Message from General Chair
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the 4th IEEE Symposium Series on Computational
Intelligence (IEEE SSCI 2013) in Singapore following the success of the inaugural
IEEE SSCI 2007 chaired by David Fogel in Honolulu, IEEE SSCI 2009 chaired by
Vincenzo Piuri in Nashville and IEEE SSCI 2011 (in Paris) chaired by Bernadette Bouchon-Meunier who is also the Honorary Chair of IEEE SSCI 2013. CI methods are increasingly
applied to solve problems in diverse domains. Hence, IEEE SSCI was appropriately
conceived to offer a forum to bring all such applied researchers together under one
umbrella.
Even though I was a tutorial speaker at all three previous editions of the IEEE SSCI, Singapore’s IEEE SSCI 2013 journey commenced in December 2010 thanks to the approval of Singapore’s bid by the IEEE CIS Adcom on the recommendation of the IEEE CIS conference committee chaired by Gary Fogel. Since then, so many contributed to the success of IEEE SSCI 2013. There is no IEEE SSCI 2013 without the quality contributions made by the authors. In addition, IEEE SSCI 2013 is very fortunate to have so many top quality panel, keynote and tutorial speakers. We sincerely thank them all. Chairs of each event contributed exceptionally by attracting contributions, getting them reviewed, making accept - reject recommendations, developing the programs and so on. With numerous chairs and co-chairs, all submissions (co-)authored by chairs, co-chairs and general chair were handled by CoI Chairs Gary Fogel and Hisao Ishibuchi who got such submissions reviewed offline in order to maintain the anonymity of the reviewers. Even though our Finance Chair, Robert Kozma is far away in the USA, he regularly interacted with us and shared his valuable experiences gained in organizing numerous conferences. Tom Cholewo offered frequent assistance so that the paper submission and review processes were completed smoothly. I also thank the international advisory committee and the publicity committee for their valuable contributions to IEEE SSCI 2013.
Publication of IEEE SSCI proceedings is not a simple task. Our Publication Chair, Sundaram Suresh has contributed immensely by registering every event with IEEE, ensuring the copyright submissions, setting up the PDF Xpress account, checking plagiarism and by excluding the prohibited authors (who have in the recent past violated IEEE’s publication ethics) from the published proceedings. These checking processes turned out to be very time consuming and iterative. When we have a significant keynote and tutorial program, there is also an associated responsibility shouldered by the respective Chair, Swagatam Das.
Local arrangements demand attention to every little detail. I am in fact fortunate to enjoy excellent support from many highly experienced and dedicated hands. Our conference manager, Alvin Tan (WorldWide People Connection Pte Ltd, bktan@wpc-sg.com) has managed many conferences. Alvin was regularly reminding me of the next step! Ra. Sankaran (Research Publishing Services, sankaran@rpsonline.com.sg) took over the publication of programbook and digital proceedings. In fact, they contributed a lot to shape up this program book. It was a pleasure to work with Mohd Azhar at the conference venue over the last 2 years. Joseph Lim (joseph@elite.sg) managed the registration process. I also take this opportunity to thank our volunteers helping us in various ways. Playing the General Chair role of IEEE SSCI 2013 has indeed been an enjoyable experience working with so many individuals since December 2010.
We hope that all of you will benefit from the extensive technical programand establish long lasting interactions with fellow delegates at SSCI 2013. Singapore is a dynamic city offering multicultural experience and entertainments. I hope that you will not miss this opportunity to explore Singapore and the neighboring countries!
P. N. Suganthan
General Chair, IEEE SSCI 2013,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore