A Newsletter of the Central Texas Section (www.ieee.org/CTS) of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Inc.
Published monthly (Deadline is the 25th day of the previous month), John R. Purvis, Editor (j.purvis@computer.org).

Quick Links

Section Activities	Chapter Activities
The Chairman's Column	Joint Communications / Signal Processing Societies	Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society
The Next Section Meeting	Computer Society	Power Engineering Society
Other Important Events and Notes of Interest	Consultant's Network	Women in Engineering
Editor's Notes	Electromagnetic Compatibility Society	Joint Solid-State Circuits / Circuits and Systems Societies
Email List	Engineering Management Society	Student Branches
	Product Safety Society

The Chairman's Column

Important items that should be of interested to our Section Members this month of September include the following. Upcoming Special Events
• Tech Policy Forum, Oct 17th, Austin - A must event (see details below)
• Fall Senior Membership Upgrade Event (San Antonio)

Status of Senior Member Upgrades

I know everyone is waiting to see the results from our most recent upgrade activity. We are also. We expect around 70 new senior members when the results are posted. When the results are known they will be listed on the following web page: https://www.ieee.org/organizations/rab/md/smupdates.html

As Always

We continue to work to get you more involved in your professional association. We always welcome your feedback (s.atkinson@ieee.org). Please let all our leaders know how we are doing and please feel free to make any suggestions or recommendations.

T. Scott Atkinson
Chairman

From the Membership Chairman

Membership Information

In an organization as large as IEEE, finding information can be a little daunting. We are introducing this section to assist you in taking advantage of all the benefits of IEEE membership.

IEEE Financial Advantage

The IEEE Financial Advantage Program (FAP) has many great programs for our members and we recommend that you visit their website. If you haven't seen what they have to offer, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

One benefit of particular interest to our membership is alternatives for insurance. For more than 40 years, IEEE has worked with MARSH Affinity Group Services to offer a group insurance program that provides the high quality, competitive cost, superior convenience, and wide choice IEEE members have come to expect from products endorsed by the Institute. Available exclusively to IEEE members and their families, all of these plans feature economical rates and "portability". In other words, they are not tied to where you work or what you do.

Find out more about insurance options, including:

• Health Care
• Supplemental Health
• Life
• Business
• Disability
• Personal

Please visit the IEEE FAP sub-site at https://www.ieeeinsurance.com/ and let us know what you think. Another topic of importance in these uncertain economic times is employment for our members. The Central Texas Section of IEEE has recently launched a new website that includes an employment page where you will find helpful information and links to employment sites. We are also in discussions with employment agencies such as Hall Kinion to develop a mutually beneficial relationship exclusively for the CTS members. As this is a work in progress, we welcome your feedback and suggestions.

Marian Stasney
Membership Development Coordinator

From Student Activities Chairman

The IEEE Central Texas Section awarded each of its four student branches checks for $1,500. The student branches are UT Austin, UT San Antonio, Trinity University and St. Mary_s University. The Central Texas Section uses a two tier funding process. The four schools were invited to submit funding requests by June 30th and were asked to make a formal presentation at the Planning Meeting on August 2nd.

The four schools are engaged in numerous and diverse activities to promote and enjoy engineering. All schools hosted speaker meetings and student gatherings, usually with pizza, for the benefit of its members and to attract students to engineering. Some of the schools sponsor workshops and contests for high school students. Other schools gave awards to college students. Many of the schools send their members to outside events such as the Region 5 Conference and the Rube Goldberg Competition.

And all of the schools are actively engaged in robotics competitions. They have a long history of building and entering robots into various competitions such as finding and extinguishing a candle, navigating a maze, or running a race track.

The next round of funding is competitive. The awards will vary and will be based on the merits and strengths of the proposals submitted. These proposals are due September 30th.

