Discontinuation of the IEEE.CA E-mail Alias Service and distribution lists ( by C. Philip Choy, IEEE Canada Electronic Services Chair)

As of the end of May 2002, the IEEE.CA E-mail Alias Service and distribution lists will no longer be available. In the mean time, you can use the IEEE.ORG E-mail Alias Service and distribution lists which will be available on a continuous basis, supported in a data centre operated by full time IEEE staff.

The IEEE.ORG E-mail Alias Service offers many advantages, including  integrated virus scan for your e-mail. Should someone sent you an infected e-mail or attachment(s), you will receive a warning that it had happened with the bad attachment(s) removed. The service also offers the same forward anywhere capability as IEEE.CA. Moreover, the IEEE.ORG e-mail ids are a privilege for IEEE members in good standing. As a legitimate IEEE member, you can manage your own IEEE.ORG e-mail forwarding address as well and do not have to look for the appropriate parties to update it for you.

If you have not done so, you can set up and transfer to your IEEE.ORG e-mail alias now by visiting the web site http://eleccomm.ieee.org/. IEEE Distribution list/mailing list setup instructions are also available from the same web site http://eleccomm.ieee.org/.

We are continuing to find ways to serve you better and more efficiently. I hope you will find these more robust services make your on-line life safer.

Life Member Chapter for Central Canada

IEEE Canada now has a Life Member Chapter for Central Canada and a representative Life Member in all the Ontario Sections of R7. The Toronto Section has over 200 Life Members .If you are a life member and would like to assist Neil Magrath who has volunteered to represent Toronto Section in the Chapter please contact Ron Potts or Neil. Their first objective is to contact by email or newsletter and update our LM data base of email addresses, telephone numbers, and postal addresses. Please contact either Magraths@rogers.com or potts@caninet.com.

IEEE Virtual Museum launched

Thomas Edison didn't invent the light bulb, so why does everyone think he did? What was the first computer? How did the patterns in a Utah cornfield lead to the development of TV? What is the "X" in an X-ray? Why are Alvin and the Chipmunks part of a museum about technology? The answers to these questions and more are found in the new IEEE Virtual Museum launched at http://www.ieee.org/museum. Designed for educators, pre-college students, and the general public, the virtual museum debuted with two exhibits containing audio and video clips, and interactive features: Socket to Me! How Electricity Came to Be and The Beat Goes On: How Sounds are Recorded and Played. Three more exhibits are in production and are scheduled for release by third quarter 2002. These will explore the different applications of microwaves, the works of Thomas Edison, and contributions women have made to electrical and information technologies. The IEEE Virtual Museum explores the global social impact of electrical and information sciences and technologies and demonstrates the relevance of engineering and engineers to society. It is supported by the IEEE Foundation, the IEEE Life Members, and the Trustees of the IEEE History Center.

2001 RAB Awards for Section and Student Branch Membership growth

The Regional Activities board announced the winners of the 2001 RAB Awards for top ten Section and Student Branch membership growth. The winners of the awards in Region 7 are the Saint Maurice Section and the University of New Brunswick Student Branch. Congratulations to the sections!

IEEE announces newest society and council

The IEEE Board of Directors has established the IEEE Neural Networks Society and the IEEE Nanotechnology Council. They replace the IEEE Neural Networks Council and the IEEE Nanotechnology Committee, respectively. This brings the total number to 37 IEEE societies and four technical councils. An IEEE Society is made up of individual IEEE members and affiliates interested in a specific area of technology. Eighteen different societies co-sponsor the IEEE Nanotechnology council. For more information on IEEE societies, please visit: http://www.ieee.org/organizations/tab/society.html. To join an IEEE Society, visit http://www.ieee.org/addnewservices/.

IEEE board approves member digital library for 2003

The IEEE Board of Directors voted to approve a new member benefit offering for 2003: The IEEE Member Digital Library. Subscribers to the IEEE Member Digital Library will pay a monthly fee to download a pre-set number of papers from IEEE magazines, journals and conference proceedings. IEEE members have said that the number one reason they join is for access to current technical data. The new IEEE Member Digital Library will be available in early 2003.

