RAS E-News April 2007

Volume 5, Number 4

Welcome to RASeNews, the IEEE RAS email newsletter. RASeNews is limited to short announcements of RAS Conferences, RAS society 'action items', breaking news, and time-sensitive issues. Send comments, queries and news items to r.g.snyder@ieee.org.

1. ICRA Travel grants for female graduate students

Last Minute ICRA Travel Grants On April 3 the ICRA committee was informed that Microsoft Research will provide $5000 for travel grants for female grad students to attend ICRA and the Women's Lunch/BOF. Microsoft Research wants the awards to go to students that would not otherwise be able to attend. For more information, contact Nancy Amato, amato @ cs.tamu.edu.

2. RAS Open Forum at ICRA 2007

At their October 2006 meeting, the AdCom voted to have the Open Forum be comprised of reports from the major committees and boards that would normally be given to the AdCom at their formal meeting after ICRA. This will give members a chance to see in detail what the AdCom does and provide inputs to the AdCom regarding decisions and initiatives which the Adcom will consider on Sunday, April 15. (All RAS members who wish to attend the AdCom meeting are welcome.).

This year the Open Forum will feature the President's report, reports on our Publications, the Conference Editorial Board and the Electronic Products and Services Board. The Forum will be held beginning at 6:20 p.m. (18:20, immediately after the last technical session) on Wednesday, April 11 in Angelicum A, Aula Minor. Please plan to attend.

3. Petition for IEEE-RAS AdCom Election

The slate of candidates for the RAS Administrative Committee is normally chosen by the AdCom nominations committee, currently chaired by Art Sanderson (sandea@rpi.edu), Toshio Fukuda (fukuda @ mein.nagoya-u.ac.jp) and Kazuo Tanie (ktanie@cc.tmit.ac.jp).

However, a candidate who submits a petition with the signatures of at least 2 percent of RAS voting members (Graduate Student, Members, Affliate, Senior and Fellows) he/she is automatically included on the ballot. Petitions must be received by August 15 to be guaranteed a place on the ballot. To obtain a petition form and more information, contact the RAS Society Administrator (r.g.snyder@ieee.org). Also, according to the RAS Standing Rules, the Nominations Committee will seriously consider any candidate who obtains at least 25 signatures on his/her petition. The nominations committee welcomes nominations, including self nominators.

4. IROS 2007 Submissions Deadline Extended

Due to a number of requests, the Program committee of the Intelligent Robots and Systems Conference has extended the submissions deadline to 9 April. http://www.iros2007.org

IROS 2007, San Diego. 29 Oct- 2 Nov

5. Other Imminent Deadlines

CONFERENCES

IEEE CASE 2007 22-25 Sept. DEADLINE 30 April 2007. http://www.fulton.asu.edu/~case2007
MMAR 27-30 August, 2007. Szczecin, Poland. DEADLINE 16 April, 2007. http://www.mmar.ps.pl/

PUBLICATIONS

IEEE-TASE Special Issue on Automation and Engineering for Ambient Intelligence. Submissions Deadline 1 May 2007.
IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering. http://www.ieee-ras.org/tase/files/CFPAmbientIntelligence.pdf
IEEE RAM Special Issue on Design, Control, and Applications of Real-World Multi-Robot Systems. Submissions Deadline 1 June 2007. IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine http://www.ieee-ras.org/ram/special.php#mrs