The IEEE National Capital Area
Time: 1:00 pm to about 6:00 pm
Place: Lake Fairfax Park, Reston, VA.
More info: Meat (and veggie burgers) to grill and beverages will be provided. Bring a snack (chips or similar), salad, or dessert to share. Come and hang out for an afternoon with your peers and their families. Among the activities available are volleyball, bocce ball, frisbee, and maybe some softball.
Contact: RSVP to cbaldi@ieee.org or syed.f.ahmed@ieee.org so we will know how much meat and drink to provide.
Sponsors: IEEE 2004 Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference (ITSC), and Washington Area Women in Engineering (WIE) Affinity Group (Washington, Northern Virginia, and Baltimore Sections)
Speakers: Dr. Charles Herget, president of ITSC; Dr. Paul Kostek, general chair of the 2004 ITSC; Ms. Emily Sopensky, IEEE-USA WIE liaison; and other IEEE and ITSC officers will discuss plans for the new society and member opportunities.
Time: 5:00-7:00 pm
Place: ITSC conference, Renoir Room, second floor, Loews L’Enfant Plaza Hotel, 480 L’Enfant Plaza, Washington, DC.
More Info: The reception will honor women engineers and celebrate the formation of the new IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society. ITSC attendees, IEEE members, WIE members, affiliates and friends are welcome. For conference information, see http://www.itsc2004.org.
Directions: Independence Ave. and L’Enfant Plaza. Hotel parking available for a fee, or take Metro to the L’Enfant Plaza station.
Contact: RSVP if possible to Kiki Ikossi at Ikossi@ieee.org or 703-960-0261.
Time: Dinner at 6:00 pm; meeting at 6:30 pm
Place: Allie's American Grill, Bethesda Marriott, 5151 Pooks Hill Rd., Bethesda, MD
Directions: From the north, take 270 South to 355 and exit at Wisconsin
Ave. From the south, take 495 exit 34 (which is Wisconsin Ave.) to Pooks Hill Rd.
More info: All interested IEEE members are welcome to attend.
Contact: Jackie Hunter 703-803-8701 or j.hunter@ieee.org.
Please include the term IEEE in the subject line of your e-mail.
Active Behavior as a 4th Dimension for Identity Authentication
(Identity Gains Greater Importance in Era of Terrorism)
Speaker: Dr. Christopher Hekimian
Sponsor: LMC
Time: 1:00 pm, lunch will be provided.
Place: Marco Polo Restaurant, 245 Maple Ave. West, Vienna, VA
Directions: From Rt 66, take the Nutley St. exit North to Vienna, turn right on Maple Ave. and look for Marco Polo on the left.
Contact: RSVP by Email to DBooth@ieee.org.
More Info: See Diamond Story below.
Sponsor: Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS), Washington and Northern Virginia Chapter
Speaker: TBD
Time: TBD
Place: Visitor's Center of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD
More info: In memory of Dr. Alfred T.C. Chang's contribution to Earth
science, there will be an IEEE-sponsored memorial symposium held on October
12, 2004. The symposium will consist of invited and contributed presentations
dealing with microwave remote sensing. See
http://neptune.gsfc.nasa.gov for further information as it becomes available.
See Diamond Story for more on Dr. Chang.
Directions: See
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/vc/directions.html
Cost: TBD
Contact: Jim Foster, James.L.Foster@nasa.gov
Sponsor: Northern Virginia Section
Time: 6:30 pm
Place: Corner Seven Café, Tysons Corner Marriott, 8205 Leesburg Pike at the corner of Crescent Towers Drive
Directions: From the east or from I-495 take Route 7 West. Turn right on Towers Crescent Drive, then immediately right into the Marriott parking lot (free parking).
More info: The Northern Virginia Section Administrative Committee meets regularly. All interested IEEE members are invited to attend.
Contact: Jackie Hunter 703-803-8701 or j.hunter@ieee.org.
Please include the term IEEE in the subject line of your e-mail.
Place: LOCATION CHANGED
Time: 9:45 am
More info: A delegation of IEEE members have been invited to meet with Congressman Van Hollen. The objectives of this meeting are to:
Sponsor: Power Engineering Society, Northern Virginia Chapter
Time: 6:30 pm
Place: KEMA Consulting, 4400 Fair Lakes Court, Fairfax, VA
Contact: Sirak Belayneh at sbelayne@addistech.com or 202-787-2356.
