TENSYMP2020: THE 1ST VIRTUAL FLAGSHIP CONFERENCE OF REGION 10

Shaikh Fattah, TPC Chair for TENSYMP 2020 and Celia Shahnaz, General Chair for TENSYMP 2020

TENSYMP2020, the first virtual flagship conference of IEEE Region 10 was successfully held from 5^th to 7^th June 2020. This article presents some facts and descriptions of the conference.

During the last phase of paper submission of TENSYMP2020 in the first half of March 2020, the whole world was facing a global COVID19 pandemic. In every aspect of life, there was an unprecedented change that halted all of our regular activities in every corner of the world. The fate of TENSYMP2020 became uncertain. The conference was scheduled to be held as a face-to-face conference at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel, Dhaka, Bangladesh from 5^th to 7^th June 2020. But we, a very strongly motivated program committee, did not lose our hope. And behind us, we got tremendous support from our beloved technical communities. In spite of severe obstacles as a result of the Corona crisis, we received 1,030 valid submissions in 12 technical tracks involving 2,308 authors from 19 countries. These included 201 international papers. The magnitude of this massive enthusiastic submission from diversified geolocations is a clear indication of the preference of TENSYMP as a brand, as well as its 2020 organizers, namely IEEE Bangladesh Section and IEEE Region 10.

Inaugural Ceremony of TENSYMP2020

The inaugural ceremony of TENSYMP2020 was held on 5^th June 2020 at 10:00 AM (GMT +6). The Chief Guest of the ceremony was the IEEE President, Professor Toshio Fukuda, LFIEEE. Special Guests were IEEE MGA Vice President Professor Kukjin Chun, FIEEE, and IEEE R10 Director Professor Akinori Nishihara, LFIEEE. Professor Toshio Fukuda explained the lack of work environment all over the world to conduct research and other regular activities due to COVID19 pandemic. He enthusiastically complimented Dr. Celia and Dr. Fattah to organize TENSYMP2020 in spite of global pandemic and lockdown situation. Professor Kukjin Chun presented MGA activities and expressed his sincere gratitude to the whole team. Professor Akinori Nishihara thanked the organizers for their effort in taking the conference to this large scale. The video link of the Inaugural Ceremony can be found here http://tensymp2020.com/inaugration.php.

A great challenge faced by the organizers was to receive reviews during the worldwide lockdown situation, especially when it was completely locked down in Bangladesh and its neighboring countries. In spite of limited resources and lack of a work environment, the conference reviewers extended their highest possible support by providing very comprehensive reviews to each paper within the specified time limit. The conference received 2,365 double blind reviews from 293 reviewers from 18 countries. Apart from regular reviews, the papers were also checked by the TPC Chair and Co-Chairs taking into consideration the Track Chairs’ recommendation and reviewers’ comments. Finally, 446 technical papers were accepted and registered (43%) for presentation including more than 100 international papers involving authors from 17 countries. In comparison to the number of papers presented in all previous editions of TENSYMP, this is almost three times higher than the maximum 149 papers published in TENSYMP2019. In summary,

• 1,030 valid papers received [2,308 authors, 19 countries, 201 international papers]
• 2,365 double blind reviews from 293 reviewers from 18 countries
• 446 papers were accepted and registered (43%) [102 international papers, 17 countries]

In order to ensure timely dissemination of authors’ research outcomes and shifting the conference dates, it was decided to organize a Full Virtual Conference. The major challenge was to implement this new concept of Full Virtual mode of conference, which has many new components compared to a conventional online meeting. With a view to make it as close as possible to a face-to-face conference, the organizers decided to host live online technical sessions with live question-answers. Considering the various time zones of the authors, the papers were scheduled in convenient timings. The sessions were extended from morning 8:00 AM to night 8:30 PM (GMT + 6 hours) and allowed changes in the draft schedule based on authors’ conveniences as much as possible. Although the authors had the option to present live, considering the smooth uninterrupted operation pre-recorded video presentations were preferred.

