SPC 2020


Student Paper Contest 2020 Final Result

 

This year there were 13 valid papers submitted by the closing date of December 15, 2019. The papers were seen by four jury members:

 

  • Prof Mustapha Benjallali from Morocco
  • Professor Vera Markovic  from Serbia
  • Professor Giambattista Gruosso from Italy
  • Professor Paul Micallef from Malta who is also the SPC Co-ordinator

 

The jury members are rotated over a period of time depending on where Melecon and Eurocon are held. The participants were from the following countries:

Belgium, Iran, Ireland, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Qatar, Serbia, Slovenia, and Spain.

The five papers, chosen by the jury members, that will be presented at Melecon 2020 in Palermo, Italy are:

 

  • Matthias Swiggers, KU Leuven, Belgium, ” A Four-Quadrant Switched Capacitor DC-DC Convertor Enabling Power-Efficient Lab-Grade Potentiostats.”
  • Maxim Van den Abeele, KU Leuven, Belgium, ” Object-Centric Street Scene Synthesis with Generative Aversarial Networks.”
  • Mark Cauchi, University of Malta, Malta, “ An Improved Variable Neighbourhood Search Algorithm for Selective Dial-a-Ride Problem.
  • Najla Al-Thani, Alreem Albuainain, Fatima Alnaimi, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar,  Drones for Sheep Livestock Monitoring.
  • Kristjan Stopar, University of Maribor, Slovenia, “Device for visual kinesthetic navigation of the blind and visually impaired.

 

According to the SPC rules, where papers have multiple authors, IEEER8  supports only one author of each paper accepted by the Jury for oral presentation.

 

The  student branches that submitted a paper to  SPC2020 are

 

  • University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • Universite’ Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
  • University of  Niš, Serbia
  • Qatar University, Qatar
  • University of Maribor, Slovenia
  • K.N.Toosli University of Technology, Iran
  • Beirut Arab University, Lebanon
  • University of Malta, Malta
  • ENSIAS Rabat, Morocco
  • National University of Galway, Ireland
  • KU Leuven (2), Belgium

 

 

Paul Micallef

SPC Coordinator


IEEE R8 Student Paper Contest 2020 FINALISTS

The five finalists for this years SPC2020 gave a presentation on-line on June 16 within the MELECON 2020  Palermo virtual conference.

IEEE Region 8 awards prize money of $800, $500 and $200 for the best three papers respectively. There is also a prize of $250 as the “Dick Poortvliet Award” for the Student Branch of the first prize student.

Following the five presentations, that were very well prepared and presented and in general well answered, the jury members came to a conclusion with the following results.

FIRST PRIZE         Kristjan Stopar, University of Maribor, Slovenia, “Device for visual kinesthetic navigation of the blind and visually impaired.

 

SECOND PRIZE   Matthias Swiggers, KU Leuven, Belgium, ” A Four-Quadrant Switched-Capacitor DC-DC Convertor Enabling Power-Efficient Lab-Grade Potentiostats.”

 

THIRD PRIZE       Mark Cauchi, University of Malta, Malta, “ An Improved Variable Neighbourhood Search Algorithm for Selective Dial-a-Ride Problem.

 

The other two finalists were

Maxim Van den Abeele, KU Leuven, Belgium, ” Object-Centric Street Scene Synthesis with Generative Adversarial Networks.”

 

Najla Al-Thani, Alreem Albuainain, Fatima Alnaimi, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar,  Drones for Sheep Livestock Monitoring.

 

The papers and the oral presentations were judged by four jury members

Prof Mustapha Benjillali from INPT, Morocco

Professor Vera Markovic  from University of Nis, Serbia

Professor Giambattista Gruosso from Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Professor Paul Micallef from University of Malta, Malta who is also the SPC Co-ordinator

 


SPC2020 – IEEE R8 Student Paper Contest

 

Final Call for Papers. The deadline extended to December 15, 2019.

All information on SPC 2020 and SPC Rules  is contained on the website at

http://www.ieeer8.org/category/student-activities/

As a help for SB counselors included below is a  template regarding the coversheet to be attached with the paper.

