Relations of friendship and cooperation between the IEEE and the Radio-Electronics Association of Vietnam

During the past 25 years, the Radio-Electronics Association of Vietnam has collaborated with scientific institutions in the country (the National Program KC-01, the R&D centers of DGPT, VEIC, Ministry of Post & Telecommunications,-now the Ministry of Information & Communication) to hold regular Vietnam Conference on Radio & Electronics (REV Conference) in the even years. Since 2008, eleven REV Conferences were held.

Although REV biennial conferences are national events, many international scientists and industrialists attended, viz. Vietnamese scientists living abroad, representatives of industrial groups coming from European Community, South Korea (those who are investing or preparing to invest in Vietnam), scholars from CNES (France), BNSC (United Kingdom), and professors at prestigious universities in the world.

Establishment of relations of friendship and cooperation between IEEE and REV

IEEE Inc. paid attention to REV’s academic activities pretty soon. Early in November1992 Prof. Vijay Bhargava, the senior level IEEE volunteer that assisted IEEE Presidents in negotiating sister society agreements in India, Japan and Russia, attended the 4th  REV conference. In the welcoming speech he made a brief introduction of IEEE Inc., an international academic organization that had 365 thousand (currently 425 thousand) members in 132 countries (currently 160 countries).

Leaders of REV warmly welcomed him, and invited IEEE to join the further academic events organized by REV.

In a visit to Singapore Prof. Nguyen DinhNgoc (Vice-President of REV), was introduced by Mr. Teo Tat Khai, President of the Singapore Computer Society, to the IEEE’s Asia-Pacific Office (IEEE APO). At the meeting they discussed the necessity of an official visit of IEEE HQ delegation to REV to accelerate the establishment of relations of friendship and cooperation.
As a result a high-level delegation of IEEE visited REV in 1995. The delegation under the leadership of IEEE President 1995 Prof. James (Tom) Cain comprised of: IEEE President 1994 Prof. H. Troy Nagle, IEEE Region 10 Director Prof. Paul YS Cheung, and Prof. Felix Wu (IEEE Fellow), Chairman of the Singapore Computer Society Chapter Mr. Teo TatKhai. Members of the delegation were not only senior officials of IEEE, they were also eminent experts on various specialized areas of the electrical and electronics sector, e.g.:

• Prof. Tom Cain the educator of computer science has had a major role in creating accreditation programs to establish standards in the U.S. and abroad. He led the effort to establish the Computing Sciences Accreditation Board (CSAB), and there are now more than 250 accredited programs in the computing sciences. He also worked to expand accreditation internationally, establishing a series of accreditation workshops in South America, Central America and Europe.
• Prof. H. Troy Nagle is Professor of electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University, research Professor of biomedical engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  His primary interest is in the creation of medical instrumentation systems that contain biologically important sensors. Dr. Nagle received a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Auburn University, and a MD degree from the University of Miami School of Medicine.
• Prof. Paul YS Cheung received his PhD degree from Imperial College of Science and Technology. He worked with the Queen’s University of Belfast and the Hong Kong Polytechnic before joining the University of Hong Kong in 1980, where he is currently the Dean of Engineering. His research interest includes advanced medical electronics, biomedical signal processing, medical image processing. He also is an expert in computer systems, specializing in structured parallelism and the algorithm to emulate the biomedical system 
• Prof. Felix Wu received his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. He taught at the University of Pittsburgh before joining the faculty at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley (Professor in 1982-1997, Professor Emeritus 1997-present). He served as Pro Vice Chancellor (Research) at the University of Hong Kong from 1997 to 2000. He is currently Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering, Director of Center for Electrical Energy Systems at HKU, and Director of HKU-Tsinghua Shenzhen Power System Research Institute. He was awarded the IEEE Fellow in 1989. He has been a Visiting Professor at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, University of Tokyo, Univerdita Degli Studi di Cassino, Tsinghua University, and was a Board Member of Shantou University (2000-2003). He is a founding member of International Institute for Critical Infrastructures and served as its President from 2003-2005.

