Call for Papers: The 2010 World Congress in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Applied Computing (WORLDCOMP'10), USA, July 12-15, 2010

WORLDCOMP'10 will be composed of research presentations, keynote lectures, invited presentations, tutorials, panel discussions, and poster presentations. In recent past, keynote/tutorial/panel speakers have included: Prof. David A. Patterson (pioneer/computer architecture, U. of California, Berkeley), Dr. K. Eric Drexler (known as Father of Nanotechnology), Prof. John H. Holland (known as Father of Genetic Algorithms; U. of Michigan), Prof. Ian Foster (known as Father of Grid Computing; U. of Chicago & ANL), Prof. Ruzena Bajcsy (pioneer/VR, U. of California, Berkeley), Prof. Barry Vercoe (Founding member of MIT Media Lab, MIT), Dr. Jim Gettys (known as X-man, developer of X Window System, xhost; OLPC), Prof. John Koza (known as Father of Genetic Programming, Stanford U.), Prof. Brian D. Athey (NIH Program Director, U. of Michigan), Prof. Viktor K. Prasanna (pioneer, U. of Southern California), Dr. Jose L. Munoz (NSF Program Director and Consultant), Prof. Jun Liu (Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard U.), Anousheh Ansari (CEO, Prodea Systems & first female private space explorer), and many other distinguished speakers. To get a feeling about the conferences' atmosphere, see the 2009 delegates photos can be viewed at: www.pixagogo.com/8658134154

IMPORTANT DATES:

Jan. 16, 2010: Proposals for organizing sessions/workshops
March 1, 2010: Submission of papers (about 5 to 7 pages)
March 25, 2010: Notification of acceptance
April 22, 2010: Final papers + Copyright + Registration
July 12-15, 2010: The 2010 World Congress in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Applied Computing (WORLDCOMP'10)

LOCATION OF CONFERENCES:

See: www.world-academy-of-science.org/worldcomp10/ws/location

IEEE emeritbadges.org Launches Updated Web Site

22 November 2009 - The IEEE emeritbadges.org project has updated its web site, www.emeritbadges.org, featuring hands-on, pre-college technology educational materials for boys and girls. The updated site will feature information on the program’s sponsorship of the Electricity and Electronics Merit Badge booths at the 2010 National Scout Jamboree, to be held from 26 July to 4 August, 2010, at Fort A.P. Hill, in Caroline County, Virginia.

IEEE emeritbadges.org, which volunteers have developed and run, provides instructional materials based on the Boys Scouts’ Electricity and Electronics Merit Badge requirements. Materials are under development for the Computer Merit Badge. A team of emeritbadges.org Jamboree volunteers, recruited from across the United States and around the world, will teach Scouts the basics of electricity and electronics at the 2010 National Scout Jamboree. Scouts also will learn about technical careers and build a microprocessor-based kit that they can take home. During the 10-day long-event, approximately 100 volunteers will be manning these two booths, using the emeritbadges.org-developed materials to help 1,500 to 2,000 boys learn about electrical fundamentals, simple electronic circuits and microprocessors. The course materials and tests reinforce and supplement the Boy Scout Merit Badge Pamphlet requirements and provide the necessary knowledge for the boys to earn these two badges.

Any student, boy or girl can use the program to enhance technical literacy and learn more about viable engineering and other technical career options.

Similar to its counterpart, the IEEE GirlsGoEngineering.org mission is to energize girls toward careers in engineering, mathematics, and the physical sciences. A major component is a volunteer developed and run web site, www.GirlsGoEngineering.org, which provides science and engineering career and instructional programs, activities, materials and web resources of interest to girls, educators, and adult leaders. Other planned activities include participation in Girl Scout events and similar organizations to enlighten girls about careers in science and engineering.

To foster an interest in the engineering profession, IEEE serves students, members and colleges around the world. IEEE realizes that high school student exposure to the accomplishments of engineers is critical to increase engineering enrollment significantly at the university level. Thus, the IEEE created and sponsors the IEEE Scouting program, primarily through the Boy Scout organization and local Girl Scout groups. The program is designed to reach pre-university students and educators to “enhance the level of technological literacy of pre-university educators and students worldwide.”

For more information, contact:
emeritbadges.org – email Neil Durbin or call (216) 780-0172
GirlsGoEngineering.org – e-mail Lynn J. Simms

IEEE Hampton Roads and CHROME

The Hampton Roads Section, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the Cooperating Hampton Roads Organizations for Minorities in Engineering (CHROME), announce a new collaborative program to bring together practicing engineers and students in the 4th through 12th grades, encouraging minority and female students especially to explore their interests and skills in electrical and electronics engineering disciplines. In this new collaborative program, coordinated by the IEEE section Education Committee and CHROME leaders, volunteer engineers will entertain and enrich students attending CHROME club meetings at schools throughout the Hampton Roads area. Volunteer presentations will include personal introductions to the practice of electrical and electronics engineering, but focus largely on age-appropriate hands-on student experience building practical electronics circuits using commercially available electronic learning kits.
The effort has evolved following the success of one volunteer engineer's efforts visiting various CHROME clubs with popular off the shelf learning kits purchased and made available through grants from local industry and universities. Additional fund raising is planned to purchase more kits with the intention of expanding the program. It is hoped that the program can be a model program for other professional engineering societies to bring together their practicing engineers and CHROME students to help stimulate interest in a variety of technical careers among minority and female students in the Hampton Roads area.
For further information or to volunteer, contact Education Committee Chair Dawn Ostenberg@ieee.org at IEEE Hampton Roads. For more information about CHROME go to www.chrome.org.

November 2009 Excom Minutes

November Minutes

This is a 66 KB PDF file. Click here to download.

Brain Teaser Challenge - "November"†

by Butch Shadwell
Fred Jones was in his last term as an EE undergrad at Whatsamatter U. For his senior project he decided to build a codec that would send 8 bit PCM audio at 2.5 kilobytes per second. It seemed to work pretty well on most male voices, but there was weird distortion with music and some women. Fred may have fallen asleep in his DSP class. What do you think could be his problem? Fred often preferred to be called Stanley Smith for some odd reason, but I am not sure why I am telling you his alternate identification. I have to stop with the clues.

Reply to
Butch Shadwell
904-223-4510 (fax)
904-223-4465 (v)
3308 Queen Palm Dr.
Jacksonville, FL 32250-2328.
www.shadtechserv.com

The names of correct respondents may be mentioned in the solution column.

† Our friend Butch volunteers a bit too much, he never quite catches up to the current month.

Brain Teaser Challenge - "October"†

by Butch Shadwell
When I got started in this business we used multi-meters with a d'Arsonval meter movement that was powered by the signal that was being measured. Of course the voltage that one read from the meter needle movement could be off a bit depending on the source impedance of the signal. They used to rate the meters input resistance in ohms per volt. Some would be 10,000 ohms/v or even higher sometimes.

