Palestine Technical College-Deir El-Balah and Al-Quds University, organized the fourth edition of the 2020 International Conference on Promising Electronic Technologies (ICPET 2020), in coordination with IEEE Palestine Subsection, and in collaboration with Palestinian Communication and Informatics Society at PALAST with sponsorship of Palestine Academy for Science and Technology, through Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Jerusalem (FNF) sponsorship and Higher Council for Innovation and Excellence.
The conference was held on 16-17, December 2020, virtually (via Zoom), at Palestine Technical College-Deir El Balah and at Jerusalem.
The opening ceremony was moderated by Dr. Elham Kateeb – Dean of Scientific Research at Al-Quds University, welcoming and thanking participants, sponsors and partners of the conference. The opening started by HE Eng. Adnan Samara, President of HCIE, who welcomed the participants, praising the spirit of constructive cooperation between educational institutions in a way that serves scientific research and its development, adding: “The convening of the international conference in both parts of Palestine, even if it is electronically, is evidence of determination to work fruitfully and constructively despite the political and health conditions that the Palestinian people live in.” Mr. Samara pointed out that the interest of HCIE in this scientific community stems from the vision and philosophy of the HCIE aimed at supporting and enabling all forms of creativity and the Palestinian creative spectrum, leading to a Palestinian economy based on knowledge, leadership and creativity.
Moreover, he pointed out that creative ideas are born from the womb of crises, as the HCIE will organize its Fifth National Forum virtually with a new and different character, shape, form and content in line with the current circumstances and its requirements.
The scientific committee chair from Al-Quds University, Dr. Isam Ishaq, presented statistics about participating researches in this year, which amounted to 44 papers presented by 11 countries, in which 54 reviewers from the same countries participating participated in the evaluation of those submissions. Each research paper received an average of 3.5 reviews, noting that the research papers accepted at the conference were 31 scientific papers distributed over 8 scientific sessions over two consecutive days.
It is followed by a speech from conference chair from Palestine Technical College – Deir El-Balah, Dr. Ezzaldeen Edwan, who welcomed attendees, praising the joint organizational efforts between Al-Quds University and the Palestine Technical College in holding this conference electronically despite all the difficulties and the political and health conditions facing the region, and the wide electronic presence of the scientific institutions, researchers and specialists, thanking everyone who contributed to its success after a year of intensive work. Dr. Edwan assured that the accepted papers will be submitted for inclusion at the largest global scientific platform, the IEEE Xplore digital platform, and thus will appear on global search engines such as Web of Science and Scopus, which raises the ranking of universities and researchers themselves.
In his address, Dr. Haitham Ayesh, the dean of the Palestine Technical College - Deir El-Balah, expressed his proudness of the partnership with Al-Quds University and that this joint work is the first of cooperation in various fields, looking forward to strengthening the strategic partnership and continuous and fruitful cooperation with various Palestinian educational institutions, stressing that the college harnesses all the necessary capabilities to ensure the success of the conference despite all the challenges due to the epidemic situation and the conference is consistent with the vision of the college and its strategic plan towards interest in scientific research and strengthening its role in community service. He also pointed out that the college, despite the circumstances and difficulties it went through, was able to develop its infrastructure and modernize its laboratories and departments to keep pace with the needs and requirements of the labor market and its dynamic technologies based on qualified human staff capable of penetrating the labor market efficiently and competently.
In the same context, the president of Al-Quds University, Prof. Imad Abu Kishek, in his speech expressed his happiness with the partnership between Palestine College and Al-Quds University in light of the extraordinary political and health conditions in the country, hoping that this conference will contribute to enriching scientific research and promoting it by addressing specific issues that serve society and reduce the gap between the private and public sector and meet market requirements locally and internationally. He called to the re-consideration of universities as non-traditional academic bodies by reviewing scientific programs and study plans in line with global needs and the tremendous acceleration in modern technologies and cognitive methods, noting that Al-Quds University has adopted this approach to change to keep pace with the new challenges to advance the Palestinian economy and meet its changing requirements.
In his address, HE Minister Prof. Marwan Awartani, the president of PALAST and Minister of education, explained Contributing to enhancing the role of science, technology and communications in building state institutions and supporting policies to support universities and colleges to focus on international cooperation in science and technology and scientific research and support innovation and excellence in the fields of science and technology. He stressed on the importance of the effective and sustainable integration of Palestinian scientists and experiences in the diaspora in transferring and localizing knowledge and technology to their homeland Palestine, stressing the need and importance of stimulating cooperation, coordination and sharing of scientific and technical resources among Palestinian researchers in various universities in order to rationalize the use of the available resource. To realize this vision, the Academy took the initiative to establish scientific societies specialized in various fields of knowledge, starting with the natural sciences and in line with the best international standards in this field.
In the Panel Session, the Palestinian Communications and Informatics Society (PCIS) launched its Society, beginning with Dr. Ashraf Halabi, who presented the main goals of the society, followed by other PCIS members Dr. Ashraf Al-Rimawy, Dr. Anas Salhab, Dr. Shady Abu Dalfah. Dr. Ezzaldeen Edwan from PCIS and Dr. Ayman Al Haj Daoud from PALAST who explained PALAST vision in establishing the scientific societies.
Invited main speaker at the first day was Prof. Dr. Sofiène Affes, EMT Centre, INRS, Canada, ended the opening ceremony. Prof Affes is a specialist and researcher at an international level, who delivered a very skilled lecture on his experience of New Radio Interface Technologies: Recent Progress Made under 5G and New Directions Paving the Way Towards 6G.
The conference covered the topics and themes in eight formal sessions, the first session entitled “Technology in the COVID-19 Pandemic”, and was chaired by Dr. Isam Ishaq. Dr. Ahmed Issa chaired the second session entitled “IoT and Smart Systems”. Dr. Ezzaldeen Edwan chaired the third session entitled “Circuits and Communication Systems”.
In the second day, the Invited main speaker at the second day was Prof. Ala’aldeen Al-Halhouli President of the Middle East University, Amman, Jordan, Prof Al-Halhouli is a specialist and researcher at an international level, who delivered a very skilled lecture on his experience of Clinical Evaluation of Stretchable and Wearable Inkjet-Printed Strain Gauge Sensor for Respiratory Rate Monitoring.
The fourth session entitled “Machine Learning &Artificial Intelligence”, and was chaired by Prof. Samy Abu Naser. Dr. Samy Shaat chaired the fifth session entitled “Solar Cells, Materials and Energy”. Dr. Rashid Jayousi chaired the sixth session entitled “Routing Protocols, Privacy and Security”. Dr. Rashid Jayousi chaired the seventh session entitled “Image Processing”. Dr. Suheir Harb chaired the eighth session entitled “Developing Algorithms”.
At the Closing Ceremony chaired by Dr Ezzaldeen Edwan, announced the best Paper Evaluation in ICPET 2020 awards offered by Communication and Informatics Society at PALAST with FNF Sponsorship, and the best eight papers won the award for the best presentation in each of the eight conference sessions at the conclusion of the 2020 International Conference on Promising Electronic Technology ICPET 2020. Awards are presented by the Higher Council for Innovation and Excellence. The two awards will cover the participation fees for the winning papers. It should be noted that all accepted papers will be sent for inclusion at the prestigious IEEE Xplore digital library, and will be Scopus database. Dr. Suheir Harb presented final concluding remarks and overall recommendations of the conference.
All authors at ICPET 2020. Conference proceedings of ICPET 2020 have been published at IEEE Xplore
