ISSUE 1/03 - MARCH 2003

Contents

  1. Chairman's column
  2. Report of IEEE NSW AGM 2002
  3. NSW section officers 2003
  4. NSW has three IEEE fellows elected in 2003
  5. Bruce Poon is outstanding volunteer
  6. Section history created
  7. GOLD affinity group launched
  8. Free membership to new student members
  9. NSW section web news
  10. Useful IEEE web addresses
  11. Help us keep in touch with you
  12. Become an IEEE senior member
  13. Joint technical meetings for 2003
  14. Details of upcoming joint technical meetings
  15. IEEE sponsored conferences
  16. Power engineering chapter activities
  17. Solid state circuits/circuits and systems activities
  18. Antennas & propagation/microwave theory & techniques news
  19. Update on student paper competitions
  20. Report on ICITA 2002
  21. Member profile - 2003 section treasurer David Tien
  22. Unlifting experience
  23. Wanted
  24. Request form for Circuit print version

1. CHAIRMAN'S COLUMN

As we begin a new year, it is useful to reflect on what we expect from the IEEE at a local level. IEEE is an international organization for professionals working broadly in the areas of electrotechnology, computer and information science, and through which a significant amount of technical information is disseminated by way of journals and conferences. In Australia, the IEEE cooperates closely with other organizations including the Institution of Engineers, Australia, which is recognized as the principal national society for engineers. However, beyond promoting interaction between engineers at local meetings, such as the Joint Technical Program meetings held mostly at North Sydney, it is timely to ask ourselves what services we can or should provide to local members. Moreover, we need to ensure that members find value in what we offer without duplicating the function of other institutions. 

To this end, the Section Executive Committee will be looking carefully at where we place our efforts in the coming months, and exploring how best to use the resources (both human and financial) that we have at our disposal. Should we place more effort into student activities? Do we need to attract more large conferences to Sydney? How do we respond to requests for technical help from practising engineers? The list is quite long, and you may have particular issues you wish us to consider. So, please, if you think that IEEE should be doing something it isn't, or shouldn't do some things it is, then contact either myself or any of the Executive Committee to share your views or ideas. A complete contact list is on the web site.

Finally, I am pleased that the Executive Committee includes some new members this year. Local activities rely strongly on the involvement of volunteers, and in order to move forward on new ideas we need a committed team. If you would like to be involved in any of the activities of the Section or its Chapters and Affinity Groups, please contact one of us. Hopefully we can look forward to a productive year ahead.

Andrew Parfitt
Chair (email: andrew.parfitt@csiro.au)

 

2. REPORT OF IEEE NEW SOUTH WALES SECTION ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2002

The 2002 Annual General Meeting was held on 29 November at The Castlereagh Inn, Masonic Club, 169 Castlereagh St, Sydney. The 2002 Chairman, Trevor Bird, reported on the activities and achievements of the year. Highlights were:

  • A GOLD Affinity Group was formed.

  • Free Student Membership provided to over 200 new student members.

  • Rejuvenation of the Circuits & Systems/Solid State Circuits joint Chapter.

  • Installation of the new web site and its continued development.

  • Celebration of the 30th anniversary of the formation of the Section.

  • A healthy financial position.

  • Three new IEEE Fellows elected (see report below).

The Treasurer, David Burger, gave an interim report that indicated that the total Section assets were at a good level. A more detailed statement will be shortly placed on the Section web site. Chapter Chairs also presented reports on activities during 2002 and announced the results of Chapter elections.

The Chair advised the meeting that the following officers were elected for 2003 at the November Executive Committee Meeting:

Section Chair: Andrew Parfitt
Section Vice Chair: Graeme Gwilliam
Section Secretary: David Burger
Section Treasurer: David Tien.