If I had a multimeter rated at 1000 ohms per volt, set on the 10 volt range, what voltage would I read from the dial if I measured the voltage at the middle node of a voltage divider composed of two 10,000 ohm resistors in series, across a solid 5 volt DC supply? Later I bought a VTVM or vacuum tube volt meter, with a fixed input resistance of 11 megaohms.

Reply to Butch Shadwell
904-223-4510 (fax)
904-223-4465 (v)
3308 Queen Palm Dr.
Jacksonville, FL 32250-2328.
www.shadtechserv.com

The names of correct respondents may be mentioned in the solution column. 

† Our friend Butch volunteers a bit too much, he never quite catches up to the current month.

October 2009 ExCom Minutes

October Minutes

This is a 65 KB PDF file. Click here to download.

Free PES Student Membership

Students: Energize Your Future!

Join the IEEE Power & Energy Society for FREE!

This offer ends 15 August 2010
With over 23,000 members around the globe representing every facet of the electric power and energy industry, PES is at the forefront of the rapidly changing technological advancements that impact everyone’s future.
LEARN about current research and applications of recent technologies such as wind, photovoltaics, fuel cells, distributed generation, flexible AC transmission, energy storage, SmartGrids, and more.
STAY INFORMED about the latest developments in traditional technologies and the new opportunities created as today’s technological and financial situations impact the power and energy industry.
NETWORK with experienced professionals in all aspects of the industry at local, regional and international meetings. Save really big on conference registration fees,too. Some are even free!
If you have not previously been a PES member, we’d like to introduce you to the benefits of membership by offering the FIRST YEAR FREE. To be eligible for this offer you must be an IEEE Student member.

Already an IEEE Student Member? JOIN PES FOR FREE RIGHT NOW! You must already have renewed your IEEE Student Membership for 2010 to take advantage of this offer.

• Go to: www.ieee.org/go/PE_add (case sensitive)
• Login with your IEEE Web Account. (No web account yet? visit www.ieee.org/web/web/accounts).
• IEEE Power & Energy Society Membership will appear in the mini-cart after login.
• Click “View Cart/Proceed to Checkout.”
• At the Shopping Cart, enter PES10WEBA in the promotion code box next to IEEE Power & Energy Society Membership.
• Click "Recalculate Totals" at the bottom of the page.
• From there, you may "Checkout" or browse.

Not an IEEE Student Member yet? FREE PES MEMBERSHIP WHEN YOU JOIN IEEE AS A STUDENT MEMBER TODAY!

• Log on to: www.ieee.org/go/PE_student (case sensitive)
• Create your IEEE Web Account.
• IEEE and IEEE Power & Energy Society Memberships will both appear in the mini-cart after login.
• Click “View Cart/Proceed to Checkout.”
• At the Shopping Cart, enter PES10WEBN in the promotion code box next to IEEE Power & Energy Society Membership.
• Click "Recalculate Totals" at the bottom of the page. Your total will reflect the cost of IEEE Student Membership only.
• From there, you may "Checkout" or browse.

Energize YOUR Future with PES

September ExCom Minutes

This is a 42 KB PDF file. This may take some time to open if you have a slow link. Do you want to proceed? Yes 

Systems Engineering Certification Tutorial Webinar

Interested in receiving your INCOSE Systems Engineering (SE) certification and becoming an INCOSE Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP)? Northrop Grumman Corporation (NGC) is hosting a tutorial webinar to help you learn SE and prepare for the certification exam. The tutorial is taught by John O. Clark, Chief Engineer at the NGC Information Systems Sector and Director of Education & Training for the INCOSE Hampton Roads Area Chapter. The tutorial covers the CSEP process and the SE Handbook version 3.1 (the basis for the CSEP exam). It also provides tips on filling out your application. A certificate of completion is provided.

Beginning Thursday, November 19th and running through April 2010, the tutorial consists of 16 weekly sessions, held from noon to 1:30 p.m., Eastern Time USA, for up to 250 participants. Prior to each session, participants are encouraged to read the sections and appendices of the SE Handbook to be presented. Course materials include the tutorial slides (including PowerPoint Notes), sample questions, and prior-session audio recordings. The current schedule (including the specific session, section/appendix, and topic) is available at the links below. This schedule is subject to change as the course progresses. Check the links below for the course materials and to obtain the latest schedule.

More Information

2010 IEEE Election Results

IEEE Members Select Moshe Kam 2010 President-Elect

8 October - Moshe Kam, department head and Robert Quinn Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pa., USA, has been selected as 2010 IEEE President-Elect. Pending acceptance of the Teller's Committee report by the IEEE Board of Directors on 22 November, Kam will begin serving as IEEE president on 1 January 2011. He will succeed 2010 IEEE President Pedro Ray, president, Ray Engineers, Old San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The other candidates for 2010 IEEE President-Elect were J. Roberto Boisson de Marca, professor, Pontifical Catholic University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Joseph V. Lillie, AT&T (retired) Lafayette, Louisiana, USA. All of the candidates were nominated by the IEEE Board of Directors.

Of the members who voted, 15,690 selected Kam, 14,903 selected Lillie, and 12,704 selected de Marca.

---

 

Region 3 selects David G. Green as Director Elect for 2010-2011

David G. Green of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA, has been selected as the IEEE Region Delegate-Elect/Director-Elect, 2010-2011

David G. Green has been on the faculty of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) since 1981. His areas of interest include software engineering, collaboration systems, computer networking, and the engineering design process. He is a member of the project management team for the university´s Active Directory (Windows Services) and Exchange (E-Mail) projects. He is a graduate of the University of Alabama in Huntsville (BSE, 1975; MSE, 1977) with an Electrical Engineering specialization. David Green has received numerous IEEE awards including the IEEE Millennium Medal, IEEE Educational Activities Meritorious Service Award, Region 3 Outstanding Service Award, Regional Activities Board Innovation Award, USAB Regional Professional Leadership Award, IEEE´s Outstanding Branch Counselor, and the Region 3 Joseph M. Biedenbach Outstanding Education Award. He is a senior member of IEEE, a member of ASEE, HKN, and Tau Beta Pi, and a life member of ARRL.

The other candidate for IEEE Region Delegate-Elect/Director-Elect, 2010-2011 was Eric S. Ackerman, Assistant Dean Nova Southeastern University, Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.

Of the members who voted, 1,474 selected Ackerman and 2,178 selected Green.