Sponsors: Lasers and Electro-Optics Society, Washington and Northern Virginia Chapter; and Optical Society of America (National Capital Section)
Speaker: Geary K. Schwemmer, NASA
Place: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Visitor Center, Greenbelt, MD
Directions: See http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/maps.html.
More Info: See Diamond story below.
Contact: Please make reservations for dinner by 4:00 pm, Monday, Oct. 18 to Martin Lahart at lahart@arl.army.mil or 202-767-2749, or Jim Heaney at jheaney@swales.com or 301-902-4531. For more information about the meeting, contact Joe Howard at 301-286-0690 or joseph.n.howard@nasa.gov, or Dominique Dagenais 301-951-7095 or dominique_dagenais@avanex.com.
Sponsor: Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society, Washington/Baltimore/Northern Virginia Chapter
Speaker: J. Samuel Walker, Historian, Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Time: Dinner: 6:00 pm; Speaker: 6:45 pm
Place: Allie’s American Grill, Bethesda Marriott, 5151 Pooks Hill Rd., Bethesda, MD
More Info: See Diamond Story, below.
Contact: Harry Sauberman, P.E., at 301-443-8879 or HRS@CDRH.FDA.gov
Place: Double Tree Crystal City, Arlington, VA
More Info: These conferences are co-located to bring together the MR/AR and wearables communities.
Go to http://iswc.net and
http://www.ismar04.org
Time: Dinner at 6:00 pm; meeting at 6:30 pm
Place: Allie’s American Grill, Bethesda Marriott, 5151 Pooks Hill Rd., Bethesda, MD
Directions: From the north, take 270 South to 355 and exit at Wisconsin Ave. From the south, take 495 exit 34 (which is Wisconsin Ave.) to Pooks Hill Rd.
More info: All interested IEEE members are welcome to attend.
Contact: Jackie Hunter 703-803-8701 or j.hunter@ieee.org. Please include the term IEEE in the subject line of your e-mail.
Sponsor: Consultants Network, Washington and Northern Virginia Chapter
Time: Dinner at 6:00 pm; meeting at 7:00 pm
Place: Corner 7 Café, Tysons Corner Marriott, 8028 Leesburg Pike, Vienna, VA
Directions: From the east or I-495, take Route 7 West, turn right on Towers Crescent Drive, then immediately right into the Marriott parking lot. From the west on Route 7, turn right onto Old Gallows Road just opposite the Marriott, proceed around to the left until you have completed almost a full circle, and turn left into the Marriott parking lot. Free parking.
More Info: This meeting will be devoted to networking. Visitors are welcome.
Contact: Sai Chiang at 703-203-0771 or creativesystems@ieee.org.
Sponsor: Lasers and Electro-Optics Society, Washington and Northern Virginia Chapter
Speaker: Christi Madsen, Lucent Technologies
Time: Light refreshments at 6:00 pm; lecture at 6:30 pm; optional dinner following the lecture with the speaker at a nearby restaurant.
Place: University of Maryland, A.V. Williams Building, Room 2460, College Park, MD
Directions: From the north or I-495, take Route 1 South. Approx. 2 miles south of the Beltway, turn right onto Campus Drive, then immediately take Paint Branch Drive and the A.V. Williams Building will be on the right. From the south on Route 1, turn left onto Campus Drive, and follow above directions. Ample parking is available after 4:00 pm. See http://www.parking.umd.edu/themap/.
More Info: See Diamond story below.
Contact: Dominique Dagenais at 301-951-7095 or dominique_dagenais@avanex.com, or Lucy Zheng at 703-578-2721 or lzheng@ida.org.
Sponsor: Washington Area Women in Engineering (WIE) Affinity Group (Washington, Northern Virginia, and Baltimore
Chapter);
Cosponsors: Information Theory Society (Washington and Northern Virginia Chapter); Society for Social Implications of Technology (Washington and Northern Virginia Chapter); Engineering Management Society (Washington and Northern Virginia Chapter)
Speaker: Dr. Anita J. LaSalle, American University
Time: Dinner 7:00-7:30 pm (pizza and drinks provided); lecture 7:30-9:00 pm
Place: Mitre Corporation, Building 2 Conference room 1N100A/B, 7515 Colshire Drive, McLean, VA. Please check in at the main guard desk in Building 2, on the same level as the meeting room.
