IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine - November 2020 - 4

CIS Society Officers
President - Bernadette Bouchon-Meunier,
CNRS-Sorbonne Université, FRANCE
Past President - Nikhil R. Pal,
Indian Statistical Institute, INDIA
Vice President - Conferences - Marley M. B. R.
Vellasco, Pontifical Catholic University of
Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL
Vice President - Education - Simon M. Lucas,
Queen Mary University of London, UK
Vice President - Finances - Pablo A. Estévez,
University of Chile, CHILE
Vice President - Members Activities - Carlos A.
Coello Coello, CINVESTAV-IPN, MEXICO
Vice President - Publications - Jim Keller,
University of Missouri, USA
Vice President - Technical Activities -
Luis Magdalena, Universidad Politecnica
de Madrid, SPAIN

depart title

Publication Editors
IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks
and Learning Systems
Haibo He, University of Rhode Island, USA
IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems
Jon Garibaldi, University of Nottingham, UK
IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation
Kay Chen Tan, City University of Hong Kong,
HONG KONG
IEEE Transactions on Games
Julian Togelius, New York University, USA
IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental
Systems
Yaochu Jin, University of Surrey, UK
IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in
Computational Intelligence
Yew Soon Ong, Nanyang Technological University,
SINGAPORE
IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence
Hussein Abbass, University of New South Wales,
AUSTRALIA
Administrative Committee
Term ending in 2020:
Janusz Kacprzyk, Polish Academy of Sciences,
POLAND
Sanaz Mostaghim, Otto von Guericke
University of Magdeburg, GERMANY
Christian Wagner, University of Nottingham, UK
Ronald R.Yager, Iona College, USA
Gary G.Yen, Oklahoma State University, USA
Term ending in 2021:
David Fogel, Natural Selection, Inc., USA
Barbara Hammer, Bielefeld University,
GERMANY
Yonghong (Catherine) Huang,
McAfee LLC, USA
Xin Yao, Southern University of Science
and Technology, CHINA
Jacek M. Zurada, University of Louisville, USA
Term ending in 2022:
Cesare Alippi, Politecnico di Milano, ITALY
James C. Bezdek, USA
Gary Fogel, Natural Selection, Inc., USA
Yaochu Jin, University of Surrey, UK
Alice E. Smith, Auburn University, USA

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MCI.2020.3019869

Bernadette Bouchon-Meunier
CNRS - Sorbonne Université,
FRANCE

President's
Message

Living in a Virtual World

n this year 2020, we have learned to live in a virtual world. Besides
the disastrous effects of the pandemic on our health and privacy,
can we say that this virtual world is a good or a bad thing? The
reality is certainly more mixed than it appears at first glance.
None of the conferences sponsored or co-sponsored by the CIS
will ultimately be held physically in 2020.
In particular, the flagship conference IEEE WCCI 2020, planned
to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, had to move to a virtual form. It was a challenge to
handle more than 1800 papers to be presented online and to organize the virtual conference, taking into account all the technical constraints and time zone issues. I express
my thanks to all those who contributed to its success. In the end, more than 2300 participants were able to attend, thanks to the outstanding quality of the program as well as
the reduced registration fees and the various grants provided by the CIS to its members. Most of them, students and young professionals presenting a paper, or members
not presenting a paper, could attend the conference free of charge. All the lectures and
paper presentations were available on demand and easier to follow in the case of parallel
sessions than in a physical conference.
In this sense, a virtual conference can be regarded positively, as it allows a larger number of participants to attend by avoiding travel expenses, paying little or no registration
fees and being able to cope with a busy personal schedule. In particular, participants from
developing countries or students benefit from the virtual form of conferences, and it
seems that more women also attend than in the case of physical conferences.
The negative aspect is the lack of physical networking, friendly discussions, ease of
interaction with plenary or keynote lectures during coffee breaks, even if it is possible to
ask live questions to the authors after their presentations. Another negative aspect is clearly the difficulty of having a schedule that is compatible with all normal working hours in
the world. It is of course possible to only watch the videos, but the concept of conference is then lost and replaced by a solitary visualization of a series of slide presentations.
In any case, there is nothing else possible in 2020 and I can only recommend that you
attend all the CIS-sponsored virtual conferences that will be held until the end of the year.
I am sure that you will appreciate their scientific programs and you will be happy to virtually meet the authors, given the effort made by the organizers to create conditions as close as
possible to normal conferences. In particular, you will not miss the second flagship conference of this year, IEEE SSCI 2020, held virtually in Canberra, Australia on December 1-4,
2020, and co-located with an IEEE CIS Summer School on Artificial Intelligence.
Beyond conferences, the pandemic has changed the way we meet CIS members
and we have had more virtual meetings this year in technical and administrative committees or chapters, than we had physical meetings in the past. It will certainly be
interesting to preserve virtual meetings in the future, in complement to physical meetings we are used to and we will be happy to organize again.
Stay safe and be optimistic. We will meet again in person in the future!
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MCI.2020.3019870
Date of current version: 14 October 2020

IEEE COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2020

IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine - November 2020

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