Central Georgia IEEE Section 2008 Meeting History November Meeting
Our November meeting was a visit to the Macon Museum of Arts and Sciences for a presentation on the Mars robot rovers. Our speaker was JPL scientist, Nagin Cox. The Red Plant was explored on the evening of Tuesday, November 20. A special showing of Updates from Mars will be presented at 6:30 p.m. Ms Cox, currently the Deputy Team Chief of the Spacecraft/Rover Engineering Flight Team on the JPL Mars 2003 Exploration Rover Mission, spoke to us with exciting stories of exploring Mars with robots. Ms Cox helped guide the Galileo probe to the giant planet Jupiter and is currently studying the history and environment of Mars with information collected from a family of mechanical explorers, including landers, rovers, and orbiters. All of the exhibits, including the Mars Exploration Rover model, were open from 6 to 9 p.m. with light refreshments will be available after Ms Cox’s presentation. This event was $10 for Museum members, $15 for non-members, and $5 for students. The Macon Museum is at rsvp@masmacon.com or 478-477-3232 ext. 200.
Thanks go to Scott Barfield-McGinnis for arranging for us to attend this presentation.


Curtis Lee represented the Central Georgia Section at the IEEE conference in Montreal in September. Thanks to Curtis for making this meeting.
August Meeting,
The August meeting was a tour of the new Mercer University/Engineering Building. The meeting was on Tuesday, the 12th of August at 6:30 PM. The meeting featured a visit to Dr Peters' seisimic measuring instruments. Randall D. Peters, PhD, is Professor and Chairman of the Mercer University Physics Department. Dr. Aaron Collins, Electrical Engineering Department Chair, showed us the engineering labs in the building.
Thanks go to Adam Wofford for setting up this meeting.

July Meeting
We had good turn out for the July meeting, 22 attended. The July meeting was a presentation by WMAZ about High Definition television. We met at the WMAZ studios at 6:45 PM on July 15, 2008 for the presentation by Jeff Dudley. The studios are at 1314 Gray Highway. The station is just past the Shurling Drive intersection on Gray Highway. WMAZ asked for list of the of folks who plan to attend, so please email Adam at Adam.Wofford@ieee.org if you plan to attend. We had dinner afterwards at Locos on Riverside Drive in Macon.
Thanks to Adam Wofford for making these arrangements.

The Digital Television Transition

The most significant upgrade since color television takes place February 17, 2009 when broadcast TV goes all digital. Every broadcaster in the country will make the federally mandated switch on that date, and it's important that you are ready.

Digital offers clearer pictures, more channels and even over-the-air high definition TV. It's dramatically better television that will also free up some of the airwaves for other uses, but it's vital that those who need to take action take some simple steps to continue receiving the local news, information and entertainment they count on from 13WMAZ and other broadcasters.
May Meeting
The May meeting was a visit to the Flint EMC shops on Tuesday, May 6, 2008, at 6:30PM. We toured the apparatus shop where oil filled electrical equipment is repaired and tested. The facility is an unconditioned building. The Flint EMC shops are located 400 Highway 96, Warner Robins GA (which is on Highway 96 between Houston Lake Road and Lake Joy Road). The Flint EMC is between Warner Robins and Perry. We met at the main Flint (two story) building and went into the the shops located to the rear of the property. Bryan Dent showed up through the rebuild facility for switches and transformers. Dinner was at El Jalsciense restuarant/(478) 988-0588 in the Publix shopping center at the intersection of Highway 96 and Lake Joy Road (which is about a mile to the west of Flint EMC).
Thanks go to Scott Barfield for setting up this tour.


ExComm Meeting
The Executive committee (ExComm) gathering of local officers was on Tuesday, April 22, 2008, at 6:30 PM at Red Lobster on Riverside Drive in Macon GA. . We will discussed the local section and our plans for the next year. The Mercer student chapter has been invited to attend (three members came). Major topics was the recent Southeast Con and Mercer's IEEE student group. We had a total of eleven in attendance.


IEEE SoutheastCon 2008
The annual IEEE Southeast Con was April 3-6 in Huntsville AL. This was the annual meeting of IEEE members in the southeastern part of the country. Steve Hosner was to give a a workshop on systems safety for rotary aircraft, which was cancelled at the last minute. Steve's presentation would have been on Friday morning (starting at 8 AM). In the past, Steve has presented to our local chapter a program on simulation. Steve is a contractor in the Huntsville area.
It was a good conference. Curtis Lee, Lew Mossini, Suraj Padmanabhan, Adam Woffold and Dan Bishop from the Central Georgia section represented out group. Adam's father and son joined us there. Thirty-two university/college IEEE teams competeted in the robot challange, which was to navigate in an area of uneven surface and pick up four wooden blocks and return to a home station. The emphasis of the society portion of the conference seemed to be keeping IEEE members after they have graduated from college.
Next year's IEEE SoutheastCon will be in Atlanta at Ravena (across from Perimeter Mall). The local Atlanta section was in attendance observing the conference operation.

