Thank you to Mühlbauer in Newport News for the tour and demonstration of their manufacturing equipment in March. Everyone could relate to the products that their equipment is used to manufacturer, from driver's licenses and passports to subway tickets. It was interesting to see the new applications for RFID and other technologies on display for die sorting.
In April we will meet at ODU for a technical presentation from Ed Larsen of SquareD on NEC requirements for low-voltage circuit breakers. This is an excellent opportunity to hear from an industry expert in this area. Mr. Larsen is involved in IEEE standards as well as other standards organizations.
IEEE is still looking for a volunteer for the Secretary position, please contact officers-r3-hamptonroads@ieee.org if you are interested and would like to get involved.
Jason Naramore
2011 Chair
IEEE Hampton Roads Section
Showing posts with label From the Chair. Show all posts
Showing posts with label From the Chair. Show all posts
15 April 2011
08 March 2011
From The Chair - March 2011
Mühlbauer Tour
Please join us for the March technical meeting, which will be a tour of the Mühlbauer facility in Newport News. The tour will include an interactive demonstration of their cutting edge manufacturing equipment used to produce ID Cards, Passports, RFID's and others. This is an exciting opportunity to visit a local high-tech business; I can say the Mühlbauer tour in 2009 was very well received by the Hampton Roads IEEE members. The tour is free to everyone (members, guests, and students), please register ASAP so that we can get a good count for refreshments.I'd like to thank Mickey Wilson of Harger for his presentation last month on lightning protection systems. Jennifer Ammentorp, the Hampton Roads PES Chapter Chair, will be traveling to SoutheastCon March 17-20 in Nashville to represent the Hampton Roads Section in Region 3 activities. If you have any ideas on how IEEE can better serve its members, please feel free to email the officers list or myself so that we can relay this information to Jennifer. I would like to welcome Mr. Richard Williams to the IEEE HR Executive Committee; he will serve as the 2011 Section treasurer.
Volunteer opportunities are still available within the Hampton Roads Section, please contact the officers list if you are interested.
Jason Naramore
2011 Chair
IEEE Hampton Roads Section
01 February 2011
From The Chair - February 2011
Lightning Protection Systems for IT Data Centers
IEEE Hampton Roads begins our 2011 technical presentation series with talk from Mr. Mickey Wilson of Harger (www.harger.com) on lightning protection systems. This presentation should be of interest to a variety of local engineers with its implications in power as well as computer engineering.The March meeting will be held at Mühlbauer in Newport News, and will include a facility tour. Mühlbauer manufactures a variety of products including RFID manufacturing systems. In March they will have a new die-sorter to demo. This is a chance to see some high tech electronics manufacturing equipment.
We have an exciting technical presentation series planned for the rest of 2011, including topics from academic research to industry. Please check the Hampton Roads Section website for updates regarding meetings.
The culmination of our 2011 schedule will be a banquet to celebrate IEEE Hampton Roads' 50th Anniversary. Please contact me if you have any suggestions about a technical topic for the meeting, and if you would like to volunteer to help with planning.
A few other upcoming meetings this year include:
- ECHR Engineering Excellence Banquet (Town Point Club) February 25
- Virginia Peninsula Engineering Council Engineering of the Year Banquet (Point Plaza Suites) February 26
- IEEE SoutheastCon 2011 (Nashville, TN) March 17- 20
- IEEE Sections Congress 2011 (San Francisco, CA) August 19-22
I look forward to seeing everyone Feb. 17th, please come participate and get in involved in IEEE!
Regards,
Jason Naramore
2011 Chair
01 November 2010
November 2010 From The Chair
The September presentation by Dr. Yoon of Norfolk State University was extremely interesting. He shared a video clip of a neural nano-probe that helped a violin player overcome a case of the shakes. The amazing thing was that the violin player was awake during the procedure, playing the violin. I recently had an aunt die from a grand mal seizure, so this kind of technology, if it could be applied to help people like my special aunt, would be a tremendous benefit to mankind. Probably the most exciting part of my evening was the tour of Norfolk State’s industrial sized cleanroom. The setup was very nice and big.
The October meeting, held with the Power and Energy Society Chapter, was also very enlightening. By some experts’ analysis, there is forty years of petroleum left on our planet if consumed at the current rate; less if the consumption rate increases. Fifty percent of all trips that we take in our vehicles are less than twenty miles in length, which is well within the distance covered by the capacity of an electric car’s battery. Charging the batteries is a different story. In Virginia, we are billed on our consumption, whereas other states actually have demand management. The timing to charge your car is different in Virginia than say in Maryland. Or to run your clothes dryer or whatever electrical load you have in your house.
In November, we will have our student paper presentation at Hampton University. I want to thank Dr. Nare and Hampton University for hosting this event for the section. Please come out and support our engineers of tomorrow.
We have not received any additional volunteers for the section officers other than Jason Naramore for Chairman and Mike Cooper as Vice-Chair. These are two fine individuals that I have had the opportunity to work with over the past two years. I feel very comfortable that the Section will be in fine hands with Jason and Mike. It is not too late to volunteer. We can combine the secretary and treasurer positions if we only get one volunteer or keep them separate if we get two volunteers. Please contact any section officer if you are interested in being an officer in the coming year
This will be my last section chair message. I want to thank my officers for their assistance for the past two years. I have been richly rewarded with the time that I have spent as your chair, well beyond the effort that I put in. I have met some really interesting people and I believe even more strongly today, that the Hampton Roads Section could be one of the best sections in the Region and in the entire IEEE organization; we have that much engineering diversity. But we have to go out and make it happen. It has been a little bit of a struggle for me over the past two years, between finishing my MBA and the surgeries that I had to endure, but if I had it to do all over again, I would once again volunteer to be an officer in our section. Thank you for all of your support and I look forward to seeing you all at the next meeting.
Regards,
James Bolitho
2010 Chair
Hampton Roads Section
The October meeting, held with the Power and Energy Society Chapter, was also very enlightening. By some experts’ analysis, there is forty years of petroleum left on our planet if consumed at the current rate; less if the consumption rate increases. Fifty percent of all trips that we take in our vehicles are less than twenty miles in length, which is well within the distance covered by the capacity of an electric car’s battery. Charging the batteries is a different story. In Virginia, we are billed on our consumption, whereas other states actually have demand management. The timing to charge your car is different in Virginia than say in Maryland. Or to run your clothes dryer or whatever electrical load you have in your house.
In November, we will have our student paper presentation at Hampton University. I want to thank Dr. Nare and Hampton University for hosting this event for the section. Please come out and support our engineers of tomorrow.
We have not received any additional volunteers for the section officers other than Jason Naramore for Chairman and Mike Cooper as Vice-Chair. These are two fine individuals that I have had the opportunity to work with over the past two years. I feel very comfortable that the Section will be in fine hands with Jason and Mike. It is not too late to volunteer. We can combine the secretary and treasurer positions if we only get one volunteer or keep them separate if we get two volunteers. Please contact any section officer if you are interested in being an officer in the coming year
This will be my last section chair message. I want to thank my officers for their assistance for the past two years. I have been richly rewarded with the time that I have spent as your chair, well beyond the effort that I put in. I have met some really interesting people and I believe even more strongly today, that the Hampton Roads Section could be one of the best sections in the Region and in the entire IEEE organization; we have that much engineering diversity. But we have to go out and make it happen. It has been a little bit of a struggle for me over the past two years, between finishing my MBA and the surgeries that I had to endure, but if I had it to do all over again, I would once again volunteer to be an officer in our section. Thank you for all of your support and I look forward to seeing you all at the next meeting.
Regards,
James Bolitho
2010 Chair
Hampton Roads Section
15 September 2010
From the Chair - September 2010
It is the fall season and we have a very exciting fall program in store. We start off in September with a presentation by Dr. Hargsoon Yoon of Norfolk State University on Nano-Sensors and Modulators for Neural Engineering applications. I think that this topic sounds very interesting. I want to thank Dr. Yoon and Norfolk State University for hosting this presentation. In October, we will have a joint meeting with the Power Engineering Society chapter on Electric Vehicles. I did not know that Virginia actually has to import electricity. We simply do not generate enough electricity. While electric vehicles either reduce or eliminate the production of exhaust gases (not counting any gases produced during generation of the power), the need to charge the vehicles remains a challenge for the transmission of power and the stresses that it will put on the grid. I am anxiously waiting to hear this presentation and where we stand on the issues that await us in this area. Lastly, we will be holding our student paper presentation in November. I encourage all undergraduate student members to participate. You just don't know but you may walk away with some money in your pocket.