He further advised that the following members were confirmed as the Executive Committee: Filita Barker, Trevor Bird (Immediate Past Chair and Antennas & Propagation Chapter Chair), Ian Boyd, Stephanie Boyd (Computer Chapter Chair), Kate Carruthers, Stephen Duval (Circuits and Systems Chapter Chair), Karu Esselle, Walter Lachs, D. (Jim) Logothetis, Stephan Mozar, Philip Ogunbona, Bruce Poon, Faz Rahman (Power Electronics Chapter Chair), Sam Reisenfeld, John Robinson (Australia Council Chair), James (Jim) Vasseleu and Ramutis (Zak) Zakarevicius.

The meeting concluded with two presentations. The Chair, Trevor Bird, announced the creation of a new Section Outstanding Volunteer Award, and advised that the first recipient of this award was Bruce Poon. Bruce was presented with a certificate. An article on Bruce's award is given elsewhere in this issue.

Andrew Parfitt thanked Trevor Bird for a successful two-year term as Section Chair, and presented him with a Past Section Chair pin. The IEEE President will be sending a certificate of congratulations. David Tien to the meeting, which concluded at 8 pm. An excellent dinner in Cello's Dining Room followed the meeting. Thanks to all who made this event such an enjoyable occasion.

The meeting closed at 8 pm and was followed by an excellent dinner in Cello's Dining Room. Thanks to all who made this event such an enjoyable occasion.

 

3. NSW SECTION OFFICERS 2003

2003 SECTION COMMITTEE

Chairman: Andrew PARFITT
Vice-Chairman: Graeme GWILLIAM
Secretary: David BURGER
Treasurer: David TIEN
Past Chairman: Trevor BIRD
Membership Development: Bruce POON
Awards Chair: Jim VASSELEU
Fellow Search: Walter LACHS
Newsletter Editor: Trevor BIRD
Student Activities: Stephanie BOYD
Professional Activities: Jim LOGOTHETIS
Educational Activities: Karu ESSELLE
Nominations Committee: Trevor BIRD (Chair), Jim VASSELEU, Bruce POON
Historian: Ramutis (Zak) ZAKAREVICIUS
Committee Members: Ian BOYD, Kate CARRUTHERS, Stefan MOZAR, Sam REISENFELD, John ROBINSON. All Chapter and Affinity Group Chairmen (ex-officio).
Section Webmaster: Jon Paul AGNEW

2003 CHAPTER COMMITTEES

COMPUTER
Chairman: Stephanie BOYD
Vice Chair: Kate MELNIK
Secretary/Treasurer: Ian BOYD
Other Committee Members: Stefan MOZAR, Phil CRAWFORD, Sean (Xiangjian) HE

COMMUNICATIONS/SIGNAL PROCESSING
Chairman: Ollencia DE SUZA

ANTENNAS & PROPAGATION/ MICROWAVE THEORY & TECHNIQUES
Chairman: Trevor BIRD
Vice-Chairman: Andrew PARFITT
Secretary: Karu ESSELLE
Treasurer: Graham TOWN
Committee Members: Tim AUBREY, Alan McPHAIL

POWER ENGINEERING
Chairman: Graeme GWILLIAM
Vice-Chairman: Mark EDMUNDS
Secretary: Antony ZAGLAS
Treasurer: Dan CANDOTTI
GOLD representative: Elias ABOUTANIOS
Committee Members: Vic MORGAN, Walter LACHS, Alex BAICH, Sarath PERERA (alternate of Vic GOSBELL), Trevor BLACKBURN, John KAYE, Hue OUTHRED (UNSW), Joseph ZHU, S SATHIAKUMAR, Jim VASSELEU, John ROBINSON, Jim LOGOTHETIS. 

INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS, POWER ELECTRONICS / INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS
Chairman: Faz RAHMAN

CIRCUITS & SYSTEMS/SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS
Chairman: Steven DUVALL
Secretary: Andre van SCHAIK

2003 AFFINITY GROUPS

LIFE MEMBER
Chairman: Jim VASSELEU

GOLD
Chairman: Filita BARKER

 

4. NSW HAS THREE IEEE FELLOWS ELECTED IN 2003

When the 2003 IEEE Fellows were announced In December 2002, the list contained three members from the New South Wales Section. Congratulations are extended to:

Professor Dagan Feng, University of Sydney, "for contributions to modeling and data processing for biomedical and multimedia applications";

Professor Robert A. Minasian, University of Sydney, "for contributions to photonic signal processing of microwave signals"; and

Professor Branka Vucetic, University of Sydney, "for contributions to the theory and applications of channel coding".

