Election for the 2023-2024 Term

Candidate Statements

The DSTC elects officers every two years for two-year terms. Below is the list of candidates for the 2023-2024 term, along with their biography and position statements. The election procedure is detailed in the Policies and Procedures.

Voting is restricted to DSTC active members (also called voting members), to whom voting instructions will be sent by email.  

Schedule

  • November 9, 2022 Voting directions will be emailed to voting members, and voting begins.
  • December 4, 2022 Election Date. Deadline for active members to submit votes.

Candidates

  • Chair
    • Kui Cai, Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD)  — Biography (pdf)

       I have nearly twenty years of experience in the areas of coding theory, information theory, and signal processing for various data storage systems. My research covers the entire evolution of the data storage technologies, ranging from optical recording, perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR), bit-patterned media recording (BPMR), heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), two-dimensional magnetic recording (TDMR), solid state non-volatile memories (NVMs) such as the spin-torque transfer magnetic random access memory (STT-MRAM) and resistive random access memory (RRAM), to the recently emerged DNA-based data storage. I have published more than 100 papers and filed 20 patents, with two patents being licensed to the industry. I am the recipient of 2008 IEEE Communications Society Data Storage Technical Committee (DSTC) Best Paper Award in Coding and Signal Processing for Data Storage. 

      I have served as the Vice-Chair from Academia of DSTC 2015-2016 and Treasurer of DSTC 2011-2014. I was the co-Chair of 2020-2021 DSTC Best Paper Award Committee, and the Chair of 2009 DSTC Best Paper Award Committee and 2011-2012 DSTC Best Paper Award Committee. I was the Finance of The International Symposium on Information Theory and Its Applications (ISITA) 2018, Symposium Chair of IEEE Global Communications Conference (Globecom) 2017, Invited Paper Chair of IEEE International Conference on Computing, Networking and Communications (ICNC) 2015, Session Chair of IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT) 2022, Session Chair of IEEE International Conference on Computing, Networking and Communications (ICNC) 2013, Session Chair of IEEE Intentional Communications Conference (ICC) 2012, and Session Chair of IEEE Global Communications Conference (Globecom) 2010. I was the Exemplary Reviewer for IEEE Transaction on Communications in 2018. I would like to continue contributing to DSTC through improving its visibility and influence in both academia and industry, as well as in the IEEE Communications Society. 

  • Vice-Chair from Industry
    • Paolo Amato, Micron Technology, — Biography (pdf)

      I have more than 20 years of experience in semiconductor industry. In my career I have been working on memory and storage solutions for a wide range of applications (Mobile, Automotive, and Data Centers), based on both incumbent technology (DRAM and NAND) and emerging ones (like PCM and 3DXP). In exploring next storage and memory architecture I have several collaborations with Universities and Research Institutes. I strongly believe that tight collaborations between Industry and Academia is key for bringing real innovations in actual products. I would be really interested in the Vice-Chair position of the DSTC.

  • Vice-Chair from Academia
    • Eitan Yaakobi, Technion — Biography (pdf)

      Eitan Yaakobi is a faculty member at the Computer Science Department with a secondary appointment at the Electrical and Computer Engineering and at the Technion. He is also the head of the Excellence Program at the Technion. He is affiliated with the Center for Memories Recording Research (CMRR) at UCSD and the Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) at TUM. Since 2020 he serves as an Associate Editor at the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. He organized several conferences and workshops, including being the Co-General Chair of the Non-Volatile Memories Workshop (NVMW) between 2015-2018, and 2020-2023, the co-chair of the Munich Workshop on Coding and Cryptography (MWCC) in 2022, and the co-chair of the TCE Conference on Coding for Storage and Information Systems in 2017. He served on several TPCs such as ISIT 2019-2023, ITW (2018, 2019, 2022), ISITA (2020, 2022), ISTC (2021, 2023),  and Globecom (2017-2020). 

      My goal to be elected as a Vice-Chair from Academia of DSTC is to strengthen the academic involvement in the committee, reach out to more academic programs, and facilitate collaboration with other committees and industry.

  • Secretary
    • Suayb S. Arslan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology — Biography (pdf)

      As an active member of DSTC and a practitioner of research for 15 years, I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to join with colleagues in various professional gatherings and research activities. I believe I can serve the position of Secretary with few valuable qualities of mine. First off, I have experience managing the finances of three large-scale projects with a total annual operating budget of over $200,000. I have also served for the past four years as awards committee member of IEEE Student competition as a representative of DSTC. During that position we set-up standardized criteria for the proposed procedures for the decision making process for the award, and voted for the winner. I have extensive academic and industry experiences.  In addition to editorial board works and grant writing, I have published over 30 articles in professional journals and provided over 35 national and international conference presentations in some of which I had the active role in the process of granting travel awards for participating students. I have been also involved in patent application processes (over 20 patent grants), screening and evaluation of both international as well as foreign projects.