VIRGINIA MOUNTAIN SECTION
NEWSLETTER
IEEE Region 3, Council 9, Section 65 May 1997
Contents
*****************************************************
1. May Meeting
Autonomous Vehicle Team of Virginia Tech
2. Reservations for the May Meeting
3. VMS Activities
4. April Meeting Report
5. Election Time
6. Computer/Control/IES Chapter Meeting
PWM Motor Drives - Design and Application Issues
7. VMS Home Page
Revised
8. Chapter Chairmen
Message
9. Virginia Mountain Section
***************************************************** ( 1 )
May Meeting
Autonomous Vehicle Team of Virginia Tech
Paul J. Johnson
Virginia Tech
For the last two years an interdisciplinary group of
students at Virginia Tech has been working to design
and build autonomous ground vehicles capable of
navigating an outdoor obstacle course. Now officially
called the Autonomous Vehicle Team (AVT), this
group consists of students and faculty advisors from
the EE and ME departments, as well as students from
CpE and other disciplines outside of the College of
Engineering. Last July the AVT entered two vehicles in
competition against approximately fifteen other
vehicles developed by student teams at other schools.
In what was our team's first year at the annual
competition, our two vehicles placed 1st and 3rd in the
design category and 10th and 6th in actual performance
on the obstacle course.
Creating autonomous vehicles has exposed our team to
many interesting design issues. One issue, called sensor
fusion, refers to the concept of combining large
quantities of data into a limited number of control
signals/decisions. This talk will focus on the specific
issue of sensor fusion, and the methods we used to
combine data from ultrasonic sensors, tactile sensors,
and a computer vision system into a single command: a
desired steering angle.
We have developed a third vehicle for this year's
competition, which will take place in late May near
Detroit, MI. One of the team's vehicles should be
available for examination and demonstration before and
after the talk.
About the Speaker
Mr. Johnson received the BSEE in 1991 from the
University of Virginia. He entered graduate school at
Virginia Tech in the fall of 1992 and received the
MSEE in July of 1994, continuing on in the EE PhD
program. Control systems is his area of concentration,
and his research involves the use traditional control
system techniques as guides to creating better artificial
intelligence algorithms for control system applications.
Mr. Johnson has been an active member for the last
two years in the Autonomous Vehicle Team of Virginia
Tech.
***************************************************** ( 2 )
Reservations for the May Meeting
Date: Thursday, May 15 1997
Social: 6:30
Dinner: 7:00
Talk: 8:00
Place: Holiday Inn - Salem
off I-81 at Exit 137,
North on Wildwood, then 1st right
Cost: Member or Guest $12.00
Student $ 4.50
Please make reservations by Monday, May 12, 5:00 P.M.
Roanoke: David Livingston 857-6261
Blacksburg: Anbo Wang 231-4355
Lexington: Dick Skutt 464-7236
Radford and
Christiansburg: Usha Varshney 731-0655
***************************************************** ( 3 )
VMS Activities
Executive Committee Meeting
There will be a meeting of the VMS Executive
Committee, one hour before the meeting social hour,
at the Holiday Inn Restaurant.
The meeting will include an MTT/ED planning
session, beginning at about 6:00 PM, to discuss and
select speakers for MTT/ED chapter meetings.
***************************************************** ( 4 )
April Meeting Report
The April meeting had been selected as the traditional
VMS Spouses' Night, so that the program reflected a
lighter social and technical atmosphere. The meeting
was held at the Farmhouse Restaurant in Christiansburg
and the program was provided by Mr. R. Richard
Avent, Senior Staff Scientist, at American Research
Corporation of Virginia located in Radford. Eight
members of VMS and five spouses were in attendance
at the dinner and the program.
The program was introduced by David L. Livingston,
Vice-Chairman of VMS. The speaker for the evening
selected as his topic "Applications of Interactive
Multimedia in Health Care and Education". Mr. Avent
opened his presentation by explaining a number of
basic terms used in the multimedia community, such as
bi-directional communications between human users
and computer systems, which today incorporate audio
and video into the usual computer hardware. Mr.
Avent pointed out that multimedia computer systems
have now become very user-friendly, so that many non-
technical people can take advantage of the educational,
training and entertainment aspects of computers. He
noted that no programming experience is required of
those who use the computer-based multimedia
programs, so there is a wide acceptance across gender,
race, age and socio-economic status.
Mr. Avent described how multimedia has been used
extensively in healthcare and education and has
included programs for professional and lay education,
marketing, assistance in medical diagnosis and
treatment, and more recently in telemedicine with the
advent of the Internet. He explained how his company,
American Research Corporation of Virginia, has
developed multimedia programs in family caregiver
training, teen drinking, teen pregnancy prevention, and
physician training in diagnosis and treatment of adult
alcoholism. He noted further that he has been
successful in the development and use of multimedia
for teaching methods of asthma management in
children, and has developed an interesting program in
interactive reading to teach reading skills to adults who
have low levels of literacy.
