IEEE Central Texas SectionTHE ANALOG |
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Volume 54-02 |
February 2010 |
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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 27th day of the previous month. Send submissions, comments, questions to Dennis Ferguson, Editor, dferguson@ieee.org CONTENTS1. Section ActivitiesSan Antonio Vice-Chair's Column 2. Chapter ActivitiesAntennas & Propagation/Microwave Theory and Techniques Joint Circuits and Systems/Solid-State Circuits Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology Computer Society - San Antonio Electromagnetic Compatibility Society Engineering in Medicine and Biology Laser and Electro Optics Society Power Engineering Society - Austin Power Engineering Society - San Antonio Product Safety Engineering Society Joint Signal Processing/Communications Society - Austin Joint Signal Processing/Communications Society - San Antonio Technology Management Council - Austin Technology Management Council - San Antonio 3. News & InformationWaiting for the Nuclear Renaissance Mark Your Calendars: Engineers Week 2010 Humanitarian Technology Challenge Launches Student Design Competition 4. Local Conferences5. Other ConferencesIEEE EXTERNAL LINKSIEEEXplore - full text access to IEEE Publications The Spectrum Online -The Magazine for Technology Insiders |
1. Section ActivitiesChairman's ColumnDear CTS members, I'm Tom Grim, the new Chairman of your Central Texas Section of IEEE, and I'd like to welcome you to a series of short articles that I will be writing for the Analog, our monthly newsletter. Special thanks to our past Chairman, Garrett Polhamus, for his leadership of the section during the last two years. Let me introduce myself. I'm a Life Senior Member of IEEE, a resident of Austin since 1996, and retired from what is now AT&T Laboratories in Austin. My career has been in telecommunications. I tell people that I spent over 37 years working for various pieces of the Bell System. The first two thirds of that time were spent doing all the engineering jobs that you might do in a local telephone company. The last third of the time was spent negotiating and writing technical standards nationally and internationally. In IEEE, I started as a student member of the Institute of Radio Engineers at Carnegie Tech in about 1963, previous to the merger of the IRE and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers into the IEEE. After a stint of army time that included a year in Korea and a year of signal engineering at Fort Huachuca in Arizona, I became involved in the Cleveland IEEE Section, where the Chairman was the division manager of plant extensions engineering at Ohio Bell. He asked me to try to revive an inactive chapter of the IEEE Engineering Management Society. Although it turned out that the community of interest was probably not large enough for a viable chapter, a side effect of the attempt was that I got asked to run for a position on the IEEE level Administrative Committee of the Engineering Management Society. That became the focus of my IEEE volunteer activities until I retired in 2003 and again had time for a leadership role in my local section here in Austin. That interim between the Cleveland section in the 1970 time frame and 2003 included several IEEE technical leadership positions including president and long time secretary of the Engineering Management Society and representing Division VI on the IEEE Board of Directors. Division VI is an aggregation of the Engineering Management Society with the Reliability Society, the Education Society, the Social Implications of Technology Society and the Professional Communications Society, with a total membership of about 38,000 world wide. In the Central Texas Section Scott Atkinson asked me to be more involved at the section level after I spent some time helping the Engineering Management Society chapter. That led to being appointed Secretary and then to being the Vice Chair - Austin. Tom Grim Back to TOP Engineers Week February 14-20The Bexar Chapter of the Texas Society of Professional Engineers (TSPE) is again sponsoring a number of activities in celebration of Engineers Week. For a detailed calendar of events and registration info, go to https://bexartspe.org and select the "Engineers Week 2010 Events Flyer". Event highlights include:
