VIRGINIA MOUNTAIN SECTION
NEWSLETTER
IEEE Region 3, Council 09, Section 65
February 2000
**************************************************
CONTENTS
February Meeting
Bart Cregger
Assistant Dean
of Engineering, VCU 1
Reservations/Directions 2
VMS Activities:
January Meeting Report 3
Electronic Newsletter 4
New Web Site - update 5
Chair's Comments 6
Chapter Chairs - Attention 7
Congratulations 8
Two new IEEE Web Sites 9
Comp/Control/Ind. Eng. Chapter 10
IEEE Management Course 11
1999-2000 VMS Schedule 12
VMS Section 13
**************************************************( 1 )
February Meeting
Engineering Education for the 21st Century:
The Model at VCU
Bart Cregger
Assistant Dean of Engineering, VCU
The new School of Engineering at
Virginia Commonwealth University in
Richmond, Virginia is the nation's newest
and brightest program offering
engineering education at the bachelor's
degree level. Programs in the disciplines of
biomedical, chemical, electrical, and
mechanical engineering provide traditional
technical foundations augmented with a
strong emphasis on communicating,
business, ethics, and teams.
Several issues distinguishing VCU's
engineering program from traditional
programs will be presented and Feedback
on results to date will be shared to
compare the program's goals with the
philosophies and curricula currently in
place.
Finally, a short history of the new
engineering school and a profile of today's
student body will be presented.
About the Speaker
Barton B. Cregger received the MSEE and
BSEE degrees at the University of
Virginia, (1982 and 1980)
He is currently responsible for the overall
operations and undergraduate programs at
Virginia Commonwealth University where
he is working to shape the curriculum at
America's newest 4-year engineering
school.
Included, are degree programs in
biomedical, chemical, electrical, and
mechanical engineering. The student
enrollment is presently at 425 with
expansion to 1,000 expected over the next
5 years.
Current strategic efforts include
accreditation for the undergraduate
programs, the establishment of a graduate
program, development of partnerships
with local and regional industries,
placement of students in their first
permanent jobs (founding class graduates
in May 2000!), and the completion of the
school's overall faculty with outstanding
professors that possess strong industrial
experiences.
Mr. Cregger's previous career experiences
all revolve around creating and developing
high-performance teams for high-
technology product development with
Medeco Security, Comsat Labs, Texas
Instruments, and others.
**************************************************( 2 )
Reservations
Date: Thursday, February 17, 2000
Social: 6:30 PM
Dinner: 7:00 PM
Talk: 8:00 PM
Cost: Member or Guest $15.00
Student $ 7.00
AEP Auditorium
Christiansburg Industrial Park.
From the east and south: I81 exit 118,
Rt. 11 south about 0.1 to 0.2 mile. Right
into the Christiansburg Industrial
Park (between the Exxon station and
Pizza Hut), left onto Prospect to the end.
AEP: brick green-roof building.
Reserve by 5 PM
Thursday February 10
Roanoke:
Dan Jackson (540) 774-0484
Blacksburg:
Ira Jacobs (540) 231-5620
Lexington:
David Livingston (540)464-7545
Radford and Christiansburg:
Russell Churchill (540) 731-0655
**************************************************( 3 )
VMS Activities
January Meeting
The fourth meeting of the 1999-2000
season was held January 20, 2000 in the
American Electric Power (AEP)
Christiansburg facility. Eighteen hardy
folks attended on a cold and snowy
evening to enjoy a catered dinner and a
very informative presentation by Dr.
Dennis G. Sweeney. Dr. Sweeney directs
the RF Design Laboratory of the Virginia
Tech Center for Wireless
Telecommunications. His presentation
traced the trends in providing high-speed
data services to homes and businesses and,
in particular, the roles of Local Multipoint
Distribution Services (LMDS) in providing
the last links of the communications
network.
The next generation of communications
network will have to provide broadband
capability suitable for the mix of internet,
data, video and telephony requirements.
