Outstanding GOLD Program Award

The IEEE Regional Activities Board has selected the GOLD Committee for the IEEE Winnipeg  Section has been selected as the 2003 recipient of the RAB Outstanding GOLD Program Award.  The selection was made by the RAB Awards & Recognition Committee and approved by the IEEE Regional Activities Board during its 14 November 2003 meeting.

This is a very prestigious Award, and the IEEE Regional Activities Board is pleased to honor the Committee for the outstanding contributions made to numerous IEEE activities and the example it set in carrying forward the goals and objectives of the IEEE Regional Activities Board.

This Award consists of a cash prize of $500 and a plaque, which carries the following citation:

2003 Outstanding GOLD Committee for the IEEE Winnipeg Section
"For outstanding contributions to the advancement of IEEE by planning and promoting GOLD activities."

Congratulations!

IEEE Election results

W. Cleon Anderson has been elected 2004 IEEE president-elect. Anderson will begin serving as IEEE president on 1 January 2005, succeeding 2004 IEEE President Arthur W. Winston. Anderson, an IEEE Senior Member, joined as a student in 1970. He has served two terms on the IEEE Board of Directors, from 1999-2000 as Region 6 director and currently as vice president of Regional Activities (2002-2003).

Robert Hanna has been elected as the 2004 Director-Elect for Region 7 (IEEE Canada). He has been an IEEE volunteer for over 25 years and is currently the Chair of the IEEE Toronto Section. He has also recently been elected a IEEE Fellow. Congratulations Bob!

For a complete list of newly elected officers, including division delegates and directors and officers of the IEEE Standards Association, IEEE-USA and Technical Activities, go to http://www.ieee.org/newsinfo/elections2003.xml.

Toronto Centennial Celebration - A success!

The IEEE Toronto Section celebrated its centennial year with a forum & a banquet, both of which were resounding successes.

The 3 Oct forum on Reliable Power Grids in Canada featured four experts:

• Dan Rochester - the manager of the section responsible for reliability outlooks for the Independent Electricity Market Operator in Ontario,
• Jim Lee - supervisor of transmission system development at Hydro One Networks in Ontario,
• Jean-Marie Gagnon - director of interconnection development at Hydro-Québec TransÉnergie, and
• Prabha Kundur - president of Powertech Labs in British Columbia.

Professor Mo El-Hawary of Dalhousie University in Halifax was the moderator and Toronto section Chair, Bob Hanna, was the convener. The room was packed, everyone enjoyed a light supper and heavy networking, a wide ranging set of presentations, stimulating discussions, and a real opportunity to interact.

The past Chairs of the Toronto Section were honoured guests at the 4 Oct banquet. Three IEEE Canada awards were presented that evening:

• a commemorative plaque to Dr. Wallace S. Read recognizing his recent induction as a member of the Order of Canada,
• the 2002 IEEE Sustained Membership Growth Award to the Toronto Section, and
• the 2003 McNaughton Medal to Dr. Anastasios Venetsanopoulos, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto.

Unique IEEE Toronto Section Centennial medals had been designed and struck for the evening's presentations. These medals were awarded in four categories:

• fifteen past Section Chairs
• five IEEE Corporate volunteers
• nine IEEE Toronto volunteers
• three additional IEEE Toronto volunteers

IEEE Toronto Section wished to recognize in a special way the contributions of three Section volunteers for their outstanding services and dedication. The Section decided to establish scholarships to be named after these volunteers:

• The IEEE Toronto Section Bruno Di Stefano Scholarship
• The IEEE Toronto Section Dr. Wallas H. Khella Scholarship
• The IEEE Canadian Foundation Dr. Robert T.H. Alden Scholarship (to be presented jointly by the IEEE Toronto Section and the IEEE Canadian Foundation)

Please visit http://toronto.ieee.ca/centennial/index.html for photographs, multimedia presentations, and articles on the celebration!

Graphical Standards - A Call for Participation

The IEEE Canada Standards Committee (ICSC) in cooperation with the Canadian National Committee of the International Electrotechnical Commission is seeking expressions of interest to participate in the Canadian mirror committee of IEC/TC 3C "Information Structures, Documentation, and Graphical Symbols".

For further information contact Dave Kemp at d.kemp@ieee.org outlining your interest.

