|
eSCANNER
› Welcome
LINKS
|
Chair's Welcome Message
2010: Looking Forward
Many of you who either participate in IEEE activities and programs (or at least read the official Institute publications) are aware that 2009 was the 125th Anniversary of the organization. The international, national and local communities acknowledged the history and evolution of the organization and the varied disciplines now grouped under the heading of Electrical Engineering.
Looking through the lens of the newly selected organization motto, Inspire Enable Empower Engage, we collectively reviewed the roles of circuitry, telegraphy, radio, telephony, power production, the microchip, and other exciting innovations that have transformed and shrunk our world - along with the role that Double-E's held in pioneering the changes. Speaking as a fan of both history and technology, I hope you found the year's activities as exciting as I did. Having put the past in perspective, however, it is now good to turn once again to the territory we naturally occupy as innovators and doers - the future.
The life we lead as technologists is about new possibilities, and the challenges and opportunities provided therein.
Many of us grew up reading either science fiction or science journals, and found wonder and hope bound to the ideas and tools presented. I personally still look to publications such as Wired, Scientific American and our own Spectrum to find ideas that will improve the projects for which I am responsible. With this in mind, I - along with my counterpart in the Washington Section, Dr. Raj Madhavan - have decided to make this year's theme "IEEE - The NEXT 125 years." Our collective energy will be applied during functions this year to determining the future path of both technology and our own organization. The spring awards banquet and the activities sponsored by the Northern Virginia Section Administrative Committee will take on a future focus.
Since the sources of our collective future are the newly-minted and not-yet trained engineers, one of the features of the theme in practice will be a focus on Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD) and student activities. Programs such as the Future City Competition, high school robotics, and science fairs provide excellent venues for our futuristic emphasis. I strongly encourage members of the Virginia engineering community to become more heavily involved in these efforts.
Looking forward, the joint print publication of the Northern Virginia and Washington sections, the Scanner, is also under review to see if the current format and scope is appropriate to the increasingly online makeup of the engineering community. Raj and I will jointly sponsor a review committee that will look at both the paper and online Scanners, along with communication tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to find the right mix of outreach and news platforms for the southern part of Region 2. I look forward to input from our section membership on which media elements will best serve the needs of the members, societies and affiliated groups we interact with. In addition, our section will also be working to implement the modernizing efforts initiated by the Membership and Geographic Activities Board, such as the vTools meeting software introduced last year.
Benjamin Franklin, one of the earliest practical manipulators of electricity, said of the future, "Tis easy to see, difficult to foresee." Be that as it may, I believe that in the effort to foresee, we make the future we want. I sincerely invite the participation and involvement of all of the members and affiliates of our section to help start the next 125 years of our profession by making a future we can be proud of.
Thank you for selecting me as this year's Chair.
Barry Tilton, P.E.
Chair, IEEE Northern Virginia Section
barrytilton@ieee.org
|