Fellow is the highest grade in the IEEE and is conferred by the Board of Directors upon a person with an extraordinary record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest. The total number elected in any one year does not exceed 0.1% of the total voting membership. Other Australian members elected FIEEE in 2003 are Professor Marek Bialkowski (University of Queensland), Professor Robin Evans (University of Melbourne), and Dr Michael Gibbard (University of Adelaide). Congratulations go to these distinguished engineers also.

The full list of the 260 new Fellows is available on the web at https://www.ieee.org/fellows. For the record, nominations for next year's Fellows close on 15 March 2003. 

An outline of the careers of two of our new Fellows is given below.

Professor Robert Minasian received the B.E. degree from the University of Melbourne, the MSc degree from the University of London, University College, London, U.K., and the PhD from the University of Melbourne, Australia. From 1979 to 1989 he was an academic staff member at The University of Melbourne. In 1989 he joined The University of Sydney, where he is currently a Professor in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering, and is Director of the Fibre-optics and Photonics research group. His research interests include photonic signal processing, broadband optical communications, microwave photonics, multi-channel lightwave systems, and optical phased arrays. He has contributed over 170 technical publications in these areas. He is an Associate Editor of Optical Fiber Technology. Professor Minasian is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Australia. He serves on the Editorial Board of the IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques. He is a member of the Technical Committee on Microwave Photonics of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (IEEE MTT-S). He has served on the program committees and organization for many international conferences including the IEEE International Meeting on Microwave Photonics, the IEEE International Microwave Symposium, and the Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference. He was the recipient of the ATERB Medal for Outstanding Investigator in Telecommunications, awarded by the Australian Telecommunications and Electronics Research Board.

Professor Branka Vucetic is Head of the School of Electrical and Information Engineering and the Director of The Telecommunications Laboratory at Sydney University. She received the BSEE, MSEE and PhD degrees in 1972, 1978 and 1982, respectively, in Electrical Engineering, from The University of Belgrade, Belgrade. During her career she has held various research and academic positions in Yugoslavia, Australia and the UK. She has been with the University of Sydney since 1986. Her research interests include wireless communications, digital communication theory, coding and multiuser detection. In the past decade she has worked on a number of industry sponsored projects in wireless communications and mobile Internet. She has taught a wide range of undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing education courses worldwide. Prof Vucetic has published three books and more than two hundred papers in telecommunications journals and conference proceedings.

 

5. BRUCE POON IS OUTSTANDING VOLUNTEER

Bruce Poon has been selected as the first recipient of the NSW Section Outstanding Volunteer Award. This award was presented at the 2002 Annual General Meeting. The Section Committee established these annual Awards in response to suggestions from IEEE Region 10. The outstanding volunteer would become the Section's nominee for the corresponding Region 10 award. The selection criteria are the same as for the Region 10 award, which are on the Region 10 web site. The Awards and Nominations Committee selected Bruce Poon for his work as Membership Development Coordinator and Data Administrator from 1995 - 2002 and also for organizing an IEEE Exhibit at a careers day at Marist Brothers Parramatta since 1996 to encourage students to enter the electrical engineering profession. Bruce has served on the Committee since 1992. He is one of the unsung heroes of the Committee and a worthy winner. He carries out the membership development work in a seamless, quiet and efficient manner that allows the business of the Section to run smoothly.

The call for nominations for the Section Outstanding Volunteer Awards will be made in the September 2003 issue of Circuit.

 

6. SECTION HISTORY CREATED

In 2002, the NSW Section celebrated its 30th anniversary and as part of the activities a brief history was prepared. This history is now available on the Section web site. 

