The Analog is the monthly newsletter of the Central Texas Section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Inc. New issues are published around the first of each month.  The deadline for inclusion of material is the 26th of the month.  Send submissions, comments, questions to John Purvis, Editor, john.purvis@ieee.org. Archives of The Analog can be found on the CTS web site here.

You can always check on all of the upcoming Central Texas Section activities here

Follow the Central Texas Section in Social Media
  • Join our LinkedIn group - this group is limited to IEEE members only
  • Follow us on Twitter, use the hashtag #IEEECTS
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Join CTS on IEEE Collabratec - an integrated online community where technology professionals can network, collaborate, and create - all in one central hub.

From the Central Texas Section Chair

Congratulations to the new Central Texas Section Officers, Chair Leslie Martinich, Vice Chair - Austin Zhuo Li, Vice Chair - San Antonio Garrett Polhaumus (CTS Past Chair), Treasurere Kai Wong and Secretary Don Drumtra.  I would also like to congratulate all the new officers and returning officers of the chapters, I look forward to all the exciting meetings and events you are planning for 2016.

The new officers will take over on January 1, 201`6.

Budget requests for chapters and affinity group chapters were due to Don Drumtra November 30th. I may not have seen all the requests, but it appears there are a lot of chapters who did not submit their budgets for 2016. Chapters that did not submit a budget will receive the default budget amount of $200. This amount is provided each year to every section for each of its chapters by IEEE headquarters.

This is the the start of the IEEE membership renewal season, in conjunction with IEEE-USA, IEEE has a special offer for US members. Refer a colleague to IEEE. If they join before December 31, they'll get a $25 discount off their first year membership, and you'll get a gift. Go to https://ieee.fluidsurveys.com/s/ieee-usa/ to refer them now.

The Section's budget for 2016 will be approved at the Spring Section meeting in San Marcos on January 16th.  All Chapter Chairs are members of the Executive Committee, and should plan to attend.  More information will be emailed directly to chapter officers.

Best wishes for the holiday season,

Kenny Rice
Chairman, Central Texas Section
krice@ieee.org

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Membership Development

Have you renewed your IEEE membership for 2016?
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 https://www.ieee.org/myieee  or call 800 678-4333.

OR just renew now to avoid loss of any of your IEEE benefits at https://www.ieee.org/renew .

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. We have a lot planned for you in the CTS for 2016.

Visit https://www.ieee.org/membership to view all YOUR benefits of IEEE membership.

Did you know about IEEE – Life Membership
Close to retirement?

Don’t retire your IEEE membership too soon!

IEEE Members who are over 65 and have been dues paying members for over 35 years qualify for IEEE Life Membership with waiver of future dues and begin the next chapter of your life as a IEEE Life Member.  Find our more at https://www.ieee.org and searching on “Life Member”.

The CTS has an active Life Member Program with meetings and activities tailored specifically for those honored members.

Did you know about IEEE – IEEE.tv
Offered as an exclusive benefit of members, IEEE.tv Member/Basic offers members-only programming.  https://ieeetv.ieee.org

IEEE.tv Member/Basic included highlights from IEEE conferences, interviews with leading IEEE authors, technology reports from IEEE Spectrum, and coverage of special IEEE events and people and lots of other fun stuff to look at.

Check out the new monthly programming at https://ieeetv.ieee.org !!!!!!!

Joe Redfield
CTS Membership Development Chair
J.Redfield@ieee.org
210-744-2968

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News of Interest to the Section

2015-2016 IEEE-USA Government Fellowships: Work with and Advise Government Policy-Makers
IEEE-USA's Government Fellowships provide opportunities for U.S. IEEE members to provide expertise to the U.S government and learn firsthand about the public policy process through personal involvement. Each year, IEEE-USA sponsors four qualified IEEE members to serve as government fellows: one Engineering & Diplomacy Fellow; one Engineering & International Development Fellow; and two Congressional fellows. The Fellows spend a year in Washington -- from September to August each year -- serving as advisers to key U.S. Department of State or U.S. Agency for International Development decision-makers, or the U.S. Congress. The application deadline for all 2016-2017 Fellowships is 15 January 2016.

Applicants from the Central Texas Section have been very successful with this program over the past few years.

Texas Board of Professional Engineers Ethics Webinars
Provides an up-to-date overview of agency activities, case studies, and a review of professional ethics topics.
December 3, 2015, 10-11 a.m., 12-1 p.m. and 2-3 p.m.  
P.E.s renewing the quarter of the webinar will be sent an email notification of the upcoming event.
Registration will open November 3, 2015
 
Each webinar is limited to 1,000 attendees. Registration links for all webinars are posted at https://engineers.texas.gov/webinar.
 
If you are interested in scheduling a live TBPE ethics presentation at your workplace, refer to our outreach page at: https://engineers.texas.gov/outreach.

Call for participation: IEEE DIY Project: deadline 7 December
The IEEE DIY Project was created to help encourage and support future makers by allowing them to showcase new and innovative projects. Students and engineers from around the world are invited to submit DIY (Do It Yourself) tech projects to share their ideas with peers and help contribute to existing projects by commenting and voting on them. Each submission must be an engineering project that was built or created using hardware or software. Top projects will be highlighted in a monthly video series and on the IEEE social pages, and in December, five winners will be chosen and will receive Amazon gift cards worth up to US$500.

Read more . . .

Congratulations to new Senior Member
Congratulations to Central Texas Section member Constantine Caramanis for being elevated to Senior Member at the IEEE Admission & Advancement (A&A) review panel meeting held in Portland, Oregon in October.

Free eBook from IEEE USA to IEEE Members
For the month of December, IEEE-USA will offer Leading and Managing Engineering & Technology--Book 3: Building a Culture that Develops Leaders and Managers, by Gerard H. (Gus) Gaynor. Gaynor writes about such topics as: “The Basic Organizational Culture,” “Building a Leadership Culture,” and even a “Case Study: IBM’s Silverlake Project”. Look for the special link on 1 December.

