Central Georgia IEEE Section 2006 Meeting History
September 2006 Meeting
The September meeting was presented by Dr. Randall Peters, Chair of the Department of Physics at Mercer
University. Dr Peters presented his seminar "State-of-the-Art Digital Seismograph." The presentation was on
Tuesday, September 19th at 6:30 pm in Room 210, Mercer University School of Engineering (MUSE). As usual, we met for dinner afterward at an area restaurant.
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"State-of-the-Art Digital Seismograph"
Randall Peters
Department of Physics
Mercer University
One of the instruments to be placed next year on the seismic pier of
Mercer's new Science and Engineering building will be the first bona
fide fully-digital seismograph. The Volksmeter is a conventional
pendulum (horizontal) seismometer that uses Analog Devices' new,
award-winning integrated circuit (AD7745) that is a capacitance to
digital converter (CDC). It monitors a symmetric differential
capacitive (SDC) displacement sensor array -- one form of the first fully
differential capacitive sensor. The SDC-CDC package is configured to
operate in a different mode than commercial seismometers. By recording
the pendulum's position, rather than its velocity, tilt response of the
Volksmeter opens a new window to the world of inexpensive
instrumentation. It provides a simple means to study low frequency
spectral components of oscillatory type, called 'earth hum'. Examples
of benefit from these novel features will be provided, along with some
history of the Volksmeter's evolution from a fundamental research
program.
For a complete listing of Mercer Physics Deparment Seminar events see:
https://physics.mercer.edu/seminars
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Other Links of Interest:
Department of Physics, Mercer University;
https://physics.mercer.edu/default.htm
Dr. Peters' website (Mercer);
https://physics.mercer.edu/hpage/peters.html
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MUSE is located at the Southeast corner of the Macon campus, across from the Medical School.
Parking is avaialbe on top of the hill at the south Mercer entrance or in the rear of MUSE, next to the soccer fields.
Be aware of construction equipment on the Mercer campus.
* From Interstate Highway 75 in Macon, Mercer is 3 miles south of Interstate Highway 16.
* Take the Mercer University Drive exit and turn East onto Mercer University Drive.
* At the 2nd traffic light, turn left onto College Street (onto the Mercer campus).
* MUSE is down the hill to the right, just the other side of the new construction.
* You can park in any unreserved space.
* Go to the 2nd floor and look for Room 210, just past the restrooms.
Thanks to Adam Wofford for setting up this meeting.
May 2006 Meeting
Our May 2006 meeting was the Executive Committe meeting on Thursday, the 4th of May.
We met at Red Lobster in Macon to discuss the upcoming year.
In addition to the Central Georgia IEEE section officers, we had two members of the Mercer student chapter
in attendance (Ginger Brown and Jon Livingston).
We discussed several possible meeting subjects which include a trip to the Houston County First Responder facility (E911)
and the Georgia Power factility in Dublin.
Another April 2006 Meeting
Our second April 2006 meeting was a presentation by the Mercer Engineering schools' robotic team on their
submittal for the IEEE SoutheastCon competition in Memphis. We met at
the Mercer Engineering School of Engineering in Macon aton Tuesday, the 18th of April.
Jon Livingston and the Mercer team spoke to us about their submittal and the competition.
The Mercer team came in fourth in the competition with about 30 other southeastern colleges.
Afterwards, we had dinner at Loco's restuarant in Macon.
Thanks to Dr Clayton R. Paul for setting up this meeting.
April 2006 Meeting
We met on Thursday, April 13, 2006, for an afternoon meeting to view a KC-135R flight simulator at Robins AFB. Paul Ciaccia of Flight Saftey conducted the tour.
We got a briefing on flying, accidents, and the simulator. The simulator is a million dollar piece of equipment costing about a thousand dollars an hour to
operate (considerbly cheaper than the actual aircraft).
Dinner afterwards was at Ryan's restuarant on Watson Boulevard.
