Guidelines and Requirements

Absolute Deadline: April 1, 2014, 11:59 pm, Pacific Time

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IMPORTANT - Please read the following information and instructions before submitting your abstract.

Abstract Rights Transfer to IEEE

IMPORTANT - When authors submit abstracts via the linked abstract submission site below, it is understood that the authors have resolved the intellectual property right issues with their employers and other parties involved, and have transferred their abstract rights to IEEE. Authors who have concerns about intellectual property rights should consult their attorney for legal advice (for example, filing provisional patent applications). The abstracts will be kept confidential until they have been accepted and placed in the conference program. After that time (around the end of June 2014), the abstracts may be published both online and in print, or be accessible through the "Meeting Planner" to help attendees to prepare and/or individualize their conference programs.

Abstract Submission Notes

  • Abstract Format- Each abstract has to be broken down into the following three sections when you submit it: (1) Background, Motivation and Objective; (2) Statement of Contribution/Methods; (3) Results, Discussion and Conclusions. In addition, the total number of characters excluding spaces, title, author names, and affiliations is limited to 2500.
  • Figures and Tables: Figures and tables are allowed as long as they are in Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG or .jpg) or Graphic Interchange Format (GIF or .gif) file format. Each figure or table will count for 500 characters towards the allowed total of 2500 characters. An abstract will also be limited to one page, including all figures.
  • Reducing Size of Figures and Tables: Since all figures and tables need to fit into one abstract page, they may not be able to fit at the original size in your submitted abstracts. If your figures and/or tables are large, please reduce their size so that both the width and height of these items do not exceed 800 pixels before you upload them during abstract submissions (in Microsoft (MS) Windows, you could place your mouse on the figure file for a few seconds to find both the width and height of the figure in unit of pixels and see if they are over 800 pixels). Smaller figures and table sizes will ensure that the production of an electronic abstract book is a reasonable file size, which is helpful in the abstract review process and convenient for users who download hundreds of abstracts of the entire conference later. There are multiple ways to reduce the size of figures. One way is to use the Microsoft Paint program that comes with MS Windows to open the file. Then, in the "Image" menu, select "Stretch/Skew" and enter the appropriate percentage (100%) for both the horizontal and vertical dimensions relative to the original sizes. Finally, save your figure with "Save As" from the "File" pull-down menu in a .jpg or .gif format.
  • Production of Figure and Table Files: There are multiple ways to produce figure and table files in the JPEG or GIF format. The following shows you one way as an example. If you have a Microsoft (MS) Windows Operating system, you could have your figures or tables shown on your computer screen first and then use the "Print Screen" key on your keyboard to capture the entire screen into an invisible "Clip Board" image. Then you could open the Microsoft Paint program that comes with your MS Windows. From the "Edit" menu, you could paste the captured screen image into the program. Select your figures and tables by drawing a box around them using a rectangular selecting tool and then click "Copy To ..." in the "Edit" menu. This will bring up a popup window to allow you save the selection into a ".bmp" file. Open the ".bmp" file first with the Microsoft Paint from the "File" menu, and then select "Save As". When a popup dialog appears, select the file type as "JPEG" or "GIF" to produce the desired file format for your use during the abstract submissions.
  • Student Abstracts: If you are a student, the conditions to participate in the Student Paper Competition and to request Student Travel Support are given in the respective links on the left pane of this website. If you request Student Travel Support, please make selection "Yes" to the question "Do you require travel support?" during your abstract submissions. Otherwise, your requests will not be considered even if you have provided information such as lab name, advisor's name, IEEE membership number, and graduation date, etc. Please note that you can not select "Yes" to request Student Travel Support unless you are an IEEE UFFC member. If you are not a member, please join IEEE and UFFC. A discounted membership is available for students.
  • Oral or Poster Preference: For 2014 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium, the mode of presentation that can be selected by authors during the abstract submission is either "Oral" or "Poster". Although the Technical Program Committee (TPC) will consider the authors' presentation preferences during the abstract evaluation process, the final decision on "Oral" or "Poster" of an abstract will be made by the TPC. Please note that the acceptance of an abstract or not by the conference will solely depend on the quality of the abstract, not on authors' "Oral" or "Poster" selection.
  • Abstract Evaluations: Your abstract will be evaluated by the TPC and the decision to accept, reject or combine abstracts is final. They will also determine the form of presentation, either oral or poster. As stated in the Call for Papers: "Prospective authors should note that poster sessions provide an alternative format which allows for greater flexibility and expanded audience interaction."
  • Presentation Guides: If your abstracts are accepted, please check the Oral Presentation Guide and/or Poster Presentation Guide as appropriate to prepare your presentations.
  • Missed Emails: The following abstract submission site also contains a copy of all emails that the site has sent to you automatically regarding both your abstract submissions and review results (the review results will be available at the beginning of June 2014). If your email spam filters delete the emails, you can always access them using your usernames and passwords (see the "Email History" link after you log in). If you have more than one account, please check all of your accounts.

