National Engineering Week 2001 set to Blast off with Julie Payette

Starting March 3, people from across Canada will be celebrating the work of Canada's engineers, learning why engineering makes anything possible, and finding out about the great career opportunities it offers. The occasion is National Engineering Week^® (NEW), an annual fun-filled event dedicated to encouraging young Canadians to consider academic and career choices in engineering, science and technology.

From the 8th annual bridge building competition in the Yukon, to the Science Olympics in Alberta, from the construction of the tallest shaving cream tower in Newfoundland more than 500 NEW activities will take place across the country from March 3-11, 2001. Now entering its 10th year, NEW will be officially launched in Ottawa on March 2. Launch may be the operative word, as the Honorary Chair of NEW 2001 is Julie Payette, ing. an engineer and astronaut with the Canadian Space Agency. Julie was the first woman and the first Canadian astronaut to ever board the International Space Station. Her career and work exemplify the excellence of Canada's engineers, and give credence to the theme for NEW 2001: Engineering - Anything's Possible!

For more information on NEW 2001, including what's happening in your community log on to the NEW Web site at http://www.new-sng.com and click on your province or territory.

Free Online Periodicals Resource From IEEE 

Are you searching for a specific abstract from an IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc) publication? Now IEEE makes it easier than ever using the IEEE ComSoc Search Engine. This advanced search engine reaches periodical papers published by the IEEE Communications Society since 1996 and provides free abstracts to all users. Users have the option of purchasing the selected papers for a modest fee. The documents are available either as HTML documents or PDF files, and some papers in both formats. To search for a specific communications abstract, visit http://www.comsoc.org/search/index.html.

CCECE 2001 Conference News

Some local sections have annouced a student subsidy programs for the CCECE 2001 conference. The IEEE Canada Foundation has also announced a travel subsidy for students. Details can be found at http://www.ieee.ca/~ccece01/student_funding.html 

New Volunteer Global Travel Accident/Medical Plan

IEEE has established a new travel accident and medical plan to protect IEEE Volunteers who become ill, or injured, and require immediate medical attention while traveling on authorized business outside of their country of permanent residence. 

The plan, which was approved by the IEEE Executive Committee and went into effect on 1 January 2001, provides IEEE Volunteers with protection equal to 80% of reasonable and customary charges for medical expenses incurred while traveling on IEEE business, subject to the following conditions:

• Coverage begins when the Volunteer leaves his or her country of permanent residence on authorized IEEE business travel (defined as travel that is paid for by IEEE), and ends upon return to that same country. This plan does not apply to travel to and from a conference, unless that travel is for authorized IEEE business purposes. 
• The individual's personal insurance, employer group medical insurance, and / or national / government health plan, to the extent coverage is available outside the home country, is considered primary. If an individual does not have a policy that provides this type of coverage, then the IEEE Plan becomes the primary coverage. 
• Pre-existing conditions will be covered unless it is deemed that the individual traveled for the primary purpose of obtaining medical treatment.

The IEEE Plan is paid for by the Institute, and is provided to IEEE Volunteers at no charge.

Please note: Before an individual plans to travel on IEEE business outside of his or her country of permanent residence, that individual should be sure to check with their own insurance carrier concerning coverage outside the home country. Information pertaining to personal insurance coverage should be taken on the trip.

Additional information and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) regarding the IEEE travel accident and medical plan are available on the IEEE Volunteer resources Web site at http://www.ieee.org/organizations/vols/global_trav_acc_med.html. Questions concerning coverage, including how your personal insurance will be coordinated with the IEEE Plan, or how to submit claims should be directed to rosemary.porter@seabury.com.

Claude Shannon (1916-2001)

The following members were updated to Senior Member status at the Janurary 2001 Admission and Advancement Panel meeting held in King of Prussia, PA

• Zhu, Hugh - Toronto
• Ng, Andrew - Vancouver
• Fletcher, David E. - Winnipeg
• Kent, Kelvin L. - Winnipeg

For more information on the Nominate a Senior Member Initiative (NSI) Program, please visit http://www.ieee.org/organizations/rab/md/sminitiative.html 

• IEEE Virtual Reality Conference

13-17 March 2001
Yokohama, Japan
Visit http://www.vr2001.org for more details

• IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP 2001)

7-11 May 2001
Salt Lake City, Utah
Visit http://www.icassp2001.org for more details

• Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering (CCECE 2001)

13-16 May 2001
Delta Chelsea Hotel
Downtown Toronto, Ontario
http://www.ieee.ca/~ccece01