To maintain momentum in this area, the Section Executive has decided to create a role on the Committee of Section Historian. As well as maintaining a record of office bearers and memorabilia, the Historian will oversee the archiving of records such as meetings and newsletters. Zak Zakarevicius has kindly agreed to be the first Historian and a sub-committee consisting of Jim Vasseleu and Trevor Bird will assist him. He will be interested to hear from you if you have any interesting documents or newsletters from the early days of the Section. One of the early projects will be to form a complete set of Circuit from its inception.

 

7. GOLD AFFINITY GROUP LAUNCHED

The first function of the GOLD Affinity Group was a dinner held on Friday, 1 November 2002 at the Duxton Hotel, North Sydney. Over 20 people attended this event. A short introduction to the objectives of GOLD in IEEE was given by the Section Chair, Trevor Bird. This was followed by an outline of future plans for GOLD in New South Wales by the inaugural GOLD Chair, Filita Barker. An excellent dinner was enjoyed by all who agreed the launch was very successful and a great networking opportunity.

Anyone interested in participating in the GOLD Affinity group, please contact Filita Barker, email filita@ieee.org.

 

8. FREE MEMBERSHIP TO NEW STUDENT MEMBERS

There are significant benefits of being a member of IEEE and especially for student members. In 2003, the IEEE NSW Section is once again offering up to 200 free memberships to students in their second or higher year of a recognised Electrical Engineering/Computer Science degree courses at universities in New South Wales who are not already members of IEEE. If you are eligible, or you have friends who are, and you/they wish to take up this offer, print the Student Membership form from the web or request a form from David Burger, the Section Secretary. The student member application form can be downloaded in PDF format online from here.

Complete the form and then send it with your email address to:

David Burger,
Secretary IEEE NSW Section,
C/- Australian Professional Centre,
Private Bag 1, DARLINGHURST NSW 2010.

The IEEE NSW Section will fund the first 200 valid applications received.

This offer closes on 31 March 2003. You will be notified by email whether your application has been accepted. No correspondence will be entered into on unsuccessful applications.

 

9. NSW SECTION WEB NEWS

The NSW Section Web Master is Jon Paul Agnew (jpagnew@ozemail.com.au). Place the web address (ewh.ieee.org/r10/nsw/) in your bookmarks so as to keep up to date with the latest Section news and information. 

KEEP UP TO DATE WITH DOCUMENTS AND NEWS ON THE SECTION WEB SITE

Click on 'News' for updates to the lecture programs on the NSW Section web site. An electronic copy of Circuit can also be obtained from the website.

 

10. USEFUL IEEE WEB ADDRESSES

Increasingly, the IEEE is relying on the Internet to deliver services to members. Some useful web addresses are summarised below for your information.

 

11. HELP US KEEP IN TOUCH WITH YOU

Are you successfully receiving e-mail from IEEE and from the NSW Section of IEEE?

Most of the communication between the NSW Section, NSW Society Chapters and members now occurs by e-mail or via the web site.

Notifications of social and networking functions, technical meetings, notification of new issues of Circuit and other IEEE electronic publications all come to you via the Internet.
If your e-mail address changes, please let us know. The simplest way to do this is to go to the membership update area of the IEEE web site at (www.ieee.org) then click on "Membership".

IEEE also provide a valuable way for you to keep the same e-mail for those people and organizations you want to stay in touch with even after your job or service provider changes. Register for a personal e-mail alias name@ieee.org. If you then insert this alias at the member update area you will overcome the need to notify the IEEE if your e-mail changes. The IEEE alias service is FREE and also provides Virus Scanning. To obtain an e-mail alias go to the IEEE website (www.ieee.org), click on "Membership" in the menu to the left. Next click on "Update your IEEE E-mail alias" and follow the directions from there.

If you e-mail address is up to date with IEEE, and you are still not receiving e-mails from the NSW Section or NSW Chapters, please advise the Membership Officer, Bruce Poon, on 9831 8412.

