The 9th International Computational Intelligence and Communications Network Conference (CICN 2017) organized by Final International University, IEEE Turkey and Machine Intelligence Research Labs (MIRL) commenced on Saturday 16th September with an opening ceremony at Final International University. Bringing together some of the world’s leading collaborating partners in engineering, this was the ninth conference in a series of prestigious events that have been held all around the world. After the opening ceremony, which was attended by The Mayor of Kyrenia, Nidai Güngördü, the conference continued through to Sunday in concurrent sessions.

In her speech at the opening ceremony, the FIU Vice Rector for Academic Affairs, Prof. Dr. Gülşen Musayeva Vefalı, stressed that although Final International University is a new university founded only two years ago, it has already developed a unique identity based on the standards and guidelines for quality assurance in the European Higher Education Field and with a strong student-centered philosophy of education, and with an emphasis on practical components leading to job opportunities for graduates in the Final Schools Group in Turkey and the DMG Group in North Cyprus.  

Dr. Musayeva Vefalı noted that the CICN 2017 Conference offered a valuable opportunity to share, discuss and learn from diverse perspectives, through research work in different contexts.

The Chairman of the Conference, Prof. Dr. Baki Koyuncu , in his opening speech underlined the promise and potential for computer systems of current work on computational intelligence and communication networks. Dr. Koyuncu stated that computational intelligence was about the development of the next generation of intelligence systems, and added that the conference would contribute to raising awareness in both academic and industrial settings, paying particular attention to the necessity of unifying approaches for solving current problems in the field of artificial and computational intelligence. By bringing together researchers, developers and practitioners at CICN 2017, Dr. Koyuncu emphasized that participants had a unique opportunity to bring together programming intelligence, other intelligent computing techniques, and he thanked all the institutions, organizations and researchers who contributed, including IEEE Turkey and Machine Intelligence Research Labs and especially Final International University for organizing the conference.

The CICN 2017 Conference was organized jointly by Final International University, The Chamber of International Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineers, IEEE Turkey, Machine Intelligence Research Labs in India, and with the support of Kyrenia Municipality, The Information Technology and Communication Agency, The Chamber of Electrical Engineers as well as Kyrenia Con Coffee.