IEEE ECCE 2020 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The ECCE staff and board have been closely monitoring the developing news regarding COVID-19. We want to assure you that we place a high priority on your health and safety, and want to keep you informed on ECCE’s plans in regard to the event in Detroit, MI. Considering the present situation and the safety of the participants, the ECCE 2020 Organizing Committee has decided to go VIRTUAL this year. We appreciate the support and understanding as we transition to a virtual conference. Please frequently check the ECCE Website and the FAQ page for the latest notice.

As of August, Detroit still has a limit of 10 persons for in door gatherings. This means that convening in person in Detroit, as previously planned, will not be possible. While we are disappointed that we will not be able to gather in person, we fully support the prioritization of health and safety during these uncertain times.

To continue our education, networking, and influence, we are excited to announce that ECCE will be going virtual! We want to thank you for your patience as we have been working on cancelling our Annual Conference and moving ECCE 2020 Convention and Exhibition virtual. We value your commitment to ECCE as an exhibitor and/or sponsor and want to offer you options in regard to your sponsorship or exhibition at our 2020 virtual event.

  1. Support ECCE virtual Exhibition and Sponsorship Conference

We are planning a virtual event- offering ECCE  virtual sponsorship.  We have a menu of options to share with you. If you select to support the virtual conference, your benefits will be transferred over. Please see the prospectus for sponsorship opportunities at the ECCE virtual conference platform ECCE Sponsorship Virtual Prospectus

  1. Roll over your payment and participation

Roll over to our 2021 Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition in Vancouver, BC on October 9- October 14, 2021.

  1. Full refund

If you do NOT want the above two options, we will provide a full refund for you. We will process all refund requests after the conference week (Oct 11-15)

Have a question about virtual partnership opportunities, or need more information?

Please contact John Heiser, ECCE Exhibits Sales Manager at

jheiser@smithbucklin.com

or

202-367-2393.

What will the format of IEEE ECCE 2020 be?

Following the procedures and guidelines given by the CDC and WHO, we place a high priority on your health and safety, and with this, we decide to move ECCE 2020 to be a fully VIRTUAL event.

The registration rate to participate virtually, determined based on feedback from the survey we conducted earlier, will be 60% of the previous years’ in-person rate.

How should authors prepare materials for the virtual/online program?

All authors will be required to upload a pre-recorded video of their presentation (e.g. audio over slides) to the virtual conference platform. Otherwise, the paper will be considered as no-show and will not be included in the conference proceedings. This will ensure that all the virtual attendees have access to the presentations. Audio over slides can be done with relative ease, using free software. Please refer to the “Presenters” tab for instructions on how to prepare presentation videos.

What will the technical program look like?

ECCE2020 will have exciting plenary session and special sessions. All paper presentations will also be available on the virtual platform. Virtual session rooms will be designed to accommodate the online/virtual discussions during the conference. Oral and digital poster (as a replacement of traditional poster sessions) sessions will be scheduled.

The ECCE 2020 Organizing Committee is taking all steps to ensure the conference meets the expectation levels for engagement and knowledge sharing that ECCE has been delivering for past years. In preparation, the authors/speakers are required to create audio/video presentations for their content. By agreeing to provide the presentation material and registering for the conference, the author’s work (e.g., papers) will be published and made searchable in the IEEE Xplore digital library. The presentation material will only be made available to conference attendees (i.e. those who have registered for the conference) for a limited period of time. Here are a few hints/instructions for the authors and presenters to better prepare the pre-recordings of presentations.

How to make a pre-recorded video?

There are several free online tools available to create audio/video presentations. Please see the options below and feel free to choose the option that best suits your convenience. We recommend using Microsoft PowerPoint.

Create Voice Over PowerPoint (Recommended): How-to-do and Convert to MP4
WebEx: Video Conferencing – Record a Cisco Webex Meeting
Skype: Skype for Business: Recording a Meeting | Information Technology Services | Bemidji State University
Google Meet: Record a video meeting – Meet Help
Zoom: Local Recording – Zoom Help Center
Gotomeeting: How to Record a GoToMeeting Session | Techwalla and How to Convert and Open the GoToMeeting Recordings
Microsoft Teams: Record a meeting in Teams – Office Support

Tips for making pre-recordings:

  • Use as quiet an area as possible
  • Avoid areas that have echo:
    1. Rooms should be small
    2. Sound dampening with carpeting, curtains, furniture
  • Good headset with microphone close to mouth BUT away from direct line of mouth to reduce “pops”.  Avoid using default built-in microphone on computer.
  • Do a test recording of a couple of minutes and review the sound and picture quality, MP4 format, and bit rate before recording the entire presentation.  Adjust if needed.
  • Feel free to show face over camera when making the recording.

Presentation file requirements

  • All presentation files must be MP4 format.
  • A bit rate of 1mbps or less: To check the bit rate, right click on the file name, click on properties, go to the details tab, and look for total bitrate. (*Note: The platform will accept videos with a higher bit rate, but some quality may be lost during the upload process)
  • Resolution = 720p HD
  • For oral presentations, the recording length shall not exceed 15 minutes. We recommend having a total number of slides less than 20.
  • For digital posters, they must be converted to presentations, and the record length shall not exceed 5 minutes.
  • Tutorials no exceed 3 hours.
  • Please follow the standards and templates (for.PPTX) from ECCE 2020 or refer to the Author Central Page.

