Past Events:

3 October 2006 - Joint Dinner Meeting with the Student Section of the University of Massachusetts

Topic: Like No Other Race

Speaker: Grayson Randall of IBM - Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Computer Society

It was a grueling 132 mile race across the Mojavi desert. This is a race in which vehicles do not have human drivers. The on-board robots were expected to guide the vehicles through unknown terrain across bridges, around boulders and through mountain passes to win the DARPA GRAND CHALLENGE PRIZE of $2 MILLION. Grayson Randall and his team of students and alumni from North Carolina State University participated with their “Desert Rat” on October 2005. What does it take to enter this race? Come to hear Grayson Randall talk about it.

12 September 2006 - Joint Dinner Meeting with the Engineering Society of Western Massachusetts and the Western Massachusetts Section of ASME

Topic: Lasers in Manufacturing

Speaker: Andrew Webb – Vice President of Oxford Lasers Inc of Shirley, Massachusetts

Mr. Andrew Webb has many years of experience in installation of laser systems for micromachining both in Europe and the United States of America. Laser machining is precision micron scale manufacturing for applications such as fuel injector nozzles, microelectronics, medical devices and any application requiring miniature features impossible to produce with conventional machining.

30 May 2006 - Joint Picnic with the Engineering Society of Western Massachusetts

Topic:

A guided tour of the park with Stanley Park Historian Charlie Spencer and Prof. Paul Godfrey. They will talk about plants, plans and projects for the park.

11 April 2006 - Joint Tour and Dinner Meeting with the Engineering Society of Western Massachusetts and the Western Massachusetts Section of ASME

Topic: Managing Data in an Engineering Environment

Speaker: Prof. M. Khosrowjerdi

Prof. M. Khosrowjerdi has over two decades of experience in designing and installing process monitoring and control systems for local and national industrial establishments.

14 March 2006 - Joint Tour and Dinner Meeting with the Engineering Society of Western Massachusetts

Topic: ITT Power Solutions

ITT Power Solutions (formerly K & M Electronics) is a leading supplier of high and low voltage power supplies for military and commercial markets, miniaturized image intensification and mass spectrometry high voltage power supplies, electron multipliers and high reliability electronic components for military and commercial applications.

23 February 2006 - Joint Dinner Meeting with the student subsection at the University of Massachusetts and the Engineering Society of Western Massachusetts

Topic: Hydrogen Filling Station

Speaker: Dr. Venki Raman, President of Protium Energy Technologies, Emmaus, PA

Dr. Raman has spent the last one of three decades researching methods of production, storage and distribution of hydrogen during which he has helped turn hydrogen from an interesting puzzle to a pollution free alterantive source of energy and a possible replacement for gasoline, oil or other fossil fuels for power generation and transportation.

His presentation will review the current status of hydrogen production, delivery and storage technologies; provide current approaches to development of hydrogen energy supply systems; discuss new developments in the field of hydrogen production and storage and provide some views on how a hydrogen future may roll out.

10 January 2006 - Joint Dinner Meeting with the ESWM

Topic: Farmers Take Flight

Speaker: Tom Nallen

Tom Nallen, now retired, worked as Supervisor of Telecommunications Test Department of North East Utilities. He has worked as a volunteer for the Springfield Science Museum, specializing in aviation history. He gathered and preserved information and artifacts related to local aviation history and helped create a permanent exhibit at the Museum.

His talk will trace the history of Granville Brothers (Zantford, Thomas, Robert, Mark and Edward) who designed and built THE GEE BEE RACING PLANES. In 1932, Gen. James Doolittle won Thompson Trophy Race flying Gee Bee-R1 Super Sportster flying it at a speed of 252.7 miles/hour that made the city of Springfield, the speed capital of world aviation.

17 November 2005 - IEEE Dinner Meeting

Topic: Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) is Here: Really?

Tour Host: Mr. James Downing, Associate Professor, Telecom Technologies, Springfield Technical Community College

For years we have been told that optical fiber will bring a multitude of services to our home at lightning speed, but the prospect always seemed elusive, just around the corner, or maybe available by next year. Last Spring, Verizon and other service providers were given an incentive from the FCC that just might bring about true FTTH services to many in short order. The FCC agreed to allow telecom service providers to sell video and data services to customers along with traditional voice, as long as they install the connection to the home using optical fiber. By leveling the playing field with cable providers (who now provide video, data AND voice) the ruling allows traditional telecom providers to sell all three of those "Triple-Play" services, provided they are cabled in fiber. The solutions that Verizon and the other service providers have come up with and the technologies involved make for an interesting story of progress against the uncertainty of just how converged local, metro and wide area networks will unfold in the future.

