Efforts to increase the level of IEEE activities in the Siberia and Far East regions of Russia are in progress. There has been significant progress in the last several years. A good example is the International Symposium, "Application of the Conversion Research Results for International Cooperation" (SIBCONVERS): while SIBCONVERS'95 hosted about 50 participants, the 1999 edition of the conference, which was technically co-sponsored by IEEE, was attended by 300 participants from 8 countries.

Another effort was the formation of the ED/COM/AP/MTT/EMC Tomsk Chapter. The Interim Chapter Chairman is Oleg V. Stukach (Tomsk State University of Control Systems and Radioelectronics). In the first half of this year, the chapter has held two technical meetings and we plan to hold another four meetings by the end of the year. In April, we presented the 1994 IEDM Videotape Course to our students and plan to extend this direction of our activity by borrowing more tapes from the EDS Videotape Library.

Currently, the chapter programs are focused on three main aspects: an effort to increase membership by participation of scientists and students in IEEE activities; the utilization of Videotape library; and co-operation in organizing international conferences covering various aspects of radioelectronics, radars, UHF elements production, CAD used for this purpose, and material science. We will continue to make efforts to include our specialists in the scientific and educational process worldwide; and in this respect, count on further precious assistance of IEEE.

http://eds.ieee.org/images/files/Publications/Newsletters/Newsletter_Oct2000.pdf