Fiber optics is well suited but is typically
found in the backbone networks rather
than as a doorstep connection. A wireless
connection for the last mile is particularly
desirable especially in less densely
populated regions. LMDS offers
tremendous bandwidth capability
equivalent to the sum of two times the AM
band plus the UHF/VHF plus the cellular
phone spectrum. LMDS operates in the
28-30 GHz band and is capable of
wirelessly transmitting data and
unprecedented rates. However, LMDS has
to be properly designed and utilized in a
communications network because it is
limited to line-of-site transmission,
degrades in rain, does not penetrate trees,
has limited 2-12 kilometer range, and
hardware cost has to be substantially
reduced.
A testbed system was developed in May
1999 by the Center for Wireless
Telecommunications (CWT) using three
links to reach five Virginia Tech
Customers. A demonstration project
covering a Blacksburg Neighborhood is
anticipated within a year. CWT has been
teaching and researching for 25 years in
the areas of RF design, wireless networks
and satellite antennas. The LMDS
projects are based upon the VA Tech
spectrum licenses purchased in 1998 at
FCC auction for southwestern Virginia
population areas covering approximately
1.6 million individuals. Research in
developing the LMDS in combination with
other techniques is an inter-disciplinary
effort including Arts and Science,
Business, Engineering and Information
Systems departments.
Dave Kingma thanked Dr. Sweeney on
behalf of the group for a very interesting
glimpse into the future. We would again
like to express our appreciation to Ted
Aaron and his team for their hospitality in
arranging the use of the facility.
...Howard J. Moses
...Secretary/Treasurer
**************************************************( 4 )
Electronic Newsletter
Please Sign On
Update
The response to our request to accept the
electronic version of the Newsletter in lieu
of hard copy has been modest. Let's say
we're off to a good start. We strongly
encourage more of you to sign up.
As noted previously, the Newsletter is the
largest single expense in the Section's
budget. The total cost is about $0.50 per
copy. That's a small number but we send
out about 500 copies each month. It would
be nice to trim the mailing to free funds
for other uses.
Please send your name to the editor
(j.fennick@ieee.org) with a short note
requesting sign-on. We will see that you
are placed on the distribution list.
Note, the Newsletter is also available,
along with back issues, on our Web site.
www.ewh.ieee.org/r3/virginia-mountain
...editor
**************************************************( 5 )
New VMS Web Site
The VMS Web Site has moved.
As reported last month, the Section Web
Site is now hosted at IEEE. The transition
went smoothly although there was a one
day outage near the end of January due to
a server glitch.
Remember, meeting announcements for
the Section and the Chapters are posted,
along with past issues of the Newsletters,
Dan Jackson's PACE reports, information
for Officers, Special Reports, the VMS
Calendar, and lots more.
Please have a look, make a bookmark, and
send your comments back to me.
The new URL is:
www.ewh.ieee.org/r3/virginia-mountain
...editor
**************************************************( 6 )
CHAIR'S COMMENTS
by Dan Jackson
d.jackson@ieee.org
February 20-27, 2000 is National
Engineers Week. Although the Virginia
Mountain Section has no specific activities
planned to celebrate our week, I hope that
each of you individually may find time to
speak with one or more non-engineers
about the contributions which engineers,
particularly electrical, electronics, and
computer engineers, have made to our
present way of life. Can you think of any
area which is not touched by contributions
from members of our profession? Our
lights, heat, transportation, home
entertainment, work tools, medical
practice, etc., have all been greatly
changed in this past century by
"Engineers: Turning Ideas Into Reality."
Congratulations to all of you for your own
technical contributions to the profession.
Be proud of yourself and what you have
done.
Speaking of congratulations, seven
members of the Section have been honored
by the IEEE as recipients of the IEEE
Third Millennium Medal for their
contributions to the Section. I will not
name them here. You will have to come to
the February 17 Section meeting to find
out their names and congratulate them in
person.
