IMDSP TC Minutes: ICASSP 2000 A regular meeting of the IMDSP TC was held at the Istanbul Hilton 12-1:15 on 7 June. TC members present included Thrasos Pappas (Vice Chair) Bob Gray (Chair) Andrew Yagle Reha Civanlar Ed Delp (Past Chair) Jan Biemand representing Inald Lagendijk Several guests were present, including Murat Telkap and Raghuveer Rao representing ICIP2002 (Rochester) and Luis Torres presenting a proposal for ICIP 2003 (Barcelona). Bylaws ------ There was a brief discussion of the divergence of IMDSP bylaws from Society bylaws, especially with regard to the elections and term lengths. In order to facilitate revision this summer of TC bylaws, the following amendment to our bylaws was proposed and passed unanimously (consistent with current bylaws): original wording: (a) Suitable bylaws and amendments thereto may be adopted by a two-thirds vote of the member of the technical committee present at a regularly convened meeting of the committee. When deemed necessary, a bylaw or amendment may be adopted by a two thirds mail vote of the members of the committee provided a 30-day period is allowed for such responses. new wording: (a) Suitable bylaws and amendments thereto may be adopted by a two-thirds vote of the member of the technical committee present at a regularly convened meeting of the committee. When deemed necessary, a bylaw or amendment may be adopted by a two thirds email vote of the members of the committee provided a 30-day period is allowed for such responses. ("mail" changed to "email") The problems with divergent TC and Society bylaws was discussed at the Technical Directions Committee meeting 8 June (all TC chairs + President-Elect of the Society, Rich Cox). This should lead to some guidance from the Board of Governors. Workshops and Publications ------------------------- The Chair called for proposals for IMDSP workshops and for suggestions for possible Associate Editors for the society Transactions to support the Publications Board's efforts to prepare a pool of qualified and willing candidates for considerations as vacancies occur. Ed Delp mentioned the possibility of a workshop on Medical Imaging at Johns Hopkins. Conferences ----------- No representative from ICIP 2000 was at the meeting, but a written report from Rabab Ward is included below as Appendix A. Iannis Pita reported on the status of ICIP 2001 and a copy of his written report is included below as Appendix B. Telkap and Rao gave a brief report on ICIP 2002 in Rochester. The proposal was formally submitted to the Conference Board at the Kobe meeting, but Murat has not yet been informed of the result of the vote. This should happen at the Conference Board meeting. The Program Co-chairs are Ali Akansu and Amy Riebman A proposal for ICIP 2003 in Barcelona by Luis Torres. A copy of the proposal may be found at http://gps-tsc.upc.es/imatge/ICIP/ The Program Co-chairs will be Ed Delp and Philippe Salembier. (The TC must approve the program chairs and at least one must be current or former TC members. Ed is a current member in his final year as Previous Chair and Philippe is a new member.) It was unanimously voted to recommend to the Conference Board that the proposal be adopted. Proposals for ICIP 2004 are actively encouraged. During the presentations several items of concern were voiced during the discussion. The main points were 1) there has been a lack of continuity from conference to conference because of changes in conference management organizations, the primary difficulty being the failure of a new conference to get the email and postal lists for early mailings and for conference attendees. This raised the issue of who owns these lists when a specific conference management organization prepares them. There was a strong feeling that it should be specified in the contract that they are owned by the IEEE and passed on to the next conference. 2) the move into a fully electronic review process is good, but the current Web review system does not work. Either the interface has to be improved (e.g., to allow real-time saving of the typed in information and better error recovery, or by permitting submission of multiple reviews by a standard ascii email form). Other Meetings: -------------- At the Technical Directions Committee Rich Cox raised a current issue that is important to the upper echelons of the IEEE: The currently booming area of wireless is scatterred throughtout many TCs, Transactions, and Magazines, including us (SP), but there is not currently a strong focal point for the disparate work. There is a push from several sources to provide such a focus by one of the following paths: 1) bundle the transactions relating to wireless as a member package (easy) 2) produce a trade magazine on the topic (i.e., a giveaway with advertising -- allegedly supported by the Communications Society), or 3) produce one (or two) new multi-society Transactions, e.g., one on the radio level and one on the networks level. Rich is seeking feedback from the TCs (and our colleagues). Two primary reasons are put forth in support