From 1 December to 15 January, you can get your free e-book by going to https://shop.ieeeusa.org/usashop/product/careers/74735. Log in with your IEEE Web account, add the book to your cart and use promo code DECFREE at checkout.

Global Day of the Engineer
Celebrate how engineers make a world of difference. Pledge now!
Global Day of the Engineer brings together the international community to:

Celebrate the accomplishments of engineers
Give students around the world a chance to experience engineering
Share the amazing innovations engineers create every day
Be part of the movement that celebrates this amazing group of people and helps grow our next generation innovations.

Read more . . .

Austin technology event to benefit Toys for Tots
Tekboost Inc. is hosting members of the Austin technology community for a holiday season children's benefit. The event will be held at The Dogwood on Dec. 9 to collect donations for the Toys for Tots program. Tekboost is inviting technology sector workers to network with like-minded professionals at the event from 5 p.m. to 8 pm. Read more . . .

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Call for Volunteers

Volunteers needed for The Young Women’s Leadership Academy (YWLA) Science Fair
The San Antonio Young Women’s Leadership Academy (YWLA) Science Fair will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, December 5th at 2123 West Huisache Ave. Check-in time will be at 8:45 a.m. The last day to register is December 2nd. Food and beverages will be provided along with any necessary tools for tabulation and judging. Lunch will also be served and judges will receive a certificate for community service hours. Attached is a judges letter that provides additional information about the San Antonio Young Women’s Leadership Academy and includes a sign-up sheet. Anyone interested in volunteering, can please fill out the Judge’s Information Sheet and return to me via email at christina.bocanegra@swri.org.
 
You can find more information on YWLA here

Volunteers needed for the Jay Science and Engineering Academy Science Fair
Jay Science and Engineering Academy in San Antonio is holding their annual Science Fair on Saturday, December 5, 2015 at 8:30 a.m.  They still need more judges.  If you already received a notice directly from them, please disregard this notice.  If you are interested or know of someone who is willing to judge, please direct them to the online registration form at the link below.  If you have questions, please contact Ms. Jenny Ostos at jenny.ostos@nisd.net.

Register here

Volunteers needed for the Harmony Science Academy Science Fair
The Harmony Science Academy Annual School Wide Science and Engineering Fair will be held at 8505 Lakeside Parkway San Antonio, TX, 78245 on Saturday Dec 5, 2015.

Please consider devoting your time and talent to the students from HSA San Antonio who will be eagerly participating in this important scientific endeavor.  If you agree to help, your duties will begin at approximately 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, December 5 2014 with a complimentary Breakfast at HSA. After some instructions, judging of the projects will begin at 9:00 p.m. and, depending on the number of projects, be completed by approximately 12:30 p.m.

If you are willing to serve as a judge for the Science Fair, please complete the form at this link.

The judges’ registration deadline is on or before Friday, Dec. 4th.  Thank you and we’ll see you at the Fair!

February 25, 2016: Discover Girl Day
Calling all Role Models!
As an engineer or engineering student, YOU are a powerful role model. In just a single visit you can inspire and introduce girls to this exciting career path.

Sign-up as a Girl Day role model! We will provide you with the tips, tools and resources you need to bring out the engineer in every girl.

https://www.DiscoverE.org/GirlDay

Why I am Still an IEEE Member?


Innovators, Entrepreneurs, Engineers and Evangelists

Innovators, Engineers & Entrepreneurs: Mark your calendar for February 26 for a workshop that will address two specific areas:
  1. What do you need to know in order to make your startup successful?
  2. What domains are ripe for innovation: biomedical, vehicular, power and energy, cybersecurity and others.  Learn more about future developments.
If you are already building a product, you’ll want to know more about (#1) making your startup successful.

If you want to be an entrepreneur, or already are an entrepreneur or innovator, you’ll benefit from (#2) insights about the future of various technologies.

And in either case, you’ll benefit from the tool kits, demos and networking!

On another topic, that of Regulatory Policies, check out my thoughts on “What Do Drones, Uber and HomeAway Have in Common?”

And if you are interested in Policy, check out the IEEE-USA fellowships.  Government Fellowship Applications are due on January 15, 2016, for the academic year 2017.

And if you (or someone you know!) is an engineering student, consider the Washington Internship for Students of Engineering.  Application deadline is December 31, for the program that runs from June 5 – August 5, 2016.

Have a Happy New Year!
Leslie Martinich
CTS Austin Vice Chair
lmartinich@ieee.org

Section Secretary Zhuo Li invited to participate in Frontier of Engineering Symposium

I was invited earlier this year to participate in the Frontier of Engineering Symposium organized by the National Academy of Engineering. After participating in the Symposium I shared my experiences via blog post.

Zhuo Li
CTS Secretary
zhuoli@ieee.org

Com/SP Austin Chapter Recognized

As mention previously in the Analog, the IEEE ComSoc Central Texas Austin Chapter was the winner of the 2015 Chapter Achievement Award, North America Region and the winner of the 2015 Chapter of the Year Award. Chapter Chair Fawzi Behmann wrote an article that was published by IEEE COMSOC in October.

The full article can be read from the CTS web site here.
Microsoft Word - Article CoY 2015 Award - Austin COMSOC - BEHMANN Update.doc

Continuing Education


IEEE Provided
Spectrum Tech Insider Webinars
Learn from industry experts about latest technology advances via our free Tech Insider Webinars. This page lists upcoming and available 'on demand' Tech Insider webinars. All the live webinars are archived and are available on demand for 12 months. IEEE members can also earn PDH certificates for each webinar.