There are many members of the Section
who are eligible for elevation to Senior
Member grade. If you received your
bachelor's degree, or equivalent, over
seven years ago, contact Ira Jacobs,
ijacobs@vt.edu, our Membership
Development Chair, or me. If the Section
nominates you for Senior Member you will
need only two additional references. The
requirements are ten years in the
profession and a bachelor's degree in an
IEEE related field counts three years. You
will need to have five years of significant
performance. This does not mean being a
candidate for the Draper Prize or a Nobel
prize. Three references are required but if
a Senior Member or Fellow nominates you
for Senior Member grade, only two
additional are required. In 2000 every new
Senior Member will receive a plaque
engraved with name and date of elevation
plus a $25 coupon good toward one new
society membership or a subscription to
"Today's Engineer." Now is the time to go
ahead and apply. You can apply on the
WEB or download the application and
reference forms. These can be reached
through the IEEE home page at
"www.ieee.org."
"ENGINEERS: TURNING IDEAS INTO
REALITY"
...Dan Jackson
**************************************************( 7 )
Attention Chapter Chairs
Need help with Meetings?
Meetings help to achieve the goals of
education and professional advancement
basic to all IEEE Technical Societies and
provide a way to manage Chapter business.
For some pointers on the basic components
of holding successful meetings, go to the
Section/Chapter Support web page at
www.ieee.org/ra/scs.
Select the link for Resources for Officers,
then "How to hold a Successful Chapter
Meeting."
...editor
**************************************************( 8 )
Congratulations
To Tom Hochkeppel who was elevated
to Senior Member at the Dec 11 A & A
Panel meeting in Roanoke.
**************************************************( 9 )
IEEE Web Sites
Financial Services: New Improved
I'm pleased to report that the recently
created Financial Services Web Page has
been modified and is now easily accessed
with a load time of just a few seconds.
Take a look, there is a host of possible
advantages, whatever your situation.
The URL is:
www.ieee.org/services/financial/fap/
SCOOP
Scoop is an informative newsletter for
IEEE Volunteers with occasional tidbits of
interest and use to many. It contains brief
summaries of IEEE activities, current and
planned.
Publication is irregular but past (most
recent seven) issues are available. When
next browsing, take a look.: go to
www.ieee.org/ra/scs and click link for
publications and look for SCOOP.
...editor
**************************************************( 10 )
Computer / Control /
Industrial Electronics Chapter
The current year schedule is under
development
Speakers and Topics - Any Ideas?
What would you like to hear about at
Chapter meetings? Here is your chance to
express your views on computers, control
systems, or any phase of industrial
electronics.
The audience consists of engineers,
engineering students and professors,
usually about a dozen or two. The talks
are brief, one hour or less, with a half-hour
for discussion afterwards. If you are
developing a presentation for a larger
audience, here is an opportunity to try it
out. The format is informal.
Please contact me with your ideas:
Dave Geer, Chapter Chair
540 - 387 - 7359 (voice)
540 - 387 - 7631 (FAX)
d.geer@ieee.org (email)
The March Meeting is already scheduled.
It will be joint with the Section and
promises to be of wide interest. Dr. Ira
Jacobs, Professor of Electrical and
Computer Engineering at Va. Tech. will
discuss a current industry hot topic:
DSL vs. Cable Modems
Telco and CATV Competition for
Broadband Wireline Access
Details at our Web Site
www.ewh.ieee.org/r3/virginia-mountain
...Dave Geer
**************************************************( 11 )
UNLOCK MANAGEMENT SECRETS
WITH MBA POWERPAK(tm)
Following the success of the 1999 sessions,
the IEEE and Global Resources, a global
management training and consulting firm,
will continue to offer MBA PowerPak(tm)
to IEEE members at a special 10%
discount. In addition if you sign up now --
for any session held this year - you will be
charged at the 1999 price, a savings of
$900 over the 2000 pricing which goes
into effect as of February 21.
