Welcome to 2022 and a new issue of the IEEE Sensors Council (simply called "the Council" or "SC" in the following) quarterly newsletter. Warm welcome to all SC’s volunteers, activists, both young and seasoned!

Welcome to the new issue of the IEEE Sensors Council (simply called "the Council" or "SC" in the following) quarterly newsletter. We have made advances in several of our areas of operation – thanks to the huge efforts by our volunteers worldwide. Below I briefly summarise some of these.

As is the norm, we organised the SC 101 to provide the new members of the Administrative Committee (AdCom) all the basic information about SC operations. This year the SC 101 was decoupled from the AdCom meeting. It was held virtually about two weeks ahead of our Spring AdCom meeting in Avignon, France. We plan to continue this practice in the future to allow more AdCom discussion on governance and operational matters. From this year, we also decided to co-locate the Spring AdCom meeting with IEEE International Symposium on Inertial Sensors & Systems Conference (INERTIAL) to allow our member society representatives to experience one more of our conferences – in addition to SC’s flagship conference i.e., IEEE SENSORS. 

Considering the growth of our technical and educational operations, the SC AdCom approved a new Vice President position focussing on Educational Activities and Digital Platforms. Nominations for this position are likely to be invited from the next year. The SC AdCom also approved the renaming of the Meritorious Service Award after John Vig, who laid the foundation of SC in 1998. We hope to have this approved by IEEE soon. I believe, in the 25th year of SC’s formation, an award named after John will be a nice gesture to thank him for his dedicated service to the Council. The AdCom also approved the new initiative funding for projects worth over $550k, approved the formation of Technical Committee on Inertial Systems & Sensors (TCISS) and initiated the procedure for forming new technical committees. During this quarter, we also decided to review and update the job descriptions and operating guidelines of various standing committees mentioned in the governing documents. Going forward, these will be updated every alternate year by the President-Elect during the first quarter of their term. The AdCom also voted for several Council positions for the 2023-2024 term. I take this opportunity to congratulate the elected members - Srinivas Tadigadapa (VP Finances), Sandro Cararra (VP Publications), Zeynep Celik and Krikor Ozanyan (Senior Members at Large) and Hamida Hallil and Ignacio Matias (Members at Large). I look forward to working with the newly elected officers.

Next year, SC will enter into its 25th year. It is exciting to see SC’s accomplishments through its wide range of activities promoting the development and use of sensors. To celebrate this important milestone, we are discussing a range of events. We have also constituted a committee in this regard. To reach out to the wider sensors community and highlight the wide range of its product offerings, SC has also started to explore digital marketing tools. 

During last quarter, the SC organised its first post-COVID in-person conference (INERTIAL 2022) in Avignon, France during the second week of May 2022. The conference was well attended and attracted about 250 delegates from academia and industry. In addition, the conference attracted 20+ exhibitors. This quarter also saw the launch of the Sensor Interfaces Meeting (SIM) 2022 in Veldhoven, Netherlands. This inaugural workshop focused on industry and attracted 123 delegates. ISOEN 2022 is another conference that was co-sponsored by the Council; this Symposium on Olfaction and Electronic Nose hosted 120 delegates in Aveiro, Portugal. In July 2022, we also saw another successful organization of FLEPS in Vienna, Austria. FLEPS 2022 attracted more than 250 delegates from 30+ countries. In addition to technical talks, FLEPS 2022 also featured Diversity Panel, Young Professionals Focused Session and industry sessions. FLEPS 2022 too was an in-person conference. 

Just before FLEPS 2022, we also organized the first ExCom Retreat in Frauenkirchen, Austria. During the retreat, ExCom deliberated upon various initiative and strategic directions for SC. Starting from this year, we plan to have annual ExCom retreat before the FLEPS conference. We will continue to promote in-person conferences, while supporting the online attendance where needed. Among upcoming conferences is our flagship conference, IEEE SENSORS 2022, which will be organized in Dallas, Texas, USA during the last week of October 2022. This year SC is supporting outreach travel grants as part of the Diversity and Inclusion initiative. This is one of the steps SC is taking to show our commitment to advancing diversity in the technical profession. IEEE SENSORS 2022 is also accepting the application for Student Travel Supplement Grant.

