Miami Section Report to the IEEE Region 3 Annual Meeting and the IEEE Florida Council Meeting April 5-7, 2002 Columbia, SC The section has been very active during the past year and this is a report on these activities: 1. The section is involved in as a sponsor of the National Engineers Week Future City Competition and the section Chair; Dr. Mohammed is the Regional Coordinator for the State of Florida. More than 150 students from thirty Junior High Schools from all over the state have registered and participated in the regional finals held on Saturday January 19, 2002 on the FIU Engineering Campus in Miami. Many volunteers working as mentors to schools and as Judges have participated. These engineers come from industry, city planners, the Florida Engineering Society and American Society of Civil Engineers and other companies. The awarded the top four winners certificates, medals and monetary awards to the schools. The top winning school, St. John Neumann Middle School in Miami, represented the state in Washington DC for the National Finals held during the Engineers week. This school came fifth nationally and won other special awards. We be sponsoring the 2003 competition and we will need help from Region 3 and the Florida Council in the form of judges and mentors. 2. The section is also involved in another IEEE (National) program-- the In-Service training program for schoolteachers, which originally started at the Florida Wes Coast Section. The program features engineers developing and presenting technologically oriented topics to pre-college educators in an in-service or professional development setting. The Miami Section conducted a very successful In-Service Training program for 29 Junior High and High School teachers from schools around Miami. The teacher In-Service Program is sponsored and funded by IEEE Educational Activities Board. This activity was held on November 17, 2001 from 9:00 am - 3:00 pm and was conducted by section volunteers. The program included the teaching of design concepts and the building of Rocket Cars and the demonstration of Newton's Laws. During the presentation by the instructors, a video tape from NASA was shown. Design kits and teaching material were created and distributed to the teachers. The attendees were divided into teams and each team created a Rocket Car and made a presentation about their design. All teams entered their cars in a race and the winners received symbolic gifts. The kits included balloons, Styrofoam, plastic parts, rubber bands, pins, cutting knives, rulers, etc. Several winning teams were able to propel their rocket cars for 17 meters in straight lines. The participating teachers took with them some kits and teaching materials to use in their classes at their schools. This is an excellent activity, which serves the goals of IEEE and enhances the engineering profession as well as opens the eyes of youngsters to careers in engineering. The section plans another activity in mid May 2002 and will involve a different design project. 3. The section ExCom held a collaborative meeting with Region 9 ExCom held in Miami on March 3, 2002. Directors Hugh Rudnick and Jim Howard attended and FC Chair Eric Ackerman as well as L. Gandia and several Region 9 ExCom members and Miami Section ExCom members also attended. During the meeting, the section PES Chapter awarded the outstanding Engineer Award and the section awarded appreciation certificates to several section volunteers. The section ExCom will also attend the GOLD committee meeting to be held in Miami on March 29, 2002. 4. President Joel Snyder visited the section in late April 2001 and gave a lecture to the section members and the student branch at FIU. We have extended an invitation to the current president Ray Findlay and he accepted to visit sometime in October 2002. 5. The section and the student branch participated in the engineer's week activities on February 15, 2002 along with several engineering societies and the diversity program at Florida International University. More that 1200 students for many schools in the Miami area attended an engineering Gala and attend presentations, visited labs and met with Professor and industry representatives. The Gala was attended by National Science Foundation Deputy Director Joseph Bordogna, FIU president, provost, engineering Dean, and most engineering faculty 6. The section society chapters and its various membership, educational and PACE activities are conducting many technical, professional and social meetings and field trips. The meetings are well attended and the student branch is performing very well. All section reports have been filed with headquarters before February 20, 2002. Osama A. Mohammed, Ph.D. Section Chair, o.mohammed@ieee.org