 

12. BECOME AN IEEE SENIOR MEMBER

Many members may not be aware of the benefits of IEEE Senior Membership. As well as recognizing your performance and contribution to the profession in a tangible way, each new Senior Member receives an attractive fine wood and bronze engraved Senior Member plaque and a US$25.00 gift certificate towards one new Society membership. Who can become a Senior Member? Anyone with ten years in the profession (not ten years of IEEE membership.) Your educational experience is counted towards this ten-year requirement. You need five years of significant performance and three IEEE Senior Member or Fellow references. If you are nominated, only two references are needed. Now it is even easier to become a Senior Member via the IEEE website. Details and application forms are obtained at www.ieee.org/organizations/rab/md/smprogram.html.

 

13. JOINT TECHNICAL MEETINGS FOR 2003

All members are invited to attend the listed joint meetings with the I.E. Aust., ITEES and IEE. All meetings are held at 5.30 for 6.00 pm (with light refreshments) at the Institution of Engineers, Australia Lecture Theatre, Eagle House, 118 Alfred St, MILSONS POINT, unless otherwise shown.

 

DATE SUBJECT SPEAKER SPONSOR
27 Feb. 2003 Powerline communications R. Watts, InovaTech IEAust.
13 Mar. 2003 Intensive care by wire-telemedicine Dr Laurie Wilson, CSIRO Telecom. & Ind. Phys. IEE
27 Mar. 2003 JPEG 2000 - A new image compression standard Dr David Taubman, UNSW IEEE
10 Apr. 2003 Callide C power station Philip Neal IEAust.
8 May 2003 New developments in railway signalling SRA IEAust.
22 May 2003 Gamma camera for detecting landmines Dr J. Tickner, CSIRO Minerals IEE
12 June 2003 E-liability TBA IEE
26 June 2003 Transformers for the modern world Colin James, ALSTOM IEAust.
10 July 2003 Update on Bluetooth TBA ITEE
24 July 2003 Truscan-a scanning probe for cancer in women Polartechnics IEE
14 Aug. 2003 Electromagnetic engineering in the world of photonic crystals Drs Andrew Weily & Karu Esselle, Macq. Uni. IEEE
28 Aug. 2003 Intelligent networked home Dr Peter Beadle, Motorola IEEE
11 Sept. 2003 Electronics in the medical industry Siemens or GE IEE
25 Sept. 2003 Process control systems in the printing industry Fairfax IEE
9 Oct. 2003 Protection against terrorism Eric Parker ITEE
23 Oct. 2003 Space time signal processing Dr Petrag Rapajic, UNSW IEEE
13 Nov. 2003 Update on contestability of LV power distribution TBA IEAust.
27 Nov. 2003 Broadband optical fibre sources Assoc. Prof. Graham Town, Macq. Uni. IEEE
28 Nov. 2003 IEEE Annual General Meeting   IEEE

 

14. DETAILS OF UPCOMING JOINT TECHNICAL MEETINGS

POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS - THE LOCAL LOOP ALTERNATIVE
Thursday, 27 February 2003

Speaker: Dr Ronald Watts, InovaTech

Synopsis: Using power lines to transmit information is not a new idea. Most of us have heard of off-peak water systems that operate on signals sent this way. In recent times, powerline communications have stretched into the broadband arena. It is now possible to use power wiring even for high quality video, as well as Internet connections and telephony. InovaTech is at the forefront of these developments, and the presentation will cover a range of services that can now be delivered this way, including real-time energy management.


Biography: Ronald Watts has worked in IT&T for many years, as a Chief Executive and Consultant in a variety of industries. He is currently a Director of InovaTech Limited, a leading developer of advanced metering and communications systems for energy management. His responsibility there is in strategic partnerships and future technology.

Ronald has qualifications in mathematics, quantum theory and finance, making him uniquely qualified to deal with uncertainty in business.