Region 8 pays travel and accommodation for the authors of the best five papers to attend IEEE R8 Melecon 2020 at Palermo, Italy in June 2020. The best three papers from the five finalists, judged at Palermo, get $800, $500 and $200 respectively. The student branch of the winner also gets $250 from R8.

Submission of papers to [email protected]

 

 

Student Paper Cover Sheet

Section A

  1. Name of school
  2. Name of Student Branch
  3. Authors with their IEEE Membership Numbers
  4. Name, address, contact phone and e-mail of  author to whom correspondence should be addressed
  5. Name, address, contact phone and e-mail of  Student Branch Counsellor
  6. Name, address, contact phone and e-mail of  Student Branch Chair

 

Section B

NB: In answering the questions please ensure that information about the authors, school, etc. is not included.

  1. Paper Title
  2. What is the problem and why is it important?
  3. What is the original contribution of this work? Be explicit.
  1. Does this work check and / or extend previously reported work? What work? Give references. Be explicit.
  1. How does this contribution compare to previously published work?
  1. If the paper is to be submitted to one of the IEEE Transactions, which Transactions would be the most appropriate?

 


Second Call for IEEE R8 SPC2020

 

 

Dear Student Branch Counsellors

 

This is a short reminder that the participation to SPC2020 should be well in hand to choose the students that participate from your Student Branch. The students having the best five papers will give a presentation at MELECON 2020 in Palermo, Italy in June 2020 with expenses covered by IEEER8. There are awards of $800, $500 and $200 for the first, second and third classified respectively.

All information on SPC Rules is contained on the website.

 

If you need any further information please contact us on [email protected]. The closing date for submission is December 1, 2019.

 

IEEE R8 SAC


IEEER8 Student Paper Contest 2020

 

The Student Paper Contest (SPC) is one of the main activities in Region 8.

For its success, it relies heavily on the input from the Student Branch Officers, especially the Student Branch Counselor and the Student Branch Chair, but also on academic members especially those who form part of the local IEEE section

SPC is an excellent occasion for personal leadership and involvement of student members in a prospective IEEE scientific/technical activity and to increase the visibility of the student branch.

It also makes the possible further promotion of IEEE among students.

  • GENERAL

Once every year, each IEEE R8 Student Branch (SB) may hold and organize a local Student Paper Contest under its own responsibility. The organization of a local SPC generally means that contest should be announced publicly in advance and that all submitted papers are to be locally reviewed by qualified specialists. Additionally, all R8/Sections/Chapters IEEE Conferences, having student papers sessions included in their programs, could and should also be used to get additional proposals for SPC. As long as a SB is formally supporting and accepting any type of student papers contest activity, it is in line with the existing SPC rules. Student Branch Counselors should be fully involved in all local SPC activities, as well as all other local IEEE officers (Section Chairs, Chapter Chairs, student activities officers, members of executive committees, …).

The winner(s) of each Student Branch Contest may compete for the Region 8 Contest, held within the Region 8 limits. A Student Branch may submit one paper per every 100 Student Branch members or part thereof, with a maximum of three papers per SB.

At the same time, especially in small branches where the managing of a local contest is very difficult, the IEEE section officers can encourage students to submit their work as a paper to the SPC. This is a good exercise for the student, especially those who intend to continue to a doctorate.

  • WHO COULD PARTICIPATE

IEEE Region 8 Student Paper Contest is for IEEE R8 student members or graduate student members who have not yet started their Ph.D. Only IEEE R8 student members could be authors of the IEEE R8 SPC papers. Since the five finalist papers are being included in the conference proceedings as well as in IEEE Xplore Library, the rules will now allow that the name of the supervisor/mentor may be added, as an author, to the final version of the paper sent to the conference organization. This does not change in any way the basic rule that the submitted paper is the work of the student.

