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Tuesday, March 22nd, 2012, IEEE Dinner Meeting

 Topic: The University of Central Florida Business Incubuation Program

Speaker: Management from the UCFBIP

Since its founding in October 1999 the UCF Business Incubation Program (UCFBIP) has helped more than 200 emerging companies (including over 110 current clients) create over $500 million in annual revenue and more that 1600 new jobs wiht an average salary of $50,000.  With nine opened current locations across 5 counties in Central Florida,  the Business Incubation Program is a collaboration in economic development between UCF, Orange County, the City of Orlando, Seminole County, the City of Winter Springs, Lake County, the City of Leesburg, the City of Sanford, Osceola County, the City of St. Cloud, the City of Kissimmee, Volusia County and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council.

The UCF Business Incubator - Daytona Beach International Airport is UCFBIP's ninth incubator.  The incubator opened July 27, 2011, in an effort to assist high growth companies in Volusia County.  The incubator is a mixed use incubator and will house all kinds of companies except for retail.  

The 8,000 square foot facility is located at the US Customs terminal at the Daytona Beach International Airport.  It has a very modern style, and is able to house approximately 20 companies depending upon how many offices each company requires for operation.  The first client has already moved in and many other companies are currently being reviewed for entry to the UCF Business Incubaion Program.

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Tuesday, February 28th, 2012, IEEE Dinner Meeting

 Topic: Volusia County Hospice Operations

Speaker: Cathy Gallagher, RN

Halifax Health Center Hospice Liaison Nurse Cathy Gallagher, RN will present an overview of the Volusia County Hospice operations, how it is accessed, what it does, its staff and equipment and its record of success. This includes not just how  it interfaces with the patient but how it works with and relates to the family and loved ones.

Cathy Callagher  was born and educated in New York State.  In 1976 she came to Florida to attend Flagler College in St. Augustine.  When she graduated she decided to stay in Florida because it is nice and warm.  In 1999 she decided to become a Registered Nurse.  While in Nursing School (1996-1999) she worked as a CNA for Hospice.  After graduating from Nursing School, she worked for 2 years as an RN in the Oncology Department of Halifax Health.  In 2001 she rejoined the Hospice Program at Halifax Health as an Admissions Nurse.  For the past nine years, she has worked as a Community access Liaison which allows her to reach out and teach others about the benefits and helpfulness of hospice.  Cathy is certified in hospice and palliative care nursing.

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             Thursday,  January 19th, 2012, IEEE Sectional Dinner Meeting

    Topic: The History of Navigation - Part 2
Speaker: Tracy Wichmann

Part two describes the change in the history of navigation with the invention of the marine chronometer.  Early navigators used the stars, the winds, the currents and visual references to find destinations.  With the development of the marine chronometer navigators could obtain rather precise measurements of their longitudinal location anywhere on the surface of the earth.. .During his lecture he will describe how the escapement mechanism in these chronometers evolved to allow precision measurements to be made over extended periods of time.

Tracy Wichmann has a diverse resume.  He received his Science Bachelor in Physics from MIT.  His education also included the study of Servomechanisms at Ohio State’s Electrical Engineering Department and Astrophysics and Statistics and System Engineering at UCLA.  He is an Adjunct Professor at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and consultant for computer programming.  Over the years he had held positions as Program Manager, Senior Research Scientist, Research Engineer in such fields as electronic warfare, space shuttle avionics, air traffic control with such companies as Hughes Aircraft, Teledyne Systems, Litton Industries, and the U.S. Air Force.  He has published over 50 papers & publications and has a patent on a blood pressure measuring device.  He has been past Chairman and Treasurer of the Daytona Section and currently serves as our Vice Chairman.  He is also a member of the Southcon Board of Directors.

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Thursday,  November 29th, 2011 IEEE Sectional Dinner Meeting
 Topic: Current Topics on the Volusia County Council

Speaker: Frank Bruno, Chairman Voulsia County Council

Frank Bruno will speak on his experience as the Volusia County Council Chairman and what has transpired during his term in this position.  He will also comment and provide his observations on the proposed Sun Rail System.

Frank Bruno after competing his active duty in the United States Military, opened a print shop in Port Orange.  This venture was very successful, and he sold it to entered politics.  Over the last four years Frank has served as the chairman of the Volusia County Council.  He currently serves on the transportaiton commission which overseas Sun Rail.  Mr. Bruno will be stepping down, at the end of this current term, due to term limits.

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Thursday,  October 27th, 2011 IEEE Sectional Dinner Meeting
 Topic: Sterotactic Radio Surgery
(Gamma Knife Treatment; CyberKnife Treatment)
Speaker: Dr. Brad Factor

Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) is a technique to treat brain disorders. It uses a highly focused beam of radiation to target specific areas of the brain. The beam of radiation destroys the tissue that a doctor would otherwise have removed with a scalpel during an operation.

Dr. Brad Factor: Dr. Brad Factor is Board Certified by the American Board of Radiology in Radiation Oncology and he has interests in treating all cancer sites. Dr. Factor joined Halifax Health after serving as an Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology at the H. Lee Cancer Institute and Research Centers. He is interested in applying new techniques and treatments in the field of radiation oncology, such as stereotactic radiosurgery, intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), image guided radiation therapy (IGRT) and Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy (SBRT). 

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Thursday,  September 22th, 2011 IEEE Sectional Dinner Meeting
Topic: The Accuracy of Weather Forcasts
Speaker: Dr. Christopher Herbster

Weather forecasting, which historically has been notoriously inaccurate, has substantially improved over the last 50 years. Computers and the mathematical modeling of weather patterns is a substantial factor in this improvement. Satellites have also provided a global view of cloud cover and moisture content. Doppler radar gives current data on wind and rain activity. The net result is that the accuracy of the forecasts has dramatically improved. Moreover the precision of warning time, strength and place, of these predictions is strongly related to the size of the meteorological event. Thus hurricanes can be precisely tracked, but tornados are predictable only within a general area. Small squalls, thunder storms and supercells can only be predicted within less than an hour. Fortunately we have doppler radar to give some form of warning about such events.

Dr. Christopher Herbster:  Dr. Christopher Herbster, Professor of Meteorolog, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

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Thursday,  April 28th, 2011, IEEE Sectional Dinner Meeting
Topic: Student Report on the Robotics Competition
Speaker: ERAU and BC-U Student Robotics Teams

On  March 17th - 20th,  2011 a Robotics Competition was held as part of SoutheastCon 2011.  This is an annual conference in which about 40 Colleges and Universities, from all over the South Eastern portion of the United States, compete.  This year the Daytona Area was represented by a robotics team from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and for the first time a robotics team from Bethune-Cookman University. The scenario in which the robots must perform was specified several months before the contest.  The robotics teams  then build their robots to operate in the specified venue and respond according to what was discovered.  The robots must operate autonomously and rely strictly on on-board sensors and processors to discover and react appropriately to obstacles discovered during the competitive runs.  At the April Section meeting members of each of Daytona's competing robotics teams  will give a short report on the robot that they designed for the competition and some of the lessons learned from the experience.

