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IEEE Central Texas Section ANALOG NEWSLETTER |
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Volume 51-12 |
December 2007 |
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Newsletter of the Central Texas Section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Inc. Published monthly. Deadline for inclusion is the 25th day of the previous month. Send submissions, comments, questions to Kevin Nickels, Editor, k.nickels@ieee.org Editors Note: I'm using a new toolchain to produce the Analog – please let me know if something looks funny or doesn't function, and I'll attempt to get it fixed.
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1. Section ActivitiesChairman's ColumnIt has been my privilege to serve you for the past two years as your Section Chairman. At the close of this year, my time in office expires and it is time to elect new leadership. The Section nominations committee has prepared a slate of officers for your consideration below - please support them. During these past two years, I have enjoyed great support from the Section. I know that I have grown professionally and I hope that you have benefited by your membership as well. We have accomplished a great deal during this time. We continue to promote Members to Senior Member. We have added technical society chapters. We have sponsored conferences for the benefit of our Section membership, and we ensured the best for our professional society through our support of potential new members in high school and our student chapters at the universities in our geographic area. During this holiday season, the members of Central Texas Section have a lot to celebrate. I would like to thank you all for permitting me to serve this Section as Chairman. I wish you all a safe and happy holiday season and a prosperous new year. Be sure to consult the Central Texas Section Website for meetings, conference dates, and news, and try the myIEEE at https://www.ieee.org. It is a portal to IEEE services and products customized to your specific membership profile. Thanks to all who volunteer their time and skill to the Central Texas Section of IEEE. Please let me know how I can help you participate. Clif Denny Section & Chapter NewsSection Elections Chapter Elections Chapter and Affinity Group
Meeting Reports Due Teacher in Service
Program IEEE CONGRATULATES OUR 194
NEW SENIOR MEMBERS! Continuing EducationNEED CEUs? IEEE Offers Online Seminar
on 21st-Century Engineering Dec 4, 2008 WiMAX: Ready for Prime
Time Student BranchesSt Mary's University- San Antonio (for
more information) Trinity University - San Antonio University of Texas at Austin (for
more information) University of Texas at San
Antonio(for more
information)
Student Branch News Trinity University recently won a national competition on designing an 'Accessible Home Vital Signs Monitoring System" beating other, major universities. The scope of the project was to design and construct an accessible home vital signs monitoring system which is non-invasive, accessible, safe, and accurate. The team members were Michael Giese, Katherine Avakian, Matt Bardwell, Kevin Wallof with contributions from Adam Harwell, and advised by Prof Farzan Aminian. On November 15th, Trinity University’s student chapter threw a robot building party. Small robot kits of different types were ordered online from Carl’s Electronics for about $20 each. All the kits required beginner soldering. The event lasted for about five hours during which students ate pizza and got to know each other. First year students got the chance to meet and work with upperclassmen who in many cases taught them how to solder. At the end, teems raced their robots through a cardboard maze to see which ones were the fastest. As an added bonus to the evening, each team kept the robot that they built. The robot building party was successful at both generating interest in IEEE among Trinity engineering students and at introducing a fun side of electrical engineering to first year students. Editor's Note – Advisers/presidents - send us updates on student chapter activities! Calls for VolunteersThe Austin Energy Regional Science Fest is seeking judges. Judging will take place for the Jr/Sr division on Thursday, February 21 at the Palmer Events Center in Austin. To volunteer as a judge, go to www.sciencefest.austinenergy.com and click on "sign up as a Science Festival judge now". 2. Chapter ActivitiesMultiple ChaptersNo Joint Meetings scheduled for December. Joint Circuits and Systems/Solid-State CircuitsTopic or Presentation Title:
Start-ups vs. Public Companies Light Refreshments will be provided. The joint Circuits & Systems/Solid State Circuits Societies meet on the 2nd Tuesday of every month. This meeting is open to the public and interested parties. Additional details will be posted at https://ewh.ieee.org/r5/central_texas/ssc_css/. If you have any questions about this meeting or this group, please contact seningen@ieee.org or dferguson@ieee.org Components, Packaging and Manufacturing TechnologyTopic or
Presentation Title:TBD CPMT-Chapter Website:
https://cpmtaustinchapter.org/ Computer Society - Austin [for more information]Topic or
Presentation Title: See https://austin-cs.org/ for detailed directions and for last minute information. This presentation is open to the public. Computer Society - San Antonio [for more information]Topic or
Presentation Title: More information on the program is available at our Web site https://www.ieee-cs-cts.org. This meeting is open to the public. Consultants Network [for more information]Topic:
Mobile Computing, and Annual Election of Officers Please bring a colleague to help us grow the Consultants Network attendance. The Consultants web directory is to be found at https://www.alesu.com/xltrp/ieeecons/listzero.htm Electromagnetic Compatibility Society [for more information]Topic or
Presentation Title: EMC Chapter Christmas
Party Neither IEEE nor EMC membership is required and all visitors are invited to attend. For additional information, including map to the meeting location, please see our web site at https://ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/chapters/centraltexas/index.html Electron Devices Society [for more information]Topic or
Presentation Title: No November or December
Meetings See EDC web link for future meeting dates, past meeting presentations: https://ewh.ieee.org/r5/central_texas/eds/ Engineering in Medicine and Biology [for more information]Topic or
Presentation Title: A Biased View of the Origins of
Engineering in Medicine and Biology The nominations committee for the
Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Chapter offer the
following slate of candidates for 2008: For further information, please contact Dawn Roberson, 210-458-5520. Engineering Management [for more information]Topic or
Presentation Title: The Engineering Management Society
will hold a joint meeting of the Austin and San Antonio Chapters.
