IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Spring 2019 - 6

PRESIDENT'S CORN ER

Bram Nauta

Recognizing Elegant Circuit Design

I am pleased to open this "Preside nt 's Co r n e r " colu m n w it h t h e
announcement that the IEEE SolidState Circuits Society (SSCS), in partnership with the IEEE Foundation,
has worked for the last two years
with the Brokaw Family Foundation
to establish the Paul and Sonja Brokaw Circuit Design and Application
Fund. This collaboration has led to a
new Society award, the IEEE Brokaw
Award for Circuit Elegance, which
will honor the legacy and contributions of Dr. Paul Brokaw. Brokaw, as
many of you know, is a luminary in
our industry and was featured in
the Summer 2013 issue of IEEE SolidState Circuits Magazine.
Many feel the focus in IC design
has shifted to complexity and functionalit y. The goal of the Brok aw
Award for Circuit Elegance is to stimulate and celebrate the invention of
elegant small circuits. Furthermore,
this new Society award is intended
to be given out annually, at the IEEE
International Solid-State Circuits
Conference (ISSCC). The award was
created to enhance appreciation for
and encourage innovation of unique,
simple, smart, and, in particular,
elegant circuit design and will recognize such circuit designs that have
been created during the past decade
and that demonstrate viability. Eligible candidates for this award must
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSSC.2019.2909222
Date of publication: 24 June 2019

S P R I N G 2 0 19

be SSCS members in good standing.
Further details about the award will
soon be announced via the Society
e-newsletter and website. The Society
wishes to thank Brokaw and his family for their generous endowment gift
to enable this new and prestigious
member recognition.
Another exciting initiative the Society has undertaken on behalf of its
membership is addressing the need to
create a fully gold open access journal,
the IEEE Open Journal of Solid-State Circuits. Our Society was selected to participate in an accelerated open access
new publications pilot program. As
many of you know, there has been a
movement from Europe under the
premise of Plan S. Plan S requires that
publishers provide for a fully gold
open access journal. You may ask,
"What is the difference between a gold
open access journal and a green open
access journal?" A gold open access
journal means that the publication
is freely accessible from the moment
articles are published. In contrast, for
green open access, an author publishes his or her article in any journal and then self-archives a copy in a
freely accessible institutional archive
or website.
The SSCS will be launching this new
journal in the fourth quarter of 2019.
We encourage our members and readership to submit any open access articles they may have that fit the scope
of the publication. Keep an eye out for
details and submission instructions on

IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE

the Society website under our "Publications" tab in the near future.
It may interest you to know that SSCS
leadership had its first tactical planning retreat late last year to formulate
and discuss priorities for programming
and services to move us forward on
our five-year strategic plan. The Society has pledged more than US$366,000
for initiatives such as conference support at the international level, student
membership growth, further support
of the Young Professionals and Women
in Circuits Committees, reaffirmed
educational programming, and annual
Chapter support.
We also had a productive SSCS
Administrative Committee (AdCom)
meeting in conjunction with ISSCC this
past February, reinforcing our strategic
direction. I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome our new AdCom members-at-large: Alison Burdett, Eugenio
Cantatore, Kofi Makinwa, Dennis Sylvester, and Kathryn Wilcox. These individuals were elected to serve in this
position by our membership. I'd also
like to welcome our new committee
chairs: Azita Emami (Women in Circuits chair) and Zeynep Lulec (Young
Professionals chair). Thank you to
those who have served on the Society's
AdCom for continued efforts in helping
the Society make an impact.
As always, please reach out to
me with any questions, comments,
or concerns. Best wishes for a happy
spring season.

IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Spring 2019

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