Region 3 RSAC Report (4/02) Bruce Walcott, RSAC Patricia Davis, RSR Progress on 2003 Goals At the Region 3 Meeting in November in Knoxville, Tennessee, RSAC had two very productive strategic planning sessions. Out of these sessions came the following goals and objectives for SAC over the coming 2003 calendar year: Goal 1: Complete the 2002 RSAC goal of "maximizing" Southeastcon 2003 participation while "minimizing" the logistical problems of student travel Progress: Despite the increase in travel costs and the global environment, it appears as though this goal will be met with many schools sending eight or more student delegates to this year's Southeastcon. At last Fall's Sections Congress in Washington D.C., a number of Region 3 sections pledged their support to help their student branches travel to Jamaica. The fact that the hardware contest is simplified this year (for purposes of both cost and transporting the designs) should help the student branches keep design costs to a minimum as well as the need to bring racks of test equipment and test tracks. RSAC has to give most of the credit to this accomplishment to the Region 3 Sections who really came through with their pledges of additional travel support for the students. During the Student Branch Chairs meeting on Sunday, April 6th, the message will be delivered that the student branches need to repay such kindness and generosity with more participation in section activities. Goal 2: Increase Branch Reporting from current rate of 20% to 25% by end of 2003 and address other issues of branch continuity and Post-Southeastcon MIA Syndrome: Progress: The first salvo in this on-going battle of lack of branch reporting will be fired on Sunday, April 6th in both the Student Branch Chairs and Counselors meeting. Final reports are due in a month and this will be a prime opportunity to badger our chairs and counselors about getting these reports in. In terms of revitalizing schools which have hosted Southeastcon in the past and have seen a significant drop in student activity and participation in following years, RSAC is happy to report that one such school has seen a dramatic turn around this year. This school heavily participated in the STLW held in Raleigh and is going to be well represented in the contests and meetings to be held this weekend at Southeastcon 2003. Also, by hosting an STLW in Raleigh, RSAC is reaching out to our friends in the area who have been so vital in the past and from whom we expect great things at next year's Southeastcon in nearby Greensboro. As a preventive measure from permitting Post-Southeastcon MIA Syndrome from happening to our last year's hosts, our new RSR is doing a superb job of fostering and engaging the new generation of leadership at that school. RSAC plans to continue these preventative measures by ensuring that our friends in Jamaica who have worked so hard this year in hosting the student activities are well-represented in next year's activities at Southeastcon 2004. Goal 3: In concert with upcoming RSAC review, assess effectiveness of current "traditional" student activities. The RSAC is also chair of the IEEE SAC Strategic Planning Committee which is also undergoing a review this year as well. Activities and organizational structure will be examined for both the regional and global Student Activities Committee. Student Leadership Training Workshops In terms of recent student activities this year, RSAC will host a mini-SLTW on Sunday, April 6th as part of the Branch Chair's meeting. This is in addition to the four Student Leadership Training Workshops conducted last Fall. Theses SLTWs were in Lexington, KY (September 28th), Atlanta,GA (October 6th), Orlando, FL (October 26th), and Raleigh, NC (November 2nd). These workshops could not happen if it were not for the volunteerism of our workshop trainers/leaders. Of particular note was the Raleigh STLW which was conducted by SPAC/PACE veterans Lou Lovas, Jim Watson. The STLW focused primarily on professional and SPAC/SPAVe opportunities. There were 18 schools that participated in these STLWs: Virginia Tech Virginia Commonwealth University Hampton University Wake Technical College (attended 2 STLWs!) North Carolina A&T State University North Carolina State University The Citadel Southern Polytechnic Institute Georgia Tech Mercer University University of Kentucky Wake Technical College University of Louisville Western Kentucky University University of Central Florida University of North Florida Florida Institute of Technology We hope that a substantial number (if not all) of these 18 schools will attend Southeastcon 2003, host SPACs/SPAVes and win exemplary branch awards during this year. Thanks to Bruce Walcott, John Matthews, Clayton Paul, Chris Ruffin, Lou Lovas, Jim Watson, Joey Duvall and Butch Shadwell for volunteering and taking time away from their families to lead our Student Leadership Training Workshops. Remember, the life-blood of our organization is volunteerism and without it, IEEE would certainly cease to function. Regional Student Representative It is our pleasure to welcome Trish Davis as our new Region 3 student representative. Trish was the co-chair of the fabulously successful Southeastcon 2002 held in Columbia, South Carolina. Trish graduated from the University of South Carolina and plans to attend graduate school at Georgia Tech University. Please make an effort to welcome Trish to the Region 3 at Southeastcon this weekend. We have truly been blessed with outstanding Region 3 RSRs and Trish Davis is no exception. Trish follows David Lee and our immediate past RSR, Joey Duvall, both of whom have gone on to serve in leadership roles within