Iowa-Illinois Section news:

 

2009 News

 

Past-Chair Recognized by QCESC 2/20/09

 

2008 News

 

Putnam Museum Photos 11/8/8

 

2007 News

 

December 2007 Newsletter

 

2005 News

 

Congratulations to Dr. Ali A. Chowdhury on being named IEEE Fellow.
Dr. Chowdhury's biography is listed below, under 2004 News.

 

"Recognizing the achievements of its members is an important part of the mission of the IEEE. Each year, following a rigorous evaluation procedure, the IEEE Fellow Committee recommends a select group of recipients for one of the Institute's most prestigious honors, election to IEEE Fellow.

T he IEEE Board of Directors, at its meeting on 13 November 2005, elected  Dr. Ali Chowdhury of Iowa-Illinois Section an IEEE Fellow, effective 1 January 2006, with the following citation:

for contributions to power systems reliability techniques."

 


 

2004 News

On December 3, members and guests attended a CIRCA '21 Holiday Event and approved the 2005 Exec Committee. 

 

Congratulations to the IEEE Iowa-Illinois Section.  In October, IEEE Region 4 awarded the Iowa-Illinois Section the Exemplary Section of the Year” Award for 2004.  The section includes over 260 members.  In June 2004, the section celebrated its 50th Anniversary as an IEEE section. 

 

Congratulations to Dr. Ali A. Chowdhury

Dr. Ali A. Chowdhury has received the IEEE Region 4 "Outstanding Engineer of the Year" Award for 2004 for his contributions to power system reliability and value-based system facility planning.  The numerous innovative power system reliability and value-based theories and models developed by Dr. Chowdhury over the past 25 years are being used in a wide range of power system applications at utilities worldwide, and have enhanced power system reliability planning methods in the new era of deregulation that is demanding value-based solutions.  Dr. Chowdhury is actively involved in the activities of several IEEE Working Groups, Task Forces and Subcommittees.

Dr. Chowdhury received the M. Sc. degree with Honors in electrical engineering from the Belarus Polytechnic Institute, Minsk, Belarus, the M. Sc. and Ph. D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada, and an MBA degree from the St. Ambrose University, Davenport, Iowa, USA.  He is currently with MidAmerican Energy Company, Davenport, Iowa.  He is a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas and in the Province of Alberta, Canada; a Chartered Engineer in the United Kingdom, a Fellow of the British Institution of Electrical Engineers, and a Senior Member of the IEEE.

On September 19, GOLD members met at Front Street Brewery in Davenport.   

 

During the week of September 13-16, the 8th International Conference on Probabilistic Methods Applied to Power Systems (PMAPS) was held in Ames, Iowa.  The Iowa-Illinois Section helped sponsor this international conference. 

The IEEE Iowa-Illinois Section is a sponsor of the 8th International Conference on Probabilistic Methods Applied to Power Systems (PMAPS), to be held September 13-16, 2004 on the Iowa State University Campus in Ames, Iowa. This 4-day conference is held every two years and is highly visible within the national and international power systems engineering community. Activities and papers will revolve around probabilistic decision strategies in relation to planning, operations, maintenance, and markets, including risk management, reliability models and applications, energy system support aids, state estimation, harmonics and power quality, probabilistic based T&D assets management, T&D planning and operation, voltage dip statistics, diagnostics and maintenance, lightning and transients, and energy markets. Several workshops and paper sessions will be dedicated to the theme of “Asset Management,” an area of high interest within the electric power industry. Papers from industry describing problems and solutions related to treatment of uncertainty in electric power systems are highly encouraged. Additional information may be obtained from the PMAPS-2004 web page located at https://www.powerlearn.org/pmaps/.

 

On September 9, over 25 people attended the tour of the John Deere Davenport Works.  Dinner followed at Thunder Bay Grille.   

 

Over 40 people attended the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Iowa-Illinois IEEE section on June 16 at The Lodge.  Many thanks to past chairs for attending and those who provided information for the section's history files.  

 

CONGRATULATIONS Bill!   Bill Serre, treasurer, GOLD Chair, and PACE Chair for Iowa- Illinois Section, has been awarded the GOLD Leadership Award by IEEE.  He will receive a certificate from IEEE.

 

IEEE and IES members attended a presentation by Dr. John F. Reid  on Opportunities for Intelligent Mobile Equipment in the Outdoor Space on May 20, 2004 at the Steeplegate Inn in Davenport. 

 

Eighteen people attended the special one-day short course on Reactive Power Compensation and Voltage Stability on May 13, 2004 sponsored by the Iowa-Illinois Section IEEE.

 

On Friday, April 16, Dick Stanley, Chairman of the Board of Stanley Consultants, received one of Iowa State University's top awards during VEISHEA weekend.  Stanley received the Order of the Knoll Cardinal and Gold Award

 

On April 15, the IA-IL section had a joint meeting with the Cedar Rapids Section at the National Advanced Driving Simulator in Iowa City.

 

From March 19-21, Bill Serre participated in the 2004 IEEE- USA Workshop in Atlanta, Georgia. 

 

On March 18, 2004, our own Dr. John Johnson spoke to over twenty-five members and friends about past and present Missions to Mars.

