IEEE - Piedmont Section Section Report for Region 3 Meeting - Southeastcon 2006 March 2006 Section Officers: Chair: Robert Scruggs r.scruggs@ieee.org Vice Chair: Jerry Clark jclark89@hotmail.com Sec/Treas: Louis Hapeshis hapesl@ieee.org Membership Development: Allen Thomas a.thomas@ieee.org Professional Activities: Adib Chebli a.chebli@ieee.org Student Activities: John Komo john.komo@ces.clemson.edu Educational Activities: Lee Stogner l.stogner@ieee.org Newsletter Editor: Mark Stokes m.stokes@ieee.org Awards: Randy Collins randy.collins@ces.clemson.edu 2006 is off to a great start for the Piedmont Section. By the Region 3 meeting date, we will have held 3 regular meetings and we had an ExCom planning meeting in early January. We are making an effort this year to get our members more involved with engineering students, and therefore the January and February meetings were geared toward university student participation. Meetings included: January: We hosted our annual Student Paper Competition, complete with awards. The first place winner was invited to compete at the state level and at Southeastcon 2006. February: We held a networking dinner meeting to give engineering students the opportunity to meet and talk with working engineers about life and careers after college. March: "An Introduction to Arc Flash and Electrical Workplace Safety". The presentation described an Arc Flash Incident, showed examples, and identified some of the causes. There was a discussion of the steps involved in performing an Arc Flash Study, and of the personal protective equipment needed to work on equipment. Standards relating to Arc Flash were also introduced. Other Activities: We have been providing support for local high school FIRST Robotics teams for several years now and plan to continue. Also as in years past, the section will provide some funding to the Clemson University Hardware Team for the competition at Southeastcon 2006. Mark Stokes will attend the Region 3 meetings at Southeastcon as the Piedmont Section representative. The monthly Newsletter continues to be sent out via IEEE e-notice with a printed copy going to members without an email address. The Section WEB page is updated monthly and a complete redesign of our WEB page is currently underway. Respectfully submitted, Rob Scruggs 2006 Piedmont Section Chair r.scruggs@ieee.com 864-886-1348