NEWSLETTER OF THE BALTIMORE SECTION OF THE IEEE
DECEMBER 2004
The web site for the Baltimore section of the IEEE is:
http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r2/baltimore
IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Election of Section Officers for
2005
2. Engineering
Tribute to the Presidential Inauguration
3. Communication
Society Meeting Notice
5. Women in
Engineering (WIE) Affinity Group
1. Election of Section Officers for 2005
The election results for 2005 are given below. Congratulations to the new officers. We had a total of 156 ballots cast.7 of the ballots were invalid or had no votes, probably due to the AOL problem.
Election Results 2005:
Position Candidate Total
Chair H. Brian Sequera 141
Chair, Write-in Jeffrey Friedhoffer 1
Chair, Write-in Doug Strand 1
Vice Chair Boris Gramatikov 143
Vice Chair, Write-in H. Brian Sequera 1
Secretary William Semancik 140
Secretary, Write-in Boris Gramatikov 1
Treasurer Roberto Cuellar 142
Continuing Education John Dentler 138
Programs Chris Nemarich 139
Awards and Recognition Thomas Patton 140
Student Activities Neville Jacobs 140
Audits and By Laws Joseph Pollitt 134
Professional Activities 1 Carole Carey 133
Professional Activities 2 Hoosamuddin Bandukwala 134
Membership Development Vil Arafiles 134
2. Engineering Tribute to the Presidential Inauguration
The "Engineering Tribute to the Presidential Inauguration" will last for two days - January 21st and January 22nd, 2005. During this event, speakers will be videotaped as they discuss a variety of topics that are relevant to the engineering profession. Then, those videotapes will be edited into a series of several ˝-hour episodes, and aired on the "International Definition" television program.
This event will take place at the Historical Electronics Museum in Linthicum, Maryland.
An invitation is being extend to any members of the IEEE who feel that they would like to join us as speakers, as long as they discuss matters that pertain to engineering.
If you are interested call Ken Freelain:
<engineering_tribute@yahoo.com>
(301) 891 - 0496
3. Communication Society Meeting Notice
The next COMSOC meeting for Baltimore will be on Tuesday December 7th at 6 PM in the Historical Electronics Museum in Linthicum (directions below). Food will be available at 5:30 PM.
Topic:
Technology and Policy Challenges for Electronic Voting Systems
Speaker:
Michael Wertheimer
Director for Research, Raba Technologies, LLC
Abstract:
Following the 2000 Presidential Election, Congress enacted the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), in part, to facilitate the modernization of vote-counting systems. Virtually overnight a new industry arose to harvest the several billion dollars in federal funds authorized to be spent on new "Digital Recording Electronic" (DRE) devices. These systems are designed to replace punch cards and paper ballots. In a headlong rush to spend these funds, many states and counties turned to paperless touchscreen voting machines capable of meeting HAVA requirements for multilingual ballots, unassisted blind and disabled access, and elimination of spoiled ballots. Unfortunately, Congress never funded the HAVA provision for the development of standards to which vendors would be held accountable - particularly in the area of security. As a result, numerous independent security studies have uncovered flaws capable of catastrophic failure of these software-based systems. In this talk we will discuss the current policies for DRE development, flaws discovered, and ongoing efforts to develop DRE standards. Some experiences from the November 2, 2004 election will also be highlighted.
Biography:
Mike Wertheimer spent 21 years as a Cryptologic Mathematician at the National Security Agency, rising to the rank of the Agency's senior most technical leader. Mike is currently building a small research and development team at RABA Technologies to develop strategic solutions to a number of Intelligence Community hard-problem challenges. His team occasionally forays into commercial applications, such as the trusted-agent security assessment of Maryland's electronic voting system. Mike earned his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1986.
** Please RSVP to ronosborn@ieee.org
The meeting will be held at Historical Electronics Museum, Nursery Rd, Linthicum, MD.
Directions:
From Interstate 95 Exit onto I-195 East to 295 North (Baltimore-Washington Parkway)
Take next exit, West Nursery Road exit, stay right on ramp.
Go through three stoplights.
Museum is on the left, just past the Marriott Hotel facing the hotel.
If you come to Elkridge Landing Rd you went 100 yards too far.
The Electronics Museum web site is located at:
Check the Baltimore Communication Society web site:
http://ewh.ieee.org/r2/baltimore/Chapter/Comm
4. EMB Society Meeting Notice
The December meeting of EMB society will be an informal discussion with Ms. Anita Lakshmipathy, Industrial Liaison, Johns Hopkins BME dept.
Date:
December 2, 2004
Location:
Clark Hall 110
Time:
6:30 PM; (Food: 6:00PM)
See the web site at:
5. Women in Engineering (WIE) Affinity Group
The formation of the WIE Affinity Group of the Baltimore Section has been approved. The joint NoVA/Wash/Baltimore WIE Affinity Group has been changed to the NoVA/Wash WIE Affinity Group.
Thanks for all that helped make this a reality.
Starting after the holidays we will have to move out to make this into a reality. Tina will be looking for support from everyone.