Student Robotics Teams Members of the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Bethune-Cookman University will each describe the design and characteristics of their robots, what their robot encountered during the tests,  and how well their robots performed in the competition.

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Thursday,  March 24th, 2011, IEEE Sectional Dinner Meeting
Topic: The History of Naviagation - Part 1
Speaker: Tracy Wichmann

Part one meaning before the invention of the marine chronometer.  How early navigators used the stars, the winds, the currents and visual references to find destinations.  How ancient boat design reveals navigation methods and how the Chinese may have discovered America before Columbus.

Tracy Wichmann has a diverse resume.  He received his Science Bachelor in Physics from MIT.  His education also included the study of Servomechanisms at Ohio State’s Electrical Engineering Department and Astrophysics and Statistics and System Engineering at UCLA.  He is an Adjunct Professor at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and consultant for computer programming.  Over the years he had held positions as Program Manager, Senior Research Scientist, Research Engineer in such fields as electronic warfare, space shuttle avionics, air traffic control with such companies as Hughes Aircraft, Teledyne Systems, Litton Industries, and the U.S. Air Force.  He has published over 50 papers & publications and has a patent on a blood pressure measuring device.  He has been past Chairman and Treasurer of the Daytona Section and currently serves as our Vice Chairman.  He is also a member of the Southcon Board of Directors.

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Wednesday,  February 23rd, 2011, IEEE Sectional Dinner Meeting
Topic: The da Vinci Surgical Robotic System
Speaker: Micah (Mike) Blackmon MD 

The presentation will describe the da vinci surgical technique, a Robotic Surgery System for many surgical procedures including gynecologic oncology procedures, general gynecologic procedures and prostate procedures.  The surgeron sits at a console about 15 feet from the anesthetized patient who is positioned on the surgical table.  The console is comproised of a video screen, hand controls and foot pedals.  The da Vinci system employs two cameras to provide a 3-D color image of the operating field, plus five to 10 times magnification for a very precise view.  Next to the surgical table is the bedside cart with four arms, three for instruments and one for a camera.  The arms can be equipped with various instruments and rotate like a hand and wrist.  The da Vinci system translates the surgeon's motions into tiny movements and corrects for any hand tremors or extra hand motion.  This allows for xomplex surgeries with small incisions, thus revolutionizing minimally  invasive surgery and explanding the types of surgeries sthat can be performed.

Micah (Mike) Blackmon, MD is with the Halifax Health Center for Urology will be our speaker for the evening.. He is a native Floridian having been born and raised here and he received his MD from the University of Miami. He performed his residency at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, GA. He is board certified.

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Thursday,  January 20th, 2011, IEEE Sectional Dinner Meeting
Topic: The Marine Science Center at Ponce Inlet - Overview
Speaker: Michael Brothers, Director of the Marine Science Center

The presentation will describe the work of the Marine Science Center and some of the unique characteristics of the species that center supports.  It promises to be an interesting and informative presentation for all.

Michael Brothers is the Director of the Marine Science Center at Ponce Inlet.  He has a long history of the study of marine animals, birds and sea creatures.  The presentation will be describe the work of the Marine Science Center and some of the unique characteristics of the species that center supports.  It promises to be an interesting and informative presentation for all.

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Tuesday,  December 7, 2010 i IEEE Section Dinner Meeting

Topic: Reducing Energy Consumption - What can you do?
How does power factor work into this solution?

Speaker: David Wise and Roy Mailsoff

America has a great thirst for energy.  We need  energy to maintain lifestyles that we have become accustomed to.  There are ways to reduce consumption by minimizing and optimizing usage and by different technologies.  These will be discussed from a research and operational perspective.

What is Power Factor? How can it impact your electrical system and energy usage? There are many different technologies competing for a place amongst those systems that need to be considered, so you may meet your energy goals, and several will be discussed.  Having useful information about what to consider when looking at energy conservation is important to establish baseline reviews to determine what is most beneficial to you.

David Wise is the Vice President of Production and Technology, KVAR Energy Savings, Inc.  He has held numerous electronics engineering technology positions in the manufacturing sector.  He brings considerable products certification management capabilities and experience.  Mr. Wise is also recognized as the inventor on seven US patents.

Roy Mailsoff after attending the University of Oregon and Hofstra began working at his family's commercial real estate and land development in Chicago, Illinois.  It was in Chicago while maintaining commercial real estate properties that Mr. Mainsoff realized the urgency for energy conservation and awareness.  In 2007, Mr. Malisoff met with KVAR Energy Savings, Inc (KVAR) CEO, Steve Fish, and learned about power factor optimization through the use of patented technology licensed to KVAR.  Thereafter, Mr. Malisoff relocated to Daytona Beach, Florida, where KVAR manufactures energy saving devices called KVA Energy Controllers (KVAR ECs^TM)..

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Thursday, October 28, 2010 - IEEE Section Dinner Meeting
Topic:  Calibrating Speed Detection Devices for
Extended Applications: LIDAR and Radar
Speaker: Dr. Brian Butka and Will Gaughan

Speed detection devices and commonly used by law enforcement agencies to determine the instantaneous speed of vehicles.  However, in civil engineering applications there is a need to measure the acceleration and deceleration of vehicles in addition to the instantaneous vehicle speed.  This talk will discuss the principles of operation of both LIDAR and RADAR speed methods that can be used to calibrate the devices.  Calibration of LIDAR devices  requires generating pulses with extremely precise timing delays, this talk will detail W ill Gaughan's solution to this problem using a field-programmable gate array (FPGA).

Dr. Brian Butka is an associate professor in Electrical, Computer, Systems and Software Engineering at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.  Dr. Butka has previously taught Electrical Engineering in the United Sates Naval Academy and has over  20 years of industrial experience in the mixed-signal design of custom integrated circuits.  Dr. Butka's research  interests include avionics and control for autonomous vehicles (primarily rotary wing) and the design and verification of safety-critical hardware.  Dr. Butka is currently collaborating with Dr. Barott of ERAU on a bi-static radar project

Will Gaughan is a graduate student pursuing the new Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering.. Will graduated in May 2010 with a BS in Electrical Engineering with a Systems Engineering emphasis.  He is currently working on a bisatic radar project with Drs. Butka and Barott.  In his spare time Will has been known to play guitar and sing at local nightspots and resturants.

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Thursday, September 23, 2010 - IEEE Section Dinner Meeting
Topic:  Trajectory Generation and Cooperative Control of Mobile Robots
with Kinematic Constraints
Speaker: Jing Wang, PhD

Complex networked cyber-physical dynamical systems are everywhere in our real life. Examples include small-scale air, water and ground-based autonomous vehicle systems, sensor networks, VLSI circuits, computer network, Internet and so on. Yet complex networked cyber-physical systems pose new challenges because they are extremely dynamic, unreliable and large-scale, and traditional approaches based on centralized control may not be applicable. Recent years have witnessed the extensive development on the cooperative control design of networked systems. In this talk, a near-optimal real time trajectory generation method for mobile robots with kinematic constraints is first presented. Then, after a brief review of the basic idea of designing linear cooperative control, a new reactive cooperative formation control design for a class of dynamical systems with collision avoidance capability will be reported. As design examples, the applications to the cooperative control of nonholonomic chained systems and cooperative control based teleoperation with high latency will be discussed. Simulation results and some elementary experimental results will also be provided.

Jing Wang received his Ph.D. degree in control theory and control engineering from South University, China in 1007.  He was a Postdoctoral Resarch Fellow at the Institute of Computing Technology , Chinese Academy of Sciences, from 1997 to 1999, and at the National University of Singapore, from 1999 to 2002.  From 2002 to 2007, he was with School of Electrical and Computer Science of University of Central Florida as a Research Assistant Professor.  Science 2007, he has been an Assistant Professor in Computer Science and Computer Engineering at Bethune-Cookman University.  His main research interests include Robot Control, Cooperative Control of Multi-Robots, Control of Nonholonomic Systems, Visual Servoing, Distributed Optimization, Distributed Sensor Networks, Nonlinear Control of Energy Systems.  Recenty, Dr. Wany was awarded an NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant.  He is a Member of the IEEE.

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Thursday, April 29, 2010 - IEEE Section Dinner Meeting

Topic:  Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Students Branch,
2010 Robotic Competition Report Presentation
Speaker: Members of the ERAU Robotics Team

In March of 2010 a team from the IEEE Student Branch of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University  (ERAU) attended the 2010 IEEE Southeast Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina.  The purpose of the trip was to participate in a Robotics Competition held in conjunction with SoutheastCon 2010.  The event involved competition between solar powered autonomously controlled vehicle designed and developed by a number of technical colleges and universities throughout the Southeast portion of the United States.

The ERAU students built a robot that from a completely discharged state was required to charge the vehicle using solar power and autonomously race around an obstacle course.  Each competitive vehicle had to charge and then complete as much of the obstacle course as possible within the 3 minute time limit. The ERAU team placed second of all the teams competing in the special competition ladder. They were limited to competing in the special ladder as they had one member of their team who was a postgraduate student.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Students Branch, 2010 Robotic Competition Team were the speakers for the evening. Several members of the ERAU Robotics Team will described the process taken to conceive, design, build, and test their robot, the results of the competition, as well  the experiences gained and lessons learned.  A live demonstration of the robot in action will be presented.

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March 25th, 2010 - IEEE Section Dinner Meeting
Topic: Small Radio Telescope Program Review
Speaker: Charles R. Husbands and Dr. Hugh Ward

In 2007 Dr. Hugh Ward and Dr. Jane Owen prepared a proposal to the IEEE Life Members Committee to fund a Small Radio Telescope (SRT) for educational purposes. It was proposed to use the SRT to teach Radio Astronomy, Electronics and Data Processing in the local schools, and for College and University Research projects.  Grant funds were received from the IEEE Life Members Fund, hardware was ordered and assembly began in late 2008.  The first phase of the program, Assembly and Testing, took place between September 2008 and February 2009.  The second phase of the program, the Installation and Testing of the SRT, at the planetarium of the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach Florida occurred between February and May of 2009.  Due to flooding in the Planetarium at the Museum in May 2009 a third phase of the program, to install a wireless data link from the Planetarium to the Museums Auditorium was undertaken. This link allowed the SRT to be operated and displayed in either the Planetarium or the Auditorium. The development phase of this program was completed in December 2009.

At the present time there are two additional phases in the SRT development program underway.  One is the implementation of the hardware and software necessary to permit the SRT to be operated remotely over the internet.  In addition an educational program is underway, under the direction of Dr. Ward. This program involves the design of processing software and lesson plans that will permit the SRT to be used within the museum and our local school system for age appropriate education.  The current status of these programs will be reviewed and on how we envision the SRT being used in near future will be discussed.
 

Charles R. Husbands holds a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering and a Masters Degree in Engineering Management.  He has been a practicing engineer for over 40 years and is a Senior Life Member of the IEEE.  In 1996 he retired from the MITRE Corporation where he directed a research group in fiber optic technology.  In retirement he formed Blackhorse Communications a   private consulting company specializing in optical and microwave communications.  He has published and lectured extensively on optical networks and communication systems and holds a number of patents in this area.  He is currently the Project Manager for the Daytona Section’s Small Radio Telescope Program.

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February 25th, 2010 - IEEE Section Dinner Meeting
Topic: Road Mapping Automotive Electronics
Speaker: Ron Gedney

Among the 26 chapters in the INEMI roadmap is the "Product Emulator" for Automotive Products.  The Roadmap has consistently predicted that electronics will become 30% to 40% of the manufacturing cost of an automobile!! There is an on-going dramatic increase in the use of electronic systems to enable better performance, handling and reliability in the automobile.  Today's car depends on "drive-by-wire" technologies for steering, braking and handling.  We are beginning to see the use of radar systems for "blind spot" management, parking, lane changing, driving while impaired, or falling asleep at the wheel.  Manufacturers are introducing new systems that will allow the driver to view internal and external information such as temperature and humidity; hands-free communication and entertainment systems; GPS travel directions/maps; tolling, and more.  Hybrid vehicles are being introduced with voltages ranging from 42V to 500V.  Some of these systems will be discussed as well as new technologies that are yet to come.

Ron Gendney was V.P. Operations and Chief Technical Officer for the International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI) and was responsible for the development and publication of the item biannual Roadmap.  He retired from iNEMI at the end of 2002 (although continued to be involved with several of ongoing projects on a consulting basis).  He joined the consortium in 1996, bringing with him nearly 40 years experience in the development, manufacturing and procurement of electronic components and electronics packaging.