Directions: Off Route 123 in Tysons Corner. Free parking. See http://www.mitre.org/about/locations/mitre2_map.html.
More Info: See Diamond story below and http://ewh.ieee.org/r2/washsec/wie. All interested IEEE members, associates and friends are invited to attend.
Contact: Please RSVP if possible to Dr. Kiki Ikossi at 703-960-0261 or ikossi@ieee.org.
Sponsor: Graduates of the Last Decade, Northern Virginia Chapter
Time: 11:00 am to 1:00 pm
Place: Parkview Community Center, Recreational Facility, Warder St. and Otis Place NW, Washington, DC
More Info: This event is a follow-up to the July 17 GOLD outreach event. Volunteers are needed to help about 30 kids construct and operate their own simple electric motor. No need to remember your electromagnetic theory, and no math required! Just a willingness to help during the assembly process and maybe explain how a magnet can repel a coil of copper wire (you remember, right?).
Contact: If you'd like to help, please send an email to Chuck Baldi at cbaldi@ieee.org or Syed Ahmed at syed.f.ahmed@ieee.org, so we can coordinate the number and let you know of any last-minute changes.
Note: We will have a practice/planning session for this event sometime during the week of October 18. Please let us know if you might like to participate!
Sponsor: Electromagnetic Compatibility Society, Washington and Northern Virginia Chapter
Speaker: TBA, from Federal Communications Commission
Place: November 8: FCC Laboratory, 7435 Oakland Mills Rd., Columbia, MD; November 9-10: Washington Laboratories, 7560 Lindbergh Drive, Gaithersburg, MD
Directions: Nov. 8 (FCC Lab):
http://www.fcc.gov/oet/faqs/lab/directions.pdf
(PDF document) or 301-362-3000. Nov. 9-10 (Washington Labs):
http://www.wll.com/newstuff.html#directions
or 301-417-0220.
More Info: See Diamond Story, below.
Cost: IEEE Members, $150; Non-IEEE Members, $225; Full-time students with copy of valid student I.D., $75; Unemployed and retired attendees, $75. Fees include continental breakfast, lunch and copy of program notes. Note: Space during the Nov. 8 session at the FCC is limited to the first 20 Attendees. A 20 percent reduction in the rate will be offered for attendees registered for November 9 and 10.
Contact: For registration details, call Lavern Robinson at 301-417-0220; Fax 301-417-9069; or info@wll.com.
Time: 6:30 pm
Place: Corner 7 Café, Tysons Corner Marriott, 8028 Leesburg Pike, Vienna, VA
Directions: From the east or I-495, take Route 7 West, turn right on Towers Crescent Drive, then immediately right into the Marriott parking lot. From the west on Route 7, turn right onto Old Gallows Road just opposite the Marriott, proceed around to the left until you have completed almost a full circle, and turn left into the Marriott parking lot. Free parking.
More info: All interested IEEE members are invited to attend.
Contact: Jackie Hunter at 703-803-8701 or j.hunter@ieee.org. Please include the term IEEE in the subject line of your e-mail.
Sponsor: Power Engineering Society, Northern Virginia Chapter
Time: 6:30 pm
Place: KEMA Consulting, 4400 Fair Lakes Court, Fairfax, VA
Contact: Sirak Belayneh at sbelayne@addistech.com or 202-787-2356.
Sponsors: Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (W/NV); Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (W/NV); Electron Devices Society (W/NV); Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society (W/NV); Control Systems Society (NV); Optical Society of America (National Capital Section)
Speaker: Dr. Mark J. Rosker, Program Manager, Microsystems Technology Office, DARPA
Time: Social period at 5:30 pm, catered dinner at 6:00 pm (optional, reservations required), lecture at 7:00 pm
Place: Mitre Corporation, Building 2, 7515 Colshire Drive, McLean, VA
Directions: Off Route 123 in Tysons Corner. See http://www.mitre.org/about/locations/mitre2_map.html.
More Info: See Diamond story below, and www.ieee.org/mtt-wnva.
Cost: Lecture is free; optional dinner is $15 (please pay with exact change or by check).
Contact: Please make reservations for optional dinner by Friday, Dec. 12 or earlier, to Michael Nueslein at mnueslein@mitre.org or 703-883-2674. (No reservations required for lecture.)
There will be no Maryland meeting of the Consultants Network in November.