12 October 2005 - IEEE Dinner Meeting

Topic: Programmable Logic: A Perspective of Silicon and Design Environments

Speaker: Stephen M. Allen, Field Application Engineer, Avnet Electronics Marketing

Steve Allen has thirteen years of experience as an FAE supporting various programmable logic vendors. Currently Steve is supporting engineers and designers working in Connecticut and Massachusetts by finding solutions for their products using Xilinx devices and development tools. His talk will cover the developments from Programmable Array Logic (PAL) and Generic Array Logic (GAL) to the current state of the art Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD), Field Programmable Gate Arrays(FPGA) and Systems on a Chip (SOC).

13 September 2005 - Joint Dinner Meeting and Tour with the Engineering Society of Western Massachusetts

Topic: Plant Tour of Thales Broadcast and Multimedia

Tour Host: Mr. Henry Fries, Vice President Engineering

Thales Broadcast and Multimedia is one of the world’s premiere manufacturers of UHF TV transmitters. With tens of thousands of transmitters installed in over 170 countries worldwide, Thales is the digital TV broadcast solutions market leader throughout most of the world. Thales is the provider of choice for digital television rollouts in DVB and ATSC standards and is well positioned to be a global leader in emerging digital markets. Thales provides solutions to launch interactive and value-added services. These solutions include MPEG-2 digital video processing products and multimedia distribution systems that enable operators to efficiently maximize the bandwidth utilization and create new customized services. Thales has enjoyed a reputation for technical superiority and for offering reliable, innovative IP multicasting and unicasting solutions over DVB and ATSC environments. The Southwick facility is a main manufacturing center and the supplier for a vast majority of UHF Television transmitters in our area.

24 May 2005 - IEEE Dinner Meeting

Topic: Wind Power: Its Potential and Current State

Speaker: Dr. Jon G. McGowan, Professor of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Prof. McGowan has been at the forefront of investigation and research into renewable and hybrid energy systems. He has published 90 technical papers and numerous reports in renewable energy systems. He is currently serving as a solar/wind system consultant to the U.S. Department of Commerce, office of Energy Related Inventions.

26 April 2005 - IEEE Dinner Meeting

Topic: Health Effects of Mobile Phones

Speaker: Dr. Kenneth R. Foster, Professor of Bioengineering and Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

Dr. Kenneth R. Foster's research interests relate to biomedical applications of nonionizing radiation from audio through microwave frequency ranges, and health and safety aspects of electromagnetic fields as they interact with the body. Another and somewhat broader topic of interest is technological risk, and impact of technology (principally, electrotechnologies) on humans. He has coauthored two books related to his research interests, both published by MIT Press. He is an IEEE Biomedical Engineering Society Distinguished Lecturer on the subject of Health Effects of Electromagnetic Fields.

22 March 2005 - IEEE Dinner Meeting

Topic: Medical Imaging and Surgery - Achieving Harmony

Speaker: Dr. Steven Schreiner, P.E. Associate Professor and Chairman of Biomedical Engineering Department at Western New England College

Dr. Steven Schreiner is an Associate Professor and Chairman of the Biomedical Engineering Department at Western New England College in Springfield, Massachusetts. Dr. Schreiner received his Ph.D. and M.S.B.E at Vanderbilt University, and his B.S.E.E. at Western New England College. He held a postdoctoral research position in Neurosurgery at Vanderbilt University and a two-year National Institutes of Health (NIH) postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University in Interventional Radiology. He has held engineering positions in industry including heading up a research and development team at Integrated Surgical Systems, Inc. of Sacramento, California that developed robotic devices for orthopedic surgery and neurosurgery. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Tennessee and his interests include engineering education, advanced surgical navigation devices, medical instrumentation, and medical imaging. He is a member of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS).

22 February 2005 - IEEE Dinner Meeting

Topic: Hybrid Vehicles - Today and Tomorrow

Speaker: Dr. Arun Jaura, VE Manager - Escape/Mariner Hybrid, Ford Motor Company, Michigan

Dr. Arun Jaura is the Vehicle Engineering Manager and Technical Leader for Escape Hybrid at Ford in Dearborn. He has been at Ford for 9 years on Hybrid vehicle development. Before joining Ford in 1996, he worked in India for 10 years on weapon system electro-hydraulics & mechanical systems.

