SPECIAL SESSIONS

Are you interested in organizing a special session? Please, contact the technical program chairs or the Conference Coordinator Mr. Robert Myers ( bob.myers@ieee.org ).

Special Sessions are being developed by designated chairs. If an author has a paper that could be included in one of these sessions, he/she may submit an abstract and note it is a "candidate for Special Session on". If the abstract
is not selected for the session, it may be included in another part of the technical rogram. To submit abstracts or draft papers to the special session, please follow the submission instructions for regular sessions but remind to specify the special session to which the paper is directed.

Special sessions at IMTC/06 will be organized on these subjects:

  • Special Session “FERRARI”

    - Test and Measurement of an ergonomic, user friendly and innovative HMI (The criteria of simplicity and components reduction has to be followed);

    - High performance sensors for driving aid (e.g. Night Vision based on infra red cameras, Line Keeping based on image processing, defogging sensors,…);

    - Test and development regarding distance, angle and position and wellness sensors which positively affect the driving comfort and the sense of well being in the interior;

    - Head Up Vision optical devices.

  • SPECIAL SESSION  "WIRELESS DATA ACQUISITION TECHNOLOGIES"
    Organizer: Mr. Jason Mulliner, National Instruments


    Wireless technology is all around us and has become an integral
    part of a connected world. With so many different types of wireless
    standards covering a broad spectrum range available,  software-based
    measurement and instrumentation tools are ideal for adapting to these
    evolving standards.  In this session, learn about the more prominent wireless standards as well as their use for expanding the functionality of
    data acquisition systems for use in remote monitoring applications where
    accessibility or mobility inhibits fixed-line communication.   In addition, this session will cover the advances made in software-based tools to more
    easily use these wireless standards to create fully-functional
    communication systems.
  • SPECIAL SESSION FOR DOCTORAL STUDENTS - "GIORGIO SAVASTANO" AWARD
    Organizer: P.Daponte, University of Sannio (Italy) - M.Savastano, CNR Naples (Italy)

    A Special Session will be organized for doctoral students to present the results of their current research activities in the fields covered by the conference topics.     Papers submitted for this session must be authored only by PhD students. The best paper presented in this session will receive an award. The Award is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Giorgio Savastano and it is offered by a group of his old students.
  • AUTONOMOUS SENSORS
    Organizer: Ramon Pallàs-Areny, UPC Castelldefels (Barcelona)
    Andrea Taroni, Università di Brescia

    Autonomous sensors work without any physical connection with the system
    they belong to. Static autonomous sensors constitute the nodes of
    distributed data acquisition systems and wireless sensor networks.
    Mobile autonomous sensors are embedded in robots or in living being.
    Autonomous sensors can be supplied by harvesting waste energy and need extremely-low-power techniques for sensing, processing and communicating through tiny computing devices and routing information according to available local power. This Special Session aims to gather scientists and engineers involved in solving the multiple challenges that autonomous sensors pose from the point of view of measurement system
    design, such as: energy-efficient power harvesting and management,
    energy-efficient sensing and analog signal processing, and SNR/energy
    optimization.
  • IMAGING SYSTEMS AND TECHNIQUES
    Organizer: Dr. George C. Giakos, University of Akron, USA

    This session deals with the engineering and physical principles, design,
    development, testing and evaluation of imaging technologies, systems, and
    subsystems, advanced metrology and measuring techniques, image analysis and processing, aimed to enhance the detection process and image quality Applications for aerospace, medicine and biology, metrology, radar, defence, national security, and industrial imaging, will be investigated. Imaging modalities from the areas of optical imaging, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Digital Radiography, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), positron emission tomography (PET), Ultrasound, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and NSOM spectroscopy will be considered. Novel imaging principles, paradigms and concepts leading to the development of high resolution-high specificity imaging technological paradigms on areas such as nano-imaging, quantum dots imaging, imaging for the exploration of Space, mine detection, biometric imaging, security imaging, target detection, recognition and identification, and surveillance, defects and
    surface anomalies, multi-fusion/multi-modality imaging, physiological
    imaging, guided biopsy imaging, biomedical optics and cancer detection,
    optical polarimetric imaging, and advanced electromagnetic imaging
    techniques are strongly encouraged.

