NEWSLETTER OF THE BALTIMORE SECTION OF THE IEEE
MARCH 2005
The web site for the Baltimore section of the IEEE is:
IN THIS ISSUE:
2. New
Chapter Of The IEEE Signal Processing Society
3. Communications
Society Meeting Notice
4. Computer
Society Meeting Notice
5. Lasers
and Electro-Optics Society Poster Competition
6. Emag
Compatibility And Comm Societies Presentation On UWB
10. New IEEE Conference coming to
Baltimore
12. IEEE-USA Reverse Engineering
13. K-12 Online Writing / Programming
Project
14. Final Note - The End Of Star Trek
Enterprise
1. New Web Address
We have a new URL for the Baltimore Section of the IEEE. The new web address is:
2. New Chapter Of The IEEE Signal Processing Society
Based on the incredible response we got for interest in a Baltimore Chapter of the Signal Processing Society, the executive committee agrees that we should start one. We need to get signatures from current members of the signal processing society. I will be sending out an email soon telling where we can meet so that we can get the necessary signatures. Note that, although to start this chapter we need the signatures of current signal processing society members, once the chapter is formed, both signal processing members and non-members are welcome to attend meetings. I received a total of 109 emails from people interested in attending meetings. We should have a very active chapter.
3. Communications Society Meeting Notice
The next COMSOC meeting for Baltimore will be on Tuesday March 1 at 6PM at the Historical Electronics Museum in Linthicum. Food will be available at 5:30PM.
Directions can be found at our web site:
http://ewh.ieee.org/r2/baltimore/Chapter/Comm/
Speaker: Rob Jaeger
Topic: Building a Secure and Highly Available Network Infrastructure
Abstract:
Building a Secure and Highly Available Network Infrastructure
In today's commercial and DoD networks, mission critical voice, video, and data services are expected to be available when there is information to exchange. To meet service level agreements for quality and availability, vendors, service providers, and government agencies have identified the elements of the routed infrastructure required to meet the SLAs. This talk discusses the attributes of the IP routers that directly affect network availability, to include router security, redundancy, and reliability features.
These same features solve many of the problems identified by the government's Network Centric Warfare (NCW) concept, specifically, a lack of secure, robust connectivity and interoperability. NCW defines a set of warfighting concepts and associated military capabilities that allow warfighters to take full advantage of all available information and bring all available assets to bear in rapid and flexible manner (http://www.dod.mil/nii/NCW/ncw_exec_sum.pdf). NCW requires an information advantage that is enabled by a dramatic improvement in information sharing, made possible by highly available networks.
To achieve the NCW goals, the network is required to provide interoperable network components, quality of service guarantees, and a robust, stable, secure, and reliable infrastructure. We will delve into the details of building this multiservice router infrastructure that meets the requirements of both the commercial and government entities.
Bio:
Rob Jaeger is a Senior Systems Engineer for Juniper Networks, the IP networking leader in enabling secure and assured communications over a converged IP infrastructure. He currently works on building secure and highly available networks that carry the voice, video, and data communications of mission critical applications for government customers. He focuses on leading edge technologies, including MPLS, MPLS-based VPNs, and GMPLS. Rob worked as a System Analysis and Network Engineer for the Department of Defense, Verizon, and Nortel Networks prior to joining Juniper Networks.
Directions can be found at our web site:
http://ewh.ieee.org/r2/baltimore/Chapter/Comm/
4. Computer Society Meeting Notice
The Computer Society Baltimore Chapter will hold its meeting on Thursday, March 17, 2005, at the Historical Electronics Museum 1745 West Nursery Road in Linthicum, MD next to the BWI Marriott. Officer nominations/elections are also to be held at that meeting. For more information go to:
http://ewh.ieee.org/r2/baltimore/Chapter/Computer/
5. Lasers and Electro-Optics Society Poster Competition
The IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society chapters in Baltimore and Washington-Northern Virginia will be hosting a graduate student poster competition to foster industry-academia collaboration and knowledge transfer covering all areas of optical science and technology. Original or recently published poster presentations from graduate students in the Baltimore-DC-Northern Virginia area are welcome. An independent panel of judges will evaluate the posters, and a cash award and merit certificate will be awarded to the best poster.