Sponsor: Control Systems Society, Washington Chapter
Speaker: Chris Smith
Time: Noon (pizza provided)
Place: Fairchild Controls Corporation, 540 Highland Street, Frederick, MD
More Info: See Diamond story, below.
Contact: RSVP by Nov. 15 to Richard Benjamin 301-228-3471 or
rbenjamin@fairchildcontrols.com.
Sponsor: Engineering Management Society, Washington and Northern Virginia Chapter
Cosponsor: Washington Area Women in Engineering (WIE) Affinity Group (Washington, Northern Virginia, and Baltimore Sections)
Speaker: Dr. Alex Pavlak
Time: Networking at 6:00 pm; dinner (optional) at 6:30 pm; seminar at 7:30 pm
Place: Allie’s American Grill, Bethesda Marriott, 5151 Pooks Hill Rd., Bethesda, MD.
Directions: From the north, take 270 South to 355 and exit at Wisconsin Ave. From the south, take 495 exit 34 (which is Wisconsin Ave.) to Pooks Hill Rd.
More Info: Traditional Tiger Teams are cobbled together to respond to crisis. While their construction is primitive, they can be spectacularly effective. Modern Tiger Teams boost performance by integrating advanced teamwork with total problem-solving within the context of a temporary small group of experts. Their hallmark is constructive conflict, a passionate clash of ideas among experts. While this increased sophistication minimizes dysfunctions and improves major crisis performance, it also allows Tiger Teams to be effective for low profile everyday firefighting. See Diamond Story, below, for more on Dr. Pavlak.
Cost: No charge for the program only. Dinner from the Early Bird menu, $15 per person for IEEE, WIE, IIE members, $20 per person for non-members, collected at the door.
Contact: To insure adequate seating and food, please contact Doug Holly at
dougholly@ieee.org by 5:00 pm, Wednesday, Nov. 17, to register. Please state in your e-mail if you will or will not be joining us for dinner.
Sponsor: Aerospace and Electronics Systems Society,Washington and Northern Virginia Chapter Cosponsor: Antennas and Propagation Society, Washington and Northern Virginia Chapter Speaker: Dr. Keith Krapels Place: General Dynamics, 4121 Wilson Boulevard Suite 302, Arlington, VA Time: Lecture at 5:00 pm; dinner at 6:30 pm (optional at nearby restaurant) Directions: One block from the Ballston Metro stop. More Info: The Silver Fox UAV was developed to give the Navy a low cost a bird’s eye view during operations. As the U.S. began preparing its forces for Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Department of the Navy called on the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to help find immediately deployable solutions for some Navy and Marine Corps needs. ONR’s Tech Solutions office, which finds quick technology solutions for the Navy and Marine Corps, developed a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that could give Marines up-to-date imagery on the battlefield. Cost: Lecture is free; dinner (optional) is paid by attendees. Contact: Dan Purdy, 703-588-1920, purdyd@onr.navy.mil. Please RSVP before Oct. 29 to Carmen Bray at carmen.bray@gd-ais.com (preferred) or 703-469-3886.
Sponsor: Graduates of the Last Decade, Northern Virginia Chapter Time: 6:30 pm to 10 pm Place: eCiti Restaurant & Bar McLean, 1524 Spring Hill Rd. (entrance on Tyco Blvd.), McLean, VA. More Info: All GOLD members are welcome to attend. Cost: Food and drinks provided. Contact: RSVP to Syed Ahmed at syed.f.ahmed@ieee.org or Chuck Baldi at cbaldi@ieee.org.
Time: Dinner at 6:00 pm; meeting at 6:30 pm, Engineers Without Borders at 7:30 pm
Place: Allie's American Grill, Bethesda Marriott, 5151 Pooks Hill Rd., Bethesda, Md.
Directions: From the north, take 270 South to Route 355 and exit at Wisconsin Ave. From the south, take 495 exit 34 (which is Wisconsin Ave.) to Pooks Hill Rd.
More info: Engineers Without Borders is an exciting program that promotes engineering projects to help people around the world. All interested IEEE members are welcome to attend.
Contact: Jackie Hunter 703-803-8701 or j.hunter@ieee.org. Please include the term IEEE in the subject line of your e-mail.