Dr. Brian Evans is the faculty advisor at UT Austin. Rob Mullenix is the student branch president. Dr. Wie-Ming Lin is the faculty advisor at UT San Antonio. Julian Anugom is the student branch president. Dr. Farzan Aminian is the faculty advisor at Trinity University. Jeffrey Guinn is the student branch president. And Dr. Djaffer Ibaroudene is the faculty advisor at St. Mary_s University. Leroy Ruvalcaba is the student branch president.

Paul Kaschube

The Next Section Meeting

The Section will hold a general meeting in conjunction with the SACCESS SITE Trek described below, and a meeting with the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, also detailed below.

Other Important Events and Notes of Interest

2004 Dues to Increase Slightly

The basic dues for 2004 will be $113, an increase of $3, which is about the rate of U.S. inflation. More information can be found [here] .

No-Cost U.S. IEEE Member Compensation Tool Launched by IEEE-USA

Based on current IEEE-USA Salary Survey data, the Salary Service provides US members with salary history, "updateable" ssalary survey, and individual "salary comparator" for each year members have completed the Salary Survey. See details [here].

Employment/Career Strategies Virtual Community Inaugurated by IEE-USA

The IEEE-USA Employment and Careers Services Committee has launched a new online community through which members can network and collaborate on employment and career strategies. This virtual community provides discussion groups, chat rooms and resource files, including PowerPoint slides and word documents on resume writing, networking, interviewing skills, and consultant's fee setting. More information can be found [here].

High Tech "Babble"? Want to Test Yourself?

Only 3% of the 1500 people surveyed in the US, UK, China and Japan got a perfect score. Can you do better? Take the test [here].

New IEEE Society formed

The IEEE has just formed a new society, the Product Safety Society. There has been a group meeting regularly already in Austin who are interested in this subject area. They have been meeting as a Working Group under the EMC Society TC-8 Product Safety Technical Committee. They hope to quickly obtain the signatures needed, and become the first Chapter of the new society. If you are interested in this new society, contact Daniece Carpenter. See meeting info below.

Section Member Survey Continues

We will continue conducting the survey of the IEEE Central Texas Section membership for a few more weeks. This web-based survey is quick and easy, just go to http: //www.ewh.ieee.org/r5/central_texas/centex-member-survey.html and submit your information. In the interest of providing better service to our new and current members of the IEEE CTS, we'd like just a little information about you to help us know more about this Section's membership.

Note: We will NOT be using this information for any other purpose!

For further information, contact Emily Sopensky (emily@iriscompany.com).

Interested in Becoming a Registered PE?

The Bexar Chapter Texas Society of Professional Engineers (TSPE) has developed a program to help qualified engineering candidates, who do not work for PE's, to interact with licensed engineers. The purpose of this program is to assist qualified (electrical, mechanical, etc.) engineering candidates who do not work for licensed engineers overcome the obstacle of finding PE's as references.

For further information, contact John Brogan (jabrogan@cps-satx.com) at 510-353-3375

SITE Trek "San Antonio Firsts" Tour

SITE Trek is a bus tour organized by SACCESS, representing the 2003 Joint Engineering and Scientific Societies annual meeting. The tour is scheduled for 9:30am until 3:00pm on Saturday, September 20, and will be narrated by Professional San Antonio Tour Guides. The tour will showcase San Antonio's history of Science, Innovation, Technology, and Engineering (SITE) firsts. You can get more information at the 2003 Joint Meeting section of the SACCESS web site.

Tickets go on sale July 28 - $25 Members, $30 public. Only 200 tickets are available.

2004 IEEE EWeek "New Faces of Engineering" Nominations Requested

Young rising stars in the engineering profession will be featured prominently during National Engineers Week (EWeek) 2004, 22-28 February. The EWeek "New Faces of Engineering" program spotlights the vitality, diversity and contributions of the profession's youngest engineers. The IEEE and IEEE-USA are currently seeking nominations from among the Institute's worldwide membership.