Mr. Avent closed his presentation by showing test
results from user groups who generally had a high level
of acceptance of multimedia programs, who liked the
ease of use of computers, who reported knowledge
gains and improvements in skills, and who had positive
changes in attitude and self-esteem. He pointed out
that the future holds great hope for the inclusion of
multimedia systems broadly within education and self-
learning at home, aided considerably by the growth of
the Internet.
The meeting was closed by David Livingston, who
presented Mr. Avent with a Certificate of Appreciation
on behalf of Virginia Mountain Section.
...Usha Varshney Secretary/Treasurer
***************************************************** ( 5 )
Election Time
May is election time for the VM Section. You will
soon be receiving a ballot listing the candidates that
have been nominated for Officers, Executive
Committee Members, and Chapter Chairmen.
Biographies for all candidates are included.
Please take a few minutes to check your choices or
write in a vote for your candidate. Then fold, tape,
stamp, and drop it in the mail.
Thank you.
...editor
***************************************************** ( 6 )
Computer/Control/IES Chapter Meeting
"PWM Motor Drives-
Design and Application Issues"
Andy Stevenson, Sr. Design Engineer
GE Motors and Industrial Systems
Tuesday, May 13, 1997 - 5:00 to 7:00 PM
Cafeteria A, GE Industrial Systems
1501 Roanoke Blvd., Salem, VA
The recent arrival of high power Pulse-Width-
Modulation (PWM) AC Drives has brought new
concerns to engineers that use them. Among these are
PWM chopping frequency and switching transients,
which affect motor derating, inverter rating, cabling,
motor insulation and bearing failures. This talk will
address these problems, as well as reflections at high
power levels, Electro-Magnetic Interference (EMI),
and grounding and shielding practices. Rules for good
practice, and twisted and blackened examples of bad
practice will be shown.
Andy Stevenson is known to GE Salem engineers for
his witty and pertinent lectures on Power Conversion,
and his unique Australian/Canadian greeting, "Good
day, eh?". Andy graduated from the Royal Military
College with a BSEE in 1960. He continued his studies
at the University of Toronto, where he received the
BASc and MASc in 1961 and 1965. He immediately
began work with Canadian GE, where he was involved
in the development of power converters for DC drives
and field supplies. He later worked on multi-bridge DC
drives, cyclo-converters, and Load Commutated
Inverters. Since moving to GE Salem in 1990, he has
continued as a Senior Engineer for the development of
AC and DC drives. He is a Senior Member of the
IEEE, and a member of the Professional Engineers of
Ontario.
All IEEE Members and Guests are welcome. There
is no charge. Come to the main entrance, near the
flagpole. The room is open at 5:00, so come early.
Reservations are appreciated! Call Dave Geer, (540)
387-7359 or e-mail d.geer@ieee.org by 5 PM Monday,
May 12.
... Dave Geer
***************************************************** ( 7 )
VMS Home Page
The Virginia Mountain Section Web Home Page
(http://fiddle.ee.vt.edu/ieeevms/) has recently been
modified and expanded to make it easier to use and
include more information about the Section, the
Region, and National, and items of interest to
engineers.
You will find quick access to schedules, details about
the Section, numerous publications and articles
normally not distributed to the general membership (in
complete format). Links to professional, federal, and
private organizations and groups active in national
issues affecting our profession. There are also more
than a dozen direct links to particular IEEE services
such as Educational, Employment Assistance,
PE-Licensure. Standards and Publications, Address
and Membership Info Changes, and more.
Check it out and use the autofeedback to the editor
(available on the main page) to let us know what you
would like to see there to make it even better.
***************************************************** ( 8 )
Chapter Chairmen
Places have been reserved in the Home Page for any
and all kinds of information about your Chapter:
History, function, requirements, activities, schedules,
flash announcements, meetings, speakers ... . Please
send your material to the editor or submit it with the
auto-mail feature on the Web Page.
***************************************************** ( 9 )
Virginia Mountain Section
VMS Officers
Chairman: Anbo Wang
awang@vt.edu 231-4355
Vice Chairman: David Livingston
d.livingston@ieee.org 857-6261
Sec./Treasurer: Usha Varshney
varshney@usit.net 731-0655
VMS Executive Committee:
Russell Churchill
arcova@swva.net 731-0655
Ira Jacobs
ijacobs@vt.edu 231-5620
Daniel W. Jackson
d.jackson@ieee.org 774-0484
Scott Midkiff
midkiff@vt.edu 231-5190
Virginia Council
Representative: vacant
VMS Chapter Chairs
Industry Applications Chapter
Chairman: Walter Hill
hill-wa@salem.ge.com 387-8619
Microwave Theory & Techniques/Electron Devices
Chairman: Hausila Singh
hsingh@gtc.itt.com 563-8639
Industrial Electronics/Computer/Control Systems Chapter
Chairman: David Geer
d.geer@ieee.org 387-7359
Power Engineering Chapter
Chairman: Subhas Sarkar
vtc@roanoke.infi.net 345-9892 x-152
Newsletter Editor: John Fennick
j.fennick@ieee.org 552-0052
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