IEEE Central Texas Section"THE ANALOG" |
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Volume 52-06 |
June 2008 |
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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 CONTENTS1. Section Activities2. Chapter Activities
3. News & Information
4. Local Conferences5. Other ConferencesIEEE EXTERNAL LINKS
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1. Section ActivitiesChairman's ColumnGreetings all. I hope everyone is having a great start to this summer of 2008. At last month's officer teleconference, we spent some considerable time discussing the way ahead for our new Educational Activities program. Stand by for additional information as Steve Prough begins to orchestrate a more integrated program to benefit all our Section members. As we head into the summer vacation season, many chapters are shutting down their monthly meetings for a few months. At the end of the summer, the Section leadership will hold its Fall planning meeting in San Marcos. From that meeting we'll hope to launch into several new activities planned for later this year. Finally I hope everyone will have a safe summer holiday season. Watch out for those long days behind the wheel driving to that favorite destination, those big waves and rip tides at the beach, and those boat hazards that surface every summer. And thanks again for your help to the profession. Garrett Polhamus Back to TOP Section & Chapter NewsIEEE CTS AwardsMany Section Members have distinguished themselves over the years and deserve your recognition. You know who they are. Please take a moment and contact the CTS Awards Chair, Clif Denny, c.denny@ieee.org, to nominate them for the CTS lifetime achievement award. Back to TOP Continuing EducationNew Certification Programs for Wireless and Software EngineersTwo IEEE societies are helping wireless-communications and software engineers demonstrate their skill and proficiency in the workplace with two new certification programs and improvements to an existing one. To learn more, go to https://bmsmail3.ieee.org:80/u/11727/40069599 Nanotechnology ExplainedMany engineers are still mystified by just what nanotechnology is all about, nor do they know how to involve themselves in what is expected to greatly benefit such fields as electronics, medicine, and the environment. To help professionals get a handle on what's going on, a recent online seminar covered the fundamentals of nanotechnology. To learn more, visit https://bmsmail3.ieee.org:80/u/11386/40069599 Tutorials Explain Intellectual Property RightsThree new online tutorials covering the ins and outs of U.S. copyright, trademark, and patent rules and regulations have been added to the Web site of the IEEE Intellectual Property Rights Office. The presentations seek to explain the IPR topics simply, relying on animated images to make the information lively. For more information, visit https://bmsmail3.ieee.org:80/u/11391/40069599 Back to TOP Student BranchesSt Mary's University- San Antonio (https://ieee.stmarytx.edu/) Trinity University - San Antonio University of Texas at Austin (https://ieee.ece.utexas.edu/) University of Texas at San Antonio (https://www.utsaieee.org/) Student Member NewsMarketplace of Ideas: How Bad Do Engineering Students Have It?A blogger on Wired.com recently posted the "Top 5 Reasons it Sucks to Be an Engineering Student." Cited were awful textbooks, professors who are rarely encouraging, poor academic counseling, assignments that all feel the same, and--perhaps worst of all--that other disciplines routinely offer inflated grades. According to the blog, "brilliant engineering students may earn surprisingly low grades, while slackers in other [academic] departments score straight A's for writing book reports...about their favorite zombie films." Do you agree with this blogger? Do you have unfortunate reasons of your own to add? Weigh in at institute@ieee.org Back to TOP 2. Chapter ActivitiesMultiple ChaptersBack to TOP Joint Circuits and Systems/Solid-State Circuits
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| Topic/Title | Administrative Meeting |
|---|---|
| Speaker | |
| Date/Time | Thursday, June 5, 2008 |
| Cost | None. |
| Location | Freescale Semiconductor, Long Canyon Conference Room in Bldg C 7700 W. Parmer Lane Austin, TX 78729 |
Chair: Om P Mandhana, Freescale
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The San Antonio Computer Society will be on summer break until our September 2008 meeting
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| Topic/Title | Roundtable discussion. Give us a 5-minute presentation on your most interesting project |
|---|---|
| Speaker | All who attend. |
| Date/Time | Thursday, June 12, 2008 (Regular meeting is on 2nd Thursday) Networking at 6:00 pm, Business and program from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm |
| Cost | $5.00 minimum charge for the restaurant. Supper is at optional extra cost. |
| Reservations | Not required. All interested parties are invited to attend. |
| Location | China Star Restaurant, 6134 Hwy 290E, Austin TX. Westbound access road of 290E, just east of IH 35 |
Do a friend a favor. Bring your colleague to grow the Consultants Network attendance.
