Submitted by Réka Bátorfi, IEEE CPMT Hu&Ro Joint Chapter
Between the 17th and 20th of September, 2009, the 15th International Symposium for Design and Technology of Electronics Packages (SIITME) was arranged for the first time outside Romania, in the beautiful spa town, Gyula, Hungary. This conference is an annual event in Central and Eastern Europe since 1995, having a special interest to improve and to implement new electronics technologies.
The topics cover design, simulation and quality aspects of electronics packages, devices and circuit modules. There were also a biomedical and an educational topic, the latter is a perspective field, as e-learning and life-long learning are becoming more and more important in these new member states of the European Union.
The Symposium is traditionally a forum of scientists and researchers both from academia and the industry. This year the professors, young scientists and students were from Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Hungary. The Romanian participants came from all over the country, representing the technical universities from Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Pitesti, Suceava, Timisoara, Galati, Alba Iulia, Iasi, and Brasov.
The SIITME is especially popular among Ph.D. students and young researchers, more than 60 % of the participants being from this group. Every year it is a very good opportunity for them to share their scientific ideas, and present their research work at an international forum. SIITME has always been strongly supported by CETTI of Politehnica University of Bucharest, the IEEE-CPMT Hu&Ro Joint Chapter and ARIES (Romanian Association for Electronic and Software Industry).
This year, the activities of the Joint Chapter were the organization of the whole conference, both in scientific and in technical way, which has lead to a high level conference and a friendly and enjoyable atmosphere. Not just the local organizers, but also the members from Romania contributed with a lot of work to have a successful event.
The SIITME 2009 also was an IEEE Conference, registered in the conference database. After the final evaluation, the papers of the highest scientific value are included in the IEEE Xplore webpage. The members of the steering and the scientific committees have done a hard work helping the authors and evaluating their abstracts, papers and presentations.
The opening ceremony of the 15th SIITME in the Town Hall of Gyula (from left to right: Árpád Szabó, Ioan Fodoreanu, Paul Svasta, Zsolt Illyefalvi-Vitéz, Dan Pitica)
The Town council was represented by Dr. Klára Perjési, the Mayoress of Gyula and Mr. Árpád Szabó, the Deputy Mayor of Gyula. It was also our honour that Mr. Ioan Fodoreanu, the General Consul of Romania in Hungary also participated in the Opening session and had the opportunity to meet Prof. Paul Svasta General Chair of SIITME, Prof. Zsolt Illyefalvi-Vitéz Conference Chair of SIITME2009 and Prof. Dan Pitica Chair of the IEEE-CPMT Hu&Ro Joint Chapter.
Demonstrating the traditionally good and fruitful relationship among the member countries, a workshop about a common EU project, Elect2eat (www.elect2eat.eu) was organized during the Symposium. This project initiates life-long e-learning in electronics design and technology, improving the knowledge of students in vocational education schools and of skilled workers in electronics assembling companies. There is also a scientific bilateral cooperation between Romania and Hungary, with the topic of low-energy consuming joining technologies. Several papers were written in the frame of this cooperation at this and other previous international conferences (ISSE, IMAPS Cz&Sk). At SIITME 2009, Radu Bunea presented a paper about laser soldering topic, which is the result of his 6-week stay in Hungary, where he did experiments with the help of the local experts.
The awarding ceremony of SIITME 2009, for Best and Excellent Poster Awards
At the closing ceremony, the best scientists were awarded: the Best Poster Award was given to Mr. Ciprian Ionescu (UPBCETTI, Bucharest) for the paper entitled Electrochemical Sensor with Polymer Thick Film Printed Electrodes; the Best Poster Award for Young Scientist was given to Mr. Rajmond Jánó (TU Cluj-Napoca), for the paper entitled Intelligent Human Interface Device. Excellent Poster Awards for Young Scientist were given to Mr. Cosmin Tamas (UPB-CETTI, Bucharest), Mr. Olivér Krammer (BME-ETT, Budapest), Mr. Constantin Barabasa (Gh. Asachi TU, Iasi) and Mr. Radu Bunea (UPB-CETTI, Bucharest). Excellent Poster Awards were given to Ms. Marina Santo Zarnik (HIPOT Slovenia) and to Mr. Radu Arsinte (TU Cluj-Napoca). Acknowledgements were expressed to Ms. Georgiana Buta (Stefan cel Mare University, Suceava), Mr. Iulian Busu (UPB-CETTI, Bucharest) and to Mr. Mihai Machedon (TU Brasov).
During the whole conference, the organizers made efforts to present Hungary and to have an overview of the local specialties. One ofthem was a pálinka tasting and the secrets of the production were also shown. The participants had the opportunity to visit the castle and the spa. These occasions enhanced the contacts and networking which forecast future scientific and social relationships.