IEEE-HQ delegation visit to REV

The gifts that IEEE HQ delegation brought to REV are academically invaluable; it included sets of books on electrical and electronic professional standards prepared by IEEE and recognized by ITU as international standards; each standard volume for a specialized domain bears a specific cover color (e.g. Red Book, Yellow Book, Blue book, etc); the IEEE Dictionary of Electrical and Electronics Terms, and many years collections of  research journals such as IEEE Transactions, and  popular magazines such as Spectrum, Potential, that they still continue sending monthly new issues 5 years on.

From left to right – 1st row: Prof. Paul Cheung, Prof. Tom Cain. Minister of MOSTE Dang Huu, Prof. Nguyen van Ngo; 2nd row: Prof. Felix Wu, a Director of MOSTE, Prof. H. Nagle Troy, DSc Pham Khac Di

IEEE HQ delegation was not only warmly welcomed by Vietnamese scientists in electronics, telecommunications and radio physics, but also by Vietnamese high-rank officials as Academician Dang Huu, Minister of MOSTE and Dr. Dang van Than President of DGPT.

REV and IEEE delegations discussed thoroughly on the draft of “Memorandum of  Understanding between The Institute of  Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. and Radio-Electronics Association of  Vietnam” 

We agreed that section 6 of the memorandum was “The other cooperation agreements could be in the future, for example between REV and a technical society of the IEEE, or between REV and branch of the IEEE (IEEE Sections), which is the subsection of this agreement”

Nevertheless the memorandum was not signed immediately. We translated the draft into Vietnamese for President Than approval before sending it to the IEEE President. The MOU was then signed in 1996 between President Tom Cain and me in the presence of IEEE President 1996 Wallace Read when I visited the USA. Since then the conferences REV ‘96 and REV ’98 organized respectively in Nov.1996 and Nov.1998 were technically sponsored by IEEE. 

Establishment of relations of friendship and cooperation with IEEE/ComSoc

In 1997 Prof. Stephen B. Weinstein President of  IEEE Communications Society attended the International Exhibition & Conference TELECOMP ’97 and profited of the occasion to meet the REV’s President Dang van Than and his staff with the proposal to establish an IEEE / ComSoc Chapter in Vietnam. 

Foreseeing that the procedure of establishing a foreign organization in Vietnam may be long, the two sides agreed that in the process of waiting, they would cooperate on activities. So on 01/01/1999 an agreement of collaboration between IEEE/ComSoc and REV was signed. This Agreement is an integral part of the framework agreement of cooperation between IEEE and REV.

• The agreement concentrated mainly on joint-activities, both sides finding appropriate opportunities to sponsor and to participate in each other’s academic events; Members of each party may submit papers to the other’s sponsored meetings at the same registration rate and with the same privileges and limitations.
• Members of REV may subscribe to the ComSoc publications at reduced Sister Society rates.
• REV promotes the sale of ComSoc publications by allowing advertisements prepared by ComSoc to be included in the REV promotional literature and publications. 
• Encourage membership in both REV and ComSoc in order to promote co-operation between REV and ComSoc, 
• ComSoc will consider Technical Co-sponsorship and assist to organize the Vietnam National Conference on Radio & Electronics which is co-sponsored by REV. ComSoc will assist REV in the indexing of proceedings for co-sponsored meetings in Vietnam.

By the technical sponsorship granted to the biennial national conferences REV2002, REV2004, and REV2006, IEEE/ComSoc has promoted these conferences to become international events both in quality and organization.

Prof. Byeong Gi Lee and Dr. Roberto Saracco participated in REV 2006

In his visit to REV in March 2007 President Nim Cheung agreed with REV’s leaders to co-organize annual international conference. 

So from 2008 REV co-operated with IEEE/ComSoc to organize the international conference ATC/REV 2008. 

This is a form of Joint-Conference, to support each other in terms of information and to create favorable conditions for attendees and authors to attend simultaneously both the ATC and REV, but the purpose of each event is quite different:

ATC is an international conference; where the content of papers presented has not been published anywhere else, with keynote speeches introducing new ideas as well as new trends for the development of future communication technology. The language used is English.