  • HIGH PERFORMANCE SENSORS FOR FOOD INSPECTION
    Organizer:  Dr. Subhas Mukhopadhyay, Massey University, New Zealand

    The IMTC 2006 special session on High Performance Sensors for Food
    Inspection is intended to bring together leading researchers working
    in the field of sensor systems for food inspection to present and
    discuss relevant issues. This special session aims at covering issues
    regarding measurements and monitoring in any kind of inspection of
    food  product. Though destructive testing will be considered but the
    importance will be given for the non-destructive and non-invasive
    testing and inspection. These include:
    - New sensors development for food inspection
    - Quality and control of food production
    - On-line measurement of food composition and quality
    - Sensors for taste, color, odor, and feel in foodstuffs
    - On-line monitoring
    - Other related topics


  • OPTICAL I&M TECHNOLOGY FOR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS Organizer: Prof. Luigi Rovati, University of Modena and Reggio
    Emilia, Italy

    The Special Session will be mainly oriented to study all the aspects of optical instrumentation, measurement and control technologies - theory, research and development and applications in biomedical applications.     Technological advances in optoelectronics techniques and devices have had large impact on the fields of medical and biomedical research and
    diagnosis. This special section is devoted to medical and biomedical
    optical sensors and instrumentation, data evaluation methods and applications. Topics include also precision navigation and tracking techniques, which are critical to position medical instruments precisely
    within the 3D surgical space.  The section will provide an interdisciplinary forum for engineers, scientists, clinical researchers and industrial partners whose goal is to provide innovative measurement systems for medical and biomedical applications. Contributed papers are solicited concerning, but not limited to, the following areas:
        * optical instrumentation design and development
        * smart optical sensor
        * clinical applications of optical instrumentation
        * optical tracking techniques in medical applications
        * minimally invasive diagnostics systems: fluorescence, Raman , scattering, diffuse reflection
        * clinical monitoring of early disease states or physiological parameters
        * photon migration
        * NIR/IR sensing and imaging
        * smart optical catheters
        * non-invasive imaging
        * Image Processing


  • MULTIMEDIA TOOLS FOR EDUCATION IN INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT
    Organizer: Prof. Domenico Grimaldi, Università della Calabria, Italy.

    The wide spread of multimedia-based educational facilities may offer interesting prospective in the development of electronic measurement educational tools. Several solutions based on internet and/or Digital Video Transmission as communication channels and mobile computing enable the realisation of flexible customized solutions for specific measurementeducational tools on demand. Moreover, these innovative solutions enable to realize remote and distributed measurement systems and data worldwide by requiring a minimum connection cost. Also from the educational point of view, much work and experience have been done. The capabilities of remote teaching and the use of multimedia communication tools as a channel to reach the students or workers to their homes have been recognized. The aim is to provide a forum where persons and labs actively involved in the development and/or use of multimedia facilities may present their achievements and may share their educational experience. The session is open to all approaches that try to explore new directions of multimedia-based education and training in the area of measurement and instrumentation. Reports of successful practices in the field are certainly welcome. Topics may include any issue related to multimedia-based educational facilities, laboratories, and especially: Studies on the content of a modern multimedia-based I&M course; Non-traditional teaching approaches using multimedia technology; Innovations related to the laboratory practice (educational tools, equipment, and content) due to multimedia-based approaches; Multimedia-based continuing education and training related to I&M.

    "DIDAGROUP, Italian company working in the field of the innovative software for e-learning, is the sponsor of the award for the best paper presented and discussed at the Special Session “Multimedia tools for education in instrumentation and measurement”.

    The paper will be assigned on the basis of the votes of all the participants, Authors and peoples, attending to the Special Session."

    www.didagroup.it


  • MEDICAL MEASUREMENTS AND INSTRUMENTATION
    Organizers: Marco Parvis, Politecnico di Torino, Italy  Sergio Rapuano, Universita' del Sannio, Italy

    Measurement problems in medical applications are continuously increasing and several examples exist that process measurement data from several instruments in order to derive specific knowledge about the patient status from the vital parameters. This special session will focus on all the aspects related to sensors and measurements in the medical field. Main session topics, but not limited to, include: Sensors for medical systems and medical specific instrumentation; Embedded systems and signal processing; Sensor fusion and calibration; Standards and medical applications; Digital imaging and communication in medicine (DICOM) issues.