Each student author must be a member of an IEEE Student Branch at the time of the original submission of the paper to the Branch Contest, and a member (student or not) of the IEEE at the time of the R8 Oral Finals presentation. The work presented has to be completed before

the student receives the engineering degree that entitles her/him to start preparing a doctoral thesis. The submission of the paper to the Region 8 SPC must be completed within 12 months after graduation. A doctoral thesis is not considered. Published work is excluded from the Contest.

  • CHARACTER OF THE PAPER

Papers should cover technical and engineering aspects of a subject reasonably within or related to the areas with which the IEEE is concerned with. The work need not be original in engineering or scientific content but should be original in treatment and concise in coverage of the author’s contribution to the subject.

  • DEADLINE AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The deadline to send full papers to IEEE Region 8 Student Paper Contest is usually December 1. Send papers by email to [email protected]. Papers submitted after the deadline will not be accepted.

  • PAPER REVIEW, JURY, FINALISTS, ORAL FINALS AND PRIZES

A first evaluation phase (paper review) will be carried out by four jury members and the SPC Coordinator. The jury members may also use as reviewers experts in the pertinent subject area. They will grade the written papers sent by Student Branches to the Regional contest without knowledge of the identity of the authors and of their school. Based on this evaluation, the SPC Coordinator will decide which five papers will be accepted for presentation at the Regional Oral Finals. All five finalists will be invited and financially supported to present their papers at IEEE R8 MELECON 2020 Conference, June 2020, Palermo Italy. The Jury members will grade the oral presentations and award the prizes. The papers will be published within MELECON 2020 Conference Proceedings and included in IEEE Xplore Digital Library. For the best three papers, there are awards of $800, $500 and $200 respectively.

 

 

Further details on the SPC rules are available from the SAC website.

June 2019


SPC Rules 2020

SPC Rules
IEEE Region 8 Student Paper Contest

A. GENERAL

  1. Once every year, each IEEE Student Branch (SB) may hold a Student Paper Contest (SPC) under its own responsibility.
  2. The winner(s) of each Branch Contest may compete for the Region 8 Contest, held within the Region limits. A Branch may submit one paper for every 100 branch members or part thereof, with a maximum of three papers.
  3. However if the branch does not hold a student paper contest, a paper can be submitted by a student branch if the student branch counselor supports the paper and the paper is within the valid rules for submission.
  4. At Region 8 Contest an international Jury, will grade the written papers without knowledge of the identity of the author and of his school. Jury will decide which papers will be accepted for presentation at the Region 8 SPC oral finals.
  5. Only IEEE student members and IEEE graduate student members are allowed to be authors of the SPC papers. Each author has to be a member of an IEEE R8 Student Branch at the time of the original submission of the paper to the Branch Contest and a member (student or not) of the IEEE at the time of the oral presentation. The work presented has to be completed before the student receives the engineering degree that entitles him/her to start preparing a doctoral thesis and the submission of the paper to the Region 8 Contest must be completed within 12 months after graduation. A doctoral thesis is not considered.
  6. Although the original paper – i.e. the paper that was submitted to the local Branch Contest
    – may be written in any language, the paper that is submitted to the Region 8 Contest should be in English. The oral presentation shall be in English, as well.
  7. When entering a paper in the Region 8 Contest, each SB Counselor will provide a document certifying that condition 5 is fulfilled, giving the IEEE membership number(s) of the author(s), and stating during which year(s) after high school the work has been performed. Any other useful information concerning the work and background is welcome. This document should be attached to the Student Paper Cover Sheet (see “Author Guidelines on Paper Layout” and “Student Paper Cover Sheet”).
  8. Finalists selected by the Jury will be invited to present their papers at one of the Region 8 Conferences. If acceptable to the organizers of the conference at which the oral finals take place, the papers that have been accepted for oral presentation will be published in the
    proceedings of that conference and possibly included in IEEE Xplore Database. Since the five finalist papers are being included in the conference proceedings as well as in IEEE Xplore Library, the rules will now allow that the name of the supervisor/mentor may be added, as an author, to the final version of the paper sent to the conference organisation. This does not change in any way the basic rule that the submitted paper is the work of the student. Electronic versions of the finalists’ papers will also be published in the IEEE Region 8 SAC web pages.
  9. Travel expenses (train 2nd class, or plane economy class for very long distances) will be provided by the Region 8 Student Activities Fund to one author of each paper accepted by the Jury for oral presentation. Living expenses which may occur while attending the oral presentation may also be reimbursed; the guidelines for this reimbursement will be mailed to attendees before the presentation.
  10. The IEEE Life Member Fund is supporting IEEER8 and awarding three prizes of 800,
    500 and 200 US Dollars for the first, second and third placed papers respectively. Furthermore, the Region 8 Student Activities Fund offers 250 US Dollars as the “Dick Poortvliet Award” to the branch where the winner comes from.
  11. Published work is excluded from the Contest. Any paper subsequently published should mention an acknowledgement of the received award.