Mr. Gedney has several patents in electronic packaging and has authored or co-authored numerous technical articles, several book chapters and co-edited a book on lead-free electronics.  He is past president of the IEEE Components Packaging and Manufacturing Technology (CPMT) Society, past General Chairman of the IEEE/EIA-sponsored Electronic Components and Technology Conference, past chairman of the CMPT Binghamton chapter, a Fellow of the IEEE and an associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Electronics Packaging Manufacturing.  In 1999 Mr. Gedney was the recipient of the IEEE CMPT Society's David Feldman Outstanding Contribution Award.  He was presented with the IEEE third Millennium Medal in 2000.  He received the SolderTec Global Lead-free Solder Award in 2004 " in recognition of his leadership and technical expertise in eliminating lead from electronic assemblies".  He graduated from Tufts University with a degree in electrical engineering.

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January 28, 2010 - IEEE Section Dinner Meeting
Topic: Magnetic Gear Drives
Speaker: Dr. Kent Davey

Propulsion drives for ships and submarines, windmills, and ocean floor turbines are all characterized by high torque and low speed. The conversion of mechanical energy to electrical or vice versa is characterized by large electromechanical volumes at low rotation speeds. Gears are a convenient way to convert the slow speed, high torque side to a high speed, low torque counterpart. A magnetic gearbox has the following advantages over mechanical gearboxes:

• no lubrication
• overload protected
• reduced mechanical fatigue
• no mechanical contact losses
• no mechanical contact acoustic noise
• potential for very high efficiency (only a little core loss and bearing loss)
• high torque per volume ratio  - considerably higher than a standard motor or generator

Clever topologies allow the magnetic gear to compete with a mechanical gear. The right topologies allow approximately ½ of the magnetic teeth to engage with their mate at any one time. Such an engagement is impossible with mechanical gears.

Dr. Kent Davey is an independent consultant in electromechanics and electromagnetic, and an adjunct Professor with the School of Physics, University of Houston. He is a Fellow with the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and Editor of IEEE Transactions on Magnetics. He specializes in the interaction of electric and magnetic fields with matter and in the numerical computation of electric and magnetic fields.  He was formerly Senior Research Scientist with the Center of Electromechanics, University of Texas, Austin. Before that he was the Chief Research Scientist for American Maglev, and a tenured Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. He has 93 refereed journal papers with IEEE and another 90 conference publications.

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<>December 8th, 2009 - IEEE Section Dinner Meeting

Topic:  Speech Recognition

Speaker: Tracy Wichmann

 

Machine recognition of human speech has been under development since the early 60's. Everybody is familiar with the tedious telephone menus that we are forced to muddle through to communicate with our suppliers. The problems arise from two sources: poor recognition of phonemes and neglecting to relate the phoneme identification process to the context of the dialog. The  basic approach is to isolate phonemes from the sound pattern. If the phonemes can be identified then there is a one to one correspondence between a sequence of phonemes and a word. Unfortunately, phonemes are hard to isolate and so a statistical prediction algorithm, called a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) is used. Another method is called Dynamic Time Warping (DTW). Vocoder patterns (frequency vs. time) are presented and it is shown that they are basically pictures of a sequence of phonemes blended together. DTW can adjust for speed and emphasis in speech. The HMM can help identify phonemes by their relationship to adjacent phonemes. This presentation includes a demonstration of voice recognition and vocoder operation.

Professor Wichmann graduated from MIT with a degree in Physics and did his graduate studies at Ohio State and UCLA in Electrical Engineering. His career specialty was Electronic Warfare and he is a charter member of the AOC (Electronic Defense Association). He joined the  IEEE in 1952. He worked for the Air Force as an Electronic Scientist and for Litton, Teledyne and Hughes Aircraft Company in various engineering and program management capacities . He did his Speech Recognition work originally at Litton in the 1960s. Mr. Wichmann has published over 50 papers in various scientific journals and given dozens of technical presentations at technical symposia and conventions over the years.

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October 22nd, 2009 - IEEE Section Dinner Meeting

Topic:  Communications Considerations for a Smart Grid

Speaker: Adrian Zvarych TCR Engineering

The nation's need for developing a Smart Grid has reached a pinnacle, where lessening our dependence on foreign oil, reducing carbon footprints, managing an aging electric infrastructure, and making the grid more efficient is vital to the health of our nations' economy.  At the heart beat of a Smart Grid is a robust and reliable communications infrastructure.  This presentation will provide an overview of critical Smart Grid components, and demonstrate how the communications infrastructure is vital to ensuring consumer loads and utility generation supply can be well balanced in the future.

Adrian Zvarych graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University with a BSEE in 1982, and has served in the utility industry since then.  Starting off as a protection & controls field engineer with FPL in Broward County, he was the youngest engineer to work on the design of a 500kV substation upgrade and expansion, and went on to develop the first 'virtual bus differential' station protection scheme at Florida Power Corp, exploiting available logic in the microprocessor based protective relays.  After entering the telecommunications field within Progress Energy in 1997, he was involved in developing fiber optic and other communication network topologies, managing telecom assets, and then later helping other utilities develop their telecom infrastructures. 

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September 24th, 2009 - IEEE Section Dinner Meeting

Topic:  South Pole Research Mission Presents Logistical and Physiological Challenges

Speaker: Michael Potash, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

The terrestrial monitoring of atmospheric light spectra demands freedom from light and air pollution. For this reason and others, the South Pole is continually occupied by a diverse collection of scientists taking advantage of its unique environment. Every December, the Space Physics Research facility at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University deploys scientists to the South Pole to calibrate instrumentation for data gathering that will occur during the dark Antarctic winter. In 2008, they sent the first father-son science team in the history of the South Pole. The endeavor presented various logistical and physiological challenges to the father-son duo and made for a memorable adventure.

Michael Potash was born in Brooklyn New York where he developed an interest in electronics at an early age. His talents in music and technology found synergistic expression when he was hired as a recording engineer and electronics technician at a New York recording studio. Michael taught technical electronics in both the New York and Florida public schools before accepting a position as an electronics technician at Embry-Riddle University. Today he spends his time designing flight-related instrumentation systems and teaching the occasional class for the university. Michael holds a BSEd from City College of New York and will shortly receive a BSEE from Embry-Riddle. He lives in Ormond Beach with his wife Melody and their two children, Noah and Eliana. Noah is in the process of earning his Master’s degree in software engineering at Embry-Riddle.

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April 26, 2009 - IEEE Section Dinner Meeting

Topic: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Students Presentation

Speaker: Members of the ERAU Robotics Team

A team from the IEEE Student Branch of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University  (ERAU) went to attend the IEEE Southeast Con 2009 in Atlanta, GA in early March 2009. The purpose of the trip was to participate in a Robotics Competition held in conjunction with the Conference.  The theme of the competition was "Recycling beverage containers."  About forty colleges and universities from all over the Southeastern  portion of the United States entered this competition.

