It is my great pleasure to inform you that IEICE Europe Section is up on its feet. The mission of this section is to foster cross-continental networking among the IEICE members in Europe with those in the other areas, enable sharing of cutting-edge technological knowledge through organization of dedicated events and facilitate collaborations among academia and industry. Started as an initiative of a few enthusiasts the Section will enable the IEICE overseas members in Europe to have an easier way to get information and promote their initiatives to the whole IEICE organization.
　The first Chairman of the IEICE Europe Section is myself, Haris Gacanin, while the other members of the initial committee include Petar Popovski, Vice-chair, and Dejan Vukobratovic, Secretary. I was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where I received my E. E. Dipl.-Ing. degree from University of Sarajevo in 2000. I received my M. E. E. and PhD. E. E. from Tohoku University, Japan, in 2005 and 2008, respectively. After graduation, I have been working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow of Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) and later as an Assistant Professor at Tohoku University. Currently, I work at Alcatel-Lucent Bell N.V. in Antwerp, Belgium. My research interest is in the fields of both cable and wireless communication technologies with more than 50 publications in journals, conference proceedings and several patent applications. Meanwhile, I received the 2010 KDDI Foundation Research Grant Award, the 2008 JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowships for Foreign Researchers, the 2005 Active Research Award in Radio Communications, 2005 Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC 2005-Fall) Student Paper Award from IEEE VTS Japan Chapter and the 2004 Institute of IEICE Society Young Researcher Award, respectively.
　At present the main goal of IEICE Europe Section is to develop a good organizational structure that will provide adequate services to its members. One of the first initiatives that are currently underway is to establish a yearly IEICE Europe event that would help further promotion of IEICE activities. Thus, it will be possible to strengthen the networking among its members and with the rest of IEICE community and identify the dominant topics of interests for the IEICE European Section members.
　With this in mind, preparations for the first and second meetings of IEICE Europe section in November 2011 and May 2012 have already started. Especially, the second meeting will be held jointly with "The 4th Sarajevo Technology Forum 2012" (STF2012, see it at http://www.iwwtf.com). Moreover, a special issue of IEICE Transactions on Communication, devoted to the main topic of the forum "Future Internet Technologies" was planned and the preparations for the special issue have started as well, in conjunction with main topics of STF 2012. The forum and the special issue will serve as a convenient 'research introduction' of the Section towards the rest of the IEICE and will foster network and mutual collaboration among different sections of IEICE.
　Some of our past activities are summarized as follows. The first meeting of initiating members of IEICE European Section took place during "The 3rd Sarajevo Technology Forum 2011" in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. We supported organizing the Forum, where the IEICE Director for International Coordination and Publicity Prof. Fumiyuki Adachi participated as an invited speaker. Main relevant topics discussed at the event were:
- Organizational structure of IEICE European Section
- Efficient information distribution and exchange among IEICE European Section members (Web pages, mailing lists, social networks, etc.)
- Promotion of IEICE activities in Europe (IEICE conferences, IEICE transactions, etc.)
- Support and assistance mechanisms of IEICE available for the expected IEICE Europe Section
　Further, some of our future plans are to establish different committees that will address their corresponding issues. In such way, we are sure that IEICE will be able to easier expand its academic activities and services to IEICE members in Europe. The strategic goal is to increase perspectives for collaboration and encourage joint initiatives between academia/industry in Europe and Japan.