Ralph Etienne-Cummings

Ralph Etienne-Cummings, professor and chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is serving as co-chair of an international conference, the IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems. The four-day conference is drawing as many as 1,200 circuits and systems research scientists, engineers, and industry partners to Baltimore to present the latest findings in circuits and systems.

The annual event, being held at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, May 28 through May 31, is the flagship conference of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, one of the largest and oldest IEEE technical societies with 10,000 members worldwide. This year’s conference is titled “From Dreams to Innovation,” and marks the event’s 50^th year.

Etienne-Cummings, an expert in neuromorphic engineering, will co-chair with Pamela Abshire, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Andreas Andreou, an ECE professor, co-founder of the Johns Hopkins Center for Language and Speech Processing, an expert in brain-inspired microsystems for sensory information and human language processing, has served as a plenary co-chair for the event.

The focus of this year’s conference is on incorporating industrial segments and invited talks by technical leaders into the conference’s featured sessions. The themes have been organized into super tracks to help guide conference attendees through the technical program. The themes, to be highlighted over the course of ISCAS 2017, are: Internet of Things, Cognitive Computing & Deep Learning, Hardware Security, Brain: Innovative NeuroTechnologies, Analog and Digital Senses, Autonomous Vehicles, Robotics, and UAVs, and Smart Buildings and Cities.

Three international experts features keynote addresses on subjects relative to the innovation themes:

• On Monday, May 29, Miyoung Chun, executive vice president of science programs at the Kavli Foundation, presented on The BRAIN Initiative, which seeks to “revolutionize our understanding of brain function and human behavior by bringing together experts to discover groundbreaking tools and methods.”
• Tuesday’s speaker, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Program Manager Kerry Bernstein, is delivering a talk on circuit technology, the electronics they occupy, and the inherent “threats to our personal and national economics, security, safety, and health” that come with their ever-growing involvement in our daily lives.
• Wednesday’s keynote talk will be delivered by Tyson Tuttle, president and chief executive officer of Silicon Labs, who will focus on the everyday innovation of internet-connected items in our homes, offices, and communities.

The complete ISCAS 2017 program schedule can be found at the conference website: ISCAS 2017.