March 2008 Meeting
Our March meeting was a joint meeting with the Dixie Crow Chapter of the Old Crows Association. The Old Crows are the electronic warfare society and the Dixie Crows are the local (middle Georgia) chapter. We attended the technical exhibit reception, the 18th of March 2008, 6:30 PM, at the Robins AFB Museum of Aviation. We pre-registered at their website Dixie Crows, going in the symposium section of the website. Registration was emailed to Denny Julius. There is no cost for us to attend the exhibit reception. Here are directions for registering. We signed the IEEE roster at the entrance table at the exhibit reception to get a record of the group.
Thanks to Tracey Tillman and the Dixie Crows for allowing us to attend.
February 2008 Meeting
The February 2008 (with nine in attendance) was on Tuesday, February 19, 2008, 6:30 PM, at Flint Energies on Elberta Road in north Warner Robins. Scott Barfield-McGinnis, P.E., the Manager of Planning Services for Flint Energies presented a progrm on Flint Energies's forcasting/planning approach.
Scott presented the process that Flint Energies, a Rural Utility Services borrower, uses to plan for capital improvements to the electric distribution system. The presentation included items like load forecasting, spot loading, growth rates, usage allocation methods, design and capacity thresholds, voltage analysis, fault coordination and system protection, and VAR optimization. Scott demonstrated the distribution analysis software Windmil produced by Milsoft Utility Solutions, Inc. located in Abilene, TX. For our after meeting meal, we went to El Bronco Mexican Restaurant, (478) 328-0344 located at 6057 Watson Blvd (1 mile west of Houston Rd @ K-Mart). For a map to Flint, click here.
Incorporated in 1937, Flint Energies is a not-for-profit member-owned electric cooperative that provides energy services to residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural members in parts of 17 central Georgia counties. Flint has 230 employees and serves more than 250,000 Georgians through more than 80,000 meters. Flint's physical plant consists of nearly 6,200 miles of distribution line and 49 substations located within Bibb, Chattahoochee, Crawford, Dooly, Harris, Houston, Macon, Marion, Monroe, Muscogee, Peach, Schley, Sumter, Taylor, Talbot, Twiggs and Upson Counties. The system also includes the Fort Benning military post. Flint is the seventh largest of Georgia's 42 EMCs and the 34th largest of the nation's nearly 1,000 rural electric cooperatives.
Flint Energies is also a Touchstone Energy Cooperative, part of a nationwide family of electric cooperatives exhibiting the core values of integrity, accountability, innovation and commitment to community. Flint’s members give their cooperative an American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) score of 81, which rates higher than most investor-owned utilities in the country.
Thanks to Scott Barfield-McGinnis for having us to Flint.
February Atlanta Meeting
The Atlanta IEEE group had a noon meeting on Neutral Grounding Methods on Monday, 18 February 2008, Sheraton Buckhead Hotel on 3405 Lenox Road NE, just north and across the street from Lenox Square mall. John Levine of L-3 gave the presentation for this lunchtime meeting. Mr Levine spoke to the Central Georgia Seciton of the IEEE back in May of 2005.
January 2008 Meeting We started off the year (with twelve in attendance) on Tuesday, January 29, 2008, tour of the WGMT, Channel 41 transmitter facility. Barry Stubbs, Chief Engineer, and Justin Bowen, IT manager, of WMGT-TV Channel 41 gave us a tour of the television station transmitters. Mr Stubbs is a 2002 Mercer University electrical engineering graduate. The Channel 41 UHF analog transmitter has 50kW forward power and digital transmitter has 12kW forward power. The NBC network distribution processing and receiving equipment will be presented. We got to see the transmitters, tower, and satellite dish antennas. The site was a REMOTE location, located at 6525 Ocmulgee E Blvd, in Macon. The transmitter compound is 2.5 miles south of Interstate 16 (at exit 6).
Adam Wofford's telephone numbers are:
Work (478) 327-7235
Cell (478) 318-8898.
We had dinner at Red Lobster in Macon after the meeting.
Thanks to Adam Wofford for setting up this meeting.
Future Meetings
Marco Reyes is working on a US Technology C-5 Depaint tour (most likely later in 2008). The facility is located in south Macon. We have been delayed in the depaint tour due to the high volume of work the facility has taken on (good economic news for the company and middle Georgia area).
Suraj Padmanabhan is working on a Blue Bird bus factory tour.


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