IMPORTANT - When you use the "Submit My Abstract" link in the online submission site, you will recieve an automatic confirmation email containing your abstract ID.

Absolute Deadline: September 3, 2014


Paper Submission Guidelines

In order for the 2014 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium to be published in a timely manner, it is important that authors follow the submission instructions to the best of their ability. Printed proceedings will not be available from the conference but can be ordered directly from the IEEE Shop: Conference Proceedings. Conference attendees will receive the electronic version of the conference contain all the papers presented at the conference as part of their full registration fee.

As the Proceedings is a record of the 2014 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium, only those papers which are actually presented and defended at the Symposium by the author during either an oral or a poster session will be accepted for publication in the Proceedings. In the event that an author is unable to personally present the paper, she/he MUST be represented in either poster or oral sessions by an individual who is qualified to discuss the technical material in the paper and who will remain in attendance for the full session in which the paper is presented. All the session chairpersons will be recording the presenters attendance, both oral and poster, and sending the results to the Proceedings Editor.

All presenters, both oral and poster, are encouraged to publish in the conference proceedings. Full paper submissions are limited to four (4) single-side pages in the required two-column format. Invited papers can be up to ten (10) pages in length. For all papers: two (2) extra pages may be used at an excess page charge of $125/page. Payments for excess page charge are part of the paper submission process.

Instructions for the generation of the conference papers can be found at the IEEE Proceedings Author Tools Box at the following website: https://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/publishing/templates.html. Here you will find Manuscript Templates for Conference Proceedings, IEEE Citation Reference, and IEEE Keyword Guidelines.

Part of the paper submission process involves standard conversion to PDF, and the authors will be given the opportunity to approve the converted files before the completion of the submission process. As part of the submission process, the author will have to indicate that they have read and conformed to the IEEE Proceedings formatting standards. Authors may risk having their paper not included in the proceedings if there is excessive deviations from the IEEE format standards. Our publication schedule will not allow the authors to make changes to their manuscripts after the deadline. If the papers deviate from the standard format they will be removed from publication.

All submissions will be checked by means of CrossCheck to prevent plagiarism. CrossCheck compares submitted manuscripts against a very large database of published technical papers. Please note that self-plagiarism will also be checked. Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable and is considered a serious breach of professional conduct.

For authors who are including Multimedia content in their papers, they can find supporting Multimedia Materials instructions at the IEEE Author Digital Tool Box, https://www.ieee.org/web/publications/authors/transjnl/index.html. While this site provides the Multimedia instructions for the IEEE Transactions and Journals, the instructions are appropriate for our Proceedings. In simple terms, the author needs to make notation in her/his paper as to the multimedia file name so that a link can be added by the editor. During the standard submission process, the author will be requested to upload the multimedia file.

Final Paper Submission Link

IMPORTANT- Please notice that after you have proofread your paper, you should click the button, "Submit My Paper", and then get an automatic confirmation email containing your paper ID (the same ID number as your submitted abstract). If you do not receive such an email, your paper has not been transmitted to us and you should login to the system to complete your submission. Once you received your confirmation number for your submission, you will not be able to modify/edit your paper. If you find you must modify your submitted paper before the submission deadline, you will need to contact the MIRA staff to reopen your record. Once you do this, you must repeat the entire process and get a new confirmation number.


