Virginia Mountain Section Report to
IEEE Region 3 Committee
April 2013

INTRO 
The Virginia Mountain Section covers a geographic area of western
Virginia primarily following the I-81 corridor, and meetings are generally
held in Roanoke or Blacksburg. Two ABET-accredited engineering schools reside
in the section: Virginia Tech and Virginia Military Institute. Most meetings
have an average of 25 people in attendance with speakers from both industry
and academia.

MOST FUN ACTIVITY/PROGRAM
Many people would consider the November 2012 meeting
as the most fun activity in the past few months. This meeting included hors’
d’oeuvres prior to the catered meal, and featured a speaker from Pixel Optics
speaking on the topic of electronic-focusing eyewear.

MOST SUCCESSFUL ACTIVITY/PROGRAM
One of our most successful programs was our
meeting in March 2013 that featured Dr. Jim Thorp speaking on Phasor
Measurement Units (PMUs) and drew quite a bit of discussion and questions
during and following the presentation.

Another very well received presentation was a program on alternate energy
provided by Mr. Mark Hanson, in which he displayed and discussed his Karmann
Ghia gas-to-electric car conversion, and spoke about home solar and wind-power
installations.

MEMBER ENGAGEMENT ACTIVITIES
Our monthly meetings have been the primary
vehicle for member engagement. Each year we typically conduct a meeting that
includes a plant/facility tour of a local company. In the recent past, these
have included a tour of Salem Municipal Power (responsible for the
distribution of electric power for a municipality), Delta Star (designer and
manufacturer of substation transformers), and Cobham Inc. (designer and
manufacturer of semiconductor wafers/chips). Many in attendance appreciate
being able to see the realization of a product from design to manufacture, or
the delivery of a service such as electric power from their local utility;
“engineering-in-action” attracts a larger audience and increases group
participation.

SECTION ACTIVITIES FOCUSED OUTWARD
The section has voted to financially
sponsor a middle school team participating in a science competition, a college
student wanting to attend a conference on leadership issues for women, as well
as financially supporting a “soft-skills” conference hosted by the Virginia
Tech IEEE student chapter. Additionally, we’ve published a call for volunteers
for judges for various student science competitions.

BARRIERS
One barrier we’ve faced is a limitation of awareness to only the
electrical engineering community, which has meant that only the electrical
engineering community is aware of what IEEE is and considers attending IEEE
programs. I would like to offer programs that draw a larger audience to learn
about technology.

ISSUES REQUIRING ACTION BY REGION 3 EXCOMM None.

Joe Hartwell Design Engineer II Delta Star, Incorporated 3550 Mayflower Dr.,
Lynchburg VA. 24501 +1 434.845.0921 ext. 5496