The conference program comprised of:

• 71 parallel technical sessions in 12 technical tracks 
• 134 Session Chairs from 14 countries. Details available in http://tensymp2020.com/session_chairs.php
• 44 Keynote/Invited talks from 16 countries with details available in http://tensymp2020.com/speakers.php   and http://tensymp2020.com/invited_talks.php
• 6 special events: WIE, YP, Industry-academia, Humanitarian, Students & IEEE SPS
• Best papers (from each track) were declared during the closing ceremony
• Total participants present in three days: 1869 (unique IDs)

The closing ceremony of TENSYMP 2020 was held on 7^th June 2020 at 7:30 PM (GMT + 6). The Chief Guest of the ceremony was the IEEE R10 Director Professor Akinori Nishihara and the Special Guest was IEEE R10 Past Director and IEEE R10 Advisory Committee Member Professor Lawrence Wong. Professor Akinori Nishihara expressed his thanks to the organizers to arrange such a virtual conference with less than 1% non-presented papers in this very critical global pandemic situation. Professor Lawrence Wong shared his experience of joining various sessions. He praised the smooth operation of the conference and mentioned it as a resounding success. Technical Program Chair Professor Shaikh Fattah finally announced the Best Papers in each track. The video link of Closing Ceremony is available on http://tensymp2020.com/closing_&_award_ceremony.php

Conference proceedings was made available only to authorized users in an online drive. All registered authors, session chairs, reviewers, keynote/invited speakers were presented e-certificates. The links with names of different committees are given below:

• International Advisory Committee: http://tensymp2020.com/international_advisory_committee.php  
• National Advisory Committee: http://tensymp2020.com/national_advisory_committee.php  
• R10 Advisors: http://tensymp2020.com/region_10_advisor.php
• Chairs: http://tensymp2020.com/chairs.php
• Technical committee: http://tensymp2020.com/technical_program_committee.php  
• Organizing committee: http://tensymp2020.com/organizing_committee.php
• Session Chairs: http://tensymp2020.com/session_chairs.php

Please click the link below to see a video recognizing committee members and speakers: http://tensymp2020.com/committee_&_speakers.php

In order to enjoy a video containing the glimpses of TENSYMP 2020 please click the link: http://tensymp2020.com/sessions.php

The detail event schedule of TENSYMP 2020 can be found here: http://tensymp2020.com/schedule.php

Keynote Talks in TENSYMP2020

[The order as per the program schedule]

1. Bi-directional Wireless Power Interfaces for V2G-H2V Applications, Dr. Udaya Madawala, FIEEE, Professor, Dept of ECSE, The University of Auckland, New Zealand
2. Challenges and Opportunities in Robotics as Systems Integration, Dr. Kazuhiro Kosuge, FIEEE, Distinguished Professor, Department of Robotics, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, 2020 Vice President for Technical Activities, IEEE
3. Leveraging Old Tricks in A New World: Efficient Generation of Labeled Data for Deep Learning, Dr. Gaurav Sharma, FIEEE, Professor, Dept. of ECE, Dept. of CS, University of Rochester, USA
4. Latest Advances in Video Coding Technology for Immersive Visual Communications, Dr. Seishi Takamura, FIEEE, Senior Distinguished Engineer, NTT Media Intelligence Laboratories, Japan
5. Sensing and Signal Processing for Autonomous Navigation, Dr. KVS Hari, FIEEE, Professor, IISc Bangalore, India; Vice President-Membership, IEEE SPS
6. Global Electric Power Sector: Engaging with Environmental Issues, Dr. Saifur Rahman, FIEEE, Joseph Loring Professor & Director, ARI, Virginia Tech, USA and Past President, IEEE PES
7. Advances in Noise Modeling in Stochastic Systems and Control, Dr. Bozenna Pasik-Duncan, LFIEE, Professor, University of Kansas, USA and Past Chair of IEEE WIE
8. Empowering Humanity with Accessible and Sustainable Electronic Technology, Dr. Muhammad Mustafa Hussain, FIEEE, Professor, EE, KAUST and Professor, EECS, University of California, Berkeley, USA
9. Intelligent System Applications in Solving Engineering Problems, Dr. SN Singh, FIEEE, Vice-Chancellor, MMMUT, Gorakhpur and Professor (on leave), EE, IIT Kanpur, India
10. Hyperspectral Unmixing: Insights and Beyond, Dr. Wing-Kin(Ken) Ma, FIEEE, Professor, EE, The Chinese University of Hong Kong & SPS Regional Director-at-Large of R10
11. Infrared Image Registration and High Resolution Reconstruction, Dr. Mohammad S. Alam, FIEEE, Professor and Dean, FHD CoE, Texas A&M University – Kingsville, Texas, USA