REV is a national symposium to sum up the new achievements of electronics and communications science and technologies all around the world (taking partly information from ATC) and in the country. Through the symposium, attendees formulated recommendations submitted to the Vietnamese Government, to help leaders to make correct decisions and policies for the development of ICT in Vietnam. The languages used are both in Vietnamese and English (because there are also reports from foreign authors). Of course the main theme, program committee, and conference proceedings of each event is different

Conference proceedings of ATC were listed as Portfolio Conference of IEEE Communications Society: http://wwwcomsocorg/conferences/portfolio-events.

The conference proceedings are published in IEEExlore, eg:

• 2008: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/mostRecentIssue.jsp?punumber=4723755
• 2009: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/mostRecentIssue.jsp?punumber=5341812
• 2010: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/mostRecentIssue.jsp?punumber=5666967
• 2011: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/mostRecentIssue.jsp?punumber=6022617
• 2012: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/mostRecentIssue.jsp?punumber=6391319

Following a brief overview of some results of ATC conferences  

Together with the co-organization of the annual ATC conferences, REV has also co-operated with IEEE/ComSoc to publish a quarterly journal in English, the REV Journal on Electronics and Communications, abbreviated as JEC. 

The purpose of the journal is to offer an opportunity to international research community as well as to Vietnamese scientists to publish high-quality research results in the areas of electrical, communications and computer engineering. The journal also aims at enhancing the quality, and increasing the number of publications from researchers working at Vietnamese universities and research institutions in the related areas. The journal features research and technical overview articles selected from the annual international conferences ATC, as well as from open submissions. All the articles are carefully selected by qualified researchers through a blind reviewing process.

Since 2000, President of ComSoc 2000-2001 Roberto de Marca has the initiative to hold annual meeting with presidents of its sister societies, called “IEEE/ComSoc Sister Societies Summit” (abbreviated as CSSS). Depending on the suitable conditions of each year, CSSS can be held in one or two different locations.

In year 2000 the meeting of sister societies in South Asia and South East Asia was organized in Singapore, while the remaining sister societies meeting was held in Tokyo.REV was invited to attend the meeting in Singapore. 

In South Asia and Southeast Asia, there were only 3 sister societies, viz. IETE (India), CIEE (Taiwan) and REV (Vietnam), but the organizers have also invited IES (Singapore), and the IEEE APO. Each participant had to report on its organization and activities, The activities of IETE (India) and REV (Vietnam) are very similar, but those of  IETE are of larger scales, and receive more support from their local authorities (for example degrees awarded by educational institutions of  IETE are recognized by the Government of India). Therefore after the main conference days (24 ~ 25/7/2000), I had an exchange of experiences with Dr. H. S. Sharma, President of the IETE for a full morning.

South Asia and South East Asia Sister Societies Summit 2000 in Singapore

CSSS 2002 was held in Taipei (17 ~ 21/11/2002) in conjunction with GLOBECOM 2002. I gave a report on “The contribution of REV members to Vietnamese state-level projects, viz.: the Vietnam domestic geostationary satellite VINASAT, and the Master Plan on the Development of Remote Sensing Technology in Vietnam covering the period  2001-2010”. A touching case encountered when Dr. Pham Dac Bi, delegate of REV met his former teacher Prof. Istvan Frigyes, delegate from HTE (Hungary).

CSSS 2002 in Taipei

CSSS 2003 was held in San Francisco (1 ~ 5/12/2003) in conjunction with GLOBECOM 2003. Report of our association is entitled “REV and the application of satellite technology in Vietnam”.

CSSS 2003 in San Francisco

At this meeting I met old friends coming from Russia, Hungary, Croatia (Yugoslavia) that have previously worked together with me in COMECON, especially Prof. Yuri Zubarev, Correspondent Member of Russian Academy of Sciences, General Director of the Radio Research & Development Institute. He has helping me a lot when I carried out works on microwave STL links for the national broadcaster “Voice of Vietnam”.  I introduced him to Dr. Alex Gelman, the Vice President of ComSoc who speaks Russian fluently and highly appreciated Russian people.

CSSS 2003 was held in Paris (20/6/2004). The representative of REV was Dr. Thang Vu Duong, (then working for Orange, France Telecom in Paris). He presented a report co-authored with me, entitled “Contribution of REV to the Development of ICT Human Resources in Vietnam”.

CSSS 2005 was held in Seoul (16/5/2005). REV has sent letter of congratulations. 