  • SOFTWARE METRICS
    Organizers: Gerardo Canfora, RCOST - Research Centre on Software Technology, University of Sannio Mario Piattini, Alarcos Research Group, University of Castilla-La-Mancha

    Software measurement is a key practice of modern software engineering. The magnitude of costs involved in software development and maintenance highlights the need for a scientific foundation to support development methods and management decisions by measurement. Software measurement of both processes and products has proven central to prediction (e.g. predicting the error-proneness of a system using software measures from its design phase, or the effort to testing a module from quantifiable features of code) and assessment (e.g. to evaluate the quality of a design, or the usability of a product). In short: software measures help software developers and project managers to make better decisions. The IMTC2006 Special Session on Software Metrics will provide a truly interdisciplinary forum for exploring the use of measurement to understand,
    evaluate, and model software engineering phenomena. We invite submission of technical papers and industrial experience reports from both the measurement and software engineering perspectives. Examples of questions that this special section will address include, but are not restricted to:
    - How can the results of software measurement (products and processes) be interpreted?
    - Is it possible to extract quantitative features from the representation
      of a software design to enable the prediction of the degree of
    maintainability of a software system?
    - What software measures are required in order to determine the quality of a  design?
    - Are there quantitative features in order to predict the size of a project
      from the specification phase?
    - What are the methods to aggregate individual measures into synthetic
      quality indexes?
    - How can software measurement (products and processes) assist process
      improvement?
    - What are the criteria for the internal and external validation of software
      metrics?
    - What are the specific characteristics of object-oriented software
    measures?
    The Special Session format will aim at maximizing the exchange of
    experiences and research results and ideas, with short and focused presentations and a significant amount of time for discussion. The aim is to identify the research directions suitable for cooperation between software engineering and measurement researchers and practitioners. The results of the session will be recorded in a publicly available white paper.

  • ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY MEASUREMENTS IN THE
    INDUSTRIAL AND TELECOMMUNICATION WORLD
    Organizers: Carmine Landi, Second University of Naples Nicola Pasquino, University of Naples Federico II

    Electromagnetic compatibility issues are paramount to all fields of scientific and technological world for the relevant impact on electrical and electronic devices' performance. Therefore, measurements of both emitted and onducted disturbances play a crucial role in assessing compliance to international standards. The special session focuses on all aspects of
    electromagnetic compatibility measurements, including but not limited to:
    1) environments for EMC testing
    2) calibration of testing devices
    3) methods for EMC testing
    4) Uncertainty in EMC measurements
    5) Inter-laboratory testing
    6) EMC properties of traction systems
    7) EMC properties of telecommunication systems
    The session also deals with exposure to environmental electromagnetic fields, reduction of uncertainty and calibration of EMF probes.

  • INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT METHODS FOR AVAILABILITY ANALYSIS OF COMPONENTS AND SYSTEMS
    Organizers: Gaetano Iuculano, Marcantonio Catelani, University of Firenze
    Loredana Cristaldi, Politecnico of Milano Lorenzo Peretto, Paola Rinaldi, University of Bologna

    The Special Session will allow engineers and researchers, involved in measurements methodologies, to meet and discuss about live issues. Nowadays availability represents one of the most important requirements for modern components and complex systems. It plays a key rule in:
    - life-cycle costs
    - risk management
    - logistic support
    - safety
    - mission capability
    - design review
    - reliability prediction
    - certification
    Availability is mainly related to the reliability, diagnostic, mantenability and safety. Hence, grouping  all the interested researchers who usually work in the field of the instrumentation and of the measurement methodologies for the availability analysis of complex systems and promoting useful and beneficial discussions would certainly provide an increasing of  knowledge and an easier diffusion of the most recent findings and proposals in this field. Perspective authors must provide original contributions in this topic,
    which can cover the following aspects:
    - Built-in Test Equipment (BITE)
    - Automatic Test Equipment (ATE)
    - Instrumentation and measurement methodologies for diagnostics
    - Design and implementation of reliability tests
    - Analytical models and algorithms for predictive reliability and mantenability
    - Effects of measurement uncertainty on the estimation of the availability
    paramenters (i.e.MTBF, MTTR)