Please join the Central Texas Section in honoring TSPE Engineer of the Year, John Brogan, PE. John has been active in professional activities for more than four decades. He has held many officer positions within the CTS, including Section Chair and Chair of the CTS chapter Power and Energy Society. Congratulations John! Tom Grim Back to TOP Membership DevelopmentHave you renewed your IEEE membership for 2010?It is easy to forget and easy to put off. If you haven't renewed your IEEE membership, or don't know if you have, go to your MYIEEE account NOW and check at www.myieee.org or call 800 678-4333. Renew now to avoid loss of any of your IEEE benefits. If you have already renewed, thank you for being part of the Central Texas Section and the IEEE, the world's largest technical professional association. IEEE GOLD to Host Upcoming Professional Development WebinarIEEE Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD) invites IEEE members to attend an upcoming Professional Development Webinar in February. "Two Brains Are Better Than One: Right-Brained Leadership for Projects," presented by Dr. B. Michael Aucoin, PE, PMP, covers the highly important career skill of managing and leading projects. Learn tips that you can apply immediately to be effective on projects and become a stronger leader as you progress in your career. This event will be held on Wednesday, 17 February 2010, at 11:00am - 12:00pm EST. Register Now. Did you know about IEEE - IEEE.tvMade possible by the members of IEEE, IEEE.tv is an award-winning Internet-based television network. IEEE members produce and deliver special-interest programming about technology and engineering for the benefit of IEEE's member and the general public. Key facts include:
IEEE.tv is available to the general public and significant members only programming is available through your IEEE web account. Go to: https://www.ieee.tv. Joe Redfield Back to TOP Section & Chapter NewsK-12 ActivitiesThanks for all of our IEEE CTS Members that served as judges for the Central Texas Future City Competition on Saturday, January 23rd. We had 13 teams compete and we couldn't have done it without you. For more information how to be involved next year either as a team mentor or as a judge, contact Dawn Roberson at ctxfuturecity@gmail.com, or Dean Schneider at d.schneider@ieee.org. Dean Schneider Discover EngineeringDiscover Engineering is a Central Texas program that coordinates classroom visits from local engineering volunteers. The mission of Discover Engineering is to excite K-12 students to pursue careers in math, science, and engineering through hands-on engineering activities and collaborative, volunteer-driven initiatives of the engineering and education communities. During the 2008-2009 school year, Discover Engineering volunteers visited over 13,000 students from more that 80 schools in the greater Austin area. Over 800 volunteers from more than 50 area companies, government organizations and professional societies participated in these visits. Registration for volunteers and teachers for the 2009-2010 school year is now open on the Discover Engineering web site (https://www.centexeweek.org). Teachers can sign up for a single classroom visit, an entire grade level, or an entire school. Individuals, Teams or entire companies can sign up as volunteers. Please take a few minutes to look at our web site, then sign up as a volunteer. And don't hesitate to pass this information on to any others you think would be interested. John Purvis Back to TOP Continuing EducationNew Programmable Logic Group
Engineering Ethics
Engineering Leadership InstituteThe Engineering Leadership Institute begins its 2009-2010 year with a one-week intensive bootcamp, training engineering managers to:
This program also includes quarterly follow on workshops, geared to the participant's needs. Certification from the Engineering Leadership Institute is available. Register now at https://lifelong.engr.utexas.edu/management/index.cfm. Back to TOP Student BranchesSt Mary's University - San
Antonio (https://engineering.stmarytx.edu/ieee/) Texas State University - San
Marcos (new branch, 2009 Trinity University - San
Antonio University of Texas at Austin
(https://ieee.ece.utexas.edu/) University of Texas at San
Antonio (http:/www.utsaieee.org/)
Student Member NewsHumanitarian Technology Challenge Launches Student Design CompetitionIEEE is sponsoring a Regional Student Design Competition for solutions to one of three humanitarian problems as part of the joint IEEE-United Nations Foundation Humanitarian Technology Challenge (HTC). The competition runs from Oct. 2009 to May 2010. HTC is a partnership among humanitarians, technologists, funders, and others, to develop implementable technological solutions to some key challenges facing humanitarian health and disaster workers today. The participants volunteer their time to collaborate for the benefit of humanity. The Regional Student Design Competition challenges students to provide a working prototype, scale model or detailed engineering design specifications for a project that satisfies one of the three Challenges. The project can be developed by student individuals or by student teams. Teams must be led by an IEEE student member. More information about the HTC project, and detailed descriptions of the challenges, can be found at https://www.ieeehtc.org. Rules for the Regional Student Design Competition can be found at https://www.ieeehtc.org/index.php/htc/students/challenge. Back to TOP 2. Chapter Activities
Antennas & Propagation/Microwave Theory and
Techniques
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Topic/Title |
Designing Multi-Processor and Multi-Core Systems-on-Chip |
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Speaker |
