CONFERENCE REPORT SIITME 2002, CLUJ-NAPOCA, ROMANIA

THE 8 -TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM FOR DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY OF ELECTRONIC PACKAGES WAS A SUCCESFULL EVENT

· The 8-th SIITME co-organized by the Technical University of Cluj, Applied Electronics Department and "Politehnica" University of Bucharest, Center of Electronic Technology and Interconnection Techniques was held in Cluj-Napoca, main historical and university city of Transylvania, Romania, from September 19 to September 22, 2002.

· An annual event in Central and Eastern Europe since 1992, it was held for the first time in Cluj-Napoca, attracting over 80 participants representing universities, research and industrial centers from Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Germany, Hungary, U.S.A., Venezuela.

· The first day of the Symposium was dedicated to an interesting workshop debating the Role of Universities as Research and Development Centers in Today's Industrial and Economical Environment., chaired by Prof Paul Svasta, SIITME Chair, Bucharest and Prof. Dan PITICA, SIITME Co-Chair, Cluj. The Ministry of Education and Research and The Romanian Association for Electronic Industry and Software were the co-sponsors of the workshop and the symposium.

· The conference was organized in 5 Oral Sessions, 2 of them "Student Forum" dedicated to young students/researchers and 2 Poster Sessions. There were sessions on Emerging Technologies, CAD tools, Quality and Reliability, Interconnect Modeling, all targeting Electronic Packaging. There were 22 papers in oral sessions and other 35 papers in poster sessions.

· This edition of SIITME strengthens the role of young scientists and their research work, offering them a professional and warm environment for presenting their scientific papers, followed by vivid debates and possibilities of future co-operations.

· As a novelty for SIITME, the paper presented by PhD student Ralf Rieske, Prof. Klas Wolter, Dresden University of Technology University and the undergraduate student Grayson Hart, University of Portland , Oregon is the result of "The Research Student Consortium" promoted by Prof. Jim Morris, University of Portland and Universities of Central and Eastern Europe.

· Another important event was the IEEE -CPMT Hungary -Romania Joint Chapter meeting and IEEE CPMT STUDENT CHAPTER. The activities promoted by CPMT Hu & Ro Joint Chapter regard issues of electronic packaging and intend to attract more and more students in CPMT activities.

· In last day of the Conference , "Best" and "Excellent" Paper and Poster Award, senior and junior divisions, were offered to the participants, as a recognition of their contributions to the electronic packaging applications and the success of this edition of SIITME.

· Following days of intense technical presentations, the welcome cocktail, organized in the first evening of the symposium, the trip to a Salt Mine near Cluj, followed by a traditional Romanian Dinner and Wine Tasting from a famous Transylvanian vineyard were the social events that gave the conference attendees the chance to chat more freely with their colleagues, to know each other better, to make plans for future professional meetings and conferences.