More Than 400 Courses Now Available on IEEE Xplore
It’s easier to find IEEE’s more than 400 online courses now that they’ve been added to the IEEE Xplore Digital Library. Known as the eLearning Library, these interactive online classes can be found in the library’s Courses section. Based on tutorials and workshops presented at IEEE conferences, the courses were developed and peer-reviewed by experts in their fields. Read more . . .
Computer Society Webinars
Register now for our latest free live technical webinars. Or check out our past webinars at your convenience.  See this site  for more information.
Computer Society 2014 Professional Development Courses
Expand your knowledge base by taking a professional development course in your area of technical interest. Half-day webcast formats (3.5 hours) enable you to quickly get up to speed in a specific technology area without leaving your desk. And each are at a low cost of $49. For a limited time, sign up for three courses and receive the fourth one for free.  See the list of training courses.
ComSoc Training
See this calendar  for a list of upcoming courses.
Other learning opportunities
IEEE e-Learning Library
IEEE Online Education Portal
IEEE-USA Webinars (attendees can earn professional development hours -- PDHs)
Other Sources
CodeAcademy
Learn to code interactively for free

Corsea.org
A web site that provides an aggregate of university course offerings. Their tag line is "Take the World's Best Courses, Online, For Free." They have 16 course categories, most in technology areas from 16 major universities. 

MIT Open Courseware
MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity. More can be learned here.

Saylor.org: Free Education
The tag line of the Saylor website is "Harnessing Technology to Make Education Free." Although Saylor.org does not grant degrees, students can download a certificate of completion for successfully passing the exam at the end of each course. There are thirteen areas of study that visitors can choose to explore, including Computer Science, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Mechanical Engineering.

University of Texas Professional Development
UT Center for Lifelong Education provides several courses (these are NOT free). The list can be found here.

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Career

Articles of interest

CTS Job listing
The Central Texas Section receives job postings from time to time. These are posted on the Section Web site. If you have a job to post to the site, send the information to cts-webmaster@ieee.org

IEEE ResumeLab
IEEE members have a new tool to help gain a competitive edge in the employment process. IEEE ResumeLab is a new online service that allows IEEE members to develop a resume or curriculum vitae using specialized tools tailored for each step of the job seeking process. This new product is added to the list of offerings that assist members as they find jobs and develop their careers.

The IEEE Job Site
The IEEE Job Site has undergone a makeover with new features and easier navigation to better serve IEEE members. Its still easy for IEEE members or IEEE member job seekers to conduct job searches or create and upload a resume, but with the use of HTML5 technology, the site boasts a cleaner layout and crisp contemporary design making the IEEE Job Site more user-friendly.

The IEEE-USA Career Manager is organized into eight categories designed to help you manage and advance in your career:

* Career Management Interactive Workshop
* Salary Service
* Consulting and Entrepreneurship
* Professional Development Webinars
* Employment Assistance and Job Search
* IEEE Online Distance Learning
* E-Book Library
* IEEE.tv





Is Engineering for Men Only?

Even though women have made great growths in many jobs in the last few years, engineering remains generally held by male engineers. Studies from many national societies show the number of women in engineering is very low and the percentage of women receiving engineering degree is less than 20%.  Many women left engineering to do something else despite the fact that women engineering students achieve as well as men, but are more likely than men to switch to a different job.

What do we need to do?

We need to do more here to make the environment even better for women to study engineering.

Why Engineering?

Everywhere you look you will see engineering having optimistic result on our life.

You’ll be giving back to community.

 Engineering is great field for creative thinkers.

Engineering takes teamwork, and you’ll work with all kinds of people inside and outside the field.

Be prepared to be involved and to have your abilities overextended in ways you never expected.

Engineers not only earn lots of respect, but paid well.

Imagine what life would be like without engineers. In another words, engineers protect our lives, prevent disease, and protect our planet.

Women should be part of engineering our world and they will make a difference.

Contributed by Qusi Alqarqaz, IEEE Senior Member
https://qusialqarqaz.wordpress.com
qusi.alqarqaz.us@ieee.org

Tips, Tools and Gadgets

I came across a pure HTML5 web site recently that will perform a speed test of your broadband connection. The site is SpeedOf.Me. The best thing about it is that no Flash or Java is required to run the test.

I ran a test with another site, https://www.speedtest.net/ (that does require Flash) and then immediately with SpeedOf.Me. While the sites did not agree (Speedtest.net: 7.63/1.46 Mbps versus SpeedOf.Me 8.36/1.54Mbps), they were pretty close. This difference is most likely a result of the test methods being used by the respective sites.

In any case, having access to these tools if you have a question as to how your network connection is performing is always useful.

If you have comments, or suggestions as to something I should mention in a future issue, please let me know at john.purvis@ieee.org.  I look forward to reading your comments and suggestions. 

John Purvis III P.E.
john.purvis@ieee.org
https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com
IEEE Senior Member, Past Section Chair, Analog Editor

Student Branches and Activities

St Mary's University - San Antonio (https://engineering.stmarytx.edu/ieee/)

Faculty Adviser: Wenbin Luo, email: wluo@stmarytx.edu
Branch Chair: Jorge Padilla, email: jpadilla4@mail.stmarytx.edu


Texas State University - San Marcos

Faculty Adviser: Larry Larson, email: Larry.Larson@txstate.edu

Branch Chair: Alison Chan, email: c_c457@txstate.edu

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TXST.IEEE



Trinity University - San Antonio 

Faculty Adviser: Farzan Aminian, email: faminian@trinity.edu

Branch Chair: Sang Choi, email: schoi1@trinity.edu

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TrinityIEEE



University of Texas at Austin (https://ieee.ece.utexas.edu/)

Faculty Adviser: Sriram Vishwanath, email: sriram@ece.utexas.edu

Branch Chair: Walter Oji, email: chair@ieeeut.org

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/ieeeut



University of Texas at San Antonio (https://ieeeutsa.com/)

Faculty Adviser: Paul Morton, email: PaulMorton@utsa.edu

Branch Chair: Mark Pena, email: Mark.W.Pena@gmail.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ieeeutsa

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Useful IEEE Links

IEEE

IEEE-USA

IEEE Region 5

IEEE Central Texas Section

What's New at IEEE

SocietyNews from IEEE

IEEE Regional News

      

Call for Papers

IEEE Standards Association

IEEEXplore - full text access to IEEE Publications

The Spectrum Online - The Magazine for Technology Insiders

IEEE: The Bridge - IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu (IEEE-HKN)'s signature publication, an interactive digital magazine published three times a year.