IEEE Xplore 1.4 now available to assist research

Version 1.4 of the IEEE Xplore (TM) online interface went live this month, and contains several new features to help make research faster and more efficient. New features include author search links from abstracts, downloadable citations and forward linking to show where a document has been cited. Users can now click on a "What Can I Access?" button to see what titles are available in their subscriptions. IEEE Xplore is the online interface which powers IEEE subscription packages, including the IEEE/IEE Electronic Library, All-Society Periodicals Package and Proceedings Order Plans. Full information on these new features is available at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/lpdocs/epic03/Releasenotes.htm.

ASK*IEEE Document delivery service updated

Need a copy of an IEEE paper? IEEE has unveiled an update to Ask*IEEE, an automated document delivery service for ordering individual IEEE journal and transaction papers, magazine articles, and conference papers. IEEE members and nonmembers alike can use this enhanced service. Nonmembers will be asked to create a new personal Ask*IEEE user account to replace their old passwords. IEEE members can logon by using their IEEE Web Account username and password. For active IEEE members, IEEE waives the copyright royalty on all IEEE-copyrighted documents ordered through Ask*IEEE, including documents delivered electronically. Orders can be placed online. To find out more, visit http://www.ieee.org/services/askieee/.

IEEE Win Sees Conestoga Team Outpace Local Universities

By John Sawicki, Manager, Public Relations, Conestoga College

Is Conestoga College ready for applied degree programs? Apparently so, to judge by a recent local competition  sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics  Engineers (IEEE), where a team of students from Conestoga won top honours, besting their counterparts from the  University of Waterloo and the University of Guelph.

The event was the IEEE’s Student Papers Night, intended to  showcase excellence and innovation in electronic design and  research at the undergraduate level. Students were judged on their technical presentations and the complexities of their  projects by a panel of IEEE members. Each student team went through a 15-minute presentation, followed by a question-and-answer session with the panel. Emphasis was on technical detail combined with the effectiveness of the presentation. The entrants represented the IEEE student  chapters at the educational institutions.

In all, three Conestoga teams presented, as did three from each  of the universities. Winning $100 as top Conestoga team, plus another $100 for best overall paper presented at the event, was the team of Brian Clinch of Waterloo and Sean Cooper of  Kitchener, both third-year students in the Computer Engineering Technology program at Conestoga. Their presentation dealt with enhancing laser projection technology in a Virtek Vision LasertEdge system used in a production setting. By moving these projectors on a track, controlled through a local-area network (LAN) computer system, the company using the system can minimize overall costs by reducing the number of laser projectors needed in a large production area.

Conestoga’s second-place team consisted of three Electronics Engineering Technology - Telecommunications Systems students -- Michael Carney and Michael Kraus of Waterloo, and Chris Buckle of Cambridge. That team presented on a prototype design of a wireless voice channel based on current cellphone technology, but spreading the signal over a wider bandwidth.

The third-place Conestoga team -- Mark Peeters of Zurich and Scott Howes of Paris -- made a presentation dealing with a wireless device permitting data transmission and storage. In essence, it is a portable, machine-stored disk drive that allows communication and retrieval of data between a laptop computer or other portable device and the storage unit by use of infrared technology, making traditional transmission media (computer floppy disks and CDs) unnecessary.

The event and prizes were sponsored by the Kitchener-Waterloo section of the IEEE. Section members come from Waterloo Region, and Wellington, Bruce and Grey counties. Internationally, the IEEE is a non-profit professional association of more than 377,000 members in 150 countries. It is active in the fields of computer engineering, biomedical technology, telecommunications, electric power, aerospace and consumer electronics.

All third-year students in the Computer Systems and Telecommunications programs at Conestoga prepare major, final-year technical projects. The Conestoga projects from the IEEE Student Papers Night and all other such projects will be the subject of the annual project day of these programs, scheduled for April 18 at the College’s Doon campus in Kitchener. Engineering professionals and firms interested in more details can contact Rudy Hofer, a professor in Conestoga’s School of Engineering Technology.

Nominate a Senior Member Initiative Continued for 2002

With 1,515 elevations in 2001, the Nominate a Senior Member Initiative (NSI) surpassed its goal of 1,500 new Senior Members. This program pays Sections and Societies with cash awards for successfully nominating Senior Member candidates. Last year the Electron Devices Society (EDS) used the program to earn US$1,250 by sucessfully nominating 125 EDS members to IEEE Senior Member grade. The NSI program is being continued for 2002 - with a new “stretch” goal of elevating 1,750 new Senior Members. Region 7 has a goal of 70 new members.