The Open Channel for November 2009

Note our next newsletter will be in January 2010

Inside The Open Channel
Front Page - 2009 Annual Student Paper Presentations
Page 2 From the Chair
Page 3 Directions to Culinary Arts Institute
Page 3 IEEE HR Annual Elections - Last Call
Page 3 From the PES Corner
Page 4 Brain Teaser Challenge Solution - August 2009
Page 5 Brain Teaser - September 2009
Page 5 Moshe Kam is 2010 IEEE President - Elect
Page 5 Other IEEE Election Results

Download

November PES Update

PES had a successful first stand alone meeting with "The New Face of Nuclear Power." Presented by Ray Riha, Ph.D on Oct 8th. There have been several improvements in the area of safety; all moving in the direction of passive safety where the need for human interaction is not required to deploy the safety feature in Generation III and Generation III + Reactors. Some designs of newer reactors also consume a greater portion of the fuel, leaving less waste (in one case it can use the spent fuel rods from older facilities).

A motion was made and carried to have a tour of a Nuclear power facility, and details will follow on that effort.

We continue the Green Power Engineering with the November 10th meeting: "Practical Lessons in Wind Farm Collector Systems and Interconnections" by Wanda Reder of S & C Electric. Ms. Reder is a Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE and PES. This is a great follow up to the Sept. Presentation on Off Shore Wind Farm Project presented by Justin Turner .

If you are interested in attending the Nov 10 Meeting please RSVP early to inure your seat.
This meeting will be opened to the public and announced through the local media, and the limited seats could fill quickly.

It will be held at Town Point Club in Norfolk, and their dress code applies (business attire, coat and tie preferred)

Cost for members Early RSVP and advance payment (IEEE, PES) is $25 and Guests $30.

Checks payable to HR-PES can be mailed to IEEE HR-PES at 210 Graves Circle Newport News, VA 23602-7536


Early RSVP closes Nov 2. Late RSVP is $35, and is from Nov 3 - 6, when Registration closes.

Please submit your reservation(s) online at http://meetings.vtools.ieee.org/meeting_view/list_meeting/1231.
Your feedback and comments are invited. Tell HRPES what tours, and topics you want to see in our Spring line up.

I look forward to working with you in the future!

Sincerely,
Jennifer Ammentorp

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

Brain Teaser Challenge - "September"†

by Butch Shadwell

Little Schlomo had nothing on his mind as he rolled the wheel down Pearl Street with his stick. The sound this perfect circle made as it rumbled along, drew his thoughts away from here and now. It was 1889, and for a ten year old in New York, life was lived in the street, and things were hard. Uncle Lenny, who had been living with his family for as long as he could remember, was sure his ship would come in any day now. Even though he knew it was rubbish, sometimes Schlomo would enjoy listening as his uncle would explain his latest get rich quick scheme. It was on a Tuesday, as he heard his Uncle Lenny describe his new electric light business. As you know, light bulbs were pretty expensive, about a dollar a piece, and they didn't really last that long. Lenny's idea was to sell folks lower voltage light bulbs which were a little cheaper and would last a little longer. He planned on buying transformers to reduce the voltage. What turn ratio did he need to run 25 volt bulbs? Hope you remember your electrifying history.

Reply to Butch Shadwell at b.shadwell@ieee.org (email)
904-223-4510 (fax)
904-223-4465 (v)
3308 Queen Palm Dr.
Jacksonville, FL 32250-2328.
www.shadtechserv.com

† Our friend Butch volunteers a bit too much, he never quite catches up to the current month.

IEEE Annual Election Results

The information provided below is the tally of votes of the 2009 IEEE Tellers Committee. These results are unofficial until the Tellers Committee Report is accepted by the IEEE Board of Directors at its meeting 22 November 2009.

IEEE President-Elect, 2010

• J. Roberto Boisson de Marca 12,704
• Moshe Kam 15,690
• Joseph V. Lillie 14,903

IEEE Division Delegate-Elect/Director-Elect, 2010
Division II

• Caio A. Ferreira 1,346
• J. Keith Nelson 1,407
• Brian C. Wadell 1,028

Division IV (Electromagnetics and Radiation)

• Peter N. Clout 2,354
• Elya B. Joffe 1,523

Division VI

• Gerard (Gus) H. Gaynor 852
• Jeffrey M. Voas 1,034

Division VIII (Computer)

• Susan K. (Kathy) Land 4,565
• James W. Moore 1,710

Division X

• Vincenzo Piuri 2,412
• Daniel S. Yeung 2,195

IEEE Region Delegate-Elect/Director-Elect, 2010-2011
Region 1 (Northeastern USA)

• Peter Alan Eckstein 2,538
• Albert J. Reinhart 2,011

Region 3 (Southeastern USA)

• Eric S. Ackerman 1,474
• David G. Green 2,178

Region 5 (Southwestern USA)

• James A. Jefferies 1,812
• Richard A. Painter 1,434

Region 7 (Canada)

• Keith B. Brown 686
• Maike Luiken 630
• Marcelo O. Mota 337

Region 9 (Latin America)

• Gustavo A. Giannattasio 893
• Norberto M. Lerendegui 742

IEEE Standards Association President-Elect, 2010

• S. Mark Halpin 682
• Steve M. Mills 716

IEEE Standards Association Board of Governors Member-at-Large, 2010-2011

• M. (Mark) Epstein 719
• Stanley L. Moyer 661

IEEE Standards Association Board of Governors Member-at-Large, 2010-2011

• Andrew L. Drozd 506
• T. W. (Ted) Olsen 891

IEEE Technical Activities Vice President-Elect, 2010

• Thomas G. Habetler 8,977
• Donna L. Hudson 16,377

IEEE-USA President-Elect, 2010

• James M. Howard 9,963
• Ronald G. Jensen 14,154

IEEE-USA Member-at-Large, 2010-2011

• Winnfort J. Myles 15,358
• Mauro G. Togneri 8,627

The Open Channel for October 2009

Inside The Open Channel
Front Page Mühlbauer Plant Tour (Newport News)
Upcoming Events
Nov 19 Student Paper Presentations
Page 2 From the Chair
Page 3 Directions to Mühlbauer.
Page 3 Student Paper Presentations
Page 4 From the PES Corner
Page 4 Biographical Sketch Raymond J. Riha, Ph.D.
Page 3 2010 Call for HR Section Nominations
Page 3 IEEE Annual Elections
Page 4 Remember to Return Your Ballot
Page 4 2010 Dues Notice Reminder
Page 4 Candidates Take On the Top issues
Download

October 2009 From The Chair

Fall is upon us. With school back in, football season starting, the weather getting cooler and the beginning of the fall program for the IEEE Hampton Roads Section.


We had a very impressive program hosted by our new Power and Energy chapter in September. Justin Turner from ODU provided us a glimpse of the ongoing work in the area of offshore wind power. One of the key objectives for the Virginia Energy Plan is to create renewable energy sources. In the outlying coastal areas of the state, it seems that we have sufficient wind resources to sustain a wind farm. Some projections have that the wind farm could generate as much as 20% of the energy requirements for the state of Virginia. This is significant and I believe vital to our state. The Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium was formed by the Virginia Legislature in 2007 to research and develop the concept to the point of commercialization and implementation of renewable energy sources. Justin provided us with the conceptual idea of the wind farm, taking into account the effects on other ocean users, migratory bird flight paths and included some issues concerning the potential entry points for the wind farm into the electric grid. I have to admit that I was impressed that we had over 40 members and guests at the meeting. In addition, the question and answer session prompted quite a discussion in areas outside of plain old electrical engineering. But don’t worry; we are still talking about the concept so there will still be room during design for some of that good old electrical engineering stuff. I want to thank Clark Nexsen for the use of their facilities.