Also in the fall we will be holding our elections for officers in the section. The four positions open for elections are the chair, vice-chair, treasurer and secretary. The election is open to all members from graduate student members to Fellows. I highly encourage all those that are interested to contact any section officer by the October meeting. We will formally announce our slate of candidates through our October newsletter. Formal election will be held in November. I have been an officer in this section for four years and I have found my experience to be very rewarding. I have had the opportunity to travel and represent the section at various conferences and had my travel covered by IEEE. There will be much to do in the upcoming years between the Section's 50th anniversary in 2011 and Oceans 2012 the following year. Descriptions of the positions are as follows:
The Section Chair shall serve as Chair for all meetings of the Section, the Section Committee and the Section ExCom. The Section Vice Chair shall assist the Chair in the coordination of all Section activities.
At the request of the Section Chair or in the absence of the Section Chair, the Section Vice Chair shall chair meetings of the Section, Section Committee or Section ExCom.
The Section Secretary shall include correspondence, the keeping of the minutes of the Committee meetings, mailing notices, and submission of meeting and officer reports to the Member and Geographic Activities Department at the end of each year and such other duties as are assigned by the Chair.
The Section Treasurer shall include the development of a Section budget for approval by the Section, accounting of all Section funds, keeping financial records, and submitting the Financial Operations Report of the Section to the IEEE Staff Director, Financial Services.
I am looking forward to seeing everyone this fall.
Regards,
James Bolitho
2010 Chair
Hampton Roads Section
Also in the fall we will be holding our elections for officers in the section. The four positions open for elections are the chair, vice-chair, treasurer and secretary. The election is open to all members from graduate student members to Fellows. I highly encourage all those that are interested to contact any section officer by the October meeting. We will formally announce our slate of candidates through our October newsletter. Formal election will be held in November. I have been an officer in this section for four years and I have found my experience to be very rewarding. I have had the opportunity to travel and represent the section at various conferences and had my travel covered by IEEE. There will be much to do in the upcoming years between the Section's 50th anniversary in 2011 and Oceans 2012 the following year. Descriptions of the positions are as follows:
The Section Chair shall serve as Chair for all meetings of the Section, the Section Committee and the Section ExCom. The Section Vice Chair shall assist the Chair in the coordination of all Section activities.
At the request of the Section Chair or in the absence of the Section Chair, the Section Vice Chair shall chair meetings of the Section, Section Committee or Section ExCom.
The Section Secretary shall include correspondence, the keeping of the minutes of the Committee meetings, mailing notices, and submission of meeting and officer reports to the Member and Geographic Activities Department at the end of each year and such other duties as are assigned by the Chair.
The Section Treasurer shall include the development of a Section budget for approval by the Section, accounting of all Section funds, keeping financial records, and submitting the Financial Operations Report of the Section to the IEEE Staff Director, Financial Services.
I am looking forward to seeing everyone this fall.
Regards,
James Bolitho
2010 Chair
Hampton Roads Section
07 April 2010
April From The Chair
We had a very good presentation on Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) given to us from Dave Cook of Eaton Corporation. Dave has been in the business for a quite a while, but has been able to keep up to date with his work. What he talked about are not your father’s UPS, but rather a quite sophisticated piece of equipment. He talked about the old technology whose output was so dirty that the systems that the UPS was trying to protect would double clock. Today’s technology actually uses double conversion and IGBTs vice the SCRs that was in your father’s UPS. He also talked about Blade UPS that have a near unity power factor. All in all, it was a very good presentation. I want to thank Kurt Clemente for hosting us again.
This month we are going to visit another of our student branches. Dr. Popescu will be hosting us at Old Dominion University. The presenter will be Danda B. Rawat, who is a Ph.D. candidate at Old Dominion. The topic is Performance Enhancement in Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks. Intelligent systems can be used in a variety of situations. Danda will be presenting how intelligent systems can be used in vehicles thereby reducing the number of accidents and deaths on our roadways. I think that this is an excellent topic. I did a simulation once in graduate school and I chose to model the traffic flow through the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel ; this topic generated many questions from my fellow students. Capacity is reached going through the tunnels when traffic is flowing freely. So I am thinking that this would be another advantage of this network. The network will allow the Traffic to flow freely (instead of stop and go as the human in the loop is constantly braking for the car in front of them, which causes the human in the loop in the next car behind the first car to brake even more). The free flowing traffic will save time and gasoline. I am looking forward to this presentation. I want to thank Dr. Popescu in advance for hosting us.
Our Vice-Chair/Secretary Jason Naramore attended the SoutheastCon 2010 in Charlotte North Carolina. He represented our section at the region meeting. As always, Bill LaBelle and Bill Clayton attended in their regional capacity. Bill and Bill have been invaluable mentors for me and we are very lucky to have them in our section. Thank you all for attending the meeting.
