The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.

IEEE Baltimore Section

IEEE ExCom Section Meeting

Oct 18, 2004

Attendees

X Jeff Friedhoffer – Chair

X Brian Sequeira – Vice Chair

X Boris Gramatikov – Secretary

X Roberto Cuellar – Treasurer

X John Dentler – Continuing Education

Christopher Nemarich – Program Director

X Neville Jacobs – Student Activities

X Jay Gamerman - Robots

Tom Patton – Awards

Carole Carey – Professional Activities 1 / ESB Rep

Hoosamuddin Bandukwalla – Professional Activities 2

Joseph Pollitt – Audits & Bylaws

Vil Arafiles – R2 Treasurer; Membership Development – Baltimore Section

X Ron Aloysius – Newsletter Editor

Thad Welch – Communication Society

X Dave Boyd – Annapolis subsection

Eric Henlon – PES Chair

David Sherman – EMB

Mark Welsko – Chair, IAS

Leonard Bathgate IAS Treasurer & Publications

Walt Willing – Chair, Reliability

Garth McKenzie – Chair Computer Society

X Robert Berkovits – Chair, EMC

Doug Kremer – APS/MTT

Wole Akpose – GOLD

X Domenic Georgantas – Chair, GOLD

Tina Kohler – WIE

Debi Siering – WIE, Greater Washington DC

Tom Clark – Chair, LEOS

Bill Dixon – Acting Chair, AES

X Jerry Gibbon - R2 Chair, South Area

Amarjeet Basra - Chair, Northern Virginia Section

X Bill Semancik - IEEE member

The Section Chair, Jeff Friedhoffer, chaired the meeting and called it to order at 6:30 pm.

Executive Reports

Section Chair (Jeffrey Friedhoffer):

Requested statements (couple of sentences each) from the people running for major Section officers
There is an invitation on behalf of the Washington Academy of Sciences (WAS) for two Section members to attend a Reception to be held on Nov 10, 2004 in the Grand Foyer of the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS). There will also be a presentation by Dr. Paul Werbos on “Computational Intelligence, Sustainable Energy, and other Mega-Challenges for the 21-st Century”.
An email has been received from Bernie Vondersmith, Chairman of the Associate Society Council of the Engineers’ Club at the Garret-Jacobs Mansion. The email contained the Minutes from the Council’s meeting on Oct 13, 2004. The Club is promoting “Memberfest” this week, with young professionals’ happy hour, and a reduced initiation fee of $100. Associate Societies are invited to have a logo, or change their logo if they wish, on the wall next to the Bar in the Club. Mr. Vondersmith points out the many opportunities available in coalescence of Engineering Challenges, Engineer’s Week, IASTE, MHSEP, Young Professionals, and the ACEC/MD Young Leaders.

Section Vice-Chair (Brian Sequeira):

· Will organize a separate meeting with Boris (Secretary), Bob (Treasurer), and John Dentler (Continuing Education) on chapters’ budget for 2005. Will send emails to chapter Treasurers and Chairs asking them to file their budget requests.

· Bylaws are in good shape. Will take a closer look once again.

Secretary (Boris Gramatikov)

None

Treasurer (Bob Cuellar)

· As of Oct 18, 2004, the balance with SunTrust was $3,339.34 and with Concentration Banking: $47,167.28

· Needs to start preparation for the end-of-year summary report

Old Business

1) Jeff Friedhoffer: WIE Baltimore Chapter issues

The WIE Group chair and three section chairs met with the executive committee of the WIE Group on Wednesday 6 October to discuss the proposal. The meeting did not produce a consensus and in the end the three section chairs agreed to the proposal for Baltimore's withdrawal from the joint chapter and forming its own chapter. The WIE Group chair, with concurrence of their executive committee, did not support this proposal.

Therefore, in a letter to the Region 2 Director, the Baltimore Section, with the concurrence of the DC and NoVA Section chairs, has requested the approval of the application for a Baltimore WIE Affinity Group and the withdrawal of Baltimore from the existing WIE DC/NoVA/Baltimore Affinity Group.

2) Glen Burnie Botball Team

Jeff Friedhoffer presented a letter from Mr. Michael Willis, the physics teacher and Botball advisor at Glen Burnie High School, and a letter from his students describing Botball (www.botball.org). The team has been working hard and has developed several LEGO-based key models, among which some for robot navigation and target acquisition. The team has won several awards at regional and national level, and has received a grant from the Botball people to expand the program to include a second, all-girls, team. The girls made it to the finals bracket in the DC regionals, as did the previously existing team. Mr. Willis is asking the Baltimore IEEE Section to support the Glen Burnie Botball program. A budget is included, as are several exciting pictures of the team’s advanced projects. The section had given this team $200 to help with their expenses.

