report by: A.J. Han Vinck
The fourth International Symposium on Power-Line Communications and its Applications took place April 5-7, 2000 in the Business Centre of Castletroy Park Hotel, located adjacent to the University of Limerick on the outskirts of Limerick city, a historic centre in the beautiful west of Ireland region.
The Symposium was organized by Prof. Tom Coffey from the University of Limerick in Limerick, Ireland, with the help of the local community under the supervision of Sean McGrath. Tom Coffey and Han Vinck acted as Co-chairmen for the symposium. The meeting was sponsored by the IEEE UK and Ireland Section, the Institution of Engineers of Ireland and the IEE.
About 100 participants from 25 countries discussed the actual topic of power-line communications and its applications. The objective of the symposium is to stimulate research and help in solving new problems encountered by engineers and scientists working in this field. The Symposium covered a range of communication topics from a practical as well as a theoretical point of view.
The technical programme included the following sessions
The guest speaker David Healey, Vice President, ENIKIA Inc. New York, USA gave an excellent lecture entitled: "Review of the Future Opportunity for Broadband PLT; Both Access and Home Networking".
All 41 papers presented at ISPLC2000 are published in the 300 pages of the ‘Proceedings of the 2000 International Symposium on Power-Line Communications and its Applications’.
The participants were very pleased with the announcement that the 5-th symposium will be organized by Prof. Goran Lindell and Hans Ottoson in April 2001 in Malmo, Sweden.
The social program included a get-together dinner and a medieval banquet in the 750 year old Bunratty castle. For further information regarding the symposium and the proceedings of the symposium (ISBN 1-87 4653-60-7 ) please contact Prof. Tom Coffey, email: tom.coffey@ul.ie or look at the home page: http://www.ul.ie/~isplc2000/.