The event will be held at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, MD on March 23, 2005 from 6-8:30PM in Howard County Room 3. Refreshments will be served.
All students and professionals from the region are welcome to come for education, networking, talent scouting, etc. Please RSVP to Baltimore.LEOS@ieee.org for poster submission and general attendance by March 16, 2005. Visit the chapter web-sites http://www.ieee.org/BaltimoreLEOS/ or http://ewh.ieee.org/r2/wash_nova/leos/ for more details regarding rules and submission guidelines.
6. Emag Compatibility And Comm Societies Presentation On UWB
The IEEE Baltimore Section Electromagnetic Compatibility and Communications Societies Invite You to a Presentation on Ultra Wideband (UWB) Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) by Dr. William G. Duff, Fellow IEEE and EMC Consultant.
When: Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Reception and Refreshments: 6:00 - 6:30 pm
Lecture and Discussion:
6:30 - 8:00 pm
Where: Historical Electronics Museum, Pioneer Hall
1745 West Nursery Road, Linthicum, Maryland
410-765-3803
http://ewh.ieee.org/r2/baltimore/
Free Parking
Note: There will be no admission charge, however RSVPs would be appreciated by
Tuesday 12 April 2005 in order to estimate the quantity of refreshments.
RSVP to:
EMC Chair: Robert Berkovits, 410-993-5403, rberkovits@northropgrumman.com
Vice Chair: John Anderson, 410-573-7502, janderson@alionscience.com
Communications Society Program Chair: Ron Osborn, 410-854-5535,
wizos2@yahoo.com
Abstract:
This presentation will describe results of electromagnetic interference (EMI) tests performed on a selected set of receivers to determine their ultra wideband (UWB) EMI characteristics. The UWB EMI testing was performed in support of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program for Networking in Extreme Environments (NETEX). The goal of the NETEX program is to create wireless networking technology that enables robust connectivity in harsh environments and support its integration into new and emerging sensor and communication systems. The NETEX program is focused on the development of an improved physical layer for networked communications based on a family of new ultra-wideband (UWB) devices that have the potential to perform useful communication and sensing functions that make them very appealing for a number of applications.
Specific EMI tests were designed to characterize the susceptibility of selected legacy communication, navigation, and radar receivers to various UWB transmitters and the effects of legacy systems on UWB receivers. Results of the test program provided information that may be used to evaluate the potential for UWB devices to coexist with legacy systems without causing or experiencing EMI, and help to define UWB system parameters that are required for EMC.
Bio:
Dr. Duff is
currently an independent consultant. He also works part time for SENTEL. Bill’s
45 years of experience include the development and application of EMC analysis,
modeling and simulation techniques for evaluating intersystem and cosite
EMC. Bill has written more than
40 technical papers and four books on EMC.
He also teaches seminar courses on EMC.
Bill has received several IEEE
awards including the Lawrence G. Cumming Award for Outstanding Service, the
Richard R. Stoddard Award for Outstanding Performance and a “Best Paper” award.
Directions from I-97:
Take I-97 to the Dorsey Rd Exit, Rte 176-West. Turn right onto Aviation Blvd., right onto Elkridge Landing Rd.,
and right onto West Nursery Rd. The
museum is just before the Marriott Hotel on the right at 1745 West Nursery Rd.
http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r2/baltimore/Directions/bwi_map.jpg
Directions From I-295:
Take I-295 to Nursery Road South.
The museum is on the left just past the Marriott Hotel at 1745 West
Nursery Rd.
7. Robot Challenge
The Robot Challenge will take place on Saturday, April 16 (8:45 AM to 2 PM), and Sunday, April 17 (12:30 PM to 3 PM). We have a need for judges and helpers at the registration desk. No past experience is necessary. Please contact Neville Jacobs for details, by e-mail to Nevilleed@aol.com, or by phone at 410-653-4176. Student members would be very welcome.
8. Student Paper Contest
The student paper contest is on track.
http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r2/baltimore/student/2005_baltimore_section_paper_contest_guidelines.htm
So far we have five judges for this contest. We need more judges. The papers are due on 1 April with oral judging on Saturday 9 April 10 AM - 2 PM at the Historical Electronics Museum. The papers will be emailed for evaluation.
