Region 3 Newsletter Volume 15 Number 3

Page 15

October 2000

Officers:

Bruce L. Walcott, RSAC Chair

Stacy Wilson, RSAC Vice-Chair

Joey Duvall, RSR (in perpetuity)

The following report summarizes the status of the Region 3 Student Activities Committee since the lastEXCOMM meeting:

Membership

The following table summarizes thegrowth of student membership in Region 3

Region 3 is second only to Region 6 interms of student members in the United States. Region 3 also has 23student branches registered for on-line application capabilities. Region 3 currently has 87 branch chapters with 32 student branch chapters. We trail only Region 1 in this regard.

Low Membership Student Branches

The following student branches have been identified to have 9 or less student members as of July, 2000:

DeKalb Tech. Inst.

Wake Tech. Inst.

Western Carolina

Augusta Area Tech School

Gaston College

South Carolina State College

Fayetteville Tech Inst.

State Tech Inst.-Memphis

UT Martin

Northeast State Tech CC

Southwest Virginia CC

Virginia Western CC

Guilford Tech CC

Trident Tech College

Florence-Darlington Tech College

Georgia Southern College

Hampton Univ.

VMI

Southeastcon 2000

Southeastcon 2000 was held in Nashville, TN on April 7-9. In addition to the technical sessions and professional meetings, students from over 30 schools availed themselves of the following activities: hardware contest, paper contest, software contest, and T-shirt contest.

The winners of these events are:

Hardware Final Standings

First Place: University of Alabama at Huntsville

Second Place: University of Kentucky

Third Place: University of West Florida

Software Competition Results

First Place: University of Evansville

Second Place: University of South Carolina

Third Place: University of Alabama at Birmingham

Paper Contest:

1st Place:

"Magnetic Fields and Forces in a Three Phase Catenary Power Line System,"

by Mike Lockard of Clemson University

2nd Place:

"Measuring Temperature and Strain with Fiber Bragg Gratings."

Ronald W. Bentley of Old Dominion University

3rd Place:

"An Evaluation of Key Interval Measurement By Macromedia Authorware,"

by Matthew J. Inman of The University of Mississippi

T-Shirt Contest Results:

1st Place: UT Knoxville

2nd Place: University of North Florida

3rd Place: Old Dominion University

A meeting of the Region 3 Branch Counselors was also held at Southeastcon 2000. The minutes of the meeting can be found in the appendix to this report.

The Region 3 web contest winner was UT Knoxville, who also placed 2^nd in the international contest.

Student Leadership Training Workshops

Southeastcon 2000, Region 3 scheduled three SLTWs. Although the UAB SLTW was cancelled due to lack of enrollment, the RSAC would like to thank David Green and Charles Hickman for being on call. Many thanks to Joey, Osama, and Stacy for their volunteerism as well!

SLTW schedule for Fall 2000:

Sept.30 Birmingham, AL Dave Green (dgreen@uab.edu)

Charles Hickman (hickmanc@bellsouth.net)

phone: 205-934-8440 fax: 205-975-3337

Oct.14 Orlando, FL Osama Mohammed (o.mohammed@ieee.org)

Joey Duvall (j.duvall@ieee.org)

phone:305-348-3040 fax: 305-348-3707

Oct.28 Nashville, TN Bruce L. Walcott (walcott@engr.uky.edu)

Stacy Wilson (Stacy.Wilson@wku.edu)

phone: 859-257-8827 fax: 859-323-4922

Southeastcon 2001

This year's Southeastcon will be held in Clemson, SC. The rules for the hardware contest can be found at https://www.ece.clemson.edu/secon/index.htm. The contest involves gathering of balls and "cashing in" at an appropriate time in the contest. The contest originally proposed having a pit filled with water separating the two halves ofthe playing surface. This original proposal has been amended to have the pit filled with air.

A paper contest and software contest(involving issues in AI such as ANN's and CTMC) are also planned as student activities.

Student Branch Congress

Thanks to the generosity of Region 3EXCOMM, a number of students were able to attend the IEEE StudentBranch Congress held in Eindhoven, Netherlands on May 14, 2000. As a result of this experience, the University of South Florida (USF) is planning to hold Student Branch Congress 2001 in Tampa, Florida this coming spring. Thanks to Region 3 EXCOMM for their support.>

SAC Inititiatives:

At the October 7-9 SAC meeting held in Montreal, the following pertinent SAC recommendations emerged:

• The web site contest become permanent with $4000 funding
• The student paper contest funding be increased from $1000 to $6000 from the Life Member's Committee

Note: this second initiative (if approved) will certainly help to turn around the anemic student participation in the Region 3 paper contest!

Respectfully Submitted

Bruce L. Walcott and Joey Duvall

RSAC Chair and RSR

Region 3

APPENDIX

Southeastcon2000

Branch Counselor's Meeting Minutes

4/9/00

The meeting was called to order at 8:06 a.m.. Introductions were made and the agenda approved. A sign-up sheet was passed around for attendance. The format of the non-parallel branch counselor and branch chairs meeting was discussed and general consensus for approval.

The IEEE web site contest was introduced with rules handed out. The resume database project was discussed with interested parties encouraged to contact the RSAC chair for further information. The RSAC chair announced that the position of RSAC Vice Chair (and potential future RSAC Chair) was vacant and asked if there was any interest in the position.

Old business included the subject of support for Branch Counselors. Suggestions included the ability of IEEE Headquarters to pay for Branch Counselor's IEEE membership fees as well as the possibility of the RSAC chair writing letters to Dept. Chairs and Deans on behalf of the branch counselors.

New Business included an announcement of the IEEE Graduate of the Last Decade (GOLD) program as well as the possible location of future IEEE Leadership Workshops. Suggestions were Miami, Pensacola, Mississippi, Nashville, and along the Coast.

The RSR briefed the group on new communication initiatives including having a single location for updating/renewing membership.

Other SAC initiatives include a proposal to remit $25 to branches for completing Branch Counselor and Branch Mentor forms. Also, Student Technical Awareness Conferences (STAC) will be a pilot program coming out of TAG this coming year. Christian Brothers University would be a prime location for this pilot year which will see approximately 2-3STACs scheduled. The organization is identical to an SPAC with focus on technical rather than professional topics

Discussion then ensued about bolstering the participation in the Student Paper Contest. Resolution for the 2001 contest was:

*Max. of 2 entries per school

*Letter of intent encouraged by Feb. 15th (not required)

*Unlimited # of authors but only two presenters

Comment was made about the Software competition conflicting with branch chairs meeting and about proposing more money for reimbursement to the participating schools.

Meeting adjourned at 9:38 a.m.

BLW/jel

Attendees:

NAME|ADDRESS|PHONE|E-MAIL|SCHOOL

Bruce Walcott 312 CRMS Bldg., Lex., KY40506 859-257-8827b.walcott@ieee.orgUK

Mongi Abidi|Electrical Engineering, KnoxvilleTN|865-974-5454|abidi@utk.edu|UTK

Jim Lumpp|Electrical Engineering, University ofKY|859-257-3895|jel@engr.uky.edu|UK

BruceHarvey|2525 Pottsdamer St., Tallahassee,FL 32310|850-410-6451|bharvey@ieee.org|FAMU-FSU

TomBullock|2730 SW 9th Drive, Gainsville, FL32310|325-392-4954|t.bullock@ieee.org|UFLA

RachidManseur|11000 University Pkwy, UWF, Pensacola,FL 32514 850-474-3375|rmanseur@uwf.edu|UWF

Matt Irwin|Cookville, TN 38505||ieee@tntech|TN Tech

Mike Orear Chattahoochee, Marietta, GA||morear@chat-tech.com|Chatt. Tech

Mohsen Lotfalian 1800 Lincoln Ave., Evansville,IN|812-479-2792|ml3@evansville.edu U of Evansville

EricWelch|650 East Parkway South, Memphis, TN38018|901-321-3461|ewelch@cbu.edu|CBU

JohnJ. Komo|Clemson University, Clemson,SC 29634 864-656-5916 john.komo@ces.clemson.edu Clemson U

HughBlanton|52 East Tennessee State U., PO Box 70552, Johnson City, TN 37614 423-439-4177 blanton@ieee.org| E. TN State U.

Thomas Bellarmine|Tech. Bldg.#B RM307A, Tallahassee, FL 32307 850-599-8638 tbellarm@cis.famu.edu FAMU-FSU

Osama Mohammed|ECE Dept., FIU RM EA53983, Miami, FL 33174 305-348-3040 o.mohammed@ieee.org FIU

David Chau 3920 Callahan Dr., Memphis, TN38127 901-353-2044 dchau@memphis.edu U of Memphis

David Livingston Dept. of EE Nichols Engineering Hall, Lex., VA 2445 540-464-7545 livingstondl@mail.vml.eou VMI

John Bowles|University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208 803-777-2689 bowles@engr.sc.edu USC

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