Free newsletters monitor IEEE Standards Activities Worldwide

StandardsAsia Today, StandardsAmericas Today, and StandardsEurope Today are the latest free opt-in newsletters from the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA). The newsletters support those in Europe, Asia, and the Americas who want to learn about technical standards and participate in IEEE standards development. Technical coverage includes information technology, telecommunications, power and energy, and transportation technologies. To sign up, visit http://www.ieee.org/portal/cms_docs/geoport/newsletters/Multiple_signup.html.

Charles Proteus Steinmetz Award Nominations Solicited

The IEEE Steinmetz Committee is soliciting nominations for the 2005 IEEE Charles Proteus Steinmetz Award. The deadline date for submission of nominations is January 31, 2004. This Award is presented to an individual (who need not be an IEEE member) for exceptional contributions to the development of standards in electrical engineering and electronics engineering. The award consists of a bronze medal, certificate and cash honorarium. Given the importance of standards in today's world, there is no doubt there are a number of individuals who are immensely qualified and should be nominated for the IEEE Charles Proteus Steinmetz Award. We encourage you to submit the names of nominees who you feel are worthy of this prestigious award. For further information on the IEEE Charles Proteus Steinmetz Award and a copy of the nomination form, please visit the award webpage.

If you have any questions concerning the nomination process, please contact the IEEE Awards Activities at awards@ieee.org.

Past President a Shining Light in Canada's Electricity Industry

A reminder of the article in the Institute:

When IEEE Life Fellow and 1996 President Wallace S. Read talks to engineers, he advises them that part of their responsibility is to repay their profession and society. Read has done just that and next month he will be honored with his country's highest award. Learn more about Read's life at http://www.theinstitute.ieee.org/inst_art.jsp?
isno=11031&arnumber=11031_11w.profile&section=15.

Draft News Communiqué for the OBIEC

The CSA Technical Committee responsible for the Objective Based Industrial Electrical Code (OBIEC) held its inaugural meeting on 9 and 10 October. The committee membership included representatives of industrial users, regulators, contractors, suppliers, manufacturers, designers, teaching institution instructors, and others who collaborated in reaching a good understanding of the task before them, completed a draft of the Vision and Mission Statement, and started developing the content and framework of the new Code.

The Technical Committee commenced work on the Code Structure by setting up a task force responsible for developing an initial Table of Contents. A list of major Safety Objectives was developed and these safety objectives were discussed with respect to Design, Product Selection, Installation, Operations and Maintenance. The subcommittee will continue with this work and a report will be prepared for the next meeting of the Technical Committee.

In addition to developing the structure of the Code itself, the Committee worked on the “Safety Management System” model that will provide guidance to the regulators in each province and territory on the implementation of the Objective Based Industrial Electrical Code. A task force consisting of regulators and users was struck to explore options that could facilitate implementation of the OBIEC.

The OBIEC will be an Objective Based Code that will provide qualified users with an alternative approach to achieve or exceed Safety provisions of the Canadian Electrical Code Part 1. Safety Objectives will be established in keeping with acceptable worldwide codes and practices and give guidance and direction for suitable designs that fulfill the safety objectives. This code will offer greater flexibility to qualified industrial users by providing the ability to effectively introduce new technologies and installation methods. Further, this code will offer the ability to promote more design creativity, and provide the ability to maintain or improve the safety of industrial plants by ensuring the design will address safety objectives that prevent or reduce injuries.

The momentum of activity gathered by the task force since this spring has been very encouraging. Starting as a small industry specific task force promoting the OBIEC, progressing to a CSA Technical Committee with representation across Canada has demonstrated that Industry sees the need for the OBIEC. The members of the Technical Committee are committed to a successful outcome concerning the OBIEC project.

For more information on the OBIEC initiative and how to contribute, contact John Dickin, OBIEC Stakeholder Advisory Committee, at 403-350-1721 or email: jdickininc@shaw.ca.

Call for Papers - NEWCAS 2004

NEWCAS'04 will include regular and special sessions on emerging electronic systems and design methods, plenary sessions on selected advanced aspects of the theory, design and applications of electronic systems, as well as tutorials given by experts on specific topics. The NEWCAS committee cordially invites you to submit papers addressing the topics of interest, and join us in Montréal.

NEWCAS’04 will focus on the following topics :

• Computer and Systems Architectures
• Digital, Analog and Mixed-Signal Circuits and Systems
• Testing and Verification
• System-Level Design
• BioCAS and Telecommunications Applications
• Microelectronics Emerging Technologies and Education

General Chair: Dr. Mohamad Sawan, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Canada
For information please e-mail info@newcas.org.