 

B. CHARACTER OF THE PAPER

  1. Papers should cover technical and engineering aspects of a subject reasonably within or related to the areas with which the IEEE is concerned with.
  2. The work need not be original in engineering content, but should be original in treatment and concise in coverage of the author’s contribution to the subject.

 

C. DOCUMENT LAYOUT

  1. The paper must be typewritten on A4 size paper (210 mm × 297 mm), with the text width equal to 183 mm and the text height equal to 243.5 mm; a font size of 10 pt or larger should be used. The two-column IEEE Transactions style (with the space between columns equal to 4.1 mm) is required.
  2. The paper should not exceed six (6) pages. Overlength papers will not be considered for the contest!
    D. PAPER AND DOCUMENTS SUBMISSION
  3. Send papers by email to [email protected].
    It is required that the version of the paper sent to the Region 8 Contest does not show the identities of the authors and their educational establishments. The paper MUST be accompanied by the
  •  Student Paper Cover Sheet (separate doc file), (see 23 below)
  •  SB Counselor certification document from point 7 (separate scanned file), and
    signed IEEE Copyright Form.
  1. Please see the submission deadline on the SAC website. Normally it is 1 December.

 

D. ORAL PRESENTATION

  1. Those authors selected to give an oral presentation should develop a pleasant and logical presentation of the subject matter fitted to 15-20 minutes. The Jury will question each contestant for an additional period of 10 minutes typical.
  2. An electronic presentation – based on Power Point, for instance – using a beamer (LCD data projector) is preferred. Additional presentation tools may be provided if a request is made and granted in advance. The presentation should not attempt to cover the entire paper, but rather to give a general idea and enlarge on one or two specific points.

E. GRADING

20. There shall be maximum five judges within Jury.

  1. The contributions are graded as follows: written paper
    technical content: 45 points maximum,
    technical presentation: 25 points maximum, oral presentation: 30 points maximum.
  2. A preliminary selection based on the written document may be made by the members of the jury,either if too many papers are submitted or if some papers do not reach the expected level or formal requirements.
    STUDENT PAPER COVER SHEET AND COUNSELOR CERTIFICATION DOCUMENT.
    Since the judges must handle the papers without knowledge of the identity of the author and his educational establishment, it is required that the paper itself show no such identification other than the title.
    The title, author(s)’ name(s) and IEEE membership number(s), corresponding author’s address, school, and Branch Counselor’s name must be shown on a removable cover sheet. The Counselor’s certification document should be removable too.
  3. Student Paper Cover Sheet
    Answer concisely and completely the questions in the form below, and send it as a separate file (doc) together with the paper. Only the second part of the Cover Sheet, Section B, will be sent to Jury and will help in grading the paper.

Section A
School: Author(s), with their IEEE membership number(s):
Name, address, contact phone and e-mail of author to whom correspondence should beaddressed:
Name, address, contact phone and e-mail of Student Branch Counselor
Name, address, contact phone and e-mail of Student Branch Chair

Section B
This will be passed to the jury members and is an aid towards their judging of the paper.
Paper title:
What is the problem and why is it important?
What is the original contribution of this work? Be explicit.
Does this work check and / or extend previously reported work? What work? Give references. Be explicit.
How does this contribution compare to previously published work?
If the paper is to be submitted to one of the IEEE Transactions, which Transactions would be the most appropriate?