The ERAU students built a robot that can autonomously find, pick up, sort, and store plastic bottles, glass bottles, and aluminum cans by using various electrical and mechanical parts controlled by software.

The speakers for the evening were several members of the ERAU Robotics Team.  They  described the process taken to conceive, design, build, and test of their robot, the results of the competition, as well an the experiences gained and lessons learned.  A live demonstration of the robot's  functions was conducted.

 

K. Clint Slatton (S’95–M’02–SM’07) received B.S. and M.S. degrees in aerospace engineering and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering, all from the University of Texas (UT) in Austin, TX in 1993, 1997, 1999, and 2001, respectively.  From 2002 to 2003, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Center for Space Research at UT, where he worked on multiscale data fusion techniques for interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) and airborne laser swath mapping (ALSM) measurements. He also worked at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the Radar Sciences Section and was a recipient of the NASA Graduate Student Research Program Fellowship. He is currently an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. He is the Director of the Adaptive Signal Processing Laboratory and a co-investigator for the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM), for which he develops information-theoretic segmentation methods for ALSM data in complex environments, such as forests.  He was named a 2006 winner of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) for work on predicting signal propagation in highly cluttered environments using remotely sensed geometry from ALSM.  His research interests include remote sensing applications of ALSM and InSAR, high dimensional data segmentation, multiscale data fusion, graphical models, and photonics, with sponsored projects from NSF, NASA, the US Army, the US Navy, and NOAA.  Dr. Slatton is a member of the AGU and also of Sigma Xi, Tau Beta Pi, and Sigma Gamma Tau.

January 22, 2009 - IEEE Section Dinner Meeting

Topic:  Electronic Roadmap to Improve Electronic Manufacturing Technologies

Speaker: George Till
Halifax Medical Center Foundation Speakers Bureau

INEMI is an industry led consortium of approximately 70 electronics manufactures, suppliers, and related organizations.  Its mission is to identify and  close technology gaps, which includes the development and integration of the electronics industry supply infrastructure.  Accelerated deployment of technology is shaped and led by member companies , and provides benefits to the global electronics industry.

The primary tool used to identify technology gaps is the Technology Roadmap, updated and published every two years. Products leaders from the large corporations define future technology  needs for specific product areas  and produce a set of product emulator tables defining the measurable attributes of technologies required for their product areas.  These requirements are then analyzed by manufacturing experts from approximately 20 manufacturing disciplines to identify risk, or gaps, in being able to satisfy product needs in the desired time frame.  These gaps are used to prioritize research and development efforts.

All of these efforts are  performed by volunteers from the member organizations.  The INEMI Secretariat is a small group headquartered in Herndon, Virginia who act as a facilitators of these efforts.  In recognition of the global nature of the electronics industry, offices have also been established in Europe and Asia.

December 2nd, 2008 - IEEE Section Dinner Meeting

On December 2nd, 2008 Dr. Carl Schwenker MD from the Halifax Medical Center Foundation Speakers Bureau will speak on the da Vinci S Surgical System. The Halifax Medical Center has recently acquired the da Vinci S Surgical System, a sophisticated robotic platform designed to enable complex surgery using a minimally invasive approach.  The system translates the surgeon's motions into tiny movements and corrects for any hand tremors or extra hand motion. This allows for complex surgeries with small incisions, revolutionizing minimally invasive surgery and expanding the types of surgeries that can be performed.

The daVinci S Surgical System changes surgery in three ways, it simplifies many existing minimally invasive surgeries (MIS), laparoscopies.  Makes difficult MIS operations routine, and makes new MIS procedures possible.  The system replicates the surgeon's hand movements in real time.  It cannot be programmed, nor can it make decisions on its own to move in any way or perform any type of surgical maneuver without the surgeon's input. With the da Vinci S Surgical system, patients may experience improved patient outcomes such as reduced trauma to the body, reduced blood loss and need for transfusions, less post-operative pain and discomfort, less risk of infection, shorter hospital stays, faster recovery and return to normal daily activities, and less scarring.

Dr. Carl Schwenker was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.  He graduated from the University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine and served his internship and residency at Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami, FL.  He was  in private practice, OB/GYN, in Daytona Beach from 1963 until 1996.  After retirement he started a second career with the Foundation (Halifax Medical Center) working in fund raising, Medical staff liaison and organizing a Community Speakers Bureau.  Dr. Schwenker also worked as an advocate for prevention of child abuse. He and his wife became foster parents and ultimately adopted a special needs child.  He also served on the board of Community Partnerships for Children, a lead agency of the Florida Department of Children and Families

On October 23rd, 2008 Morgan B. Gilreath Jr. of the Volusia County Property Appraiser's Office will speak on the ballot initiatives being decided at the November 4th, 2008 elections. These ballot initiatives will share the election ballot with candidates running for local , county and national offices.  These initiatives may have an effect on local property values and taxes. Mr. Gilreath will discuss the impact of the past and proposed constitutional amendments of local education from elementary through the collegiate level.  The talk will be very timely and will not be political, but fact based.
 
Morgan B. Gilreath Jr., has been a Volusia county employee since 1986 and has been with the Volusia County Property Appraiser's Office for all of that time.  He holds an MA degree and is a US Army Vietnam veteran.  His professional accreditation's include the Certified Florida Appraiser (CFA) designation by  the Florida Department of Revenue and the Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) designation awarded  by the American Society of Appraisers.

He is a former Associate Professor at the University of Georgia, where he was instrumental in appraisal related course development and instruction.  Mr. Gilreath has published extensively and  has  been involved in the development of several appraisal textbooks used nationally.

On September 25th, 2008 Dr. Lou McNally of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University will be addressing climate changes (global warming to some people) and man's input, potential impact, and answers (based in fact) to questions about the whole problem. There is quite a bit of literature on both sides of the question, but the peer-reviewed science (the stuff we can now measure) all points one way.  He looking forward to helping solve the dilemma in everybody's mind.
  
Lou McNally, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Meteorology for Applied Meteorology, Broadcast Meteorology, Aviation Meteorology and Climatology at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.  His experience includes work with the Bermuda Weather Service as an Operational Meteorologist (Forecaster) with Hurricane/Subtropical Storm experience.  He also heads McNally & Associates, Inc. which provides Operational and Consulting Meteorologist services.  Dr. McNally received his Ph.D. (Interdisciplinary) and M.S. from the University of Maine.

