary Murti, Arief Hamdani) continued the struggle to succeed APCC 2013. With strict selection process, APCC 2013 passed only 163 papers (53 % of total incoming paper).

APCC

APCC, Asia – Pacific Conference on Communications, is a very prestigious regional conference in Asia Pacific, which is the region with the highest growth in the world of ICT technology. APCC is supported by the IEEE Communications Society, the KICS in Korea, the IEICE Communications Society in Japan, and the CIC in China. The names of the APCC Steering Committee members are also thrilling: the great figures who pioneered the world of ICT. APCC was first held in 1993 in Taejon, Korea. This year, the 19th APCC was held at the Bali Dynasty Resort in Kuta Beach, 29 to 31 August 2013. I had been in Bali since August 26 to attend TALE 2013. The other APCC organisers, from the IEEE Comsoc Indonesia Chapter, University of Telkom, and University of Udayana, has started preparing the event on 28 August.

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Thursday, 29 August, the APCC 2013 was opened. With a lot of technical sponsors, some representatives had to deliver short speeches at that opening ceremony. But each one took only about 5 minutes. Opening speeches were delivered by Dr. Wiseto Agung (GC APCC 2013), Satriyo Dharmanto (Chair , IEEE Indonesia Comsoc Chapter), Dr. Ali Muayyadi (Telkom University representative), Prof. Zhen Yang (Chair of APCC Steering Committee; Chair of the CIC), Dr. Yoshihiro Ishikawa (Chair, IEICE Communications Society), Prof. You- Ze Cho (Vice Chair , KICS), and yours truly (Chair, IEEE Indonesia Section). IEEE Indonesia Section itself represented the IEEE as the technical activity endorser.

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My speech just simply mentioned that Asia Pacific has great significance in the development of ICT. Besides the fact that this area is the center of the most competitive ICT industry, the residents are also among the most adaptive in embracing digital lifestyle in the new culture. Our cultural richness has supported the development of communication technologies, with the ability to understand and support the highly contextual interaction and communications. But the social problems in the region is also alarming. We open access to information technology, but we encourage consumerism. We facilitate the preservation of nature, but we also increase pollution. We help creating new jobs, but we also accelerate urbanisation. The engineers need to design and develop technologies that will address the various issues of humanity and the life of human being. And it was in this social context, that we chose this theme for APCC 2013: Smart Communications to Enhance the Quality of Life .

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Keynote speeches were delivered successively by Prof. Byeong Gi Lee (Past President, IEEE Communications Society; Past President, KICS), Prof. Adnan Al-Anbuky (Director of Sensor Network and Smart Environment (SENSE) Research Lab, School of Engineering Auckland University of Technology, Auckland New Zealand), Mr. Indra Utoyo (CISP, Telkom Indonesia; Chairman, MIKTI), and Mr. Ichiro Inoue (Network Systems Planning & Innovation Project, NTT).

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The next activities were typical for any international technical conference. Special speech sessions, tutorial sessions, parallel presentation sessions, poster sessions, etc. In the tutorial session, I chose to avoid mainstream discussions of mobile network etc, and chose instead the sensor network as one of the elements for the Internet of Things (IoT). The tutors happened to be a pair of professors from Coventry University. This is a modern university (compared to classical universities) that gained a lot of appreciation and awards everywhere this year. Another regular event was the Gala Dinner, with its semi-formal atmosphere, but also with its permission for a laugh-out-loud sessions. Here the Paper Awards were also presented by the APCC Steering Committee .

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The last day, I spent my time to visit the poster sessions. Out of curiosity, I seriously talked to all presenters about the posters presented. It was a way to learn new things while expanding networks. Conversations in the poster session could be deeper and more interesting than the presentation session where time is very limited.

I recognised that it was a hard work for the organisers. In the review session on Saturday afternoon, I said that even though the organisers in any events always feel that there are a lot of unforgivable shortcomings, but the APCC Steering Committee and the participants, had personally conveyed their appreciations and positive feedbacks. Good job! The IEEE, Unitel, Udayana University, and all. Great job! This year there will be many other events of the IEEE Indonesia Section. Hopefully all will provide supports as it was for the  APCC 🙂 . Thanks, all.

Bali: TALE 2013

TALE, the IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment and Learning for Engineering, is one of three key conferences of the IEEE Education Society. This year, TALE was held at the Bali Dynasty Resort, a resort on the shores of Kuta Beach, Bali , 26-29 August 2013. Indonesia was recommended to host the TALE Conference by Prof. Michael Lightner (ex IEEE Education Society President), who had observed the way the IEEE Indonesia Section organised IEEE CYBERNETICSCOM 2012, where he was present as a keynote speaker. Despite the obtained recommendations, the Indonesian team should still needed to bid on TALE 2012 at Hong Kong.

The technical aspects of the conference were organised by the IEEE Education Society. The IEEE Indonesia Section needed only to organise the event. The operation was led by Dr. Ford Lumban Gaol as the General Chair. He is also the vice chair of the IEEE Indonesia Section. Some universities provided some supports, especially Bina Nusantara University in Jakarta. TALE was carried out in serial with the APCC.

I arrived in Bali on Monday afternoon, August 26. Ngurah Rai Airport was still in the process of intensive renovation. From the airport, we needed only 10 minuted to reach the Dynasty Resort. The first day of TALE was occupied by tutorials and workshop activities. I attended some workshop sessions, then I spent the afternoon biking along Kuta Beach, until the sunset. At night , there was a Welcome Party, with some introductions to the VIP and committees. Presented at the event were Prof. Manuel Castro (IEEE Education Society, President), Dr Alain Chesnais (ACM, Past President), Prof. Sorel Reisman (ex IEEE Computer Society President), etc. I spent a lot of time discussing with colleagues from Bangalore .

