Date: Monday 28 November 2022
Time: 9am—10am ET
Place: Virtual (Zoom)

Attendees (22):

  • Lin Lin (TC Chair), Tongji University, China
  • Adam Noel (TC Vice Chair), University of Warwick, UK
  • Nan Yang (TC Secretary), Australian National University, Australia
  • Prabhat Kumar Sharma (TC Social media chair), VNIT Nagpur, India
  • Aldri Santos, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil
  • Andrew W. Eckford, York University, Canada
  • Dadi Bi, King’s College London, UK
  • Gaurav Sharma, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India
  • Hamidreza Arjmandi, University of Warwick, UK
  • Harun Siljak, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
  • Jiewen Wang, Osaka Metropolitan University, Japan
  • Kun Yang, University of Essex, UK
  • Maximilian Schäfer, FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany
  • Masoumeh Nasirikenari, Sharif University of Technology, Iran
  • Michael Barros, University of Essex, UK
  • Pascal Lorenz, University of Haute Alsace, France
  • Rinrada Jadsadaphongphaibool, King’s College London, UK
  • Rudolf Rabenstein, FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany
  • Sasitharan Balasubramaniam, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA
  • Shiwen Mao, Auburn University, USA
  • Tadashi Nakano, Osaka Metropolitan University, Japan
  • Tatsuya Suda, University Netgroup, Inc., USA

Minutes:

1. Call to order

Prof. Lin opens the virtual meeting and calls to order. No additional item was raised by attendees.

The minutes of the MBMC-TC mid-year meeting, held on 3 May 2022, were endorsed by the TC.

2. Chair’s report

a) Prof. Lin described the TC:

  • Becoming a full ComSoc TC in 2019;
  • Being dedicated to promoting MBMC research;
  • Providing a forum for discussion and broadening professional opportunities of its members, professional resources and support;
  • Managing MBMC SAC tracks in the IEEE ComSoc flagship conferences (such as ICC and Globecom) and supporting IEEE TMBMC;
  • Co-sponsoring or endorsing other events (4 events endorsed in 2022);
  • Owning mailing list (185 subscribers->199 subscribers) and four social media platforms, including:
    • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IEEE-Comsoc-MBMB-TC-110159238344866
    • Twitter: @mbmctc
    • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14087260/
    • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxklmPswA-uQPZmdO5GJsxw

b) Prof. Lin introduced the TC officers (2022—2023), including the chair, vice-chair, secretary, and social media chair. Also, Prof. Lin introduced the recent and upcoming workshops and summer school endorsed by the MBMC TC, including:

  • 6th Workshop on Molecular Communications, Warwick, UK 13-15 July, 2022 (Contact: Adam Noel)
  • Online Workshop on Molecular, Biological, and Multi-Scale Communications, KCL, UK, 19 Jan, 2023 (Contact: Yansha Deng)
  • 7th Workshop on Molecular Communications, Erlangen, Germany, 12-14 April, 2023 (Contact: Robert Schober)
  • IEEE ComSoc Summer School on “6G and beyond: Communication and Networking Technologies for the Metaverse and the Internet of Robots”, Boston, USA (Proposed by Josep M Jornet)

c) Dr. Sharma introduced the current status of the four social media platforms, e.g., number of subscribers. Also, Dr. Sharma mentioned that currently there is no logo for the MBMC TC. A competition would be held to select the best design for the MBMC TC logo. Dr. Suda asked about the differences in the functions of these platforms and Dr. Sharma explained them.

3. TMBMC report

Prof. Balasubramaniam has been appointed as a new Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of the IEEE TMBMC since January 2023. As the new EiC, he provided a report on the IEEE TMBMC and presented some contents prepared by Prof. Chae, the previous EiC. Some updates include:

  • No more publication delays.
  • Excellent ratings according to the journal evaluation results by Elsevier’s SCOPUS.
  • Some papers have received very high citations.
  • The IEEE MBMC is anticipated to be included in the JCR list with a high citation factor.
  • The EiC’s plans include:
    • Target to get 500 pages per year for the journal;
    • Expand the editorial board;
    • Increase the number of special issues (with solid progress and clear potential topics);
    • Working towards an impact factor soon;
    • Using social media advertisement to attract a wider range of readers;
    • Monitoring closely for fast turnaround in review process;
    • Organising Editorial Board members into areas (to be done in future).

4. Conference report

a) IEEE Globecom 2022 report (Track chair: Prof. Chun Tung Chou, presented by Prof. Lin Lin)

  • Paper submission and acceptance: 13 submitted. 5 accepted, all of which are of very high quality. 3 in-person and 2 virtual presentations.
  • Paper review: Each paper received 3-6 reviews. All together 50 reviews were completed, i.e., on average 3.8 reviews per paper.
  • The Track Chair thanks all authors for submitting their papers to the track and all TPC members for their time, effort and quality reviews.

b) IEEE ICC 2023 report (Track chair: Prof. Michael Barros)

  • Location: Rome, 4—8 December 2022
  • Conference format: Hybrid maybe, to be confirmed later.
  • Paper submission: 18 papers covering different areas.
  • 21 TPC members appointed.
  • Accepted papers (selected) to receive fast-track invitation for IEEE TMBMC (confirmed with Prof. Balasubramaniam).

c) Future conferences

  • IEEE Globecom 2023, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 4–8 December. Masoumeh Nasiri-Kenari will act as the Track Chair.
  • An online MolCom workshop to be held by KCL, UK, on 19 January 2023. Presented by Dadi Bi.
  • 6th workshop on MolCom 2022. Reported by Adam Noel.
  • 7th workshop on MolCom 2023, to be held by FAU, Germany, on 12-14 April 2023. Presented by Maximilian Schäfer.
  • IEEE ICC 2024, Denver, USA. 9–13 June. Hamdan Awan will act as the Track Chair.
  • IEEE Globecom 2024, Cape Town, South Africa. Track Chair has been nominated by the TC.
  • IEEE ICC 2025, Montreal, Canada.
  • IEEE Globecom 2025, Taipei, Taiwan.
    • Track chairs are typically appointed 2 years ahead of the conference. If you’re interested to serve as the track chair, please contact the TC chair.

5. Discussions

Lin described the update and draft of ComSoc TC restructure. TC members’ Feedback is important.

  • All meeting documents and slides are available at https://tc.boards.comsoc.org/meeting-documents/
  • Please send comments and feedback to Prof. Shiwen Mao (TC Board Director, smao@ieee.org) and Prof. Wei Zhang (VP TEA, weizhang@ieee.org).
  • More officers (e.g. related to industry engagement and student connection) would be included in TCs. More information to be discussed and decided at future meetings.

6. New business

No new business was raised.

7. Adjournment

Prof. Lin adjourned.