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The 48th IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference is being held at a time when the Global Wireless Revolution is beginning to take shape. About 700 technical submissions from 31 countries were received setting a record for Vehicular Technology Conferences. There were approximately equal numbers of submissions from each of three regions: the Americas, Europe/Africa and Asia/Pacific. This overwhelming response to the Call for Papers is indicative of active participation of more than 700 authors to see this revolution culminate in wireless telecommunication systems offering value added services unmatched by any other telecommunication system
The technical program is divided into eight tracks, each track is chaired by a track chairperson with the responsibility to ensure papers with high quality content are included in the track sessions. Each track chair is assisted by reviewers who are chosen on the basis of their expertise in the topics covered by that track. It has been a tradition with Vehicular Technology Conferences to hold panels on topics of current interest. Recognizing there is always more than one topic of prevailing interest, seven panel sessions are planned; all of them scheduled as part of day time activities. The four day technical program includes nine tutorials on Monday followed by panel sessions and technical sessions spread over the next three days. In addition many excellent papers will be presented in several poster sessions.
Over fifty reviewers from more than 15 countries assisted the review process. The reviewers were selected on the basis of their technical knowledge, familiarity with the latest developments in the area and experience in reviewing papers for technical journals and conferences. I commend the members of the technical review committee for reviewing approximately 1400 abstracts in a short period of three weeks.
I would like to sincerely thank the graduate students of the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering, Carleton University for managing the flood of electronic submissions close to the deadline. They did an excellent job in deciphering submissions received in many formats and printing them for the review process. I would also like to put on record an appreciation of the efforts of Jose Costa, David Falconer, Roshdy Hafez, Hugh Reekie and Sabah Towaij for filling in for me during my absence form Ottawa at a most critical time.
The role of authors, invited speakers and panelists is pivotal in holding a successful conference. The overwhelming response to the Call for Papers made our task extremely difficult as we could not find place for many good quality submissions in the technical program. My thanks go to the authors, key note speakers and panelists for contributing so much to the conference.
I invite you to attend VTC’98 conference. I am sure that you will find the technical program of this conference exciting and of high quality.
Asrar Sheikh |