We are still looking for a Secretary for the section. Please contact any section executive committee member if you are interested in this position. Keep your calendars open in June in case Bob Kugler calls for assistance with the Oceans 2012 techsurge program. This is an excellent opportunity for the section.
I am looking forward to seeing everyone in April.
Regards,
James Bolitho
2009 Chair
Hampton Roads Section
This month we are going to visit another of our student branches. Dr. Popescu will be hosting us at Old Dominion University. The presenter will be Danda B. Rawat, who is a Ph.D. candidate at Old Dominion. The topic is Performance Enhancement in Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks. Intelligent systems can be used in a variety of situations. Danda will be presenting how intelligent systems can be used in vehicles thereby reducing the number of accidents and deaths on our roadways. I think that this is an excellent topic. I did a simulation once in graduate school and I chose to model the traffic flow through the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel ; this topic generated many questions from my fellow students. Capacity is reached going through the tunnels when traffic is flowing freely. So I am thinking that this would be another advantage of this network. The network will allow the Traffic to flow freely (instead of stop and go as the human in the loop is constantly braking for the car in front of them, which causes the human in the loop in the next car behind the first car to brake even more). The free flowing traffic will save time and gasoline. I am looking forward to this presentation. I want to thank Dr. Popescu in advance for hosting us.
Our Vice-Chair/Secretary Jason Naramore attended the SoutheastCon 2010 in Charlotte North Carolina. He represented our section at the region meeting. As always, Bill LaBelle and Bill Clayton attended in their regional capacity. Bill and Bill have been invaluable mentors for me and we are very lucky to have them in our section. Thank you all for attending the meeting.
We are still looking for a Secretary for the section. Please contact any section executive committee member if you are interested in this position. Keep your calendars open in June in case Bob Kugler calls for assistance with the Oceans 2012 techsurge program. This is an excellent opportunity for the section.
I am looking forward to seeing everyone in April.
Regards,
James Bolitho
2009 Chair
Hampton Roads Section
18 March 2010
March 2010 From the Chair
The Hampton Roads Section Technical Meeting was held on February 18 at Christopher Newport University. Anton Riedl was a most gracious host and the section would like to thank him for providing pizza for us before the meeting. Luke Hargrove of National Instruments gave us a new look into LabVIEW. Like so many companies, National Instruments is very interested in the Green side of our business. They are even giving grants for developing green solutions utilizing their software. That sounds like a good deal. The amounts as I understand should cover the cost of the software that you will need, so if we have anyone out there with an entrepreneurial desire to make our planet greener, this may be what you need.
In March, we will be back to Clark Nexsen, where we will once again be hosted by Kurt Clemente. This month’s topic will be the use of UPS systems data centers. I like when a topic can cover two or more technical interest groups for our membership. I am interested in the current trends in this area. I realize that the UPS have limited capacity and if the data systems shut down, like my PC at home shuts down, then that capacity better increase. Seriously, as these data centers get more complex the need to coordinate our effort with the power engineers becomes even more urgent. Some systems may not be able to shut down and the UPS can bridge the gap until a site diesel can come on line. Likewise, an improper shutdown can corrupt an operating system causing an inability to come back on line once power is restored. This could be costly for a company and you know that users are an impatient lot.
Bob Kugler is meeting with the Marine Technology Society for the Oceans 2012 program and the techsurge program that will occur in June of this year. Bob will provide us with the information as we go forth with this effort. Please be supportive of the section and the programs that will be offered at those times. We have been struggling as a section financially so this will be an opportunity for the section to raise some money while supporting a worthwhile conference. We are looking for someone to be the section’s Secretary. If you are interested, please contact one of the section officers. The Section Secretary acts as the gateway between the Section members and the IEEE, having a leadership role in bringing the needs of members to the Executive Committee. Part of the role involves having accountability and ownership of the records and correspondence of the Section including meeting records, reporting officer changes and submitting reports of committee activities. The Secretary’s role is much more than record keeping – he/she is a steward of the Section’s history and future, bringing critical data to enable decision making by the Executive Committee and deliver real value to members that keeps the Section engaged, relevant and sustainable in the long term. The Section Secretary plays a key role in ensuring that the IEEE members within the Section are engaging in IEEE activities. So please consider this important position.
I am looking forward to seeing everyone in March.
