Northwest Florida IEEE Section Report

Officers:
Chair - David Eaton
Vice Chair - Dale Harrell
Secretary - Jeff Miller
Treasurer - Rick Sanchez
Membership Development - Andy Keith
Educational Outreach Chair - Maqsood Mohammed
Computer and Communications Society Chair - Rob Riley


This year brings with it the changing of the NWF Section ExCom. David Eaton
replaced Jeremy Wyatt as Chair, Dr. Dale Harrell  moved from Secretary to
Vice Chair, Jeff Miller took over as Secretary and Rick Sanchez remained
Treasurer. Although there  are always growing pains associated with such
transitions, we have still been able to provide our members with a few
quality  meetings. The emphasis for this year is on the ExCom establishing
their strategy going into 2005 and creating a buzz about  our section.  To
encourage attendance at our meetings, we have coordinated with the
University of West Florida so that we  can host meetings via
videoconferencing between our two major cities, Fort Walton Beach and
Pensacola.

Meetings
December 10 - Fall Social held in conjunction with the UWF Student Chapter
of IEEE

January 6 - ExCom Meeting
     Handover from 2004 officers
     Strategy development for 2005
     Firm meeting date and time (3rd Thursday of the month)
     No summer breaks
     1 trip per quarter
     Officers will be provided IEEE shirts to be worn at all meetings
     11 Meetings
     4 Technical/PDH
     3 Professional Development
     2 EE Related Presentations
     2 Socials held in conjunction with the Student Chapter

January 20 - Active HDL Design and Simulation Tools for FPGAs and CPLDs
Lunch and Learn format sponsored by CCS and Aldec

Jan 24 - Xilinx Embedded Software Development Workshop and MicroBlaze
Development Workshop
Hands on, 8-hour course 

January 26 - Start the Year with a Bang, Kickoff Meeting
Full access Explosive Ordnance Disposal School tour
Concept was to generate buzz about IEEE

February 17 - Virtual Models for Robotics Design and Education, Dr. Rachid
Manseur
PDH awarded

March 1 - E-Week Banquet
Our section was one of the main sponsors for this year's E-Week banquet
along with SAME and FAEP

March 17 - Spurrier's Hurriers -- Entry Vehicle in DARPA's Grand Challenge,
Tom Spurrier

March 24 - Computer and Communications Society ExCom meeting

April 22 - Spring Social in conjunction with UWF Student Chapter of IEEE

Events Sponsored
February - IEEE sponsored NWF Science Bowl (physically and financially)
February - IEEE sponsored Science Fairs (physically and financially)
UWF EE Dept Senior Design Competition (ongoing)
March - IEEE Sponsored Engineers Week Dinner

Items in work
Website is being developed for the Computer and Communications Society along
with a website for the Science Bowl
Creating the 2005 operating budget to include setting aside contribution for
the Sections Congress
Firming up speakers for this year

Respectfully submitted,
David Eaton