The IEEE Engineering Management Society has some exciting plans
for 2008, and you can help set the direction. See https://www.ewh.ieee.org/r5/central_texas/ems/calendar.htm for more information. Come early, skip the traffic, and do some fun shopping! For other information about the Engineering Management Society activities, see the the web site: https://www.ewh.ieee.org/r5/central_texas/ems/. For information regarding chapter activities (and those wanting to volunteer), contact Leslie Martinich (leslie@competitivefocus.com) (512-423-5121). Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD)Topic or
Presentation Title: TBA Laser and Electro Optics SocietyTopic or
Presentation Title: TBA For more information, contact Ray Chen. Life Members Affinity GroupTopic or
Presentation Title: TBA For more information, contact Scott Atkinson Power Engineering Society - Austin [for more information]Topic or
Presentation Title: No
meeting for November/December (see below) The tour originally scheduled for the November meeting had to be canceled because of unsafe conditions due to heavy construction. So our next general meeting will be on January 22, 2008 at El Gallo Mexican Restaurant in South Austin. Our social time begins at 6 PM followed by a short business meeting, dinner, a presentation, and a discussion. Students eat free and accompanying spouses pay member rates. Please email our Secretary, Stan Friend, if you plan to attend. Power Engineering Society - San Antonio [for more information]Topic
or Presentation Title: As always you do not have to be an IEEE member to attend. For more information go to our web site at https://ewh.ieee.org/soc/pes/centraltexas/sanantonio Product Safety Engineering Society [for more information]Topic
or Presentation Title: TBA The PES Austin Chapter is not scheduled to meet in December. Our next general meeting will be on January 22, 2008 at El Gallo Mexican Restaurant in South Austin. Our social time begins at 6 PM followed by a short business meeting, dinner, a presentation, and a discussion. Students eat free and accompanying spouses pay member rates. Please email our Secretary, Stan Friend, if you plan to attend. For
further information about the PSES, please contact Dale Ritzen at
(512) 651-5338. Joint Signal Processing/Communications Society [for more information]Topic:
TBA Women in Engineering [for more information]Topic
or Presentation Title: TBA Women in Engineering has been an Affinity Group of the Central Texas Section since the Fall of 2002. Additional information is on the WIE website at https://www.austin-wie.org 3. IEEE InfoAutonomous Vehicles Complete DARPA Urban ChallengeThe latest Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency competition tested the ability of cars to drive themselves in populated areas. The Urban Challenge took place recently in California, pitting manufacturers and engineering colleges against one another in a high-tech race to prove who could build the smartest robotic vehicle. The winner was. . . (read more at https://www.spectrum.ieee.org/nov07/5717) Charles Elachi: Exploring the UnknownAs far back as he can remember, Charles Elachi was fascinated with space. Looking up at the night sky from the patio of his childhood home in Rayak, Lebanon, he would wonder, are people watching us from other planets too? And how did life begin? Today he may be closer to the answers. Read about this IEEE Fellow's career in space exploration at https://bmsmail3.ieee.org:80/u/8752/40069599 Apple Cofounder Donates Money to Student BranchThe IEEE student branch at the University of California at Berkeley lucked out when Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak went back to his roots. A graduate of the school, class of 1986, he donated US $1000 to the branch in September. Learn more at https://bmsmail3.ieee.org:80/u/8755/40069599 Electronic Ticket Checker Named IEEE Engineering MilestoneSubway systems and electronic fare cards are commonplace these days. But the development of the world's first commuter ticket-scanning machine, installed to check the tickets of mobs of riders, was recently named an IEEE Milestone in Electrical Engineering and Computing. Read on at https://bmsmail3.ieee.org:80/u/8759/40069599 IEEE-USA Zeroes In on Plug-In HybridsPlug-in hybrid electric vehicles have a lot of potential benefits for both fuel consumption and the environment, but they're not yet ready for prime time. Read about an IEEE-USA symposium that covered the many challenges that plug-ins face, at https://bmsmail3.ieee.org:80/u/7824/40069599 4. Local Conferences2007 IEEE International Workshop on Microprocessor Test and Verification (MTV) will be held Dec 2-5 in Austin. https://mtv.ece.ucsb.edu/MTV/
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