Regards,
James Bolitho
2009 Chair
Hampton Roads Section
In March, we will be back to Clark Nexsen, where we will once again be hosted by Kurt Clemente. This month’s topic will be the use of UPS systems data centers. I like when a topic can cover two or more technical interest groups for our membership. I am interested in the current trends in this area. I realize that the UPS have limited capacity and if the data systems shut down, like my PC at home shuts down, then that capacity better increase. Seriously, as these data centers get more complex the need to coordinate our effort with the power engineers becomes even more urgent. Some systems may not be able to shut down and the UPS can bridge the gap until a site diesel can come on line. Likewise, an improper shutdown can corrupt an operating system causing an inability to come back on line once power is restored. This could be costly for a company and you know that users are an impatient lot.
Bob Kugler is meeting with the Marine Technology Society for the Oceans 2012 program and the techsurge program that will occur in June of this year. Bob will provide us with the information as we go forth with this effort. Please be supportive of the section and the programs that will be offered at those times. We have been struggling as a section financially so this will be an opportunity for the section to raise some money while supporting a worthwhile conference. We are looking for someone to be the section’s Secretary. If you are interested, please contact one of the section officers. The Section Secretary acts as the gateway between the Section members and the IEEE, having a leadership role in bringing the needs of members to the Executive Committee. Part of the role involves having accountability and ownership of the records and correspondence of the Section including meeting records, reporting officer changes and submitting reports of committee activities. The Secretary’s role is much more than record keeping – he/she is a steward of the Section’s history and future, bringing critical data to enable decision making by the Executive Committee and deliver real value to members that keeps the Section engaged, relevant and sustainable in the long term. The Section Secretary plays a key role in ensuring that the IEEE members within the Section are engaging in IEEE activities. So please consider this important position.
I am looking forward to seeing everyone in March.
Regards,
James Bolitho
2009 Chair
Hampton Roads Section
08 February 2010
February 2010 From The Chair
The Hampton Roads Section technical meeting was held on January 21st at Clark Nexsen. The presenter was Jimmy Tran from Old Dominion University. The topic dealt with atomic layer deposition and is one method that is being worked on currently to solve the scaling issues associated with smaller architecture. All this work just so we keep Moore’s law active. Although the section attendance was small in number, the questions were plenty and quite diverse. I guess I had not given it much thought lately that surface roughness plays a very important part on surface conductance. I haven’t been living in the nano-scale world recently. I want to thank Mr. Tran for presenting and Kurt Clemente for hosting at Clark Nexsen.
In February, we will have a vendor give us a demonstration on the latest effort by National Instruments and their product LabView. I always liked Labview, where you could design an instrument at the module level and can really see signal throughput. As practical as this seems, the training applications are outstanding. I can say one thing about Labview, you don’t have to worry about surface roughness, or do you? I want to thank Dr. Riedl for hosting the meeting at Christopher Newport University. My wife is a graduate of Christopher Newport, so we get to go to some athletic events. I have to put a plug in for the Lady Captains basketball team and Coach Hunter. I am very impressed with the team. As of this writing, they are still undefeated (19-0).
We have an opportunity to be a team. We have too many openings on the Executive committee. We have an upcoming anniversary in which I have heard from one person volunteering to help with the program. We have an opportunity to work with the Marine Technology Society for the Oceans 2012 program and the tech surge program being held in June, but we are still looking for volunteers. With that all said, I would be remiss if I did not say that we do have quite a few individuals who have stepped up and I would like to name them all but space does not permit. A team can do a lot more than an individual. So I hope to hear from you once you have read this newsletter.
The Power and Energy Society Chapter is going to have a tour of the Surry Nuclear Power plant scheduled for some time in April. One of our Executive Committee members will be attending the SouthEastCon 2010 in Charlotte. So there is plenty to do, we just have to get out there and do it. If you have a desire to volunteer, please contact any member of the Executive Committee.
Regards,
James Bolitho
2009 Chair
Hampton Roads Section
In February, we will have a vendor give us a demonstration on the latest effort by National Instruments and their product LabView. I always liked Labview, where you could design an instrument at the module level and can really see signal throughput. As practical as this seems, the training applications are outstanding. I can say one thing about Labview, you don’t have to worry about surface roughness, or do you? I want to thank Dr. Riedl for hosting the meeting at Christopher Newport University. My wife is a graduate of Christopher Newport, so we get to go to some athletic events. I have to put a plug in for the Lady Captains basketball team and Coach Hunter. I am very impressed with the team. As of this writing, they are still undefeated (19-0).