Invited Talks in TENSYMP2020

Multimedia Signal Processing

1. Tumor Budding Detection in Colorectal Cancer from Whole-Slide Pathology Images, Dr. Mohammad Faizal Ahmad Fauzi, Assoc Professor, Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University, Malaysia
2. A Bridge Between Speech and Image Processing: Image Quality Assessment, Dr. Tetsuya Shimamura     , Professor, GSSE, Saitama University, Japan
3. Estimation of English proficiency from visual information, Dr. Akinori Ito, Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University
4. Trends in Computer-Aided Diagnosis Using Deep Learning, Dr. Amlan Chakrabarti, Professor, A.K. Choudhury School of IT, University of Calcutta, India       

Biomedical Engineering, Bioinformatics and EM

1. Advanced Nano-sensors and IOT-based Devices for U-health Care Applications, Dr. V.R. Singh, FIEEE, NPL, New Delhi and Director, PDMEI and Advisor, PDM University, Bahadurgarh
2. Classification for Covid-19 Infected Lung Using Chest Radiography Images, Dr. Noliza Mohd Noor, Professor, UTMR FoTI, UTM, Kuala Lumpur Campus, Malaysia         
3. The impact of innovative multimodal quantitative methods to control post-traumatic epilepsy, Dr. Dominique Duncan, Asst. Professor of Neurology, USCS NII, LONI, University of Southern California, USA
4. History of Electromagnetics, Dr. Arokiaswami Alphones, Professor, School of EEE, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

AI, IOT, Computer Vision, and Robotics

1. Heart Rate Measurement from Video and Its Applications, Dr. Yoshinori Kuno, Professor, Saitama University, Japan
2. Super-humanoid Healthcare Robotics, Dr. Mohammad Arif Ul Alam, Asst. Professor, Computer Science, University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA
3. IoT in COVID-19 Post-pandemic Life, Dr. Khan A Wahid, Professor, Department of ECE, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
4. Enhancement of Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm for Increasing Performance of Multiple Pursuer Drones in Handling Attacks from Evader Drone Swarm, Dr. Wisnu Jatmiko, Professor, Faculty of Computer Science, University of Indonesia, Indonesia

Humanitarian Technology

1. Can we trust “black box” AI technologies to help society?”, Dr. Greg Adamson, Assoc. Professor, M. SoE, University of Melbourne, Australia & Past President, IEEE SSIT
2. The Role of the Privileged in the Development of Health Technologies for Medically Underserved Populations, Dr. Charmayne Mary Lee Hughes, Health Equity Institute Professor of Kinesiology, San Francisco State University, USA
3. mHealth4Afrika– Strengthening Healthcare Delivery in Resource Constrained Environments, Prof Paul Cunningham Ex Director, IST-Africa Institute, Ireland; Director-Elect, IEEE Division VI; Past Chair, IEEE HAC; Past President, VP Conferences, and DL (2015 – Present), IEEE SSIT

Tutorial, Special Session and SPS Chapters’ Meetup in TENSYMP2020

A tutorial session was held on the last day of TENSYMP2020 during 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM (GMT +6) titled “Machine Learning- Industry Perspective and Applications”. The tutorial was conducted by Snehasis Banerjee, a scientist from TCS Research and Innovation, Kolkata, India. A special session was also organized on “Recent Advances in Wireless Body Area Networks”. In the IEEE SPS Chapters’ Meetup, Chapter Chairs from Australia, India and Bangladesh presented their best practices apart from a keynote by Dr. Wing-Kin (Ken) Maand membership initiatives by Prof. KVS Hari, SPS Membership VP.

