SPC 2022


Student Paper Contest 2022: Final Results

The final part of the IEEE Region 8 Student Paper Contest, SPC 2022 oral finals, was held within the frame of the IEEE R8 flagship conference MELECON 2022, in Palermo, Italy, on June 14-16, 2022. After two years of adverse circumstances caused by the pandemic (SPC 2020 was held online and SPC 2021 was held in hybrid form), this year we gathered all the finalists and jury members allowing the event to be completely in person. It was the 55th edition of this traditional and important technical activity of the IEEE Region 8.

 

 

Members of the international jury who assessed the student papers in the first (written) part and presentations in the second (oral) part of the contest were Prof. Paul Micallef from Malta, Prof. Mike Hinchey from Ireland, Prof. Giambattista Gruosso from Italy and Prof. Vera Markovic from Serbia, who is also the SPC coordinator. Many thanks for their efforts and dedication!

 

 

We were very honored by the presence of Antonio Luque, IEEE Region 8 director, Vincenzo Piuri, IEEE Region 8 Director elect, Simay Akar, IEEE Region 8 Student Activities Committee Chair, Habib Kammoun, R8 conference coordination committee chair and Theodoros Chatzinikolaou, Regional Student Representative, at the SPC 2022 oral finals.

 

Final Results

 

Given the high level of quality of works and presentations, the jury didn’t have an easy task to select the winners. The FIRST PRIZE and an award of $800 went to Zixuan Huang from Imperial College London, UK, for the paper entitled: “Beam-switching Circularly Polarized Antenna Array for Cold-chain Tracking RFID Applications”. In addition, the student branch of the SPC 2022 winner, Imperial College London SB, got a special award “Dick Poortvliet” of $250.

 

 

The winner of the SECOND PRIZE and the award of $500 is Lorenzo Lagostina from Politecnico di Torino, Italy, for the paper entitled: “Design of Low-power Arithmetic Logic Circuits for 45 nm CMOS Technology”

 

 

The THIRD PRIZE and award of $200 went to Emilija Ćojbašić from University of Niš, Serbia, for the paper entitled:  “Machine learning as an aid to predicting clinical outcome after stroke”.

 

 

The author of the paper placed in fourth place is Kristjan Cuznar from University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and his co-author and supervisor is Miha Glavan from Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia. The paper is entitled: “Optimization of cold rolling process recipes based on historical data”

 

 

Finally, the paper authored by Matthieu Brabant from Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, with two co-authors (supervisors): Olivier Pereira from Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, and Pierrick Méaux from University of Luxembourg, entitled: “Homomorphic Encryption for Privacy-Friendly Augmented Democracy”, took fifth place.

 

Congratulations to the authors of the top five papers and branches where the finalists come from! All five papers are published in the MELECON 2022 Proceeding and in the IEEExplore digital library. Special CONGRATULATIONS to the winners of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd award! Many thanks to all participants in the SPC 2022! We expect many high-quality student papers for the SPC 2023.

 

 

Students’ Impressions

❝ The SPC oral final is a perfect opportunity to get to know the far-reaching research conducted by researchers from other universities. You are able to see how they identify, analyze, and tackle the problems they encountered. Competing with four other final lists was also a great experience, from which I could learn a lot about how to conduct and present research. Last but not least, it is a great experience to travel to a new country and savor a different culture.❞

~ Zixuan Huang

❝ The SPC has been an incredibly enriching experience for me. Writing a paper allowed me to drastically improve the way I present information, and also led me to a deeper understanding of my work while discussing some unexpected results. Presenting in front of such a jury has been an exciting moment that boosted my confidence. Last but not least, attending to the conference, listening to other researchers and meeting students and PhDs from all over the world has just been so thrilling. I really encourage future students to jump in this adventure, you won’t regret it.❞

