Industrial & Governmental Activities Committee

Vice President for Industrial & Activities

Piero P.  Bonissone portrait
Piero P. Bonissone
Vice President for Industrial & Activities
Piero P Bonissone Analytics, LLC

A successful I&GA Committee will need to leverage potential synergies with the activities of other CIS committees. To identify and achieve this alignment we will need to appoint Liaisons with the following Committees:

Conferences . Include Industry members in conference organizing committees; Attract Industrial sponsorship of conferences and exhibits; Increase Industry participation (keynote, panels); Create a CAI attractive to Industry.

Publications . Consider a proposal for a journal similar to Control Society’s IEEE Transaction on Control System Technology and evaluate its feasibility; Create an Industrial Applications Section in the CI Magazine.

Technical Activities. Leverage TCs and TFs to identify and appoint experienced members to create services & products for Industry. Examples of such offerings are White papers, Position Papers & Reports, Webinars, Tutorials, Panels, Workshops, Ind. track Papers; 1-day Ind. Day, Full tracks in Flagship Conf., Standards for AI Ethics; Quasi-standards; Presence (Inv. Talks/Tutorials) in Industrial conf.; Industry Ambassador; I&GA Portal Maintenance.

Education. Continuous Education Webinars; Summer Schools with Industry participation; Tutorials for Industry Managers; Synergy and best practice for using IEEE Resource Centers and creating promotional videos.

Member Activities. Increase the number of experienced Industry volunteers (e.g., Sr. Members & Fellows); Increase the number of Industry Fellow nominations; Maintain a mini-CRM to communicate with CIS Industrial Members; Include Industry members in DLP.

During the first quarter of 2022, in consultations with the respective VPs, the VP for I&GA will appoint liaisons to the committees listed above.

Governance

Under the supervision and the coordination of the IEEE CIS Industrial and Governmental Activities Committee, The Industrial Activity Committee (IAC) is established to promote the research, development, practice, education, and understanding of CIS technology in industrial applications.

Membership

IAC shall have a Chair, two Vice-Chairs, and a number of Members. The Chair shall be appointed by the President of the Society in January. The IAC Chair shall appoint two Vice-Chairs and a number of Members. The appointment of the IAC Vice-Chairs and the IAC Members needs to be approved by the Vice President for Industrial and Governmental Activities of CIS. IAC Chairs, Vice-Chairs, and committee members must all be IEEE CIS members. The term of service expires at the end of the calendar year for which they have been appointed. If you are interested in being considered for a position on the IAC, please send an email to cis-info@ieee.org with a link to your CV.

Committees Chairs and Members

Current directory of Chairs and members: Industrial Activities Committee Members

Funding

Funding for the committee shall be provided by the CIS in the annual budget request. Once approved by the CIS ExCom and AdCom, funds will be available to support the IAC activities. The Chair shall be responsible for the appropriate use of the approved funds with supporting documentation.

Activities

The IAC shall engage in various activities to promote the adoption, use, and refinement of CIS technologies in industrial and commercial applications. Following the vision illustrated in the I&GA VP Welcome message, we will pursue a variety of activities, including but not limited to the following:

(a) Elicit CIS value proposition for Industry t o attract industry participation in CIS activities. We will extend the engagement process to identify and refine additional business needs that AI/CI technologies could address.

(b) Increase membership diversity . We want to increase the number of experienced industry volunteers. In particular, we need to reach out to our Industry Sr. Members & Fellows to champion and support the nominations of other Sr. Members and Fellow candidates

(c) Create CIS Offerings to Industry . We want to create services and products for Industry, ranging from position papers to reports, webinars, and tutorials. We also want to have industry-centered panels, workshops, and conferences with keynotes by industry leaders.

(d) Shape I&GA Structure . As a brand new organization, we are jump-starting I&GA’s structure by creating I&GA Committees and eventually Task Forces focused on various industry sectors, and strengthing them with volunteers. We plan to create a new forum, the Executive Advisory Board, and invite industry and government thought-leaders to help us understand current needs for AI/CI solutions and initiatives and shape forthcoming ones.

(e) Shape Standards to become demand-driven. To be relevant, we need to develop a CIS Standards Committee strategy to leverage our technical expertise while being demand-driven. We will work with IEEE Standards Association (SA) to drive Standards for AI technology, such as the Consortium on the Landscape of AI Safety (CLAIS), and contribute to IEEE SA Artificial Intelligence Systems (AIS) and IEEE SA P7000 family, focused on AI and Ethics. To this end, the CIS Standards Committee will report to the I&GA to identify industry needs, with a dotted line to Technical Activities to leverage our technical know-how.

(f) Increase Industry Engagement in Conferences. We want to create a forum within CIS conferences, in which Industry can participate without having to submit scholarly papers. Industry leaders can define current and future challenges that AI/CI technology could address. We can achieve this with focused panels or keynote speeches. With increasing industry participation in CIS conferences, we will grow conference exhibits, sponsorships, and, more importantly, guidance to make AI/CI technology relevant to Industry needs.

