Elisa Shahbazian, 2009
Message from the 11th President
As I begin my term as the 11th ISIF President, I would like to express my thanks to the membership who elected me to the Board of Directors and the Board for entrusting me with the helm of our Society for this year. Within its relatively short existence (within the past 10 years) ISIF membership has grown to be over 800 with around 400 participating in its very successful annual International Information Fusion Conferences. The society has been successfully fulfilling its mission to Advocate, Serve, Communicate, Educate, Integrate and Disseminate research, knowledge, capability and advancements in Information Fusion Internationally and the best examples of such achievement are the society’s Journal of Advances in Information Fusion and the complete proceedings of all past ISIF conferences freely available on the society’s web site.
For the current year, our plans include the following:
- Hold the FUSION 2009, the 12th International Conference on Information Fusion in Seattle, Washington, USA, July 6 – 9, 2009 (every registered participant becomes a member of ISIF for one year);
- Support the organizing committee of Fusion 2010, the 13th International Conference on Information Fusion in Edinburgh, Scotland, for their preparation of the conference (program, organization, recreation, as necessary).
- Initiate the call for proposals for the Fusion 2011, the 14th International conference
- Provide benefits to the members, like discounts on books and continue to add subsequent conference Proceedings on the web;
- Enhance the system for administration and member services;
- Continue to improve the web site to include more information on fusion and fusion related international activities;
- Continue with the publication of the online journal “Journal of Advances in Information Fusion” and expand it to include additional Information Fusion topics, by involving experts in various topics and various fusion levels;
- Continue building up a cadre of volunteers for help in the operation of ISIF and future leadership positions;
During my presidency term I hope to enhance student participation in ISIF events, as well as participation from certain countries from where historically there have been fewer participants due to various reasons (distance, cost, political situation, etc.). I also hope to promote and expand research and discussions of higher level fusion and information/knowledge management methods and applications for decision support in various domains.
I welcome suggestions and recommendations from the board and the membership on how to improve ISIF to make it more valuable for their domain and occupation as well as welcome volunteers to help the board to realize the improvements.
Elisa Shahbazian