In addition to the several professional awards he has received, he is the recipient of two gold medals for academic excellence in his B.E program. His Ph. D thesis was nominated for the Governor General of Canada Gold Medal. He has 26 publications in international and national journals & conferences, recipient of two patents and several others in the pipeline.

He is a technical consultant to USAID/KEVA alliance on advanced propulsion and sustainable mobility. He is Chairman of the International Committee of Electric Drive Transportation Association based in Washington DC. He has been a judge and an active member in the Future Truck competitions held by the Department of Energy in the US.

Arun is a car rally enthusiast and has participated as a driver and a navigator for 3 consecutive years in the Himalyan car rally in the late 1980s.

18 January 2005 - Joint Dinner Meeting and Tour with the Engineering Society of Western Massachusetts

Topic: WWLP’s Migration from Analog NTSC to Digital ATSC Television

Speaker: Bob McCormick

9 November 2004 - Joint Dinner Meeting with the Power Engineering Society Chapter of the Connecticut Section

Topic: Power System Reliability Improvement: Planning and Operation

Speakers: We have two speakers for you this evening:

Michael Henderson, Director of Planning at ISO New England will talk about Regional Transmission Expansion Planning to assure long term power system reliability improvement.

Mike received two ME degrees: Electrical Power Engineering in 1977 and Electrical Engineering in 1976. Both were from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Earlier in 1975, he earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from Polytechnic Institute of New York where he served as an Adjunct Lecturer from 1993 through 1999.

Since July 1999, Mike has been the Director, System Planning Department at the ISO-New England. Prior to this, he worked for more than 22 years with the New York Power Authority, Long Island Lighting Company, and American Electric Power. Mike has presented technical seminars as well as participated in over two dozen panel discussions and presentations of technical papers at IEEE and other forums. He is a PE and SMIEEE and is a native son of Brooklyn.

Dr. Z. B. Kremens, Dean of Technology Program at Central Connecticut State University will talk about load-frequency control coordination in an interconnected system for improving reliability from the operational point of view.

Dr. Kremens received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Wroclaw University of Technology, Wroclaw, Poland in 1976 and 1979 respectively. He received his D.Sc. degree in Technical Sciences in 1990. In the beginning, he concentrated his research on real-time power system control and modeling, power system state estimation, network observability and measurement data validation. Most of his work has been in research and development of computer applications for the Polish Power Grid Company. His recent interests include frequency control, impact of deregulation on control practices, analysis of interconnected power system and applications of artificial intelligence. He has published over sixty paper, numerous research reports and two books on power system analysis. Presently, Dr. Kremens is Dean of the School of Technology at Central Connecticut State University, USA. He is a member of a number of professional associations including IEEE, CIGRE, IASTED.

20 October 2004 - IEEE Dinner Meeting

Topic: Engineering Education: Foundation of a Nation

Speaker: Col. Barry L. Shoop

Col. Barry Shoop of the Signal Corps is a Professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University after an M.S. from the U.S. Naval Post Graduate School and B.Sc. from Penn. State. His research interests include optical information processing, neural networks and smart pixel technology. He is also Director of the Photonics Research Center at the Academy.

His talk will center on his belief that Engineering Education is the Foundation of a Nation. He bases it on the role that West Point has played in the building of America. As recently as the past summer, he traveled to Afghanistan where he has been working on developing the National Military Academy for that country. He hopes to see that academy play a similar role in the development of Afghanistan.

21 September 2004 - IEEE Dinner Meeting and Plant Tour

Topic: Strategy for Competitiveness

Speaker: Pedro J. Caceres , Senior Vice-President of Operations at Hasbro Games

Hasbro Games's approach to competitive manufacturing has transformed its factory in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts into a competitive weapon for the company. A value driven model that is based on the implementation of best-in-class strategies and business tools has proven to be a very effective way to increase the competitiveness of a large manufacturing unit. The presentation will describe the strategy, its implementation and the results achieved.

10 June 2004 - IEEE Dinner Meeting

Topic: Entrepreneurship

Speaker: Christopher Strangio, President CAMI Research Inc of Lexington, MA

Christopher Strangio founded CAMI Research Inc soon after his graduation from Villanova in 1973 while he was doing graduate work for his MSEE from MIT. He has always worked for himself. You will love to listen to his life experiences. He may even inspire the entrepreneur in you!

18 May 2004 - Joint Dinner Meeting with ASME and ESWM

Topic: The Quabbin Reservoir - History and Development

Speaker: J. R. Greene of Athol, MA

Mr. Greene is an author of eleven books relating to the history of the area and the Quabbin Reservoir project. His slide show will be both entertaining and informative.

