VIRGINIA MOUNTAIN SECTION NEWSLETTER IEEE Region 3, Council 9, Section 6 April, 1999 ************************************************* CONTENTS April Meeting Student Paper Contest ..... 1 Reservations ..... 2 Directions ..... 3 Student Paper Abstracts ..... 4 March meeting Report ..... 5 Our 50th (Anniversary) ..... 6 Computer/Control/IES meeting ATM Technology ..... 7 Spread the Word 1/2-year dues ..... 8 Employer Prof. Dev. Award ..... 9 IEEE Eng. Guide, CD ROM ..... 10 VMS Web Page ..... 11 1998-99 VMS Schedule ..... 12 Your IEEE Benefits ..... 13 Virginia Mountain Section ..... 14 *************************************************( 1 ) April Meeting Annual Student Paper Competition This year's all undergraduate competition takes the form of Poster Displays. With the largest number of participants ever, there is an impressive line up of topics: Analog Sound Synthesis John Lee Pitts and Wen-Jeng Huang Virginia Military Institute -------------------- The Design and Use of a Capacitor Plate for the Removal of Adherent Cells from Culture Petri Dishes C. Thomas Boyer and Darius P. Parker Virginia Tech ------------------- The Autonomous Tank M. Lesole, M. A. Kuhr, and D. C. Wilbun Virginia Military Institute -------------------- A Hybrid Approach to Inverse Neural Network Control of Nonlinear Systems Brian Gold Virginia Tech -------------------- Reduction of Electrical Consumption Stephen Lucas, Andrew Kratt, Jae Kwon, and Daniel Parker Virginia Military Institute -------------------- VLSI Design of Plastic Cell Architecture Mikhail Itskovich, Justin Bowlus, and Daniel Roddy Virginia Tech -------------------- Digital Camera Scope for a Rifle Michael J. Condon, Brian Curtis, Trent Warnecke, and Wyatt McGraw Virginia Military Institute -------------------- Image Processing with Configurable Computers Louis M. Pochet Virginia Tech -------------------- 4-kA, 6-kV Emitter Turn-off Thyristor Mark Hartman Virginia Tech *************************************************( 2 ) Reservations for the April Meeting Thursday, Apri15, 1999 Reservations are not required Place: Hancock Atrium Virginia Tech Time: 6:00 PM Cost: No Charge Light refreshments *************************************************( 3 ) Directions From the US 460 bypass, take the Price's Fork Road Exit toward downtown Blacksburg. Turn right at the second traffic light -- West Campus Drive. Proceed past the parking lot on your left and turn left onto Perry Street, which runs between the parking lot and the campus buildings. The entrance to Hancock Hall is about half-way down Perry Street, behind Whittemore Hall. The atrium is on the ground floor. After 5, parking should be available anywhere in the large parking lot. *************************************************( 4 ) Presentation Abstracts Analog Sound Synthesis The purpose of this project is to explore the synthesis of instrumental sound through the design and manipulation of electronic circuitry. We desire to investigate the electrical circuitry that will produce a complex waveform reproducing or imitating the sound of a musical instrument. This project requires knowledge of wave shaping, wave amplification, and timing. We began this project by examining basic waveforms such as triangle, square, and sine that have characteristics which make them useful as building blocks for different musical sounds. An example would be a sine wave which is well adapted to stringed instrument sounds. The next phase required us to look at the tools used to shape the basic waveforms into the complex envelopes which imitate the natural sound: the signal generator, filter and amplifier. Filtering is the most important part of the waveshaping process. To avoid a purely trial and error method, we investigated the filtering process on a computer. This allows us the freedom to do our manipulation within the computer and find an equation which could then be used in circuit realization. With the waveform defined in an equation, we could then take the equation and break each piece down into the respective electrical component, and form a circuit which, when attached to an output speaker, produces the simulated sound of a musical instrument. The Design and Use of a Capacitor Plate for the Removal of Adherent Cells This paper discusses the research method, procedure and progress of designing a capacitor-like structure to aid in the removal of adherent cells from the surfaces of Petri dishes. Adherent cells develop proteins on their surfaces, some of which aid in attaching the cells to the Petri dish upon which they are growing. These proteins are damaged when the cells are removed from the dish. The theory behind this project is that the poly-anionic glass substrate charge can be reversed to the same polarity of the poly-cationic proteins to electrically repel the cells from the Petri dish surface. This results in minimizing damage to cells when they are removed. The research entails thin film deposition processes to include spray-pyrolysis, sol-gel, and sputtering. The materials researched were highly conductive and could be applied as a transparent layer on a Petri dish. Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) is the ideal metal oxide for this project. The procedure will describe the proper application of the thin film, and discuss the appropriate voltage supply necessary to reverse the surface charges. Such a structure, as applied to a Petri dish, would create several unique research capabilities for biologists and chemists alike who are studying cellular growth. The Autonomous Tank This year for the first time the Virginia Military Institute has selected four students to participate in the annual Autonomous Tank competition held in conjunction with SoutheastCon. The competition has three major areas of focus. The first was the building of the course. It is divided into four sections with each section focusing on different problems. The second area was the design of the car. The car must be small enough to meet the size requirements for the rules of the competition but large enough to contain all necessary components. The last area of focus was the actual components that were placed on the car, enabling it to work through each of the four sections of the course. This competition uses electrical, mechanical, and computer engineering to solve the problems at hand. A Hybrid Approach to Inverse Neural Network Control of Nonlinear Systems The use of neural networks in an inverse control strategy has been very popular in recent literature. Because of their nonlinear structure and generalization abilities, neural networks are able to adapt online to operating conditions often not captured by classical linear methods. This benefit does not come without a price, however. In a survey of the literature on inverse neural network control, most all work includes some offline "pre-training" to initialize the weights of the network to a rough estimate of the inverse plant dynamics. Most of these papers give little discussion of why this is necessary, nor offer any substantive alternatives to this method. This short paper attempts to show the motivations behind the conventional approach of pre- training the network, and offers an alternative based on a hybrid architecture integrating soft and hard computing techniques. An application to a nonlinear, open-loop stable plant is also considered. Reduction of Electrical Consumption This project's goal is to reduce the energy consumption of the Fairfield Apparel Corporation. Through the Virginia Military Institute's cooperative engineering center, the Fairfield Apparel Corporation proposed the project of conserving the electrical energy consumption of Fairfield Apparel's processing plant. The project involves an interdisciplinary team collaborating with industry to implement a real world project with real world constraints. Teamed up with three mechanical engineers, the team will investigate alternatives related to saving energy within the apparel plant. Possible areas for improved energy efficiency are improved lighting, additional building insulation, purchasing energy-efficient equipment, and possibly renegotiating the power contract with Virginia Power. Economic constraints are that capital expenditures need to pay out within five years and suggestions for improvements in current equipment need to pay out within two years. All our proposed solutions for energy consumption, and the associated economic analysis, will be presented to Fairfield Apparel's management. Our goal is to reduce the plant's electric costs by at least fifteen percent. VLSI Design of Plastic Cell Architecture With the dynamic nature of communications engineering and signal processing, the necessity for flexible and rapidly reconfigurable computing architectures is essential for further growth in the field. This project is a new approach to programmable logic based on a larger concept of Plastic Cell Architecture (PCA) proposed by Dr. Oguri and his group at NTT labs, Japan. The implementation of the programmable cells involves full custom VLSI design, utilizing alternate storage architectures and mapping techniques. Routing and fixed logic is implemented in SFL, a Structured Function description Language. In the early designs there were concerns with data stability and routing efficiencies. The new architectural and component modifications promise a greater stability, better functional efficiency and finer granularity. This project is a part of an ongoing research to develop an alternative to Neumann architecture. When implemented, PCA will breach the gap between hardware and software, and will present new means for power and speed efficiencies. Digital Camera Scope for a Rifle This project is to integrate a digital camera into a rifle scope to be used by the police for training or by hunters for recreational use. The scope is to be completely independent from the rifle. That is, it should only be connected to the rifle at the mount. The scope is to take the image of the target, split it with an image splitter and project one of the images through the rifle as normal. The other is to be reflected into the digital camera mounted on top of the original scope. The camera is to be operated both manually and automatically. Through use of an audio activated sensor, it will take a single picture when it hears the rifle fired. The camera will also have a manual button to