IEEE Member Newsletter https://theinstitute.ieee.org

Other Region 5 Section Newsletters

Conferences, Meetings and Events

Local IEEE Conferences, Events or Workshops

  • December 1-4, 2015: 2015 IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium (RTSS)
    San Antonio, TX, USA

    The IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium (RTSS) is the premier conference in the area of real-time systems, presenting innovations in the field with respect to theory and practice. RTSS provides a forum for the presentation of high-quality, original research covering all aspects of real-time systems design, analysis, implementation, evaluation, and experiences. RTSS’15 continues the trend of making RTSS an expansive and inclusive symposium, looking to embrace new and emerging areas of realtime systems research. RTSS’15 welcomes submissions in all areas of real-time systems, including but not limited to operating systems, networks, middleware, compilers, tools, modeling, scheduling, QoS support, resource management, testing and debugging, design and verification, hardware/software co-design, fault tolerance, security, power and thermal management, embedded platforms, and system experimentation and deployment experiences.

    See https://2015.rtss.org/ for more details

  • January 16, 2016: Central Texas Section 2016 Spring Section Meeting
    Agenda
    - 7:30 AM Breakfast
    - 7:50 Welcome
    - Section Officer Reports
    - Chapter Officer Reports
    - Section Committee Reports
    - Lunch
    - Student Branch Reports
    - New business
    https://meetings.vtools.ieee.org/m/37012

  • May 14-22, 2016: 2016 IEEE/ACM 38th IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE)
    Renaissance Austin Hotel
    9721 Arboretum Blvd

    ICSE 2016 is the premiere worldwide forum for professionals interested in all aspects of software engineering research. Over 1000 academic, industrial, and governmental researchers from dozens of countries—including over a hundred students—attend ICSE. The three-day main conference has multiple tracks reporting on innovative research results as well as on software engineering education and practice. Tutorials, workshops and other collocated events are held before and after the main conference to allow in-depth presentations and discussions of specific topics in software engineering.

    Abstract submission deadline: 28 Aug 2015
    Full Paper Submission deadline: 28 Aug 2015
    Final submission deadline: 13 Feb 2016
    Notification of acceptance date: 15 Dec 2015

    See https://2016.icse.cs.txstate.edu/ for more details

  • May 15-16, 2016: 2016 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems (MOBILESoft)


  • June 2-10, 2016: 2016 53nd ACM/EDAC/IEEE Design Automation Conference (DAC)
    Hilton Austin
    500 East Fourth Street
    Austin, TX, USA

    The world's premier EDA and semiconductor design conference and exhibition. DAC features over 60 sessions on design methodologies and EDA tool developments, keynotes, panels, plus the NEW User Track presentations. A diverse worldwide community representing more than 1,000 organizations attends each year, from system designers and architects, logic and circuit designers, validation engineers, CAD managers, senior managers and executives to researchers and academicians from leading universities.

    See https://www.dac.com/ for further details

  • October 23-26, 2016: 2016 IEEE Compound Semiconductor Integrated Circuit Symposium (CSICS)


Non-IEEE Meetings and Events of interest suggested by the membership
Texas Tech Pulse Calendar of Texas High Tech Events

Second & Fourth Friday of evey month: TechRanch Austin, Campfire
Come join our entrepreneurial community every 2nd and 4th Friday of the month.

Want to connect and network with local tech entrepreneurs? Validate your business idea? Interested in getting more involved with Tech Ranch? Come out for a Campfire!

Campfire is all about connecting you to the larger tech startup community. Every 2nd and 4th Friday at 3:30 PM, we gather interesting, accomplished people from across Austin’s vast entrepreneur ecosystem so you can get the introductions, insight, and help you need to move your business forward, while also helping others.


December 7, 2015: Senior Design Day
Texas State University
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Embassy Suites - San Marcos

Come see what the Electrical, Manufacturing, and Industrial Engineering students from the Ingram School of Engineering have spent many months working on, and help us evaluate their projects.

You'll find the answers to the following questions and many others:
  • Why does "insolation" mean, and why does it matter?
  • How might the International Space Station use RFID tags?
  • Which applications of the "Internet of Things" are important?
and
  • What is Freescale doing with semi-autonomous vehicles??
Click on the Register button below for more information and to sign up for the projects you find interesting.  (If you've already registered, there's no need to re-register).

Previous participants have left the event interested in more than one project, impressed with the quality of the Ingram School's young engineers, and ready to attend the next Senior Design Day!

Feel free to send this email and/or the registration link to a few friends/colleagues!

December 18, 2015: VMUG Austin
11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Lakeline Alamo Drafthouse
Building F
14028 North US Highway 183
Austin, TX 78717

Meeting Highlights
  • VMware Liaison Message and Member Presentation
  • Nutanix Presentation
  • Dell Presentation
  • Door Prize Distribution!
  • Premiere of Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens!
There will be having a happy hour afterwards sponsored by VMware and Dell!

Register here

January 16, 2016: Data Day Texas
AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center. Register here
This will be the biggest Data Day ever.
https://datadaytexas.com

February 24, 2016: Global Day of the Engineer
Celebrate how engineers make a world of difference. Pledge now!
Global Day of the Engineer brings together the international community to:

Celebrate the accomplishments of engineers
Give students around the world a chance to experience engineering
Share the amazing innovations engineers create every day
Be part of the movement that celebrates this amazing group of people and helps grow our next generation innovations.

