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The meeting started with President Javier Gozálvez giving a review of some IEEE initiatives which could impact the society. This includes the new IEEE Learning Network, which is designed to publish multimedia content to individuals and companies outside IEEE. This will complement the existing VTS Resource Center.
Finances
Treasurer Tom Rubinstein reported that the
society’s finances were doing fine. The 2018 budget had been revised by IEEE,
who sought savings across the budget. The Finance Committee had made a number
of changes to preserve key initiatives, such as the newsletter. Executive Vice President
Alex Wyglinski discussed the ongoing work of the Long-Range Planning Committee.
Since the last meeting in June, work had focused
on encouraging volunteer engagement, expanding current membership offerings,
and looking at new offerings, particularly focused on industry and the
automotive sector.
New Website
Alex Wyglinski reported that the new
website is expected to go live on 1 December 2017, and has an improved backend
to make it easier to update information.
Membership
Fabrice Labeau reported on Society outreach
to Australia and New Zealand, along with the VTS presence at Sections Congress
in Sydney. The Sections Congress stand proved to be a great success, with many
new contacts from the sections, and it was agreed that this should be repeated
at the next congress in three years. It was also agreed to increase VTS
branding at VTC and VPPC conferences.
Chapters
Oliver Holland reported that work is
underway to form new chapters in China and Latin America, and there is also
interest in chapters in Spain and India, as well as Australia and New Zealand.
A number of chapters had been marked as inactive.
In one case this was a mistake as the forms had been misplaced, while Oliver
was working to try and revive the Chicago and Italy chapters. However, there
had as yet been little luck with the chapters in Greece, Miami and Seoul. The
Malaysia chapter was the clear winner of the Chapter of the Year Award.
The funds for chapter initiatives had
proved very popular and were more than twice oversubscribed. The June board
meeting had agreed to increase funding by 50%, and this was now being
distributed.
Awards
Gordon Stuber reported on the awards which
would be given out at VTC. These were reported in detail in the last
newsletter.
Nick gave an update on the revitalisation
of the Daniel E Noble Fellowship and the Transportation Fellowship. The
necessary paperwork had been sent to the IEEE to change the funding amounts,
but the Daniel E Noble Fellowship requires the agreement of the Motorola Foundation
and we had yet to hear back from them. The aim is to award the first
fellowships in the autumn of 2018.
Javier proposed a new volunteer recognition
program to send a note of thanks, and perhaps our small memento like a pin, to
VTS officers, distinguished lecturers, chapter chairs, distinguished speakers,
editors and conference chairs.
Publicity
Douglas Coates reported on the Publicity
Committee, and the IEEE Public Visibility Initiative. There are opportunities for
VTS members to get involved and be called upon on to speak on their expertise.
Fellows
Abbas reported on behalf of the Fellows
committee that eight nominations had been received this year – seven in
communications and one in automotive. The results will be known in November.
Publications
The new editor of the IEEE Transactions on
Vehicle Technology, Nei Kato, gave an update on the transactions. The impact
factor has increased to 4.066, and Xplore downloads are also increasing to over
two thirds of a million annually. There were in depth discussions on
progressing the connected vehicles series and including autonomous vehicles
within this special section. It was agreed to use any surplus budget this year
to try and clear additional pages in the backlog above the 10,500 page budget
already set for 2017.
On other publication matters, Klaus David
reported on the magazine and Abbas on the newsletter. Dave Michaelson reported
on the IEEE Press Series on Vehicle Technology and the steps to identify a
suitable candidate for series editor.
Connected Vehicles Initiative
Alex gave an update to say VTS is working
with IEEE Educational Activities on an e-learning series on connected vehicles,
which will consist of six 45-minute online lectures. The production schedule
had slipped slightly due to the commitments of the various lecturers, and it is
now expected to be completed for mid-2018.
Conferences
VP—Conferences JR Cruz reported that the 2015
conferences audit was almost complete, with VTC2015-Spring in Glasgow being the
second most financially successful conference ever, only slightly behind
Budapest. 2016 also appears to have been a good year, although final financial
figures are not yet available. VPPC2015 in Montréal was a record for a VPPC.
The preliminary results for VTC2017-Spring in Sydney are also very promising.
One issue that had arisen is the length of time it takes for IEEE legal to
negotiate contracts for conferences, and this is taking up a lot of volunteer
time.
Technical Activities
The three subject area VPs reported on
technical activities. Loïc Boulon reported on the second motor vehicle
challenge, building on the first very successful challenge in 2017. The
registration deadline for the 2018 challenge is January.
Bih-Yuan Ku reported that the 2018 Joint
Rail Conference will be held in Pittsburgh in April, with VTS board member Dave
Thurston as General Chair. They have been around 100 submissions so far.
Bih-Yuan also gave an update on rail transportation standardisation activities,
and noted that the rail transportation standardisation committee website was now
incorporated with the IEEE Standards Association website.
Jae Hong Lee reported on the IEEE 5G
initiative. There was a big 5G presence at VTC in Toronto, including a workshop
on testbeds organised by the initiative. Discussions are underway to hold a Wireless
African conference, hopefully starting next year.
Finally, apart from the officer elections
reported elsewhere in this newsletter, Tom reported on changes to the
constitution and bylaws which had been requested by IEEE to bring the bylaws
up-to-date. These changes were currently underway. | 
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