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ISCAS2016: Toward Innovative Nanosystems for Greater Well Being

IEEE Life Sciences talks with Mohamad Sawan, Professor, Polytechnique Montreal, and General Chair of this year’s IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) Conference about the growth in life sciences connections.

IEEE LS: What research areas are the focus at this year’s conference?

MS: ISCAS is the flagship event of the IEEE Circuits and Systems (CAS) Society. The topics of this annual symposium cover theory, design, implementation, and tests of CAS for all types of applications (security, telecommunications, multimedia, power, control, and of particular interest, the biomedical and life science applications). The theme of this year’s conference is “Toward Innovative Nanosystems for Greater Well Being,” and to support it, two out of three keynotes are related to life sciences and biomedical engineering. These keynotes are: 1) “Analog and Stochastic Computation in Living Cells and Cytomorphic Chips,” and 2) “Clinical and Research Challenges in Vascular Diseases.”

Also, the biocircuits and biosystems (BioCAS) community is growing, where colleagues deal with advances in medical devices and techniques such as biosensors and actuators and brain-machine interfaces.

IEEE LS: What were the reasons behind choosing this theme? Why on a focus on “Greater Well Being”?

MS: Actually, advanced technologies and circuits and systems techniques allow us to build smart devices for better diagnostics and to understand the body functions, in particular the brain, and propose treatment to solve or enhance human functions. The BioCAS community within this symposium is committed to push these above directions.

IEEE LS: What potential does research in the circuits and systems area have for health and well being?

MS: Several research areas for health and well being are emerging within ISCAS. Among them are the neuroengineering field, which requires sensing tools and actuators such as several types of stimulators, brain-machine interfaces, as well as all kinds of medical instrumentations, imaging techniques, lab-on-chip hybrid structures for cell manipulation and monitoring, and DNA sequencing for miniaturized tools.

Dr. Mohamad Sawan

Dr. Mohamad Sawan received a Ph.D. degree in 1990 in electrical engineering from Sherbrooke University, Canada. He joined Polytechnique Montreal in 1991, where he is currently a professor of microelectronics and biomedical engineering. Dr. Sawan is leading the Microsystems Strategic Alliance of Quebec (ReSMiQ), one of the largest research centers in Canada. He is founder of the Polystim Neurotechnologies Laboratory at Polytechnique including two major research infrastructures intended to build advanced medical devices. He is founder/cofounder of several international conferences, and cofounder and Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems, and Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, and of several other international Journals. He is also founder and chair of the Eastern Canadian IEEE-Solid State Circuits Society Chapter, and a member of the Board of Governors of IEEE CAS Society. He is Fellow of the IEEE, Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada, and Officer of the Quebec’s National Order.

IEEE LS: In general, what areas are seeing innovation and growth in the field?

MS: Every year, we identify the annual grand challenges, and this year the committee identified the following three topics: Green Telecommunications, Wireless Microsensors, and Green Power. These challenges emerge from the reviews of all submitted contributions, from the quality and quantity of corresponding contributions, from the concentration of submitted contributions, and from the priority given by authors to these emerging fields.

IEEE LS: What do you hope attendees take away from this year’s conference?

MS: We would like them to remember the Montréal’s edition forever! Actually, we added several new technical activities and programs, such as Late Breaking News, Transactions papers, Emerging CAS (CASFEST), and Pitch your Startup. Networking opportunities will continue to be important, and the conference venue will support this. We hope attendees will be impressed by the richness of the overall program, the quality of contributions, and also, the beauty of Montréal.

Cynthia Weber, PhD, is Associate Editor for the IEEE Life Sciences Newsletter.

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The IEEE Life Sciences Newsletter is a new initiative to bring forth interesting articles and informative interviews within the exciting field of life sciences every month. Please subscribe to the Newsletter to receive notification each month when new articles are published.

May 2016 Contributors

Mohamad Sawan Dr. Mohamad Sawan joined Polytechnique Montreal in 1991, where he is currently a professor of microelectronics and biomedical engineering. Dr. Sawan is leading the Microsystems Strategic Alliance of Quebec (ReSMiQ), one of the largest research centers in Canada. He is founder of the Polystim Neurotechnologies Laboratory at Polytechnique including two major research infrastructures intended to build advanced medical devices.
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