Read more . . .


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Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Events and Information

Women in Science and Mathematics (WiSM)
While the express goal of this website is to recruit and retain women students in sciences and mathematics at Eastern Illinois University, there is plenty of good information on the site for the rest of us. Readers may like to start with Further Reading, where they can link to media coverage of women in science from around the web. From there, they may select Biographies of Women in Science, where they can access dozens of biographies of women who have made contributions to fields as diverse as chemistry, primatology, biophysics, and astronomy. In addition, the site features links to half a dozen other websites on the topic, from the Smithsonian's photo portraits of women scientists to the San Diego Supercomputer Center's coverage of women scientists from around the world.

STEMblog
STEMconnector is both a resource and a service that is designed “to link those advocating science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education across disciplines and distances.” It seeks to connect diverse educators, professionals, and government officials together based on a love of applied science. The STEMblog, a project of STEMconnector, is updated regularly and focuses its energies on the relationship between business and STEM subjects. Recent articles, for example, have alerted readers to corporate-sponsored prizes for high school science teachers, a recognition of National Engineers Week, and the math behind a new Android app. For readers who are looking to make connections between STEM subjects and industry partners, the STEMblog is an informative site to check back on regularly.

Texas Girls Collaborative Project

The TxGCP Google Group is the best way to be connected in your region with all things K12 STEM - are you connected to the conversation? Join the group in your region of Texas - https://txgcp.org/k12-stem-outreach-google-group/.

TryEngineering.org

IEEE’s online engineering education resource for pre-university educators, parents and students, is now available in a new mobile-friendly format.  Visitors can now access the TryEngineering content they love, anywhere, any time on virtually any device including desktops, tablets and smart phones.

Starry Sky Austin

Starry Sky Austin is an educational astronomy program for all. The mission of Starry Sky Austin is to share the enthusiasm and knowledge of the universe with others and in doing so, bring about a sense of wonder and appreciation for our universe. Starry Sky Austin offers programming, stargazing classes, Girl Scout badges, and other exciting ways to get everyone curious about astronomy through an informal approach.

CODE@TACC  

The mission of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), at the University of Texas at Austin, is to enable discoveries that advance science and society through the application of advanced computing technologies. TACC offers STEM programming for students of all ages, building the pipeline for the next generation of innovators. CODE@TACC (Jr. SCI) is a two-week, summer program that exposes rising high school juniors and seniors to a variety of STEM careers by teaching the principles of high performance computing. TACC's K-12 Education Programs Coordinator and FabFem, Mariel Robles, is passionate about increasing the understanding and appreciation of STEM careers as well as promoting gender equity and minority participation in science and engineering. Applications for CODE@TACC open Winter 2015. Stay connected to TACC through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Local Chapter Activities

The IEEE is organized into Societies and Special Interest Groups.  The full list as well as a link to join each can be found here.  The Central Texas Secion has several Society and  Special Interest Group Chapters with their own local activities as listed below. Note that some Joint Chapters represent more than one Society.

You can subscribe to an RSS feed of all Central Texas Section meetings that have been scheduled through vTools here

Click Meetings to see the next 180 days of planned CTS activity.

The Central Texas Section Chapters
AP Antennas and Propagation Society
AESS Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society
CAS Circuits and Systems Society
CEDA Council on Electronic Design Automation
COM Communications Society - Austin | San Antonio
CN Consultant's Network
CPMT Components, Packaging, and Manufacturing Technology Society
C Computer Society - Austin | San Antonio
ED Electron Devices Society
E Education Society
EMB Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society
EMC Electromagnetic Compatibility Society
GOLD GOLD has been rebranded as the Young Professionals
IA Industry Applications Society
IE Industrial Electronics Society
IM Instrumentation and Measurement Society
PHO Photonics Society
LM Life Members - Austin | San Antonio
MTT Microwave Theory and Techniques Society
PEL Power Electronics Society
PE Power & Energy Society - Austin | San Antonio
PSE Product Safety Engineering Society
SMC Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society
SP Signal Processing Society - Austin | San Antonio
SSC Solid-State Circuits Society
TMC Technology Management Council - Austin | San Antonio
WIE Women in Engineering
YP
 Young Professionals

Antennas & Propagation/Microwave Theory and Techniques (AP/MTT)

Chapter Web site


Topic/Title

  No meeting scheduled at this time

Speaker

Abstract

Date/Time

Cost

Reservations

Location

Notes

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Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA)

Chapter Web Site


Topic/Title

 Holiday Social

Speaker

Abstract

Date/Time

 11-December-2015
Time: 05:00PM to 07:00PM

Cost

Reservations

 https://meetings.vtools.ieee.org/m/37026

Location

 Sherlock's Baker Street Pub and Grill, 9012 Research Blvd., Austin, TX 78758. Southeast corner of Burnet Road and US 183/Research Blvd.

Notes

 Please register so that we know approximately how many are coming.  Last minute walk-ins and guests welcome.

Joint CEDA, Computer Austin, Com/SP Austin, CTCN, SSC/CAS Holiday Social


  Join CTS CEDA on LinkedIn

NOTE: Being a member of the following IEEE Societies makes you eligible to be a member of CEDA: AP, CAS, C, ED, MTT and SSC. However, you need to go to the IEEE web site and sign in to be added as a FREE member of CEDA. See this PDF for detailed instructions.

The CEDA chapter normally meet on the 3rd Thursday 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 zhuoli@ieee.org.

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Joint Circuits and Systems/Solid-State Circuits (CAS/SSC)

Chapter Web Site


Topic/Title

 Holiday Social

Speaker

Abstract

Date/Time

 11-December-2015
Time: 05:00PM to 07:00PM

Cost

Reservations

 https://meetings.vtools.ieee.org/m/37026

Location

 Sherlock's Baker Street Pub and Grill, 9012 Research Blvd., Austin, TX 78758. Southeast corner of Burnet Road and US 183/Research Blvd.