Call for Papers - CDIC 2004

The 2004 International Conference on Dynamics, Instrumentation and Control, CDIC'04, will be held on 18-20 August 2004 in Nanjing, China. The conference offers a unique platform for scientists, engineers and practitioners throughout the world to present and share their most recent research and innovative ideas in the areas of dynamics, instrumentation, control and automation.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

• Modeling of Complex Systems
• Nonlinear Systems and Control
• Fuzzy and Neural Systems
• Estimation and Identification
• Fault Detection, Testing and Diagnosis
• Process Control and Instrumentation
• Motion Control
• Flexible Manufacturing Systems
• Computer Integrated Manufacturing
• Petri-Nets and Applications
• Micro and Nano Systems
• Sensors and Transducers
• Hamiltonian and Lagrangian Dynamics
• Avionics
• Aircraft and Spacecraft Structures
• Adaptive and Learning Control
• Intelligent and AI Based Control
• Real-time Systems
• Embedded Sensors & Actuators
• Robotics
• Rotating System Dynamics & Control
• Vehicle dynamics and Intelligent Vehicles
• Control Applications in Automotive Systems
• Crash Avoidance and Protection Devices
• Semi-Active and Active Vehicle Suspensions
• Factory Modeling and Automation
• Man-machine Interactions
• Smart Structures & Materials
• Vibration control
• Hybrid Dynamical Systems

Prospective authors are invited to submit 3 copies of a manuscript to:
Professor Chun-Yi Su
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Concordia University
1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W.
Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1M8
Phone: (514) 848-2424 Ext. 3168, Fax: (514) 848-3175
E-mail: CDIC04@ME.Concordia.CA

Submission of Manuscript : January 30, 2004
Notification of Acceptance : March 15, 2004
Submission of Manuscript : April 30, 2004
Conference: : August 18-20, 2003
Official Web Site: http://www.me.concordia.ca/~cdic04

In part 1 and 2 of “Why Projects Slip”, we have offered ideas on mitigating problems that lead to projects being excessively late, of poor quality, or significantly over budget. In this last part in “Why Project Slip” we recap and propose additional warning signals that portend a project in trouble.

• Mismatch in Stakeholder Expectations
  • Ensure all stakeholders share the same vision, objectives, understanding of risk effort and cost, and other key elements of the project

• Starting Design and Development with Inadequate Requirements
  • Ensure all significant requirements are defined. Smaller aspects may be delayed if they do not materially affect the work effort, feasibility, budget or dependencies.

• Starting Design and Development with Incomplete or Nonexistent Requirements Analysis
  • Ensure a requirements analysis is performed to adequately flesh out the top level design (architecture), statement of work, feasibility, budget, skill sets and project duration.

• Inaccurate Effort Estimation
  • Keep records of completed projects. Use real data to ascertain accuracy. Consider using function points for sizing

• Poor Communication
  • Effective project management requires excellent communication both through informal and formal channels. Be honest, precise and concise.

• Lack of Action Plans and Action Owners
  • Create actions plans with dates, priorities and owners. Follow up, and elevate critical issues to the stakeholders.

• Ignoring Reality
  • Deal with reality. Consider alternative solutions. Move early on problems.

• Scope Creep
  • Have a change control process. Evaluate each request with the appropriate stakeholders. Do not allow informal changes, otherwise your schedule will slip!

• Inadequate Testing
  • Shoddy work will turn off customers and minimize repeat sales. Define your quality standards and meet or surpass them.

• Misunderstood or Misrepresented Subcontractor and Subsystems
  • Assign enough project management time to subcontractors and subsystem evaluation and management. Subcontractors deal with the same project issues and need to be properly managed.

• Inadequate and Poorly Trained Staff
  • The best projects attract and retain the best people. Get the best, allocate enough time for training, ensure the project is adequately funded and staffed.

• The project team is operating with minimal user involvement
  • Beware projects that have limited or no end user involvement. Missing the user requirements is a recipe for user rejection.

• The project team is not following the development process or there are a number of undocumented systems and procedures
  • Informal development creates conditions for confusing and inconsistent project delivery leading to poor or inconsistent quality, schedules, and other ailments. Develop simple repeatable processes.