We have an opportunity to be a team. We have too many openings on the Executive committee. We have an upcoming anniversary in which I have heard from one person volunteering to help with the program. We have an opportunity to work with the Marine Technology Society for the Oceans 2012 program and the tech surge program being held in June, but we are still looking for volunteers. With that all said, I would be remiss if I did not say that we do have quite a few individuals who have stepped up and I would like to name them all but space does not permit. A team can do a lot more than an individual. So I hope to hear from you once you have read this newsletter.
The Power and Energy Society Chapter is going to have a tour of the Surry Nuclear Power plant scheduled for some time in April. One of our Executive Committee members will be attending the SouthEastCon 2010 in Charlotte. So there is plenty to do, we just have to get out there and do it. If you have a desire to volunteer, please contact any member of the Executive Committee.
Regards,
James Bolitho
2009 Chair
Hampton Roads Section
13 January 2010
January 2010 From the Chair
The Hampton Roads Section had several significant accomplishments this past year. The biggest accomplishment was the creation of our Power and Energy Society (PES) Chapter. We had two student paper competitions, which was done so that we could synchronize the timing of the completion with the completion of a semester at our local schools. I attended the Region 3 SouthEastCon in Atlanta (I got the extra special good deal of spending the night in Detroit that Sunday as I missed a connecting flight). We also experienced significant increases in attendance at our monthly meetings during 2009.
None of this could happen without the effort of several of our members. Jennifer Ammentorp was very instrumental in getting the PES Chapter going. Anton Riedl hosted the first student paper competition at Christopher Newport University and coordinated the second student paper competition. Greg Hodges, who served as the section vice-chair, did a marvelous job in setting up the technical programs as was demonstrated by our increase in attendance at the monthly meetings. My efforts were rewarded (and not by spending an extra night in Detroit), but rather by having these individuals make my job seem easier. We have a lot more individuals that help make the section run and for those individuals I am indebted for their efforts and support.
With all of this said, there remains work to be done. Our Bylaws have to be rewritten to be consistent with the Member and Geographic Activities (MGA) bylaws. We will be co-hosting Oceans 2012 and there is a need for an individual(s) to attend and work with our partner, the Oceanic Engineering Society. The section will be celebrating our 50th year as a section in 2011 with special events to be planned. In addition there are several other items that have been talked about in the Executive Committee (ExComm) meeting that we generally have before each monthly meeting. There is work to be done, some of which requires effort of short duration, while other volunteer efforts require a longer duration. All effort is crucial and welcomed.
I am looking forward to this upcoming year for the section. Let any officer know if you would like to volunteer or if you have any ideas on how to help the section grow and meet the expectations of our membership.
Thank you.
Regards,
James Bolitho
2009 Chair
Hampton Roads Section
None of this could happen without the effort of several of our members. Jennifer Ammentorp was very instrumental in getting the PES Chapter going. Anton Riedl hosted the first student paper competition at Christopher Newport University and coordinated the second student paper competition. Greg Hodges, who served as the section vice-chair, did a marvelous job in setting up the technical programs as was demonstrated by our increase in attendance at the monthly meetings. My efforts were rewarded (and not by spending an extra night in Detroit), but rather by having these individuals make my job seem easier. We have a lot more individuals that help make the section run and for those individuals I am indebted for their efforts and support.
With all of this said, there remains work to be done. Our Bylaws have to be rewritten to be consistent with the Member and Geographic Activities (MGA) bylaws. We will be co-hosting Oceans 2012 and there is a need for an individual(s) to attend and work with our partner, the Oceanic Engineering Society. The section will be celebrating our 50th year as a section in 2011 with special events to be planned. In addition there are several other items that have been talked about in the Executive Committee (ExComm) meeting that we generally have before each monthly meeting. There is work to be done, some of which requires effort of short duration, while other volunteer efforts require a longer duration. All effort is crucial and welcomed.
I am looking forward to this upcoming year for the section. Let any officer know if you would like to volunteer or if you have any ideas on how to help the section grow and meet the expectations of our membership.
Thank you.
Regards,
James Bolitho
2009 Chair
Hampton Roads Section
05 November 2009
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
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
01 October 2009
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
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
02 September 2009
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
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
15 March 2009
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
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
10 February 2009
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
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
12 January 2009
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
Regards,
Kurt J. Clemente, PE
2007 Chair
Hampton Roads Section
kurt.clemente@ieee.org
02 November 2008
November Letter from the Chair
Thanks to all who made it to last month’s IEEE meeting at Barclay’s. Adeeb Hamzey of Virginia Power (and a friend and colleague from the IEEE Richmond section) gave a very interesting talk about the past two decades of electrical generation and transmission in Virginia. His experience in this field lent insight into the improvements that have been made, but also the issues that face the industry: attracting, developing and retaining electrical engineering talent, developing new generation sources to keep up with growing demand, and installing transmission lines to move the power around the state, to name a few. We are very appreciative of Adeeb, who took the time to answer numerous questions from the group during his presentation.