Meetings

Meetings will be called by the Chair once or twice a year, usually in conjunction with the CIS AdCom meetings or as requested by the IAC members. Sufficient advance notice of the meetings will be given to the members, as well as to other interested parties. The Chair shall prepare an agenda before the meeting, and shall prepare minutes for distribution after the meeting.

Amendments

This Charter becomes official after at least 2/3 of core members present at The Committee Meeting approves it. Subsequent changes and amendments also require a 2/3 majority vote.

Task Forces

Given the recent formation of I&GA, we will start with only one Industrial Activities Committee, which is described above. As we evolve our understanding of the needs of our industrial members, we will develop Task Forces, under the IAC, focused on a variety of verticals, such as Healthcare, Life Sciences, Energy, Transportation, etc. When this demand is identified, we will address it with a corresponding Task Force.

Governance

Under the supervision and the coordination of the IEEE CIS Industrial and Governmental Activities Committee, the Governmental Activity Committee (GAC) is established to promote the research, development, practice, education, and understanding of CIS technology in industrial applications.

Membership

GAC shall have a Chair, two Vice-Chairs, and a number of Members. The Chair shall be appointed by the President of the Society in January. The GAC Chair shall appoint two Vice-Chairs and a number of Members. The appointment of the GAC Vice-Chairs and the GAC Members needs to be approved by the Vice President for Industrial and Governmental Activities of CIS. GAC Chairs, Vice-Chairs, and committee members must all be IEEE CIS members. The term of service expires at the end of the calendar year for which they have been appointed. If you are interested in being considered for a position on the IAC, please send an email to cis-info@ieee.org with a link to your CV.

Committees Chairs and Members

Current directory of Chairs and members: Governmental Activities Committee Members

Funding

Funding for the committee shall be provided by the CIS in the annual budget request. Once approved by the CIS ExCom and AdCom, funds will be available to support the GAC activities. The Chair shall be responsible for the appropriate use of the approved funds with supporting documentation.

Activities

The GAC shall engage in various activities to promote an engagement with US/EU government agencies and align CIS technical efforts with their visions and initiatives in AI/CI. Ultimately these interactions will enable and facilitate the adoption, use, and refinement of CIS technologies in industrial and commercial applications. Following the vision illustrated in the I&GA VP Welcome message, we will pursue a variety of activities, including but not limited to the following:

(a) Establish and improve CIS relationships with AI-friendly government agencies, such as the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative (AI.gov),

the European Approach to Artificial Intelligence ( https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/european-approach-artificial-intelligence ),

the European AI Alliance ( https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/european-ai-alliance ), etc.

(b) Invite their thought-leaders as speakers at CIS conferences to describe their initiatives and the research opportunities that they entail.

(c) Leverage IEEE USA to identify critical contacts within the US Government.

Meetings

Meetings will be called by the Chair once or twice a year, usually in conjunction with the CIS AdCom meetings or as requested by the GAC members. Sufficient advance notice of the meetings will be given to the members, as well as to other interested parties. The Chair shall prepare an agenda before the meeting, and shall prepare minutes for distribution after the meeting.

Amendments

This Charter becomes official after at least 2/3 of core members present at The Committee Meeting approves it. Subsequent changes and amendments also require a 2/3 majority vote.

Task Forces

Given the recent formation of I&GA, we will start with only one Governmental Activities Committee, which is described above. As we evolve our understanding of the need for specific governmental interactions/initiatives we will create a corresponding Task Force, under the GAC, to address it.

Each I&GA Committee (I&GAC) shall have a Chair, two Vice-Chairs, and a number of Members. I&GAC Chairs shall be appointed by the President of the Society in January. The I&GAC Chair will then appoint two I&GAC Vice-Chairs and I&GAC Members. The appointment of the I&GAC Vice-Chairs and the I&GAC Members needs to be approved by the Vice President for Industrial and Governmental Activities. I&GAC Chairs, Vice-Chairs, and committee members must all be IEEE CIS members. The number of I&GAC Members should ideally be between 20 and 35, and not to exceed 40 in any given year. It may be necessary to limit the number of appointed new members to adhere to this requirement.

In addition to maintaining compliance with the IEEE governing documents, one of the more important aspects to consider when evaluating potential membership in an I&GAC is ensuring that each I&GAC will be able to work productively, positively, and collaboratively together for the greater good of IEEE, IEEE CIS, and the larger community.

I&GAC chairs will, as much as it is feasible, recruit a diverse and inclusive I&GAC membership concerning such factors as gender, geographical region, and professional affiliation (government, public sector, industry, and academia), with a particular emphasis on the engagement of Under-Represented Groups. I&GAC members are expected to be active in IEEE CIS with a reasonable track record of research, applied research, or professional engineering experience relative to opportunity. The I&GAC chair may nominate active and competent researchers, practitioners, government, public sector, or industry representatives from areas outside of IEEE CIS in I&GACs where multi-disciplinary input is valuable. In all cases, the I&GAC Chairs will use their professional judgment to decide on the nomination of I&GAC members, considering, in particular, the key aspects in respect to membership listed above. I&GAC Chairs may consider publicly available sources of relevant information such as academia-focused search engines, to inform their decision.