We will be taking a field trip to Mühlbauer in Newport News in October. Please RSVP early for this event as this will be a catered event. There will be no cost for the members at this event as Mühlbauer has offered to pick up the tab. I want to thank Mühlbauer in advance for this generous offer. This field trip will provide us first hand view of a manufacturing plant that works with semiconductors and RFIDs. I know that I am looking forward to this opportunity. The student paper presentation is scheduled for November and I am hearing that there is a lot of interest this year. I encourage all of our undergraduate student members, especially those that are doing senior design papers to consider this as an opportunity to present before a group of engineers.


Your Hampton Roads Section leadership attended a training seminar for IEEE Section and Chapter leaders conducted by Region 3 and hosted by our friends in the Richmond Section at the end of September. This was very important for our section leadership in learning about the IEEE. I am fortunate to be working with some very dedicated volunteers in our section and region. Please bring up any concerns or ideas on how or what we can do as a section to any executive committee member. Our contact points are listed on our web page and we are looking forward to hearing from you.

Regards,
James Bolitho
2009 Chair
Hampton Roads Section
jbolitho@ieee.org

IEEE GOLD presents, "Gandhian Engineering," by Dr. R.A. Mashelkar

In commemoration of Mahatma Gandhi's birthday on 2 October 2009, IEEE GOLD is pleased to announce a special webinar, "Gandhian Engineering," presented by the renowned Dr. R.A. Mashelkar.

As President of Global Research Alliance, a network of publicly funded R&D institutes from Asia-Pacific, Africa, Europe, and USA with over 60,000 scientists, and as Chairman of India's National Innovation Institute, Dr. R.A. Mashelkar has played a critical role in shaping India's science and technology policies.

Please join us to hear Dr. Mashelkar's perspective on Gandhian Engineering, describing how to get more from less for more and more people of the world. This style of engineering stems from the application of a combination of Mahatma Gandhi's ideologies of the earth providing enough to satisfy the needs of men, rather than the greed of men and prizing every invention of science that benefits all of humanity.

Topic: Gandhian Engineering
Presented by: Dr. R.A. Mashelkar
Date: Friday, 2 October 2009
Time: 10:30 - 11:30 EDT / 9:30 - 10:30 CDT
Registration URL:
https://icm3.ieee.org/eventmanager/OnlineRegistration.asp?eventcode=pwx

An abstract of the topic, as well as a full biography of Dr. R.A.
Mashelkar can be found at:
http://www.ieee.org/web/membership/gold/events/gandhianengrg.html.

Please direct any questions regarding this IEEE GOLD sponsored webinar to gold@ieee.org or Wah W. Myint Garris, Region 3 GOLD Coordinator, wah.garris@bankofamerica.com.

Register for Upcoming Free IEEE-USA Webinars

http://www.ieeeusa.org/careers/webinars/

22 October 2009
2:00pm ET
Why Aren't I Hired Yet?
Moderator: Elizabeth Lions
The job market in 2009 can be frustrating and confusing to job seekers. The unemployment rate for U.S. electrical and electronics engineers hit a new record in the second quarter, while the unemployment rate for all engineers increased for a second straight quarter, according to data released by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Elizabeth Lions solves the mystery in this IEEE-USA webinar by examining market data and the latest hiring trends during this challenging economy. This presentation is an in-depth follow up to her article published in the September issue of Today's Engineer.

29 October 2009
2:00pm ET
What are HR professionals looking for in a Resume?
Moderator: Nathalie Thompson
Right Management is the talent and career management expert within Manpower, the global leader in employment services. Come hear from a consultant from Right Management and learn what HR Professionals are looking for in a resume.

2009-10 FUTURE CITY® COMPETITION

CREATING GREEN LIVING SPACES TO HOUSE THE NEEDIEST
THAT’S NATIONAL ENGINEERS WEEK FOUNDATION’S 2009-10 FUTURE CITY® COMPETITION CHALLENGE FOR AMERICA’S MIDDLE SCHOOLS

WASHINGTON DC, May 26 2009 - Designing affordable housing for those most in need is enormously complicated. But how to do it while adhering to LEED recognized green building standards, with an emphasis on energy efficiency and a low carbon footprint?
Future Cities

That’s the challenge for America’s middle schoolers as they prepare for National Engineers Week Foundation’s 2009-10 Future City® Competition. Now entering its 18th year, Future City Competition invites seventh and eighth graders nationwide to create the cities of tomorrow and encourages interest in science, technology, engineering and math through hands-on applications.

“Future City motivates students to learn more about the possibilities and opportunities for careers in engineering,” said Leslie Collins, Executive Director, National Engineers Week Foundation. “As they participate in the competition, they realize that engineering is exciting and creative and that they can use what they know to make a difference in the world. Helping young people discover what the field has to offer is a critical step in insuring that the engineering profession continues to grow in the years ahead.”

Themed Providing An Affordable Living Space For People Who Have Lost Their Home Due to a Disaster or Financial Emergency, this year’s Future City Competition will attract more than 33,000 students from 1,100 middle schools in regions located across the country. Participating students will be asked to design a model of their city using SimCity 4 Deluxe software, provided by Electronic Arts, and then build a physical model of the city using recycled materials. They will also write a research essay describing their design and a second narrative outlining the key features of their city.

The regional competition gets underway with the new school year in September and culminates with the regional finals in January. One winning team from each region qualifies for a trip to the national finals in Washington DC, which take place during Engineer’s Week, February 15- 17, 2010. The National Finals Grand Prize winners receive a trip to U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, provided by National Finals host Bentley Systems, Incorporated. The second and third prize winners receive $5,000 and $2,000 scholarships for their schools’ technology programs.

“We learned that engineering is more than just making sure that buildings work the way they are supposed to,” commented Tom Krajnak, 14, a member of the 2009 Grand Prize winning team from Bexley Middle School in Bexley, Ohio. “Engineers are involved in every aspect of building a city. We discovered how necessary they are and now we know the reasons why.”

Registration deadline for schools nationwide is October 31, 2009 but, to help students get an early start before the close of the current school year, Future City is offering early registration to interested students. Future City is also looking for professional engineers who may be interested in serving as mentors. For information, school registration, or to volunteer in the Future City Competition, visit www.futurecity.org, www.futurecityhamptonroads.com or call Hampton Roads Regional Coordinator, Selena Griffett at 757-728-2038.