• 2001 IEEE 14th Computer Society Foundations Workshop

11-12 June 2001
Nova Scotia
For more information please contact IEEE Conference Services at 1-732-562-3878 or via Fax at 1-202-728-0884

• 2001 Large Engineering Systems Conference on Power Engineering (LESCOPE'01)

11-13 July 2001
The Sheraton Hotel
Halifax, Nova Scotia
For further information, please contact the LESCOPE'01 Secretariat:
Large Engineering Systems,
P. O. Box 25041,
Halifax, NS B3M 4H4
Tel: (902)-443-2400
Fax: (902)-445-5110

• 2001 IEEE Nuclear & Space Radiation Effects Conference (NSREC 2001)

16-20 July 2001
Vancouver, British Columbia
For further information, please contact:
Professor Marty Shaneyfelt,
Sandia National Labs,
MS 1083 P. O. Box 5800
Albuquerque, NM  87185-1083
Tel: (505)-844-6137
Fax: (505)-844-2991
Email: shaneymr@sandia.gov
or Conference Services Department, IEEE Operations Center at (732)-562-3878

• IEEE Conference on History of Telecommunications (CHT2001)

25-27 July 2001
St. John's, Newfoundland
For more information please visit http://www.ieee.org/history_center/cht2001.html.

• Tenth Canadian Semiconductor Technology Conference

13-17 August 2001
The Chateau Laurier Hotel
Ottawa
For more information please visit http://www.sao.nrc.ca/ims/semi2001 

Also be sure to check out http://www.ieee.org/conferences/tag/tag.html to search for IEEE Conferences.

'Multimedia Applications Support for Wireless ATM Networks' Self-Study Course Now Available

Multimedia Applications Support for Wireless ATM Networks, an IEEE self-study course, is now available from the IEEE. Networks carrying multimedia, voice, data, and video traffic define the modern network architecture. Dr. Anna Hac developed this course to teach the design of high-speed wireless networks supporting multimedia applications by focusing on real-world applications and traffic patterns.

• ATM and Wireless Networks and their Architecture
• Congestion control and protocols
• Location and tracking strategies
• Routing and resource management for multimedia applications
• Synchronization
• Multicasting
• Quality of Service (QoS) for multimedia applications

The course includes a study guide, final examination (in both paper and online formats), and the text: Multimedia Applications Support for Wireless ATM Networks, by Dr. Hac, published by Prentice Hall. Upon successful completion of the exam, students are eligible to receive eight (8) IEEE Continuing Education Units (CEUs).

To order use code HL5766, IEEE member price: $420.00; list price: $495.00. IEEE Customer Service Department, 445 Hoes Lane, PO Box 1331, Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331, USA; e-mail: customer-service@ieee.org; phone: +1 800 678 4333 (USA and Canada), +1 732 981 0060 (worldwide); Web: http://shop.ieee.org/store 

'Practical Communication Antennas with Wireless Applications' Self-Study Course Now Available

'Practical Communication Antennas with Wireless Applications', an IEEE self-study course, is now available from the IEEE. Solve your thorniest wireless antenna problems ? without knowing advanced theories and mathematics.

Leo Setian, Ph.D. has developed this practical course for technicians, engineers and managers. They will be guided through installation, maintenance and optimization of wireless antennas. The course introduces all the basic mathematics needed to work with antennas, including complex numbers and phasors.

The course introduces the broad topics of antennas, communications, transmission lines and radiation. By the end of the course students will be able to understand and model all three passive elements in an antenna circuit: resistors, capacitors and inductors.

Walk through each critical element of antenna performance, including:

• Antenna impedance parameters
• Bandwidth and transformer-related issues
• Radiation resistance
• Electrical wavelengths
• Antenna patterns 
• Polarization
• Wave propagation

The course includes study guide, final exam, and the textbook, Practical Communication Antennas with Wireless Applications, by Dr. Setian published by Prentice Hall. Upon successful completion of the exam, students are eligible to receive eight (8) IEEE Continuing Education Units (CEUs).

To order use code HL5760, IEEE member price: $380.00; list price: $455.00. IEEE Customer Service Department, 445 Hoes Lane, PO Box 1331, Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331, USA; e-mail: customer-service@ieee.org; phone: +1 800 678 4333 (USA and Canada), +1 732 981 0060 (worldwide); Web: http://shop.ieee.org/store.

You can send any submissions by email to the editor:
Abhi Gupta at a.k.gupta@ieee.org

Please ensure you send in your submission by the 20^th of the month