  • MAGNETIC MEASUREMENTS
    Organizers: Louis Walckiers, Luca Bottura Magnet Test & Measurement Group, Accelerators Technology Dept, CERN, Switzerland Pasquale Arpaia, Department of Engineering, University of Sannio, Italy.

    The Special Session on Magnetic Measurements will provide a forum of
    presentation, review and discussion of Magnetic Measurement Technologies as they are applied principally, but not exclusively, to accelerator magnets. The Session is aimed at physicists and engineers who wish to present and discuss  the latest developments and ideas in all areas related to the measurement of magnetic quantities. Novel measurement principles as well as new applications of known measurement techniques are especially welcome. The following topics will be addressed, but not exclusively: . Field measurement techniques (overview and principles); . Measuring devices (probes and sensorics);
    . Acquisition equipment (electronics); . Software and platform for magnetic measurements (control, acquisition, storage and analysis); . Applications of magnetic measurement techniques; . Industrial developments and latest commercial products.

  • RF AND MICROWAVE MOISTURE AND QUALITY SENSING APPLICATIONS
    Organizers: Dr. Samir Trabelsi, Quality Assessment Research Unit ARS-USDA, Russell Research Center, Athens, GA Dr. Stuart Nelson 

    In many industries, RF and microwave sensors offer an advantageous alternative to classical reference methods for determining moisture content and other quality  factors of materials.  RF and microwave sensors have the advantage of being nondestructive and provide the desired information in real-time, which make them suitable for on-line monitoring and control in many industries.  The advent of reduce-size and inexpensive RF and microwave components provides opportunities for the development of competitive RF and Microwave sensors for moisture and quality determination. Contributions are expected in all aspects relative to the development of such sensors, including measurement concept, design, calibration and testing, and implementation in industrial environments.

  • INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING
    Organizer: Prof. Gabriele D'Antona, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

    Continuous scientific and industrial developments in the field of sensors and communication technology keep offering new means for endeavoring environmental measurements. At the same time they put forward new methodological problems, often characterized by strong interdisciplinary contents and complexity. This special session is organized to allow researchers operating in the field of environmental monitoring to meet and discuss, starting from a common terminological and scientific background in instrumentation and measurements, not only at the single monitoring chain component level, but also at system level of the whole environmental monitoring process. Main session topics, but not limited to, include:
    - Sensors for environmental monitoring
    - Dedicated instrumentation
    - Sensor networking and communication
    - Signal processing
    - Sensors fusion
    - Sensor/model data assimilation for monitoring and forecasting
    - Calibration and traceability
    - Methods for identifying and managing data/models uncertainty

  • ADC FORUM

    The Technical committee TC-10 Waveform Generation, Measurement and Analysis Committee of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society is promoting a Special Track ADC Forum as part of IMtc/06. Since ADC and DAC technology is the THE BOTTLENECKS in all electronic and communications systems the support of the world known producers of these systems is anticipated. TC-10 will present an award (plaque) for the best paper presented in the ADC Forum. TC-10 has been developing IEEE standards for ADCs and related technology for several years. Common terminology and test methods are critical to the meaningful comparison of ADCs and DACs as well as to measuring progress. The result is three standards to date: a.. "IEEE Standard for Digitizing Waveform Recorders" (IEEE Std 1057-1994); b.. "IEEE Standard for Terminology and Test Methods for Analog-to-Digital Converters" (IEEE Std 1241-2000); and, the soon-to-be-released c.. "IEEE Standard for Transitions, Pulses, and Related Waveforms" (IEEE Std 181). A new one - Standard for Terminology and Test Methods for Digital-to-Analog Converters - is prepared now. All the papers concerning ADC and DAC will be collected in the ADC Forum.