TOPICSMEMS 2003 Report
MEMS2003, The 16th Annual International IEEE
Micro Electro Mechanical Systems Conference, washeld from January 19 to 23, 2003, at the Kyoto
International Conference Hall, Japan.

concerning either materials or processing
technologies, but interest in bio- and micro fluidrelated topics combined was greatest overall. The
strong interest in these two fields is a growing trendthat has been commonly observed in micromachinerelated international conferences of late.

The 500 pre-publication papers submitted forpresentation at MEMS2003 exceeded last year's
record of 454, and of these, 22 were chosen for oral
and 151 for poster presentations, a selection rate ofapproximately 35%. Since applications mushroomed in
1995, it has become increasingly difficult to have apaper accepted for presentation at a MEMS
conference. Although attendance at this year's
conference was 664, slightly less than the 700 who
attended MEMS2002 in Las Vegas, USA, last year, thefact that approximately half the participants were fromoverseas ensured that the conference was, as its namepromises, a truly international event.

Breakdowns of the papers submitted to andpresented at MEMS2003 according to topic and region,
as well as the results of the attendees' questionnaire,
are available on the Ritsumeikan University website(http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/se/~tabata/mems2003/).
The MEMS2003 Proceedings (soft cover/ 711
pages/ 12,000 per copy (¥10,000 for IEEE members),
CD-R and shipping fee included) can be ordered fromthe following website: http://home.inter.net/mems2003/
The 17th Annual International IEEE Micro Electro
Mechanical Systems Conference, MEMS2004, is to beheld in Maastricht, The Netherlands, from January 25
to 29, 2004. Program details are available from thefollowing website: http://www.mems2004.org

MEMS began in 1987 as the Micro Robots andTeleoperators Workshop, and the present name wasadopted in 1999. Although the number of presentation
papers and conference participants has graduallyincreased over the years, MEMS has consistentlymaintained its original single session format for oralpresentations. The number of oral presentations atMEMS2003 was reduced from the previous year's 41 to22, partly in order to ensure a consistent selection
rate. Needless to say, this decision was neither an easy
for organizers to make, nor necessarily welcomed byparticipants. However, in the poster sessions, forwhich a much greater number of presentations wereaccepted, the standard of research in a large
proportion of presentations was very high.
Furthermore, in Poster Preview sessions, a newfeature introduced experimentally at MEMS2003, heldprior to the poster sessions each day, the content ofpresentations was classified into relevant categories
and topics selected by commentators explained, andthis additional service was well-received amongparticipants.

Number of Accepted Paper

80

71

70
60
50

49
3740301920
100Japan

North AmericaEuropeAsia exceptfor JapanA regionFig. 1 Regional Distribution of accepted Paper forMEMS2003

100Number of Accepted Paper

By region, the largest number of poster
presentations was made by American researchers (71presentations), followed by Japanese researchers (49presentations). Although the number of presentations
by European researchers was noticeably small (19presentations) this year, the number of presentations
by Korean and Taiwanese researchers again rose overthe previous year.

9290807060
504030302528Europe

Asia exceptfor Japan

20100Japan

North America
A region

According to the results of a questionnaireanswered by conference attendees, participants
showed the greatest interest in presentations

Fig. 2 Regional Distribution of accepted Paper for
MEMS2002(For Reference)5