Sponsor: Consultants Network, Washington and Northern Virginia Chapter
Time: Dinner at 6:00 pm; meeting at 7:00 pm
Place: Corner 7 Café, Tysons Corner Marriott, 8028 Leesburg Pike, Vienna, VA
Directions: From the east or I-495, take Route 7 West, turn right on Towers Crescent Drive, then immediately right into the Marriott parking lot. From the west on Route 7, turn right onto Old Gallows Road just opposite the Marriott, proceed around to the left until you have completed almost a full circle, and turn left into the Marriott parking lot. Free parking.
More Info: We will hold our annual business meeting and election of new officers. There will also be an opportunity for networking.
Contact: Sai Chiang at 703-203-0771 or creativesystems@ieee.org.
Time: 6:30 pm
Place: Corner 7 Café, Tysons Corner Marriott, 8028 Leesburg Pike, Vienna, VA
Directions: From the east or I-495, take Route 7 West, turn right on Towers Crescent Drive, then immediately right into the Marriott parking lot. From the west on Route 7, turn right onto Old Gallows Road just opposite the Marriott, proceed around to the left until you have completed almost a full circle, and turn left into the Marriott parking lot. Free parking.
More info: All interested IEEE members are invited to attend.
Contact: Jackie Hunter at 703-803-8701 or j.hunter@ieee.org. Please include the term IEEE in the subject line of your e-mail.
Sponsor: Power Engineering Society, Northern Virginia Chapter
Time: 6:30 pm
Place: KEMA Consulting, 4400 Fair Lakes Court, Fairfax, VA
Contact: Sirak Belayneh at sbelayne@addistech.com or 202-787-2356.
There will be no Maryland meeting of the Consultants Network in December.
Computerized identity authentication systems (CIAS) have traditionally been based on 3 independent concepts:
A fourth authentication concept incorporates deliberate perturbation of natural behavior in an authentication test, which may provide an inexpensive dimension to the authentication process. Research under way is focused on determining whether such a technique could be used to advantage without incurring an excessive penalty.
Several disadvantages need further exploration. The research process invokes comparisons of theoretically developed active behavior versus the real world environment. Using an Active Behavior Test Bed revealed a practical entropy significantly lower than that calculated by probability calculations. Future research will explore practical entropy limits and correlations.
George Washington University information security researchers consider authentication system effectiveness in terms of vulnerability to attacks, effect on human factor vulnerabilities, and effects on authentication entropy. Entropy is an information technology concept that provides a measure of the theoretical uncertainty associated with guessing a password, etc. The George Washington University Information Security Group has developed and studied a system called Time Domain Sensitive Password Protection, which shows promise for providing protection from various forms of attack.
Dr. Christopher Hekimian is the research director for Adams Security Research Associates, LLC. He received the Ph.D. degree in systems engineering management at GWU in 2004. He earned the MSEE degree in 1955 at the California Polytechnic University in Pomona. Dr. Hekimian is the founder of DXDT Engineering & Research, LLC. He has three patents-pending on techniques for the security of biometric authentication systems and has a patent pending for a TV-interactive technique.
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Dr. Alfred T. C. Chang, IEEE Fellow, graduated with a degree in physics from National Central University in Taoyuan, Taiwan. He then received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, also in physics, at the University of Maryland. He was employed by NASA at Goddard Space Flight Center from 1974 until his death on May 26, 2004.
Dr. Chang's main area of research was the use of microwave instruments for remotely-sensing properties of the atmosphere and land. Most of his illustrious career was spent on analysis of microwave data of snow cover and rainfall, and he produced several seminal papers on these subjects, beginning in the '70s, that are still being referenced today. Dr. Chang published more than 100 journal articles, and among his many honors and awards is the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement.
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The scanning of large aperture (~1 m diameter) telescopes is a major challenge for satellite-based lidar remote sensors. It also greatly complicates and constrains the design of airborne lidar systems. Lidar telescopes based on holographic optical elements (HOEs) offer a much simpler means of employing scanning, reducing size and weight without sacrificing instrument performance. NASA has developed and investigated the use of HOEs for scanning lidar telescopes. Two atmospheric lidar systems based on this technology have been built and used in a number of atmospheric science investigations. Future developments may employ multiplexed HOEs to effect scanning without moving parts.
