VCOP: Virtual Conference Organizers’ Panel

To Explore the Challenges of Organizing a Full Virtual Technical Conference, with the experience gained from successfully organizing IEEE TENSYMP 2020, IEEE Region 10’s first full virtual flagship conference, IEEE Bangladesh Section organized Virtual Conference Organizers’ Panel (VCOP 2020) on July 1st and 2nd.

Virtual Conference Organizers’ Panel (VCOP 2020) was the first virtual online panel in IEEE Region 10 (Asia Pacific) where all concerned stakeholders shared the expectations, challenges and possible solutions in a Full Virtual Technical Conference with respect to traditional face to face technical conferences.

The first day of the VCOP started at 7:00 PM (GMT +6) with a brief introductory speech from Professor Dr. Celia Shahnaz, General Chair, IEEE TENSYMP 2020. In her speech she shared the reason behind organizing this VCOP and shared her feelings on successfully organizing TENSYMP 2020.

After her, Dr. Paul Cunningham, Chair of IST Africa shared his experience of organizing a virtual conference along with some of the important planning and decisions he had to make with regards to organizing a virtual conference for which he had no previous experience. Along with him Dr. Miriam Cunningham also shared some of her experience on organizing IST Africa.

First day’s other two keynote speakers were Dr. S N Singh, FIEEE Chair, IEEE India Council and Dr. Muhammad Mustafa Hossain, FIEEE, Professor, UC Barkley, USA. Both of them shared some insights of organizing a conference in a virtual platform and the difference of organizing a virtual and face-to-face conference.

After that, Professor Shaikh A Fattah, Technical Program Chair of IEEE TENSYMP 2020 shared some technical aspects of a virtual conference and ignited the panel discussion session for the day.

The second day of VCOP 2020 started with Prof. Celia Shahnaz recapping some of the discussion of the previous day. After her one of the keynote speakers of the day Dr. Bozenna Pasik-Duncan, FIEEE showed her perspective as a conference organizer on virtual conference in difference to face-to face conference.

Similar to the previous day, Dr. Shaikh A Fattah ignited this day’s panel session with a focus on organizing aspects of a virtual conference and started the panel discussion. After some discussion from the panelists, the second keynote speaker of the day, Dr. Ramakrishna Kappagantu, IEEE R10 Director (2015-2016) shared some technical perspective on virtual conference organizing and how this virtual conference may change the future conference organizing also.

After Dr. Kappagantu’s keynote speech the panel discussion resumed again. As a part of this discussion, Raihan Ur Rashid and S M Saiduzzaman, two of the Secretaries and S K Azmaeen Bin Amir and A N M Nasimunnabi, both of the Virtual Conference Management chairs of IEEE TENSYMP 2020 shared some of the inside insights of organizing IEEE TENSYMP 2020.

VCOP 2020 ended with a short closing ceremony where Dr. Lawrence Wong, Member of IEEE Region 10 Advisory Committee gave a closing keynote and Dr. Celia Shahnaz closed the whole two-days event with her closing remarks.

The panelists of the first day of Virtual Conference Organizers’ Panel (VCOP 2020) were:

Dr. Vijay Bhaskar Semwal, Maulana Azad National Institute of technology Bhopal, India
Mohammad Arif Ul Alam, University of Massachusetts Lowell, United States
Lamia Iftekhar, North South University , Bangladesh
Dr A K M Baki, Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh
Amarnath Raja, InApp, India
Debashis de, Makaut,wb, india
Dr. Lasith Gunawardena, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka
Dekh Deepak Sharma, MJP Rohilkhand University, Bareilly, India
Dr. Chirag N. Paunwala, Sarvajanik College of Engineering and Technology, India
Dr Pushpa mala S, Dayananda Sagar University , India
Associate Professor Dr. Kashif Nisar, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia
Omar Farooq, Aligarh Muslim University, India
A. B. M. Aowlad Hossain, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, Bangladesh
Dr.Sandip Chanda, Ghani Khan Chowdhury Institute of Engineering and Technology, India
Dr. Ahmed Zubair, BUET, Bangladesh
Dr. Mohammad Hasan Imam, American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB), Bangladesh
Miriam Cunningham, IST-Africa Institute, Ireland
Amlan Chakrabarti, University of Calcutta, India
Dr Ritu Agrawal, TIT, India
Norliza Mohd Noor, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia
Dr. Tushar Jadhav, Vishwakarma Institute of Information Technology Pune India, India
Saaveethya Sivakumar, Monash University Malaysia, Sri Lanka
Dr.S. Vimal, National Engineering College, India
K. M. Azharul Hasan , Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, Bangladesh
Karlisa Priandana, IPB University, Indonesia
Alam Hossain Mondal, Daffodil International University, Bangladesh
Dr. Sudip Paul, North-Eastern Hill University, India
Dr M Kaliappan, Ramco Institute of Technology, India
Rajesh Kannan Megalingam, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University, India
Dr. Sameer S. M. , National Institute of Technology Calicut, India

The panelists of the second day of Virtual Conference Organizers’ Panel (VCOP 2020) were:

Takako Hashimoto , IEEE R10 Secretary (2019-2020), Director, International Center, Chiba University of Commerce, Japan
Md Jabed Morshed Chowdhury, La Trobe University, Australia
Nirmal Nair, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Chun Che Lance Fung, Murdoch University , Australia
Siti Anom Ahmad, Universiti Putra Malaysia/ Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia
Professor Dr. Mohammah Abu Yousuf, Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh
M. Mofazzal Hossain, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, Bangladesh
Professor Bidyadhar Subudhi, Indian Institute of Technology Goa, India
Satish Babu, IEEE Kerala Section, India
Surekha Deshmukh, IEEE Pune Section, India
Abdul Hasib Chowdhury, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh
Dr. Md. Golam Rashed, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh
Prof. Rajesh Gupta, M. N. National Institute of Technology Allahabad, India
Lakshminarayana Merugu, Bharat Institute of Engineering and Technology (BIET), India
Md Zunaid Baten, Dept of EEE, BUET, Bangladesh
Prof. Dr. Vijaya Rahul Pawar, Bharati Vidyapeeth’s College of Engineering for Women Pune Maharashtra, India
Rachana Garg, Delhi Technological University, India
Apel Mahmud, Deakin University , Australia
Parkash Lohana, Usman Institute of Technology, Pakistan
Charmayne Hughes, Health Equity Institute, USA
Yasuhiro SOSHINO, Japanese Red Cross Kumamoto Hospital, Japan
Yoshinori Kuno, Saitama University, Japan
Mohammad Rabiul Islam, International Islamic University Malaysia, Malaysia
Ruwan Ranaweera, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
Anjali Deshpande, Vidyalankar Institute of Technology, India
Ruwan Gopura, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
Dominique Duncan, University of Southern California, USA
Mohammad Faizal Ahmad Fauzi, Multimedia University, Malaysia
Dr. J. K. Verma , Amity University, India
Tetsuya Shimamura, Saitama University, Japan
Dr. Ruomeli Li, Beijing, China