Thanks to Suraj Padmanabhan/cell (478) 213-8160 and Marco Reyes for setting up this meeting.
March 2006 Meeting
Our second March meeting was a discussion of simulation and modeling by IEEE Central Georgia Section alumni, Dennis Ludwig.
We met on Tuesday, the 28th of March.
Dennis travelled from Ohio to speak to us.
We met at the Ball Aerospace Conference Room (off Watson Boulevard in Warner Robins)
and had dinner at Po' Folks afterwards.
Dennis has published two articles, they are
Real-Time Programming
and Language Considerations.
Additionally, Dennis had a follow-on letter about languages published in
Crosstalk Letter.
First March 2006 Meeting
The first March 2006 Meeting was a joint meeting with the Dixie Crows.
We attended the Dixie Crow vendor reception on Tuesday evening,
the 21st of March at the Robins Museum of Aviation.
The 31st Symposium theme was "The Changing Face of EW; Do You Have Your Game Face On?"
We are saddened by the recent loss of Teledyne's Mike Baker. Mr Baker (along with Dennis Maloney and Michael Jordan)
spoke to us back in 2004 about Travelling Wave Tubes (TWTs). Mike was forever upbeat and a good teacher/presenter.
Mike had opinions about many subjects and last year (2005) during the height of the
Terri Schavio affair, was struggling with his own parents' and in-laws' medical conditions. Our thoughts are with his family.
Mr Baker died from a cardiac embulism in October. He will be missed.
Thanks to Mercer's Tracey Tillman for including us in their symposium.
February 2006 Meeting
Our February meeting was at the Flint Energies Service Center in Warner Robins on Tuesday, the 21st of February. Our speaker was
Scott Barfield-McGinnis, P. E.
Supervisor of Planning and Drafting for Flint EMC. Mr Barfield-McGinnis demonstrated show how Flint EMC designs their
mapping system, how Flint takes outage calls, and predicts what device is out. Scott used the GIS mapping system that
Flint uses
to illustrate the electrical grid system in the supported counties. Mr Barfield-McGinnis said that a call from areas without
power aided the utility in responding to lack of service.
Our post meeting dinner was at El Bronco Mexican Restuarant in Warner Robins.
Thanks to Curtis Lee for setting up this meeting.
January 2006 Meeting
The first meeting of the year was on Tuesday, January 24, 2006, at Robins AFB. We had a turn out of 25+ as
Jan Ewing gave us a presentation on
aging wiring in F-15 aircraft. Jan gave us a briefing about Kapton wiring insulation,
followed by a visit to the flightline to see an aircraft in for depot mainteance.
Kapton type wiring was the
predominant wiring used on military and commercial aircraft from the early 1970 through the early 1990s.
Jan gave us a detailed look at all the critical issues
associated with Kapton wire such as arc tracking, dielectric breakdown, current leaks, etc.
The recognized need to cover polyimide, known more generally as Kapton,
is significant. This wire insulation type has had issues with cracking, wear-through, and arcing.
Some airline industry officials have maintained
that Kapton's in-service problems relate to improper installation, rather than any inherent
deficiencies in the insulation type. These inspections, too, could uncover additional problems
that could take the form of service bulletins and airworthiness directives. Shortcomings in
existing test parameters complicate greatly the effort to identify over the course of years any
increase in problems with aircraft wiring. Jan also discussed soluitons on how the F-15 owing countries are dealing
with repairs on their aging wiring problems (which seem mainly with replacing with a teflon-Kapton-teflon insulation). Initially,
Kapton was wrapped around wiring, but the producer has developed an extrusion process for the insulation. Timothy Monoc, Field Service Representative for F-15 Airframe
Systems for Boeing was also in attendance to answer questions about this issue.
After the meeting, we had dinner at Ryan’s Steakhouse in Warner Robins.
Thanks to Suraj Padmanabhan and Marco Reyes for setting up this meeting.
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