pIEEEdmont potential

A PUBLICATION OF THE PIEDMONT SECTION OF THE IEEE

January, 2002

http://carol.nuvox.net/ieee

Articles:
Message from the Chair : Next Meeting : National Engineers Week : Congressional Visits Day : Editor: Officers

Welcome to the New Year! This New Year starts off with yet another new method for sending out our newsletter. Last month I was going through our names and address database (it is called SAMIEEE) and realized that many of our members don’t have their email addresses entered in the IEEE’s database. This means, that this newsletter might be the first piece of mail in over a year. The executive committee decided to start sending a copy of the newsletter to those people via USPS. This is obviously more expensive than email, but the expense was deemed necessary. Given this, we will have to reevaluate the free meals. If you like the idea of a free meal at the meetings, I urge you to contact the IEEE and give them your current email address. Better yet, sign up for their email alias service. All of your email would be scanned for viruses before they even get to your computer! If you are worried about Spam, don’t be. The database is protected via two levels of passwords. Only trusted IEEE volunteers are allowed access.

Please let me know which delivery method you prefer to receive the newsletter. If you are using the web page as a newsletter reader and don’t want to receive the newsletter via USPS, just let me know and we’ll save another piece of mail.

Thanks and have a Happy New Year! (and I look forward to seeing you at Clemson!)

As usual, we’re starting off our New Year with our annual Student Paper Competition. Each year our section sponsors a competition between the students in our section. Usually, the students come from Clemson; however, this is not part of the rules. It can be any student member of the Piedmont Section of the IEEE in an EE type of undergraduate program (i.e. Computer Engineering is ok also). We devote one of our meetings to this competition where the students are to present their paper to the people present. There will be a few members who will volunteer as judges, which will make the final call on placement. There are cash prizes awarded to the first, second, and third placeholders. The students are judged on more than technical content. The categories (weight) are:

1. Speaking Techniques (25)
2. Style (15)
3. Intro and Conclusion (20)
4. Technical Presentation (30)
5. Discussion (10)

The top two placeholders are invited to take their presentations to the next level of competition where they will compete against others from around the region.

This is a great chance for the students to get a feel for speaking about their profession in front of a group of their peers without the pressure of a job loss or other pressure and for members of the section to get the scoop on new and emerging technologies. We encourage discussion on how the speaker has done and can potentially improve on his/her speaking skills. Please make a point to come out to support our young IEEE professionals.

Dinner will be served in classic college style with multiple varieties of pizzas. There will be no cost for dinner. The meeting will be held on the campus of Clemson University in the EIB building. The building is to the back and right of the ECE department building.

Please email Sally Surver if you plan to attend and especially if you plan to eat. She will be ordering the pizza's and needs to know how many to buy. Sally's email address is: ssally@clemson.edu .

Directions from Anderson or Greenville: turn left on Hy 93 (either from Hy 123 or Hy 76). Come to the second light (from Hy 76) and make a left. Proceed straight through the stop sign and follow the road around a slight left curve. Straight through another stop sign and the ECE building is straight ahead. After making a sharp right turn, take the next left. Down to the end of this road, the EIB building is across the street. It is marked the "Flour Daniel Building". Parking passes will be provided inside the meeting room #132.

Directions from Seneca: Exit on Hy 76 from Hy 123. Follow the above directions from there

For many years our Section has made visits to schools, usually associated with National Engineers Week. Although National Engineers Week is in February, we must plan far ahead to allow the schools to plan. The Professional Engineering group in this area does most of the coordination with the schools. We then supply Engineers to do a Career Day at a Middle School, Classroom discussion at a High School, judge a Science Fair, etc. If you are interested in participating in such an activity, please contact Nick Pasquerilla by a method listed on this newsletter. For more information please visit the E-week web page: http://www.eweek.org.

The 7th Annual Science, Engineering and Technology Congressional Visits Day (CVD) is 5-6 March 2002, in Washington, D.C. The IEEE's U.S. members are invited to join hundreds of other engineers and scientists in this two-day annual event that brings scientists, engineers, researchers, educators, and technology executives to Washington to raise visibility and support for science, engineering and technology issues. The objective of CVD is to stress the long-term importance of science and technology to the Nation through meetings with Congressional decision-makers. IEEE-USA has participated in CVD for each of the past six years, sending a contingent of members to the Hill to meet with members of Congress and their staffers. If interested in joining the team, submit the online registration form at: http://www.ieeeusa.org/forum/cvd/

Getting the Newsletter too late to make the meeting? Have an email address? Send it to me. I am usually done with the newsletter more than a week in advance of the meeting, however, because of printing times, USPS, etc., it doesn’t arrive until just before the meeting. I do send the newsletter via email right after I write it! I can email it to you as soon as it’s done! The newsletter will come in plain text. It is also available online at the web page listed above.

CHAIRMAN Mark Stokes (864) 647-2065 m.stokes@ieee.org
VICE-CHAIRMAN
SECRETARY/TREASURER Nick Pasquerilla (864) 886-1771 n.pasquerilla@ieee.org
MEMBERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Allen Thomas (864) 228-4322 a.thomas@ieee.org
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES Nick Pasquerilla (864) (864) 886-1771 n.pasquerilla@ieee.org
STUDENT ACTIVITIES Dr. John Komo (864) 656-5916 john.komo@ces.clemson.edu
EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES Lee Stogner (864) 281-8276 l.stogner@ieee.org
NEWSLETTER EDITOR Mark Stokes (864) 647-2065 m.stokes@ieee.org
AWARDS Dr. Randy Collins (864)656-5920 randy.collins@ces.clemson.edu

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The Piedmont section of the IEEE is still offering sections of its newsletter for advertising space. If you are interested in supporting this effort, please contact one of the officers listed above.

-Mark