IEEE needs you 

To raise awareness of the Canadians active in the IEEE, we wish to start a new column in the newsletter that will inform members of Canadians running for positions in various IEEE societies and affiliates. If you are running for a position in a society, please let us know so that we can publicize it in the newsletter to the members.

Obituary notice for Fred Heath

Frederick J. Heath, P. Eng and life member of IEEE passed away peacefully at home on Tuesday, December 28th, 1999. He was an active IEEE member and a respected professional in Engineering. Some of the positions he held in the IEEE are listed below:

• Offices: Board of Directors (1982-83), Region 7 Director (1982-83) 
• Committees/Boards: Educational Activities Board (1983), Regional Activities Board (1982-83), RAB Search and Nominations (1984), TAB meetings (1984) 
• Regions: Region 7, Regional Committee Chairman (1982-83), Vice Chairman (1981) 
• Sections: Toronto: Chairman (1956), Vice Chairman (1955), Secretary-Treasurer (1954), Treasurer (1975-76), Instrumentation and Measurement Chapter Chairman (1973), Vice Chairman (1972) 
• Societies: Communications Society, Conference Board, Secretary (1979), Vice Chairman (1980), Chairman (1981) 
• Conferences: ICC (International Communications Conference), Chairman (1978), IRE Canadian Convention, Chairman (1961), Vice Chairman (1959), Executive Committee (1954-63), IEEE, Director at Large (1980)

An excerpt from his euolgy is inserted below:
Fred was still in high school when he acquired his Amateur Radio Licence. He went on to study Electrical Engineering at the University of Alberta and did postgraduate work at the famous M.I.T., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, just as the second World War clouds were forming over Europe. Fred was soon employed by the National Research Council, seconded to the Canadian Army to work on the development of "on board" radar systems. He never had to wear a uniform for which he was grateful because it meant he didn't have to salute anyone! After the war, Fred was with Canadian General Electric for almost twenty?five years, then traveled the province for Ontario Hydro for twelve years. Most recently he was the Canadian Director of I Triple E,  the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Beyond his work, which he enjoyed so much he felt guilty taking a paycheck (according to Rick), Fred was a loyal and active member of North Toronto Kiwanis and sold more than his share of grapefruit! He also volunteered at the C.N.I.B. offering technical expertise and teaching ham Radio courses. He made the adjustment to the computer age with ease and keen interest.

Fred's last few months have not been easy. But. though the "outer man" diminished, the "inner man", the man Rick knew as strong, silent, serious, single minded and sincere was always present. Before the nurse came in the other day, he wanted to sit up on the side of his bed. When she did arrive, she and Rick supported him in this effort and moments later he died in Rick's arms ? in Frederick's arms ? and was born again in God's.

Thanks to the efforts of Diana Pladdys, Fred Heath Jr., the University of Alberta and Dave Kemp, it has been able to pull together the material required to acknowledge the life and contributions of Fred Heath.

IEEE Membership dues remain unchanged for 2001

The IEEE Board of Directors met in Vancouver, BC, Canada, in June. After lengthy discussion on the pros and cons, the IEEE Board of Directors voted not to raise member dues for 2001. While IEEE continues to provide enhanced services to the members it has managed to do so for five years now without an IEEE dues increase.

World Finals of New Student Global Computer Competition Completed

The world finals of the inaugral Computer Society International Design Competition (CSIDC) were held in Washington DC during the first week of July. Competing for the top prizes were ten finalists teams representing universities throughout the world. A teams of engineering students from McMaster University (Hamilton, ON) won forst place for a heart monitor health care information appliance they conceived, designed, and implemented in prototype form. The National University of Taiwan (Taipei) won the second place prize for a family health guard monitoring system. Third place went to the Technical University of Poznan (Poznan, Poland) The Slovak University of Technology (Bratslavia, Slovak Republic) and the University of Waterloo (Waterloo, ON) received the fourth and fifth prizes respectively.

The IEEE Computer Society, the competitions sponsor, limited participants in the inaugral competition to 50 teams. Ten teams of judges reviewed design and implementation reports to the finalists who journeyed to Washington for the competition finals. Competition chair Bruce D. Shriver summarized the objectives as, "Advancing excellence in undergraduate education." He concluded that the objectives were met

Congratulations to the winners !!