Prof. Andreas Gerstlauer, University of Texas at Austin Biography: Andreas Gerstlauer received a Dipl.-Ing. degree in Eletrical Engineering from the University of Stuttgart , Germany in 1997 and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Information and Computer Science from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) in 1998 and 2004, respectively. Prior to joining UT Austin in 2008, he was an Assistant Researcher in the Center for Embedded Computer Systems (CECS) at UC Irvine, leading a research group to develop electronic system-level (ESL) design tools. Commercial derivatives of such tools are in use at the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NEC Toshiba Space Systems among others. Dr. Gerstlauer is co-author on 3 books and more than 30 conference and journal publications, and his paper on OS modeling was reprinted as one of the most influential contributions at DATE. He has presented in numerous conference and industrial tutorials, and serves on the program committee of major conferences such as DATE and CODES+ISSS. Dr. Gerstlauer's research interests include system-level design automation, system modeling, design languages and methodologies, and embedded hardware and software synthesis. |
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Abstract |
The continuous increase in size, complexity, and heterogeneity of embedded system design has introduced new challenges in their modeling and implementation. Multi-Processor System-on-Chip (MPSoC) design requires high speed models for early verification and performance evaluation. As a result, electronic system level (ESL) modeling has moved up in abstraction from cycle accurate RTL to timed and untimed transaction-level models (TLMs). However, the open question is how to get from a high level system description to a hardware/software implementation? The goal of this tutorial is to answer such questions and to provide system designers and managers with new insight into ESL modeling concepts and synthesis techniques for MPSoCs. In this tutorial, we will cover the key concepts and state of the art tools for MPSoC design. We will discuss TLM semantics for automatic model generation, methods for automatic design space exploration, and hardware/software synthesis. This tutorial is targeted towards embedded software and hardware developers, engineers who use or are interested in using ESL design tools, managers of system designers, and verification engineers. |
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Date/Time |
Tuesday, 16 February 2010, 7:00 - 8:00pm |
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Cost |
none |
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Reservations |
not required |
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Location |
UT Campus - ENS 306A |
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Notes |
Cookies, soft drink |
The joint Circuits & Systems/Solid State Circuits Societies normally meet on the 2nd Tuesday of every month. This meeting is open to the public and interested parties. Additional details will be posted at the website. If you have any questions about this meeting or this group, please contact renhaoxing@ieee.org or dferguson@ieee.org
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Topic/Title |
Communication and Trust in Global Teams |
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Speaker |
Sirkka Jarvenpaa is the Bayless/Rauscher Pierce Refsnes Chair in Business Administration Information, Risk, and Operations Management at UT's McCombs School of Business. Her research covers communication and trust in global teams. Ranjit Nair is vice president of global human resources at GLOBALFOUNDRIES. In this role he is responsible for driving worldwide strategies for talent acquisition, people management and enterprise culture and change as the company transforms into a best-in-class foundry organization. Prior to his appointment at GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Nair held senior roles at AMD and Freescale where he helped each company through transformational efforts around large-scale mergers and acquisitions. |
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Abstract |
How can you be more effective in working with teams located in distant parts of the world? What do you need to know in order to successfully manage your projects? This panel discussion with several globally recognized experts can help you gain new insights. |
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Date/Time |
Monday, 8 February 2010 at 11:30am - 1:30pm |
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Cost |
$18 includes lunch |
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Location |
Mirabelle Restaurant |
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Chair: |
Om
P Mandhana |
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Notes |
Note that this lunch meeting will be held on a Monday, rather than our usual Wednesday meeting. |
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No Computer Society - Austin meetings are scheduled for February.