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Oral Presentation Guidelines

Observing Your Allotted Time

  • The total time allotted to each speaker is 15 minutes. You should plan to speak for 12 minutes and leave 3 minutes for questions.
  • Invited speakers have twice this time, 30 minutes in total, and they should plan to speak for about 25 min, leaving 5 min. for questions.
  • There is NO EXCUSE for using more than your allotted time. Rehearse your presentation several times; projecting slides and doing anything else you would otherwise expect to do at the meeting. It is a discourtesy to your audience, the Session Chair and the other speakers to exceed your allotted time. The Session Chairs are instructed to adhere to the printed schedule for the session. With parallel sessions this is critical to the overall success of the conference.

Organization of Oral Sessions

  • There are six parallel sessions in the conference and the Techincal Program Committee will ensure minimal conflicts of topics between the parallel sessions.
  • Audio and Video Equipment Provided at the Conference: The conference will be equipped with a computer video projector and a computer that is connected to the projector for each oral presentation room. Normal audio equipment such as microphones will be provided.
  • Software Used in the Conference: The computers are equipped with Windows 7 as well as Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 (Office 2010) , and Adobe Acrobat Reader . The PowerPoint 2010 is the preferred projection software offered at the conference.
  • It is strongly recommended to all authors to check their presentation in the Speaker Ready Room for compatibility and proper operation.
  • Avoid Font Problems: Since your computer may have sophisticated fonts (such as special equation symbols) that the conference computers do not have, it is suggested that when you save your PowerPoint presentations, use "Save As" from your "File" pull-down menu. When a dialog box pops up, click on the "Tools" menu on that dialog box and select "Save Options". Then, check the option "Embed true type fonts". Click "OK" and then click "Save". This allows you to include the fonts you are using in your presentations to minimize the font incompatibility problems. Otherwise, any fonts that are not recognized by the conference computers would be incomprehensible. In addition to the default ".pptx" file format, we suggest that you also save a copy of your presentations in the ".ppsx" (PowerPoint Show) format for safe (the ".ppsx" version may also include some of the special fonts in your presentations). If you have a full version of Adobe Acrobat, we suggest you also save (or print) your presentations into a ".pdf" format and thus you will be able to use the free Adobe Reader software to present in case nothing else would work.
  • Movies or Videos: If you have movies or videos, the best way to present them properly is to use your own laptop computers since the conference computers may not have the Code/Decode (Codec) software that is necessary to play your movies or videos. If you do not wish to bring your own computers, you may have to convert all of your movies and videos to the Moving Picture Experts Group 1 (MPEG1) format to ensure a cross-platform compatibility. In addition, the movie or video files should be placed where the links in your presentations are pointing to. To make it easy, you could place the movies and videos in the same folder as your ".pptx" or ".ppsx" files when you prepare your presentations and then copy all these files together to a folder or the desktop of the conference computers.
  • USB Thumb Drives: Nowadays it is convenient to save your PowerPoint presentations in a USB 2.0 thumb drive. The conference computers will be equipped with the USB 2.0 interfaces. However, some USB drives may have security or driver issues that may prevent the drives from being recognized by the conference computers. Please scan your USB drives to remove viruses if there are any before you bring them to the conference.
  • CD or DVD Backup: You could also save a copy of your presentation on a CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+/-R, or DVD+/-RW as a backup in case your USB thumb drives do not work with the conference computers (such as missing drivers or having security protections). When you use CD or DVD media, you should "close" (not be able to add any more files) them to increase the chance that these media could be read by the conference computers. If you use DirectCD to save your presentations, please make sure they are readable in a computer without DirectCD software installed.
  • VGA Adapters: The conference computer projectors will be equipped only with a standard 15-pin analog Video Graphic Array (VGA) connector. If you decide to bring your laptop computers that do not have a VGA port, it is your responsibility to bring all necessary video output adapters with you so that your computers can be connected to the projectors (your computer vendors usually sell or ship such converters with your computers). In addition, the highest resolution of the computer projectors is 1024 x 768 pixels and the resolution of your laptop computers may need to be adjusted properly.
  • 230V-110V Voltage Converters: Chicago uses 110V/60Hz as its power standard. If your laptop computers do not work with 110V/60Hz, it is your responsibility to bring all necessary power converters. In addition, please plug the power adapters into the power strips so that your laptop computers will not run out of power during your presentations. Please also notice that the plug of the power adapter of your laptop computer may not necessarily fit with the 110V power strip. In this case, international converters/adaptors may be needed for you to use the power strips.
  • Backup Your Laptop Computers: We suggest you make a copy of your presentations on a USB thumb drive in case your computers are damaged, lost, or cannot be used for whatever reasons.

