IEEE Huntsville Section Summary Report October 2007

Section Officers: 
Chair - Willie Fitzpatrick, PhD; 
Vice-Chair - Spivey; 
Treasurer - Will Goins; 
Secretary - Jon Bendickson, PhD; 
Members at Large - Bob Robinson, John Piccirillo, PhD; 
Past Chairs - Keith Jadus, Sonya Hutchinson

Active Society Chapters or Affinity Group Chairs:
Aerospace Electronics and Systems (AES) Buddy Bishop
Joint Communications/APS/MTT (JCAMS) Hans Schantz
Computer (CS) Bob Robinson
Controls Systems (CSS)    Wayne Kendrick
Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Glenn Shelby
Engineering Management (EMS) Sonya Hutchinson
Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD) Jeff Cotten

The Section hosted monthly ExCom meetings. The Chapters have been quite active with regular
meetings. The AES was successful in hosting a well attended presentation - "Latest and
Greatest on Unmanned Aircraft Systems." The CS Chapter hosted several presentations, including
one on "Scrum Software Development - Disciplined Agile Product Delivery with High
Reliability." The EMC Chapter hosted five technical presentations this year and is in the
planning stages for hosting Huntsville EMC 2008. The EMS Chapter hosted a two-part lecture on
Risk Management and a presentation on Earned Value Management. The GOLD group hosted a
cook-out that was well received by the members of the Section. Additionally, one of our
members was recognized by IEEE-USA with the Professional Achievement Award during September
2007.

The Educational Activities Committee was very active in 2007. We provided judges and category
sponsorship at both the 2007 North Alabama Regional Science and Engineering Fair and the 2007
Alabama Science and Engineering Fair. We also supplied judges for the Alabama Council for
Technology in Education. The Section continued support of the local HATS STEDTRAIN K-12 seed
grant program. The Section, in cooperation with The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH)
hosted the Alabama Regional Future City Competition (ARFCC) in January 2007 and is in the
early stages of planning coordinating and hosting the ARFCC in January 2008. The Section
served on the 2007 Tennessee Valley Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology (TV BEST)
Steering Committee and provided volunteers to serve on the Technical Team for the TV BEST
Competition held on October 6, 2007.
 
The SouthEastCon 2008 Committee held monthly planning meetings in 2007.  

The Section supported the UAH Student Branch at the SouthEastCon 2007
in various competitions and is utilizing their support in the planning of SouthEastCon 2008.

As many Sections in the Region, we are also challenged with a reduction in membership and
increase in arrears members. However, several of our Chapters were highly successful in
increasing membership in their respective areas.

Submitted by
Willie J. Fitzpatrick, PhD
Chair, IEEE Huntsville Section
wfitzpatrick @ ieee.org
256-876-9945 (W)/256-883-4387(H)