9 March 2004 - Joint Dinner Meeting with the Engineering Societies of Western Mass. and the Power Engineering Society of Connecticut

Topic: Shedding Light on the August ’03 Blackout

Panelists:

David Bertagnolli of ISO New England
Robert Coates of Western Massachusetts Electric Co.
Andrew Kasznay of Northeast Utilities Service Co.
William Wessman of Connecticut Light & Power

National Engineer's Week

24 February 2004 - IEEE Speaker Dinner

Topic: Fuel Cell Driven Automobiles

Speaker: Alfred Meyer, Fuel Cell Business Consultant

Mr. Alfred Meyer has over forty years of experience in development of fuel cell technology and systems. His design of low temperature cells, were used in Apollo space vehicle and variation of those are now in use in Space Shuttle Orbiter. Just before his retirement from International Fuel Cell Division of UTC he spearheaded efforts to apply this technology to automobiles in collaboration with Ford, Daimler, Volkswagen, BMW, MAN, GM and other vehicle manufacturers.

Click here to see pictures of the event.

13 November 2003 - IEEE Speaker Dinner

Topic: Designing Servo-mechanisms for Computer Hard Disks – Challenges

Speaker: Dr. Paul Moon

Dr. Paul Moon is currently an Adjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering at Western New England College in Springfield. His doctorate and research interests are in the area of Digital Signal Processing. Dr. Moon has, for nearly a decade, designed servo-mechanisms for computer hard disks at Maxtor.

16 October 2003 - IEEE Speaker Dinner & Tour

Topic: A Window on the Smith College Engineering Program

A number of faculty and student presenters are planning to provide an in-depth view of the Pickering Engineering Program started in 1999-the first such program at a women’s college.

ALSO

Topic: Introduction to Engineering Societies

Speaker: Stanley Bandoski of ESWM – Engineering Societies of Western Mass.

9 September 2003 - IEEE Speaker Dinner & Plant Tour

Topic: Teamwork in ToyLand

Speaker: James Ryan, Principal Electronic Engineer, R&D

24 June 2003 - IEEE Speaker Dinner

Topic: InterNet Security

Speaker: George Dialectakis Of Northeast Utilities IT Security Department

Geroge Dialectakis earned his M.S. in Computer Engineering from Western New England College, Springfield, MA. Earlier he had completed his undergraduate work at Western New England College. He has more than 10 years of experience working in the area of computer networking and building network applications. More recently he has worked in the area of IT security. In his talk he will present his efforts to control and monitor e-mail and SPAM, profanity control and virus control and share the results achieved.

28 May 2003 - IEEE Speaker Dinner

Topic: Electricity Market Monitoring and Mitigation at ISO New England

Speaker: Robert Ethier, PhD. - Director Market Monitoring ISO New
England Inc.

Dr. Ethier is Director, Market Monitoring at ISO New England. He joined the ISO in May of 2000 as a Statistical Economist and was subsequently promoted to Manager, Market Monitoring & Mitigation. Prior to joining the ISO, he was a Senior Associate at Stratus Consulting. He has a PhD in Economics from Cornell University.

Dr. Either heads up the Market Monitoring department and is responsible for analyzing market performance, evaluating potential changes to the market design, and day-to-day monitoring of the markets including ensuring compliance with established rules and procedures.

8 April 2003 - IEEE Speaker Dinner

Topic: Wireless Communications

Speaker: Professor Gary Mullet of Springfield Technical Community College and National Center for Telecommunications Technologies

18 March 2003 - Joint meeting with the Engineering Society of Western Massachusetts (ESWM)

Topic: A representative from the Basketball Hall of Fame will be our interesting and informative speaker. We will have an opportunity to hear about the history and development of the Basketball Hall of Fame, as well as the story about the design of the building and special technical features of the building. This Basketball Hall of Fame has striking architectural aspects and has become a conversation piece in the sports world. This is a wonderful opportunity to "get behind the scenes" of this jewel in our area.

20 February 2003 - National Engineer's Week - Joint meeting with the student section of WNEC

Topic: Fuzzy Supervised Optimal Regulator for Spacecraft Formation Flying

Speaker: Dr. K. Rahnamai, Professor of Electrical Engineering at WNEC

Dr. Kourosh Rahnamai earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Wichita State University, Oklahoma and has been teaching at Western New England College for the past 15 years. His areas of interest include Control Engineering and Digital Signal Processing. He often spends his summers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. His presentation at this meeting is based on some exciting work he did at JPL during the Summer of 2002.