NNC Fuzzy Systems Best Transactions Paper Award
1996 K. Tanaka, T. Ikeda and H. O. Wang, "Robust stabilization of a class of uncertain nonlinear systems via fuzzy control: quadratic stabilizability, H-infinity control theory and linear matrix inequalities," IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, Vol. 4, No. 1, February 1996, pp. 1-13; and

1997 Sinha, Sinha, Dougherty, and Batman, "Design and Analysis of Fuzzy Morphological Algorithms for Image Processing," IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, Vol. 5, No. 4, November 1997, pp. 570-584

Mary Lou Padgett, Award Committee Chair
Valerie Cross, Fuzzy System Technical Committee Chair

Minutes of NNC AdCom, July 23, 2000, Como, Italy
NNC Administrative Committee (ADCOM)
Grand Hotel Di Como, Como, Italy
July 23, 2000

In attendance:
Voting members:
Cliff Lau, President
Enrique Ruspini, President Elect
Jim Bezdek, Past President
Fathi Salam, VP for Technical Conferences
Piero Bonissone, VP for Finances
Evangelia Micheli-Tzanakou, VP for Conferences
John Yen, VP for Publications

Society Representatives:
Chung-Yu Wu, Circuits & Systems
Jacek Zurada, Circuits & Systems
Ronald Waxman, Computer Society
Laurel Kaleda, Computer Society
Gary Yen, Control Systems
Marios Polycarpou, Control Systems
Donna Hudson, Engineering in Medicine & Biology
Dan Wilamowski, Industrial Electronics
Mo-Yuen Chow, Industrial Electronics
Mary Lou Padgett (for Robert Lorenz), Industry Applications
David Fogel, Power Engineering
T.J. Tarn, Robotics & Automation
Toshio Fukuda, Robotics & Automation
Jenq-Neng Hwang, Signal Processing
Shigeru Katagiri, Signal Processing
Michael Smith, Systems, Man & Cybernetics
George Lendaris, Systems, Man & Cybernetics

Non-voting members in attendance:
Mohamed El-Sharkawi, Multimedia Tutorial Act. Committee Chair
Jim Keller, Transactions on Fuzzy Systems Editor-in-Chief
Robert Golan, TC Finance Eng. Chair
Karen Haines, Educational Act. Committee Chair
Robert Fischl
Glenna Haberzetle, Secretary
Vincenzo Piuri, Organizer of Conference
Marco Gori, Organizer of Conference
Nabeel Murshed, Guest

Meeting called to order by Cliff Lau at 8:45 a.m.

Roll call taken.

Consent Agenda Item #3 regarding NNC Constitution and By-Laws Revision withdrawn.   Lau proposed a new Consent Agenda Item #3, the Appointment of TFS & TEC Editors.
Kaleda suggested this item should become 7.1 on the Agenda.

Consent Agenda was approved with the remaining 2 items.
Past meeting minutes were approved.

Break for 10 minutes.

President’s Report by Cliff Lau regarding the history and status of the Council and naming the 11 sponsoring societies.  Report on the bundling of Transactions as a method for reversing declining subscriptions and a summary of news from TAB.

President Elect Enrique Ruspini’s Report including year 2000 accomplishments, new Awards, updated policy and procedures, and the website.

Mary Lou Padgett requested filling out forms for nominations for awards and asked for budget adjustment for several new awards.

Mo-Yuen Chow reported on 3 new Regional Interest Groups in 2000.

Standards Activities, Ruspini noted development of nomenclature and benchmarks on the web page.

Nominations and Elections:  floor is turned over to Jim Bezdek.

Position for President-Elect for 2001 (one year term).  Nominations & Appointments Committee suggested Piero Bonissone.  No nominations from the floor for President-Elect.  Ruspini moved to close nominations for President.  Passed.  Bonissone gave position statement.

Vice President for Finances, a 2-year renewable position.  Nominations & Appointments Committee suggested Dan Wilamowski. No nominations from the floor.  Lendaris moved to close nominations.  Passed.  Wilamowski gave position statement.

Vice President for Publications, a 2-year non-renewable position.  Nominations & Appointments Committee suggested T. J. Tarn.  No nominations from the floor.  Kaleda moved to close nominations.  Passed.  Tarn gave position statement.

Lau made motion to accept these nominations by acclamation.  So approved.  Election results are official
President-Elect - Piero Bonissone
VP for Finance - Dan Wilamowski
VP for Publications - T.J. Tarn

Lau made motion approving re-appointment of Jim Keller and David Fogel as TFS and TEC Editors-in-Chief, respectively.  Motion accepted by acclamation, 2nd and approved.

Lau made a request for more involvement and participation of everyone in the NNC.

VP for Finances Report - Piero Bonissone
Explained Travel Expense Procedures for reimbursement.
Outlined Financial Report:
1999 Pre-Audit Post-Closing
Dec. 99 Net Worth and Cash Position
2000 Revised Budget
2001 Proposed Budget Constraints & Transaction Parameters
1991-2000 Surplus History and Projections

Kaleda posed question, “Who owns, controls the reserves?” Discussion with comments from Kaleda and Tarn resulted  in suggestion made to form a committee to examine and make recommendation on issues dealing with financial matters in IEEE.  Motion tabled until after lunch.

Break for 25 minutes.