IEEE. Joey is now in charge of Region 3 GOLD and has magnanimously offered to help mentor Trish in her new role. Thanks, Joey, and good luck with GOLD! Southeastcon 2003 The time is here. We have a full slate of student activities scheduled for this coming weekend (April 4-6) at Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We want to thank Peter Spence, and Dr. David Muir and all of the tremendously helpful folks in Jamaica for their efforts this past year. The hardware design this year is fire fighting robots where students design autonomous vehicles to sense which room a fire is located and then promptly extinguish it. We anticipate over 20 schools from around the region to participate in this year's hardware competition with some first-time entries due to the generosity of the Region 3 sections. Of course, we must take this opportunity to thank Mirelle White and the IEEE Financial Advantage Program for once again sponsoring our Hardware Contest. Thank you Mirelle! While the Hardware Contest has become the "crowning jewel" of Southeastcon, there many other student activities to participate in. These include the Software Design Contest, the Web Site Design Contest, the T-Shirt Design Contest, a job fair and a fantastic social on Friday evening in the bask of the Caribbean moonlight! As RSAC will send out results in our post-Southeastcon E-letter. Paper Contest The Student Paper Contest is conducted through the RSAC. We want to thank our student paper contest written judges: Dr. Stacy Wilson of Western Kentucky University, Dr. Pat Donohoe of Mississippi State University and Dr. Jens Henneman former Region 8 RSR for doing such an excellent job of turning the paper entries around so quickly to enable timely invitations to be extended to the contestants to make travel plans to present their papers in Jamaica as finalists. We had 9 entries this year with 8 slated to present at the paper contest on Saturday morning, April 5th from 8:00 a.m. till noon. Here is a list of the eight student paper contest finalists for this year: Title of Paper: Microcontroller Technology for Engineering Research Author: Michael Wright Institution: North Carolina A&T State University Title of Paper: Distance Learning- A mixture of Old and New Technologies Author: Damian Murray Institution: University of Technology, Jamaica Title of Paper: Applications of Lasers and Their Usage in the Dental Field Author: Amira Mohammed Institution: Florida International University Title of Paper: Custom Design of a High-Fidelity Hearing Aid Author: Derek Rahn Institution: University of Kentucky Title of Paper: Electrical Safety for an Offshore Power System Author: Lisa Lavie Institution Christian Brothers University Title of Paper: A Java Virtual Machine for Reconfigurable Computing Author : Brian Greskamp Institution: Clemson University Title of Paper: Parking Guidance Algorithm and System Author: Brian D. Holt, Jenny L. Dinneen, Tsung-ta Ho Institution: Virginia Military Institute Title of Paper: Digital-Logic.org: An Interactive Learning Environment Author: Robert Shaw and Joseph Kost Institution: Old Dominion University We want to also acknowledge the entry of Arshia Cont from Virginia Tech who had to withdraw from the final oral presentation portion of the contest due to a conflict with another IEEE conference. The top three papers received $850, $500, and $250, for first, second, and third place, respectively. We are grateful to the Institute Life Member Fund for these generous prizes. Please see the appendix to this report for a complete list. Other Awards: Other awards which we hope to be able to announce at the Award Ceremony at Southeastcon 2003 on Saturday evening include: LARRY K. WILSON REGIONAL STUDENT ACTIVITIES AWARD This award recognizes the student most responsible for an extraordinary accomplishment associated with IEEE student activities. OUTSTANDING BRANCH COUNSELOR/ADVISOR AWARD This award recognizes the outstanding Branch Counselor or Chapter Advisor for contributions to the success of his or her IEEE Student Branch or Chapter. STUDENT BRANCH MEMBERSHIP GROWTH AWARD EXEMPLARY STUDENT BRANCH AWARD This award recognizes IEEE Student Branches for effective leadership, management, and administration over the past year. OUTSTANDING REGION 3 STUDENT BRANCH This award recognizes the IEEE Student Branch within Region 3 that has excelled in the overall operation of the Student Branch over the past year. Region 3 RSAC meetings at Southeastcon There will be a meeting of the Branch Chairs starting at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, April 6th where a mini STLW will be held together with a FAP presentation from our good friend Mirelle White. The Branch Counselors will meet starting a half hour later at 8:30 a.m. A mini STLW will be conducted at the Branch Chairs meeting, conducted by Trish Davis our RSR. Membership Statistics According to the February membership statistics, this has not been a good year in terms of student membership growth. As we feared, the increase in the student membership dues from $19 to $30 has had in impact in student membership. Across the globe, IEEE Student Membership is down a whopping 24.8% with the largest decline coming in Regions 7-10 where the impact of the student dues increase would be most profound. Regions 7-10 saw student membership decline an incredible -42.1%! Professional or higher grade membership is also down with Region 3 professional membership declining -5.1% while globally higher grade membership was down -12.9%. Fortunately, student membership in Region 3 actually grew this past year (albeit a modest growth) by 161 members to 4,314 or an increase of 3.7%.