President's Message
Our Society continues to push forward in spite of Sept 11th, the Economy and The IEEE Finances.
Our Society, while impacted in a number of ways such as restricted travel and reduction in conference attendance, continues to move its strategic initiatives. Let me summarize some of these:
1. Our Society is one of the fastest- growing of all the 37 IEEE
Societies. Our global membership is now in excess of 4000, for
the first time.
2. Globalization of our society is taking place across all fronts:
We now have more than 30 conferences and 30 chapters around the
world. Some major theme conferences such as Materials, Electrical
Modeling and Simulation and General Packaging are being held in
all three parts of the world: US, Europe and Asia. Our governing
Board is much more global as well. We have Board delegations traveling
to further globalize our society.
3. The Society has begun to be more deeply involved in education.
The education activities include educational sessions at ECTC,
development of Web - based courses on strategic technologies,
new text and reference books and student chapters. Student chapters
and programs have begun in Europe, Asia and US.
We started two major new initiatives to promote our society as the Global Forum Catalyzing Technical Innovation for the Benefit of Humanity.
1. Marketing and promotion of our Society is in full swing,
thanks to Connie Swager and the Potomac Communications Group.
This program has the potential of marketing our society like never
before and conveying the message of what "Packaging"
is all about to the layman on the street. It can also announce
the latest cutting-edge technical advances being achieved by our
Society members. Look for OUTLOOK Bulletins and a whole series
of programs to come out of this initiative.
2. IEEE CPMT Technical Field Award is another way of promoting
our Society. This new award was approved by the IEEE TAB at its
most recent meeting on November 17 in Mexico City. It will be
administered starting in 2003 to recognize the individual(s) with
the most important technical contributions in "Packaging"
that have the greatest impact on quality of life.
The ECTC Organizing Committee Promises one of the best Conferences in San Diego, May 28-June 1, 2002.
The ECTC organizing committee has begun to finalize the technical program for San Diego --.It is expected to include a total of more than 300 papers in 36 viewgraph and 2 poster sessions, more than a dozen short courses, a large number of technology booths and a plenary session.