Sponsored by more than 100 engineering, scientific and education societies, as well as major corporations dedicated to increasing public awareness and appreciation of engineering, National Engineers Week is celebrated annually by tens of thousands of engineers, engineering students, teachers and leaders in government and business. IEEE/IEEE-USA and Fluor Corporation of Aliso Viejo, Calif., are co-chairs of EWeek 2004.

All IEEE nominees will be included on the IEEE and/or EWeek and IEEE-USA web sites. An article featuring the IEEE "New Faces" will appear in THE INSTITUTE and/or IEEE-USA NEWS & VIEWS.

Nominees must hold an engineering degree, be employed as an engineer from two to five years, and have been involved in projects that significantly affect public welfare or further professional development and growth. Candidates are also asked to list languages in which they are fluent.

IEEE nominations can be submitted through the regional directors, section and GOLD chairs, or independently, and should be directed to Kelly Cunningham at klcpr@bellatlantic.net. The deadline for all IEEE/IEEE-USA nominations is Friday, 5 September 2003. For a "New Faces" nomination form, or for more information about National Engineers Week, go to www.ieeeusa.org/eweek or www.eweek.org.

IEEE 2003 International Symposium on Intelligent Control (ISIC'03)

Held in Houston this coming October 5-8 at the Westin Galleria. For further information, the conference web site is at https://vlab.ee.nus.edu.sg/~isic2003/

15th Annual Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference

The 15th Annual Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards (HENAAC) will be held October 16-18, 2003 in Austin, Texas, and the academic host is the University of Texas. It includes workshops for students and professionals; a Career Fair; a summit where national leaders from the various Hispanic technical organizations meet annually; and a national awards show to honor recipients of the HENAAC annual awards.

For more information on HENAAC visit their Web site at https://www.henaac.org, or contact Gerald Garcia at gerald.garcia@ieee.org.

Globalization and Technology: A Dialogue on Policy Issues

This conference is sponsored by CTS and will be held Friday, October 17, 2003 at the Austin Marriott at the Capital. For more information click here.

Keynote speakers and peer panels with industry moderators will explore globalization as it relates to...

• technology transfer/commercialization
• security & privacy
• energy
• education (including K-12 education math & sciences; undergrad; postgrad;
• diversity in engineering education)
• communications

Registration: Early registration is available online now!

For more details: Contact Emily Sopensky, Conference Chair: 512/452-2448 or e.sopensky@ieee.org.

UT Austin Wireless Network and Communications Group Symposium

The WNCG Wireless Netorking Symposium wo;; be je;[ October 22-24, 2003. Furnter information can be found on the Web at https://www.ece.utexas.edu/wncg/bitsbytes/jul2003/index.php

2003 6th Workshop on Workload Characterization

The IEEE Computer Society will sponsor the "2003 6th Workshop on Workload Characterization (WWC)" in Austin on October 27.

2004 IEEE Region 5 Technical Conference

The 2004 IEEE Region 5 Technical Conference will be held in Oklahoma City, OK, April 2-4, 2004. Abstracts for papers to be considered for presentation must be received by October 15 or this year. Further information can be found [here].

IEEE Rural Electric Power Conference

The IEEE Industry Applications Society will sponsor the conference entitled "2005 IEEE Rural Electric Power Conference". The conference will be held May 8-10, 2005 in San Antonio.