Geary K. Schwemmer joined NASA GSFC as a research electronics engineer in 1977. His first project was a big one and took more than 15 years. He was the lead engineer (and the only one that stayed with the project for its entire duration) in an effort to develop a Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) system for measuring atmospheric pressure and temperature profiles using oxygen A band absorption features. It involved building three complete lidar systems, each using progressively more complex tunable near IR lasers as the state of the art evolved. The last generation O2 DIAL involved the first application of the newly developed alexandrite laser, the first widely tunable solid-state laser. During the course of that project, he designed and built tunable alexandrite lasers, laser wavemeters and spectrometers.
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On this 25th Anniversary of the worst accident involving a nuclear power plant in the United States, it is important to understand what actually occurred at Three Mile Island. The event which began at 4:00 a.m. on March 28, 1979 was watched by the entire world. Authorities at the highest level were called to the crippled plant as they as they sought to prevent the emission of dangerous quantities of ionizing radiation into the environment. Sam Walker will provide an analysis and overall perspective of the human drama that unfolded on that fateful day and for the weeks and months that followed the accident. He will provide a clear picture of the human drama that surrounded the accident while placing it in the context of the intense debate that was occurring over the benefits of using nuclear power for the generation of electricity. The presentation will cover questions relating to studies of the long-term health effects from the accident and will offer a unique perspective into the issues of dealing with a critical event in today's world.
J. Samuel Walker is the official historian of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He has held academic positions at Georgetown University and the University of Maryland. He is the author of numerous publications. Previous books include "Permissible Dose: A History of Radiation Protection in the Twentieth Century" and "Containing the Atom: Nuclear Regulation in a Changing Environment."
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Greg Schoenig of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) will relate signal processing theory to a few selected applications. Specifically, he will show the advantages of selected robust adaptive processing algorithms, when compared to conventional techniques.
Schoenig received his B.S.E.E. (1999), M.S. in electrical engineering (2000), and M.S. in computer science (2001) from The Johns Hopkins University. He also received an M.B.A. degree from The George Washington University (2003). He is currently a doctoral candidate in electrical engineering at Virginia Tech, focusing on robust adaptive processing.
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The ultimate information capacity of optical fibers is far beyond currently deployed systems, even with the exponential growth in system capacity over the past 20 years. Even now, the performance of high-capacity, long-distance wavelength- division-multiplexed (WDM) networks depends significantly on reconfigurable optical filters for bandwidth management and adaptive filters for compensating analog impairments. Optical filters are also key elements in optical code generation and detection with applications in optical packet header processing. Whether the end goal is for communications or high-speed signal processing, optical filters that can operate on amplitude, phase and polarization are critical to unleashing the full potential of optical systems. To be practical, a cost-effective implementation that can scale in optical circuit integration density and functionality is required.
This talk addresses optical filters in the context of their analog and digital relatives. Dr. Madsen will show how well-known filter types are related to the underlying interference mechanisms and how digital filter theory concepts are beneficially translated to the optical domain. Then, the present capabilities of integrated optics for implementing adaptive optical filters and an overview of some challenges ahead will be discussed. Adaptive filters implemented using high-index-contrast silica-on-silicon planar waveguides with applications to tunable chromatic dispersion compensation and polarization monitoring, control and polarization mode dispersion compensation will be used as examples. With state- of-the-art integrated optical filters, we have the ability to realize a many-colored, high-speed and cost-effective processing engine that truly harnesses the power of photonics.
Dr. Christi K. Madsen is a distinguished member of the technical staff at Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, an IEEE Senior Member, and an OSA Fellow. She received a B.S.E.E. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1986, a M.S.E.E. from Stanford University in 1987, and her Ph.D. degree from Rutgers University in 1996, all in electrical engineering.
She joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1987 and worked first for the submarine systems business unit, then transferred to the integrated photonics research department. Her research has focused on the application of digital filter and signal processing techniques to optical filters for high-speed, high-capacity optical communication systems. In 1998, Dr. Madsen invented a class of tunable, multi-stage optical allpass filters that allow any phase response to be approximated and have application in chromatic dispersion compensation and polarization mode dispersion compensation. She holds 14 U.S. patents and has presented more than 70 technical talks and papers.
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Two topics will be covered: one biographical and one research on an IT topic that is much in the news. The research part, "what is all of this outsourcing really costing?" examines outsourced software projects and the implications to organizations in terms of real costs and risks. The biographical part, "you can't get here from there," includes anecdotes, pitfalls, career detours and the continuing saga of life as a woman engineer. Discussion and a Q&A session will follow.