WIE and WePower Track in TENSYMP2020

WIE AG Bangladesh Section in conjunction with IEEE Bangladesh Section arranged a WIE and WePower track in IEEE TENSYMP2020 on the second day (6 June, 2020). A two-hour long session was attended by speakers and participants from over 10 countries. The speakers were: 

• Dr. Ruomei Li, Chair of IEEE PES Women in Power
• Dr. Ramalatha Marimuthu, Prof, Dept. of ECE, KCT, India; IEEE WIE Chair (2011-2012)
• Dr. Takako Hashimoto, Vice President of Chiba University of Commerce; IEEE WIE Chair (2015 -2016) & 2019-2020 IEEE Region 10 Secretary  
• Emi Yano, Ricoh IT Solutions and 2019-2020 Chair of IEEE R10 WIE 
• Dr. Celia Shahnaz, Chair, IEEE Bangladesh Section & Chair of IEEE R10 WIE 2016

Dr. Ramalatha Marimuthu provided a presentation on “Women Empowerment and COVID19”. She explained with some examples the need for women empowerment during this pandemic. She stressed that women should be involved in all COVID19 response planning and decision-making. Dr. Takako Hashimoto delivered her presentation on “Women in Professional Development- Research and Career”. She shared some research areas, e.g., energy management, distributed energy, smart city, AI for analyzing electricity consumption, analyzing people’s reaction during COVID 19, and balance between work and raising kids. Dr. Ruomei Li gave a presentation on “Women in Power Lights the Future”. She discussed women empowerment, various strengths and weaknesses of women, mission and vision of Women in Power (WiP) and some opportunities that WiP can provide. Emi Yano presented on ‘What is your leadership? Towards the new normal”. She explained some leadership criteria, e.g. accepting various values and maintaining good relationships. She discussed on making mistakes and taking actions.

Dr. Celia Shahnaz, discussed how she and WIE team in Bangladesh are working on STEM education, recruitment & internship opportunities, professional development and retention. She shared several good practices such as outreach programs in schools and colleges, internship, industrial visits, engaging power and energy companies, and bringing women role models. Nafisa Tasnim gave a short presentation on the initiatives taken by WIE AG Bangladesh Section during the COVID-19 pandemic. After the speakers finished their presentations, the attendees from diversified backgrounds were given an open floor to share their thoughts. 

Dr. Akinori Nishihara emphasized the gender issues and the importance of diversity to make progress and innovation. He shared his thoughts that only a combination of both male and female persons can bring more progress and expects more women to join IEEE activities. Dr. Saifur Rahman made a suggestion to archive all suggestions made by the speakers in one place like a blog which can help in counseling young girls. Professor Lawrence Wong suggested setting up an advisory mentorship program for younger generation to set their goals. Pauline N. Kawamoto from Japan Council WIE; Professor Riri Fitri Sari from WIE Indonesia Section; Natsuko Noda, WIE AG Chair Japan; Dr. Aishwarya Bandla, WIE AG Chair Singapore; Maheshi Dissanayake from WIE AG Chair Sri Lanka; Preeti Bajaj from India; Prof. Norliza Mohd Noor from Malaysia; Rachna Garg from India; Aarti Karande from India; Zuhaina Zakaria from Malaysia; Sudeshna Choudhury from India; Dr. Supavadee Aramvith from Thailand and many others shared their experiences and suggestions about encouraging and mentoring students and young engineers. The session ended with sharing of best practices of different WIE AGs and commending the organizers for pulling out such an interactive track. The session was attended by a total of 53 participants.