CSSS 2006 was held in Istanbul (12/6/2006). I had accepted to attend but failed to reach Istanbul due to a sudden change of flight schedule.

CSSS 2008 and CSSS 2011 were held in Tokyo. The representative of REV was Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Xuan Nam who presented reports on the joint-activities of  IEEE/ ComSoc and REV, especially on the annual ATC Conferences and the JEC journal.         Dr.Tran Xuan Nam is also the founder of Vietnam Comsoc Chapter in 2008.

The meeting of sister societies in the Asia-Pacific region was held in Hanoi, on the occasion of the international conference ATC-REV 2012.

IEEE-ComSoc Asia Pacific Sister Societies Summit 2012 in Hanoi

REV has also actively supported the Global Information Infrastructure Symposium organized by IEEE/ComSoc in partnership with UPEMLV (University Paris Est. Marne la Valle) and hosted by Danang University of Technology in 4 ~ 6/01/2011.

The Conference consists of 2 plenary sessions and 5 technical sessions .Attending the GIIS-2011  are experts in computing and information infrastructure coming from many countries, viz.: the Vietnam Institute of Information and Communications Strategy (NIICS); Hanoi University; Manhattan College – USA; University of Paris 13, University of Paris 6, University of Bourgogne-France; Le Quy Don Technical University – Vietnam; POSTECH-Korea; University of Aegean-Greek; The Federal University of Santa Catharina – Brazil.

REV has also actively supported the Indo-china Roadshow of  IEEE/ComSoc throughout Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore.

In July 14th, 2008 REV organized a meeting at the Vietnam Radio Frequency Directorate where the COMSOC delegation headed by President Doug Zuckerman met with Vietnamese leaders from the: 

• Vietnam Ministry of Information and Communications 
• Voice of Vietnam (VoV), 
• Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT),
• National Institute of Information and Communications Strategy
• Viettel Telecom Cooperation, 
• Vietnam Multimedia Corporation (VTC), 
• Vinaphone, Mobifone, 
• Universities in Hanoi 

The delegation was welcome by Dr. Doan Quang Hoan, Director General of RFD who underlined the importance for Vietnam to have strong relations with IEEE-COMSOC. 
In his reply President Doug Zuckerman pointed out that the meeting represents a further proof of the commitment of COMSOC throughout the world. One of the goals of the meeting is to increase awareness of COMSOC in the various organizations represented, as a means to increase cooperation and the number of members. 
Roberto Saracco gave a presentation on Telecommunications Ecosystems Evolution, emphasizing the role of COMSOC in facilitating discussion and understanding of this very complex area that has seen an involvement from industry and university alike. 

In July 15th at Ho Chi Minh City, the delegation was welcomed by the HCMC Department of Posts and Telematics, by the Department Manager, Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan and his staff. 

COMSOC delegation emphasized that Institutions and Government should become the driving force in the evolution of the overall production, delivery and retail environment. It is not sufficient to invest in deploying modern infrastructure, and it is essential in growing at the same time the capabilities to use these infrastructures. Standards are considered very important by the Post and Telematics HCMC Department. This may be studied in cooperation with ComSoc related Societies.

So far, until today six Presidents of  IEEE/ComSoc visited REV, among them four are incumbent Presidents, viz.:

• Stephen Weinstein, ComSoc President 1996-1997
• Celia Desmond, ComSoc President 2002-2003
• Nim Cheung, ComSoc President 2006-2007
• Doug Zuckerman, ComSoc President 2008-2009  

2 others have attended ATC/REV conferences before becoming Presidents of the ComSoc, viz.:

• Byeong Gi Lee, ComSoc President 2010-2011
• Vijay Bhargava, ComSoc President 2012-2013

Besides, Dr. Roberto de Marca, ComSoc President 2000-2001 was the ComSoc high-rank official that we have met several times on the occasion of the CSSS 2000, CSSS 2002, CSSS 2003, CSSS 2004, CSSS 2009 and CSSS 2011. 

These seven presidents have left unforgettable marks on the history of cooperation between IEEE-ComSoc and REV.

Visit of ComSoc President Nim Cheung to REV in 2007

Visit of ComSoc President Celia Desmond to REV in 2002