Notes

 Please register so that we know approximately how many are coming.  Last minute walk-ins and guests welcome.

Joint CEDA, Computer Austin, Com/SP Austin, CTCN, SSC/CAS Holiday Social


Topic/Title

 CMOS Transceiver Circuits for Short-Reach Optical Communication

Speaker

 Tony Chan Carusone received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto in 2002, and has been a faculty member there ever since. He co-authored the best paper at the 2005 Compound Semiconductor Integrated Circuits Symposium, the best student papers at the 2007, 2008, and 2011 Custom Integrated Circuits Conferences, the best invited paper at the 2010 Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, and the best young scientist paper at the 2014 European Solid-State Circuits Conference.  He has served as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs, and as a member of the Technical Program Committee for several international conferences including the International Solid-State Circuits Conference.  He currently serves on the editorial board of the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.
     Prof. Chan Carusone is a regular consultant to industry in the areas of analog, mixed-signal, and communication integrated circuit design, and is an author, along with David Johns and Ken Martin, of the 2nd edition of the classic textbook "Analog Integrated Circuit Design".

Abstract

 Optical links 1 – 100 metres in length require low cost, low power consumption and small size.  Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) can be arrayed inexpensively and can be directly modulated, avoiding the need for separate optical modulator components.  VCSELs operating at 850nm coupled to multimode fiber offer a compact and inexpensive optoelectronic assembly, and are predominant for short reach optical communication.  The key challenge for the transmitter circuit in such systems is to modulate single-ended VCSEL currents up to about 10mA at 25+Gb/s while maintaining bias voltages of approximately 2V across the VCSELs.  At the receiver, a key challenge is to provide adequate sensitivity using photodiodes with wide (50um) aperture and, hence, large capacitance.  Current commercial transceiver circuits are realized in SiGe BiCMOS, which is advantageous at both the transmitter and receiver, but CMOS offers the potential for higher levels of integration and lower power consumption.  Our research efforts on low-power CMOS VCSEL drivers and optical receivers will be presented, including several 65nm CMOS designs.

Date/Time

 15-December-2015
Time: 12:00PM to 01:00PM

Cost

Reservations

 https://meetings.vtools.ieee.org/m/37132

Location

 UT
Building: POB Room Number: 2.402 201 East 24th St
Austin, Texas

Notes




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. IIf you have any questions about this meeting or this group, please contact zhuoli@ieee.org.
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Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology (CPMT)

Chapter Web Site

Topic/Title

 No meeting scheduled at this time

Speaker

Abstract


Date/Time

Cost

Reservations


Location

Notes

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Computer Society (C)

Austin Chapter Web site


Topic/Title

 Signal processing and analytics in managing perceptual and data quality in video applications

Speaker

 Sean T. McCarthy, Ph.D. Fellow, ARRIS Group
Roland Saville is a Technical Leader for the Enterprise Network Group at Cisco, focused on developing best-practice design guides for enterprise network deployments.  He has more than 20 years of experience at Cisco as a Systems Engineer, Product Manager, Consulting Systems Engineer, Technical Marketing Engineer, Technical Leader, and Architect.  During that time, he has focused on a wide range of technology areas including routing, LAN switching, integration of voice & video onto network infrastructures, network security, WLAN networking, RFID, energy management, Cisco TelePresence, Quality of Service  (QoS), BYOD, Wi-Fi location, and Cisco Connected Mobile Experiences (CMX).  He has also spent time focusing on the retail market segment.  Prior to Cisco, he spent eight years as a Communications Analyst for Chevron Corporation.  Roland Saville holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Idaho and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Santa Clara University.  He co-authored the book "Cisco TelePresence Fundamentals", is a member of the IEEE, and has 13 U.S. patents.

Roland A. Saville, Technical Leader, Cisco Systems
Dr. Sean McCarthy, ARRIS, Fellow, brings a unique convergence of expertise in video compression, signal processing and the neurobiology of human vision to content distribution at ARRIS.  Dr. McCarthy’s duties include leading advancements in state-of-the-art of video processing, compression and practical vision science.  He held similar responsibilities previously as Fellow of the Technical Staff at Motorola, and as Chief Scientist at both Modulus Video, which was acquired by Motorola, as well as at ViaSense, a UC Berkeley spin-off that developed commercial applications based on expert knowledge of the human visual system.  The author of papers on retinal processing, applied vision science, and video technologies, Dr. McCarthy holds a number of patents on image and signals processing, and has served on the board and committees of several industry organizations.  He earned a B.S. in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic, and earned his Ph.D. in bioengineering jointly at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco.

Abstract

 "Perception meets quantitative signal processing in next-generation television"

Television is changing in big ways.  A television is now anything from a smartphone, to a tablet, to a laptop, to a huge Ultra HD 4k TV. At the same time, dedicated purpose-built TV transmission protocols are being replaced by Internet-style IP protocols. Scheduled programming now competes with catch-up and on-demand viewing. And content creators are starting to embrace a wider range of light intensities, color volumes, frame rates, and audio objects that will engage viewers with a program’s story, characters, and emotions more intimately than ever before.

As we as an industry move into the next-generation of digital video, we need new tools and new levels of signal processing sophistication to know that we can continue to deliver great consumer experiences. It is sometimes tempting to strip video bare and think of it simply as digital data distributed over a network, but that misses the unique character of video: The end point of the video chain is a viewer’s eyes and brain. 

This presentation will introduce several new perception-aware video processing tools and technologies within the context of the neurobiology of human vision and statistical signal processing. In particular, this presentation will describe a method of validating the spatial resolution of video for Ultra HD 4k.  We will also provide results on the impact of HEVC compression on effective resolution, particularly in the context of adaptive bit rate (ABR) applications.  Finally, we will present an overview of a statistical method of analyzing the video-quality stress on programs to answer questions such as “How often might video quality drop below a particular level?”, particularly when a large number of programs share a communication channel.


