IEEE Huntsville Section Huntsville Section has 6 technical societies, a GOLD affinity group, 2 student branches (UAHuntsville and Alabama A&M), and 1,398 currently active members. Our technical society chapters include the Aerospace Electronics Systems Society (AESS), Computer Society (CS), Control Systems Society (CSS), Electromagnetic Compatibility Society (EMCS), Technology Management Council (TMC), and Joint Communications, Antenna Propagation, and Microwave Theory and Techniques (JCAM) Society. Please visit the Section website for additional details on our plans and vision, as well as our planned and past Section and Society meetings. Recent Activities Since SoutheastCon 2010, Huntsville Section technical and affinity groups hosted numerous events throughout the year. Last year and now, Huntsville Section supports area STEM and other educational activities with financial sponsorship and member volunteer hours to chair, coordinate, plan, and judge competitions. These events include the North Alabama Science and Engineering Fair (NARSEF), the Alabama Science and Engineering Fair (ASEF), the Alabama Council on Technology in Education (ACTE) Technology Fair and Team Programming Challenge (TPC), Tennessee Valley BEST robotics competition, and the FIRST robotics/LEGO competitions. Huntsville Section is a strong proponent and supporter of the Huntsville Association of Technical Societies (HATS) Science and Engineering Education and Training (STEDTRAIN) Seed Grants that provide area STEM teachers with needed classroom resources, founded in 1988 as the nation’s longest continually operating STEM program. Every January, Huntsville Section hosts the Alabama Regional Future City Competition. National Engineers Week founded the Future City Competition as an opportunity for 7th and 8th graders to design a city of the future. Organized by states and regions across the country, the students create scale models, computer simulations and written essays, along with a formal presentation. The event culminates with the National Future City Competition in Washington, D.C., during National Engineers Week. IEEE Huntsville Section hosted this event for the fourth consecutive year and once again sent a team to Washington D.C. that fared well in that competition. As always, Huntsville Section awards outstanding professional engineers, engineering educators, and engineering students at the Engineers Week Banquet, see additional details and photos at https://www.ieee-huntsville.org/chairs-message-welcome-to-2011-engineers-week. Besides an opportunity to honor outstanding Section members, we always enjoy this opportunity to network with other technical societies and technical professionals from engineering disciplines across the spectrum. Huntsville Section is a prominent member of the Huntsville Association of Technical Societies (HATS), and we continually work with other disciplines to enhance the community educational and technical demographic. The UAHuntsville Student Branch annually hosts Advanced Charger Trainer sessions to teach junior students principles of engineering and robotics, and to welcome them into the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department. They attend ExCom meetings and help steer Section policy to support evolving needs. The Section works closely with both the UAHuntsville and Alabama A&M University Student Branches. Upcoming Events The Huntsville JCAM Society Chapter is hosting Communications Society Distinguished Lecturer George Rouskas on May 10th, when he will lecture on “Power-Aware and Computationally-Efficient Optical Network Design”. Dr. Rouskas is a Professor of Computer Science at North Carolina State University. He received the Diploma in Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Athens, Greece, in 1989, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from the College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, in 1991 and 1994, respectively. Following up on our North Alabama Regional Science and Engineering Fair (NARSER) sponsorship and participation this month, Huntsville Section will support the Alabama Science and Engineering Fair in April, as well as the Alabama Council on Technology in Education (ACTE) Technology Fair and Team Programming Challenge (TPC). We are planning many more Section and Society technical sessions throughout the year. Communications and Membership Strategy The Section continues broadening, modernizing, and adapting our communications to better conform to member preferences and to enhance information dissemination to our members. We had modest gains in overall IEEE membership over the past year, and we hope to maintain/improve that trend by continually enhancing member value, increasing member participation, and providing needed Huntsville area technical and educational community resources. Bob Robinson IEEE SM, CSDP IEEE Huntsville Section Chair IEEE Huntsville Computer Society Chair President, Huntsville Association of Technical Societies (HATS) Huntsville, Alabama