 

On February 27, 2004, Colonel Gonzales, Director of the Facility Engineer Center - Northwest (FEC-NW), US Army Facility Engineer Group (USAFEG) spoke at the National Engineers’ Week Banquet.

 

On February 19, 2004, the Iowa-Illinois Section Exec Committee held a meeting to discuss past and future events.

 

On January 28, 2004, Dave Beck from McGladrey & Pullen, LLP spoke to over twenty members on the 2003 Tax Law Changes and how they may affect individuals or small business owners. 

 

Return to main Iowa-Illinois Section IEEE Webpage

 

 

2003 News

On December 12, over forty people attended the IMAX movie "Mysteries of Egypt" and saw the behind the scenes The 2004 Executive Committee was voted on and approved.

 

On November 25, an Iowa-Illinois Section Exec Board meeting was held.  Kristi Brooks, Region 4 GOLD Chair, and Tarek Lahdhiri, Region 4 PACE Chair, participated in the meeting as well and let us know what GOLD and PACE has to offer section members.  Afterwards a GOLD get-together was held at Front Street Brewery

 

The Power Quality and Harmonics Seminar on October 23 and 24 was a success.  Attendees provided very positive feedback. 

 

October Meeting Presentation on Computer Viruses and Worms and Additional Tips on Protecting Your PC are available via these hyperlinks. 

Thanks to John Johnson for giving an interesting presentation and useful information.

 

Iowa-Illinois Section Executive Board approves Bylaws

At the August 26 board meeting the bylaws were approved. 

 

Iowa-Illinois Section enjoys "9 inning vacation" at River Bandits game on June 22

Send us in coach.  We're ready to play today.  With perfect weather, great food and lots of fun, the Iowa-Illinois Section of the IEEE had an out of the park day at the River Bandits baseball game on June 22.  See the pictures!

 

Iowa-Illinois Section sponsors Iowa State Conference

Our Iowa-Illinois Section of the IEEE has sponsored an Iowa State Conference on Probabilistic Methods Applied to Power Systems.  See details.

 

Power Point presentation from Gold meeting on April 23, 2003

Did you miss the Gold meeting on April 23, 2003? See the Power Point presentations on How to purchase your first home and Investing and saving for retirement.  Ivy Davey did a super job telling the recent graduates how to bypass some of the common mistakes that first home buyers make. Marty Kurtz explained investments, the stock market, bonds and how to get started setting aside our nest eggs. 

 

Geographic boundaries of the Iowa-Illinois Section

See the geographic boundaries of the Iowa-Illinois Section of the IEEE!

 

Send us your e-mail address:

ATTENTION: Please send your E-Mail Address to kspedersen@midamerican.com  - Don’t Miss out on the latest Iowa Illinois Section News!

 

Bill Serre attends PACE conference in Seattle, Washington

Your section board member Bill Serre recently attended the PACE conference in Seattle, Washington.  The acronym PACE stands for Professional Activities Committees for Engineers and is a  grassroots network of IEEE volunteers and committees organized at the section and chapter level in the United States with support from their respective regions and the IEEE-USA.

 

IEEE Region sponsors Power Quality and Harmonics Workshop                 

Our IEEE Region announced their sponsorship of The Power Quality and Harmonics Workshop that will be held in October.  Our local IEEE Section organized this event.  By obtaining IEEE Region sponsorship we demonstrate our Section's abilities and enthusiasm for organizing and promoting top notch programs to the engineering community. 

The Iowa-Illinois section of IEEE is pleased to offer a  two-day seminar on power quality and harmonics October 23 and 24, 2003 in Davenport, Iowa at the Radisson Hotel. Mark McGranaghan of Electrotek Concepts will serve as instructor.  To PreRegister for the workshop, provide the following information to Karen Pedersen:  Name, Address, Phone Number, E-Mail address.  You will be billed 45 days in advance of the seminar.  Cost is $150.00 for the two day seminar!  This course will count toward continuing education hours for renewing your PE license!

 

Genesis Systems Groups hosts March meeting:

Whitney Moon, John Christen, Randy Wiest and Pat Rockey demonstrated the talent and techniques of building robotic systems at the Genesis Systems Group facility in Davenport.  The tour following the presentation allowed section members to witness robotic systems in simulation and at work.  See pictures of the tour taken by our section photographer, David Sullivan. 

 

 

Welcome John Johnson to the Iowa-Illinois Section Board:

Many of our section members are also members of the Computer Society.  To ensure that our section represents individuals with computer interests, the Board nominated and elected John Johnson to be a "Member at large."  Contact John to provide suggestions for future meetings or just to say "hi".  Welcome, John.  Here is his e-mail address:

Member-at-Large, Computer Society

John D. Johnson

iowa-illinoismemberatlarge3@ieee.org

 

Gold Program: 

Our GOLD affinity group within the Iowa-Illinois Section of IEEE has scheduled three meetings this year:

January 22, 2003  Introduction to the Gold Program

April 24, 2003  Gold:  Buying your 1st home and Financial Planning

October 14, 2003  Gold: Front Street Brewery          

The acronym GOLD stands for Graduates Of the Last Decade.

 

Internet Security meeting draws Section interest:

Nick Vermeer of Internet Express captivated our section members on Wednesday 1-22-2003 with a terrific presentation on Internet Security.  Nick invited us to contact him at nickv@netexpress.net if we have additional questions. 

 

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