“Ensuring Quality of Experience for Video Applications in a Data Network”

This presentation will focus on the areas of concern regarding supporting various types of video applications over IP-based data networks.  Among the topics which will be discussed are the following:
  • The effects of packet loss, jitter, and end-to-end delay on video quality of experience
  • The effects of buffering, policing, and shaping on video flows
  • The mapping of voice, video, and data applications within the network infrastructure to an IETF RFC 4594 based 12-class QoS model
  • The use of ingress and egress queueing in order to prioritize video flows over data flows.
  • Areas of concern for congestion within the network infrastructure
  • The use of congestion avoidance mechanisms such as queue tail-dropping and Weighted Random Early Detection (WRED)

Date/Time

 December 10, 2015
Time:         6-8 pm

Cost

 Free

Reservations

 https://meetings.vtools.ieee.org/m/37250

Location

 AT&T  Labs,
9505 Arboretum, #220, Austin, TX

Notes

 Joint Chapter meeting Com/SP Austin and Computer Austin


Topic/Title

 Holiday Social

Speaker

Abstract

Date/Time

 11-December-2015
Time: 05:00PM to 07:00PM

Cost

Reservations

 https://meetings.vtools.ieee.org/m/37026

Location

 Sherlock's Baker Street Pub and Grill, 9012 Research Blvd., Austin, TX 78758. Southeast corner of Burnet Road and US 183/Research Blvd.

Notes

 Please register so that we know approximately how many are coming.  Last minute walk-ins and guests welcome.

Joint CEDA, Computer Austin, Com/SP Austin, CTCN, SSC/CAS Holiday Social



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San Antonio Chapter Web Site


Topic/Title No meeting scheduled at this time
Speaker
Abstract
Date/Time
Cost
Reservations
Location
Notes


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Central Texas Consultants Network Affinity Group

Chapter Web Site


Topic/Title

 Holiday Social

Speaker

Abstract

Date/Time

 11-December-2015
Time: 05:00PM to 07:00PM

Cost

Reservations

 https://meetings.vtools.ieee.org/m/37026

Location

 Sherlock's Baker Street Pub and Grill, 9012 Research Blvd., Austin, TX 78758. Southeast corner of Burnet Road and US 183/Research Blvd.

Notes

 Please register so that we know approximately how many are coming.  Last minute walk-ins and guests welcome.

Joint CEDA, Computer Austin, Com/SP Austin, CTCN, SSC/CAS Holiday Social

Do a friend a favor. Bring your colleagues to grow the Consultants Network.

More information on Consultants Networks

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EducationSociety (E)

Topic/Title No meeting scheduled at this time
Speaker
Abstract
Date/Time
Location
Cost
Registration
Notes

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Electromagnetic Compatibility Society (EMC)

Chapter Web Site

Topic/title

 No meeting scheduled at this time

Speaker

Abstract

Date/time

Location

Cost

Reservations

Notes

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Electron Devices Society (ED)

Chapter Web Site

Topic/Title

 No meeting scheduled at this time

Speaker

Abstract

Date/Time

Refreshments


Reservations


Location

Notes

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Engineering in Medicine and Biology (EMB)

Chapter Web Site

Topic/Title No meeting scheduled at this time
Speaker
Abstract
Date/Time
Cost
Reservations
Location
Notes

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Young Professionals (YP/GOLD) Affinity Group

Topic/Title No meeting scheduled at this time
Speaker
Abstract
Date/Time
Cost
Reservations
Location
Notes

Devon Ryan prepared this 'highlight' video of Young Professional activities at SXSW 2015.

Follow the Young Professionals on Facebook

More information on YP/GOLD 

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Instrumentation and Measurement Society (IM)

Topic/Title No meeting scheduled at this time
Speaker
Abstract
Date/Time
Location
Cost
Reservations
Notes


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Photonics Society (PHO)

Topic/Title No meeting scheduled at this time
Speaker
Abstract
Date/Time
Location
Cost
Reservations
Notes

For more information, contact Mikhail Belkin

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Life Members (LM) Affinity Group

Life members must be at least 65 years of age and have been a member of IEEE or one of its predecessor societies for such a period that the sum of his/her age and his/her years of membership equals or exceeds 100 years. When an individual achieves Life member (LM) status, their basic membership dues and Region assessments are waived on 1 January of the year following attainment of LM status.

More information on LM

Austin

Topic/Title No meeting scheduled at this time
Speaker
Speaker Bio
Abstract
Date/Time
Location
Cost
Reservations
Notes

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San Antonio

Topic/Title No meeting scheduled at this time
Speaker
Abstract
Date/Time
Location
Cost
Reservations
Notes

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Power and Energy Society - Austin (PE/PEL/IA/IE)

Chapter Web Site


Topic/Title IEEE PI2 Austin, LCRA Ferguson Replacement Plant Unit Tour
Speaker
Abstract A presentation and tour of the LCRA’s Ferguson Replacement Unit.
Date/Time Dec 5 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Location
Cost
Reservations https://meetings.vtools.ieee.org/m/35506
Notes


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Power and Energy Society - San Antonio (PE)

Chapter Web Site

Topic/Title No meeting scheduled at this time
Speaker
Abstract
Date/Time
Location
Cost
Reservations
Notes

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Product Safety Engineering Society (PSE)

Chapter Web Site

Topic/Title Next meeting is February 2016 - Please check back in the February ANALOG
Speaker
Abstract
Date/Time
Cost
Reservations
Location
Notes

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Joint Signal Processing/Communications Society (COM/SP)

Austin Chapter Web Site

Recognized as the 2015 ComSoc Chapter of the Year and a 2015 Chapter Achievement Award Winner

Topic/Title

 Signal processing and analytics in managing perceptual and data quality in video applications

