Charter of IEEE CIS Distinguished Lecturer Program
Effective September 18, 2018
I.Mission
The IEEE CIS Distinguished Lecturer Program (DLP) aims at serving the Computational Intelligence community by providing stimulating lectures given by distinguished IEEE CIS professionals and scholars. It also aims at helping young researchers (masters and doctoral students) providing suggestions/guidance on their research problems as well as promoting computational intelligence tools and techniques among undergraduate students to make them interested in CIS fields of interest. Distinguished Lecturers present novel basic and/or applied research results in their CIS sub-field. Their lectures offer insights into the trends and challenges of their CIS sub-field and their vision for the given sub-field. In any given year, selected IEEE CIS Distinguished Lecturers (DLs) have a balanced representation of CIS sub-fields and include representatives from academia, industry and government while spanning different IEEE regions.
The program supports local CIS Chapters by enabling a major chapter event which can considerably improve a chapter’s visibility to their existing IEEE CIS members, other IEEE society members and the wider CIS community in their area. It is expected that DLP events actively seek to recruit new CIS professionals to both the CIS field and to IEEE CIS.
It should be noted that this program is NOT intended as a means to finance speakers for conferences/workshops or symposia.
II.Policies and Procedures
IEEE CIS Distinguished Lecturers (DLs):
1. DLs are expected to provide attractive lectures that meet the aims of the DLP, including identifying trends and challenges and providing visionary statements on a chosen topic. They should aim to present the chosen sub-field within a broader context, expanding beyond their personal focus/results.
2. In addition to distinguished lectures, a DL is expected to provide an interactive mentoring sessions for young researchers to help them on their research problems, and is encouraged to deliver one more lecture with the appropriate technical level either in a nearby university/Institute for undergraduate students with participation open to all nearby institutes/universities or for Industries.
3. The DL should be committed to representing the society at various public events and participating in membership recruitment and development as part of the DLP activities and other events.
4. The DL will be reimbursed up to a maximum of $1500 ($2000 in exceptional cases), in order to (partially) cover the return airfare to the Chapter location(s) to take part in the DLP activities. Local expenses (hotel, food, local transportation, etc) will be covered by the host Chapter(s) per default. If a DL offers the additional open-to-all lecture for undergraduate students or for industries, the chapter is encouraged to cover the local expenses for the additional night. In case that is not possible, an additional amount up to a maximum of US$ 150 for the additional room night can be reimbursed by the DL.
5. The DL should retain receipts of the approved travel expenses. Following the event, the DL should complete the IEEE travel reimbursement form and send it to VP-Finance with a copy to the DLP chair. A copy of the spreadsheet and original receipts should also be mailed to the IEEE CIS Executive Administrator. The DL should coordinate with the Chapter Chair to ensure that he/she follows the procedures required by the host chapter(s) to ensure reimbursement of local expenses.
6. A DL is expected to make one trip per year. DLP funding is prioritized to ensure that each DL can make such a trip. Further chapter requests for DLs depend on such prioritized trips and the availability of funds.
The IEEE CIS Chapter Chair:
1. Before organizing a Distinguished Lecture, an IEEE CIS Chapter Chair should contact other (one or more) chapter chair(s) in their region so as to identify whether their request for a Distinguished Lecture could be coordinated with these chapters.
2. Based on members’ interests, Chapter Chair(s) chooses a DL from the list of current DLs and a topic (sub-field of CIS). Different topics may be chosen for coordinated multi-chapter events. Chair(s) should contact the DL directly and work out preliminary details of the visit (chapter(s) event, date(s), location(s), financial arrangements etc).
3. Local expenses (such as hotel, food, transportation) should be provided by the arranging Chapter(s). However, if more than one chapter agrees to a coordinated visit, the DLP Chair can approve a percentage of the savings in travel expenses to be used to reduce chapters’ local expenses.
4. The preliminary details agreed between the chapter chair(s) and the DL should be included in the DLP Application Form, to be sent to the DLP Chair for approval.
5. Applications for DL events are evaluated continuously and Chapter Chairs are encouraged to make their requests early so as to secure the approval of the DL visit. Priority is given to the first application for a DL per year. In a Calendar year, July 30 is the last day requests can be submitted to the DLP Chair for travel within that Calendar year. Provided funds are available, later applications can be considered.
6. If the event is approved, the Chapter Chair(s) should make arrangements well in advance of the planned visit, so as to minimize travel costs.
7. After the visit is approved by the DLP Chair, the Chapter Chair should contact the DL to finalize arrangements.
8. The lecture and mentoring session should be open events. Chapters are expected to publicize the event through the Chapter’s own newsletter and email lists, and with the support of other IEEE chapters in their vicinity. Chapters should seek to broadly advertise the event to non IEEE CIS professionals (academics/industry/government) so as to attract new professionals to the field and new members to IEEE CIS. Chapters should ensure that IEEE CIS non-members are provided information about IEEE CIS as well as the opportunity to join the IEEE CIS. The chapter chair should also invite young researchers, who are willing to discuss with the DL about their research problems. The interested students/researchers should be asked to send their names and research topics to the chapter chair by a specified deadline. The Chapter chair may send these information to the DL. The number of research students/researchers may be restricted to 2 to 3. The interactive mentoring session may follow the DL. The Chapter is also encouraged to arrange another lecture by the DL for undergraduate students in a nearby university/institute or for industry participants.
