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IEE E IEEE Canada Newsletter / Bulletin de IEEE Canada alletin |
Page en Français This Issue's Content: News - IEEE Canada Board of Directors - Your News - News of Interest - Our Members in the Spotlight - Call for Papers - Conferences Upcoming Events - New Brunswick - Montreal - Ottawa - Toronto - Winnipeg - Calgary - Other Submission Information
Subscribing (for non-IEEE Canada members) |
Issue: January 2010 IEEE Canada News Central
Ø IEEE Canada Board of Directors - Message from the President- Renew Your Membership for 2010- Membership Dues in Special Circumstances
- Vancouver Section investigates mobile user interface design- South Alberta Section posts upcoming events online- Ottawa Section examines reverse engineering in semiconductor industry- London Section hosts hosts seminar in Energrow-Feed, Fuel & Freedom- Montreal Section hosts distinguished lecture on digital TV- Southern Alberta Section looks at software estimation
- Montreal Section Celebrated the 125th Anniversary- Vancouver Section Celebrates 125 years of IEEE- Free E-book Titles and Access to Archived Webinars to All IEEE Members- Ottawa WIE Section sponsors book release by Dr. Frize- IEEE Career services- New Home and Auto Group Insurance Program
Ø Our Members in the Spotlight - EIC's John B. Sterling Medal in recognition of leadership and distinguished service: Bob Alden- IEEE Haraden Pratt Award: Ray Findlay- IEEE Electronic Device Society: Education Award: David L. Pulfrey- Class of 2010 IEEE Fellows from Canada
- IEEE IAS Electrical Safety, Technical and Mega Projects Workshop- 2010 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation
- Upcoming IEEE Conferences in Canada- All IEEE Conferences in Canada
Ø IEEE Canada Board of Directors Message from the PresidentFirst of all I wish you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2010. It is a privilege to take over as President of IEEE Canada for the ensuing two years. IEEE has a pool of excellent talent in its members, many of whom sustain IEEE through their selfless volunteer efforts. I would like to start by thanking all volunteers, past and present, for their tremendous contribution and I hope to draw on help, cooperation and assistance 0f not only those who have contributed but also encourage others to get involved so that IEEE within Canada will continue to achieve commendable progress. At the IEEE Canada Board meeting in October 2009 I had outlined my general goals as:
Run programs in the most efficient and cost effective way to deliver quality and value Facilitate efforts towards membership growth at all levels and retention of current members at the annual membership renewal time, with particular efforts devoted towards the retention of graduating student members, and new members with one year membership Be responsive to the needs of diverse membership (technical and geographic) Improve existing services and introduce new programs to benefit members. I admit that not all these are achievable at the Region level or can be couched as quantifiable goals. I am already working and will continue to work at the IEEE Inc. level towards some of these goals as desirable for the entire IEEE membership. For our own Region, I solicit your help in achieving the following quantifiable goals for 2010:
Membership
Achieve net membership increase of 2% on 2010-12-31 (over 2009-12-31)
Membership retention in 2010 > 95% over the 2009 number
Membership Recognition Have each Section set up an Awards and Recognition Committee to actively pursue member grade elevation, and seek talented and eligible members who can be nominated for various MGA and Technical awards.
Engage Life Members to take part in such a committee
Senior Member grade elevation of 150 Members during 2010
Nomination of at least one large and one small Section within Canada for MGA achievement award
Search for suitable candidates for Fellow grade nomination and other technical awards
Student Branch, Chapter and Section Interaction. Provide active encouragement to Sections to improve Student Branch interaction with the Section Executive. The same goes for the Chapters within a Section and between nearby Sections to promote and expand Distinguished Speaker visits.