Young Professionals (YP) Track in TENSYMP2020

The YP Track was organized by YP Bangladesh and Bangladesh Section at TENSYMP2020 on the 6^th June 2020. The invited speakers of this track were:

• Dr. Takuo Suzuki, Aichi Prefectural Univ., Japan & Chair, R10 YP Committee
• Dr. Nirmal Nair, University of Auckland, NZ & Chair, R10 Prof. Activities Committee

Dr. Suzuki spoke on “Value and Benefits of IEEE Region 10 YP Program”. He explained the value of YP Meetup Programs and importance of recognizing communication styles across different cultures while communicating. Dr. Nair talked about “Students to YP– Effectively adapting to the transition: Volunteer’s Journey through IEEE: My Professional ‘Home’”. He explained the transition to an IEEE leader and emphasized on the power of listening. 

Dr. Celia Shahnaz emphasized the importance of research and technical activities in industry in addition to academics. Dr. Syed Muzahir Abbas, (ANZ YP Coordinator), shared his initiative for internship to promote industry-academia relationship. Irtiza Hoque (Grameen Phone) commented on how in Bangladesh, industries lack the contribution to research fields. John Benedict Boggala (SA R10 YP Coordinator) told about his volunteering experience in YP and how it benefited his career. Jeet Dagha (IEEE Bombay YP Coordinator) explained his plan to connect the YP chairs of all 12 sections of India. A R M Abdullah Rocky (Former YP Bangladesh Chair) spoke about his initiatives to include industry professionals and entrepreneurs in YP activities. Among many others, Upal Mahbub (former YP Bangladesh Chair) from USA; Hossain from Hong Kong Poly; Azfar Adib from Canada; Preethy Warrier from Madras; Hasala Dharmawardena from USA and Imdad Rimon from Japan joined the event and expressed their gratitude. 

Dr. Shaikh Anowarul Fattah (Advisor, YP AG Bangladesh) told about the challenges of early career and how YP can serve as a platform to mitigate these challenges. He said that the industry YP members need to showcase the importance of IEEE in their profession to get support and positive feedback. Finally, Dr. Sajid Muhaimin Choudhury (Chair, YP AG Bangladesh) shared activities and upcoming events of the YP AG Bangladesh. There were 45 participants in the session from home and abroad.

Student Activity Committee (SAC) Track in TENSYMP2020

IEEE Bangladesh Section Student Activity Committee organized a SAC Track at the IEEE TENSYMP2020 on the 3^rd day (7^th June 2020) during 2:00-4:00 PM (GMT+6) for student authors and participants of this conference. The objective of this track was to introduce various student-related opportunities available in IEEE. The speakers were:

• Dr. Elmer P. Dadios, Chair, IEEE R10 Awards and Recognition Committee
• Dr. Huynh Thi Thanh Binh, Chair, IEEE R10 SAC
• Dr. Saaveethya Sivakumar, Student Representative, IEEE R10
• Parkash Lohana, Chair of IEEE R10 MD Committee

In her welcome speech, Dr. Celia Shahnaz unveiled the secrets behind the consistency in growth and retention of student members in the Bangladesh Section. Dr. Elmer P. Dadios gave a talk on “IEEE R10 Awards and Recognition Program” and encouraged the students to apply for R10 awards to get recognition of their good work. Dr. Saaveethya Sivakumar presented her talk on “Perks of Being a Student Member of IEEE” and explained the benefits of joining IEEE and various ways of engagement in IEEE. Dr. Huynh Thi Thanh Binh, delivered her talk on “2020 IEEE R10 Student Activities” and highlighted numerous impactful activities in IEEE R10. Parkash Lohana presented his talk on the membership development and retention process. Finally, Student Activity Coordinator of Bangladesh Section, Abul Al Arabi presented the featured student activities. A total of 54 participants from all over the world participated in the SAC Track. 

