February 2009 – History

Scanning the Past: A History of Electrical Engineering from the Past
Submitted by Bob Morrison, Editor
Copyright 1995 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. 83, No. 10, October 1995.

Greenleaf W. Pickard and the Eclipse Network

Seventy years ago this month, the PROCEEDINGS OF THE INSTITUTE OF RADIO ENGINEERS (IRE) included a paper by Greenleaf W. Pickard on the effect of a recent solar eclipse on radio reception. At the time he was a consulting engineer with the Wireless Specialty Apparatus Company of Boston, MA, and a past president of the IRE. He was the author or coauthor of 15 Proceedings papers published between 1920 and 1934.

Pickard was born in 1877 in Portland, ME. The well known poet, John Greenleaf Whittier, was his great uncle. Pickard attended the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard University and also took classes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1899 he received a grant from the Smithsonian Institution to support his wireless research at the Blue Hill Observatory in Milton, MA. He joined the American Wireless Telegraph and Telephone Company in 1901 and installed wireless apparatus to report the Americas Cup yacht competition that year.

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February 2009 – IEEE News

Washington, DC Public Radio, Metro Transit
Announcements Promote EWeek Discover Engineering Family Day

IEEE-USA is sponsoring announcements on Washington, DC’s all-classical public radio station and in the capital city’s Metro transit system that promote  Discover Engineering Family Day, to be held at the National Building Museum in Washington on Saturday, 21 February.  

Discover Engineering Family Day, part of Engineers Week 2009, provides an interactive day-long program to introduce youngsters and their families to the excitement of engineering. The program engages more than 6,000 participants annually in “hands-on” and “minds-on” experiences to create an interest in engineering principles that are encountered in everyday life. The 2009 event encourages attendees to “work with engineers to invent something new.”

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January 2009 – Section Meeting Information

JANUARY MEETING
The Science of Global Warming

DATE: Thursday, January 22, 2009
PLACE : Raffel’s – 10160 Reading Road (see below for directions)
TIME : 5:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. –  Social Time
            6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. –  Dinner
            7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. –  Presentation
 
COST FOR DINNER: $10.00 per person – REGARDLESS OF MEMBERSHIP OR MEMBERSHIP GRADE!

NOTE:  DINNERS ARE ALWAYS OPTIONAL – YOU MAY ATTEND THE PROGRAM ONLY. 

MENU SELECTIONS:   Egg Plant Parmesan, Salisbury Steak, Baked Ham with Pineapples, Scalloped Potatoes, Seasoned Green Beans, Tossed Salad, Rolls and Butter, Assorted Pies, Coffee, Tea, Iced Tea, Soft Drinks. There is also a bar available for the purchase of alcoholic drinks.

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, January 20, 2009 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:  Our speaker this month, Dr. Marwan Nusair, will give a fact based, analytical presentation on the hard science of global warming. He will discuss, based on scientific data, why some scientists think the earth is warming and why other scientists think the earth is actually cooling. Dr. Nusair is a member of the Cincinnati IEEE section and has a keen interest in the way climatology data has been presented to make the case for global warming.

January 2009 – Membership News

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

Daniel Abbott
Patrick Annan
Jarret Callahan
James Anthony Charles
Jonathan Ford
John Gideon
Retina M. Hobbs
Nicholas Hunter
Johnny Maynard
Will Middleton
Michael James Pierce
Kirthi Radhakrishnan
Joshua Shank
Kyle A. Siefring
Daniel Ryan Talpas
Makio Tamura
Nishanth Vepachedu
Timmy R. Williams
Thomas Zajdel

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

January 2009 – History

Scanning the Past: A History of Electrical Engineering from the Past

Submitted by Bob Morrison, Editor

Copyright 1995 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. 83, No. 9, September 1995.

Irving Langmuir and the Thermionic Vacuum Tube

Eighty years ago this month, the PROCEEDINGS OF THE INSTITUTE OF RADIO ENGINEERS (IRE) included a paper by Irving Langmuir on the theory of the thermionic vacuum tube and some of its radio applications. The author, a future IRE president and Nobel Prize recipient, was at the General Electric Research Laboratory (GERL) when his paper was published.

Langmuir was born in 1881 in Brooklyn, NY, and graduated in metallurgical engineering from the Columbia School of Mines in 1903. He went to Germany for graduate work where he earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at the University of Gottingen in 1906. He returned to the United States, where he taught for three years at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ, and where a heavy teaching load left him with little time for research. In 1909, he joined the research staff at the GERL where he spent the rest of his professional career.

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January 2009 – IEEE NEWS

Winning Entry in ‘How Engineers Make a World of Difference’ Online
Video Scholarship Competition Featured on ‘Design Squad’ Web Site

WASHINGTON (18 November 2008) — The winning entry in the 2008 IEEE-USA “How Engineers Make a World of Difference” Online Engineering Video Scholarship Competition can be seen on the PBS “Design Squad” Web site at http://pbskids.org/designsquad/special/ieee/ieee.html.  

Engineering Undergraduates Ben Toler and Emile Frey of Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, La., split the IEEE-USA competition’s $2,500 first prize. Their entry was deemed most effective in reinforcing for an 11-to-13-year-old audience how engineers improve the quality of life and how engineering can be a creative and rewarding career.  

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From Charlie’s Desk

Mary FruehwaldWine Selection 

  • I hope everyone had a good holiday season and that your new year started out well. Thank you for electing me as your chairperson for 2009/2010. We are currently planning the meetings and events for the year, and if you have any comments about the content, format, or anything else you like or don’t like about them please let me know. Send me an email at cnash@ieee.org.  
  • Our December meeting was a big success. Mary Fruehwald from The Wine Store, in Montgomery, served us a generous selection of holiday wines. Sparkling wines, tables wines, dessert wines, and gift wines were served in a casual interactive setting. Everyone had a great time.  
  • At this month’s meeting on January 22nd, section member Dr. Marwan Nusair will be presenting data and research that refutes the arguments given in recent global climate change arguments. Marwan is a dynamic speaker and gives a compelling engineering point of view on man-caused climate change. Check the January announcement on the website for complete details on the meeting. 
  • In this recession we are struggling through, I personally know several people who are now looking for jobs. I hope you are fairing well. If you are looking for work, take a look at our website’s listing of Cincinnati area companies. The link is “Cincinnati Companies” in the “About Us” sidebar section. There are numerous links to companies’ websites. Also, our monthly meetings are a great place to network with other engineers and find out about local companies.Take care and I’ll see you on the 22nd. Come up and say “hi”.

2008 IEEE Cincinnati Section Election Results

                          Results of IEEE 2008 Cincinnati Section Ballot
For the Election of Officers for Term Beginning 1/01/09 and Ending 12/31/10

Congratulations to our new Officers:

Chair                              Charles Nash
Vice Chair                     Steve Olenick
Treasurer                     Brian Resnick
   Secretary                     Marwan Nusair
Member-At-Large      Lauren Tappel

Imaging Research Center Open House

Dr. Scott Holland, who presented an excellent talk entitled Functional MRI of the Brain at our March meeting, has invited you to attend the open house of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Imaging Research Center.  They will showcase their new MRI scanners and lab facilities on January 21, 2009 from 1:00 to 4:00.  For details: IRC Open House