Jeff has put a link to Glen Burnie’s Botball project onto the Section’s web page.

Reports from IEEE Executives

Jerry Gibbon - R2 Chair, South Area

Nov 1^st is the deadline for the IEEE Annual Election and for the IEEE-USA Election. Voting online is possible. Candidates’ biographies and statements are on the web.
There is an R2 meeting on Dec.4, 2004 (Teleconference meeting). Jerry will be sending a report.
Section Officers for the next year should be elected by November.
WIE is splitting. The R2 Director endorses this. The DC/NoVa/Baltimore was the first WIE Affinity Group in the IEEE.
There are two tentative dates for officers training by the DC/NoVa Sections: Feb 5 and March 5, 2005.

Report Highlights from Directors and Chapter Chairs

Newsletter (Ron Aloysius)

· The last issue was a success, a lot of input has been received

· The practice of sending out notices has proven itself to be very efficient

· Ron is working on the next issue, and is inviting contributions.

Student Activities (Neville Jacobs):

2005 ROBOT CHALLENGE SCHOOLS

Summary of situation as of 10-17-04:

As a result of some early registrations and the TECH-EXPO that was held at the Baltimore Museum of Industry on October 15, 2004, we have

· Established contacts with 17 schools

· Have commitments from 11 schools

· Have delivered 27 2-leg kits for team numbers from 11 to 38; also 4 2-leg automation kits.

· Have delivered 12 4-leg sets for team numbers from 101 to 112; also 3 4-leg automation kits.

· Total number of teams: 40, number of schools: 11, number of manual kits: 51, and 7 automation kits.

· The Washington Section has contracted a web master

At this time last year (2003) we had 12 teams from 7 schools, and had sent out 14 manual kits and 5 automation kits.

With the AIMS conference coming up on November 1, we have about 75 manual kits, and about 15 automation kits remaining.

Neville presented a detailed list of schools that have signed up for 2004-2005 (as of 10-17-04) - teams that have either confirmed their intention to compete, or think there is a high probability that they will.

Our robots will become part of an exhibit at NASA Goddard

A preliminary submittal to PACE has been prepared to keep them posted on Robot developments and determine whether they wish to support the Section financially in these activities

Subsection and Chapter Chair Reports

Annapolis subsection (Dave Boyd)

Meetings held:

· Aug 26 Admin Meeting ‑ Capt Joseph McGowen is now the new USNA IEEE student chapter replacing Cmdr. Welch.

· Sept 18th ‑ "D cubed" (Disassembly, Deconstruction, and Destruction) Night‑ Disassembly of common appliances: Microwave oven, O‑Scope, Stereo Receiver, Computer hard drive to identify, view and understand the various components of modern appliances.

· Oct 11‑ "Practical Electronic Troubleshooting" by Mr Jerry Ballman of the USNA electrical engineering staff. Jerry presented trouble shooting approaches for a wide array of electronic equipment including VCRs, stereo receivers, and home appliances. Approaches included what to look for (and in some cases smell for) and common failures and using deductive logic approaches.

Affinity Groups

GOLD (Domenic Georgantas)

Planning a tour to the Historic Electronics Museum (HEM)
Planning a tour to the Spy Museum
Needs a list of the GOLD members in the area to be used for emailing.

Regarding the member list needed, Jeff suggested that the SAMIEEE data base for bass emailing be used. For this purpose, Domenic needs to be registered as the official Chair of the GOLD Affinity Group. To do this, Boris’s help in the capacity of a Secretary would be needed. Boris agreed to report Domenic to the IEEE as the official Chairman of GOLD.

NEW Business

Stephen Bren Re Education Society Chapter, nothing to report.

The meeting adjourned at 8:10 pm.

The next meeting will be on Oct 18, 2004, 6-8 pm at HEM

Action Items

Number	Action/Disposition
10.10
10.14	Arrange for web training on demand (Jeffrey Friedhoffer)
03.2	Organize a general Section meeting which would be of technical character and would be open to a broader membership i. e. “Nanotechnology” or “Big Blackout”. (Bob Berkovits)

Minutes were prepared by Boris Gramatikov, Secretary.