IEEE Region8 News Dec 2013 | Page 7

section news Industry trip by IEEE IAS Tunisia Chapter ON 30 May 2013, the IEEE IAS Tunisia chapter organised an industry visit (during the ICALT’2013 conference) to LEONI Wiring Systems company located in Sousse, Tunisia. A group of six IAS members and ten invited researchers enjoyed the visit. LEONI is a global supplier of wires, optical fibres, cables, cable systems and related development services for applications in automotive and other industries. Several technical presentations about cable harnesses for the automotive industry were given in the conference area. The product value chain was shown in an impressive technical tour. Habib M Kammoun, IEEE IAS Tunisia Chapter chair http://sites.ieee.org/tunisia-ias/ IAS/PELS/IES Joint Chapter investigates Wittenstein business and future vision THE IEEE Germany Section Joint IEEE IAS/ PELS/IES Chapter gathered for its first meeting at the headquarters of Wittenstein Ag on 4–5 April. Thursday evening’s reception at the hotel Bundschuh was followed by a short hike to see a wolf pack within the nearby deer park. On Friday we were welcomed by Dr Forati, chairman of the Joint Chapter, and Dr Thomas Kalker, CEO of Wittenstein Electronics, who gave an overview of the group’s businesses. Their products are employed wherever systems and parts have to be driven and controlled with utmost precision. Today they offer intelligent mechatronic drive systems and servos, focussed on their miniaturisation integration network intelligence strategy. Dr Ingolf Gröning spoke about electrical drives for sustainable mobility. Sustainablity means sustainable production as well as efficient operation, for example by maximum power density, custom designed for cycle efficiency. He gave an example of a fully electric racing bike with a complete custom motor integrated into a standard bike, capable of running a complete race. Dr Frank Michel closed the technical session with an overview of Wittenstein’s vision – ‘Industry 4.0’ – in which not only energy is processed by machines, but also process-related information is gathered into ‘an internet of things’. In his example, the additional services are created out of the process data by collecting them in a cloudbased service. Some brief IEEE business followed with Dr Omid Forati presenting the newly elected Chapter officers. The meeting concluded with a tour around the Wittenstein production facilities, as usual being one of the highlights. Dr Andreas Wagener Germany Section Joint IAS/PELS/IES Chapter General chair Thanos Skodras (centre) with Program Committee chairs Lysimachos Kondi (left) and Christoforos Nikou Strong tech line-up and fun social programme ensure event success IEEE Joint IAS/ PELS / IES German Chapter at Wittenstein Headquarter in Igersheim THE 18th International Conference on Digital Signal Processing, the oldest conference in DSP technically co-sponsored by IEEE and EURASIP, was held on 1–3 July on the picturesque island of Santorini, Greece. DSP2013 addressed the theory and application of everything needed to manupulate signals by means of digital devices or techniques. The conference achieved ‘multidimensional success’ by combining a good technical programme with professional networking and a fun social programme. Zero ‘no-shows’ out of the 183 papers were recorded! Three plenary talks were highlights: Touradj Ebrahimi (EPFL, Switzerland), Vincent Poor (Princeton University, USA) and Fred Harris (San Diego State University, USA). Conference proceedings can be accessed online via IEEE Xplore Digital Libr ary. For more information, go to the website at http:// dsp2013.dspconferences.org/ Professor Athanassios Skodras, chair DSP 2013 Greece Section chair IEEE Region 8 News  December 2013  7