New Programs
Hold 3-4 Canada-wide webinars on interesting and topical subjects. We have a committee specifically looking after this program
New programs are launched by IEEE Inc. Make IEEE Members aware of these programs
I ask for your help and active engagement in making all this happen. I strongly believe that a sense of community at the local Section/Chapter/Student Branch/Affinity group level will provide the strength that we need to make IEEE achieve its mission and purpose. I, therefore, encourage you all to take active part in whatever organizational unit you belong. I am always open to your suggestions and comments. Please feel free to contact me at any time by e-mail (maliko@ieee.org) or by phone (403-220-61780) or even the old fashioned way (!) by post. Om Malik
Renew Your Membership for 2010Membership renewal notice for 2010 will be arriving shortly. Watch for it. Remember, IEEE membership can connect you with professionals who can open doors to many opportunities. There are also many online resources available to members (e.g. online books and publications). Use your IEEE Web Account and password to renew online at http://www.ieee.org/web/membership/renew/index.html Membership Dues in Special CircumstancesIEEE realizes that economic circumstances may impact some members' ability to pay the full amount of IEEE membership dues. For this reason, the following special circumstance categories have been established. Special circumstances are not available to Student members. Only one category may be claimed in any year. Vancouver Section investigates mobile user interface designThursday, Jan 11, 2010, 7-9 pm, BCIT SW3-1750, UBC, Vancouver, BC Talk abstract: Want to understand how to make a mobile application easier to use? Want to ensure your mobile site meets the needs of your target audience? This 1.5 hour session is aimed at introducing you to the world of user centered design and its importance in helping you design a better mobile product. User centered design puts your customers at the heart of your product design and development process. Speaker biography: Selma Zafar has over 10 years experience in designing innovative and usable software and hardware. She ensures that the needs of the end-user remain at the heart of the research, design and development process. Selma has lead the usability and overall user experience for products and websites for Nokia, Microsoft, Telus, Tourism British Columbia and Ronald McDonald House Charities. South Alberta Section posts upcoming events onlinePlease refer to the following link for the latest activities hosted by the South Alberta Section: http://sas.ieee.ca/events.html Ottawa Section examines reverse engineering in semiconductor industryWednesday, January 20, 2010, 7 pm, Bytown "A" Room, RA Centre, Riverside Drive, Ottawa ABSTRACT: The continuous shrinking of feature size to increase the integration
level of silicon chips has presented major challenges to the reverse engineer, obsolescing simple teardowns and demanding the adoption of new and more sophisticated technology to analyze chips. The following types of analysis will be covered in detail:
product teardown techniques used for system-level analysis, both hardware and software circuit extraction, taking the chip down to the transistor level and working back up through the interconnects to create schematics process analysis, looking at how the chip is made, and what it is made of This presentation is an update of an invited paper given at the 2007 IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC) with more focus on circuit extraction and cross-referencing between circuit schematics and the 1000's of physical layout images obtained through generating a mosaic of scanning electron microscopy across all device layers. For more information: http://iet21012010ieee.eventbrite.com London Section hosts seminar in Energrow-Feed, Fuel & FreedomThursday, December 10, 2009, 5:30 - 7:30 pm, N105 Lambton College, Sarnia, ON Energrow provides Canadian -built farm-scale oil pressing systems. These unique systems enable farmers to take control of their own commodity through direct on-farm processing of high energy and quality bioproducts. Energrow oil presses produce two main products: meal, a freshly pelletized, high energy and palatable feed, and oil, for use in feed, lubrication, crop spray, and even in direct diesel fuel applications. Through the production and use of these products (both on and off farm), producers are able to significant value to their crops. The seminar will discuss the process of on-farm oil pressing, the bioproducts and their applications, as well as discuss examples of recent installations and their value to the farmers. The speaker, Jasmin Hofer has a BA degree in Honours Arts Co-op from the University of Waterloo specializing in Language and International Trade. She is currently responsible for the development of Energrow's on farm vegetable-oil-pressing systems. http://platinum.lambton.on.ca/bsi/mcfilemanager/files/templates/pdf_docs/2009_12_10_sem8_hofer.pdf Montreal Section hosts distinguished lecture on digital TVWednesday, January 20, 2010, 1pm - 