F. AUTHOR GUIDELINES ON PAPER LAYOUT
The following guidelines are suggested to assist grading by providing a uniform layout. In general, the paper should be organized as follows:

Title page. The title should consist of the minimum number of key words necessary to portray accurately the content of the paper. Reader’s interest is stimulated by a well-chosen title. The author’s name should not appear on the title page, nor should any other name of persons or schools.
Abstract. The abstract should not describe the paper, but should give in brief the essential facts of its content, for example, a brief statement of the problem or objective and a concise summary of results or conclusions, touching upon methods or other details only if they are unique or if they are of some particular significance. The abstract should be no longer than 100 words.
Introduction. The introduction should lead to the development of the subject so that the reader may obtain a clear understanding of the significance of the paper. This often can be done by giving briefly the state of the art as background. Then bring out the added advantages of the method of approach and emphasize the importance of the results or conclusions.
Body. The main argument of the development of the subject is carried out in the body of the paper, complete with supporting data. The argument should proceed in a logical sequence according to a prepared outline. The writing should be in the third person. Supporting data and results can often be presented most effectively as curves, charts or tables. Well-known abbreviations may be used in the text but should be defined where used the first time, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Generally, the use of abbreviations should be confined to not duplicate text matter.
Conclusion. The conclusions are often considered the most important part of a paper. They should be stated concisely in a separate section at the end of the paper. If there are three or more conclusions, greater emphasis can be obtained by numbering each conclusion and setting it off in a separate paragraph.
Tables. Tables should be numbered consecutively using Roman numerals. Small tabulations or listings may be made in the text where necessary for continuity. Each table should be titled by giving a brief description as a heading following the table number at the top. Ditto marks should not be used in tables, but brackets may be used to group information common to several lines.
Diagrams. Three types of diagrams may be used: photographs, oscillograms, line drawings. Keep reading matter on illustrations to a minimum; include it in the captions. Portions of illustrations may be identified by letters and explained in the captions. Whenever feasible, combine several curves on the same co-ordinates. Their identifying letters or numbers should be in clear spaces between cross-section lines. If it is necessary to place data over cross-section lines, erase these lines.
Appendices. Detailed mathematical proofs, development of equations, and examples which are subordinate to the main argument in the body of a paper, but not essential to following the argument, should be treated in appendices. References are made in the text to details in the appendices. Main equations as they are developed should be numbered consecutively, with the number in parentheses opposite the equation in the right hand margin.
References. Any information or development taken from books, periodicals or courses, i.e. from any external source, should be clearly referenced in the text and a suitable reference list should be appended to enable the reader to consult those sources. References should be numbered consecutively and should follow the form shown below:

For a periodical: R. N. Hall, “Power rectifiers and transistors,” Proc. IRE, vol. 40, pp. 1512–1519, November 1952.

For a book: W. A. Edison, Vacuum Tube Oscillators, Wiley, New York, pp. 170–171, 1948.

 

G. JURY GUIDELINES ON GRADING THE PAPER

The following criteria are suggested to provide a uniform grading standard:

      Do the authors present their independent work?

      Is the significant amount of presented work new? Do the authors present a novel interpretation of some existing work?

      Is the subject matter of substantial technical content and is it presented at an acceptably advanced level?

      Is the 100-word abstract concise, informative and accurate?

Does the written presentation include a satisfactory introduction which properly orients the reader with respect to the general area with which the paper deals ? Does the concluding portion of the paper summarize the reader’s impression of what the work has accomplished ? Are the conclusions supported by evidence?
Does the exposition (and analysis which may be involved) proceed in an orderly and logical manner? Is the paper self-contained?

     Does the author exhibit ingenuity and resourcefulness in methods of presentation, choice of illustrations, use of analogies and the like?

     Is the paper technically accurate?

     Is an unmistakable meaning conveyed with acceptable brevity?

     Is the format and typesetting quality of the paper appropriate?