Editorial

Abstract

Chris Toumazou & Ian White 2019 has been a year of exciting development for Electronics Letters. The subjects of our published papers continued to diversify, reflecting the expansion of its editorial board – the board now has in excess of 240 members, with 21 new members joining in 2019. 40 countries are represented, and we are certainly hoping to expand further, given that over sixty countries are numbered amongst the 4000 submissions to the journal. The submissions span the entire scope of electrical and electronic engineering, from implantable antibacterial electronics to distinguishing LEDs based on spectral features; or from optical self-injection to machine learning in a variety of forms. A solution for the ubiquitous problem of DOA estimation for co-prime arrays won the 2019 IET Premium Award: ‘Improved DOA estimation algorithm for co-prime linear arrays using root-MUSIC algorithm’, by Dong Zhang, Yongshun Zhang, Guimei Zhang, Cunqian Feng and Jun Tang, [Electronics Letters, 2017, 53, (18), pp. 1277–1279]. This paper proposes an improved algorithm, which provides a solution to the matching error problem. The algorithm also makes full use of signal space and noise space to improve the estimation accuracy with low complexity. The judges were impressed by the mathematical derivation of the proposed algorithm and the completeness of its description. The submission has proved popular and has been cited many times, reflecting the necessity of the solution and the effectiveness of the method. We have had some fantastic contributions from members of our editorial board. One such contribution comes from board member Alexander Wong along with Mohammad Javad Shafiee, Brendan Chwyl and Francis Li in their submission “GenSynth: a generative synthesis approach to learning generative machines for generate efficient neural networks”. [Electronics Letters, 2019, 55, (18), pp. 986–989]. Wong et al gave an insight into their work on GenSynth, which can automatically generate highly efficient deep neural networks. This generative synthesis is a powerful approach for accelerating and improving the building of deep neural networks for on-device edge scenarios. We look forwards to hearing more about future work involving GenSynth and how it can be applied to image and signal processing tasks. Electronics Letters’ wide scope means we publish a wide variety of interesting research. An example of such a submission was published towards the end of 2019: ‘Implantable cathodic voltage controlled electrical stimulator’ by K. Weeks, C. Clark, M. Tobias, E. McDermott, T.Duquin, M. Ehrensberger and A. H. Titus, [Electronics Letters, 2019, 55, (23), pp. 1215–1217]. This fascinating work presents an implantable device for use with orthopaedic devices. The iCVCES (cathodic voltage controlled electrical stimulation) device could be used in the future to reduce the rate of periprosthetic joint infection, the complications of which are currently projected to cost the US economy over $55 billion by 2030. One of the biggest benefits of the device is that it can be implanted without requiring wiring to the external environment, meaning it can remain in a patient for an extended period of time. In addition, it can wirelessly monitor the patient and transfer data via Bluetooth to a computer. Antennas and Propagation is one our most popular categories year-round. This year has seen a great number of interesting papers on novel antenna and component design, for example: ‘Balanced triple-mode substrate integrated waveguide bandpass filter’, by Qing Liu, Dalong Lv, Dongfang Zhou and Dewei Zhang. [Electronics Letters, 2019, 55, (15), pp. 843–845]. The proposed substrate integrated waveguide bandpass filter boasts a high common-mode suppression, a compact size and a controllable bandwidth. The device could see use in in a number of radiofrequency and microwave applications, especially in the emerging 5G market. It's always fantastic to see so many innovative designs in this field. These highlights, as well as the hundreds of papers published each year by Electronics Letters, represent the great journey ahead for the journal and for the subject as a whole. Finally, we would like to thank the editorial and production teams at the IET, the editorial board, and of course the many thousands of peer-reviewers who make the journal possible. That the reviewers and our board members take the time out of their busy schedules and roles to support the community is hugely appreciated, and is one of the reasons that the community, not just Electronics Letters, is flourishing.