SID Collaborates to Advance Initiatives

Abstract

THE LAST FEW MONTHS FOR SID HAVE BEEN AMAZING and very active within our society.

One of the greatest honors I have had as SID president has been attending the cosponsored conferences. I have been to all of them at some stage of the event (except Touch Taiwan…I am looking forward to that!), but it is sometimes difficult to attend all of them within the same year. Seeing the portfolio as a whole has been an interesting experience, starting with Display Week and the International Meeting on Information Display (IMID) and continuing with other meetings throughout the fall and winter.

Eurodisplay 2024 was an impressive event, and I would like to extend my heartiest congratulations to the chapters that organized it (the SID France chapter hosted the event, but with help from others, including incredible support from Mid-Europe—who hosted the past few times—and Ireland/UK) as well as the organizing team. I especially commend François Templier for chairing the meeting.

However, no meeting of this size is possible without an enthusiastic group of volunteers, including the program committee (led by program chair Jonathan Steckel, past chair Norbert Fruehauf, the conference committee, and the many financial and technical sponsors of the event, including CEA-Leti who helped host the meeting at the Maison MINATEC congress center). I was especially impressed with the visit to the new Aledia factory; this was a real highlight of the conference. I would like to thank Aledia once again for opening their doors and welcoming the world to learn about their work and progress.

Fast forwarding to December, I was equally impressed by the International Display Workshops (IDW) 2024. This event, which is technically cosponsored by The Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers in Japan, was both technically outstanding and extremely well organized.

The meeting had a slightly different format than most other conferences in that the workshops have a somewhat independent existence from the overall conference. Consequently, more than 30 other professional societies supported and cosponsored the meeting. The result was outstanding—the technical program was top notch, with excellent plenaries and a strong portfolio of invited and contributed presentations. The conference also had several unique elements, including an undergraduate student demonstration competition, extremely well attended poster sessions, and a “Display Night” that featured both an entertaining award presentation and some Hokkaido cuisine. I would like to extend my congratulations and special thanks to Kijima-san, Mori-san, and Kimura-sensei for their work, as well as the sponsors and committee.

I also want to thank the many volunteers who have reached out to offer their assistance in advancing some of the other society initiatives. Because of their efforts, we have made significant strides in establishing our presence in India (we have cosponsored two meetings so far), and we are working on developing a steady cadence of meetings and activities.

We also are working to establish more contacts in Vietnam, where several new display-related initiatives have been announced. The SID Foundation organizing committee held their first meeting, and I hope to have more news regarding the goals and organization of this activity in a few months. As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you have any suggestions or interest in getting more involved at [email protected].

Finally, I want to thank our members, staff, sponsors, and volunteers for making all the work of SID happen. It is only through your efforts that we can complete so much work as a society and to advance our goals as a community. Our meetings and chapter activities are just a few of the things that we do, and I look forward to highlighting more of our activities as the year progresses.