Presentation video submission instructions

  • All presentation files must be MP4 format.
  • Please name your video files as “Session ID – Paper ID”.

For example:

If your presentation is in Oral Session 1 and your four digit paper ID is 0591, please name your video files as “S1-0597”.

If your presentation is in Digital Poster Session 2 and your four digit paper ID is 0790, please name your video file as “P2-0790”.

If your presentation is in Special Session 3, and you are the second speaker in the session, please name your video as “SS3-2”

Please see the technical program at a glance at ECCE website for all the session’ information

  • You will receive a unique link for submitting your videos to the ON24 platform. Please follow the instruction video below for the paper submission.
  • The ON24 submission system is already open. You can submit the videos as soon as you receive the submission link for your paper.
  • The submission deadline is September 24, 2020.

Uploading Video to ON24 Instructions

The ECCE 2020 Organizing Committee is taking all steps to ensure the conference meets the expectation levels for engagement and knowledge sharing that ECCE has been delivering for past years. In preparation, the authors/speakers are required to create audio/video presentations for their content. By agreeing to provide the presentation material and registering for the conference, the author’s work (e.g., papers) will be published and made searchable in the IEEE Xplore digital library. The presentation material will only be made available to conference attendees (i.e. those who have registered for the conference) for a limited period of time. Here are a few hints/instructions for the authors and presenters to better prepare the pre-recordings of presentations.

How to make a pre-recorded video?

There are several free online tools available to create audio/video presentations. Please see the options below and feel free to choose the option that best suits your convenience. We recommend using Microsoft PowerPoint.

Create Voice Over PowerPoint (Recommended): How-to-do and Convert to MP4
WebEx: Video Conferencing – Record a Cisco Webex Meeting
Skype: Skype for Business: Recording a Meeting | Information Technology Services | Bemidji State University
Google Meet: Record a video meeting – Meet Help
Zoom: Local Recording – Zoom Help Center
Gotomeeting: How to Record a GoToMeeting Session | Techwalla and How to Convert and Open the GoToMeeting Recordings
Microsoft Teams: Record a meeting in Teams – Office Support

Tips for making pre-recordings:

  • Use as quiet an area as possible
  • Avoid areas that have echo:
    1. Rooms should be small
    2. Sound dampening with carpeting, curtains, furniture
  • Good headset with microphone close to mouth BUT away from direct line of mouth to reduce “pops”.  Avoid using default built-in microphone on computer.
  • Do a test recording of a couple of minutes and review the sound and picture quality, MP4 format, and bit rate before recording the entire presentation.  Adjust if needed.
  • Feel free to show face over camera when making the recording.

Presentation file requirements

  • All presentation files must be MP4 format.
  • A bit rate of 1mbps or less: To check the bit rate, right click on the file name, click on properties, go to the details tab, and look for total bitrate. (*Note: The platform will accept videos with a higher bit rate, but some quality may be lost during the upload process)
  • Resolution = 720p HD
  • For oral presentations, the recording length shall not exceed 15 minutes. We recommend having a total number of slides less than 20.
  • For digital posters, they must be converted to presentations, and the record length shall not exceed 5 minutes.
  • Tutorials no exceed 3 hours.
  • Please follow the standards and templates (for.PPTX) from ECCE 2020 or refer to the Author Central Page.

Paper, Poster and Presentation Templates

Papers submitted to ECCE should follow the IEEE Conference Paper Template.
Poster/Oral presentation template – Poster/Oral Presentation Template
Poster and Oral presentation template will be the same this year.

Instructions for Authors to Create a PDF File for Final Submission:

Step 1: Before Creating Your PDF File

  • Use the IEEE templates to create your source document. These templates can be downloaded here.
  • Please Note: Do NOT add the copyright notice to the bottom of the first page of your source document. Proofread your source document thoroughly to confirm that it will require no revision.

Step 2: Create your PDF eXpress Account

  • Log in to the IEEE PDF eXpress site at: www.pdf-express.org
    • First-time users should do the following:
      • Select the ‘New Users – Click Here’
      • Enter the following:
        • 44975X for the Conference ID
        • Your email address
        • A password
      • Continue to enter information as prompted. An Online confirmation will be displayed and an email confirmation will be sent verifying your account setup.
      • Previous users of PDF eXpress or IEEE PDF eXpress Plus need to follow the above steps, but should enter the same password that was used for previous conferences. Verify that your contact information is valid.
    • Upload your file, convert it, and check the status of conversion. Once the conversion is complete, a report will be generated for the file conversion. Check whether conversion was successful, or some changes are needed.

Contacting PDF eXpress Support

  • Access the Publications Support Center for IEEE PDF eXpress.
  • If you do not find an answer in the Find Answers tab, go to the “Ask A Question” tab.

Step 3: Paper Upload

After careful verification of your PDF, upload your final paper using the link and the code that were sent you in the acceptance e-mail. Please note that this code is valid for a SINGLE submission of your final paper ONLY. You will also need to include your registration number which you will receive after registering for the conference.

Step 4: Copyright Form

In order to be published in the conference proceedings, all accepted papers MUST be accompanied by a signed IEEE Copyright Form. Don’t forget to click on the “Continue to copyright form submission button” after uploading your paper. In case any paper cannot use the electronic Copyright Form (eCF) system due to specific policy of the employer, a filled copyright form should be sent to Publication Chairs directly and please do not trigger the eCF process.

Please contact Technical Program Chairs at ecce2020tpc@gmail.com with any questions.