Kudos

• Several members of CTS have recently been elevated to Senior member status following the IEEE Admission & Advancement Panel Meeting in August. These include: Robert J. Amedeo, Jack B. Andersen, Rajiv Arora, Bradley J. Booth, Evelyn J. Bunton, William P Bunton, Ross M. Carlton, Leslie J. Casler, Dave Chapman, Terry L. Cole, Alfred L. Crouch, Sushama Davar, Joe W. Duran, Ranadeep Dutta, John E. Fielding, Scott R. Firth, John H. Florkowski, Kermit Graf, Mallappa I. Guggari, Perry P. He, James E. Heckroth, Ron Hemphill, Scott K. Herrington, James Holt, Martin A. Hunt, Warren A. Hunt Jr., Murari L. Kejariwal, Jeffrey M. Klaas, John H. Land IV, Kim M. Lau, HongQian K. Lu, Nadeem Malik, John R. Middleton, Charles A. Murphy, Joseph Nahas, Hai Truong Nguyen, Kevin Nickels, Joel W. Page, Artie Pennington, Anthony Petro, Chuck Powers, Erwin J. Prinz, Charles R. Reeves, Terry F. Ritter, Jeffry T., Russell, Mark A. Schulze, Donald F. Shafer, Linda I. Shafer, David K. Smith, William L. Stein, Dale A. Stevens, George G. Thompson, Dieu Van Dinh, Wendel G. Voigt, Dong Wei, Robert J. Weibel, Gerald C. Werner, Richard L. Woodin, and Hongjun Zheng.
• Scott Atkinson, current Chair of CTS, has been elected as a member-at-large for the IEEE Communications Society Board of Governers.
• Congratulations to Gerald Garcia through who's leadership the CTS now officially has a Joint Solid-State Circuits & Circuits and Systems societies Chapter.

Central Texas Section Society and Affinity Group Chapter Activities

Communications/Signal Processing Societies Topic: DWDM Platform and Technology for the Metro Market Up to now the Transport carriers' needs have been ill-served by current generation Optical Networking solutions. With fixed, banded optical add/drop WDM solutions, they have been saddled with manually intensive and operationally expensive burdens of jumper cabling, per-wavelength engineering, and wavelength stranding. The Transport Carrier need simplicity - to install, operate, provision and maintain optical (WDM) systems, to manage the unpredictable demands and traffic patterns of the Metro core, and to allow you to leverage your existing transport infrastructure to carry emerging wavelength and data services, as well as legacy "bread and butter" TDM services. With billions of dollars invested in SONET infrastructures, a decade-long familiarity with SONET operations systems, and the emergence of Data over Transport features that enable new services, SONET/SDH is here to stay. That's why adopting a SONET operations, administration, and provisioning paradigm for Optical Networking systems makes sense. Transport Carriers need Optical products, for the Metro, that integrate both TDM and WDM transport systems that leverage a fully automated optical layer and an open, intelligent control plane to provide a transport platform with the features and flexibility, and the ease of implementation for which the customers demanded. Escape from the tyranny of banded, fixed add/drop OADMs and the strangle hold they have on the transport carrier mindset and budget. Provision services when you need them, where you need them - no constraints, no compromises. Speaker: Tom Strasser, Director of IP and Technology, Photuris, Inc. Date: Thursday, Sept 18 Time: 6:30pm - 9:00pm Location: SBC Laboratories, Inc. (SBC-TRI) 9505 Arboreturm Blvd., Austin, TX Reservations: If you plan to attend, please send Email to Howard Headrick at hfrjr@swbell.net for planning purposes.

Computer Society - San Antonio [for more information] Topic: TBA Speaker: TBA Date: Thursday Sept 18 Time: 6:30 - Social; 7:00 - Dinner; 8:00 - Program Cost: $10 for members, $13 for non-IEEE members, $2 for students Reservations: RSVP to Kevin Nickels 210-999-7543 Location: Skyline Room, Coates Center, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX

Computer Society - Austin [for more information] PLEASE CHECK WEB SITE BEFORE THE MEETING Topic: Security IS a Quality Factor Pursuing both effectiveness and efficiency as a means of supporting small and medium sized enterprises in a commercial environment, this work investigates the notion of security as a quality determinant. Using ISO 9001:2000 as an example of an organizational wide quality management system, we explore some of the efficiencies that can be gained as we integrate it with the information security management system specified by ISO 17799. Speaker: Fiona Pattinson, phi solutions Date: Wednesday, September 24 Time: 6:30pm Location: Microsoft, Stonebridge Plaza, Building One, 9606 N Mo Pac Expy Ste 200, Austin, TX 78759-5933

