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Calendar Archive, October 2008
Saturday, October 4, 2008
IEEE Expert Now Course: Skills for Success in the Real World (Modules 2 & 3)
Sponsors: National Capital Area Consultants' Network, Graduates of the Last Decade, Women in Engineering, Life Members
Time: 11:00 am to 3:00 pm
Updated! Place: Integrity Applications, Inc., 5160 Parkstone Dr., Suite 210, Chantilly, VA
More Info: Stuff You Don't Learn in Engineering School: Skills for Success in the Real World is an IEEE Expert Now Course. This session includes Module 2, Communicating Effectively, and Module 3, Management Skills. (Module 1 was offered on Aug. 2.) This is an excellent opportunity to take the interactive course without having to purchase it. Student members are especially encouraged to attend. Refreshments will be provided.
For more information about Expert Now courses, see
www.ieee.org/web/education/Expert_Now_IEEE.
Cost: Free for IEEE members. IEEE offers CEU credit at no cost to attendees who fill out a course feedback form.
Updated! Contact: A few seats are still available after the Sept. 30 registration deadline. Contact Wally Lee at w.h.lee@ieee.org. Please put "Professional Development" in the subject line and include your name, address, phone number and IEEE member number. Registrants will receive confirmation and directions by email.
Sponsors: Robotics and Automation Society; University of Maryland Electrical and Computer Engineering Department; Robotics Research, LLC
Time: 11:00 am - 3:30 pm
Place: Parking Lot XX, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Directions: The parking lot is next to the Computer Science Instructional Center, Building 406 on the map at
www.parking.umd.edu/themap.
From the north or I-495, take Route 1 South. Approx. 2 miles south of the Beltway, turn right onto Campus Drive, then immediately turn right onto Paint Branch Drive and the CSIC Building and Parking Lot XX will be on the right. From the south on Route 1, turn left onto Campus Drive, and follow above directions.
From the College Park Metro Station (Green line), take the C8 Metrobus to campus. See schedule at
www.wmata.com/timetables/md/c8.pdf.
More Info: IEEE members and the public are invited to meet the hard-working teams at a poster presentation and watch their vehicles compete in the speedway race. Seven teams have designed vehicles that will self-navigate a double-sided, elliptical array of orange traffic cones. The first prize, $600, will be presented to the team that successfully navigates the course in the least amount of time over a duration of one mile and displaces the least number of cones from the course. Second and third prizes will also be awarded. In case of rain, the competition will be rescheduled. See www.robotronics.org and
www.ece.umd.edu/events/index.php?mode=4&id=3225.
Contact: Rad Madhavan at
raj.madhavan@ieee.org or Ted Knight at
teknight@umd.edu or 301-405-3596.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Towards High-Performance and Reconfigurable Optical Communication Networks
Sponsor: Communications Society, Baltimore Chapter
Cosponsors: Communications Society, Washington Chapter; Lasers and Electro-Optics Society, Baltimore Chapter
Speaker: Dr. Alan Willner, University of Southern California
Time: Networking and refreshments at 5:30 pm, presentation at 6:00 pm
Place: Historical Electronics Museum, 1745 W. Nursery Rd., Linthicum, MD
Directions: From the Washington Beltway, take Rte 295 (Baltimore-Washington Pkwy.) north to the West Nursery Road exit and stay right on the ramp. Go through three stoplights. The museum is on the left, next to the Marriott Hotel.
See
www.hem-usa.org/hours-directions-parking.shtml.
More Info: See Diamond story below.
Contact: Please RSVP by Friday, Oct. 3 to Gary Tartanian at
g_tartanian@ieee.org.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Certification of Software Development Professionals
Sponsors: Computer Society, Association for Computing Machinery (Washington DC Chapter)
Speaker: Glenn Johnson
Time: Catered reception at 6:30 pm, presentation at 7:00 pm, optional discussion at 8:00 pm
Place: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Haskins-Abelson Rooms, 1200 New York Avenue NW, Washington, DC
Directions: Use the 12th Street entrance. The AAAS building is one block from Metro Center (Red, Orange and Blue lines).
Street parking is free after 6:30 pm (no parking 4:00-6:30 pm). There is a pay parking lot at the intersection of 9th St. and New York Ave., and an underground parking garage at 14th St. and New York Ave.
See map at www.aaas.org/dcwest.pdf.
GPS Coordinates: 38o 58’ 00.38” N 77o 01’42.38 W
More Info: The presentation will introduce the IEEE Computer Society's Certified Software Development Professional (CSDP) program, its value and process. For more information about CSDP, see Diamond story below and
www2.computer.org/portal/web/certification
Cost: Free. Attendees will receive a voucher for the examination to be validated via attendance and signature of the presenter. The voucher provides e-learning, examination and registration for $550, for a $300 savings.