INTENSIVE CARE BY TELEPRESENCE - HIGH BANDWIDTH MEDICAL APPLICATIONS FOR NEXT GENERATION INTERNET TECHNOLOGY 
Thursday, 13 March 2003

Speaker: Dr Laurie Wilson, CSIRO Telecommunications and Industrial Physics

Synopsis: The high bandwidth connectivity of "Next Generation Internet" technology will make possible new means of delivering healthcare, where it will no longer be necessary for the patient, and the expertise required to treat that patient, to be in the same location. CSIRO and its partners are currently building the CeNTIE high bandwidth network, which will provide GHz bandwidth and guaranteed Quality of Service for a range of new applications. A major application we are developing in collaboration with several Sydney Hospitals is the provision of critical care in the emergency room using multiple video, audio and data channels to create telepresence for a remote expert who guides less trained clinicians through complex medical procedures.

Biography: Laurie Wilson is currently Team Leader, e-Health in CSIRO Telecommunications and Industrial Physics and Telehealth Focus 

Group Convener for the Centre for Networking Technologies for the Information Economy (CeNTIE). He obtained his PhD in Cosmic Ray Physics from the University of Sydney, but has spent most of his career working at the interface of technology and medicine, with significant contributions in such areas as medical ultrasound, knowledge-based image analysis and the development of novel systems for delivering healthcare using Information and Communication Technologies.

OTHER LISTED MEETINGS

No details of other listed meetings have been provided at the time of printing this newsletter. Please visit the 'News' page of the Section web site for details in the weeks preceding the meeting.

 

15. IEEE SPONSORED CONFERENCES

Details of conferences and other forthcoming international events can be found by visiting the IEEE web site www.ieee.org/conferencesearch/.

New to the IEEE homepage, https://www.ieee.org, is a listing of four upcoming IEEE sponsored conferences, offering to web site visitors a broad exposure to the diversity of the annual IEEE conference program. The four highlighted conferences are extracted automatically from the ConferenceSearch Database, on a nightly basis. Each of the conference listings includes the conference date, as well as a link to its record within the IEEE ConferenceSearch Database for those seeking detailed information. Planned for future revisions of this homepage feature are companion web pages showing expanded listings of upcoming IEEE sponsored conferences.

 

16. POWER ENGINEERING CHAPTER ACTIVITIES

A full program of activities is planned by the Power Engineering Chapter in 2003. During the early weeks of Semester 1 lunchtime seminars for students are to be presented at Sydney University (Assoc. Prof. H. Outhred on "Alternative Energy Sources") and at UTS (Dr Graeme Gwilliam on "Understanding Cogeneration"). It is intended that both these talks will be conducted during Semester 2 at one of the other universities in Sydney or possibly beyond.

Later in the year, it is proposed to conduct a half-day industry seminar on "Experience with Cogeneration Systems". Date and venue have yet to be finalised and several speakers have already expressed an interest in participating. 

Also for later in the year, a repeat of the previously successful "Lead Acid Battery" seminar is being investigated. Venue and duration are yet to be determined.

For further details please contact the Chapter Chair, Graeme Gwilliam (ph 9587 5340, email gbgbill@theplanet.net.au).

 

17. SOLID STATE CIRCUITS/CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS ACTIVITIES

The first meeting of the NSW Joint Chapter of Solid State Circuits/Circuits and Systems in 2003 will be a talk by Dr Andre van Schaik, Senior Lecturer in Computer Engineering, U. Sydney, entitled: 
"Marble Magic: Design of neuromorphic optical motion detector for Logitech Trackballs."
Date: Wednesday, 19 February 2003
Time: 6:00-9:00pm
Venue: Cisco Systems, Level 2, 3 Innovation Road, North Ryde, NSW
There will be refreshments provided and time for networking.

For further details please contact the Chapter Chair, Steven Duvall (ph 9937 5861, email steven.g.duvall@intel.com).

 

18. ANTENNAS & PROPAGATION/ MICROWAVE THEORY & TECHNIQUES NEWS

In the recent ballot of members of the IEEE Antennas & Propagation Society, Trevor Bird FIEEE was elected to the Administrative Committee for a period of 3 years.

