Globecom 2002, the world's largest gathering of academics and professionals from the telecommunications industry, will be held in Taipei next week with more than 1,000 delegates expected to converge on the World Trade Center for the five-day event.
"This is one of the largest, most influential telecommunications meetings in the world," said Mao Chi-kuo (
He was speaking at a press event yesterday to launch the symposium.
"This year is also a special occasion -- the 50th anniversary of the event's organizer, the IEEE Communications Society," he said.
Mao is also general chairman of Globecom 2002.
The 400,000-strong Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) holds the Globecom twice a year, with a mid-year and a year-end event. Representing 60,000 members (300 of them Taiwanese), the Communications Society is the second largest of the more than 30 societies within the institute.
ComSoc, as it is more popularly known, is a community comprised of a diverse group of industry professionals with a common interest in advancing communications technologies through publications, conferences, educational programs and local activities.
"The decision to locate this once-in-a-lifetime event in Taipei is an obvious endorsement of Taiwan's technological and industrial importance," said Lee Lin-shan (李琳山), Globecom 2002 technical program chairman and professor of electrical engineering and computer science at National Taiwan University.
Stressing the important contribution of the Taiwanese telecommunications industry to the symposium, Lin said that of the 1,980 papers submitted on a range of telecommunications and networking subjects, 201 came from Taiwanese, second only to the number of US submissions at 561.
"We are expecting 1,200 delegates, the same as attended last year's event which was held in San Antonio, Texas," Margaret Chen (
The organizers have selected 593 papers to be given during the five days of the event, making Globecom 2002 the largest technical symposium to be held on the subject of telecommunications. Forty-four of these will be delivered by Taiwanese.
The symposium will have translation facilities for English and Chinese at all events.
Six pioneers of telecommunications technology will deliver keynote speeches in the "Over the horizon -- what's ahead and what's challenging?" session. Speakers include Charles Kao (高錕), former president of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who is known as "the father of optical fiber communications."
Other speakers include board members from Ericsson, Philips Semiconductors, NTT DoCoMo, Motorola Inc, Lucent Technologies and Alcatel Co. They will discuss the future of telecommunications technologies, including wired and wireless networks, the Internet and optical networks.
Globecom 2002 begins on Monday. Further information can be accessed online at www.globecom2002.com.tw.
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