About Future City Competition

The 18th Annual Future City Competition, for seventh and eighth grade students, is held from September, 2009 through February, 2010. The National Future City Competition is sponsored in part by the National Engineers Week Foundation, a consortium of professional and technical societies and major U.S. corporations. Major funding comes from Bentley Systems, Incorporated, Ford Motor Company and Shell.

About Engineers Week

The National Engineers Week Foundation, a formal coalition of more than 100 professional societies, major corporations and government agencies, is dedicated to ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers among young students and by promoting pre-college literacy in math and science. Engineers Week also raises public understanding and appreciation of engineers' contributions to society. Founded in 1951, it is among the oldest of America's professional outreach efforts. Co-chairs for 2010 are ExxonMobil Corporation and the American Society of Civil Engineers.

For more information, visit www.eweek.org.

CONTACTS:
Hampton Roads Regional Coordinator:
Selena Griffett
757-728-2038
sgriffett@hampton.gov

IEEE Annual Elections

IEEE members are requested to participate in the annual IEEE elections. This is your opportunity to provide input to determine who will serve on the IEEE Board of Directors, Member and Geographic Activities Board, Technical Activities Board, IEEE-USA Board, and Standards Association Board. The ballots for the IEEE Annual Election have been mailed to all eligible IEEE voting members. The IEEE Annual Election Web page has more information about the election and a link to access the ballot electronically.

A Message from your PES Chair

Greetings Everyone! I am pleased to report PES gains Momentum as we develop our business model for meetings. The account is nearly finalized, thanks to efforts of Treasurer Tama Littley. Steve Walk and Dawn Ostenberg are working various details of meeting venues and topics for the upcoming schedule. And with our core group of about 24 members in regular contact with me, pieces are falling into place with the Fall line up.

I would like to thank Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, Newport News for their support in establishing the HR- PES. My Department leadership has given me some time at work to iron out some administrative details of establishing a new Professional Organization Chapter. Tama Littley has also received recognition and support from her Department. It is gratifying to know those we work for believe in professional development opportunities for their people, and that there is corporate benefit in good citizenship by supporting organizations like IEEE and PES.

The Oct meeting lecture addresses Nuclear Power Technology Advances, and November has good potential to have a Lecture from the PES Distinguished Lecture Series, focusing on a 'green' theme for the fall, and possibly January.

This is an important point though, as the 'Green Theme' is the current hot topic. Members canvassed wanted to learn more about Green, but that was not the only area of interest/ concern. Many of us already recognize many other critical issues going on in the Power and Energy world. Often the less exciting issues until a loss of power, or serious injuries occur. These are equally pressing to cleaning up our environmental habits as a species. We must continue to address safety and reliability concerns for existing power and energy systems, while strategically planning future concerns that had been tabled for several reasons, and in some cases, several decades.

A head's up to all that the business model for PES meetings is going to be different from the Section meetings. We must be frugal with limited budget and significant expenses on the horizon. The cost schedule for meetings is going to have greater variation than what the Section has traditionally followed. Donations and sponsorships will be seriously entertained.

I look forward to seeing everyone at the various Sections and Chapter meetings planned. It is an exciting season of challenges ahead for us all!

Thank you Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding!"

Jennifer Ammentorp

The Open Channel for September 2009

Front Page Offshore Wind Power
Page 2 From the Chair
Page 3 Directions to Clark Nexsen
Page 3 Student Paper Presentations
Page 4 From the PES Corner
Page 4 IEEE Annual Elections

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September 2009 From The Chair

I hope that everyone had a pleasant summer. I just spent a week vacation with my family in the mountains. It was a good time to be with family. I was also able to go to a high school class reunion in Ohio the follow-on weekend.
Our Vice Chair, Greg Hodges, has quite a fall lineup for our technical programs. The September program will be hosted by our newly formed Power and Energy Society (PES) Chapter and will be on the offshore wind power research that is currently underway by the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium. I am excited about this topic. There was a Spectrum article not so long ago on the issues that Germany was having in establishing an offshore wind farms (see July 2009). I think that was a good article in dealing with the issues (political, environmental and even engineering) that might confront us in Virginia in developing our wind farms. We are expecting quite a turnout for this event and have elected to have the meeting at Clark-Nexsen courtesy of our past chair, Kurt Clemente. Thanks again Kurt.
In October, Greg has scheduled a field trip to Muelhbauer in Newport News. This will be a tour of a semiconductor and RFID manufacturing plant. I always liked field trips back in school and this seems like a good opportunity to see for ourselves what it takes to run a plant such as this. This is another excellent technical program that should be interesting to all of our members.
In November, we have decided to move the student paper competition from January to November. I think that this will be in keeping with the student’s schedules as many will be completing senior projects and we are far less intimidating than professors. I want to thank Anton Reidl of Christopher Newport University for volunteering to be Student Activities Chair for our Section.
I believe that the PES Chapter is looking to have a technical program during the month of November for those that have to maintain continuing education credits for the professional engineer requirements.
We presently have the Awards chair position open. I would also like to restructure the Educational Activities program. The Educational Activities program is for a person who will be the focal point for the section’s Educational Activities. If you have any questions about these positions or desire to work in these areas, please contact any member of the Executive Committee. In addition, the Executive Committee is up for elections at the end of this year. If you have any desire to be the Chairman, Vice-Chair, Treasurer or Secretary, please contact our past-Chair, Kurt Clemente, kurt.clemente@ieee.org , who is heading up the Nominations Committee. I would like the nominations in by end of October, so that we can have elections in November. We were late last year in getting the positions filled and almost missed out on the 10% early reporting bonus that IEEE provides to sections.
Thanks again for all that you do for IEEE and I am looking forward to this fall’s technical program. Good job Greg.
Regards,
James Bolitho
2009 Chair
Hampton Roads Section
jbolitho@ieee.org

IEEE Hampton Roads Now Using vTools

Our meeting announcements will no longer be published to this blog. Instead you will be able to subscribe to them at RSS FEED. This new capability is part of our member engagement system. The data is pulled directly from the announcement into the our section meeting report, saving our volunteers time and effort. We hope you find it convenient. Subscribe now!

Brain Teaser Challenge - August

Sorry I missed a month with the BTC. My biggest vice is that I volunteer too much, and my volunteer work has been dominating my time. I guess this column is one of my volunteer jobs, now that I think about it. Anyway, some folks have asked me to mention that one of my big volunteer jobs is as the new international chair of the Humanitarian Technology Challenge, Reliable Electricity Committee. This project is sponsored by the United Nations Foundation and the IEEE. We are a large group of volunteer professionals and academicians who are dedicated to finding better ways to help people in need by the application of technology. These could be disaster victims or people who have never had infrastructure of any kind. Lighting, better food and water, communications, and better medical care are among our objectives.

