IEEE CIS DLP Charter Effective June 30, 2013
Charter of IEEE CIS Distinguished Lecturer Program
I. Mission
The CIS Distinguished Lecturer Program (DLP) aims at serving communities interested in computational intelligence and, specifically, supporting local CIS Chapters and CIS members who like to stay up-to-date on the latest research and practical applications by organizing lectures given by distinguished experts. Particular attention is given to the specific needs of academia, and professionals in industry and government. Lecturers will tailor their presentations to the envisioned audience.
The program supports local CIS Chapters by helping them to invite leading researchers in their respective fields. The DLP talk is a major event in the life of the inviting Chapter. The visibility of the inviting Chapter is expected to increase significantly as a result of the DLP talk. The visit should be actively pursued as an opportunity for membership recruitment. This program is not intended to provide speakers for conferences, workshops or symposia.
II. Policies and Procedures
To organize a distinguished lecture, the CIS Chapter Chair should perform the following steps:
- Based on the interests of the members, the Chapter Chair chooses a Distinguished Lecturer (DL) and a topic from the list of current DLP lecturers. The chair should contact the DL directly, copying the DLP Chair, and work out preliminary details of the visit (chapter event, date, location, financial arrangements, etc.).
- This preliminary information should be included in the DLP Application Form, to be sent to the DLP Chair for approval. In general, DLP covers the DL‟s intercity travel expenses to the DLP talk (return air fare, within limits as described below). Local expenses (such as hotel, food, transportation) should be provided by the local Chapter.
- The Chapter Chair should make timely arrangements well in advance of the planned visit. July 30 is the deadline for submitting requests to DLP Chair for the given year. Requests are evaluated continuously, and Chapter Chairs are encouraged to make their requests early, to secure the approval of the DLP visit.
- The DL will be reimbursed up to a maximum of $1500, in order to (partially) cover the return air fare to the Chapter location to give the DLP talk. The DLs are expected to have approximately one visit per year. A DL may have more than one DLP trip during a calendar year, depending on the availability of funds, but this has lower priority.
- After the visit is approved by the DLP Chair, the Chapter Chair should contact the DL to finalize arrangements. The lecture should be open to all members of IEEE. The Chapter Chair is expected to publicize the event in the Chapter newsletter and/or by special mailings to all members of the Chapter. The event must be announced as "Sponsored by the Computational Intelligence Society under its Distinguished Lecturer Program", and the lecturer should be mentioned as a “CIS Distinguished Lecturer.” If other IEEE societies or organizations have offered to support this Chapter activity, then proper acknowledgment should also be made.
- Immediately following the event, the Chapter Chair should send a summary report to the DLP chair including information on the lecture date/title, a copy of the announcement, photos etc.
- The DL should retain receipts of the approved travel expenses. Following the event, the DL should complete the IEEE travel reimbursement form and send it to the VP of Finances with copy to the DLP chair. Hardcopy of the spreadsheet and original receipts should be mailed to the IEEE CIS Executive Administrator.
III. Distinguished Lecturer Selection and Appointment
The Distinguished Lecturers are recognized authorities in their respective fields. The DLs should be IEEE Fellows with IEEE CIS membership. Exceptional IEEE Senior Members who are members of IEEE CIS will be considered on a case by case basis.
- DL Selection Criteria*
*Quantitative measures in italics are recommendations made by the DLP committee.
- Leadership & public speech accomplishments in CIS related fields
This criterion is evidenced by keynote/plenary talks, which took place at CIS (co-) sponsored events, during the years preceding the nomination.
*Quantitative measure: number of keynote/plenary talks in the past 3 years, the size of audience.
- Recently published advances
Supporting documentation may include a list of the candidate’s recent (past 5 years) journal papers, books, monographs, patents, editorship of journal special issues.
*Quantitative measure: Google Scholar citation numbers, ISI Web of Science h-index for works published in past few years, Harzing PorP, and other suitable metrics.
- Serving as ambassador of the society
The DL should be committed to representing the society at various public events, and participating in membership recruitment and development as part of the DLP talk and other events.
*Quantitative measure: active in CIS, sign and submit DLP speaker duties form.
- Balanced representation
The DLP tries to achievebalanced representation of roughly 2/3 academic & 1/3 industry/government distinguished lecturers covering various geographic regions and CIS related fields.
*Quantitative measure: at least 2 non-academic appointments; at least 1 appointment from each of the main geographic regions; at least 2 appointments from each of the main 3 CIS areas.
The committee shall evaluate the relevant values and merits of each nominee using both qualitative and quantitative evidence. The quantitative measures indicated in section III.1 are part of the input to be considered by the committee. Other criteria include, but are not limited to, qualitative assessments of the nominees work, geographical lecturer distribution requirements, or the need to include lecture topics that would not be, otherwise, well represented. The committee may consider exceptions to these criteria on a case by case basis
2. Distinguished Lecturer Nomination
Nominations will be for a 3-year term that begins on 1 January of the subsequent year. Renomination is allowed after a 1 year waiting period.
CIS Distinguished Lecturers are nominated by the following CIS members: Chapter Chairs, TC chairs, EICs, AdCom/ExCom members, and past DLs.
The nomination package should include the following: (i) completed nomination form which addresses the DLP selection criteria in Sec. III/1; (ii) Statement of the candidate expressing his/her willingness to serve as DL and complete the respective duties; (iii) complete CV containing publications, invited talks, keynotes, and plenary talks. The nomination package may include pointers to the candidate's web site and online video materials, which may be useful in reaching out to the CIS membership after the DL appointment.
Nominations should be received by the DLP Chair by August 30 of the year preceding the appointment.
The nominations will be ranked by the DLP Committee, and submitted for final approval bythe CIS AdCom.
- Distinguished Lecturer Appointments
Nominations should be approved by the AdCom. Each year a maximum of 7 speakers are appointed by the AdCom for a 3-year period. Upon appointment, CIS Distinguished Lecturers are publicly announced online, where contact information and fields of potential lectures are displayed.
- Distinguished Lecturer Retirement
A DL can retire voluntarily at any time before the term ends, by submitting a request to the Chair of the DLP. A CIS member as listed in Sec. III/2 can initiate the removal of a DL by submitting to the DLP committee a complaint clearly describing the reasons and/or the evident events. Upon receiving the retirement request, the DLP Chair should first inquire the DL for rebuttal and then open the situation to DLP sub-committee for discussion. A summary report about the situation and suggestions should then be submitted from DLP subcommittee to AdCom for final decision.
IV. DLP Time Table
July 1 Nomination period begins
August 30 Submission deadline of DLP nominations
November 15 Recommendations for appointments by DLP sub-committee
December 15 Decision on DLP appointments by AdCom