2010 Events

Thursday, December 2, 2010, 7pm-9pm

Memorial University's Engineering Building, Room: EN-4002

Tech Talk by Dr. Sam Bromley, PanGeo Subsea Inc.

The IEEE Newfoundland-Labrador Section would like to invite you to its Annual General Meeting, to be held Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010 at 7pm. The agenda includes:

• A brief review of 2010 Section highlights, and an outline for plans for 2011 events and activities
• An overview from Dr. Wahab Almuhtadi (chair of IEEE Canada's Eastern Area) on IEEE Canada and Area events and activities
• A technical talk by Dr. Sam Bromley, Senior Research Scientist at PanGeo Subsea Inc. PanGeo Subsea is a technology development and service delivery company specializing in 3D and 4D subsea acoustic imaging. They deliver solutions that mitigate risk and create value for oil and gas, offshore renewable energy and other industries including mining and military applications.

An informal wine and cheese reception will follow the talk.

Members and non-members are welcome to attend. For more information, please contact Andrew Cook (cook@seaformatics.ca) or Lori Hogan

Tuesday, November 9, 2010, 3pm

Memorial University's Engineering Building, Room: EN-4002

MINING NETWORK TRAFFIC DATA

Mining and statistical analysis of network data are often employed to determine traffic loads, analyze patterns of users' behavior, and predict future network traffic. In this talk, we analyze traffic data collected from three deployed networks: a cellular wireless network used by public safety agencies (E-Comm), a satellite network used by Internet service providers (ChinaSat), and the Internet.

We describe analysis of network log data collected from E-Comm, a public safety trunked radio network that utilizes circuit-switched cellular wireless technology. We examine statistical distributions and autocorrelation functions of call inter-arrival and call holding times during busy hours. Our findings indicate that traditional Erlang models used for voice traffic may not be suitable for evaluating the performance of trunked radio networks. We also describe collection of traffic data, characterization of traffic loads, and distribution of packet sizes in ChinaSat, a hybrid satellite-terrestrial system. We investigate long-range dependence as the traffic patterns vary, propose a traffic model for the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connections, and use data from billing records to predict future traffic loads. Since discovering network topology is important for analyzing routing protocols and network robustness and resilience, we also examine datasets from the Route Views and RIPE projects and identify important properties of Internet graphs.

Our current traffic measurement project deals with traffic collection from BC.Net, the Vancouver Lower Mainland Gigabit Ethernet network. Data collected from BC.Net will be used to analyze behavior and performance of the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).

Speaker Bio:

LJILJANA TRAJKOVIC received the Dipl. Ing. degree from University of Pristina, Yugoslavia, in 1974, the M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering and computer engineering from Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, in 1979 and 1981, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from University of California at Los Angeles, in 1986.

She is currently a Professor in the School of Engineering Science at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. From 1995 to 1997, she was a National Science Foundation (NSF) Visiting Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Department, University of California, Berkeley. She was a Research Scientist at Bell Communications Research, Morristown, NJ, from 1990 to 1997, and a Member of the Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, from 1988 to 1990. Her research interests include high-performance communication networks, control of communication systems, computer-aided circuit analysis and design, and theory of nonlinear circuits and dynamical systems.

Dr. Trajkovic served as 2007 President of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society. She was a member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (2001 - 2003 and 2004 - 2005). She serves as Vice President Publications of the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society (2010 - 2011) and served as Vice President Long-Range Planning and Finance (2008 - 2009) and as a Member at Large of its Board of Governors (2004 - 2006). She is Chair of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society joint Chapter of the Vancouver/Victoria Sections. She was Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Nonlinear Circuits and Systems (1998). She was Technical Program Co-Chair of ISCAS 2005 and served as Technical Program Chair and Vice General Co-Chair of ISCAS 2004. She served as an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems (Part I) (2004 - 2005 and 1993 - 1995) , the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems (Part II) (1999 - 2001 and 2002 - 2003), and the IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine (2001 - 2003). She is a Fellow of the IEEE.

This event is co-sponsored by the Circuits and Systems Society under its Distinguished Lecturer Program.

Saturday, June 12, 2010, 6:30 for 7pm

The Fluvarium

Tickets only $20 each for IEEE members and one guest; non-members $30 each. Please specify lobster, steak or vegetarian dinner at time of ticket purchase. Salads, rolls, dessert, tea, coffee and 2 drink tickets included! Catered by the Fluvarium.

Deadline for tickets: noon, Friday, June 4th

For tickets, contact any member of the IEEE Newfoundland & Labrador Section Executive.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010, 7pm

Memorial Universityís Engineering Building, Room: EN-4002

Speaker: Wally Haas

Avalon Microelectronics is a software company that specializes in customized solutions for next generation optical networks. Wally will present an overview of Avalon. Topics will include a brief history of Avalon as well as Avalonís product, management, and key technology.

Speaker Bio: Wally is the founder of Avalon Microelectronics, and has overall responsibility for the organizationís technical and business strategy. Under Wally ës leadership, Avalon has grown from a small start-up to a leader in the development of IP for optical networks.

Prior to joining Avalon, Wally held a number of progressively responsible positions within the semiconductor industry. He held various positions in Engineering and Design Engineering at AMCC and PMC-Sierra.

Wally holds a Bachelor of Science, Electrical Engineering from the University of Calgary.

For more information, please contact Andrew Cook (andrewcook at gmail.com)

Please note the start time for this event is 7pm in the Engineering Faculty Lounge (EN4000). This has been updated for the original notice.

On Wednesday, March 31 at 7:00pm, the Faculty of Engineering at Memorial is holding its annual "IEEE Student Night". This event is an opportunity for graduating engineering students to present and demonstrate their senior design projects. The evening will begin at 7:00pm sharp in the Faculty Lounge (EN4000) in the Engineering Building at Memorial and will begin with to three project presentations as chosen by classmates and instructors. This years presentations are:

• "BridgeBuster" (RenÈe Hodder, Tim Smith)
• "Searchlight for Small Marine Craft Full Mission Simulators" (Michael Hobbs, Sean Jessome, Matthew Baxter)
• "Control and Communication System for the MUN Autonomous SWATH Surface Vehicle" (Leah Andrews, Christa Barry, Sarah Howse)

Following the presentations, there will be an opportunity to see demonstrations of all projects. Finally, the evening will conclude with the presentation of awards and consuming of pizza and drinks.

Any interested parties are encouraged to attend the evening. Students certainly will appreciate an opportunity to show to their future colleagues, the accomplishments of their final year projects.

If you have any questions about the event, please contact Dr. Dennis Peters at dpeters at mun.ca.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010, 1-2pm

S.J. Carew Building, Engineering Boardroom (EN4002), 4th Floor (Parking available in Lot 16A)

Speaker: Dr. Klaus-Werner Gurgel

During the last decade, High-Frequency (HF) radar remote sensing of oceanographic parameters became more and more important. These radar systems are able to monitor large areas of the ocean, far behind the horizon, and are now included in coastal monitoring systems. This presentation will give an introduction to the basic physics relevant for radars operated in this specific frequency range between 5 and 30 MHz, including electromagnetic wave propagation, both groundwave and skywave, dependency on ionospheric conditions, scattering processes at the ocean surface, algorithms to derive surface current maps, ocean wave spectra, and wind direction. Besides the oceanographic applications, over-the-horizon ship tracking can be provided by HF radars.

Speaker Biography:

Klaus-Werner Gurgel (IEEE M'94) received the diploma in electrical engineering from the University of Hannover, Hannover, Germany, in 1980 and the Ph.D. in geosciences from the University of Hamburg in 1993. From 1980 to 1985, he was responsible for the technical development and deployment of the University of Hamburg's HF radar during numerous experiments, which at that time was based on NOAA's Coastal Ocean Dynamics Applications Radar (CODAR). From 1985 to 1993, he was working on a shipborne version of the CODAR for applications at the Arctic Front. In 1996, he developed a new HF radar system called WEllen RAdar (WERA) within the European Union (EU) funded project "Surface Current And Wave Variability Experiment" (SCAWVEX), which was later on used within the EU funded projects "European Radar Ocean Sensing" (EuroROSE) and "Weather Information Network, Guidance, and Supervision onboard Ships" (Wings-for-Ships). After a technology transfer to industry, WERA is now commercially available and applied by several Universities and Institutions worldwide.

Dr. Gurgel currently is a research scientist at the University of Hamburg, Institute of Oceanography, and involved within numerous projects on radar remote sensing. Since November 2004, he is Adjunct Professor at the Division of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography of the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Fl, USA. Dr. Gurgel is a member of IEEE Oceanic Engineering, Geoscience & Remote Sensing, and Antennas and Propagation Society.

Rescheduled: Thursday, January 28th, 2010 February 11th, 2010, 7:30pm

S.J. Carew Building, Engineering Boardroom (EN4002), 4th Floor

The Teacher In-Service Program (TISP) enables IEEE volunteers to share their technical expertise and demonstrate the application of engineering concepts to support the teaching and learning of science, mathematics and technology disciplines.

The IEEE Newfoundland and Labrador Section is looking for a team of volunteers to help bring this initiative to teachers in our province. This session will give an overview of the program, its goals and suggestions for approaching teachers in our area. It is an opportunity for you to learn more about TISP and how you can be involved.

Please contact Brian Kidney (Email: bkidney at ieee.org) for further information.

Monday, January 18, 2010, 7pm

S.J. Carew Building, Engineering Boardroom, 4th Floor (Subject to Change)

Presenter: James C. Kinsey, Ph.D., Assistant Scientist, Department of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Ocean Robotics have remarkable progress in the last 20 years - transitioning from experimental vehicles to valuable assets for a tasks ranging from oil platform maintenance to marine archaeology. This talk focuses on the impact robotics research is having on deep-ocean science - specifically advances in controls and navigation. Recent adaptive identification and nonlinear observer research - motivated by ocean robot navigation - are presented. These advances are enabling engineers and scientists to obtain oceanographic datasets previously unachievable, including using AUVs to measure gravity anomalies resulting from small density changes in the Earth's crust.

Speaker Biography:

James Kinsey is an Assistant Scientist in the Department of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. His research focuses on the development of novel parameter identification and state estimation techniques for nonlinear systems, with a focus on systems related to underwater robotics and oceanography. He received his B.E from SUNY Stony Brook and his M.S. and Ph.D from The Johns Hopkins University - all in mechanical engineering. His current projects include the development of in-situ calibration techniques for navigation sensor calibration, dynamic model-based nonlinear state estimators for underwater robot navigation, and exploiting advances in underwater vehicle navigation to obtain fine spatial resolution gravity maps. He is actively involved in the development of the Sentry AUV and the Nereus HROV, serving as the navigation lead for both robots. In addition, he regularly goes to sea with these vehicles where he collaborates with other scientists to use ocean robots to obtain data essential to advancing our knowledge of the ocean and the processes occurring within.

Please contact Lori Hogan (Email: lori.hogan at ieee.org) or Dr. Ralf Bachmayer (bachmayer at mun.ca) for further information.