The Consultants web directory is to be found at https://www.alesu.com/xltrp/ieeecons/listzero.htm
Do the Consultants Network a favor. Give a talk or get a speaker for one meeting this year. Email the bio and summary to the Chairman.
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| Topic/Title | EMC Requirements for Test & Measurement Equipment |
|---|---|
| Speaker | Ross Carlton, National Instruments |
| Date/Time | Wednesday, June 25, 6:30 PM |
| Reservations | RSVP Mike Royer at mroyer@mikeroyer.com |
| Location | National Instruments, Austin/ |
| Notes | Food will be provided. See website for directions. |
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| Topic/Title | Versatile Dry Release Process Dramatically Reduces MEMS Production Time |
|---|---|
| Speaker | Alan Atherton, Senior Technologist, Memsstar Technologies |
| Speaker Bio | Alan Atherton has spent over 30 thirty years in the Semiconductor industry with process engineering experience at Motorola Inc,. Applied Materials, and currently as Senior Technologist at memsstar¨ Technologies.Ê His process engineeringÊ experience covers most areas of chip manufacturing including etch, CVD, PVD, and photo lithography.Ê He received his Bachelors degree in Chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin. |
| Date/Time | Thursday June 26, 2008 6:00-7:30PM |
| Refreshments | 6:00-6:30PM |
| Reservations | RSVP to frank.wang@amd.com. We need an accurate count to purchase refreshments. |
| Location | SEMATECH Room F-C - Map at https://www.sematech.org/corporate/map.htm |
See EDC web link for future meeting dates, past meeting presentations: https://ewh.ieee.org/r5/central_texas/eds/
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EMBS will not be having technical meetings over the Summer. Look for our next meeting in September!
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For more Information contact Jason Polendo jpolendo@ieee.org
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For more information, contact Ray Chen
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| Topic/Title | The Challenges of Renewable Resources |
|---|---|
| Speaker | John Michael Harris |
| Date/Time | Thursday, July 24 (not June!), 2008, 11 am to 1 pm |
| Cost | |
| Bio/Abstract | Mike is a Mechanical Engineer and former chair of ASME/San Antonio. He is currently Generation Performance Manager at City Public Service. The presentation will include some practical stuff about wind generation, landfill gas generation, CPS Energy's (and ERCOT's) typical load curve vs. typical wind curves, how we deal with the intermittent nature of wind energy (now and potential for the future), and a bit on the future of things like solar power, future wind power, transmission line congestion and so on. |
| Location | TBD |
| RSVP | RSVP'd requested to Bob Harris (boss@ieee.org) so we can estimate food requirements. |
We are looking for a few more volunteers to round out our Chapter's planning Committee. We currently have three, Scott Atkinson, Bob Harris and Ernest Franke. We meet monthly for lunch to review IEEE, Central Texas Section and Chapter activities. Interested folks should contact scott.atkinson@fullarmorgroup.com or 210-481-4932.
If a Life Member is not receiving email from our Chapter, please contact Scott Atkinson at scott.atkinson@fullarmorgroup.com or 210-481-4932.
For more information, contact Scott Atkinson
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| Topic/Title | Batteries |
|---|---|
| Speaker | Jim Seippel- Dell |
| Date/Time | June 17, 2008, 6:30pm |
| Cost | none |
| Reservations | Call Dale Ritzen (512) 651-5338 for details and directions. |
| Location | Dell, Parmer Campus, Parmer South Building 4, Victoria Conference Room. |
We encourage you, others in your organization, or other interested parties to participate in our meetings. The PSES meets on the third Tuesday of every month at 6:30, with the program starting at 7pm. For further information about the PSES, please contact Dale Ritzen at (512) 651-5338 or Gary Schrempp at gary_schrempp@dell.com.
