IEEE Baltimore Section

https://www.ewh.ieee.org/r2/baltimore/

Attendees
X Jeff Friedhoffer - Chair
X Hoosam Bandukwalla - Vice Chair
X Brian Sequeira - Secretary
X Boris Gramatikov - Treasurer
X Vil Arafiles
     - Chair AES
X Robert Berkovits - Chair EMC
    Dave Boyd - Annapolis subsection
    Carole Carey - ESB and Publications
    Joe Carl - Newsletter Chair
X John Dentler - Area Chair Maryland
X Bill Dixon - PACE
   David Sherman - EMB
X Neville Jacobs - Student Activities
    Tina Kohler - WIE
X Garth McKenzie - Chair Computer Society
X Tom Patton - Awards
X Jim Ryan - PES Chair

X Joe Pollitt - Audit and By-Laws
    Leonard Bathgate IAS Treasurer & Publications
    Mel Hotz - Chairman of the Maryland State of Licensed Professional Engineers
    Walt Willing - Chair Reliability

The meeting was chaired by Jeff Friedhoffer.

Executive reports:
Chair
Jeff exhorted attendees to post meetings on the section web-site, and furnished them with the the user name and password for this purpose. Jeff also asked that the corrections to the by-laws be provided to Brian.

Vice Chair's (Hoosam Bandukwalla) report:
None.

Secretary's (Brian Sequeira) report: Presented minutes of the meeting of January 09. A motion to approve by Joe Pollitt was seconded by Jeff Friedhoffer and carried unanimously.

Clarifications: None.


Director's and Chapter Chair reports

Student Activities (Neville Jacobs): Need to start lining up judges for the Robot Challenge, which will be held on Saturday April 29, and Sunday April 30.

We have now received all but 4 of the kits we ordered from Kelvin, so we are in good shape at the moment with about 25 kits on hand. We must pay Kelvin's invoice for 22 kits in the amount of $786.24. As a result of the new plastic parts from China, this invoice reflects a new price of $33.40 per kit vs the previous price of $41.90. A third set of samples is in transit. We have 40 kits on order from Kelvin for delivery in early summer.

We have 2 2-leg automation kits and 1 4-leg automation kit on hand.

We received a check for $58.55 from New Mexico Almogordo section.

Neville's expenses this month: $15.59 to be reimbursed by section.

The volume of kits has created a problem of storage for Neville. The plan is to transfer completed kits and manuals to John Dentler's custody, but the unfinished kits need storage space. Neville investigated an option with E-Z storage that would rent a 5-foot-by-5-foot space for about $58 per month. The facility is near Neville's home. Neville proposed that IEEE partially fund the monthly rental to the tune of $25 per month. This expense was not previously allocated in the budget, and therefore Joe Pollitt proposed a motion to add $300 to the student activities budget toward storage rental. Bill Dixon seconded the motion. During discussion of this motion Bob Berkovits asked about the liability of storage facility and whether the facility was insured. This was not known. The motion passed.

Nominating (Vil Arafiles): Section has 6 new senior members.

Publications: Joe Carl resigned for personal reasons.

EMB: EMB/EMC has joint meeting on February 20 that was attended by 15 members. L31 meeting form filed with section.

PES: 15 students lined up for Engineer's week dinner on February 19. Meeting was canceled because of snowstorm.

IAS: No report. IAS has meeting on the 15th.

EMC: EMB/EMC has joint meeting on February 20 that was attended by 15 members. L31 meeting form filed with section.

Computer Society: Up coming meeting on "The history of microprocessors." Suggestion to hold meeting jointly with COMSOC.

Annapolis: - Held Kit night on Feb 6. About 80% success getting kits to operate. Some midshipmen modified kits to annoy their room mates - special emphasis on siren kits.




Next meeting Topic: Adaptive Signal Processing
Date: Thursday February 13, 2003
Time: 6:30PM Networking/get acquainted mixer; Refreshments/donation
7:00PM Adaptive Signal Processing

Attendees please email your intention to attend to both: ncastiglia@ieee.org and to T.B.Welch@ieee.org so we can get a rough headcount and cover any potential security and transportation concerns.

By: Professor Delores M. Etter, Electrical Engineering Department, USNA

Adaptive signal processing is an area of research that focuses on systems that can adapt to their environment. These systems use real-time information to modify a structure such as a digital filter so that the system performs better in a time-varying environment. Examples of military systems with adaptive signal processing will be discussed, and include the Seawolf class attack submarine, the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS), Global Hawk, the Milstar satellite constellation, and the tactical high-energy laser (THEL).

COMSOC: No report.

EDS: No report.

ESB and Publications (Carole Carey)

Awards (Tom Patton): Chapter chairman's dinner on May 14 at Snyder's at Willow Grove. Speaker is entertaining and will speak on the history of the US Patent Office, which is celebrating its 200the anniversary. Speaker lives in Akron, OH. Tom asked if section would reimburse speaker's travel & lodging expenses to the tune to $400. Joe Pollitt moved that the sum up to $400 be approved. John Dentler seconded the motion. During discussion Neville Jacobs asked if topic would sustain interest of the spouses. Tom responded that the talk would be entertaining. The motion was carried unanimously. John Dentler volunteered to pick speaker up from hotel around BWI and bring him to Snyder's and return him to hotel.

PACE (Bill Dixon)
Upcoming meeting with congressional representatives.

AES (Bill Dixon)

Trying to get AES chapter resurrected. See action below.

Action Items:

From April 2002
(b) Keep it open. Boris to look into invoicing UM for $500 Ad. Pending.
(c) Closed.
(d) Closed.

From October 2002
(b) Mel Hotz agreed at meeting to send write-up to Joe Carl. However, Joe Carl has resigned for personal reasons.

From November 2002
Action item 11.1 Closed.
11.2 Closed.
Action item 01.1: Hoosam to talk to Jeff to determine if there are any stragglers.

From February 2003
Action item 02.1 Discuss the issue of paper notification to members.
Action item 02.2 Bill Dixon to call Ron Osborn to determine if anything his society is doing fits with AES.
Action item 02.3 Post Robot Challenge dates and times on the section website.


New Business

Tax-exempt ID number has expired. Need to re-apply for tax-exempt status.

Joe Carl resigned for personal reasons. Need a newsletter editor. Jeff asked if we must issue paper copies of the newsletter given the availability of electronic delivery. John Dentler responded that the section made a commitment to the membership to provide paper copies of announcements of section activities.

Meeting adjourned at 7:28 pm.