It is a great honor and privilege to serve as the 2022-2023 President of the IEEE Intelligent Transportation System Society (ITSS).

I have been an active member of the society for many years, and I have had the privilege of seeing how the society has evolved and how the work carried out by my predecessors have bared their fruits, increasing the visibility of the society and the collaboration among its members and volunteers. All of this has been possible thanks to their continuous support, service, and dedication. Thank you very much for advancing our IEEE ITS Society and for the trust and faith you put in me with your vote.

I also want to expressly thank our outgoing president Wei-Bin Zhang for his excellent job in leading our society forward. These past two years in which he has served have been particularly challenging. However, he has overcome these difficulties through his engagement ensuring a smooth day-to-day level of operation and performance. In this context, it is important to highlight his commitment to the society through the creation of outreach and networking opportunities. A good example of this was the IEEE ITS Society outreach event that participants representing all South American countries joined in March 2020, before travel was no longer allowed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The successful recent IEEE ITSS Board of Governors (BoG) and Executive Committee (ExCom) Officers Meeting was also a result of his efficient leadership.

My term has just started and I hope to build on these newly established international collaborations to jointly respond to the pressing issue of achieving climate neutrality through the technological aspects of transportation.

In spite of the pandemic that marked these past years, the IEEE ITS Society is strengthening and expanding its activities. I invite you to visit the newly launched IEEE ITSS Website (https://ieee-itss.org/) to explore all of the opportunities that come with being a partner of our community. Our Society offers over 10 conferences; 4 journals, including the new Open Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems (OJ-ITS); a newsletter and ITS podcast; ITS chapters from over 15 regions and countries; 7 society awards; the usually offered educational activities plus the recently launched and already successful “Industry Meets Academia Webinar Series”, over 9 technical committees, and additional standard activities. During my term, I hope to expand these activities towards a global collaboration that includes researchers and practitioners from underrepresented regions. We are already working towards a more inclusive and diverse representation of our society as reflected in the Society’s Board of Governors newly elected class of Members-at-Large: Azim Eskandarian and Andreas A. Malikopoulos; Simona Sacone; Xiao Wang, and Pujitha Gunaratne that represent the ITSS Geographical Areas 1, 2, 3, and industry respectively. I am sure their contribution will help to advance the society and I wish them a successful and fruitful start.

I welcome you to stay involved in the society to benefit from the wide breadth of topics that we cover and welcome your contributions and comments regarding the development of new solutions to address the challenges surrounding the field of transportation.

Sincerely,

Cristina Olaverri-Monreal
President IEEE ITSS