I was recently asked about consulting on a project to collect deuterium from the ocean. We all know that deuterium is found in much higher concentrations in the sea than in the atmosphere. Perhaps the heavier molecules find it harder to make the transition from liquid to gas phase on the surface, so most of the evaporation is of the lighter isotopes. So the problem today is - how big a container do I need to hold 1 mole of H2 at STP? Don't light a match.

Reply to Butch Shadwell at b.shadwell@ieee.org (email), 904-410-9751 (fax), 904-410-9750 (v), 3308 Queen Palm Dr., Jacksonville, FL 32250-2328. (http://www.shadtechserv.com) The names of correct respondents may be mentioned in the solution column.

Brain Teaser Challenge - "June"

I attended a conference recently at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC, called the Humanitarian Technology Challenge. It was sponsored by the IEEE and the United Nations Foundation, among others. The objective was to organize volunteers from around the world to come up with better ways to apply technology to relieving human suffering.

Even though I am not really a power guy, I found myself engaged in a number conversations about power quality. We were talking about the amount of energy that gets converted to heat from harmonic distortion of the power waveform. Your challenge this month, should you choose to accept it, is to explain why most of the harmonic energy you find on the power mains is in the odd harmonics of the fundamental?


Reply to Butch Shadwell at b.shadwell@ieee.org (email), 904-410-9751 (fax), 904-410-9750 (v), 3308 Queen Palm Dr., Jacksonville, FL 32250-2328. (http://www.shadtechserv.com) The names of correct respondents may be mentioned in the solution column.

The Open Channel for Summer 2009

Front Page Tidewater Science Fair
Page 2 From the Chair
Page 3 IEEE Energy Policy Fly in to Capital
Hill
Page 3 IEEE Job Site Redesign
Page 3 Educator Conference Participation
Page 4 IEEE HR PES Update
Page 4 Brain Teaser—June 2009

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Brain Teaser Challenge - "May"

I just got back from the international science and engineering fair in Reno a couple of weeks ago. What an amazing event! This was my third one in a row and it never fails to impress me. The really impressive part is not that the projects are so technically advanced, though many are, it is that these 1500 kids from all over the globe are so uniformly wonderful. Great looking kids, very polite, articulate, most of whom for which English is not the first language, it is amazing. In my opinion there is no other event that so clearly demonstrates that there is great hope for the human race. And even though every one is a fierce competitor, they consistently look after each other and help each other when they can.

I helped to escort ten kids from my community to the fair. As you can imagine I took a lot of pictures and HD video. Most images and video stored and reproduced digitally, such as JPEG and MPEG, use a lossy type of data compression. This is accomplished through a mathematical transform that converts the image information into coefficients of sinusoids at various frequencies. Can you name this mathematical transform?


Reply to Butch Shadwell at b.shadwell@ieee.org (email), 904-410-9751 (fax), 904-410-9750 (v), 3308 Queen Palm Dr., Jacksonville, FL 32250-2328. (http://www.shadtechserv.com) The names of correct respondents may be mentioned in the solution column.

The Open Channel for May 2009

Download Here

Page 2 From the Chair
Page 3 Directions to Harbor Park
Page 3 MDC Minder
Page 4 IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS) Becomes IEEE Photonics Society
Page 4 IEEE.tv Wins Four Aegis Awards
Page 5 Brain Teaser Challenge Solution
Page 5 Brain Teaser

May 2009 Meeting

A Night at the Park: Norfolk Tides vs. Rochester Red Wings Saturday, May 23, 2009 at 7:15 PM

The IEEE Hampton Roads Section is having its Summer Social at Harbor Park. The Norfolk Tides will be playing against the Rochester Red Wings in AAA baseball action. Game time is 7:15 PM. Please RSVP so that the tickets can be purchased ahead of time to ensure that our group will be seated together. IEEE members are encouraged to bring their families and/or friends.

Brain Teaser Challenge - "April"

I recently had to spend the night in the hospital. I didn't really feel that sick, but I had had some strange symptoms earlier and they wanted to do some tests to try to understand what had happened. I left the next day having had a very bad night's sleep and a huge barrage of tests. Though they were efficient and thorough, no one really knew what had caused my symptoms two days prior. I think this happens a lot in medicine. That is, they see some symptoms and they do their best to explain them. Then for all their best efforts and the latest technology, no one really knows. I feel blessed that no one suggested treating me for their best guess of what the problem might be.

In an earlier part of my career I did R&D in nuclear medicine, specifically gamma imaging. This is not taking pictures of gamma rays, but rather using gamma rays to take pictures inside of your body. Technetium-99m is a common radionuclide used in such imaging. As it turns out, most of the technetium used in medicine is harvested from a device called a cow as a by-product of another radionuclide called molybdenum-99. Our question this month is how does molybdenum-99 become technetium-99m? Hope you don't glow in the dark.


Reply to Butch Shadwell at b.shadwell@ieee.org (email), 904-410-9751 (fax), 904-410-9750 (v), 3308 Queen Palm Dr., Jacksonville, FL 32250-2328. (http://www.shadtechserv.com) The names of correct respondents may be mentioned in the solution column.

Brain Teaser Challenge - "March"

These brain teasers get printed in newsletters around the world. In some of these places English is not the first language. I don't think anyone is doing an official translation. So I sometimes wonder if those readers having to translate it for themselves have a hard time making sense of my stories and humor. To be fair I have considered sending out the column alternately in Hindi, German, Chinese, etc., so as not to show favoritism to the native English speakers. Then I remembered that I am not really fluent in all of these languages and I don't even own an English-Chinese dictionary.

Anyway, let's get to the problem. I attended a conference on weather modeling the other day, a very interesting physics and math problem domain. These calculations are sometimes done in order to predict the path of hurricanes and tornadoes. So, after a 100 pound woman is airborne, how long does it take her to get from 0 to 30 MPH if she has a constant net horizontal accelerating force from the wind of 100 pounds(force). Obviously the wind is building during her entire flight. You can ignore wind drag and all other forces for this problem. I am using English units in order to add to the challenge, maybe metric next time.


Reply to Butch Shadwell at b.shadwell@ieee.org (email), 904-410-9751 (fax), 904-410-9750 (v), 3308 Queen Palm Dr., Jacksonville, FL 32250-2328. (http://www.shadtechserv.com) The names of correct respondents may be mentioned in the solution column.