                                     April 24th, 2008 - IEEE Section Dinner Meeting

On April 5th, 2008 the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Student Branch of the Daytona IEEE Section sent a team of students to the SoutheastenCon 2008 in Huntsville Alabama.  The purpose of the trip was to participate in a Robotic Competition held in conjunction with the Southeastern Conference.  The theme of the competition was "Return to the Moon." Forty one colleges and universities from all over the southeast portion of the United States entered this competition.
  
The ERAU students built a robot that could autonomously explore and retrieve resources and then transport them back to a lunar base station.   The playing field was a 6 foot by 6 foot plywood deck., partially covered with  with small rocks firmly glued to the plywood surface to form a simulated lunar surface.  The objects to be detected and stored by the robot were wooden blocks of various colors equipped with RFID tags.  The block took on various values based on their color and value noted on the RFID tags.  The autonomous robot had to (1) find the location of the wood blocks with IR sensors, (2) drive to the location of the blocks with the help of the IR sensors and digital compass, (3) sense the worth of the blocks with the RFID reader, (4) pick up the blocks with and store on board the robot, (5) carry the blocks back and deposit them at the base station. To add confusion to the process two robots were on the same playing field simultaneously competing for the same blocks and physical positions.

The speakers for the evening will be several of the members of the Embry Riddle Aeronautical University Robotic Team.  They will describe the design and operation of the robot, and the results of the competition.

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                            March 27th, 2008 - IEEE Section Dinner Meeting

Since its launch in 2003, NASA's fourth Great Observatory, the Spitzer Space Telescope, has devoted over 1500 hours of time looking at various objects in our Solar System.  Its unique vantage point and design have given us an unprecedented infrared view of our neighborhood.  Spitzer has observed near-Earth asteroids whizzing by, icy asteroids beyond Neptune, even a cloud of dust that surrounds planet Earth.  Dr. Fernandez will review some of the highlights of over four years of data collected by this remarkable telescope and will discuss some of the open questions that remain.

Yan Fernandez received his Ph.D.. in Astronomy in 1999 from the University of Maryland and has been an Assistant  Professor at the University of Central Florida's Department of Physics since 2005.  His research area is planetary science with an emphasis on the small bodies of the Solar System.  His studies involve the thermal, physical. and compositional properties of active comets, dormant comets, asteroids, and icy outer-Solar System objects.  His goal is to understand the evolution of our Solar System.  To do this he uses telescopes around the world and in space, including the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Radio Astronomy is a discipline never satisfied with the current state of technology.  Since its beginnings, scientists have been in search of lower noise systems to delve deeper into the cosmos, and more processing power to analyze the volumes of data generated by their telescopes.  Recent Advances in FPGA technology have enabled a fundamental change in the design of large radio telescopes.  The Allen Telescope Array (ATA) is the first of this generation, which combines high speed DSP with many small antennas to rival more costly large antenna telescopes.  Built by University of California Berkeley and the SETI Institute and funded by Microsoft's Paul Allen, the ATA will consist of 350 separate low-cost antennas ad be capable of a diverse range of coordinated tasks,  including 24/7 simultaneous observing by multiple users.  In this talk, Dr. Barott will discuss the history and future of radio astronomy and SETI, along with his personal experiences as a developer for the ATA Project.

William C. Barott, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.  He is a graduate of Georgia Institute of Technology (BS/MS/PhD), and specializes in antenna, phased arrays, and RF systems.  He has been involved in SETI-related work since his undergraduate years, and joined the Allen Telescope Array project as the primary developer of the ATA beamformer.  He spent the summer of 2007 living at the ATA Hat Creek facility in Northern California.

In a world utilizing only a single currency, investments could be made strictly based on the environment, however, this is no longer the case.  Movement of one currency with respect to another may strongly influence or even overwhelm the rate of return on the investment itself.  Forecasting of exchange rates can itself be treated as an investment vehicle if it can be done so accurately and therefore has been treated with great interest by the research community.  Also, in countries where loans carry high interest rates, corporations and corporate customers often prefer to take loans in foreign currencies with lower interest rates. In order to minimize the currency risk it is common to construct a loan that consists of baskets of currencies.

In this presentation, an introduction to neural networks will be provided along with its application to the prediction of foreign exchange rates.  As a case study, we will focus on the ISD/ISK (US Dollar to Icelandic Krona) exchange rate, as Multi-Currency Instruments are quite popular in Iceland.  Results using various neural network learning algorithms will be provided along with an overview of the state of the art in the field.

Daniel Plante received his Ph.D. in physics from Notre Dame in 1995 and was a research postdoc in atomic physics at Auburn University before entering the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Stetson University, where he is presently an Associate Professor of  Computational Sciences.  Daniel's research interests are essentially everything that students interested in working with him are interested in, though his personal favorites are machine learning and artificial intelligence.  During recent years, his research has included finite element grid arrangement,  f financial computing, automated music transcription, multi-server database design, and data mining applied to optimizing software patent similarity.

His work was done in collaboration with Bleeder Mugnusson.  Baldur graduated from Stetson University in December 2005 with a double major in Mathematics and Computer Science.  There he completed his senior research paper on "Currency Predictions for Mult-Currency Instruments" and was awarded the Emmet S. Ashcraft Award, presented to the most outstanding junior in mathematics and computer science at Stetson.  Baldur is presently a Ph.D. student in the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering at Cornell University.

The 20th century saw a tremendous increase in electronics capabilities.  We now live in an information age dominated by electronic products in information resources, communication, and entertainment.  How did this happen?  Who were the key players and what were their inventions that changed the world?  What is Moore's Law and how has it driven the semiconductor industry?  Come and learn about the history of the electronics industry and where we are today.  I'll even explain why semiconductor stock prices are so volatile.  What are the challenges for the future?  What strange things happen in the quantum world that will limit future productivity?  Why have CPU clock speeds stopped increasing?  What is nano and how do we get there?  I'll describe some future challenges to provide faster and cheaper technologies.

Mark Law is a professor and chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida.  He received the B.S. Cpr.E. degree from Iowa State University in 1981, the M.S.E.E. from, Stanford University in 1982, and the Ph.D. degree from Stanford University in 1988.  His current research interests are in integrated circuit process modeling, characterization, and device modeling.  Dr. Law was named a National Science Foundation Presidential Faculty Fellow in 1992, 1993 Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) Technical Excellence Award, Outstanding Young Alumni of Iowa State in 1994.  College of Engineering Teacher of the the Year in 1996-97, a UF Research Fellow in 1998, and won the 2006 SRC Aristotle Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Advising and Iowa State Professional Achievement Award in 2007.  Dr. Law has written over 200 papers in the area of process and device modeling and has advised 17 Ph.D. students.  He has been involved in almost $15 million of funding during his career, most from industrial sources.  He is an IEEE EDS distinguished lecturer.  He is a member of the American Physical Society, Material Research Society, and American Society for Engineering Education.  He was named an IEEE Fellow in 1998  for his contributions to integrated circuitry process modeling and simulation.