of 2 or 3: that wireless is scattered and needs focus, and that we better do it or someone else will. I am put off by the second reason (and said so), I am far more concerned about whether this will enhance the wireless field and our contributions to it. Please discuss this among your colleagues and email your thoughts to me. I will put together a summary for circulation and for Rich. Another issue raised by Rich is that of beginning creation of a "pool" of candidates for associate editors for the Transactions, especially in our case for the Trans IP. To be useful each entry should have enough information to assist the Editor-in-Chief in the decision of which nominations to pursue. My guess is a few lines of description along with the area (just check the list in the Transactions or use the EDICS) would suffice. We are not in any way usurping the Editor's discretion, we are simply providing a list of candidates as an assist. ================================== Appendix A: REPORT OF THE ICIP - 2000 COMMITTEE May 19, 2000 I. INTRODUCTION As you know the 2000 IEEE International Conference on Image will take place from September 10 - 13, 2000. The conference will be held in The Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre. The ICIP 2000 committee consists of: General Chair - Rabab Ward, Vice-Chair - Faouzi Kossentini, Technical Program Co-Chairs -- Eric Dubois and Janusz Konrad, Special Sessions -- A. N. Venetsanopoulos, Web administrator -- Alen Docef and Guy Cote, Tutorials -- Bernd Girod, Finance-- Jacques Vaisey, Exhibits -- Steven Poon and Brian Evans Publicity--Lina KAram Social Program -- Stella Atkins, Local Co-Chairs -- Panos Nasiopoulos and Babak Hamidzadeh, European Liaison -- Murat Kunt, Far East Liaison --Bede Liu, Conference Manager -- Billene Mercer, Conference Management Services. II. Technical Program The ICIP 2000 preliminary technical program can be found on the ICIP website at . There were a record number of cover sheet proposal submissions for this year -- 1545. Of those, we received 1232 hard copies for review. Eric Dubois and Janusz Konrad did an excellent job of planning the technical program. The final selection was done using a blind selection process to ensure fairness to the authors, and each paper received at least two reviews. The technical program consists of 765 paper presentations including Special Sessions. We will also have three plenary speakers and are able to offer two IMAX screenings to our attendees. All authors have been notified of their acceptance or rejection, and all were provided with reviewer comments when there were comments received. The review sheet provided place for the reviewer to provide comments for the program committee and for the author. If there were comments for the author, they were sent to the author with the email letter of acceptance/rejection. Few papers did not get two reviews. Of course two reviews were requested on all papers, and most of the reviewers came through (eventually),except for a couple. Stephen Martucci provided ICIP 2000 with new LaTeX style files for author submission. Janusz Konrad worked with Stephen and refined the new files.Jimmy Wingfield, of CMS, modified and refined the Word files to match the LaTeX style files so that every submission will be consistent. There has also been established a location where authors, using passwords, can print out individual letters for Visa applications. Although there will still have to be some letters written for special cases, this should provide quick formal letters for authors needing immediate invitations. III. Tutorials Six tutorials will be offered on Sunday, September 10. Bernd Girod has also done an outstanding job in putting together an exciting set of tutorials that ICIP 2000 will be offering: Tutorial 1: WWW - WORLD WIDE WAVELETS --Martin Vetterli, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland; UC Berkeley, California, USA -- Jelena Kovacevic, Lucent Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA, -- Vivek Goyal, Lucent Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey USA Tutorial 2: DIGITAL COLOR MANAGEMENT --Thomas E. Madden, Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, New York Tutorial 3: DATA COMPRESSION DEMYSTIFIED -- Michelle Effros California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA Tutorial 4: AUDIOVISUAL CONTENT DESCRIPTION AND RETRIEVAL: TOOLS AND MPEG-7 STANDARDIZATION ACTIVITIES -- Philippe Salembier, Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain -- B. S. Manjunath, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA Tutorial 5: CURRENT AND FUTURE VIDEO COMPRESSION STANDARDS -- Gary Sullivan Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington, USA Tutorial 6: IMAGE AND VIDEO WATERMARKING -- Ton Kalker, Philips Research Eindhoven, The Netherlands -- Jonathan K. Su, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany IV. Finance We are beginning to receive registrations, so our financial situation will be improving shortly. However, to date, we have been able to cover all