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Topic/Title |
CMMI for small Business and Small Departments |
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Speaker |
Nat Guadagnino, PMP Leader, principle process engineer and project manager, consultant and Director of IT departments improving their productivity, efficiency and defect rates using a combination of CMMI, ISO-9001-2002, ITIL and PMO together with a strong infrastructure. Mr. Guadagnino has hands on, fast track experience leading departments to major process improvements leading to a PMO in 4 months or less by using 'Balanced Minimilization' and change management. He has performed the full life cycle of project and process improvement for industries in electronics manufacturing, retail, pharmaceutical and aircraft maintenance, taking these dozen companies to process certification with SEI for CMMI, ISO, FAA and FDA. Through the application of skills in leadership, extensive IT experience, training and education, he is an expert in solving turnaround scenarios. He knows exactly what needs to be done to improve processes and manage departments and projects to comply with both business needs and the SEI CMMI the first time. His hands on industry experience includes e-manufacturing, pharmaceutical, large body aircraft MRO, Health Insurance and Large Scale Retail. His IT experience includes 12 years as Director of IT in 3 corporations, over 15 years as a project manager implementing process and applications. |
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Abstract |
Embracing process improvement has been beneficial for large companies doing Federal and DOD contracts. Poor project performance in the Federal environment was the principle reason for the creation of the Software Engineering Institute in Pittsburg PA. Projects were, late, over budget, out of scope and poor quality. The CMMI process framework and infrastructure was created and is still being updated today as a cure for these problems. The last 20 years of experience have proven this. Small business and small departments have benefited tremendously, also. Why??? The bottom line is that ANY process improvement is better than NO process improvement! We will show how a small business or a small department can easily select and implement the processes that most benefit them. From Project Planning to Requirements Management, the CMMI framework has something for all businesses. " |
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Date/Time |
Tuesday, 16 February, 2010 - 6:30-9:00 pm |
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Cost |
$15 IEEE members, $18 non-members, $4 students |
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Reservations |
Please email Yu Zhang, Yu Zhang, or call (210) 999-7399 (so we have a head count for dinner). |
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Location |
Skyline Room, Coates University Center, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX |
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Notes |
See www.ieee-cs-cts.org
for directions and parking information. |
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Topic/Title |
Cloud Computing |
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Speaker |
Rob Hirschfeld |
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Abstract |
Cloud computing seems to mean everything! We'll talk in specifics about how application development and delivery models are changing based on new "cloud" commercial models. We'll also explore how the plumbing behind the curtains is changing to reflect these new models. |
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Date/Time |
Wednesday, 24 February, 2010, |
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Cost |
$5.00 minimum charge for the restaurant. Supper is at optional extra cost.. |
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Reservations |
Not required. All interested parties are invited to attend. For more information, contact Ed Gordon ebg@ieee.org, or Kai Wong kaiwong@ieee.org. |
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Location |
China Star Restaurant, 6134 Hwy 290E, Austin TX, Westbound access road of 290E, just east of I-35 |
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Notes |
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Do a friend a favor. Bring your colleagues to grow the Consultants Network.
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No Electromagnetic Compatibility Society meetings are scheduled for
February.
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No Electron Devices Society meetings are scheduled for February.
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No Engineering in Medicine and Biology meetings are scheduled for
February.
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The Engineering Management Society has become the Technology Management Council. Information about meetings can be found in the sections for Technology Management Council - Austin and Technology Management Council - San Antonio
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No Graduates of the Last Decade meetings are scheduled for February.
For more Information contact Jason Polendo jpolendo@ieee.org
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No Laser and Electro Optics Society meetings are scheduled for February.
For more information, contact Ray Chen
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No meeting is planned for February. However the San Antonio Life Members Group plans exhibit
Do you have any old radios, computers, vacuum tubes, equipment manuals, catalogs, etc? Dig them out, dust them off and get ready to participate in our electrical/electronic "show and tell". Due to interest in history of electrical technology we are planning an opportunity for members to show electrical/electronic items of interest. For our March meeting we will provide table space for anyone wishing to bring exhibits to share with the group. This will be an informal setting where we can look at items and share experiences. If you have any items you would be interested in showing, please send an email to e.franke@ieee.org so that we can plan exhibit space.