With the communications and computer technology now available, our ability to communicate, conduct business, make purchases. and conduct financial transactions has become easier and faster.  However, with this comes the risk that information about your personal and financial identity may be stolen.  This risk has increased dramatically in the past years.  Once stolen, it may take years to rectify the damage done to your credit as well as a considerable financial toll.  Our speaker will discuss these issues and what you can do to reduce the threat.

Theresa Ronnebaum has been employed with the Florida Attorney General's Office since 1999.  She has been with the Office of Statewide Prosecution since September of 2002 as the first federally funded Identity Theft Victim Advocate to Florida.  Mrs. Ronnebaum is also currently working with the Office of Victims of Crime as a consultant on the topic of Identity Theft and how to better assist victims.  Her passion for the criminal justice field began with her prior employment as a county probation officer and as a victim advocate in the sex crimes, domestic violence and child abuse units for the 9th Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office.  Theresa received her Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice with a Minor in Psychology from Florida State University in 1995.

Jay Young is a graduate of Broward Engineering College with a BSEE, Nova University with a BSBA.  He has worked for GE, Lockheed Martin, NASA, Public Service Co. of New Mexico, and Florida Power and Light too name a few and has been awarded 2 US patents.  Jay has been a business owner for over 28 years, He is a Member of CrimeStoppers, served on the Community Arbitration Program, Community Citizen Law Enforcement Advisory Committee for Volusia County and currently is a member and past Chair of the Daytona Beach Police Advisory Committee.  He also has had training in Anti-riot management and anti terrorism.  Winner of the Community Service Award and the Golden Circle Award for community service.  He currently serves on the county Land Management and Regulation Commission for Volusia County.

                 27 September - 2007 - IEEE Section Dinner Meeting

To kick off the new  season, we thought it would be nice to have an opportunity for our members to get to know each other.  With that thought in mind, we decided to deviate from our usual program of guest speakers and have a more casual, social program.

We all know that it doesn't take much to get an engineer to talk about his/her work.  So, we'll take advantage of what some non-engineering types may consider an annoying "social disorder" and have some interesting, informative presentations.

To begin the program, our officers will introduce themselves and give a brief verbal summary of their background, professional experience, place of current and/or former employment, hobbies and any noteworthy achievement or humorous work event that may interest our members.

After that, we invite the other members in attendance to introduce themselves and give a similar brief background and any related story about his or her career you think may be interesting.  We also invite the members  to introduce their spouse and/or guests.

However, knowing that most engineers have a tendency to get carried away when they get talking about their work, we may be forced to employ 'the hook' after about 4 minutes to give everyone a chance to have their few minutes of fame.  Although we encourage participation, those who aren't comfortable speaking or are in the witness protection program or working undercover with an assumed identity, can just introduce themselves.

The European Union’s move to Pb-free electronics has been a challenge to electronic packaging technology. From a technical point of view, the move to higher temperature soldering has impacted all components and processes involved in electronics manufacturing. A little known reliability issue has arisen from the use of tin (Sn) plated component leads (terminals) which can form small mono-filament protrusions commonly known as “whiskers”. Tin whiskers have impacted missiles, satellites, nuclear power plants and computer systems – that we know of.

This presentation will discuss how the problem of tin whiskers is being addressed, what is being done around the globe on this issue and its status.

Ron Gedney retired as V.P. Operations from iNEMI in 2002, but continues to do some consulting work on Pb-free electronics. He joined the consortium in 1996, bringing with him nearly 40 years experience in the development, manufacturing and procurement of electronic components and packaging. The bulk of his career was spent at IBM, where he was involved in the development of electronic packages for semiconductors.

                   

26 October-2006 - IEEE Section Dinner Meeting
Topic:  Planets, Draft Planets and Small Solar System Bodies

The recent "demotion" of Pluto to a dwarf planet status has created a lot of public outcry, but the actions of the International Astronomical Union during their convention in Prague this past August are not without historical precedence.  Roger R. Hoefer, Curator of Astronomy for Volusia District Schools and the Museum of Arts and Sciences will explore the history, origins and evolution of the nomenclature that astronomers use to identify the various members of our solar system.  Also included will be some of the latest images of Pluto and extrasolar planets taken by the Hubbell Space Telescope.

Roger Hoefer is a 1962 graduate of Northwest Oklahoma State University in Alva, Oklahoma with a BA Ed in elementary education. He began his teaching career in Jefferson County Public Schools near Denver, Colorado as an elementary teacher and outdoor education specialist.  He also trained as a planetarium specialist in the school system's planetarium.  In 1959 he was hired as Curator of Astronomy at the Dayton Museum of Natural History in Dayton, Ohio where he was planetarium and observatory director.  He was Planetarium Director and space science educator in the Future Astronaut Training Program at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson, Kansas for 5 years before moving to Daytona Beach in 1991.

Near the peak of the Cold War the North American Treaty Organization (NATO) suggested installing a series of high power long range radar systems in the island nation of Iceland.  The purpose of these radar systems was to provide tracking and identification all aircraft crossing the Atlantic Ocean between Labrador and Ireland.  These radar also allowed aircraft to be tracked in the Arctic Ocean between  Greenland to Scotland. The final solution for interconnecting these radar systems was to design and construct a dual counter rotating fiber optic network around the entire perimeter of the island.

This presentation will cover the design and construction of this Icelandic fiber optic network.  In a cooperative effort between the Icelandic Post and Telegraph (IPT) and NATO  provided a facility was designed to carry not only the radar data but all of the telephone, data and television communications traffic on the island. Because of the unique terrain and environmental conditions encountered in Iceland a unique set of construction techniques were required  to construct this network. This presentation will describe the technical details of  the cable plant, operational hardware and the network control necessary to successfully build and operate this network. 

Charles Husbands holds a Masters Degree in  Electrical Engineering and a Masters Degree in Engineering Management.  He has been a practicing engineer for over 40 years  and is a Senior Life Member of the IEEE.  In 1996 he retired from the MITRE Corporation where he directed a research group in fiber optic technology.  In retirement he formed Blackhorse Communications a   private consulting company specializing in optical and microwave communications.  He has published and lectured extensively on optical networks and communication systems and hold a number of patents in this area.  From 1987  to 1994 he served as a consultant for the United States Air Force to the Iceland Post and Telecommunications service supporting the design and implementation of Iceland's national fiber optic ring network.