Contact: Please RSVP by email to
glennjohnson@computer.org or 703-637-4432.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Washington Section Administrative Committee Meeting
Time: 6:45 pm
Place: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 1200 New York Avenue NW, Washington, DC
Directions: Use the 12th Street entrance. The AAAS building is one block from Metro Center (Red, Orange and Blue lines).
Street parking is free after 6:30 pm (no parking 4:00-6:30 pm). There is a pay parking lot at the intersection of 9th St. and New York Ave., and an underground parking garage at 14th St. and New York Ave.
See map at www.aaas.org/dcwest.pdf.
More Info: All interested IEEE members are welcome.
Contact: Tim Weil at trweil@ieee.org or 301-452-3641.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Northern Virginia Section Administrative Committee Meeting
Time: 6:30 pm
Place: Olive Garden Restaurant, 8133 Leesburg Pike (Tysons Corner), Vienna, VA
Directions: From I-495, take Route 7 West (Exit 47A) toward Tysons Corner. Turn left at Gallows Road. Parking garage is behind the restaurant.
More Info: All interested IEEE members are invited to attend.
Contact: Chuck Baldi at cbaldi@ieee.org or 703-675-0678.
Sponsor: IEEE Signal Processing Society, IEEE Circuits and Systems Society
Place: Doubletree Hotel Crystal City-National Airport, Arlington, VA
More Info: The SiPS conference theme for 2008 is Platforms for Embedded Signal Processing: Trends in Reconfigurable and Multiprocessor Architectures. For more information, see www.sips08.org.
Contact: Shuvra Bhattacharyya at ssb@umd.edu or 301-405-3638.
Sponsor: Land Transportation Committee of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society and American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Speaker: Michael E. Smith, P.E., Economist, Surface Transportation Board
Time: Lunch at 11:30 am, presentation at 12:00 noon
Place: American Public Transportation Association, 11th Floor Conference Room, 1666 K Street NW, Washington, DC
Directions: Take the Metro to Farragut North station (Red Line, use K Street exit) or Farragut West station (Orange and Blue lines, use 17th Street exit).
More Info: See Diamond story, below. The National Capital Land Transportation Committee (LTC) holds monthly lunch meetings from September though June. The LTC is jointly sponsored by the ASME Rail Transportation Division and the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society of the Washington and Northern Virginia Sections. All interested persons are invited. Membership in ASME or IEEE is not required.
Cost: $15 cash at the door for lunch.
Contact: Please make a reservation for the optional lunch by 4:00 pm Friday, Oct. 10 by contacting Karl Berger at
karl.berger@dcm-va.com or 703-803-7917, or Ken Briers at ken.briers@parsons.com or 202-775-3397.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Breaker Coordination in Mission Critical Environments
Sponsors: Power Engineering Society, Industry Applications Society
Speaker: Anthony Pinkey, Layer Zero Power Systems
Time: 6:00-8:00 pm
Place: Virginia Tech Advanced Research Institute, 4300 Wilson Blvd., Suite 750, Arlington, VA
Directions: From Ballston Metro Station (Orange line), turn right at top of escalator then left on the street. Proceed two blocks toward Macy's, turn right and walk one block to Ballston Point at the intersection of Wilson Blvd. and Glebe Rd. If driving, see
www.ari.vt.edu/ari_directions.htm. There is a parking garage in the building with a $1 charge for 3 hours. After 6 pm, there is limited free street parking.
More Info: See Diamond story, below. A light dinner buffet will be served, followed by the program. All interested persons are invited.
Cost: Free for IEEE members; $10 for non-members.
Contact: Fred A. Pearson III at
fred.pearson@unisys.com or 571-227-3259.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Root Cause Analysis for Customer Reported Problems
Sponsors: IEEE Computer Society; American Society for Quality (ASQ) Section 509 Software SIG; and the Society for Software Quality (SSQ)
Time: 6:30 pm
Speakers: Steve Rakitin, Software Quality Consulting, Inc.
Place: Video teleconference with sites in McLean and Silver Spring. Addresses are provided at the registration link below.
More Info: All interested IEEE members and guests are invited to attend. Pizza and soda will be served.
Cost: Free
Contact: Advance registration is required to enter the facilities. Please register online at
www.asq509.org/ht/d/sp/i/2499/pid/2499.
If your plans change, please email ankums@mitre.org to cancel your reservation.
Sponsor: Life Members
Speaker: Bob Strauss
Time: 12:00 noon
Place: Dolley Madison Library, 1244 Oak Ridge Ave, McLean, VA
Directions: Take Exit 46 from the Beltway and proceed on Route 123 North to McLean, VA, about 2 miles. After crossing Old Dominion Dr., turn left at the next street, Ingleside Ave., and then left on Oak Ridge Ave. The library is on the left.
More Info: Refreshments will be served.
Contact: Amarjeet Basra at 703-324-2821 or amarjeet.basra@ieee.org.
