May Letter from the Chair

Annual IEEE-HR Social

Thanks to all who came out to April’s meeting on the 17th to hear Russ Harrison of IEEE-USA talk about legislative affairs of interest to EEs. As expected, the H-1B “guest worker” program dominated the discussion. Russ provided an excellent detailed description of the program, both how it was intended to work and how it operates today. With the mis-match between H-1B visas granted and the few EB permanent green cards available, hi-tech workers in this program do not have an easy time of it. Russ summarized IEEEUSA’s official position on the H-1B program in general as well as the desire for a properly operating program. Other topics provided lively discussion as well, including patent reform and congressional support for renewable energy. Thanks to all who attended; if you would like to get in touch with Russ to follow up or inquire about additional IEEE-USA topics, he can be reached at .

IEEE Hampton Roads has concluded our spring technical presentation series and is busily preparing our Fall series. At press time, we are planning to invite Adeeb Hamzey from IEEE Richmond, Aftab Ahmad of Norfolk State (IPSec) and a presentation about Jefferson Labs. For complete details, see our September newsletter or follow our website throughout the summer at www.ieee.org/hrs.

Upcoming meetings:

• IEEE-HR social event at the Virginia Beach planetarium May 27
• IEEE-HR no host summer social at Ocean View Fishing Pier 19 Jun
• IEEE-HR no host summer social at Red Star Tavern at Oyster Point 17 July
• IEEE-HR Executive Committee meeting at Paneras August 21
• IEEE Sections Congress 2008 (Quebec City, Canada) September 19-26
  

I hope the spring 2008 technical program was interesting to our members. As always, your feedback is most welcome. For the fall we plan to mix things up a bit, both in location as well as format. We have had requests for more focus on power engineering, but we will continue to look for new and exciting computer engineering topics as well. If you have a suggested speaker or might want to present something yourself, please speak with me or any IEEE officer about this. I look forward to seeing you at the Virginia Beach Planetarium!

Regards,
Kurt Clemente, PE
2008 Chair
Hampton Roads Section