6pm, EV002.260, Concordia University, Montreal, QC. ABSTRACT: First standardized in 1994, MPEG-2 Video has been the ubiquitous video compression standard of broadcast television and entertainment video for many years. A few years ago, a new video compression standard, MPEG-4 AVC, emerged with the promise of a 50% reduction in bandwidth required vs. MPEG-2 Video for the same picture quality. MPEG-4 AVC has now been adopted for Blu-ray discs and IPTV deployments, and is moving into more applications that are the bastion of MPEG-2 Video. This technical tutorial will give an introduction to MPEG-4 AVC, how it differs from MPEG-2 Video, and how those differences achieve the dramatic bandwidth savings.Mr. John Forester from the Wolfe Island windfarm will provide an update on the project that has been up and running now for a couple of months. Different aspects of sustainable energy on Wolfe Island will be covered. SPEAKER: Matthew Goldman is Vice President of Technology for TANDBERG Television, part of the Ericsson Group. He has been actively involved in the development of DTV systems since 1992. He was a prominent participant in the Moving Picture Experts Group where he helped create the MPEG-2 Systems standard, the baseline transport technology used in direct broadcast satellite, digital cable, terrestrial broadcasting, and DVD-video. He served as project editor for the MPEG-2 DSM-CC standard, specifically the control signalling used in video-on-demand systems, switched digital video, and for DTV data downloads and carousels. Southern Alberta Section Looks at Software EstimationThursday, January 21, 2010 5-7 PM, Room ENA03, Engineering Block A, University of Calgary Abstract: Developing reliable software estimates continues to elude many organizations. Recent studies suggest that over one?third of software projects suffer from schedule and/or cost over-runs severe enough to warrant the projects as failures. One reason for such poor industry performance is that progress in this area has been relatively slow compared to the tremendous advances in technology and software methods over the last three decades. Traditional industry techniques for estimating software projects (e.g. COCOMO II, SLIM) remain highly complex, require non-intuitive inputs, and are geared toward large waterfall projects. The advent of Agile and other progressive-elaboration software methods has seen a trend towards empirical estimation techniques that focus on relatively short iterations, but fail in their attempt to accurately estimate entire software projects. In the face of these difficulties, many organizations continue to rely on naive "seat-of-the-pants" estimation approaches. In response to these issues, Quadrus has developed an easily accessible and accurate estimation methodology that successfully models real-world software projects through the use of simulation and Monte Carlo methods - the next generation in software project estimation. THE SPEARKER: Brian Donaldson co?founded Quadrus in 1993 and continues his active role as a senior member of the Quadrus leadership team and strategic advisor to Quadrus clients. He began his career as a technical software architect, advancing early to project management, ultimately progressing to overall program planning, IT business strategy and executive management. For details: http://sas.ieee.ca/events/2009/files/Jan%2021,%202010-Brian%20Donaldson-%20talk%20flyer.pdf Montreal Section Celebrated the 125th AnniversaryIEEE Montreal Section had its Annual Banquet event held on November 28th to celebrate IEEE 125th anniversary. Among the guests of honor were Dr. Ferial El-Hawary and Mr. Eric Holdrinet. They made special presentations on IEEE's mission and its successful programs since its inception. There was a special presentation by Mr. Holdrinet on IEEE Milestones and he also highlighted the Canadian, Quebec and Montreal based Milestones achievements. These presentations were offered to more than 70 of IEEE Montreal Section members. The link to the pictures can be found here Vancouver Section Celebrates 125 years of IEEEThe 2009 Annual Social Event was held on November 24 at the Playhouse Theatre in Vancouver to acknowledge and celebrate the 125th anniversary of IEEE. The event was a great success with 103 people in attendance: 45 IEEE members, 21 IEEE student members, 3 Fellows and 34 non-members. The participants were welcomed to the reception by Max Reiner, Artistic Director of the Theatre. IEEE Vancouver Section Chair Dave Michelson gave a short talk about current initiatives within the Section such as the IEEE Milestones Program (historic site dedications) and formation of new student branches and subsections in the BC interior. A small award ceremony was held to acknowledge Wenyuan Li of BCTC as the PES Chapters 2009 Outstanding Engineer. The evening continued with a Broadway musical performance "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and the IEEE 125th anniversary cake was served during the intermission. The event was supported by the local companies Lex Engineering, Powertech Labs and BC Hydro. It was a great way to end a very successful year for the Vancouver Section.