Please consider volunteering to help, remember back to the days you were a student and how much you appreciated interacting with working engineers. Lets make this a good experience for our future members.
Contact Jeff Friedhoffer at jafried@ieee.org.
9. Officer Training
The Baltimore Section will be conducting a class to train section and chapter officers on March 19th, 9AM- 1PM at the Historical Electronics Museum (HEM) on Nursery Rd, Linthicum, MD next to the Marriott, near the airport.
This training is open to all officers of our section, or those members of the IEEE who are interested in learning more about the IEEE.
Please notify Jeff Friedhoffer if you will be attending so we can have sufficient snacks, coffee and lunch.
10. New IEEE Conference coming to Baltimore
The first IEEE Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks conference DySPAN2005 will be held in Baltimore 8-11 November 2005. This conference will include both technical as well as policy (FCC) tracks. It is being sponsored by the Communications Society and potentially The IEEE Electro Magnetic Compatibility Society and ACM SIGMOBILE. See http://www.ieee-dyspan.org.
Since this is in our backyard, the organizers of this conference are looking for help from local members of the IEEE. Please contact Jeff Friedhoffer jafried@ieee.org if you are interested in volunteering to help get this new conference off the ground and give a good showing for the conference attendees.
11. IEEE-USA Awards
News from IEEE-USA
1828 L Street N.W., Suite 1202, Washington, D.C. 20036-5104
Congressman Rohrabacher and Former IEEE-USA Board Member Head 2004 IEEE-USA Award Recipients
WASHINGTON (9 February 2005) -- Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), former chairman of the House Science Committee's Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics; and Dr. Charles P. Rubenstein, a 2003 member of the IEEE-USA Board of Directors and Operating Committee, will receive IEEE-USA professional awards.
Rohrabacher and Rubenstein join fellow IEEE-USA award recipients in recognition of their professionalism and technical achievements, as well as literary contributions to public awareness and understanding of the engineering profession in the United States.
Rohrabacher is being honored with the IEEE-USA Distinguished Public Service Award "for long-term support of IEEE-USA's Congressional Fellowship program and leadership on federal policy issues of concern to the engineering community." Steve Watkins served as an IEEE-USA Congressional Fellow last year in Rohrabacher's office, and Randall Brouwer holds the position in 2005.
Rubenstein, who lives in Massapequa, N.Y., is receiving IEEE-USA's highest honor, the Robert S. Walleigh Distinguished Contributions to Engineering Professionalism Award. An IEEE senior member and active volunteer, Rubenstein works as a tenured professor of information science at New York's Pratt Institute graduate School of Information and Library Science. He is being recognized "for sustained leadership and inspiration in professional activities within the IEEE Divisions and Regions."
IEEE-USA's distinguished awards are administered under its Awards and Recognition Committee and approved by the IEEE-USA Board of Directors. They will be presented at a 12 March awards ceremony held in conjunction with the IEEE-USA Leadership Workshop in Tucson, Ariz.
(http://www.ieeeusa.org/calendar/conferences/2005workshop/default.asp).
Here's the complete list of 2004 award recipients:
Professional Awards
ROBERT S. WALLEIGH DISTINGUISHED CONTRIBUTIONS TO ENGINEERING
PROFESSIONALISM AWARD
Charles P. Rubenstein
"For sustained leadership and inspiration in professional activities within the IEEE Divisions and Regions"
DISTINGUISHED PUBLIC SERVICE
Dana Rohrabacher
"For long-term support of IEEE-USA's Congressional Fellowship program and leadership on federal policy issues of concern to the engineering community"
PRECOLLEGE EDUCATION COMMITTEE TEACHER-ENGINEER PATNERSHIP
Mark R. Rognstad & William G. Speed, Jr.