Speaker

 Sean T. McCarthy, Ph.D. Fellow, ARRIS Group
Roland Saville is a Technical Leader for the Enterprise Network Group at Cisco, focused on developing best-practice design guides for enterprise network deployments.  He has more than 20 years of experience at Cisco as a Systems Engineer, Product Manager, Consulting Systems Engineer, Technical Marketing Engineer, Technical Leader, and Architect.  During that time, he has focused on a wide range of technology areas including routing, LAN switching, integration of voice & video onto network infrastructures, network security, WLAN networking, RFID, energy management, Cisco TelePresence, Quality of Service  (QoS), BYOD, Wi-Fi location, and Cisco Connected Mobile Experiences (CMX).  He has also spent time focusing on the retail market segment.  Prior to Cisco, he spent eight years as a Communications Analyst for Chevron Corporation.  Roland Saville holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Idaho and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Santa Clara University.  He co-authored the book "Cisco TelePresence Fundamentals", is a member of the IEEE, and has 13 U.S. patents.

Roland A. Saville, Technical Leader, Cisco Systems
Dr. Sean McCarthy, ARRIS, Fellow, brings a unique convergence of expertise in video compression, signal processing and the neurobiology of human vision to content distribution at ARRIS.  Dr. McCarthy’s duties include leading advancements in state-of-the-art of video processing, compression and practical vision science.  He held similar responsibilities previously as Fellow of the Technical Staff at Motorola, and as Chief Scientist at both Modulus Video, which was acquired by Motorola, as well as at ViaSense, a UC Berkeley spin-off that developed commercial applications based on expert knowledge of the human visual system.  The author of papers on retinal processing, applied vision science, and video technologies, Dr. McCarthy holds a number of patents on image and signals processing, and has served on the board and committees of several industry organizations.  He earned a B.S. in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic, and earned his Ph.D. in bioengineering jointly at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco.

Abstract

 "Perception meets quantitative signal processing in next-generation television"

Television is changing in big ways.  A television is now anything from a smartphone, to a tablet, to a laptop, to a huge Ultra HD 4k TV. At the same time, dedicated purpose-built TV transmission protocols are being replaced by Internet-style IP protocols. Scheduled programming now competes with catch-up and on-demand viewing. And content creators are starting to embrace a wider range of light intensities, color volumes, frame rates, and audio objects that will engage viewers with a program’s story, characters, and emotions more intimately than ever before.

As we as an industry move into the next-generation of digital video, we need new tools and new levels of signal processing sophistication to know that we can continue to deliver great consumer experiences. It is sometimes tempting to strip video bare and think of it simply as digital data distributed over a network, but that misses the unique character of video: The end point of the video chain is a viewer’s eyes and brain. 

This presentation will introduce several new perception-aware video processing tools and technologies within the context of the neurobiology of human vision and statistical signal processing. In particular, this presentation will describe a method of validating the spatial resolution of video for Ultra HD 4k.  We will also provide results on the impact of HEVC compression on effective resolution, particularly in the context of adaptive bit rate (ABR) applications.  Finally, we will present an overview of a statistical method of analyzing the video-quality stress on programs to answer questions such as “How often might video quality drop below a particular level?”, particularly when a large number of programs share a communication channel.


“Ensuring Quality of Experience for Video Applications in a Data Network”

This presentation will focus on the areas of concern regarding supporting various types of video applications over IP-based data networks.  Among the topics which will be discussed are the following:
  • The effects of packet loss, jitter, and end-to-end delay on video quality of experience
  • The effects of buffering, policing, and shaping on video flows
  • The mapping of voice, video, and data applications within the network infrastructure to an IETF RFC 4594 based 12-class QoS model
  • The use of ingress and egress queueing in order to prioritize video flows over data flows.
  • Areas of concern for congestion within the network infrastructure
  • The use of congestion avoidance mechanisms such as queue tail-dropping and Weighted Random Early Detection (WRED)

Date/Time

 December 10, 2015
Time:         6-8 pm

Cost

 Free

Reservations

 https://meetings.vtools.ieee.org/m/37250

Location

 AT&T  Labs,
9505 Arboretum, #220, Austin, TX

Notes

 Joint Chapter meeting Com/SP Austin and Computer Austin


Topic/Title

 Holiday Social

Speaker

Abstract

Date/Time

 11-December-2015
Time: 05:00PM to 07:00PM

Cost

Reservations

 https://meetings.vtools.ieee.org/m/37026

Location

 Sherlock's Baker Street Pub and Grill, 9012 Research Blvd., Austin, TX 78758. Southeast corner of Burnet Road and US 183/Research Blvd.

Notes

 Please register so that we know approximately how many are coming.  Last minute walk-ins and guests welcome.

Joint CEDA, Computer Austin, Com/SP Austin, CTCN, SSC/CAS Holiday Social


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San Antonio Chapter Web Site

Topic/Title No meeting scheduled at this time
Speaker
Abstract
Date/Time
Location
Cost
Reservations
Notes

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Joint Systems, Man & Cybernetics Society (SMC) & Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society (AESS)

Chapter Web Site

Topic/Title

 No meeting scheduled at this time

Speaker

Abstract

Date/Time

Location

Cost

Reservations

Notes

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Technology and Engineering Management Society (TEM)

Austin Chapter Web Site

Topic/Title No meeting scheduled at this time
Speaker
Abstract
Date/Time
Location
Cost
Registration
Notes

Contact Leslie Martinich (lmartinich@ieee.org) for more information about the Austin TMC.

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San Antonio Chapter Web Site
Topic/Title No meeting scheduled at this time
Speaker
Abstract
Date/Time
Location
Cost
Registration
Notes

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Women in Engineering Affinity Group (WIE)

Chapter Web site

Topic/Title No meeting scheduled at this time
Speaker
Abstract
Date/Time
Location
Cost
Registration
Notes

Contact Leslie Martinich (lmartinich@ieee.org) for more information about WIE.

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