Next month we host Bernie Wright of General Electric, who will discuss issues of selective coordination. I will refer you to the meeting abstract for more information on the topic, but suffice it to say that this topic will be of great interest to power engineers to whom the increased requirements of the 2008 National Electric Code present a growing challenge for building electrical system design. General Electric obviously provides electrical equipment that can be used to meet these new requirements, but understanding the specifics of how an uncoordinated electrical system can create power disruption problems (and unhappy building occupants) is something that all members of IEEE should appreciate. Engineers must design safe electrical systems, but the new selective coordination requirements go much further to require greater service reliability at significant additional cost.
We meet this month in the Clark-Nexsen conference room, a new venue to IEEE-Hampton Roads. Please note that we will be serving pizza and charging $5 for members/non-members but admitting IEEE student members for free! It is important that you RSVP for this meeting as we will be ordering the food ahead of time. If you are an IEEE student member please provide your IEEE member # - if you cannot locate your number you may email any officer who can utilize SamIEEE to obtain this information.
Our November meeting brings us to officer elections for 2008. I greatly appreciate the assistance of James, Jim and Giuliano in their efforts as Vice-Chair, Treasurer and Secretary throughout the year; we would not have been as successful without their diligence and hard work. If you would like to be considered for a position, or would like to nominate an IEEE member for an officer positions, please do so at the November meeting. We will open the floor to nominees and conduct the election at the meeting, as this will be our last section-wide technical meeting for 2008. The opportunity is a tremendous one, and need not take up too much of your time (I know we are all busy). Please consider volunteering or nominating another IEEE member, and if you have any questions feel free to contact me.
Upcoming meetings:
Regards,
Kurt Clemente, PE
2008 Chair
Hampton Roads Section
kurt.clemente@ieee.org
Next month we host Bernie Wright of General Electric, who will discuss issues of selective coordination. I will refer you to the meeting abstract for more information on the topic, but suffice it to say that this topic will be of great interest to power engineers to whom the increased requirements of the 2008 National Electric Code present a growing challenge for building electrical system design. General Electric obviously provides electrical equipment that can be used to meet these new requirements, but understanding the specifics of how an uncoordinated electrical system can create power disruption problems (and unhappy building occupants) is something that all members of IEEE should appreciate. Engineers must design safe electrical systems, but the new selective coordination requirements go much further to require greater service reliability at significant additional cost.
We meet this month in the Clark-Nexsen conference room, a new venue to IEEE-Hampton Roads. Please note that we will be serving pizza and charging $5 for members/non-members but admitting IEEE student members for free! It is important that you RSVP for this meeting as we will be ordering the food ahead of time. If you are an IEEE student member please provide your IEEE member # - if you cannot locate your number you may email any officer who can utilize SamIEEE to obtain this information.
Our November meeting brings us to officer elections for 2008. I greatly appreciate the assistance of James, Jim and Giuliano in their efforts as Vice-Chair, Treasurer and Secretary throughout the year; we would not have been as successful without their diligence and hard work. If you would like to be considered for a position, or would like to nominate an IEEE member for an officer positions, please do so at the November meeting. We will open the floor to nominees and conduct the election at the meeting, as this will be our last section-wide technical meeting for 2008. The opportunity is a tremendous one, and need not take up too much of your time (I know we are all busy). Please consider volunteering or nominating another IEEE member, and if you have any questions feel free to contact me.