Humanitarian Activity Committee (HAC) Track in TENSYMP2020

IEEE Bangladesh Section Humanitarian Activity Committee hosted a HAC Track at the IEEE TENSYMP2020 on the third day (7^th June 2020) at 8:30 am (GMT+6). The speakers were:

• Mary Ellen Randall, FIEEE, MGA Treasurer, MOVE Comm. Outreach Program Manager 
• Kartik Kulkarni, Chair, IEEE Humanitarian Activities Committee 
• Dr. Jing Dong, Assoc. Prof., NLPR, CASIA, China & Chair, R10 HTC
• Sampathkumar Veeraraghavan, Chair, IEEE SIGHT

Prof. Celia Shahnaz, Chair of Women in SIGHT working group, delivered a welcome speech and moderated the entire session. Mary Ellen delivered a keynote talk on MOVE activities and elaborated the detailed process of involvement with such activities. Kartik Kulkarni presented an introduction to IEEE HAC followed by the importance of measurement of social impacts in HT projects. Dr. Jing Dong described Tech4Good and Tech4Humanity and addressed the challenges and opportunities of HTA Projects in the age of artificial intelligence. Sampathkumar Veeraraghavan joined in the evening and presented the SIGHT activities during this COVID-19 pandemic and explained possible ways to build collaboration with IEEE societies. Dr. Shaikh Fattah, Education Chair of IEEE HAC (2018-2020) shared the importance of HAC education online modules. A total of 84 participants from all over the world participated in the HAC Track.

Industry Academia Collaboration Track in TENSYMP2020

The industry academia collaboration track was organized on the first day at 5:40 PM (GMT+6) at TENSYMP2020 by IEEE Bangladesh Section. The session was moderated by S.K. Chowdhury, Chair, IEEE Kolkata Section, India. The invited speakers were:

• Dr. Mausd H. Chowdhury, Prof. & Assoc. Dean, CSEE, U of Missouri Kansas City, USA 
• Pia Torres, Chair, YP Argentina, IEEE IAS Member-at-Large and DL
• Dr. Lance Chun Che Fung, Emeritus Professor, Murdoch Univ, Australia; Chair, R10 EAC

Pia Torres gave a talk on “Professional challenges in the industry 4.0”. She explained the strategy of coping with this new era with a boom of entrepreneur ecosystems focusing on service rather than product. She discussed the process of talent transformation to face industry 4.0. Dr. Lance Fung discussed “Life-long Learning for Sustainable Development-IEEE Educational Activities in the Asia Pacific Region”. He presented various delivery modes of IEEE educational activities, e.g. IEEE learning platform, distance learning, Tech Talk and EPICS in IEEE. Dr. Mausd Chowdhury explained “Programmatic Reform and Academic Innovation for the Next Generation Engineering and IT Education and Research in Beyond Von Neumann and Post Binary Era”.  He emphasized on reimaging STEM Education from industry academia collaboration perspective based on mutual discussions between the two beneficiaries. A good number of participants from both the industry and academia joined the event and participated in the Q&A session. Among others, Dr.  A. B. M. Harun-Ur-Rashid, Professor, BUET and Dr. Shaikh Fattah, Professor, BUET were present. Dr. Celia Shahnaz concluded the session with an expectation to build relationships between industry and academia of Bangladesh by solving more industrial problems engaging our students.

Acknowledgements

For information regarding website links, videos and photographs:

Raihan Ur Rashid, Secretary, IEEE Bangladesh Section

S.M. Saiduzzaman, Newsletter Editor, IEEE Bangladesh Section

Sk Azmaeen Bin-Amir, Virtual Conference Management Chair

Conference Secretaries: Shahriar Rifat, AQM Sazzad Sayyed, Dipayan Saha, A. Rakib Hossain

For information regarding special track reports:

Nafisa Tasnim, Vice-Chair, WIE AG Bangladesh Section

Dr. Sajid Muhaimin Choudhury, Chair, YP AG Bangladesh

Abul Al Arabi, Student Activity Coordinator of IEEE Bangladesh Section

ANM Nasimunnabi, Humanitarian Activity Coordinator of IEEE Bangladesh Section

Irtiza Haque, Treasurer, WIE AG Bangladesh Section

Maruful Hasan Sabbir, Excom Member, YP AG Bangladesh