 

19. UPDATE ON STUDENT PAPER COMPETITIONS

The Section received seven entries for two IEEE Australia Council and NSW Section's Max Simons Prizes for undergraduate / postgraduate student papers. These entries will be submitted by the Australia Council to the Region 10 best paper competition.

The Max Simons Prize honours the past Section Chairman and the first Australia Council Chair. This prize includes $200 cash and a certificate. In 2002 it was awarded to Mr Yuehe Ge of Macquarie University for his paper entitled "Efficient Analysis of Microstrip Circuits Using New Closed-Form Green's Functions". The 2003 award will be presented at a function planned later in the year.

 

20. REPORT ON ICITA 2002

The inaugural International Conference on Information Technology and Applications (ICITA), the conference series supported by the IEEE NSW Section, was successfully conducted from 25 to 28 November 2002 at Bathurst. ICITA 2002 attracted around 200 delegates, 80% of which were drawn from overseas in more than 20 countries. It was organized by Dr David Tien of Charles Sturt University. Judging by the overwhelming response, the uniqueness of attending a conference in regional NSW obviously has great appeal to overseas delegates. 

ICITA 2002 attracted many high quality academic papers and several professors from top international universities presented their research results at the conference. Some of these brought their entire research team to the conference to meet their peers, exchange ideas, and establish professional networks. 

The 2nd International Conference on Information Technology and Applications (ICITA 2004) will be hosted in Harbin, China in January 2004, during the period of International Ice and Snow Festival. For details please email icita@ieee.org.

 

21. MEMBER PROFILE - 2003 SECTION TREASURER DAVID TIEN

David Tien is the new NSW Section Treasurer after only one year on the NSW Section Committee. However, David is no stranger to IEEE Section Committees as he is a former Chairman of the Singapore Section. 

David Tien received his undergraduate, master's and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science, Pure Mathematics and Electrical Engineering from Harbin, Chinese Science Academy, the Ohio State University, and the University of Sydney, respectively. Prior to joining the School of Information Technology, Charles Sturt University in 2000, he had 20 years' experience lecturing at the University of Sydney, Ohio State University and Singapore. Currently, his major research interests are computer security, artificial intelligence, image and signal processing, telecommunication, education theory, and biomedical engineering. 

During the past 15 years, David served as the Secretary, Treasurer and Chairman of the IEEE Singapore Section (membership: 4000), MDC Chairman of Tele-Communication Society, Region 10, and is currently the Treasurer of NSW Section. David has been involved in the organization of international IEEE conferences. David also serves as a member of the Charles Sturt University Senate.

 

22. UNLIFTING EXPERIENCE

Unfortunately for some members and guests at last year's annual AGM, dinner was preceded by an unnecessarily long journey in one of the lifts. Despite the potential serious consequences for sufferers of claustrophobia, good humour prevailed until relief arrived after about 40 minutes! The close proximity during this time prompted stories and jokes on body odour and the question, how many electrical engineers does it take to stall a lift!

 

23. WANTED

Still wanted to purchase:

Hardbound copy (1st or 2nd edition) of 'A treatise on the theory of Bessel functions', by G.N. Watson
Contact: the Editor (ph 9372 4289, email ts.bird@ieee.org).

 

24. IF YOU WANT TO CONTINUE TO RECEIVE CIRCUIT BY MAIL PLEASE DOWNLOAD AND COMPLETE THE FORM

As has been foreshadowed for over a year now, from 2003 CIRCUIT will normally be provided electronically by downloading from the NSW Section Web site https://ewh.ieee.org/r10/nsw. Members will be notified by email using the address provided at the membership renewal time when a new issue has been posted on the web site.

In 2003 CIRCUIT will be mailed only to those members requesting a printed copy or those not having an email address. If you require a hard copy of CIRCUIT mailed to you please complete the form and return to the Editor at the address shown. To download the printable form, please click here.

 

 

ADVERTISING PAYS!

This issue of Circuit reaches around 2500 IEEE members across New South Wales. Why not advertise your company or your next event to engineering professionals via Circuit?

For further information, contact David Burger - ph. (02) 8266 1371.
 

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