IAS Tutorial Outreach Program

The Education Department is pleased to announce a new tutorial outreach program. This new program will allow local access to tutorials offered at IAS sponsored or co-sponsored conferences. Some of these tutorials will be available on site at meetings organized by IAS Chapters. With this program, IAS members that could not attend the tutorial when offered at an IAS conference could still receive the tutorial's benefits locally.

The Education Department will select the tutorials and make the information available to members via the IAS web site (www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/ias). The posted information will include the presenters who are willing to travel to tutorial sites, a brief biography of each presenter, and an overview of the subject material. At this time, the Education Department will not be able to cover all possible topics of interest, but suggestions are always welcome. You can suggest topics by emailing me directly at halpin@ece.msstate.edu (but be aware that any tutorial available in the outreach program must have been successfully presented at an IAS conference). Even if the desired topic is not currently available, it may become available in the future. Your suggestions may help initiate the process to add your preferred topic.

The costs of the program, including travel for the presenters to any location (including locations outside North America) will be at least partially covered by the Society. Up to US$1,250 (each) for up to two tutorial presenters will be provided to cover the costs of travel and materials. The Chapter sponsoring the tutorial may cover additional expenses, including local expenses and any additional travel costs.

As tutorials are selected for the outreach program, the Education Department will make every effort to streamline the process of organizing the tutorial at the requested location. However, the successful on-site tutorial will ultimately depend on the coordinated efforts of both the local Chapter and the tutorial presenters. Local Chapters desiring to participate in the program will be responsible for all local arrangements and will coordinate directly with the tutorial presenters in most cases.

At this time, four on-site tutorials will be available for 2001. The topic list will be posted on the IAS web site after the Annual Meeting in October, and will be updated when new offerings are available. The first outreach tutorial will be available in Europe during the last quarter of 2000. It will be based on the tutorial on sensorless control presented at the 1999 IAS Annual Meeting by Professor R.D. Lorenz (of the University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Prof. Joachim Holtz (of the University of Wuppertal in Germany). We hope to build on the potential success of this initial offering throughout 2001.

As this new program matures, significant changes will be posted on the IAS web site and printed in this "Education Department News" column of the IAS Magazine. Your suggestions are welcome, and we will try to incorporate as many of them as possible. Feel free to contact me via email with any questions or comments.

Mark Halpin, Chair
IAS Education Department