Solid State Circuits Society Lehigh Valley Section

Minutes of IEEE/LVS/SSCS/Executive Committee Planning Meeting August 14, 2013: 6PM at Sammi's Pizza, Wescosville, PA

In Attendance

Robert Peruzzi, Ian Rippke, Roger Minear, Paul Davis, Dale Nelson, Betty Perry, Robert Walden, Richard Booth, and Glen Offord

Technical Talks

Shaorui Li will talk about low noise CMOS ICs on 25Sep2013
Distinguished Lecturer Michael Perrott from MIT will present two talks, the first about Digital PLLs and the other about new circuit simulators - both on 24Oct2013.
Doug Lopata and Bob Leonowich will be contacted for talks. Action Items: Richard Booth to contact Lopata and Paul Davis to contact Leonowich.

Morton Contest:

The SSCS planning committee discussed our Morton participation and decided to take a passive financial sponsorship position in the Morton Contest. We will provide $500 with no strings attached to the Morton Paper Contest.
On 18Apr2013, Ian attended the Morton Contest as the SSCS representative (Don Talhelm in charge, Dave Thompson, Gary Smullin and others were judges). There were 5 or 6 papers total from Lehigh, Lafayette, and Wilkes. The papers were judged prior to the contest on technical merit. The presentations were judges primarily on communications skills. The SSCS was acknowledged for our $500 contribution.

Electronics/Manufacturing History Museum:

Paul made initial contact and emailed. No response. He'll contact again.

Background: During our January planning meeting, Bob (Peruzzi) said there was a request for volunteers to help identify a truckload of Western Electric/Bell Laboratory artifacts and memorabilia intended for inclusion into a planned museum near Steel Stacks in South-Side Bethlehem. George Allerton, Austin Bleu, and Chuck Adomshick working with the LV IEEEE are heading this work.
Action Items: Paul Davis will again attempt to contact George, Austin and Chuck. If Paul finds the opportunity appropriate, Bob will send announcements to a wider LVS audience.

Engaging Students:

A priority of the SSCS is to engage EE students. We do this through our lectures (typically at Lehigh University) and our support of the Morton Paper Contest. Student attendance has been poor. Bob currently promotes our lectures to students through Doug Frey and has decided to also include Bill Haller (faculty advisor at Lehigh). Glen suggested we have one talk per year at Lafayette University to broaden our reach and deepen relationships at that university. Dale suggested our topics may be too advanced and perhaps the announcements could be presented in a more comfortable format. Ian suggested a Student Night and Bob suggested enhancing the student night by adding career guidance and a panel discussion.

Treasurer Report:

Roger reported our chapter subsidy remains at $2K which requires yearly justification. He is in the process of providing Proposed 2014 Activities as well as the formal 2014 Budget Request for this $2K allotment. We have spent about $600 plus our $500 Morton commitment (handled by the IEEE LVS treasurer, George Beam). Our last meeting's action item requested a full accounting from George Beam. Emails from George had just come in that day and Roger may have that information.

Best Chapter:

Ian suggested we go for Best Chapter award for 2014. He suggested the chapter start by looking at the application to check requirements.