Participants who attend the eight-day, two-
part program are eligible to receive 6.3
IEEE Continuing Education Units (CEUs).
For information regarding curriculum,
training staff, scheduling, and pricing,
visit the MBA PowerPak(tm) Web site at
www.MBAPowerPak.com
or call the MBA PowerPak(tm) Registration
Center at
1-877-GRTRAIN (1-877-478-7246).
...editor
**************************************************( 12 )
1999-2000 MEETING SCHEDULE
DATE
SPEAKER/TOPIC
MEETING PLACE
September 16
50th Anniversary
Hotel Roanoke
October 21
Joint Meeting with Industry
Applications
Dr. Jason Lai, Virginia Tech
Topic: "Electric Vehicles and Power Electronics"
Appalachian Electric Power,
Christiansburg
November 18
Partners' Night
Nancy Vorona, Industry Director for Advanced
Materials & Electronics, Virginia Center for
Innovative Technology
"The Electronics Industry in Virginia
- Plans for the Future"
Clarion Hotel, Roanoke
January 20
Dr. Dennis G. Sweeney
Center for Wireless Telecommunications
Department of Electrical Engineering, VA Tech
"Local Multipoint Distribution Services"
Appalachia Electric Power,
Christiansburg
February 17
Bart Cregger, Assistant Dean of Engineering, VCU
"Engineering Education for the 21st Century:
The Model at VCU"
Appalachian Electric Power,
Christiansburg
March 16
Joint Meeting: Industrial
Electronics/Computer/Control
Systems
Ira Jacobs, Virginia Tech
DSL vs. Cable Modems
Telco and CATV Competition for Broadband Wireline
Access
VMI, Lexington
April 20
Student Project Night
Virginia Tech
May 18
Plant Tour
Cloverdale Station
**************************************************( 13 )
IEEE Virginia Mountain Section
VMS OFFICERS
Chairman: Daniel W. Jackson
d.jackson@ieee.org (540) 774-0484
Vice Chairman: Dave Kingma
dkingma@swva.net (540) 552-3011 x304
Sec./Treasurer: Howard J. Moses
hjmoses@aol.com (540) 953-5069
VMS Executive Committee
Russell Churchill
arcova@swva.net (540) 731-0655
John Fennick
jhfslf@swva.net (540) 552-0052
Ira Jacobs
ijacobs@vt.edu (540) 231-5620
Vacant (1)
Junior Past Chairman:
David Livingston
d.livingston@ieee.org (540) 464-7545
Virginia Council Representative:
David Geer
d.geer@ieee.org (540) 387-7359
VMS Chapter Chairs
Industry Applications
Dal Y. Ohm
ohm@usit.net (540 ) 552-8973
Industrial Electronics/Computer/Control Systems
David Geer
d.geer@ieee.org (540) 387-7359
Microwave Theory & Techniques/Electron Devices
Tim Gittemeie
Tim.Gittemeier@gaastek.de.ittind.com
(540) 563-3972
Power Engineering
Ted Aaron
Tea45@aol.com (540) 381-2521
COMMITTEE CHAIRS
Awards:
Ira Jacobs
ijacobs@vt.edu (540) 231-5620
Education:
Russell Churchill
arcova@swva.net (540) 731-0655
Membership Development:
Ira Jacobs
ijacobs@vt.edu (540) 231-5620
Nominations:
David Livingston
d.livingston@ieee.org (540) 464-7545
PACE :
Dan Jackson
d.jackson@ieee.org (540) 774-0484
Program :
Dave Kingma
dkingma@swva.net (540) 552-3011 x304
Publicity :
John Fennick
j.fennick@ieee.org (540) 552-0052
Student Activities:
Vacant
NEWSLETTER
Editor: John Fennick
j.fennick@ieee.org (540) 552-0052
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