IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY
Signal Processing and Computing for Communications Technical Committee (SPCC)
Minutes of Technical Committee Meeting prior to GLOBECOM 2021, held by videoconference

Nov. 17, 2021

1. Introductions – The TC meeting was started at 9:00 AM EST. The SPCC Vice Chair Dr. Jingxian Wu introduced the agenda of the meeting and welcomed all SPCC members to the meeting. Instructions to maintain the meeting through the Zoom tool were provided.
2. Minutes of ICC 2021 meeting (July 13 2021) – The minutes of ICC 2021 SPCC TC meeting were approved.
3. SPCC Scope, Objectives and Organization Structure – The Charter and objectives of the TC, structure and P&Ps were presented. Current and past officers were introduced as well.
4. Motion for Policies and Procedures (P&P) Update –In the previous meeting, a motion was presented by Jingxian Wu to update the P&Ps allowing voting for remote attendees to TC meetings when TC officers are elected. It was seconded and unanimously approved. Motion text: It is moved that the SPCC P&P is amended such that electronic voting procedure developed by the SPCC N&E committee for SPCC election should be allowed when in-person voting is not possible.
5. Technical Program Committee Reports

• SPC Symposium – ICC 2021: Co-chairs for the symposium include Shaodan Ma, George C. Alexandropoulos and Jing Yang. All were recommended by SPCC. The number of submissions was 98, the number of TPC members was 174 and the number of accepted papers was 39, with an acceptance rate of 39.8%. There were 7 sessions.
• SPC Symposium – GLOBECOM 2021: Co-chairs for the symposium include Zhijin Qin (Queen Mary University of London), who was recommended by SPCC. The number of submissions was 127, the number of TPC members was 110 and the number of accepted papers was 52, with an acceptance rate of 40.9%. There were 11 sessions.
• WC Symposium – GLOBECOM 2021: Co-chairs for the symposium include Cong Shen (University of Virginia), who was recommended by SPCC. The number of submissions was 264, the number of TPC members was 238 and the number of accepted papers was 80, with an acceptance rate of 30.3%. There were 16 sessions.
• SAC-MLCOMM Symposium – GLOBECOM 2021: Co-chairs for the symposium include Kamel Tourki (Paris Research Center, Huawei), who was recommended by SPCC. The number of submissions was 187, the number of TPC members was 143 and the number of accepted papers was 73, with an acceptance rate of 39%. There were 15 sessions.
• SPC Symposium – ICC 2022: Co-chairs for the symposium include Nan Yang (Australian National University), who was recommended by SPCC.
• WC Symposium – ICC 2022: Co-chairs for the symposium include Sinem Coleri (Koc University), who was recommended by SPCC.

6. Other Endorsed Conferences by SPCC

• CommNet 2021, Virtual Conference, 3 5 December 2021, http://www.commnet-conf.org

      SPCE representatives:

• George K. Karagiannidis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki , Greece
  • Mohamed Slim Alouini, KAUST, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
  • Faissal El Bouanani , Mohammed V University , Morocco
• ITU Keleidoscope 2021, Online, 6 10 December 2021, https://www.itu.int/en/ITU T/academia/kaleidoscope/2021/Pages/default.aspx

      SPCE representatives:

• Ana Garcia Armada, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
  • George Alexandropoulos, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
  • Jingxian Wu, University of Arkansas, USA
• 2021 15th International Conference on Signal Processing and Communication Systems (ICSPCS), Online, 13 15 December 2021, https://dspcs-witsp.com/icspcs_2021

      SPCE representatives:

• Octavia Dobre, Memorial University, Canada
  • Lajos Hanzo, University of Southampton, UK
  • Nan Yang, The Australian National University, Australia

7. Special Interest Group (SIG) Activity Report

SIG Coordinator: Prof. Fang Fang, University of Durham, UK

The following SIGs reported their activity:

• SIG on Signal Processing Techniques in 5G Communication Systems. Chairs include Chau Yuen, SUTD, Singapore; Woon Hau Chin, Toshiba Research Lab, UK; Yan Zhang, Simula Research Lab, Norway; Linglong Dai, Tsinghua University, China and Shiwen Mao, Auburn University, USA.
• SIG on Signal Processing Techniques for Big Data and Wireless Edge Intelligence. Chair: Cong Shen, University of Virginia; Vice Chair: Jie Xu, University of Miami.
• SIG on REconFigurabLE Intelligent Surfaces for Signal Processing and CommunicatIONS (REFLECTIONS). Chairs include Chair: Alessio Zappone (University of Cassino and Southern Lazio); Vice Chair: Daniel B. da Costa (Federal University of Ceará); Vice Chair: Mark F. Flanagan (University College Dublin); Secretary: Alexios Aravanis (CentraleSupelec;) ETC/best readings liaison: Marco Di Renzo (CNRS & Paris-Saclay University).
• SIG on Signal Processing Techniques for Next Generation Multiple Access (NGMA). Chair: Cong Shen, University of Virginia; Vice Chair: Jie Xu, University of Miami. Chair: Yuanwei Liu, Queen Mary University of London, UK; Vice Chair: Zhiguo Ding, The University of Manchester, UK; Vice Chair: Octavia A. Dobre, Memorial University, Canada.
• SIG on Orthogonal Time Frequency Space (OTFS). Chairs: Weijie Yuan, Southern University of Science and Technology, China; Emanuele Viterbo, Monash University, Australia;Ronny Hadani, Cohere Technologies, USA; Giulio Colavolpe, Parma University, Italy; Zhiqiang Wei, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany.

8. ComSoc student competition

• SPCC Representative: Prof. Rui Dinis, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal

Goal is to recognize students who demonstrate the capacity to improve the lives of people through the application of communication technology. A team led by a Student Member or Graduate Student Member of IEEE Communications Society is eligible. Application deadline was 15 August. Current applications are still under evaluation.

9. SPCC IEEE Standard Activities

• SPCC Representative: Dr. Richie Leo, ZTE Corporation.

Updates about standards of 3GPP, IEEE and ETSI were provided.

10. SPCC TC Newsletter

• Editor: Prof. Xiangwei Zhou.
• Goal: to share important information for the members of the committee; to have some brief contact approximately every six months; to become a useful communication tool; it will be brief and at the same time open for everybody to contribute.

The tenth issue, November 2021, is available at:

https://spcc.committees.comsoc.org/files/2021/11/SPCC-Newsletter-Issue-10.pdf

11. SPCC TC Election Candidates

The candidates for the TC election were announced:

• Chair:

Jingxian Wu, University of Arkansas

• Vice Chair:

Ana Garcia Armada, University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain

• Secretary:

Rui Dinis, Univ. Nova Lisboa, Portugal

Yuanwei Liu, Queen Mary University of London

Shaodan Ma, University of Macau

Xiangwei Zhou, Louisiana State University

12. SPCC Awards

SPCC offers the following awards:

• SPCC Technical Recognition Award
• SPCC Outstanding Service Award
• SPCC Best Paper Award
• SPCC Early Achievement Award.

13. Other Business

Next SPCC meeting will be held during ICC 2022.

14. Adjourn –The meeting was adjourned at 11:00 AM EST. There were 61 people in attendance.

Attendance List