use without having to fire the weapon. The images are to be stored on both a smart card that can be sent off to a photo lab for developing as well as storage on the camera itself so that the images may be downloaded to a computer. The digital scope is to be compact and use off-the-shelf parts available from a store or through a catalog. Image processing with Configurable Computers FPGA's (Field Programmable Gate Array's) or reconfigurable computers are well suited to image filtering because of the extent to which parallelism can be exploited. Reconfiguration is important because it allows the speed of custom hardware to be combined with the multi-purpose flexibility of software. This project uses FPGA's to capture images from an analog camera, transmits the image along a high speed network to an array of FPGA's for filtering, and then outputs the image to a screen. VHDL code was written and tested for implementation on the FPGA's. A C host program was required to initialize and interface with the FPGA's. A Java applet was written to display the raw image data. Each of these phases had to be simulated and tested separately. The project was implemented on Wild Force cards containing five 4062 XL FPGA's holding the equivalent of sixty two thousand gates on each chip. The Wild Force architecture lends itself to image processing because of the large bandwidth of communication between each individual chip. Difficulty was encountered with the limited chip to memory communications. A standard analog camera was used to supply input. 4-kA, 6-kV Emitter Turn-off Thyristor A new high power semiconductor switching device to be used in switching power converters is being developed. The Emitter Turn-Off thyristor (ETO) is rated up to 4kA, 6kV and can switch at l kHz. At these ratings, the ETO is expected to compete with current Insulated Gate Commutated Transistor (IGCT) technology. At its core is a Gate Turn-Off thyristor (GTO), which provides the high rating capability of the ETO. Unlike the GTO, however, the ETO is turned off through the emitter, allowing for higher switching frequencies and lower turn-off losses. An innovative topology allows the ETO to be hard switched, cutting down on energy storage components and cost. The unique mechanical structure of the ETO and accompanying gate driver is extremely compact, resulting in a footprint half the size of a typical IGCT. *************************************************( 5 ) VMS Activities Meeting Report The German Club in Blacksburg was the site of the March section meeting, held jointly with our Power Engineering Chapter. The chair of our Power Engineering Chapter is Ted Aaron, of American Electric Power in Christiansburg. The talks given in the technical program of this meeting were particularly interesting. Two faculty members from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Virginia Tech discussed their recent work in the field of power engineering. Dr. Yilu Liu spoke first. The title of her talk was "Artificial Intelligence Applications in Transformer Fault Diagnosis." It is known that important information can often be obtained from the chemistry of the transformer oil. Various types of faults in the transformer's operation affect the oil's chemistry in different ways. The challenge is to develop effective techniques which can reliably predict transformer faults which have developed, or which are likely to develop. Such a scheme is a very valuable tool in preventing catastrophic failure of power systems and can aid in improving power system reliability and in reducing costs. Dr. Liu discussed her recent work using neural networks in predicting specific types of transformer faults. She has demonstrated that, by using neural networks, an expert system giving a correct prediction in 98% of cases can be developed-sometimes the percentage can be even higher. The second talk was presented by Dr. Anbo Wang. The title of his talk was "Optical Fiber Sensor-based Techniques for On-Line Detection of Partial Discharges in Transformers." Dr. Wang is a photonics expert-and, by the way, a former VMS section chair. He reported on his work in photonics as it relates to transformer diagnostics. The development of fiber optic-based sensors is a very active area of research and development, and Anbo spent the first portion of his talk discussing the principles of fiber optic sensors and just how the particular sensor used in this work operates. An important aspect of the sensor's operation is that the sensor is, to a significant degree, self-calibrating. This is quite important in making the sensor a practical measurement tool that can be employed in the field. Funding from the National Science Foundation has recently been received to allow further work in this collaboration between Yilu Liu and Anbo Wang. Ed Wheeler, section vice chair, rose to thank Yilu and Anbo for their very important work and interesting talks and presented them with a certificates of appreciation from the IEEE Virginia Mountain Section. Ed Wheeler then presented a plaque to Dr. David Livingston, our section chair, in recognition of the outstanding service he has given our section. For several years, David has been an