of the deposits for functions and space for ICIP 2000. V. Exhibits The Exhibitor chairs, Steven Poon and Brian Evans, are also including a job fair with the exhibitor information. There appears to be a great deal of interest in linking a job fair with exhibits. Stephen Poon has identified several businesses in the Vancouver area that may also be exhibiting at ICIP 2000. VI. Social Program The social program will begin with a Welcome Reception that is being planned for The Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre. There will be a three hour harbor cruise, including hors d'oeuvres, offered on Monday evening, September 11, 2000. The banquet, at the Renaissance Hotel, will be on Tuesday, September 12, 2000. VII. Publicity ICIP 2000 has put together a color brochure and mailed approximately 10,000 to the signal processing community. An ICIP-2000 Call-For-Participation has been prepared and has been published together with the ICIP-2000 registration form in the May issue of the Signal Processing magazine. An electronic version of the ICIP-2000 Call For Participation has also been prepared and will be e-mailed by CMS to the signal processing community after ICASSP-2000. Colored Brochures and Call-For-Participation announcements will also be provided and posted at ICASSP-2000 in Istanbul, Turkey. VIII. Publications ICIP 2000 will be working with a Vancouver printing company, Print n' Run ,to print the Proceedings. We are planning on having a small number of Advance Programs printed for ICIP authors and, of course, the Conference Guide -- with abstracts -- will be provided to all attendees. We have not yet selected the CD-ROM company. We have bids from two companies Sony anda Advance Media and in Canada we have also asked for bids from two Vancouver companies, Little Fishes and Audio Archives and Duplicators, Inc.,We are also going to contact Causal in Australia. IX. Local Hotels Contracts have been signed with the following hotels: Blue Horizon, Coast Plaza Suite, Crowne Plaza/Hotel Georgia, Days Inn, Delta Pinnacle, Empire Landmark, Renaissance Hotel, and the YWCA. The hotel prices range from $51.00 to $219.00 Canadian dollars. Housing is being done online and attendees know immediately which hotel they will be staying in. Hotel blocks may also be viewed from the website . X. Registration The registration for ICIP-2000 is still expected to be between 1,000 and 1,200 attendees. We currently have over 50 people registered for the conference. Attendees can register online, fax or mail in registrations. They are notified within 24 hours of their registration, asked to review it, and to notify CMS if there are errors. XI. Conclusion The ICIP 2000 Steering Committee is continuing to work hard and are looking forward to welcoming everyone at ICIP 2000. This is going to be a memorable conference in a spectacular location. -- Rabab Kreidieh WARD, Director Centre for Integrated Computer Systems Research (CICSR) University of British Columbia (UBC) 2366 Main Mall Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada email: rababw@cicsr.ubc.ca phone: 604-822-6894 fax: 604-822-9013 Appendix B: ICIP 2001 To : IEEE-SP Conference Board From : ICIP2001 Organizing Committee Subject : Progress Report of ICIP2001 preparations Date : 22 May 2000 Several members of the ICIP2001 Organizing Committee are present at the ICASSP2000, as well as representatives of the Conference Management company. Prof. Ioannis Pitas will present the report at the Conference Board meeting which is scheduled for June the 8th, 19:00 at the Fatih I Room of the Istanbul Hilton Hotel. Conference Management _______________________ In order to make sure that the conference management issues are being handled at a professional level, the company DIASTASI has been hired to perform the task, in close cooperation with the General Chair and the other members of the Organizing Committee. A binding contract has been secured, according to IEEE suggestions and the two teams are already working together seamlessly. The Conference venue contract is already in place with Makedonia Palace Hotel, which has been reputably successful in handling similar scale international events with great efficiency. Hotel reservations have been scheduled and confirmed and contracts are being secured with the greatest part of the hotels which have been selected. ________________________________________________________________ Technical Program ------------------ It has been decided that the Technical Program will be deployed through local facilities of the Aristoteles University of Thessaloniki. There is a budget of $25k allocated for this activity. A dedicated system, on which CORG has been installed and configured is already serviceable and the Staff of the AIIA lab are carrying out availability and accessibility tests. As appears on the Call for Papers (accompanying this report) and the website, the submission of papers will be carried out electronically through the website http://icip01.ics.forth.gr and the key dates are: Paper proposals due: 15 January 