I have been appointed as the 63rd president of the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers (SICE). As I accept the unique obligation of running an academic society with a long history of over 60 years, I am once again humbled by the heavy responsibility.

I have been involved in research and development related to SICE’s academic fields of measurement, control, and systems for a long time, starting from when I was a student and continuing to the present in my work at a company. As someone who has been involved in manufacturing products related to measurement and control in the industrial world, I am determined to do my best to develop this society, even if it is in a small way. Once again, I would like to ask for the guidance and cooperation of all the individual members and supporting members who support this society.

In modern society, where IoT and AI are becoming more widespread and information collaboration and automation are progressing, the role of SICE is becoming more important than ever. There are many situations in which SICE’s knowledge can and should be utilized to resolve social issues, such as dealing with global warming and the subsequent increases in damage caused by typhoons and floods, responding to disasters such as earthquakes and heavy rain, and preventing aircraft and railway accidents. To this end, we can “measure” the complex real world (physical space) with a sensor network, perform quantitative analysis in a cyberspace built with powerful computational capabilities, and implement “control” aiming for overall optimization based on the results. The Cyber Physical System is made up of many of SICE’s core technologies working together. SICE's mission is to become a hub for related fields, industry, government, and academia, and to contribute to the identification and resolution of social issues through communication and collaboration. We believe that creating technologies and human resources that contribute to these efforts, and creating a place for the exchange of knowledge, are vital functions for academic societies to contribute to the resolution of social issues.

In the 63rd term, we will focus on 1) solving social issues and outreach, 2) reforming the annual conference, and 3) digitizing the journal.

Regarding the resolution of social issues through industry-academia collaboration and outreach, including to non-SICE members, we will inherit the activities of the Industry Group formed for the International Automation Control Association IFAC 2023, and will call it “Wagora” within the SICE Industry Committee. We will form a group and provide an open place for members from a wide range of fields in industry and academia to gather.

In addition, we have started a new “Executive Salon” activity in which leading academic experts talk about the relationship between academia and industry in their specialized academic fields, thereby improving member services for supporting members, including management. Furthermore, we will establish a Sustainable Social Contribution Award to recognize members who have achieved results that contribute to identifying and resolving social issues, which we plan to present during the Annual Conference.

In terms of outreach, we have begun posting videos about the society’s initiatives and automatic measurement control on the SICE channel on the society’s homepage, and we are also planning projects for elementary, junior high, and high school students.

Regarding the reform of the annual conference, we have traditionally held the SICE Annual Conference (SICE AC) as a major event of the academic society, and we hope to expand this to a wider range and achieve both high quality and a broader diversity of participants. This year, the SICE Festival with Annual Conference is scheduled to be held at the Eikokuji Campus of the Kochi University of Technology from August 27th to 30th, aiming to be an “interdisciplinary festival”.

Regarding the digitization of journals, we are working to improve the efficiency of publishing journals, which are the foundation of the society, and in the future, we will be able to publish a variety of content such as videos and datasets, which will be useful for all members. To make the content more attractive, we will gradually move from paper media to electronic.

By steadily implementing the above-mentioned priority measures, we will strengthen the foundation of the academic society.

The number of members of this society peaked at 9,120 in 1991 and has been decreasing almost linearly since then. In response to the society’s challenges related to Japan’s population decline, we aim to mitigate the decline in membership by increasing SICE’s presence and improving member services, as well as by rebuilding the financial structure in response to environmental changes and improving the efficiency of the society’s management and secretariat structure.

This year, based on the above activity policy, all the executives and secretariat staff under the new structure will work towards the development of SICE. We would like to thank all SICE members and supporting members for their continued support.