We have had some preliminary discussions on the possibility of developing a Museum of Technology in San Antonio, including a meeting with a representative of the Whitte Museum. Anyone interested in participating in this effort is invited to email Scott Atkinson or E. Franke.
A future program (May/June time frame) is planned on Home Wireless
Systems, including home automation, entertainment and security systems.
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Topic/Title |
Methods for Evaluating Expected Useful Life of Service-Aged Medium-Voltage Power Cables |
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Speaker |
Mike Moore Mike has a degree in Marketing from Odessa College in Odessa, Texas. He is currently the Marketing Director for OPMUG (Oklahoma Preventive Maintenance Users Group) who provides a forum for maintenance information exchanges to all industries who can benefit from improved equipment reliability through networking, demonstration, benchmarking and leveraged training. |
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Abstract |
Managing your power distribution system and keeping up to date with the latest methods and methodologies to keep your business on line and running efficiently is a challenging endeavor. A key component to this is having any understanding of maintenance strategies, so you can implement these strategies into your operation. This presentation expose you to both time tested and innovative maintenance techniques to keep your facility on line, with discussions on predictive and preventive strategies for testing, maintaining and trending your facilities medium voltage power cables, leading to lower production costs and increased production capability. |
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Date/Time |
Thursday, 23 February 2010 |
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Cost |
Cash Only. Dinner is free for full-time students |
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Reservations |
Please RSVP if you plan to attend. To reply or for further information, please contact Kevin Ewing via email at kewing@shermco.com. |
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Location |
El Gallo Mexican Restaurant |
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Notes |
Directions: From I -35: Exit at Oltorf and drive west. At S. Congress, turn left (south). El Gallo is about 500 feet past the next traffic light (Cumberland), on the right (west) side of Congress, directly across from the entrance to St. Edward's University. From Ben White Blvd. (US290/SH71): Exit at S. Congress Avenue and drive north. El Gallo is about 600 feet past the next traffic light (Woodward), on the left (west) side of Congress directly across from the entrance to St. Edward's University. |
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No Power and Energy Society - San Antonio meetings are scheduled for
February.
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No Product Safety Engineering Society meetings are scheduled for
February.
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 6:30pm, with the program starting at 7:00pm. For further information about the PSES, please contact Dale Ritzen at (512) 651-5338.
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Topic/Title |
SCREAM - Static Compilation of Regular Expressions for Analysis and Modification |
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Speaker |
Rob King, DV Labs, TippingPoint |
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Abstract |
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Date/Time |
Thursday, 18 February 2010 at 6:00-7:30pm |
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Cost |
Admission is Free |
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Reservations |
RSVP: sab@ieee.org |
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Location |
AT&T Labs - 9505 Arboretum Blvd, Austin, TX 78759 |
|
Notes |
Check our website https://www.cts-comsoc-sp.org for details |
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No Joint Signal Processing/Communications Society - San Antonio meetings
are scheduled for February.
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No Technology Management Council - Austin meetings are scheduled for
February.
Contact Doug Russell for more information about the Austin TMC.
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Topic/Title |
Engineering Management - A Unique Discipline or Just Management? |
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Speaker |
Dr. Michael Frye will facilitate the discussion. |
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Abstract |
The Technology Management Council - San Antonio will host a panel discussion on whether Engineering Management is a unique sub-field of management or whether it poses the same challenges as general management. |
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Date/Time |
Thursday, 25 February 2010 11:30am |
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Reservations |
Contact Nils Smith for more details. |
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Location |
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Notes |
Aldaco's will offer their regular lunch menu for individual purchase. |
Contact Nils Smith (nils.smith@ieee.org) for information about the San Antonio TMC.
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Jointly held with the Technology Management Society - Austin (see
above).