March 2009 From The Chair

Few things in this life are for certain. Unfortunately for electrical engineers, power distribution is not one of them. However we can mitigate the risk we face by having a back-up power source. So in March we will have Rob Robins of Bay Diesel come talk to us of providing back-up power systems for facilities and plants that we may have design cognizance over. This topic has a wide appeal to all of us, because I cannot think of an area of electrical engineering that is not dependent on power. So understanding the current factors of back-up power generation and understanding how those factors affect our everyday professional lives is important to us all.
I want to thank Dr. Reddy for his presentation in February on RFID technology. We learned that the airplane industry utilizes RFID tags for maintenance monitoring. While bar-coding has improved monitoring of inventory greatly, RFID tags are the next step. How many of us have stood in a grocery line while the clerk struggles to get the bar code off an item we are buying. In fact, one on my dogs has a RFID tag implanted in her, so you can say that I have a high tech wiener dog.
So far I only have one volunteer for the 5oth anniversary planning committee. I am still looking for a few more volunteers. I want to thank Dr. Ibrahim for volunteering. On a similar note, Janet Rochester has offered to represent the section at the IEEE-USA meeting in Philadelphia in August. I would like for us all to support Janet in providing a good history of the section. So if anyone has some section history, including any personal accomplishments , that they would like to share, please provide them to any officer of the section. This is good because I am thinking that we want a good historical accounting for when our section anniversary occurs in 2011. Thank you Janet .
I will be representing the section for the SoutheastCon in Atlanta this upcoming month. I will provide some feedback to the section as to what is presented at the Region 3 meeting that occurs during that time. So stay tune for additional information.
I am looking forward to meeting everyone in March.
Regards,
James Bolitho
2009 Chair
Hampton Roads Section

jbolitho@ieee.org

MathCounts Results

On February 14, students from 9 middle schools and 1 home school group on the peninsula went to NASA Langley’s Reid Conference Center to compete in the 26th Peninsula Regional MathCounts Competition.

As teams and individuals they answered over 50 questions in four rounds of competition. Teams consisted of four students while individual competitors varied from one to four from a school.

Top Team Scorers

• First Place* Tabb, Yorktown
• Second Place Berkley, Williamsburg
• Third Place Grafton, Yorktown
• Fourth Place Poquoson, Poquoson
• Fifth Place Dozier, Newport News
• Sixth Place Walsingham, Williamsburg

Top Individual Scorers

• First Place* Abigail Chen, Grafton
• Second Place* Dmitry Zamcov, James-Blair
• Third Place Mayee Chen, Berkeley
• Fourth Place Correy Xu, Tabb
• Fifth Place David Chasteen-Boyd, Grafton
• Sixth Place Joey Hsu, Tabb
• Seventh Place Chih-Wie Chang, Tabb
• Eight Place Thomas Baker, Berkeley
• Ninth Place Shalni Kumar, Poquoson
• Tenth Place Tim Slade, Slade Home School

Top Countdown Winners

• First Place Abigail Chen, Grafton
• Second Place Mayee Chen, Berkeley
• Third Place Correy Xu, Tabb
• Fourth Place Dmitry Zamcov, James-Blair

*The top team scorers and the two top individuals move onto the State Competition to compete against the winners from state regional competitions on March 28 at Dominion Powers Innsbrook Facility in Richmond.

March 2009 Meeting

Key Design Considerations for a Reliable Back Up Power System
Speaker: Rob Robbins, Bay Diesel Corporation
Aberdeen Barn, Virginia Beach

6:30 PM 19 March 2009

Please send inquiries and RSVP to officers-r3-hamptonroads@ieee.org . Your reservation(s) may also be made online at www.acteva.com.

Aberdeen Barn 5805 Northampton Blvd. Virginia Beach, VA 23455 757.464.1580 Google Map

Agenda 6:00 PM Executive Committee 6:30 PM Social Period 7:00 PM Dinner 8:00 PM Technical Presentation

Meal Costs Members $20 Guests $20 Students $10 No charge to attend the technical presentation.

Brain Teaser Challenge - "February"

I am on an astrophysics blog site, and occasionally am asked to add a little extra physics expertise to the discussion. In one discussion a blogger asked about the possibility of having a hollow earth. Letís discuss a few things about the real earth first. Most of the heaviest elements that are found on the earth are concentrated toward the center of our planet, due to their higher density. These heavier elements also happen to be the ones that are radioactive. Most scientists today believe that the heat that keeps the center of the earth molten is generated by the nuclear decay of these heavy elements and probably a slow rate of nuclear fission too. So the center of the planet is quite hot and has a deadly level of ionizing radiation. It is actually a much more hostile environment than outer space. Even if we could open up an empty sphere, it would be a very uncomfortable place to sit.

The question I was asked to comment on in this blog thread was, what kind of gravitational forces would one feel in this hollow earth scenario? Imagine the sphere is relatively small, say eight feet in diameter. Donít forget your lead underwear and a high power air conditioner.


Reply to Butch Shadwell at b.shadwell@ieee.org (email), 904-223-4510 (fax), 904-223-4465 (v), 3308 Queen Palm Dr., Jacksonville, FL 32250-2328. (http://www.shadtechserv.com) The names of correct respondents may be mentioned in the solution column.

The Open Channel for February 2009

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Brain Teaser Challenge - "January"

by Butch Shadwell
Have you ever wanted to be a tap dancer? I hadn’t thought about it much until I saw Michael Flatley and his team in River Dance. It is literally poetry in motion. As I watched the show I could feel the Irish branch of my family tree swaying to the music.
Some of you may recall that I am a bit of a thespian. I have been in over 65 shows including 6 musicals. Though I have done a little tripping over the floor boards, I haven’t ever done any tap. However, I have seen how they mike tap performances. They use a device known as a PZM or pressure zone microphone. This type of mike has a design that limits how much sound is generated by vibration or movement of the microphone assembly itself. There is a small pressure zone sensor that can pick up sounds that are carried from other directions than the mounting structure.
In a condenser microphone element if the increasing sound pressure increases the capacitance, what kind of voltage change is observed on the microphone element as a high pressure wave passes?
Reply to Butch Shadwell at b.shadwell@ieee.org (email)
904-223-4510 (fax)
904-223-4465 (v)
3308 Queen Palm Dr.
Jacksonville, FL 32250-2328.
www.shadtechserv.com

The names of correct respondents may be mentioned in the solution column.