For more details on the NSI program and SM goal chart updates for 2002, see http://www.ieee.org/ra/md/smprogram.html.

• IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC 2002)

28 April - 2 May 2002
New York Marriott Marquis
New York, NY
For more information please visit http://www.icc2002.com/

• Quantum Dots for Lasers and Microcavity Light Emitters

2 May 2002
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario
An IEEE Toronto Section event. For more information please visit http://www.tor.ieee.ca/events/quantum.htm

• International Conference for Upcoming Engineers (I-CUE 2002)

2 May 2002
350 Victoria Street
Toronto, Ontario
An IEEE Ryerson University Student Branch event. For more information please visit http://www.tor.ieee.ca/events/quantum.htm

• IEEE International Conference - The Energy Business in the new Millenium

6,7 May 2002
Metro Toronto Convention Centre
Toronto, Ontario
For more information please visit http://www.tor.ieee.ca/energy

• Digitally Corrected Delta-Sigma DataConverters

10 May 2002
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario
An IEEE Toronto Section event. For more information please visit http://www.tor.ieee.ca/events/digitally.htm

• Canadian Conference on Electrical & Computer Engineering (CCECE 2002)

12-15 May 2002
Hotel Fort Garry
Winnipeg, Manitoba
For more information please visit http://ewh.ieee.org/soc/ccece02/

• AIAA International Communications Satellite Systems Conference (ICSSC 2002)

12-15 May 2002
Montreal, Quebec
For more information please visit http://www.icssc2002.com/

• 6th IASTED International Multi-Conference on transmission and distribution

13-14 May 2002
Marina Del Rey, California
For more information please visit http://www.iasted.com/conferences/2002/marina/td.htm

• IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS 2002)

26-29 May 2002
Scottsdale, Arizona
For more information please visit http://www.iscas2002.com/

• 2002 International Microwave Symposium

2-7 June 2002
Seattle, Washington
For more information please visit http://www.ims2002.org/index.html

• Conference on Precision Electromagnetic Measurements (CPEM 2002)

16-21 June 2002
Ottawa, Ontario
For more information please visit http://www.nrc.ca/confserv/cpem02

• 48th Annual Pulp and Paper Industry Technical Conference

17-21 June 2002
Sheraton Centre, Toronto
For more information please visit http://www.pulpandpaper2002.com/

• IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (Infocom 2002)

23-27 June 2002
New York City
For more information please visit http://www.ieee-infocom.org/2002/index.htm

• IEEE International Conference on Power Engineering (LESCOPE'2002)

26-29 June 2002
The Sheraton Hotel
Halifax, Nova Scotia
For more information please visit http://is.dal.ca/~lescope/

• 2002 IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: Macro to Nano

7-10 July 2002
Washington, DC
For more information please visit http://www.biomedicalimaging.org/

• International Symposium on Antenna Technology and Applied Electromagnetics (ANTEM 2002)

30 July - 2 August 2002
Canadian Space Agency
St-Hubert, Quebec
For more information please visit http://antem.ee.umanitoba.ca/

• International Conference on Modeling and Simulation of Electric Machines, Convertors and Systems

18-21 August 2002
École de technologie supérieure
Montreal, Quebec
For more information please visit http://www.electrimacs2002.com/

• International Telecommunications Symposium (ITS2002)

8-12 September 2002
Natal, Brazil
For more information please visit http://its2002.ufrn.br/

• IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP 2002)

22-25 September 2002
Rochester, NY
For more information please visit http://icip2002.com/

• Accelerated Stress Testing Workshop 2002

2-4 October 2002
Hotel Wyndham Montreal
Montreal, Quebec
For more information please visit http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/cpmt/tc7/ast2002/index.html

IEEE Montreal maintains a page of upcoming events at http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r7/montreal/evenements_e.html.
IEEE Toronto maintains a page of upcoming events at http://www.tor.ieee.ca/events.htm.
For more IEEE conferences, visit IEEE Conference Search at http://www.ieee.org/conferencesearch/.

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