9. The event must be announced as "Sponsored by the Computational Intelligence Society under its Distinguished Lecturer Program" and the lecturer should be mentioned as an “IEEE CIS Distinguished Lecturer.” If other IEEE societies or organizations have offered to support this Chapter activity, then proper acknowledgment should also be made.
10. Immediately following the event, the Chapter Chair should send a summary report to the DLP chair including information on the lecture and mentoring-session date/title, a copy of the announcement, photos, and the chapter chair’s evaluation of the success of the event (attendance of the event, attendees evaluation of the event, new CIS members resulting from the event) as well as any additional comments.
III.Distinguished Lecturer Selection and Appointment
The Distinguished Lecturers are recognized authorities in their respective fields. The DLs should be IEEE Fellows and a member of IEEE CIS in good standing. Exceptional IEEE-CIS Senior Members will be considered on a case by case basis. It should be noted that the selection criteria should be clearly addressed as they provide important information, which play an integral part of the assessment process. This information complements the more general information that may be provided in the supporting documentation.
1. Distinguished Lecturer Selection Criteria
A. Leadership & public speech accomplishments at CIS (co-) sponsored events
This criterion is evidenced by keynote/plenary talks, which took place at IEEE CIS (co-) sponsored events in the past 5 years. The applicant should provide the title of the talk, the name of the event and the approximate audience size for each talk.
Non-IEEE-CIS keynote/plenary talks should be included in the supporting documentation.
B. Recently published outlets
The applicant should provide references to his/her top 5 research contributions related to his/her proposed DL topics. The pdfs of such contributions should be added to the application as supporting documentation. The applicant should, further, provide metrics for his/her research work including Google Scholar citation numbers, ISI Web of Science h-index, and other relevant metrics supporting the case.
A list of the candidate’s recent (past 5 years) journal papers, books, monographs, patents, editorship of journal special issues may be included in the supporting documentation.
C. Serving as an ambassador of the society
The applicant should provide an overview of the contributions made to the IEEE CIS Society in the form of a listing of the various volunteering roles by the applicant in IEEE CIS (events, committees, editorial, etc).
The applicant should sign the DLP speaker duties form and include this in the supporting documentation.
D. Balanced representation
The applicant should highlight his/her academic and industry/government experience.
E. Attractiveness of Proposed Distinguished Lecture(s)
Applicants should provide an overview of the title of their proposed DL talks, together with their abstracts and comment on the attractiveness of the topics (sub-fields) proposed.
F. Reports on Previous DLs (Only for those applicants who were granted DL status before)
Applicants that have previously held DL positions should provide reports from their previous Distinguished Lectures as well as highlighting any changes proposed, if any, so as to increase the attractiveness of the proposed lectures.
The DLP committee shall evaluate the relevant values and merits of each nominee using both qualitative and quantitative evidence. When considering balanced representation, the DLP aims to achieve balanced representation of roughly 2/3 academics & 1/3 industry/government professionals distinguished lecturers covering various IEEE geographic regions and CIS sub-fields. The committee may consider exceptions to the selection criteria on a case by case basis.
Distinguished Lecturer Nomination
Nominations will be for a 3-year term beginning on 1 January of the subsequent year. Re-nomination is allowed after a 1 year waiting period.
IEEE CIS Distinguished Lecturers may be nominated by the following IEEE CIS members: Chapter Chairs, TC chairs, EICs, AdCom/ExCom members, and past DLs.
· The nomination package should include the following:
I. Completed nomination form which addresses the DLP selection criteria in Sec. III/1;
II. Statement of the candidate’s expressing his/her willingness to serve as a DL and to adhere to the respective duties;
III. Reports of previous Distinguished Lectures given (previous DLs only)
IV. Up to 5 relevant publications for the chosen topics and
V. CV containing publications, invited talks, keynotes, and plenary talks for the past 5 years.
VI. Titles and abstracts of three DLs and at least one lectures for undergraduate students.
The nomination package may include pointers to the candidate's web site and online video materials, which may be useful in reaching out to the CIS membership after the DL appointment.
· Nominations should be received by the DLP Chair by August 30 of the year preceding the appointment.
· The nominations will be ranked by the DLP Committee, and submitted for final approval by the CIS AdCom.
3. Distinguished Lecturer Appointments
Nominations should be approved by AdCom. Each year a maximum of 7 speakers are appointed by AdCom for a 3-year period. Upon appointment, IEEE CIS Distinguished Lecturers are publicly announced online, with contact information and their respective Distinguished Lecture topics and abstracts.
4. Distinguished Lecturer Retirement
A DL can retire voluntarily at any time, before his/her term ends, by submitting a request to the Chair of the DLP. In addition, an IEEE CIS member, from those listed under Sec. III/2, can initiate the removal of a DL by submitting to the DLP subcommittee a complaint clearly describing the reasons with appropriate supporting evidences. Upon receiving the exit request, the DLP Chair should first offer the DL an opportunity for rebuttal and then open the case for discussions by DLP sub-committee. A summary report about the case and recommendations should then be submitted by DLP Chair on behalf of the DLP sub-committee to AdCom for a final verdict.
IV. DLP Time Table
March 1 Submission Deadline for Chapter and DL Reports for previous year’s activities
July 1 Nomination period begins
August 30 Submission deadline of DLP nominations
November 15 Recommendations for appointments by DLP sub-committee
December 15 Decision on DLP appointments by AdCom