• Other symptoms of projects in trouble are:
  • The project has had a number of changes in leadership, scope, goals, or direction over its lifetime
  • The project team has difficulty resolving functional, technical issues or performance issues in a timely manner.
  • Project or user meetings are non-existent or are frequently cancelled
  • The project is missing milestones, yet the team seems unconcerned
  • The project has irrelevant or no status reports
  • Stakeholders don’t understand the project's true status and what work has been completed
  • Lack of project management tools such as work plans, task lists, Project Management Tools such as Microsoft Project
  • Address these issues with a project audit, and implement the recommendations.

These three articles should help you to identify critical project issues and create an action plan to resolve or mitigate the effects. Projects don’t have to late, over budget or suffer from poor quality. Recognize the symptoms of projects that are in trouble, understand the root causes that are causing issues, and take appropriate action. Projects can be delivered on time, within budget, and with the features your clients and customers want.

The Fellow Committee has named 260 IEEE Senior Members to Fellow Grade effective 1 January 2004. The new Canadian Fellows are listed below:

• Frank DeWinter
  DeWinter Engineering, Inc.
  Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
  For contributions to the development and application of medium voltage adjustable speed drives.
• Robert Alexander Hanna
  RPM Engineering Ltd.
  Mississauga, ON, Canada
  For contributions to the applications of medium voltage adjustable speed drives and power quality.
• Charles F. Henville
  BC Hydro
  Burnaby, BC, Canada
  For contributions to power system protective relaying.
• Gordon Roberts
  McGill University
  Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  For contributions to the design and test of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits, and education.
• Mohammad A. H. Sawan
  Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal
  Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  For contributions to implantable medical devices.
• Tarlochan Singh Sidhu
  The University of Western Ontario
  London, ON, Canada
  For innovations and contributions to the development of digital relaying algorithms.
• Frederick Nicholas Trofimenkoff
  The University of Calgary
  Calgary, AB, Canada
  For contributions to high temperature instrumentation.
• Ismail Burhan Turksen
  University of Toronto
  Toronto, ON, Canada
  For contributions to fuzzy logic systems.
• Andrew K. C. Wong
  University of Waterloo
  Waterloo, ON, Canada
  For contributions to machine intelligence, computer vision, and intelligent robotics.

The following members were upgraded to Senior Member status at the November 2003 Admission and Advancement Panel meetings in Seattle, WA:

• Richard Dykstra - Kitchener-Waterloo
• Mingyue Ding - London
• Anjali Agarwal - Montreal
• Sonia Aissa - Montreal
• Benoit Champagne - Montreal
• Shen-En Qian - Montreal
• Mehran Aliahmad - Ottawa
• Sang Woon Kim - Ottawa
• Ramiro Liscano - Ottawa
• Rudy J. Boonstra - Southern Alberta

For more information on the Nominate a Senior Member Initiative (NSI) Program, please visit http://www.ieee.org/ra/md/smprogram.html. The 2003 Goal for IEEE Canada is to elevate 150 members to Senior Members.

Montreal

• Six-Port Measurement Technique for optical device characterization

15 December 2003
CRIM Montréal
550, ave. Sherbrooke Ouest
Montréal, Québec
Please RSVP to Peter Noutsios at noutsios@nortelnetworks.com or noutsios@ieee.org
For more information, please visit http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r7/montreal/newsletter/Ev031215.txt
An IEEE Montréal Laser & Electro-Optics Society presentation

• Broadband Wireless Access Systems: Beyond 3G

18 December 2003
INRS - Énergie, Matériaux et Télécommunications
800 de la Gauchetière ouest, Bureau 6900
Montréal, Québec
Please RSVP to Richard O'Shaughnessey at richard.oshaughnessey@cnrc-nrc.gc.ca
For more information, please visit http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r7/montreal/newsletter/Ev031218.txt
An IEEE Montréal Signal Processing Society presentation

• Northeast Workshop on Circuits and Systems (NEWCAS 2004)

20-23 June, 2004
Montréal, Québec
For more information, please visit http://www.newcas.org

Vancouver

• NxtPhase and BC Hydro - Joint Technology Development

21 January 2004
Southpoint Room of BC Hydro Edmonds Auditorium,
6911 Southpoint Drive,
Burnaby
For more information please visit http://ewh.ieee.org/reg/7/vancouver/powereng/
An IEEE Power Engineering Chapter presentation

• IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS 2004)

23-26 May 2004
Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel
Vancouver, BC
For more information please visit http://www.iscas2004.org

Rest of Canada

• Canadian Conference of Electrical and Computer Engineering

2-5 May 2004
Sheraton Fallsview
Niagara Falls, Ontario
For more information please visit http://www.ieee.ca/ccece04

