As you read in our last issue, we are excited to see what 2024 holds for the field of vehicular technology. In this article we showcase the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society Technical Committees in the fields of land transportation, motor vehicles, and mobile communications and networks. Follow along and get involved!
We have two technical committees in the field, the Land Transportation Committee and Ad Hoc Committee on Electric Railways. The former provides support for the rail standards committees, manages and publicizes the Joint Rail Conference (JRC), grows membership within VTS, and contributes knowledge of rail and land transport technology and industry. It is led by David Thurston (Canadian Pacific Railway) as the committee chair and Lamont Ward (Amtrak) as the JRC chair. In 2023, the committee successfully co-organized the Joint Rail Conference in April held in Baltimore, United States, and actively supported VTS standards committees in rail electrification and signaling. This year, the committee will recruit new volunteers to fill all the leadership positions and continue to assist the JRC organization. The conference has the theme of Smart Technologies for Safer Railroads, to take place in University of South Carolina, United States, during 13-15 May 2024. Further, the committee will work to expand the VTS standards committees with the addition of a rail car interface group.
The Ad Hoc Committee on Electric Railways is to support and grow an electric railways system community. It enables a range of different activities to help VTS members learn about, explore, and expand the current state of the art of this rapidly emerging technology. Under the leadership of committee chair Jianhua Feng (CRRC Zhuzhou Institute, China), the committee actively participated in organizing the Intelligent and Green Railway Development Workshop in Zhuzhou during December 2023. It will continue the efforts of supporting the 8th IEEE Symposium on Emerging Technologies of Transportation Electrification to take place in April or May 2024 in China and a workshop in Europe that is being planned before or after InnoTrans Berlin 2024. The committee plans to increase railway technical activities and to grow its member base.
There are two standing technical committees. One is the Motor Vehicles Committee that covers the areas of vehicular electronics and electrical engineering ordinarily identified with the automotive industry. In 2023, under the leadership of committee chair Loïc Boulon (University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières, Canada), the committee organized the Motor Vehicle Challenge (MVC) and two special sessions at the 2023 IEEE Vehicle Power and Propulsion Conference (VPPC). More than 40 teams participated in the annual MVC. In 2024, the committee chair has been transitioned to Ricardo Pinto de Castro, a professor at University of California, Merced, United States. He and the committee will stimulate more engagement between the technical committee and standards groups in motor vehicles. In addition, they will continue supporting the MVC to be jointly launched by the University of Nottingham, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, and University of Cagliari.
The other committee, namely Vehicular Power and Propulsion Committee, covers the technology related to electrical and/or electronic aspects of electrically propelled road vehicles. Under the leadership of committee chair, Giambattista Gruosso (Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy), a steering committee was established, and 39 new members joined the technical committee in 2023. The committee successfully organized the 2023 VPPC (October 24-27 in Milan, Italy) which had 269 attendees. In 2024, the committee objectives include engaging more VTS members in its activities. It will support young researchers and PhD students through summer schools and events. Furthermore, it will call for ideas and organize a workshop on new propulsion solutions for combating global climate change.
The VTS has been supporting various technical activities in mobile communications and networks, taking advantage of its five technical committees. The Propagation Committee encompasses radio wave propagation issues. It provides publications and services to VTS members and beyond, under the leadership of committee chair David Matolak (University of South Carolina, United States). Last year, researchers in the committee jointly co-authored publications that focus on channel modeling challenges for integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) in vehicular environments and on challenges for future mobile-mobile channel models. The committee has been organizing a workshop on mobile-mobile channel modeling for IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC) 2024-Spring to be held in Singapore. In 2024, the committee will actively recruit VTS members for more activities, such as a workshop at VTC2024-Fall and a special issue on mobile propagation in IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine.
The Ad Hoc Committee on Mission Critical Communications focuses on how to achieve highly reliable, secure, and low latency communications in supporting critical missions. The committee is chaired by Hichan Moon (Hanyang University, Korea). With more members in the leadership team from both academia and industry, the committee has been planning to organize a workshop on Mission Critical Communications at VTC2024-Fall.
The Ad Hoc Committee on AI in Wireless Communications aims to establish a technical community to explore how deep learning can be applied for developing future wireless communication systems. Chaired by Li-Chun Wang (National Chiao Tun University, Taiwan), the committee participated in the organization of VTC2023-Fall Track 5 on machine learning and AI for communications and Track 10 on unmanned vehicle communications, vehicular networks, and telematics. It also organized the workshops on intelligent communication network technologies at VTC2023-Spring and on smart spectrum sharing and in-band coexistence for non-terrestrial networks at VTC2023-Fall. Currently, the committee plans to continue its efforts in recruiting more members, and to participate in VTC2024-Spring and Fall, such as to deliver tutorials and organize tracks or workshops.
The Ad Hoc Committee on Drones is to promote research in the important technical area within the VT community. In 2023, led by the committee chair, Kamesh Namuduri (University of North Texas, United States), the committee organized a tutorial entitled “From 1 to 100: Standardization in the Communication Industry” at VTC2023-Fall. With a new leadership team in 2024, chaired by Qingqing Wu (Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China), the committee plans to lead a track at VTC2024-Spring, host bi-monthly seminars on emerging topics, and establish partnerships with the industry and community in advanced air mobility.
The newly established Ad Hoc Committee on Space-Air-Ground-Water Integrated Communication Systems aims at serving VTS members in the emerging technical area. The topics of interest include space–air–ground-water communication networks, space–air–ground-water green communication, satellite communication, unmanned aerial vehicle communication, ground communication, underwater sensor networks, and especially the cooperation and integration among them. Led by co-chairs Yan Zhang (University of Oslo, Norway) and Jianping Pan (University of Victoria, Canada), jointly with the IEEE Communications Society, the committee organized a seminar on large models and future communication networks through Zoom/Bilibili in December 2023, with approximately 450 participants. In 2024, the committee will organize special issues in IEEE journals and workshops at VTS conferences, and provide support for VTC2025-Spring organization to be held in Oslo, Finland.
IEEE VTS encourages proposals for new ad-hoc technical committees on important or emerging topics in the society's fields of interest. Learn more about submitting a proposal here.
Are you interested in joining one of the existing VTS Technical Committees? If so, please submit the online interest form.
As always, I would like to know how the VTS can better serve you. Please do not hesitate to contact me for your ideas, suggestions, comments, questions, or concerns. If you have not already engaged in one of these committees listed here, I hope you will consider doing so in 2024!
