Editorial: Message from SAMPE's global president

Abstract

I have been a member of SAMPE for 27 years. During that time, my professional network and my participation in the society has grown. I began by going to local chapter meetings, then I went to conferences in the United States, and most recently I have been experiencing SAMPE on its many global venues. This year I spent two weeks in September traveling to two SAMPE conferences. The first was SETEC 14 in Tampere, Finland. The second was SAMPE Asia 2014 in Seoul, Korea. I got a lot of time away from my desk and work, reconnected with SAMPE colleagues and friends on two continents, and watched 10 movies. (I spent the weekend between them in Detroit at a family event.) Though the differences were quite apparent, there was one strong similarity. SETEC 14 was hosted by Dr. Jryki Vuorinen of Tampere University of Technology; SAMPE Asia was hosted by Dr. Young-Bin Park of Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology. As many students were in attendance in both conferences, it is clear the role of their representative academic institutions. This has caused me to reflect. Clearly our future for our society rests in our future members. While we recognize that the students of today will be the leaders of tomorrow, we often struggle on how to capture this demanding demographic - or at least we do so within the United States. This may not be the same in other regions as evidenced by these two conferences. When one considers that SAMPE is now a global society, we must recognize that one region's challenge is another region's asset.