~ Lorenzo Lagostina

❝ The SPC Oral Finals were a great honor and a privilege for me, as well as a remarkable opportunity to present my student research and gain some precious new experience. The chance to attend the renowned MELECON 2022 conference, meet the other outstanding finalists and exchange knowledge and impressions, and enjoy the charming city of Palermo was truly wonderful. This has given me the motivation to conduct further research, as well as to consider an academic career in the future.❞

~ Emilija Cojbasic

❝ The SPC oral finals were my first real steps into academia. It was a wonderful experience, from the research to the presentation of the results to other experts in the field. The trip itself and the time spent with foreign colleagues was also a special experience that I will never forget.❞

~ Kristjan Cuznar

❝ The Student Paper Competition was a great opportunity to attend and present at a major international conference. We had the opportunity to meet many doctoral and post-docs from all over the world in a challenging but relaxed Mediterranean atmosphere.❞

~ Matthieu Brabant


Student Paper Contest 2022: 1st Phase Results

This year there were 15 submissions in total, from which 13 submissions were accepted as valid. The submissions were from the following student branches:

  1. University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
  2. Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium
  3. University of Maribor, Slovenia
  4. Ecole Mohammadia d’Ingenieurs, Morocco
  5. Politecnico di Torino, Italy
  6. Qatar University, Qatar
  7. University of Niš, Serbia
  8. Bogazici University, Turkey
  9. Moi University, Kenya
  10. Imperial College London, UK
  11. University of Technology and Applied Sciences-Ibra, Oman
  12. Onaizah Colleges, Saudi Arabia
  13. Linkoping University, Sweden

 

This year, the members of the SPC international jury are:

  • Prof. Paul Micallef from Malta
  • Prof. Giambattista Gruosso from Italy
  • Prof. Mike Hinchey from Ireland
  • Prof. Vera Markovic from Serbia

 

The jury has anonymously selected the following five papers (listed in alphabetical order) for the Regional Oral Finals: 

  • Emilija Ćojbašić, University of Niš, Serbia, “Machine learning as an aid to predicting clinical outcome after stroke”
  • Kristjan Cuznar, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, “Optimization of cold rolling process recipes based on historical data”
  • Lorenzo Lagostina, Politecnico di Torino, Italy, “Design of Low-power Arithmetic Logic Circuits for 45 nm CMOS Technology”
  • Matthieu Brabant, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, “Homomorphic Encryption for Privacy-Friendly Augmented Democracy”
  • Zixuan Huang, Imperial College London, UK, “Beam-switching Circularly Polarized Antenna Array for Cold-chain Tracking RFID Applications”

 

Congratulations to the authors of the top five papers and branches where the finalists come from! Many thanks to all participants in the SPC 2022!


Student Paper Contest 2022: Call for Papers

GENERAL 

The Student Paper Contest (SPC) is one of the main technical activities in Region 8. It was  established in 1967 and since then it 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 possible further promotion of IEEE among students. The success of the SPC 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. 

 

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 a  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 local Student Branch Contest may compete for the Region 8 Contest. 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 difficult, the IEEE section officers can encourage students to submit their work as a paper to the SPC.  This is a good exercise for students, 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 PhD. 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. 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 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. 

 

PAPER REVIEW, JURY, FINALISTS, ORAL FINALS AND PRIZES 

A first evaluation phase (paper review) will be carried out by four jury members including the  SPC Coordinator. The jury members may also use the experts in the pertinent subject area as  reviewers. 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 the IEEE R8 flagship conference MELECON 2022, June 14-16, Palermo, Italy. Papers presented at the Oral Finals will be published in the Conference Proceedings and included  in IEEE Xplore Digital Library. The Jury members will grade the oral presentations and three best  finalists will get prizes ($800, $500, and $200 respectively). The student branch of the student  who wins first prize also gets as an award of $250. 

 

DEADLINE AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 

The deadline to send full papers to IEEE Region 8 Student Paper Contest 2022 is December 1, 2021 December 15, 2021. Please send papers by email to [email protected].

 

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