New Award to recognize engineers who make engineering a great career choice for women

The Canadian Council of Professional Engineers (CCPE) has added a new award to its Canadian Engineer's Awards program to recognize engineers who, through their engineering work and career achievements, have demonstrated noteworthy support for women in the profession and established a benchmark of engineering excellence. To be presented for the first time in May 2001, the Award for support of Women in Engineering Profession will also increase public awareness of Canada's outstanding engineers, and the ongoing effort by the engineering profession to welcome more women into its ranks.

"Increasing public awareness of engineers such as Canadian astronaut Julie Payette and Motorola Canada Chairman Micheline Bouchard, who are outstanding role models for prospective and beginning women engineers, and have worked very hard to bring more women into the profession, will prompt more young women to choose engineering as a career," said Mr. Cleland. "That is the second key goal of our new award. We also want to bestow distinction on engineers who have established benchmarks of excellence for our profession world-wide, and are widely recognized as role models for their outstanding achievements"

The Call for Nominations for the 2001 Award for Support of Women in the Engineering Profession and the six other Canadian Engineer's awards will be issued on August 1, 2000. All nominations must be received at CCPE by January 8, 2001. Information and terms of reference for the seven Canadian Engineer's Awards, as well as nomination forms, will be posted on CCPE's website at http://www.ccpe.ca in August.

The following members were elected as senior members at the May 2000 IEEE Admissions and Advancement Panel meeting in Memphis, TN and the June 2000 meeting held in Vancouver, BC.

Linder, Tamas - Kingston
Wong, Andrew - Kitchener-Waterloo
Zuo, Mingjian - Northern Canada
Adham, Saman - Ottawa
Huang, Xinping - Ottawa
Collins, Michael J. - Southern Alberta
Smith, Michael H. - Southern Albert
Iravani, Reza - Toronto
Atanackovic, Djordje - Montreal
Bilodeau, Hubert - Montreal

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

• International Symposium on Parallel Computing in Electrical Engineering (PARELEC 2000)

27-30 August 2000
Quebec, Montreal
For more information, please contact:
IEEE Computer Society
Conference Services
1730 Massachusetts Avenue
Washington D.C. 20036-1992
Tel: (202)-371-1013
Fax: (202)-728-0884
Or Conference Services Department, IEEE Operations Center at (732)-562-3878

• 2000 IEEE Conference on Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena (CEIDP 2000)

15-18 October 2000
Victoria, British Columbia
For further information, please contact:
Dr. Vishnu K. Lakdawala
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Old Dominion University
Norfolk, VA  23529
Tel: (757)-683-4665
Fax: (757)-683-3220
E-mail: lakdawala@ece.odu.edu
or Conference Services Department, IEEE Operations Center at (732)-562-3878

• 2000 IEEE International Carnaham Conference of Security Technology

23-25 October 2000
Ottawa, Ontario
For further information, please contact:
Mr. Larry D. Sanson,
186 Woodwalk Ct.,
Nicholasville, KY  40356
Tel: (606)-223-9840
Fax: (606)-224-3225
Email: lsanson@lex.infi.net
or Conference Services Department, IEEE Operations Center at (732)-562-3878

• PSLM 2000 Conference

6-8 November 2000
Calgary, Alberta
For further information, please visit http://www.ualberta.ca/~pslm2000/ 

• Newfoundland Electrical and Computer Engineering Conference(NECEC 2000)

15 November 2000
St. John's, Newfoundland
For further information, please visit http://www.ieee.nfld.net 

• IEEE international Conference on Electronics Circuits and Systems (ICECS)

17-20 December 2000
Beirut, Lebanon
For further information, please contact:
Prof. M. Sawan
Electrical & Computer Engineering Dept.
Ecole Polytechnic de Montreal
P. O. Box 6079, Station Centre-Ville
Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3C 3A7
Fax: (514)-340-4147
E-mail: submit@icecs2k.polymtl.ca 

• 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 Nuclear & Space Radiation Effects Conference (NSREC 2001)