Upcoming meetings:
- IEEE-HR monthly technical meeting November 20th at Clark-Nexsen
- IEEE-HR Executive Committee meeting December 11th
- IEEE-HR monthly technical meeting January 22nd Annual Student Paper Competition
- IEEE-HR monthly technical meeting February 19th
- IEEE-HR monthly technical meeting March 19th
Regards,
Kurt Clemente, PE
2008 Chair
Hampton Roads Section
kurt.clemente@ieee.org
30 September 2008
October Letter from the Chair
Power Engineering with Adeeb Hamzey, Virginia Dominion Power
Thanks to all who made it to last month’s IEEE meeting at Aberdeen Barn. We were fortunate to have Dr. Aftab Ahmad of Norfolk State University describe the difficulty in assessing network security and the manner in which a ITU framework can be used to begin to quantify how secure a network can be made. I was pleased to see a strong turnout from NSU and TCC, and welcome participation from all local student chapters. IEEE Hampton Roads continues our fall technical presentation series this month with Adeeb Hamzey of Virginia Power’s Richmond office. Adeeb is a past chair of IEEE-Richmond, and has over 28 years experience in electric utilities. He has observed first-hand many changes in his field, from a fully-government-regulated utility through stages of deregulation to today’s re-regulated existence. It should be interesting to hear the trends and opportunities from the point of view of a company facing unprecedented challenges in the areas of renewable energy, potential taxes on carbon from power generation and the impending shift in electric consumption habits as plug-in hybrid cars move from aftermarket kits to dealer models in 2009. Our alternating-location meeting policy takes us to the peninsula this month. We will meet at Barclay’s Bistro, a new location due to the demise of the Steak-and-Ale which we enjoyed very much. We anticipate a sizeable turnout for this exciting meeting, and have arranged a slightly larger meeting space but it is still important to RSVP prior to the meeting. Note that we return to our regular “3rd Thursday” meeting date after last month’s change.We will be trying out an interesting change the following month, when a local business will host our meeting in their conference center. Dinner will consist of pizza, allowing us to drastically lower the price to $5 – and free for IEEE student members! The plan is for this to be a one-off arrangement, as our January student paper competition is normally a more formal dinner at a local university, if you feel the low price justifies the shift from a sit-down dinner to pizza we may try this again or make it a regular occurrence. Your feedback is welcome on this, so please email any officer with your thoughts.
Upcoming meetings:
- IEEE-HR monthly technical meeting Oct 16th Adeeb Hamzey (Virginia Power) “Power Engineering”
- IEEE-HR monthly technical meeting Nov 20th
- IEEE-HR Executive Committee meeting December 11th
- IEEE-HR monthly technical meeting January 22nd Annual Student Paper Competition
Regards,
Kurt J. Clemente, PE
2007 Chair
Hampton Roads Section
kurt.clemente@ieee.org
04 September 2008
September Letter from the Chair
Measuring Network Security
I hope you all have had a good, and possibly even restful, summer! IEEE Hampton Roads begins our fall technical presentation series with Dr. Aftab Ahmad of Norfolk State University who will discuss network security and industry standard frameworks developed to quantify levels of security. Please note that we will meet one week later this month on the 4th Thursday of the month to permit several Executive Committee members to travel to Sections Congress; we will return to our 3rd Thursday routine in October. Later this fall we plan to host Adeeb Hamzey of IEEE Richmond and a presentation about Jefferson Labs. We are also preparing some exciting new topics for the spring 2009 series, so if you have any ideas or suggestion please pass them along.
Upcoming meetings:
- IEEE-HR triennial worldwide Section Congress Sep 18th – 22nd
- IEEE-HR monthly technical meeting Sep 25th
- IEEE-HR monthly technical meeting Oct 16th
- IEEE-HR monthly technical meeting Nov 20th
- IEEE-HR Executive Committee meeting December, TBD
The topic of regular and structured technical meetings to meet the anticipated Virginia Engineering licensure requirements appears to be coming to a head, with implementation expected in early 2009. Examination of the draft regulations as well as the experiences of neighboring states shows that our IEEE topics will most likely satisfy the three requirements of presenter qualifications, relevance of technical content and sufficient meeting duration. Because the state places the education documentation burden on the engineer, one major benefit that IEEE provides is the detailed presenter biography and topic abstract published in each month’s newsletter. While simply retaining each month’s newsletter will go a long way towards documenting the educational requirement, IEEE-HR additionally archives both the newsletters and the details of the presenter and topic for each month. We continue to investigate ways in which IEEE members who are licensed engineers can find value in their membership, but as the new regulations are implemented it appears the current web site structure will be very helpful.
I hope you make it out to our Fall 2008 technical programs and find them interesting and valuable. For October and November we do plan to try something a little different in terms of format, hosting the meeting at a local Norfolk employer and serving pizza as opposed to a catered dinner. This will permit charging a much lower meeting fee, something I think we can all appreciate. As always, your feedback is most welcome – do you value the full meal, albeit at a higher price? Does the restaurant present a nice change of pace from the standard conference room? We want to know, and will seek feedback after our initial forays. If you have a suggested speaker or might want to present something yourself, please speak with me or any IEEE officer about this. I look forward to seeing you September!
Regards,
Kurt Clemente, PE
2008 Chair
Hampton Roads Section
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