Dr. Anita J. La Salle is a professor, chair of the Information Technology Department, and director of the M.S. in Information Technology Management program in the Kogod School of Business at American University in Washington, D.C. Dr. LaSalle earned her B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and her Ph.D. in computer science from Stevens Institute of Technology. She has more than 40 years of experience in industry, government and academe, and is currently a consultant to the National Science Foundation. She has published more than 40 journal articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings. Her primary research focus is in the areas of software project risk analysis and the hidden costs of software project outsourcing.
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This three-day tutorial will be directed primarily at engineers seeking to understand the testing and regulatory requirements for wireless equipment. Held in cooperation with the Federal Communications Commission and ETS-Lindgren, the course content will focus on measurements and approvals procedures needed for radio products sold in the United States.
The Nov. 8 session slated for the FCC Laboratory in Columbia, MD is entitled “Rules and Roles of Telecommunications Bodies” and will be presented by FCC engineers and staff. The sessions to be held at Washington Labs in Gaithersburg, MD on Nov. 9 and 10 will emphasize testing and laboratory requirements, SAR issues, certification procedures, and demonstrations.
Attendees will have the opportunity to meet representatives from the Chinese Ministry of Post and Communications, who are attending this conference as part of an exchange program between the United States and China.
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“Since we have become accustomed to think of waves of electrical energy and light waves as forming component parts of a common spectrum, the attempt has often been made to extend our knowledge over the wide region which has separated the two phenomena and to bring them closer together.” [Rubens, H. & Nichols, E. F., Phys. Rev. 4 (1897) 314–323]. More than a century after these words were written, the terahertz (1012 Hz) still remains the most immature and underutilized part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
This talk will discuss some of the potential applications for which the THz might be most useful and describe some of the key component developments which must be made in order to exploit the THz for commercial and government applications. In particular, the concept of THz imaging for remote sensing will be considered. Despite its generally limited atmospheric propagation, the THz has the potential to provide sensor information in IR-blind conditions (e.g., fog, rain, dust, smoke). Furthermore, THz imaging could offer clear advantages over conventional (i.e., MMW) all-weather imaging approaches. A current DARPA program, Terahertz Imaging Focal Plane Array Technology (TIFT), is focused on the development of such a class of sensors. Component technologies that are being addressed include high power sources, detectors, and integration technologies. Such technologies stand not only to revolutionize THz imaging, but will also find wide applicability to other emerging THz applications.
Dr. Mark J. Rosker joined the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in July 2003. Dr. Rosker came to DARPA from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA, where he was a member of the Submillimeter Wave Advanced Technology Group. Dr. Rosker is the author of more than 70 technical papers and conference proceedings.
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Although digital controllers offer an enormous benefit to power electronic designers for they are far from perfect. In some cases moving to a digital controller just trades one set of design problems for another. Fixed point controllers require work on the front end to determine scaling factors, and if the right debug tools are not available, then information about the system can be hidden from the designer. Mr. Smith will discuss a system for using a MATLAB target PC as a closed-loop controller in a power electronics circuit. The key piece is a Power Interface Board which uses an FPGA to tie the power system to Matlab’s controller. He will explore the unparalleled ease with which controllers can be developed using this system and will give examples of the complex systems it is capable of producing.
Chris Smith graduated from Virginia Tech with a B.S.E.E. in computer engineering in the fall of 2001. His interest in hybrid vehicles brought him to the power electronics field where he worked on his masters degree in electrical engineering also at Virginia Tech. With a strong computer background he primarily concentrated on implementation of control systems for power electronics. His experience in motor drives, high power conversion, microprocessors, and fuel cells totals more than four years.
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Dr. Alex Pavlak (Ph.D. M.Eng., P.E.) is an engineer who has led several successful Tiger Teams. Prior to 1992, Dr. Pavlak spent 8 years managing ballistic missile R&D projects for General Electric; 8 years as the president of ConSuntrator, Inc., a solar energy R&D company; and 9 years as director of low frequency active sonar at Martin Marietta. For the past 12 years, he has been investigating the limits of expert problem solving teams. He offers training workshops; coaching services for workgroups and disrupted projects; guest lectures and talks on the topics of Tiger Teams, project trouble-shooting, problem-solving, advanced teamwork and system synthesis.
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