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 (TALE photo session after the Opening Ceremony 2013 : All in Batik)

The opening ceremony was held on August 27 morning. Opening speeches are presented by  Dr. Ford Lumban Gaol as General Chair; Prof. Gerardus Polla (ex Rector of Binus University) who represented Binus as co-organiser; then IEEE Indonesia Section representation — yours truly. I started with the paradox that although almost all technological advances has been initiated or supported by the education, but the ICT has not been widely revolutionised the education field (compared to — for example — the field of communications , transportation, industry , etc.). ICT infrastructure for this purpose could be considered quite ready. But just to convert the education content and interaction into digital forms would be far from sufficient to achieve the expectations of creating a new way to educate more people, anyone, of any age, anywhere, in ways that remain humane and not by separating people with their natural environment. A new paradigm is required for a lifetime process of human education, with the support of pervasive ICT infrastructure. It was actually just the opening for the discussion :). Then the conference was opened by Prof. Gerard Polla with Balinese gong. Booom – booom – booom .

The keynote speeches were delivered by Prof. Manuel Castro of the IEEE Education Society, Prof. Ken Kawan Soetanto, and Prof. Satryo Soemantri Brodjonegoro from Binus Advisory Board. The education field is indeed interesting, encouraging, with a broad impact. Discussions on the keynote sessions were pretty hot, resembling various visions. We easily observed many pros and cons on every aspect of e-learning  digital education, and others. But those battles of the titans had made this kind of a conference so much more interesting than just reading the paper stacks 🙂 .

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 (Prof. Reisman discussed with Prof. Castro and M Chesnais)

The conference continued with parallel presentation sessions. The discussions about education were still as hot as the discussion at the keynote sessions. At night, we had a Gala Dinner session to display the culture of the region: from Balinese Dance to Asia Pacific songs and music.

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(Koen with Prof. Castro and Prof. Ken Soetanto)

The last day, August 29th (the same day as the opening of the APCC), Bali was still consistent with its fresh but hot weather. We closed the conference with the awarding session by Alain Chesnais. I presented the closing remarks, and then closed the conference. This time there was no gong. So I closed this extremely important international conference with a bread knife tapped on a white cup . Tinq – tinq – tinq, and TALE 2013 was closed .

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(Special photo with Alain Chesnais and Alain Chesnais)

Chiang Mai: Region 10 Annual Meeting

IEEE Region 10 Meeting this year was held in Chiang Mai. This is an annual event, and formerly held in the city of Lapu Lapu, Yogyakarta, and Kolkatta. Besides all the Section Chairs in Asia Pacific, and the Officers of IEEE Region 10, also attended some VP of IEEE HQ. I recognised some familiar faces was, especially from the previous meetings in Lapu Lapu and Yogya. But none of the IEEE Presidents was present. But it’s OK. I’ve already meet Prof Peter Staecker, the Prisident, the previous weekend in Tanjung Benoa.

This year, the IEEE Indonesia Section received a special invitation to obtain the 25 Years Banner. When the invitation was received, M Ary Murti, who was serving as the Section Chair decided to invite all the previous section chairs to present in Chiang Mai. And all the former chairs agreed to attend. Later, the leadership was handed over from Ary to me (via election, certainly). So this time, I was the primary delegation of Indonesia, and the former chairs be the secondary delegations.

The flights we used were Garuda Indonesia for Jakarta – Bangkok, and Thai Airways to Bangkok – Chiang Mai, on March 1. We landed in Chiang Mai at night, and went straightly to Le Méridien. The meeting would began on Saturday morning, March 2, 2013.

Day-1

IEEE formal meetings use the protocol called “Robert’s Roles of Order” that is used in some parliaments. This is an interesting protocol, which facilitates shared decision-making more effectively. On the first day, Region 10 evaluated the Budget 2012, proposed the Strategic Planning, and displayed the work plans of the units, as well as support from HQ and Region 10 to Sections. We also learnt best practices from the various Section and other task units. The activities of Women in Engineering (WiE), students, and GOLD (Graduated on Last Decade) were highlighted. Some incentives were also offered to enable the specific activities in the Section.

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Later that evening, a gala dinner was held. At this dinner, presented a variety of awards, to the most active section, most active small section, best volunteer, and others. The banner of “25 Years Anniversary” was also handed over to Indonesia Section at this event. Ralph M Ford (VP MGA) handed the banner to me as Indonesia Section Chair, and we handed it to all of the previous chairs of the Indonesia Section. I asked Dr Wahidin Wahab to give a brief remark. Mr. Wahab presented a bit about the history of Indonesia Section and some gratitudes to those who helped the development of Indonesia Section.

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The second day was started with a petition to award Prof Marzuki, a leader in Region 10 who passed away last year due to a long illness. In the midst of the pain, he did not stop doing organisational dan professional tasks, including supporting many activities for the Indonesia Section. Indonesia Section specifically stated a grief at the previous night. Then reviewed the Budget Plan for 2013, the report of Tencon 2012, and plan of Tencon 2013, and R10 Congress 2013 (Hyderabad).

I talked briefly to the Region 10 Director, the always joyous Prof. Toshio Fukuda; invited him to be the Keynote Speaker of the IEEE Cyberneticscom in Yogyakarta later this year. He confirmed.

Day-2

Then presented the information and policy on the administration of Section and units under it. There were some new things, and some important repetitions. The meetings were closed after midday. After that, a brief tour around Chiang Mai.