February From The Chair

Hello to all members of the IEEE in the Hampton Roads Section. I will be your chairman for this upcoming year. I am excited to serve you in this capacity. I work at Norfolk Naval Shipyard as a Nuclear Engineer although my degree is in Electrical Engineering from Old Dominion University. My first order of business is to thank Kurt Clemente for serving as Hampton Roads Section Chair for the past two years. Kurt brought many items to the table that we worked on as your Executive Committee, but I believe the biggest one is the requirement for continuing education for professional engineers. Our technical talks fit the requirement for continuing education. As chairman for the section it is my goal that the executive committee of the Hampton Roads Section supports you in this requirement for maintaining your license as a professional engineer. I know that this is one of the foremost ideas that Kurt mentioned in the executive meetings, in fact I cannot remember an executive meeting over the past two years in which this topic was not discussed. Once again, thank you Kurt for your service over the past two years.
Secondly, I want to congratulate the winners of our Student Paper presentation held in January at Christopher Newport University. One of the many topics that is discussed in executive committee is how can we get more involved with the student groups. I realize that it will be difficult but not overwhelming. In addition, the executive committee is looking at how we conduct the student paper presentation as turnout has been lower than expected.
The Section will be celebrating it’s 50th anniversary in 2011. I will be forming an ad hoc committee that will be developing the program for this event. My plan is to meet outside of executive committee and the normal technical program to work on this. This ad hoc committee will be open to all members, especially any member who has event planning experience. I would like to have at least 4 additional members for the committee. Please contact me directly if you are interested in helping. We will be providing a report to the executive committee. Our February technical meeting will be on UHF Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems and will be held at Al Fresco’s in Newport News. Dr. Reddy, a Hampton Roads Senior Member of the IEEE, is actively involved in combining the technology of UHF RFID with computational electromagnetic tools, thereby increasing the range of the system. In March, we are planning a technical program on generators. We are open for April and if anyone has an idea for a program, please contact the Vice-Chairman, Greg Hodges, as he will be setting up the technical programs. May is our family social and there has been discussion of having the program coincide with Jefferson Labs open house.
I am looking forward to meeting everyone in February.
Regards,
James Bolitho
2009 Chair
Hampton Roads Section

jbolitho@ieee.org

Watch Out for the Terminator

As the membership chair for the section I dread the end of February. This is when IEEE runs what they refer to as the ‘terminator’ program, a software routine that sweeps membership database looking for members that have renewed their membership. Any member that has not renewed their membership is placed in an inactive state. Many sections including Hampton Roads lose as much as ten percent of membership at this time. The significance is that inactive members miss the information they have come to depend. This includes emails and publications.

If you have not already done so, please submit your renewal before the end of February. Membership renewals can be made online at myieee.

By the way, life members should do this too. You may not need to pay but returning your renewal is the only way that IEEE has to keep you on their roles.

- William LaBelle
w.labelle@ieee.org

February Meeting

Design of UHF RFID Systems with the aid of Computational Electromagnetics
Dr. C. J. Reddy, President
EM Software & Systems (USA) Inc.
Al Fresco, Newport News
6:30 PM, Thursday, 19 February 2009

Please RSVP to officers-r3-hamptonroads@ieee.org or on line at www.acteva.com.

Al Fresco 11710 Jefferson Ave., #A Newport News, VA 23606 +1 757 873 0644 Directions

Agenda 6:00 PM Executive Committee 6:30 PM Social Period 7:00 PM Dinner 8:00 PM Technical Presentation

Meal Costs Members $20 Guests $20 Students $10 Technical presentation is FREE.

Though Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems have been in use for various applications in the past, currently they are gaining popularity due to their application to retail supply chain management systems. Compared to low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) RFID systems (which operate through near-field inductive coupling and thus have relatively short read range), ultra high frequency (UHF) RFID systems operate through farfield backscattering, have larger read range, and have been widely used in supply chain management and inventory control. However, very often the electromagnetic (EM) performance of the reader/tag systems could be significantly degraded due to the complex physical environments. With the aid of computational electromagnetic (CEM) tools, such situations can be analyzed and optimized to improve the performance of RFID systems. This talk presents options for the EM characterization of such systems with the aid of full wave or hybrid numerical methods. Analysis of RFID tags, readers, tag placement, tag/reader coupling, and tag/reader systems in complex environments will be addressed.

More Information

January From The Chair

Thanks to all who made it to our final 2008 technical meeting at Clark- Nexsen in Norfolk. Bernie Wright of General Electric gave an extremely in depth presentation of the challenges in designing an electrical system that is cost-effectively “layered” (that is, not flat with respect to every panel feeding from the main switchgear) while meeting the new National Electric Code requirements for selective coordination. After a theoretical treatment of selective coordination, including why this is normally NOT a requirement for most buildings, and typical building electrical distribution system design, Bernie demonstrated a General Electric software tool for examining various equipment selections to rapidly determine components and settings necessary to achieve coordination. The tool was able to highlight certain configurations in a hypothetical scenario that would require extremely costly components, permitting minor design changes to eliminate these costs. The tool was specific to GE equipment, as it contains libraries of parameters for various equipment, but is available at no cost. For copies of either Bernie’s presentation or the GE InstaPlan tool, see the IEEE Hampton Roads meeting archive. We are very appreciative of Bernie, both for his time in preparing and presenting the topic as well as making the tool available to IEEE members.
In January we hold the IEEE-HR Student Paper Competition, which Dr. Anton Riedl of Christopher Newport University has graciously agreed to host. If you have not attended this annual event, or are a student considering entering, the competition guidelines can be viewed on the Hampton Roads Web Site. The section provides cash prizes for the top 3 student presentations, and the winners may take their presentation to the IEEE Region 3 competition at SoutheastCon in Atlanta in March (see the Region 3 Web Site for details). The Executive Committee has received several inquiries regarding permitted topics. Without providing specific guidelines for such requests, we remind students that topics should be relative to the electrical and electronics engineers of IEEE… and that we have yet to reject a topic!
We will conduct 2009 IEEE-HR officer elections in January, as we did not receive sufficient nominations at our November meeting. We now have (almost) enough volunteers to fill the 2009 slate, but if you would like to volunteer for a position there is still time and opportunity.
Upcoming meetings:

• IEEE-HR monthly technical meeting February 19th – Design of UHF RFID systems, Dr. C.J. Reddy, EM Software & Systems
• IEEE-HR monthly technical meeting March 19th
• IEEE-HR monthly technical meeting April 16th
• IEEE-HR annual social event in May

The January meeting will begin our Spring 2009 technical program. I hope you found the 2008 program interesting and look forward to this year’s topics. For those who are licensed engineers, the announcement has not been officially made but we expect the APELSCIDLA board to implement the new regulations by March 1st. The good news is that the current IEEE technical meeting format will meet these requirements, and our newsletter provides the necessary documentation to demonstrate meeting content, duration, and speaker qualifications (assuming the topic is relevant to your area of practice). Save the printed newsletter or reference our website’s meeting archive and you will be prepared to answer a board audit. Because an additional item of documentation demonstrating attendance may be part of the board’s March implementation, IEEE-HR will soon begin issuing certificates of attendance after meeting completion. If you have a suggested topic or speaker (or might want to present something yourself) please speak with me or any IEEE officer about this. I look forward to seeing you in January!
Regards,
Kurt J. Clemente, PE
2007 Chair
Hampton Roads Section
kurt.clemente@ieee.org

IEEE Hampton Roads Annual Elections—Last Call

As with all sections and chapters in IEEE the elected positions are: Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary. As of November 2008 meeting the nominees for the 2009 Hampton Roads Section are:

• Chair—James Bolitho
• Vice-chair
• Treasurer—James Childers
• Secretary

Send in your nominations now to William LaBelle [w.labelle@ieee.org ] or William Clayton [w.clayton@ieee.org ]. The election will be held at the January Meeting.