The Alabama Section is making good progress on the goals outlined in the Area 6 Report dated October 22, 1998. They have had a good variety of very interesting and timely topics. The attendance is growing at these meetings as is the support of other activities.

The success of the transition of the newsletter "Significant Bits" has been noteworthy in improving timeliness of communications as well as reducing costs. The awards program and the support of the Region 3 awards program has been good. The Section will be very active in supporting the Engineers Week activities for the Birmingham area which receives considerable publicity.

The IEEE-Mobile Section held its first meeting of the year in September 1998, to introduce the new officers and discuss the events for the year. Mr. Emad Sakla is the current chairman for the 1998-1999 season. We have seen an increase in participation over the past year. Our section is averaging around 35 people per meeting.

The second meeting was held on October 22, 1998, Dr. Tom G. Thomas, Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of South Alabama, gave a presentation on the "Design of a Low-level Chemical Warfare Agent Monitoring System." This project, carried out in behalf of the US Army, resulted in the design of a low-level chemical warfare agent monitoring system. The monitoring system was field tested in Kuwait during operation "Desert Storm" and is currently in use as a safety monitoring system in chemical warfare agent disposal plants in the United States.

On November 19, 1998 the giant FPGA/CPLD manufacture Xilinx gave a presentation on a design process from the conceptual stage to the full realization of the design. The presentation focused on design tools used in the process as well as the proper choice of programmable logic devices for the desired application.

There was no meeting during the month of December. As part of the January 19, 1999 meeting, Mr. Brandon Reese Gee gave a presentation on protective relaying in power distribution systems. Mr. Gee, a graduate of the University of South Alabama, and has been employed by Alabama Power since 1986. He discussed the application and performance of protective relaying, control apparatus, and fault recorders in generating plants, distribution substations and transmission substations. His presentation included an overview of relaying, Supervisor Control and Data Acquisition (S.C.A.D.A.) and their applications in system operations and equipment protection.

For the month of February 1999, the IEEE-Mobile Section will participate in the activities with the Mobile Area Council of Engineers (MACE), to celebrate the National Engineering Week on February 21-27, 1999. During this week, MACE has planned a variety of activities including visiting speakers at local schools, a MATHCOUNTS competition, and scholarship awards.

This year the Mobile Section of IEEE will bestow its Engineer of the Year award at the banquet to Mr. Leigh Santos, former chairman of the Mobile Section. He has been actively involved with the IEEE for several years. The banquet will also honor the 1999 Engineer of the year and young Engineer of the year.

For the month of March 1999, the senior students of the University of South Alabama’s Electrical Engineering Department will give a presentation on their "car" designs that will participate in the SoutheastCon 99 competition.

Other topic such as digital television and HDTV applications, industrial programmable logic controllers (PLC's), and power distribution on large sea-going vessels are of great interest to the Mobile Section members.

The Mississippi Section held seven meetings last year with average attendance of approximately 15 members present. They plan to have the same number of meetings this year with a goal of increasing their attendance.

The Subsection has no activity to report.

The Subsection has met every month last year with 15 – 20 members in attendance and 1 – 3 guests. The programs have been varied and interest is at a good level. The leadership team is putting forward a strong effort to grow the effectiveness of the Subsection’s activities.

The Huntsville Section did not submit a report.