VP for Technical Activities Report - Fathi Salam
New position in 2000.
Explained:
Issues, Goals, Realization of Goals, Mission for 2000, Establish Advisory Board, Instruments of Success, Newsletter, Energizing Members.
Discussed Student Summer Research Grants.
Gary Yen suggested publishing student’s final reports on the web page.
Padgett agreed to be on Administrative Board

Discussion regarding rate of acceptance for conferences.  Ruspini prefers close to 60%.  El-Sharkawi feels Technical Program Chair would make decision.  John Yen stated balance of quality vs. quantity is very important.  Wilamowski stated it has to be consistent year-to-year and some losses in the interest of investment in quality can be afforded.

Report from Pete Angeline on the Evolutionary Computation Technical Committee to be obtained and forwarded at a later date by Fogel.

Break for lunch 12:15 to 1:15

VP for Conferences Report - Evangelia Micheli-Tzanakou
Closed or Under-Audit Conferences
Change in CIFER 2000 budget
Final Report not filed yet on CEC/ICEC 99
Change of IJCNN Conference location for July 15-19, 2001 from San Diego to Washington DC

Fukuda requests conference dates be scheduled and announced 3 years ahead.
Fogel reported on WCCI Conference of May 12-17, 2002 in Honolulu, HI.
Murshed spoke regarding safety of proposed conference in Rio de Janeiro. Motion from Conference Committee to have IJCNN 2004 in Rio.  Discussion tabled for now.

VP for Publications Report by John Yen.
Participation of meeting in San Antonio.
Still working on book broker program.
Lau explained and clarified the new book broker program policy.

Discussion led by Padgett regarding IEL, IEEE Electronic Library.

Polycarpou stated IEEE Press is expensive compared to elsewhere.  Kaleda suggested using CS Press.

Motion to approve budget for FUZZ IEEE 2003 in principle, with final budget to be re-submitted within 90 days by email to the ADCOM.  Approved.

Modifications to FUZZ IEEE 2004 - Lau declared this item out of order, to be taken off the table til next ADCOM meeting.  Was not submitted until today, is not in ADCOM book.

Fogel reported on success of CEC 2000, planning of 2001 meeting and WCCI 2002.  Program Committees in place and has been budgeted for 1000 people.

NNC Conference Committee recommends Pete Angeline take steps to finalize and close the 1999 CEC.  Also, request IEEE to conduct an audit on the conference. Motion withdrawn.

Robert Golan reported on success of CIFER 99.
CIFER 2000 19k loss explained.

Lau cautioned everyone to be as sure as you can of your figures in conference-planning and check with IEEE Headquarters regarding contracts negotiations.

Lau called for Motion to approve CIFER 2001 with venue as changed and budget resubmitted within 1 month.  Approved.

Workshops and Conferences in Cooperation
Fogel asked to revise COEN budget to extend the number of days from 2 to 3.  ExCom voted unanimously to approve.

Motion to approve ISTMUS 2001 conditional of receiving a grant from ONR.  Approved with 1 abstention.
Conference Committee moves to approve Summer Institute in Albuquerque, to be totally sponsored by NNC.  Motion approved.

NNC Conference Committee recommends CIMI 2001 be moved to fall of 2002.  Motion approved.

NNC Conference Committee recommends Ruspini update the supplementary conference guidelines.

NNC Conference Committee approves concept of developing a proposal of a series on Computational Intelligence edited by Ruspini.  Exploring this option with IEEE Press is encouraged.

Break 3:25 - 3:40

Lau introduced Vincenzo Piuri and Marco Gori, organizers of this IJCNN’2000 conference and thanked them for a super good job in organizing it.

Lau Recognized the 2 new IEEE Fellows, John Yen and Jim Keller.

Motion that the NNC President appoint an ad hoc committee to recommend to the NNC ADCOM specific positions and actions regarding IEEE organizational concerns, especially financial procedures.  Further moved that the NNC President communicate positions approved by NNC to the sponsoring society’s presidents.  Approved.

John Yen recognized Lau’s and Keller’s efforts to bring attention to the flyer to help increase subscriptions and interest.

Zurada reported on the Transactions on Neural Networks standing and explained current statistics.  Policies and procedures were gone over and a statement that overlength page charges have been eliminated.

Keller reported on the standing of Transactions on Fuzzy Systems and the statistics.  Will send Glenna flyers to mail to past and present subscribers of the 3 Transactions.

Fogel reported on the backlog and current status of Transactions on Evolutionary Computation.
Motion from Publications Committee to increase page length from 400 to 640 and increase frequency  of publication from 4 to 6 times per year.  Motion approved with Fogel abstaining from voting.

John Yen distributed a hand-out on PASS-Personalized Abstract Search Services.  Explained features of PASS, explaining that it augments web-based retrieval of articles, serves members better and showcases how intelligent computing can be applied.
Yen addressed question from El-Sharkawi regarding maintenance costs and possible collaboration and from Padgett about other society’s use of PASS.

Old Business
Concern and disagreement expressed with the proposed name change of EMBS.  “Transactions on Neurological & Rehabilitation Engineering” was suggested.  Waxman called the question.  Approved with 1 abstention, Donna Hudson.

El-Sharkawi gave presentation on Multimedia Productions.  Some features listed were: simple format for CD and web; application; reasonably priced; interactive; fundamental and advanced.  First production to be released in 2000 (Evolutionary Computation).  Future productions to be on Fuzzy Systems and Neural Networks.

President Lau thanked everyone for coming and passed the IEEE NNC flag to President Elect Ruspini.
Motion by acclamation to recognize Jim Bezdek for his years of devotion to NNC.
Motion by acclamation to recognize efforts of President Cliff Lau and VP for Finance Piero Bonissone.

New Business
Next ADCOM Meeting to be at 8:30 am July 15, 2001 at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Meeting adjourned at 5:20 pm