Mazana Armstrong Free E-book Titles and Access to Archived Webinars to All IEEE MembersIn response to Section Congress recommendation, the IEEE is offering e-books and webinars free to all IEEE members. Check out the free e-books and archived webinars at: http://www.ieeeusa.org/careers/gpa/ Ottawa WIE Section sponsors book release by Dr. FrizeBy Jennifer Ng Ain Kin, WIE Ottawa Chair www.jenniferng.org On December 1st 2009, the book launch for The Bold and the Brave was held at uOttawa, where author Dr. Frize was surrounded by her family, friends, colleagues and fans. Author: Dr. Monique Frize Monique Frize is a professor at the Department of Computer and Systems Engineering, Carleton University, and the School of Information Technology and Engineering, uOttawa.
The book examines the lives and work of three women - Sophie Germain, Mileva Einstein, and Rosalind Franklin - that provide excellent examples of how women's contributions to science have been dismissed, ignored or stolen outright. She concludes with an in-depth and often personal look at women's participation in science and engineering throughout the twentieth century and the current status of women in science and engineering, which has experienced a decline in recent years. To encourage more young women to pursue careers in science and engineering she advocates re-gendering the fields by integrating feminine and masculine approaches that would ultimately improve scientific and engineering endeavors Interview with Dr. Monique Frize, author of The Bold and the Brave
Q: What was the most challenging part of the book to write? What was the easiest? A: The first two parts (philosophy and history) were the most difficult as I had to find all the material from sources that I had not seen before. The contemporary part was the easiest, having done 20 years of work on women in science and engineering through the two Chair positions I held (Northern telecom/NSERC women in engineering Chair at UNB, then the NSERC/Nortel Chair for women in science and engineering at UO and CU).
Q: Is there an engineering domain today which one has to be brave & bold to tackle? A: I think most would require a woman with confidence, who believes in herself. But perhaps biomed and environmental are a little easier for women than say mining or construction, petroleum, etc.
Q: Any particular advice for today's young female engineer? A: Believe in yourself! And find good mentors at each stage of a career. Jump over hurdles and you will reach your goals. Pick your battles carefully and sleep 24 hours prior to responding to conflict by letter or a meeting (except if an immediate response is needed).
Q: Any particular advice for today's young male engineer? A: You need to see the value in feminine attributes and respect your female colleagues. Everyone has their talents and skills and it is important to value the contributions from people who are different from us. You can be part of the solution to build a balanced world of engineering and technology.
Q: Anything else that you would like our IEEE Canada readers to know about your book? A: Everyone can find something in the book that they can do to move towards an engineering profession that is more balanced and that respects everyone's perspectives and contributions. The book will hopefully also help mothers, fathers, uncles and aunts to open up opportunities for the girls in their family to consider more career choices, including engineering! During her speech, Dr. Frize had a special mention for the women from the Montreal Polytechnique given that her book coincidentally is launching in December, 20 years later: "… And I wanted to remember for the 14 women who died at Polytechnique for wanting to become engineers. […] I think that it is very appropriate that we can remember those 14 women and think about some of the things in the book and what we can do to remember them and also (how) to push progress forward." IEEE Career servicesLooking for a new job? Check out the following site! New Home and Auto Group Insurance ProgramThe IEEE Financial Advantage Program is pleased to announce that The Personal Insurance Company is now a provider of home and auto group insurance to IEEE Canada members. One of Canada's largest group insurers, The Personal insures members and employees of over 550 organizations and has over 650,000 policies in force across the country. The advantages of this voluntary benefit include preferred rates not available to the general public, exceptional service, and personalized protection. IEEE Canada members*, their spouses and dependants** are eligible for this new program. To find out how much you can save, get a quote from The Personal by phone or on their Web site.
Take advantage of your home and auto group insurance plan.
Get a quote from The Personal
* One must be a member in good standing of the IEEE at the time of application and continue active membership in order to be eligible for the group rates.