2001 Notification of Acceptance: 2 April 2001 Camera-Ready papers due: 15 May 2001 In addition to the above Call for Tutorials and Call for Special Sessions is being communicated as per the following schedule: ________________________________________________________________________ Call for Tutorials (key dates) -------------------------------- January 15, 2001 : Submission deadline for Tutorial Proposals February 15, 2001 : Decision on Tutorial Program. Proposers notified of decision August 7, 2001 : Decision on go/no-go (minimum number of registered tutorial participants is 15) September 7, 2001 : Submission of final tutorial materials October 7, 2001 : Tutorials at ICIP 2001. Potential keynote speakers are being downlisted. _________________________________________________________________________ Call for Special Sessions -------------------------------- September 15, 2000: Proposals due September 30, 2000: Notification of decision __________________________________________________________________________ Finance --------- Due to instability of the Euro/USD and USD/DRS exchange rates, it seems that for the time being the approved budget cannot be updated.. A bridge loan of $35k has been made to the management company, to cater for immediate needs. The conference budget will be executed in Greek Drachmas. Committed expenses are: Secretarial support $20k Technical Program System $25k Conference center $23k Audit & Legal fees $2.5k Conf. Mgmt. $23.7 Effected expenses are: Printing & Mail: $1110 Audit & Legal advice fee: $420 Administration: $1420 Registration fees are upon final review and public communication through the website, caring that attendance is encouraged and expenses are met with. _________________________________________________________________ Web activities -------------- As stated above, the Conference Website has already gone public and Call for Papers together with various information pertaining to the Conference itself as well as to the venue, is being published together with Call for Tutorials and Special Sessions. Soon registration fees will appear and instructions for submission of papers -as well as templates - will be soon posted. The Technical Program Application system is not on-line yet, as explained. ____________________________________________________________________ Publications and Publicity -------------------------- ICIP2001 Call for Papers and posters have already been printed and mailed out to relevant recipients. Printing of the Conference Proceedings has been bid by several providers, but no final commitment has been made yet. Part of the material printed has been kept on the side to be distributed at the ISCASS2000, ICASSP2000, EUSIPCO2000 and ICIP2000, where members of the greek team will participate, to ensure increased visibility to the scientific community attending the above events. The Call for Papers and Calendar have been forwarded to the press and electronic e-zines for appearance. Efforts are being made to maximize visibility and banners’ exchange may be considered as part of the general plan. Distribution to other conferences will be arranged. Mailing lists have been put together and sorted out, or acquired (IEEE) and the Call for Papers (including special sessions and tutorials) has been e-Mailed to some 15000 recipients round the planet. The poster of the conference has been posted on the website for downloading. Video footage with information regarding Thessaloniki has been digitized in MPEG format and will soon be available for downloading from the website and may also be made available (in MPEG format or original VHS material) to display from computers or TV/VCR at Conference stands for advertising reasons. ___________________________________________________________________ Sponsorships ------------- In view of the fact that sponsors are usually corporations and/or institutions, all sponsorships for 2001 will come out of the sponsors’ 2001 budgets which are usually being drawn and committed for at the last quarter of each year - to be spent the following term. Things being so, preliminary contacts are being scheduled and sponsorship programs are being evaluated. _____________________________________________________________________ Exhibits ---------- The invitation and brochure for the exhibitors have not been prepared yet, as dates are still early. However the plan is to make every effort, towards the direction of covering all possible connections (personal, professional, whatever) as well as interlocking with the industry, in order to make that part a success too. -- ________________________________________________________________________ Evangelia Alexopoulou // // // // Dipl. in Physics // // // // // // //__ // // // //__ // // // // // // // Department of Informatics ------------------------------ Aristotle Univ. of Thessaloniki Artificial Intelligence & GR-54006 Thessaloniki (BOX 451) Information Analysis lab GREECE e-mail: ealex@zeus.csd.auth.gr, tel:+30 31 996361, fax:+30 31 998419 URL-> Lab's Page: http://poseidon.csd.auth.gr