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| Topic/Title | Investigation of RF Interference Effects on 802.11 Wireless LAN: Experimental Results |
|---|---|
| Speaker | Ben Jones, CTS, Bandspeed |
| Date/Time | Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 7pm |
| Cost | Free |
| Reservations | RSVP to Steve Crowl scrowl@ieee.org. |
| Location | AT&T Labs - 9505 Arboretum Blvd, Austin, TX 78759 |
| Directions | Yahoo Map |
| Speaker Bio | Ben, CTO at Bandspeed, has 25 years of engineering experience in R&D and product development, specializing in signal processing, automatic control, and communications. He has deep expertise in a broad range of technologies from sensors, to integrated circuits, to RF and antennas. At Tracor (now BAE), Ben was the deputy director of a team who developed novel signal processing techniques for detection, tracking, and classification of underwater acoustic signals. He has seven issued Patents and seven pending Patents. Ben is the author of over 20 white papers and technical reports. He received a Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas. |
Upcoming Meetings:
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Contact Leslie Martinich (lmartinich@ieee.org) for more information about the Austin TMC.
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| Topic/Title | Millennials and Gen Y in Education and the Workplace |
|---|---|
| Speaker | UIW Assistant Professor Dr. Michael Frye |
| Date/Time | June 19th |
| Reservations | Contact Nils Smith for more details. |
| Location | UIW Campus |
Contact Nils Smith (nils.smith@ieee.org) for information about the San Antonio TMC.
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Women in Engineering has been an Affinity Group of the Central Texas Section since the Fall of 2002.
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Want to know what's going on in the Central Texas Section? In addition to the Analog and the Mid-Month reminders, there is a calendar of events on the CTS website - go take a look today, it's at https://ewh.ieee.org/cgi-bin/calendars/central_texas/calendar.pl
Check out the IEEE_USA presentation from the 2008 annual meeting, posted on the employment section of the CTS web site. The presentation gives tips on employment assistance, career development, and enhancing business.
You are invited to get involved into the nomination process. The deadline for Nominations for IEEE-USA Awards is July 31, 2008.
IEEE-USA Awards are given to recognize, professionalism, technical achievement, and literary contributions to public awareness and understanding of the engineering profession in the United States. Professionalism is characterized by efforts which advance the standing of members in the professions served by IEEE. Example activities are:
IEEE-USA awards include:
For detailed information and nomination forms please see: https://www.ieeeusa.org/awards/forms.html
Don't see an award that fits your nominee here? IEEE has many other award categories available. Check out the following links for listings: https://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/about/awards/index.html
Nominations are being accepted for the IEEE Fellows class of 2010. The rank of IEEE Fellow is the institute's highest member grade, bestowed on an IEEE Senior Member who has had an extraordinary record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest. The deadline for nominations is 1 March 2009. Senior Members can be nominated in one of four categories: application engineer/practitioner, research engineer/scientist, educator, or technical leader.
The Fellows Web pages contain information regarding the history of the IEEE Fellows program, the nomination process, access to the Fellows Nomination Kit, lists of Fellows who are eligible to be references and more about the Fellow program. Please visit the Fellows website at http:/www.ieee.org/fellows.
In the midst of reality TV shows featuring dancers, models, and singers trying to make it in show business, IEEE.tv is now showing a pilot of "Nerd Girls"--a reality show about a team of female engineering students building a solar car. Read on at https://bmsmail3.ieee.org:80/u/11729/40069599
Several IEEE members have helped develop incredibly small computer chips, inexpensive genetic testing, and a new adhesive material. Their projects were featured in recent Science Daily news stories. Read about their innovative work at https://bmsmail3.ieee.org:80/u/11725/40069599
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These conferences have been brought to our attention by section members
Please visit our website at https://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/cpmt/tc7/ast2008/ , and find out all of the important information for our 2008 conference. We are still soliciting presentations for the workshop (papers not required). Our conference is growing every year, and we hope to see you at the historic Benson Hotel in Portland in October.
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