integral and vital part of the activities of the Virginia Mountain Section of IEEE. As the person responsible for local arrangements, he was instrumental in making Southeastcon '97, held at Virginia Tech, such a success, and, as section chair, he has provided leadership to our section for the last two years. ... Ed Wheeler *************************************************( 6 ) OUR 50th 1999 is Special It marks the fiftieth anniversary of our Virginia Mountain Section. Plans to celebrate at the September meeting are already underway. Look forward to celebrity speakers, numerous special guests and memorable dinner. Mark the date, September 16, on your calendar now . *************************************************( 7 ) Computer/Control/IES ATM Technology and ATM Networking Gary Mangus Litton Network Access Systems Tuesday, April 6 5:00 to 7:00 PM Mr. Mangus will introduce ATM Communications technology and its application to networking. ATM Technology Basics including ATM, ATM protocols, switching, and multiplexing will be described. Gary will explain how the technology provides support for multimedia communications including video, voice and data, through the use of applicable communications standards such as UNI, PNNI, LANE, MPOA. About the Speaker Gary R. Mangus presently works for Litton Network Access Systems as the Director of Customer Support in Roanoke, Virginia. Mr. Mangus has been active in the ATM technology area since 1993 and is a member of the ATM Forum. During this period, he has worked closely with customers, and with their feedback has been instrumental in defining the direction for Litton's new product developments in ATM Access. He received his BSEE degree from Texas A&M University in 1974. Meeting The talk will be given in Cafeteria A at the GE Main Plant, 1501 Roanoke Boulevard, Salem, VA. Enter the front door, near the flag pole. An escort will meet you at the reception desk. All IEEE Members and guests are welcome. You do not have to be a member of the Chapter. Soft drinks and snacks are available from the cafeteria for a nominal fee. There is no charge for the meeting. Please come and bring a friend! Dave Geer, Chapter Chair 540 - 387 - 7359 (voice) 540 - 387 - 7631 (FAX) d.geer@ieee.org (email) *************************************************( 8 ) SPREAD THE WORD The Half-Year Dues Payment Period has begun...and it's a great time to recruit! Beginning 1 March and extending through 15 August, all new applicants to IEEE and its Societies can join for half of the full annual dues rates. This is an ideal opportunity to encourage IEEE membership, as new applicants will receive service throughout 1999 at reduced rates. In addition, IEEE Society membership and the Societies' optional publications are half price. If you are a renewed IEEE Member who has been considering trying a new Society membership, what better time than when lower rates are available? Potential IEEE and Society members can go to the IEEE home page at www.ieee.org and select the link for IEEE Membership for information and an interactive application. If the Web site is not available to you, contact IEEE Member Services Department. *************************************************( 9 ) Employer Professional Development Award The IEEE Educational Activities Board (EAB) will grant the annual IEEE Employer Professional Development Award to an organization that has made outstanding contributions to employee continuing education and professional development. To be eligible: * The organization must currently employ IEEE members * The organization must have made outstanding contributions to employee continuing education programs and professional development as evidenced by quality, innovation, or impact. We look forward to hearing from you. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the awards or nomination process. The deadline for nominations is 30 April 1999. For more information or to submit a nomination, contact Rae Toscano. IEEE Educational Activities 445 Hoes Lane Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331 e-mail: r.toscano@ieee.org Tel: 732 562-5482 Fax: 732 981-1686 For information about other IEEE awards, visit the IEEE Web site www.ieee.org/awards. *************************************************( 10 ) Best-Selling IEEE Book Series Goes Electronic! PISCATAWAY, NJ, 24 March 1999 - Now available on CD- ROM from the IEEE is the best-selling Engineers Guides To Business Series. Originally produced and still available in book format, this series seeks to develop within the business-minded engineer an awareness of non-technical skills. Titles in the series include: Presentations That Work Writing for Career Growth High-Tech Creativity Winning the New Product Development Battle Building Internal Team-Partnerships Teaching on TV and Video Starting a High-Tech Company Working in a Global Environment Starting to Manage: The Essential Skills Marketing for Engineers Practicing Engineering Ethics Highly applications oriented, this CD-ROM is meant to be used on the job to close the gap between the working engineer's technical knowledge and business know-how. IEEE Product Code: EC105-QVE; 1 CD-ROM; IEEE Member Price: $79.99; IEEE List