Diamond Stories
Monday, October 6, 2008
Towards High-Performance and Reconfigurable Optical Communication Networks
Optical communications has enjoyed dramatic growth in terms of technical achievement as well as commercial implementation. This presentation will highlight three main topics. Dr. Willner introduces optical communications networks by giving a broad perspective on some of the technical trends in optical communication systems. Next, he discusses technical issues related to stable, robust optical networking, including performance monitoring, channel-degrading effects, efficient modulation formats, and switching. He then provides insight on the flexibility and reconfigurability that base optical technologies has to offer.
Dr. Alan Willner received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and has worked for renowned cutting edge research corporations, such as AT&T Bell Labs, and Bell Core. He has 700 publications, including two books and 25 patents. He is a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Southern California (USC), and a Fellow of IEEE and the Optical Society of America (OSA).
Dr. Willner has received numerous achievement awards including the NSF Presidential Faculty Fellows Award from the White House, Packard Foundation Fellowship, NSF National Young Investigator Award, Fulbright Foundation Senior Scholars Award, IEEE LEOS Distinguished Traveling Lecturer Award, and USC University-Wide Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Back to Calendar listing above.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Certification of Software Development Professionals
The IEEE Computer Society administers the CSDP credential for software engineering professionals. This credential assists the industry in assessing an individual's baseline software development and engineering skills, and requires the candidate to show knowledge and mastery in the industry-recognized software engineering best practices, known as the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK).
The CSDP complies with ISO/IEC standards to provide a portable credential for skill and competence. An article was published in the May 2008 Computer Magazine to stress the importance of professionalizing the software engineering industry, to increase awareness of ISO’s adoption of the IEEE Computer Society’s Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) draft standard, and to highlight the CSDP certification, which is gaining momentum globally. We expect the CSDP credential will enhance the career of a practitioner.
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Over the last quarter-century, railroads have thought that it might be a good idea to deploy Positive Train Control (PTC), a modern technology to replace the control systems that they currently use. After all, the railroads' Centralized Traffic Control is a technology that is now over 80 years old and still allows for such accidents as the one that occurred on September 12, 2008, when a commuter train collided with a freight train in Los Angeles, California. But the focus on these safety issues misses the point. Railroads are already much safer than motor carriers. And safety will never financially justify PTC.
Instead, we need to look at the business benefits of PTC. In order to do that, we need to know what it is. PTC and similar systems all have one thing in common—they communicate precise and immediate information from one place to another on the railroad network so that people working in the field will not be working in the dark—they will not be guessing.
This presentation will focus on the major benefits resulting from this continuous communication of accurate information. Quite simply, dispatchers will know exactly where all the trains are at all times. With this information, they can make superior plans as to how the trains meet and pass. When superior movement plans are made, trains spend less time stopped, that is, moving at zero miles per hour—a speed that would guarantee zero capacity and zero reliability. This reduces travel time, improves reliability, and reduces the amount that needs to be spent on rolling stock and track assets.
The benefits of this improvement are great enough to justify PTC. Many have pointed to the fact that shorter headways would be possible with PTC. However, the speaker's research suggests that it is not necessary to get that complicated in making a decision to deploy.
Michael E. Smith is an economist for the United States Surface Transportation Board (STB) where he performs industry-wide analyses of rates and shipment patterns.
He received a B.S. in civil engineering and an M.S. in civil engineering (specializing in transportation) from Ohio State University. He began work in 1975 with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) as a transportation planner. After assisting FHWA with issues related to urban transportation, he moved to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), where he was instrumental in assisting with the analysis of the benefits and costs of subsidizing small rail branch lines. While working with FHWA and FRA, he pursued and received a M.B.A. from the University of Maryland.
Smith then joined the Association of American Railroads, where he led the development of models to understand the economics of introducing technology improvements in the railroad industry. Burlington Northern then hired him to perform a business case analysis for their Advanced Railroad Electronics System, now more widely recognized in the railroad industry as Positive Train Control.
He is author of more than a dozen published papers in the field of transportation and is pursuing a Ph.D. in economics at George Mason University. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the District of Columbia.
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Thursday, October 16, 2008
Breaker Coordination in Mission Critical Environments
This presentation will cover topics such as: what is “Withstand”?, zero-crossing vs. current limiting breakers, fast acting branch circuit breakers, and coordination studies. The speaker will also discuss Arc Flash (NFPA-70E) requirements and how they relate to some of the new products on the market.
Born, raised and educated in New York City, Anthony Pinkey is Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Layer Zero Power Systems, Inc. He has held various sales and marketing positions with Cyberex, Exide Electronics - Powerware, Federal Pacific (a Division of Reliance Electric) and Westinghouse Electric. His primary focus is now on static transfer switches and NFPA related designs for power distribution.
Pinkey holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering, with a minor in nuclear physics, from Manhattan College. He has been a guest speaker at many IEEE meetings and written numerous articles for trade publications.
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Please send meeting announcements, corrections and comments
to ncac-scanner@ieee.org.
Updated 1/1/09
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