 In 2004 the DARPA Grand Challenge field test of autonomous ground vehicles ran from Barstow California to Primm, Nevada and offered a  $ 1 million prize. However. the prize  went unclaimed as no vehicle of the 15 finalists were able to complete the difficult desert route.  In 2005 the Grand Challenge Prize was increased to $ 2 million.  The Stanford University Racing Team claimed the prize completing the course of 132 miles in a winning  time of 6 hours, 53 minutes.  This presentation will  concentrate on the major challenges faced in a developing an autonomous vehicle for long distance operation in a hostile environment.  Focus was placed on the interdisciplinary character of the work effort and the  application of this technology to future autonomous vehicles.

Remo Pillat received his MS in Computer Science from Ilmenau Technical University,Germany.  He is currently a Ph.D. student in the Computer Vision Lab at the University of Central Florida (UCF).  His interest in Germany included image metrology with an Atomic Force Microscope, and Indoor and Outdoor robot navigation and localization. In 2004, he participated in an exchange study program between his home university and UCF, where he was one of the first members of UCF's Grand Challenge Team.  During the qualification and contest period of the DARPA Grand  Challenge.  Remo was the Chief Software Developer for UCF's autonomous car.  His current graduate work involves research in the area of 3D Robot  vision.

                    19 January 2006 - IEEE Section Dinner Meeting
             Topic:  Managing Electrical Power Distribution System Reliability
                                     Speaker: Elmer Lee Pettit, Jr.

                         20 October 2005 - IEEE Section Dinner Meeting
                                  Subject: Introductory Analysis of High Level Systems
                                          Speaker: Robert P. Haviland  

R. P. "Bob" Haviland was one of the early workers in the nation's space program.  He served as Project Engineer for a number of space projects including the development of the first two-stage rocket, the launch of the first object to reach outer space, and the first missile launch from Cape Cavernal. Bob pioneered the use of ablation coatings to provide heat protection, enabling successful reentry and recovery of space material. Bob is credited with conceiving the Discovery Program, the foundation of using satellites for reconnaissance purposes.

In retirement he is now active in examining solutions to environmental concerns.In this presentation Bob will examine the concept of "systems."  Systems exist in almost every field.  We have computer systems, mechanical systems, the solar system, and even the Ponzi Pyramid System.  Despite the casual use of the term there is no formal definition of what constitutes a system.  In this presentation a test will be developed to show that a system has been created.  This process will then be extended to formalize the common concept of sub-systems, systems and super-systems and provide examples of this designation.

                       22 September 2005 - IEEE Dinner Meeting
                Topic: Central Florida, A Hotspot for Modeling and Simulation (M&S) Technology                                Speaker: Robert L. Wittman Jr., MITRE Corporation             

 Central Florida is a hotspot for modeling and simulation (M&S) technology and it continues to grow at a rapid pace.  Not only  will you find a number of world-class M&S research and educational facilities in the area, but Central Florida is also home to a range of DoD sponsors and contracting organizations.  Additionally, there are growing demands and support for other "secure" and entertainment  gaming technologies.  This presentation explores  the variety of existing and emerging M&S activities and technologies in and around Central Florida.

Robert Wittman Jr. holds a Masters Degree in Software Engineering from the University of West Florida and a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Central Florida. He works for the Mitre Corporation as an architect for the Army's next generation simulation system.

       1 June 2005 - May Meeting and IEEE Life Member Affinity Group Trip
        Topic: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Museum and Missile Launch Facilities  

The Life Member Affinity Group of the Daytona Section of IEEE will toured the Air Force Station,  Museums and Missile Launch facilities located south of the NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The Air Force Base was the assembly and launch facility which supported  the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo Missions.  The base is still the major launch facility for most of the nation's commercial and military satellite programs. 

                            21 April 2005 - IEEE Dinner Meeting
                                     Topic: Pico Satellite Design Effort
          Speaker: Pico Satellite Design Team, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University  

In late September 2004 a team of student at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University began work on the design of the Pico Satellite. The Pico Satellite is being developed as part of the Florida University Satellite competition.   The purpose of the Embry-Riddle satellite design is to count lighting strikes from its Low Earth Orbit of approximately 800 km in altitude.  The satellite will detect lighting over a predetermined geographical areas and will record the number of lighting strikes during a prescribed detection time.  The goal of the competitive satellite design effort is to encourage Florida Universities to develop satellite systems.

                        24 March 2005 - IEEE Dinner Meeting
                        Topic: Moons, Methane, and Saltwater Oceans
               Speaker: Roger R. Hoefer, Curator of Astronomy for Volusia County
                            Schools and the Museum of Arts and Sciences
                                    Planetarium in Daytona Beach

Roger Hoefer will discuss recent discoveries by NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) and ESA's Express orbiter combined with information from the Galileo and Cassinni/Huygens mission.  These studies have added to a growing list of discoveries that have exobiologists around the world excited about the possibility of finding life on other bodies in our solar system.  Roger R. Hoefer has a BA Ed. in elementary education from Northwest Oklahoma State University. In 1969 he was hired as Curator of Astronomy at the Dayton Museum of Natural History in Dayton, Ohio where he was planetarium and observatory director.  He was Planetarium Director and space science educator in the Future Astronaut Training Program at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson Kansas before taking his present position in Daytona Beach in 1991.

                         24 February 2005 - IEEE Dinner Meeting
                   Topic: Analyzing Legacy Systems with the Architecture Analysis
                                     and Design Language (AADL)
               Speaker: Dr. David P. Gluch, Professor in the Department of Computer
                     and Software Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University  

Dr. David P. Gluch research interest is model-based software engineering with a focus on high dependability performance-critical systems analysis and verification.  His current research centers on the extension and application of the SAE Architecture Analysis and Design Language (AADL) standard. Dr. Gluch has a Ph.D. in physics from Florida State University and is a senior member of IEEE.  He has co-authored a book on real-time UNIX systems and authored numerous technical reports and professional articles.

                              20 January 2005 - IEEE Dinner Meeting
       Topic: Spectral Sliced Technology Applied to Optical Local Area Network
         Speaker: Charles R. Husbands, Consultant, Blackhorse Communications  

Charles Husbands holds a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering and a Masters Degree in Engineering Management.  He has been a practicing Engineer for over 40 years and is a Senior Life Member of the IEEE.  In 1996 he retired from the MITRE Corporation where he directed a research group in fiber optics technology.  In retirement he formed Blackhorse Communications a private consulting company specializing in optical and microwave communications systems. He has published and lectured extensively on optical networks and communication systems and holds a number of patents in this area.  In this presentation he will describe a  Wavelength Division Multiplexing technique developed by spectrum slicing select wavelengths from low cost LED components.  This technique can be deployed to increase the bandwidth capacity of existing optical networks.