Ø Our Members in the Spotlight EIC's John B. Sterling Medal in recognition of leadership and distinguished service: Bob AldenBob Alden, LFIEEE, FEIC, President of the IEEE Canadian Foundation, will be receiving the EIC's John B. Sterling Medal in recognition of leadership and distinguished service at the national level within the Institute and/or its Member Societies. The presentation will occur at the annual EIC Awards Gala in Ottawa on February 27, 2010. Congratulations! IEEE Haraden Pratt Award: Ray FindlayDr. Ray Findlay, Director-emeritus, IEEE Canada, has been awarded the IEEE Haraden Pratt Award "for sustained leadership at IEEE and regional levels in effecting positive change for IEEE and its members." Congratulations for the achievement! IEEE Electronic Device Society: Education Award: David L. PulfreyDavid Pulfrey obtained the B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Manchester, England, in 1965 and 1968, respectively. He attended university on a scholarship from the regional electric power authority, which meant that he concentrated on courses and research far from the field of electron devices. He is essentially self-taught in solid-state electronics, and he believes that learning about devices in this way has attuned him particularly well to the nature of the difficulties that many students face in trying to master this profound subject. His success in helping students avoid or overcome these difficulties has led to recognition at the local, provincial, and international levels: inaugural winner in 1990 of the University of British Columbia's Teaching Prize in Applied Science; 2009 winner of the Teaching Award for Excellence in Engineering and Geoscience Education from the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia: and now the EDS Education Award. Professor Pulfrey believes that attention to the fundamental details is the best way to give students the ability to appreciate the workings of today's devices, and to participate in the development of tomorrow's devices. This philosophy illumines his latest book "Understanding Modern Transistors and Diodes", which is to appear in January 2010, and is also evident in his other books: "Photovoltaic Power Generation", 1979; "Introduction to Semiconductor Devices" (with N.G. Tarr), 1989; and in book chapters on HBTs for Wiley's Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 1999, and for Roblin and Rohdin's book "High-speed heterostructure devices", 2002. http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/society/eds/awards/EDS_Education_Award.html Class of 2010 IEEE Fellows from CanadaCongratulations to the achievement of our members from IEEE Canada!
IEEE IAS Electrical Safety, Technical and Mega Projects WorkshopMarch 29-31, 2010 The IEEE IAS ESTMP Workshop provides a forum for exchanging and advancing industry knowledge in the areas of electrical safety, engineering design, system reliability and the implementation and execution of Mega Projects. The Workshop focus will be to share innovative concepts, successes as well as lessons learned in the areas of: 1) advancing state of the art knowledge and best practices, 2) stimulating innovation in creating the next generation of technology and 3) design and implementation of Mega Projects. 2010 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and PropagationJuly 11-17, 2010 The 2010 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and CNC-USNC/URSI Radio Science meeting will be held jointly on July 11-17, 2010, at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel in Toronto, ON, Canada. The symposium and meeting are co-sponsored by the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S), the U.S. National Committee of the International Union of Radio Science (USNC/URSI) Commissions A, B, C, D, E, F, H and K and all Canadian National Commissions of the International Union of Radio Science (CNC/URSI). The technical sessions, workshops, and short courses will be coordinated between the two groups to provide a comprehensive and well-balanced program. This meeting is intended to provide an international forum for the exchange of information on state-of-the-art research in antennas, propagation, electromagnetic engineering and radio science. Please note that technical sessions are held over five days from July 12 to 16, with workshops and short courses on July 11 and July 17, 2010. Visit the meeting website at www.apsursi2010.org for more information.
23rd Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer EngineeringDate: May 2- 5, 2010
CCECE provides researchers, students, and practicing professionals in the area of Electrical and Computer Engineering with a Canadian venue in which they can present the latest technological advancements and discoveries. It is also a valuable opportunity to network, exchange ideas, strengthen existing partnerships and foster new collaborations. CCECE 2010 will feature 7 mini-symposia with papers presented from a broad range of areas in Electrical and Computer Engineering. There will be tutorial sessions in leading topics, plenary talks from senior executives in industry and academia, special sessions in hot topics, social programs, the IEEE Canada Awards and Banquet night, best student paper awards luncheon, and industrial exhibitions. For more information: http://www.ieee.ca/ccece10/index_en.php All IEEE Conferences in Canada
I look forward to receiving news/article(s) from your sections and/or yours or other IEEE colleagues' achievements for the newsletter. Please forward any such correspondence by the 20th of the month to the Editor at
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IEEE Canada Newsletter – January 2010 Bulletin de IEEE Canada – Janvier 2010
Last
update /2010.01.09 dernière mise à jour |
