October 14, 2008

SIUC to host Intelligent Systems Conference

by Tim Crosby

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- An international group representing electrical engineers will hold a three-day conference at Southern Illinois University Carbondale this month, exposing students, faculty and others to some of the latest technologies and trends in the field.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and its SIUC members will play host to the SIUC Intelligent Systems Conference Oct. 23-26. The conference will feature researchers and industry professionals from around the country, presentations and a job fair.


Media Advisory

Reporters, photographers and camera crews are invited to cover various presentations at the conference. Several opportunities exist, including presentations titled “Revolution at the Edge of the Network,” and “Next Generation Internet Routing,” set for 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Oct. 25, at the SIUC Student Center. For more information, contact Anil Mehta at 618/203-4655 or anil@siu.edu. Additional information can be found at http://ieee.siu.edu/siuis/.


This is the third consecutive year that SIUC is hosting the conference.

Anil Mehta, a doctoral student and instructor in the College of Engineering, said the conference will offer a glimpse into the latest technology as well as technology in development.

“It will be four days of top researchers and professionals from across the nation talking about their work and opening the doors of the future,” said Mehta, one of the conference organizers. “It will give our students time to interact and learn about the future, as well as network with corporate contacts. It’s also an opportunity for students to learn outside the classroom about how people in the industry are applying that information from the classroom.”

Representatives from the following companies will attend: Synopsys Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., and one of the conference sponsors; LSI Logic; Motorola Inc., of Schaumburg; the San Diego Supercomputer Center; and Mitsubishi Laboratories.

Local companies attending include EMAC Inc., of Carbondale, which is also a conference sponsor. An SIUC engineering graduate started another company collaborating on the conference, Moxune Ltd, Mehta said.

The agenda begins with registration and dinner Thursday, Oct. 23, and includes a job fair for SIUC students set for 9 a.m. to noon on Friday, Oct. 24. The conference continues that day with laboratory tours, student poster presentations and company booth presentations, followed by a banquet that evening. Speakers during the banquet will give presentations on various topics, including the future of wireless communications and futuristic magnetic disc recording technologies.

Saturday includes speaker presentations in the morning and afternoon followed by a dinner that evening. It concludes Sunday, Oct. 26, with presentations and workshops in the morning and a closing social gathering following lunch.

Presentations are free and open to the public.

University sponsors include the Office of the Chancellor, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, the College of Engineering dean’s office, the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, the Center for Innovation and the Small Business Development Center, Mehta said.

IEEE, known as “I triple E” in the field, is a leader in areas including aerospace systems, computers, telecommunications, electrical power, biomedicine and commercial electronics. The non-profit organization has about 200 members at SIUC, Mehta said. The organization has more than 375,000 members worldwide, including almost 80,000 student members in more than 160 countries.