Good Practices

  • Show no more than 1 slide per minute of speaking time. This means approximately 10-12 slides MAXIMUM for the 12 minutes of presentation at the symposium. Remember, the last three minutes of the presentation are for questions from the audience. It detracts from the quality of the presentation to flash numerous graphs, equations, or tables on the screen in rapid sequence in an effort to squeeze a presentation into its allotted time.
  • Make the letters on your slides BIG ENOUGH. Suggested minimum font is 14.
  • Put no more than 12 lines of text or 4 curves on any slide.
  • Avoid lengthy tabulations of numerical data and limit equations to those for which the terms can be properly defined.
  • Your audience needs time to interpret the data that you present. While you are very familiar with the data displayed, the audience is not. Describe the abscissa, coordinates, units and the legend for each curve.
  • When you display a curve, tell the audience what they should be looking for in order to grasp the point you are trying to make. The audience will not have time to figure it out for themselves.
  • Use repetition in your talk to ensure the facts are understood by the audience.
  • In addition to the body of the talk, present an introduction and a summary or conclusion.
  • Include only information or data that can be properly explained in the allotted time.
  • Repeat any questions that are posed to you.
  • If a question requires a lengthy reply, suggest that you and the person asking the question meet after the presentation. Then take the discussion out of the meeting room.

Additional details will be provided closer to the date of the conference

Poster Presentation Guidelines

  • One poster board is allocated to each presentation. The recommended poster size is 36 inches high by 48 inches wide ( 92 cm x 122 cm ).
  • Posters must be mounted using tapes/pins provided by the organizing committee.
  • Please note that there will be two poster sessions per day, therefore two posters will use the same board in the day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. For this reason, be considerate and remove your poster in the designated time after your session is over, to allow enough time to the next authors to place their posters.
  • Each poster presenter is required to defend his/her poster during the respective poster session slot for the paper to be included in the conference proceedings.
  • Simply posting the pages of your written version of the proceedings paper is NOT effective and thus NOT acceptable for your Poster Paper Presentation.
  • The title of your poster paper should be done in block letters which are AT LEAST 8 to 10 cm (3 to 4 inches) high.
  • All text must be easily readable from a distance of 1 to 2 meters. Make the lettering at least 1 cm high, smaller lettering will not be legible from a distance of 1 to 2 meters.
  • All graphs and charts should be AT LEAST 25 X 30 cm (approximately 8.5 x 11 inches) or larger.
  • It is a good idea to sequentially number your materials in the poster. This will indicate to the viewer a logical progression through your Poster Paper Presentation.
  • Provide an introduction (outline) and a summary or conclusion for your Poster Paper Presentation.
  • Prepare your Poster Paper Presentation carefully so that it can be used as the basis to explain and answer questions from the viewers.
  • It is helpful to have copies of the written version of your paper available for those viewers who may want to study specifics of your work in more detail.
  • Have your business cards available for those who may wish to contact you at a later date.
  • Bring along a tablet of blank paper that you may use for a discussion of technical details relating to your poster paper.

Additional details will be provided closer to the date of the conference