Price: $99.99 Order from IEEE Customer Service Department, 445 Hoes Lane, PO Box 1331, Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331 Shipping and handling charges apply. E-mail: customer-service@ieee.org *************************************************( 11 ) Your VMS Web Page Some of your current Web page features should be of interest to you. Take a look. Items Include: 1. Meeting and General Announcements 2. VMS Chapter Meetings and Announcements 3. Past VMS Newsletters 4. PACE Info, Announcements, and Policies 5. IEEE USA Leadership Wire (IEEE USA periodical) 6. Links to IEEE Hdq, USA, Services, 7. What Is? (Descriptions of IEEE, Region and Section Entities) 8. Special Interest Items 9. Misc. reports of general interest 10. IEEE USA Newsletters 11. VMS Calendar Highlights 12. Meet the Officers 13. And Much More Anything YOU would like there? Drop me a note. ...editor *************************************************( 12 ) 1998-1999 REMAINING MEETING SCHEDULE DATE MEETING PLACE SPEAKER/TOPIC May 20,1999 Litton Poly-Scientific Blacksburg Plant trip *************************************************( 13 ) Take Advantage of Your Member Benefits CONTINUING EDUCATION CURRENT TECHNICAL INFORMATION IEEE INFORMATION RETRIEVAL Ask*IEEE Document Delivery Service INFO: EMAIL: askieee@ieee.org CAREER TRANSITION SUPPORT * Employment Services * Job Listings * Entry Level Resources * Resume Listing Service * Job Fairs * Job Search Tools and Advice LINKS TO OVER 30 OTHER EMPLOYMENT RESOURCES SUCH AS: THE ACADEMIC POSITION NETWORK ADAMS JOBBANK ON-LINE AMERICA'S JOB BANK CAREERBUILDER OTHER * Electronic Communications Services * Directory Service (Aliases) * Electronic Mail Services * Mailing-Lists and Discussion Groups * Majordomo Tutorial for ListOwners * Usenet Newsgroups - ieee.* hierarchy * Public Information Retrieval * Anonymous-FTP Server * File-Retrieval via E-Mail * Traveling the Information Highway with Bob Alden * IEEE Internet Project * Info on IEEE RABFacts System HERE ARE SOME OF THE PERSONAL BENEFITS IEEE MEMBERSHIP BRINGS YOU: * Receive your own personal subscription to SPECTRUM. * Become an active part of your local professional community. * Enhance your career by networking with technical experts. * Save with low member prices on IEEE products. * Attend top technical conferences at low member rates. * Increase your professional prestige. * Join a technical society. * The IEEE Financial Advantage Program Program Highlights: IEEE Gold MasterCard and VISA Gold IEEE Mutual Funds IEEE Group Insurance IEEE Conference Management and Travel Program Benefits and Services: Business Services Education Services Financing, Planning & Investing Home Services Insurance Plans/ Supplements Travel & Conference Registration For access information and details on any of these, take your browser Directly to the IEEE at: http://www.ieee.org/member.html Or to the VMS Home Page at: http://fiddle.visc.vt.edu/ieeevms/ select (6) Links to IEEE , then (12) Member Services *************************************************( 14 ) IEEE Virginia Mountain Section VMS OFFICERS Chairman: David Livingston d.livingston@ieee.org (540) 857-6261 Vice Chairman: Ed Wheeler wheeler@vmi.edu (540) 464-7548 Sec./Treasurer: Andy Stevenson stevenson-ac@salem.ge.com (540) 387-8471 VMS Executive Committee John Bay bay@vt.edu (540) 231-5114 Russell Churchill arcova@swva.net (540) 731-0655 Ira Jacobs ijacobs@vt.edu (540) 231-5620 David Kingma dkingma@swva.net (540) 382-0956 Junior Past Chairman: David Livingston d.livingston@ieee.org (540) 857-6261 Virginia Council Representative: Ed Wheeler wheeler@vmi.edu (540) 464-7548 VMS Chapter Chairs Industry Applications Andy Stevenson stevenson-ac@salem.ge.com(540 ) 387-8471 Industrial Electronics/Computer/Control Systems David Geer d.geer@ieee.org (540) 387-7359 Microwave Theory & Techniques/Electron Devices VACANT Power Engineering Ted Aaron Tea45@aol.com (540) 381-2521 COMMITTEE CHAIRS Awards : Ira Jacobs ijacobs@vt.edu (540) 231-5620 Membership Development: Russell Churchill arcova@swva.net (540)-731-0655 Nominations: David Livingston d.livingston@ieee.org (540) 857-6261 Anbo Wang awang@vt.edu (540) 231-4355 Lynn Abbott abbott@vt.edu (540)-231-4472 PACE : Dan Jackson d.jackson@ieee.org (540)-774-0484 Program : Ed Wheeler wheeler@vmi.edu (540) 464-75 Publicity : John Fennick j.fennick@ieee.org (540) 552-0052 Student Activities: John Bay bay@vt.edu (540) 231-5114 NEWSLETTER Editor: John Fennick j.fennick@ieee.org (540) 552-0052 e-mail Newsletter Subscription Send the one-line message: SUBSCRIBE IEEEVMS your-name to: LISTSERV@listserv.vt.edu Anyone may submit material for the Newsletter Deadline: Monday following each meeting Submit To: Editor Change of Address VMS Web Page: http://fiddle.visc.vt.edu/ieeevms/ US Mail: IEEE Service Center 445 Hoes Lane, PO Box 1331 Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331 e-mail: address.change@ieee.org Tel: 800-678-IEEE Fax: 732-981-9667 IEEE Web: http://www.ieee.org/i3e_mailer.html (Changes are forwarded to the Newsletter) Visit the VMS WEB page: http://fiddle.visc.vt.edu/ieeevms Section/Chapter meeting notices, and reports. 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