Consultant's Network [for more information] Topic: Consultants and taxes There are specific tax and accounting issues associated with being an independent contractor. We will have an in depth discussion of these issues, covering such topics as proper classification between employee vs. independent contractor, record keeping requirements, business use automobiles, depreciation of fixed assets, as well as tax planning opportunities. The focus will be on federal income tax issues affecting individuals and small businesses with emphasis on recent federal legislation. Speaker(s): Jodie Schuh, CPA with CUNNINGHAM & SCHUH, P.C. Date: Thursday, September 11 (2nd Thursday) Time: 6:30pm - Networking, 7:00pm - Program Location: China Star Restaurant, 6134 Hwy 290E, Austin, Texas, located at the north east corner of IH-35 and 290E The consultants' web directory has been updated. The directory is to be found at https://www.alesu.com/xltrp/ieeecons/listzero.htm

Electromagnetic Compatibility Society [for more information] Topic: Social at National Instruments. Catered by Laird. More information available soon, check Web site. Speaker: Date: Thursday, September 25 Time: Location: National Instruments

Engineering Management Society [for more information] The IEEE Engineering Management Society (EMS) is presenting a series of eLearning workshops on project management, effective communication, and virtual teams. The series is offered at a significant discount for IEEE members. The first workshop on Project Planning commences July 17. Click now https://www.msilearning.com/ems for details or contact johnbarrett@ieee.org. If you are interested in the Engineering Management Society, contact Steve Prough, Vice-Chairman, sdprough@aol.com. Of interest may be the Graziadio Business Analysis site at Pepperdine University [These materials are the responsibility of the authors and publisher of the newsletter and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of IEEE]

Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Joint meeting with the Central Texas Section Topic: The New Biomedical Engineering Program at ITESM Campus Monterrey, Mexico Speaker: Dr. Graciano Dieck Assad, Chair of EE Dept at Monterrey Tec in Mexico Date: Thursday Sept 25 Time: 6:30 - Social; 7:00 - Dinner; 8:00 - Program Cost: $10 for members, $2 for students Reservations: Lori Lilie 210-999-7511, by 9/23 Location: Trinity University, Skyline room, San Antonio For information contact David Kilpatrick

Power Engineering Society [for more information] Topic: Surge Suppression for the 21st Century Speaker: Bob Reeder, Innovative Technology/ EATON Corp. Date: Tuesday, September 23 (third Tuesday) Time: 6:00 - Social, 6:30 - Dinner, 7:00 - Business meeting, 7:30 - program Cost: $10, free for students Reservations: For further information, please contact Susan Thompton or Steve Kanetsky, at 512-326-3380 Location: El Gallo Mexican Restaurant, 2910 S. Congress Ave, Austin, TX

Women in Engineering [for more information] Topic: Managing Your Career: Rising in the Ranks in a Technical World Speaker: Gail Taylor-Russell Date: Tuesday, September 2, 2003 (1st Tuesday, bi-monthly) Time: 6:00-8:00pm Location: La Madeleine Cafe, 3418 N. Lamar at 35th St. 512-302-1486

Joint Solid-State Circuits / Circuits and Systems Societies Topic: TBA Speaker: TBA Date: TBA Time: TBA Location: TBA

Product Safety Society (currently meeting as a Working Group under the EMC Society TC-8 Product Safety Technical Committee) Topic: TBA Speaker: TBA Date: Sept 23 (4th Tuesday of the month) Time: 6:30pm Location: Crossroads Systems, 8300 N. Mopac For further information contact Daniece Carpenter

CTS Student Branches St. Mary's University [for more information] Trinity University University of Texas at Austin [for more information] University of Texas at San Antonio [for more information]

Editor's Notes

The goal of this newsletter is to provide the more than 4700 members of the Section with up-to-date and meaningful information. We welcome contributions and suggestions that will improve the newsletter. Please contact the editor, John Purvis at j.purvis@computer.org if you have any thoughts or suggestions. The deadline for submission is the 25 th of the month.
 

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