Central Georgia IEEE Section 2010 Meeting History
December Meeting
The next central Georgia IEEE meeting was on Thursday, December 9, 2010, 7:30 PM at the Macon campus
Mercer University Science and Engineering Building in Room SEB 144. Lindsay Williams, Chase Quinton, and Jimmy Strates
and the rest of the Mercer robot team presented their design proposal for the robot competition at the Spring Southeastern IEEE conference.
Afterwards, we had dinner at a Red Lobster.
Thanks go to team advisor Dr Donald Ekong for setting up this meeting.
July Meeting
Our July meeting was a presentation on underground/networked electric utility distribution.
The meeting was on Tuesday, the 27th of July, at the Georgia Power building at 960 Key Street in Macon.
This type of distribution is used in larger cities and is extremely reliable. Curtis Lee was the presenter.
We had 14 to attend including several from the power industry.
Afterwards, we had dinner at El Sombero's restaurant in Macon.
Thanks go to Adam Wofford. Adam accepted a frequency engineer job with the FCC in Atlanta and started there July 10th.
He makes this move to be close to family and friends. Adam is in the process of readying his Macon home for sale.
For the past several years, Adam has provided meeting ideas and planned numerous IEEE meetings. Adam was a mentor for the Mercer IEEE robot
team and was a encourager of our contribution to the team's success. Adam pushed the team and they worked up some pretty good
project management skills. He traveled with the team to their recent regional competition at
the IEEE SouthEastCon in Charlotte.
We wish him well in the big city.
Thanks also go to retiring trearsurer, Lew Mozzini. Lew gave up his treasurer duties this summer. He had been our treasurer
for quiet a few years. Lew's company
lost their government contract this summer, so he is now fully retired.
He handled the treasurer duties well. When financial scandal rocks some our our
government or religious organizations, I think of how fortuante we have been to have Lew in charge of our checkbook.
Lew grew up on farms in Texas and California. He protected his country with a a career as an Air Force flyer.
He continued on to serve the country as a defense contractor.
He has that rancher optimism and an easy smile.
Thanks, Lew.
June Meeting Our June meeting was a presentation on FERC, NERC or SERC by
Scott Barfield-McGinnis..
National Electrical (NERC) was the focus of the meeting. The Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) is a part of the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). SERC is the regional entity whose main purpose is auditing.
Scott is an alumni of the Central Georgia section and former Flint Energies field engineer.
He gave several presentations about Flint and their operations while he was a member of the Central Georgia section. Scott is a Georgia licensed professional engineer and is Bulk Electric System Compliance Manager for the Georgia System Operations Corporation.
The meeting date was Tuesday, June 22, 2010. The meeting was at the 960 Key Street Georgia Power facility (behind
Academy Sports on Eisenhower Parkway) in Macon GA in the conference
room.
We went to El Sombrero in Macon for the post meeting dinner
North American Reliability Corporation
NERC sets the standards and requirements for how we are to make electricity “reliable.”
Their mission is to ensure the reliability of the bulk power system in North America. To achieve that,
NERC develops and enforces reliability standards; assess reliability annually via 10-year and seasonal forecasts;
monitor the bulk power system; and educate, train, and certify industry personnel.
NERC is a self-regulatory organization, subject to oversight by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
and governmental authorities in Canada.
Southeastern Electric Reliability Council
The SERC Reliability Corporation (SERC) is a nonprofit corporation responsible for promoting and improving
the reliability, adequacy, and critical infrastructure of the bulk power supply systems in all or portions of 16
central and southeastern states. Owners, operators, and users of the bulk power system in these states cover an
area of approximately 560,000 square miles and comprise what is known as the SERC Region. SERC serves as a regional
entity with delegated authority from NERC for the purpose of proposing and enforcing reliability standards within
the SERC Region. SERC is divided geographically into five diverse sub-regions that are identified as
Central, Delta, Gateway, Southeastern and VACAR. SERC is one of eight regional entities with delegated authority
from NERC; the regional entities and all members of NERC work to safeguard the reliability of the bulk power systems throughout North America.
NERC and SERC are member operated. They are made up electric utilities and independent power producers and others.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commision
FERC is an arm of the Department of Energy.
May Meeting Our May meeting was a Metamaterials presentation by Mercer University graduate student, Jay B. Bargeron.
Mr Bargeron spoke to us on Tuesday, the 18th of May 2010, 6:30 PM at the Mercer University Science and Engineering building
aduitorium in Macon GA. The presentation was a brief introduction and overview on electromagnetic metamaterials and their applications.
Along with defining what constitutes a metamaterial and the basic theory behind their operation was reveiwed.
Mr. Bargeron addressed some of their radar applications and their advancement in optical applications.
Afterwards, we had dinner at a Five Guys (good Hamburgers) restaurant.
Here is the presentation:
Metamaterials
April Meeting Our April meeting will be a presentation by the Mercer University robot team.
The team came in 9th (out of 44 schools) in the recent
SoutheastCon competition. We met on Wednesday, April 7th at 6:30 PM in the Mercer University
Science and Engineering Building.
Curtis Lee was confirmed as our new Treasurer. Curtis replaces the retiring Lew Mozzini. Lew did
a great job with the section finances for a number of years.
The Mercer University School of Engineering presented
Applications of Industrial Engineering and Management Concepts in
Healthcare Settings featuring Ms. Susan Barkley
Bachelor of Science in Engineering (Industrial Specialization), 2000
Master of Business Administration, Wake Forest University, 2005.
Ms Barkley is Director, Strategic Resource Group
Hospital Corporation of America
Nashville, Tennessee.
The presesentation was at the
Peyton Anderson Auditorium (Room 110)
Science and Engineering Building
(Building 33 on map below) at Mercer University, Macon Campus onMonday, April 5, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. A reception will follow at 11:10 a.m.
(https://www.mercer.edu/about/docs/Map_Final.pdf)
The program is open to the public at no cost.
March Meeting Our meeting withe the Dixie Crow ran in to problems with pre-registraation. Our intent was to attend the
exhibits session on Tuesday, the 23rd of March at the Robins
Museum of Aviation. The exhibits were viewable at the Museum of Aviation. Registration was at:
www.DixieCrow.org
Navigate to the Symposium section and look for the Registration and Security form. Fill out the form and email it to
Maria Flirt at Mariaf62@cox.net.
Several of us went to dinner at the Warner Robins Cheddar's restaurant.
February Meeting Our first meeting of the year was the Executive Committee meeting on Wednesday, February 10, 2010, at 6:30 PM.
We met at the Red Lobster restaurant in Macon GA.
Several meeting ideas were brought up. The upcoming Southeastern Conference in Charlotte NC was discussed.
The IEEE Southeastern Conference (SoutheastCon) was
in Charlotte NC, March 18-21, 2010. Three from the Central Georgia section attended; Chair Clif Menchew, Vice Chair Dan Bishop, and
Student Chapter advisor Adam Wofford. It was a good conference with concern about unemployed engineers voiced.
Our section contributed to the Mercer robot team budget. The Mercer team finished 10th in the robot competition
(out of 44 school entries).
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