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The spotlight is on San Antonio, where a consortium led by Toshiba is set to build two new advanced boiling-water reactors. Though the project is one of the most advanced in the United States in terms of approvals and planning, due to a sharp increase in projected costs the Texas city is holding off on a US $400 million bond issuance to support it, and the city-owned utility CPS Energy may back out. Since 2007, the estimated construction bill has ballooned from $8.6 billion to $12.1 billion.
The global nuclear industry might take refuge in a declaration of "force majeure"--the standard commercial jargon for forces beyond a supplier's control--inasmuch as construction costs have climbed generally in recent years and the decline of the dollar has driven up the price of any project that depends heavily on imported goods. In the case of the San Antonio plant, Japanese vendors are to supply up to $3 billion worth of equipment.
But however you slice and dice recent developments, this is not the way things were supposed to be. Taking a cue from the way France churned out a standard reactor in the 1970s and 1980s, containing costs and controversy, the companies hoping to build reactors in the United States have been working for more than a decade on designs that were to be cheaper, safer, more reliable, and above all, much easier and faster to build. Precertification of the new designs by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was supposed to eliminate the regulatory bottlenecks and local political controversy that had dogged reactor projects in the past. But even after all that work, ground has yet to broken for construction of any new reactor in the United States, and banks are now declaring that they consider such projects too risky to finance without large public subsidies. Meanwhile, the two European reactors under construction--also based on a precertified evolutionary design--have been dogged by delays, new safety concerns, and escalating costs.
What will it take for a real nuclear renaissance to occur? Read more at Nuclear Renaissance.
paraphrase the old army saying, it could be "hurry up and wait" when it comes to hybrid- and electric-vehicle charging, unless grid and pollution problems are addressed. Read more at EV Charging.
Bendable and roll-up consumer gadgets have been promised for a while, and many of the technologies are in place. But a key ingredient has been missing, a flexible form of flash memory. Now engineers in Japan have come up with a way to make flash memory on flexible plastic sheets. Read more at Flex Flash.
A design contest late last year showed just how difficult it would be to design and defeat hardware-based Trojan horses embedded in encryption chips and other devices. The contestants came up with some creative tricks, but in the end a relatively straightforward attack defeated them all. Read more at Trojans.
Celebrate the profession during Engineers Week 2010, 14-20 February. As always, a number of high-profile events are planned for the week in Washington, across the country and around the world. EWeek 2010 concludes with the Discover Engineering Family Day festival, sponsored by IEEE-USA, on Saturday, 20 Feb., at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. Read more at: Engineer's Week.
IEEE is sponsoring a Regional Student Design Competition for solutions to one of three humanitarian problems as part of the joint IEEE-United Nations Foundation Humanitarian Technology Challenge (HTC). The competition runs from Oct. 2009 to May 2010.
HTC is a partnership among humanitarians, technologists, funders, and others, to develop implementable technological solutions to some key challenges facing humanitarian health and disaster workers today. The participants volunteer their time to collaborate for the benefit of humanity.
Three challenges have been identified:
1. Reliable Electricity: Availability of electric power for lighting and other electronic devices in resource-constrained environments. Important for education, communications, and economic development.
2. Data Connectivity of Rural District Health Offices: Capability of exchanging data among remote field offices and central health facilities. Important for accessing treatment protocols, creating and monitoring health trends, and sharing results of treatments.
3. Individual ID Tied to Health Records: Consistent availability of patient medical records. Important for ongoing treatment of patients, especially migrants and those with long-term diseases.
The Regional Student Design Competition challenges students to provide a working prototype, scale model or detailed engineering design specifications for a project that satisfies one of the three Challenges. The project can be developed by student individuals or by student teams. Teams must be led by an IEEE student member.
More information about the HTC project, and detailed descriptions of the challenges, can be found at https://www.ieeehtc.org. Rules for the Regional Student Design Competition can be found at https://www.ieeehtc.org/index.php/htc/students/challenge.
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· IEEE Conference Search can be found at https://www.ieee.org/web/conferences/search/index.html.
·
See also https://www.wikicfp.com
- A place to organize and share Calls
for Papers.
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