Date: Wednesday 16 May 2024
Time: 9:05am – 10:20am ET
Place: Virtual (Zoom)
Meeting slides: http://site.ieee.org/comsoc-nmqn/files/2024/06/2024-05-16-MBMC-TC-ICC-Meeting.pdf

Attendees (24):
Adam Noel (AN), TC Chair, University of Warwick, UK
Nan Yang (NY), TC Vice-Chair, Australian National University, Australia
Werner Haselmayr (WH), TC Secretary, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria
Maximilian Schäfer (MS), Educational Service Coordinator, SAC-MBMC Chair for ICC 2025, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
Andrew Eckford (AE), York University, Canada
Yansha Deng (YD), King’s College London, UK
Michael Barros (MB), University of Essex, UK
Sasitharan Balasubramaniam (SB), University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA
Mauro Femminella (MF), University of Perugia, Italy
Pit Hofmann (PH), Technische Universität Dresden
Falko Dressler (FD), TU Berlin
Dadi Bi (DB), King’s College London, UK
Pascal Lorenz (PL), University of Haute Alsace, France
Robert Schober (RS), Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
Dongliang Jing (DJ), Northwest A&F University, China
Pietro Lio’ (PL), University of Cambridge, UK
Daniel Martins (DM), University of Essex, UK
Massimiliano Pierobon (MP), University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA
Yesenia Cevallos (YC), Universidad Nacionall de Chimborazo, Ecuador
Lin Lin (LC), Tongji University, China
Kun Yang (KY), University of Essex, UK
Rudolf Rabenstein (RR), Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
Gaurav Sharma (GS), ABV-IIITM, India
Chia-Han Lee (CL), National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan

Minutes:

1. Call to Order

AN opened the virtual meeting and calls to order. No additional items were raised by the attendees.

2. Chair’s Report (AN)

  • AN talked about various aspects of the MBMC-TC (Purpose and history, membership, officers, links with IEEE ComSoc)
  • AN presented various activities of the MBMC-TC, such as support of IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological, and Multi-Scale Communications (T-MBMC), organization of SAC MBMC tracks at IEEE ICC and Globecom and the endorsement of various technical activities
  • AN introduced MBMC-TC distinguished lecturers (2023-2024): Andrew Eckford, York University, Canada and Nan Yang, Australian National University, Australia

3. T-MBMC Report (SB)

  • SB presented the publication performance of the T-MBMC (2023: 101 submitted papers/500 pages published; 2024: 63 submissions so far); targets are 100 papers and 500 number of pages. SB sees the T-MBMC on a good way and that the number of submissions will further increase
  • SB introduced various special issues/features (e.g., Quantum Biology and Bio-Chem-ICT) that have been published in the past and presents on-going and planned special issues/features (e.g., The Internet of BioNanoThings – Applications, Components, and Challenges and Advances in Synthetic Biology: Artificial Cells and Molecular Communication): https://www.comsoc.org/publications/journals/ieee-tmbmc/cfp
  • SB presented the average time until the first decision and online post. SB noted that the times have been significantly reduced in the last year, but should be further reduced in the future
  • SB presented the acceptance rate (~60%) and noted that it is relatively high for ComSoc, but hopes that it will further decrease in the future as the number of submissions increases
  • AN credited SB for his great leadership on the T-MBMC

4. Conference Reports

a. IEEE ICC 2024, Denver CO, USA (AN on behalf of track chair)

  • Track Chair: Hamdan Awan (HA), Munster Technological University, Ireland
  • 12 valid submissions
  • 20 TPC members, who provided at least 3 reviews per paper
  • 5 accepted papers (41,6%) presented in 1 session
  • HA mentioned that in future more efforts might be needed to increase the number of submissions for future ICC/Globecom to reach pre-pandemic level (20+ papers)

b. IEEE Globecom 2024, Cape Town, South Africa (AN on behalf of track chair)

  • Track Chair: Prabhat Sharma (PS), VNIT Nagpur, India
  • 12 valid submissions
  • Reviews have been assigned, planning 3-4 reviews per paper
  • Similar as for ICC 2024, the number of submissions is very low

c. IEEE ICC 2025, Montreal, Canada (MS)

  • Track Chairs: Maximilian Schäfer, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany and Dimitrios Makrakis, University of Ottawa, Canada
  • No details are fixed yet

d. Future conferences (e.g., Globecom 2025)

  • AN highlighted the need for individuals to chair the SAC-MBMC track at future conferences

CL raised concern that due to the low submission numbers, the SAC-MBMC track could be canceled in future ICC/Globecom. He mentioned that the track is among the tracks with the lowest submission numbers, which is evaluated over 2 years. In order to further exist, 20+ submissions are required. AN promised to continue this discussion and to develop strategies/ideas to increase the number of submissions.

5. Educational Services Report (MS)

  • MS reported on two well attended seminars and pointed out that the recordings are available on the MBMC-TC YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@ieeecomsocmbmc-tc2112)
  • The next seminar will take place on 26 June, 2024, 3pm CET
    • “Microphysiological systems and translational mathematical modelling in drug discovery” by Prof. Peter Gennemark, Linköping University, Sweden and AstraZeneca, Sweden
  • MS mentioned that one additional seminar is planned in Sept./Oct., but the speaker is not fixed yet; MS is happy to receive suggestions
  • MS presented first ideas on an annual summer school co-located with the Workshop on Molecular Communications (MolCom) or ACM Conference on Nanoscale Computing and Communication (NanoCom)

YD suggested to send calendar invites for the educational seminars, instead of just sending the invitation through the MBMC mailing list. This could increase the number of participants by avoiding possible confusion about starting times in different time zones. MS agreed to do this for the following seminars.

6. Social Media Report (AN on behalf of Prabhat Sharma, Social Media Chair, VNIT Nagpur, India)

  • AN reported that the TC has quite a few social media channels (Facebook, X, …). The most regular activities are on LinkedIn (events, highlight papers of T-MBMC, …) and YouTube (seminars, …)

7. Logo Competition (WH)

8. Update to TC Policies and Procedures (AN)

  • AN discussed the purpose of policies and procedures (P&Ps) and the reason for the update
  • AN presented the process to update the P&Ps
  • AN presented the updated P&Ps document in detail, which was shared with the TC members in advance via email. AN highlighted the minimal P&Ps dictated by ComSoc, parts taken from previously approved P&Ps and new content. The major changes were summarized as follows:
    • Definition of member vs voting member consolidated. Note that in the meeting AN was contrasting member vs active member, but it has been already corrected in the published slides
    • Election candidacy and approval processes updated
    • Awards subcommittee creation updated
    • Roles defined for educational Services Coordinator and
 Social Media Chair

RS noted that there could be a push-back of the P&Ps regarding the awards, since TCs are discouraged to give best paper awards. However, since other TCs do it as well, it is worth trying. There were no other comments, questions and concerns regarding the P&Ps.

RS made the motion to approve the P&P, but only KY seconded the motion. Thus, AN proposed to have an anonymous vote of approval. AN asked if anyone disagree with having an unanimous positive vote. Since there were no objections, the P&Ps were considered to be approved by the TC.

AN forward the approved P&Ps to ComSoc Governance Committee and TCB Chair for feedback and he will keep the TC member updated about the procedure.

9. New Business

No new business was raised in advance or during the meeting.

10. Adjournment

AN adjourned.