The Year 2006 is another year during which the IEICE Singapore Section has organized some good activities for IEICE members in Singapore. In summary, the Singapore Section Office has organized two major seminar series, that is,
(1) Radar Systems Series: Waves and Physics, and
(2) Applied Electromagnetics Series: Microwave & Antennas.

The first seminar series, Radar Systems Series: Waves and Physics, was held at Engineering Building EA-06-06, National University of Singapore on February 28, 2006. Two seminars were delivered, entitled as "Anomaly Radar Echoes from the Mesosphere: Observations and Scientific Problems" and "Ionospheric Scintillations and Concerning Applications". Also a Technical Tour with Interaction Session on GPS Ionospheric scintillation Receiving System was organized as well. These two seminars both addressed the recently focused technical issues associated with high frequency (HF) and very high frequency (VHF) radar system when utilized for atmospheric explorations and target identifications (which are covered by the IEICE areas of interests). With the technology advancement, advances on wave propagations and physical mechanism are made and were explained in the seminar series. The invited speaker is Professor Jian Wu, Director of National Key Laboratory of Electromagnetic Environments, Beijing, China and Deputy Director General of China Research Institute of Radiowave Propagation (CRIRP), Xinxiang, China. He is one of the world recognized experts in the respective area, having served in various national and international committees and worked for a couple of giant global projects. He brought the state-of-the-art information and advancements to the IEICE audience and attendees for knowledge broadening. A good attendance of this seminar series by IEICE members in Singapore was received.

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Figure 1: Two seminars delivered by Professor Jian Wu and a GPS Ionospheric Scintillation Receiving System demonstrated. (a) Prof. Wu was explaining the ionospheric profile, (b) Ionospheric scintillations and activities were observed and recorded via the ionograms recorded by radar system, (c) Prof Wu was explaining on how the GPS Ionospheric Scintillation Receiving System works, and (d) Mutual interactions were made with some audiences.

The second seminar series, Applied Electromagnetics Series: Microwave & Antennas, was conducted at Engineering Building E4-04-07, National University of Singapore on March 3, 2006. The invited speakers are Professor Wolfgang Hoefer from Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Victoria, Canada and Associate Professor Qiang Chen from Department of Electrical and Communication Engineering and Graduate School of Engineering at Tohoku University, Japan.

Professor Hoefer's talk is entitled as "Multi-Level Modeling for Complex Microwave/High-Speed Design", and it is, in fact, the IEEE MTT Society's Distinguished Lecture talk. The purpose of his lecture is to familiarize our members with evolving design approaches for systems of large technological and functional complexity, and to demonstrate how microwave modeling and design practices can be integrated into a wider flexible multi-level modeling environment. Techniques for interfacing models at the behavioral, network, circuit and field levels were demonstrated. They range from order reduction of field models to the coupling of field- and circuit solvers, extraction of equivalent circuits from field solutions and measurements, behavioral representation by neural networks, and the linking of electromagnetic and thermal solvers. He also described different parts of a complex structure by the most appropriate model of lowest possible order, while maintaining a two-way correspondence between functional behavior and physics across the modeling hierarchy. At the end of his talk, Prof. Hoefer was kind to distribute a few copies in CD of his own company's commercial software packages as a gift to our members.

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Figure 2: Lectures by Professor Wolfgang Hoefer from University of Victoria, Canada. (a) Prof. guided audience to the Univ of Victoria via a world map, (b) Response of a passive circuit designed by Prof. Hoefer's software package, (c) Prof. Hoefer is introducing the microwave component designs, and (d) Audience in the lecture by Prof. Hoefer.

In the second talk, Prof. Chen has briefly introduced the history of researches in antennas and EM engineering at Tohoku University. He also highlighted a number of present projects in the electromagnetic wave engineering laboratory, especially focus is made on some topics such as accurate and fast EM simulators for large-scale array antennas, adaptive array antennas for mobile communications, fast antenna measurement technology and equipment.

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Figure 3. Lecture by Prof. Q. Chen from Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan. (a) Prof. Chen is introducing the log periodic antenna design after his introduction of the historical Yagi-Uda antenna originated at Tohoku University, and (b) Prof. Chen is briefing on recent research activities in antennas and EM engineering at Tohoku University, the home of Mr. Koichi Tanaka, one of three Nobel Prize Laureates in Chemistry of 2002.

As the founding Officer of the IEICE Singapore Section, I hereby again announce that the IEICE Singapore Section Office will continue to provide quality services to Singapore members within the IEICE allocated budgets, namely,

I look forward to your active participation and intensive involvement in our Section activities and look forward to meeting you again.

In the coming year, the IEICE Singapore Office is looking forward to more new members to join the IEICE. Also, the IEICE Singapore Section will try its best to provide quality services to our members. At the same time, the Singapore Section Office is looking forward to the active participation and involvement of our members. If there is any query on services and other issues, please directly contact me at the following address: