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Washington, DC 20036-4910

IEEE-USA President Commends House for Passing Innovation Legislation

WASHINGTON (21 December 2010) — IEEE-USA President Evelyn Hirt commends the House of Representatives for passing the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 on Tuesday.

The legislation, which the Senate passed on 17 December, authorizes federal investment in science, engineering, innovation, technology and competitiveness, and is designed to help the United States maintain its world leadership in high-technology and create jobs. It will now go to President Barack Obama for his signature.

COMPETES strives to, among other things, prepare students for high-skilled, high-paying jobs by improving science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education; keeps basic research program budgets on a path to doubling at the Department of Energy Office of Science, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); reauthorizes the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E), which supports high-risk, high-reward transformational energy technology development; and provides loan guarantees “for a project that re-equips, expands, or establishes a manufacturing facility in the United States.”

“This legislation is important for the United States as it competes to retain global leadership in technology innovation, research and math and science,” Hirt said. “It will enhance needed economic growth and U.S. STEM education, while helping manufacturers become more competitive by supporting innovative manufacturing technologies.”

Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), outgoing chairman of the House Science & Technology Committee, said on the House floor Tuesday that more than half of U.S. economic growth since the end of World War II in 1945 can be attributed to the development and deployment of new technologies.

“These investments are the path toward sustainable economic recovery and growth and the path toward prosperity for the next 50 years,” Gordon said. “There is (more…)

Our New 2011-2012 Section Officers

I would like to announce our newly elected section officers.

Section Chair – Stephen Fridrick

Vice Chair –  Fred Nadeau

Treasurer – Marwan Nusair

Secretary – Frank Zhou

Member at Large – Jason Wilden

They will all serve for the next two years. Their email addresses and phone numbers are listed on the Section Officers page.  Congratulations to everyone.

Officer Election for 2011-2012

The ballot is now open, and closes on December 23, 2010.  Most of you will have received an email notice inviting you to vote.  We have 38 members who have registered their email address with IEEE, but have requested no email from IEEE!  We have an additional 59 members with registered email addresses, who allow email from IEEE, but have requested no election email.   This posting is for these 97 members, and also for those who filter and delete our email:

The Section is using vTools electronic balloting for this election.

To vote, you will need the Username and Password from your IEEE Web Account.

If you do not have a Web Account,  you need to create an account by navigating to http://ieee.org, click on the “Update/create WQeb Account” link located on the right-hand side of the page in the box labeled “Member sign in”, and follow the instructions.

To access the ballot:

  1. Navigate to https://voting.vtools.ieee.org
  2. Click on the “Please log in” link
  3. Enter your Username and Password of your IEEE Web Account into the dialog box and click OK.
  4. You should now be viewing the List Ballots page.
  5. Find the ballot named “Cincinnati Section Officer Election for 2011-2012”.
  6. In the Action column, click on the “Vote” link.
  7. You should now be viewing our Ballot.
  8. You may vote for any and/or all five positions by clicking on the check-box next to the candidate’s name, or by entering the name of a write-in candidate.
  9. When you are ready to cast your ballot, click the “Vote” button at the bottom of the page.
  10. You will be given an opportunity to edit your ballot, and finally you click the “Complete” button.

2011 IEEE Computer Society Simulator Design Competition

IEEE Computer Society is presenting the 2011 Simulator Design Competition for students worldwide with a top prize of 8,000 USD and a second place prize of 2,000 USD. Student teams will be invited to design a CPU simulator, a programused in many architecture courses to illustrate how computers work.
The competition requires that students have taken a course in architecture and have both programming and software engineering skills. Student teams will
submit both a report and a working program at the end of the competition.  Who can compete?  The competition is open to student members of the IEEE Computer Society
organized into teams consisting of three to five students enrolled at the sameinstitution of higher learning.  The competition is conducted through online submission of reports and simulators to the panel of international judges (chosen by the IEEE Computer Society).  This year’s judges include Bob Colwell, one of the world’s leading experts on
computer design and Intel’s former chief architect on the Pentium 4 processor.
To register and for more information visit the competition web site at:
http://www.computer.org/portal/web/competition
Registration deadline is 18 January 2011

student-competition-flyer.pdf

December 2010 Section Meeting Information

DECEMBER MEETING
IEEE Annual Christmas Party

DATE: Thursday, December 2, 2010
PLACE : Raffel’s – 10160 Reading Road (see below for directions)
TIME : 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
 
COST:    $15 per person

MENU SELECTIONS:   Roasted Turkey & Dressing, Baked Ham with Pineapples, Couscous Stuffed Green Peppers, Sweet Potato Casserole, Scalloped Potatoes, Seasoned Green Beans, Cranberry Relish, Dinner Rolls and Butter, Chef’s Choice Dessert

LOCATION:  Raffel’s is located at 10160 Reading Road, south of Glendale-Milford Road on the east side of Reading. Take I-75 to the Glendale-Milford Rd. Exit, go east on Glendale-Milford Road approximately ¾ of a mile to Reading Rd. and turn right on Reading.

RESERVATIONS:  Please email Fred Nadeau for reservations at mailto:fnadeau1@earthlink.net (preferred) or call the Section Voice Mail at 513-629-9380 by Noon, Tuesday, November 30, 2010 if you plan to attend. Please leave your Name, IEEE Member Number, and a daytime telephone number.

PE CREDITS: Depending on the subject matter, attendance at IEEE Cincinnati Section Meetings now qualifies the attendee for Professional Development Hours towards renewal of Professional Engineers Licenses. Required documentation will be available following the meeting!  The Section Meetings also provide a great opportunity to network with fellow engineers in the area.

ABOUT THE MEETING: 

IEEE Christmas Party and Re-Gift Auction

christmas.JPG

 This year’s theme is gaming and auction:
Please bring a wrapped, gently used, unwanted item from your garage, basement or home.
[Re-gifting opportunity]
Item qualification:
1. Cannot be newly purchased.
2. Should have potential for someone else.
3. Clean  (literally and figuratively)
4. One per person
Pre Dinner Gaming:
 In exchange for each donated, wrapped gift, each person will be given $1000 in IEEE funny money.
Pre dinner games will help you increase your winnings for the Auction.Post Dinner Auction
Gift Bidding:  Using the money you won earlier in the evening, you can bid on any of the wrapped gifts.

Questions: Laurie Tappel    ltappel@ieee.org

November Section News

IEEE Cincinnati Elections
Nominations are now closed.  Election information will be available later this month.

November Membership News

If you are interested in upgrading your membership to Senior Member, please contact any member of the Executive Committee.

NEW MEMBERS
The following individuals are IEEE members who are new to our Section:

Nicholas Adams
Benjamin Buelow
Nathan Chandler
Pete Darge Jr.
Matthew Elliott
Chunsheng Fang
Nicole Fenyo
Mark Hageman
David Hansen
Christopher Herlinger 
Jason Heyl
A Kran
Michael LaGue
Julius Lagus
Ian Larkin
Alex Martin
Ronald Matlock
James McNay
Kevin Newbold
Divyachapan Padur 
Evan Risley
Douglas Rose
David Shaw
Raquel Smith
William Temple
Aaron Van Camp
Renee Webb
Minlu Zhang

We wish to welcome these members to the Cincinnati Section!!!

November 2010 History

Scanning the Past: A History of Electrical Engineering from the Past
Submitted by Marc Bell, Editor

Copyright 1996 IEEE. Reprinted with permission from the IEEE publication, “Scanning the Past” which covers a reprint of an article appearing in the Proceedings of the IEEE Vol. 84, No. 12, December 1996.

Reginald A. Fessenden and the Origins of Radio

Ninety years ago this month, an experimental radio transmitter (Fig. 1) located in Brant Rock, MA, and operated by Reginald A. Fessenden, broadcast a brief program of voice and music on Christmas Eve and again on New Year’s Eve. The transmitting station employed a radio-frequency alternator constructed for Fessenden by the General Electric Company and was picked up by shipboard operators as far away as the West Indies. As a well-known pioneer in radio communications, Fessenden became a strong advocate of continuous-wave radio as an alternative to spark systems and he opposed excessive government regulation of the emerging industry. A prolific inventor, he introduced a number of important technical innovations and was awarded the Medal of Honor of the Institute of Radio Engineers in 1921.
The son of an Episcopal minister, Fessenden was bornpicture1_nov-2010.jpg
in 1866 in East Bolton, Quebec, Canada. He graduated from Trinity College School (more…)

IEEE NEWS

NEWS from IEEE-USA
2001 L Street, N.W., Suite 700
Washington, DC 20036-4910

DHS Officials to Discuss Research Directions, Responding to National Emergencies at IEEE Homeland Security Conference

WASHINGTON (2 November 2010) — U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials Drs. Starnes Walker and Robert Griffin will kick off day three of the IEEE International Conference on Technologies for Homeland Security (HST 10) as featured speakers. Walker, director of research for the DHS Science & Technology Directorate (S&T), will discuss DHS research directions, provide examples of current research initiatives and address the directorate’s strategic plan and realignment. The directorate is DHS’ primary research and development arm.Griffin, S&T director of first responder programs, will talk about harnessing science and technology to respond to national emergencies. He came to DHS in August after a 20-year career in local government as a senior leader and (more…)