November from the Chair

So do you think you know as much as a university student? Here’s your chance to find out. Come to the November section meeting and hear our local undergraduate engineering students give presentations on the topics of their choice. We have adjusted our meeting schedule to be more in line with the students’ schedule so that, as they are finishing projects, they can practice presenting on a body of engineers and receive feedback from us. If you are not careful you may even learn something! The PES chapter is providing a technical program this month for those that need to get continuing education credits for the licensure requirements. Either way, I believe both programs will be quite informative.

We had an excellent October meeting that was well attended. I want to thank Muelhbauer for being such gracious hosts in sponsoring this event. It is truly amazing how much technology has increased and improved even since I went to school. One of our life members asked the question, “What would Maxwell think?" Remember him? The mention of his name conjures up memories of curl and divergence. The technology of today might overwhelm the giants of yesterday, but in electrical engineering we truly get to stand on the shoulders of giants in our understanding of the world. What will tomorrow bring? I don’t know. But I do know that electrical engineering will be out front. Actually all engineering disciplines will be out front, we are just partial to electrical engineers. My thought is that the IEEE provides us the opportunity to meet as a body of engineers so that we can learn from each other. The local section, society chapters and student branches allow us that opportunity. We have 876 active members in our section. There is opportunity to learn from each one of them.

Not only does IEEE give us an opportunity to learn but also the opportunity to serve. We have numerous opportunities in the section for people to serve. We are currently working with the local Marine Technology Society in co-hosting the Oceans 2012 conference which will be held in Virginia Beach. The local Marine Technology Society is small (~14 members). We have been asked to help them with this conference. There is a great deal of work to be done to pull this off but I am confident that we can do it. I am going to be blunt about this - if we are successful, the section can make some money on this deal. We continue to struggle with finances (for the 3 years that I have been an officer). This will get us on some good footing when it comes to our financial picture.

November is the last technical presentation for this year. We will be looking for additional presentations starting in January and running through April. If you know of any potential presentations and/or presenters, please contact our Vice-Chair Greg Hodges.
Nominations for officers are still being taken by our past Chair, so please contact Kurt Clemente if you are interested in serving in our section. Elections will be in November.

Regards,
James Bolitho
2009 Chair
Hampton Roads Section