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