SC is also supporting the Electronics for Mitigating Climate Change Workshop, which is led by one of our member societies, IEEE CASS. I believe this is a timely initiative. In fact, IEEE TAB has also initiated the climate change program, where I am leading the ‘Sustainable Technologies’ task force. Other SC conference to watch out is the new conference focusing on applied sensing. IEEE Applied Sensing Conference (IEEE APSCON), to be organised in Bangaluru, India in January 2023, is currently seeking paper submission. Further, SC has decided to launch a new conference on Biosensors in 2023 and the TED style industry focused event ‘Sensors Connect’.

Our journals are doing very well. Recently, IEEE Sensors Journal became the largest topical journal of IEEE. The impact factor of IEEE Sensors Journal has increased to 4.32. The impact factor of our co-sponsored IoT Journal has also increased to 10.24 and we expect IEEE Sensors Letters to have its impact factor soon. Our newly launched Journal on Flexible Electronics is rapidly growing and has already published two issues. SC’s publications portfolio is steadily growing and so is our engagement with member societies, as most of the newly approved journals are jointly sponsored with them. These include: (a) IEEE Transactions of AgriFood Electronics (TAFE) with Circuits and Systems Society (CASS) as lead, and SC, Instrumentation & Measurement Society (IMS) and Council on RFID (CRFID) as other co-sponsors; (b) IEEE Journal of Indoor and Seamless Positioning and Navigation (J-ISPIN) with SC as lead and Signal Processing Society (SPS) and IMS as other co-sponsors; and (c) IEEE Transactions on Radar Systems with 7 other co-sponsors. In addition, the SC Publication Committee has discussed two other fully owned open-access journals. I shall update about this in a future edition of the newsletter. Recently, we also launched ‘Sensors Alert’ which publishes online a teaser and condensed versions of the selected research papers from SC’s Journals.

A wide range of activities organized by our dynamic Young Professionals (YP) team, Women in Sensors (WiSe) Committee, Standards Committee, Industry Liaison Committee and various chapters are worth noting. For example, the YP Engagement Series (YES) included talks by: (a) Dr. Udeep Chawla on Nuts and Bolts in Transforming Skills to Start-up; (b) Dr. Anton Kock on Energy Autonomous Environmental Sensors, and (c) Dr. Keeper Sharkey on How to Optimize a Scientifically Technical Career to Becoming an Entrepreneur and Business Person. Our Student Branch Chapter at Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore organized the workshop on Emerging Nanotechnology in Healthcare Applications while the Galveston Bay Section Chapter organised the Sensor Week during July 19-22. There are two newly approved Seasonal Schools that will be held in August and September. Further details of some of these events are included in this newsletter and the full list is also available on SC website. 

Please join me in welcoming our newest chapters:

• Uttar Pradesh Section Chapter
• Prakasam Engineering College Student Branch Chapter
• Indian Institute of Technology Indore Student Branch Chapter
• K S School of Engineering and Management Student Branch Chapter
• Gachon University Student Branch Chapter
• Sreyas Institute of Engineering & Technology Student Branch Chapter
• Indian Inst of Technology-Roorkee Student Branch Chapter
• VISAT Engineering College Student Branch Chapter
• Shri Shankaracharya Technical Campus Student Branch Chapter
• Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College of Engineering Student Branch Chapter

All of us at the Sensors Council are looking forward to working with you and meeting in person during one of your future events. In fact, recently I have had the pleasure to meet the volunteers from the Student Branch Chapter at Indian Institute of Technology Indore. Welcome aboard!

Every year, SC gives awards in various categories. This year we received a large number of nominations. The details of 2022 SC awards recipients is included in this newsletter. Congratulations to all our recipients and thanks to all those who participated. 

That’s all for now. My future messages will continue to focus on updates related to various initiatives – some of which are mentioned above. I send my best wishes to you for making a positive impact on the world with sensors!

Respectfully

Ravinder Dahiya, Fellow IEEE,

2022-2023 IEEE Sensors Council President

We are very excited to announce that IEEE FLEPS 2023 will be held in Boston, Massachusetts, USA on 9-12 July 2023! IEEE FLEPS 2023 is intended to provide a forum for research scientists, engineers, and practitioners throughout the world to present their latest research findings, ideas, and applications in the area of Flexible and Printable Sensors and Systems. Papers are now being accepted.

Important Dates:

• Tutorial & Focused Session Proposal Submission – 15 January 2023
• Initial Paper Submission – 20 February 2023
• Notification of Acceptance – 31 March 2023
• Final Manuscript Submission – 16 April 2023
• Open Preview Publication Accessible through IEEE Xplore – 10 June 2023
• Standard Registration – 16 June 2023