• Communication Networks and Services Research (CNSR 2004)

19-21 May 2004
Fredericton, New Brunswick
For more information, please visit http://www.cnsr.info/Events/CNSR2004/events.php

US

• Workshop on Multimodal User Authentication (MMUA 2003)

11-12 December 2003
Santa Barbara, California
For more information please visit http://mmua.cs.ucsb.edu

• Consumer Communications and Networking Conference (CCNC)

5-8 January 2004
Las Vegas, Nevada
For more information please visit http://www.ccnc2004.org/

• International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC)

14-19 February 2004
San Francisco
For more information please visit http://www.isscc.org/isscc/2004/authors.htm

• Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC)

22-26 February 2004
Anaheim, CA
For more information please visit www.apec-conf.org

• Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition (OFC 2004)

22-27 February 2004
Los Angeles, California
For more information please visit http://www.ofcconference.org

• IEEE International Conference on Data Engineering (ICDE)

30 March - 2 Apr 2004
Boston, MA
For more information please visit http://www.cse.uconn.edu/icde04/

International

• IEEE International Symposium on Signal Processing and Information Technology

14-17 December 2003
Darmstadt, Germany
For more information, please visit http://www.isspit2003.com/

• International Conference on Information Technology & Applications (ICITA 2004)

8-11 January 2004
Harbin, China
For more information please visit http://www.icita.org/

• Workshop on Wireless Sensor Networks (EWSN)

19-21 January 2004
Berlin, Germany
For more information please visit http://www.ewsn.org

• Managing Next Generation Convergence Networks and Services

19-23 April 2004
Seoul, Korea
For more information please visit http://www.noms2004.org/

• European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO-2004)

7-10 September 2004
Vienna, Austria
For more information please visit http://www.nt.tuwien.ac.at/eusipco2004

IEEE Montreal maintains a page of upcoming events at http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r7/montreal/evenements_e.html.

IEEE Ottawa maintains a page of upcoming events at http://ottawa.ieee.ca/.

IEEE Toronto maintains a page of upcoming events at http://toronto.ieee.ca/events/upcoming.htm.

IEEE Vancouver maintains a page of upcoming events at http://vancouver.ieee.ca/.

For more IEEE conferences, visit IEEE Conference Search at http://www.ieee.org/conferencesearch/.

Wiley-IEEE press book provides insight on Silicon Germanium

The Wiley-IEEE Press book "Silicon Germanium" offers a brief introduction to and historical perspective of IBM's SiGe technology. The book then provides insight into the modeling and design automation requirements for leading-edge RF/analog and mixed-signal products and more. For more information on this title, visit http://www.wiley.com/remtitleinternational.cgi?isbn=047144653X.

Hot off the IEEE Press: Getting more out of your projects

Project managers trying to understand the trials and triumphs that can arise in any project setting can look towards a new book from Wiley and the IEEE Computer Society for answers. In "It Sounded Good When We Started: A Project Manager's Guide to Working with People on Projects," authors Dwayne Phillips and Roy O'Bryan describe their own mistakes as well as the many valuable lessons they learned as a result. For more information, or to purchase this title, visit http://www.wiley.com/remtitleinternational.cgi?isbn=0471485861.

Voltage References Addressed in IEEE Press Book

The foremost tutorial resource on the design of integrated voltage references, from theory to real-life practice, is available this month from Wiley-IEEE Press. "Voltage References: From Diodes to Precision High-Order Bandgap Circuits" by Gabriel Alfonso Ricon-Mora covers the conceptual history and scope of practical design issues behind marketable and precision integrated voltage references. For more information, or to purchase, visit http://www.wiley.com/remtitleinternational.cgi?isbn=0471143367.

Interactive web sites enhance new book on Electronics experiments

A new book from Wiley-IEEE Press promises to opens up a virtual Pandora's box of possibilities for students to access a wide variety of real experiments over the Internet, and for institutions to establish their own remote laboratory sites. "Lab on the Web: Running Real Electronics Experiments via the Internet" by Tor A. Fjeldly and Michael S. Shur is the first book to present, in detail, experiments that can be run over the Web, specifically in the area of electronics. This Wiley-IEEE Press book is available for purchase online at http://www.wiley.com/remtitleinternational.cgi?isbn=0471413755.

You can send any submissions by email to the editor:
Abhi Gupta at newsletter@ieee.ca

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