"For providing mentorship, support, and encouragement to students interested in science, technology, and mathematics through engineering competitions at the local, regional and national levels"
CITATION OF HONOR
Donald W. Hill
"For sustained leadership in PACE activities at the national level"
Philip Holmer
"For leadership in providing analysis and guidance regarding technology policy to Congress as Chair of IEEE-USA's Committee on Transportation and Aerospace Technology Policy"
Glenn S. Tenney
"For increasing the visibility of the IEEE-USA Intellectual Property Committee, and contributing to testimony presented to the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act of 2004"
George W. Zobrist
"For enthusiastic service on behalf of the professional needs of U.S. members and students as Editor of IEEE Potentials Magazine and Member Activities Editor for IEEE-USA Today's Engineer and News & Views"
REGIONAL PROFESSIONAL LEADERSHIP AWARD
Parviz Famouri (Region 2)
"For organizing and executing PACE training sessions for Sections in Region 2 having limited PACE activities"
Robert H. Gauger (Regional)
"For efforts to improve professional standards, integrity and business practices of U.S. IEEE consulting engineers"
Tarek Lahdhiri (Region 4)
"For providing professional training to Sections, Chapters and PACE leaders within Region 4"
William Marshall (Region 3)
"For championing new programs within the Atlanta Section, in areas such as PACE, GOLD, K-12 Outreach, and Industry Relations"
Winnfort J. Myles (Region 6)
"For effectively communicating professional ideas, and educating and training other leaders in Region 6"
Hamid Vakilzadian (Region 4)
"For efforts in promoting PACE activities within the Nebraska Section and the West Area of Region 4"Hamid
PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Luke R. Maki
"For significantly improving the IEEE-USA Committee on Communications and Information Policy's effectiveness and image in the technology policy areas of broadband communication and improved spectrum use"
George F. McClure
"For pioneering the research and dissemination of information concerning the outsourcing of engineering jobs to other countries, and its effects on U.S. engineers"
C. Lee Stogner
"For reestablishing the IEEE-USA Government Activities Committee, and focusing its activities on member interaction with state legislatures and Congress"
Technical Awards
HARRY DIAMOND MEMORIAL AWARD
Robert K. Parker
"For leadership in radio frequency vacuum electronics, and pioneering technical contributions in the fields of intense relativistic electron beam technology, free electron lasers and gyro-amplifiers"
ELECTROTECHNOLOGY TRANSFER AWARD
David O. Patterson
"For spearheading development of advanced lithographic approaches and tools that foster exceptional advances in Department of Defense system capabilities and their transfer to commercial application"
Literary Awards
DISTINGUISHED LITERARY CONTRIBUTIONS FURTHERING PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF THE PROFESSION
William J. Mitchell
"For increasing public understanding of information technology in everyday life through his book, Me++: The Cyborg Self and the Networked City"
Terri Spitz, Steven Cooper and Scott Schroeder
"For increasing public understanding of the impacts on engineering employment due to the H-1B and L-1 visa programs through their TV news series, Stolen Jobs"
For more information, visit the IEEE-USA Awards and Recognition Web page at http://www.ieeeusa.org/volunteers/committees/awards/, or contact Sandra Kim at sandra.kim@ieee.org. Nominations are being accepted for the 2005 awards. The deadline is 31 July 2005.
IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of the IEEE. It was created in 1973 to advance the public good and promote the careers and public policy interests of the more than 220,000 technology professionals who are U.S. members of the IEEE. The IEEE is the world's largest technical professional society.
For more information, go to http://www.ieeeusa.org.
12. IEEE-USA Reverse Engineering
News from IEEE-USA
1828 L Street N.W., Suite 1202, Washington, D.C. 20036-5104
IEEE-USA Supports Reverse Engineering in Brief Before Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals
WASHINGTON (9 February 2005) -- IEEE-USA filed an amicus curiae brief on 24 January in support of reverse engineering for interoperability in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in the case of Blizzard Entertainment v. Internet Gateway (No. 04-3654).
IEEE-USA's "friend-of-the-court" brief seeks reversal of a September 2004 Federal District Court decision in favor of Blizzard, a computer game company. The Court basically ruled that by opening the shrink wrap of a software package, or clicking on a button during installation, the end user gives up fair use rights, including reverse engineering, granted under Section 107 of the Copyright Act.
Reverse engineering is a common and recognized practice, particularly in computer software, and is extremely important to technological advancement. IEEE-USA defines reverse engineering as the discovery by engineering techniques of the underlying ideas and principles that govern how a machine, computer program or other technological device works.
"Ultimately, the greatest benefits from reverse engineering are reaped by the public at large," IEEE-USA's brief said. "The positive exploitation of ideas expressed in copyrighted works over the past two decades is readily apparent: advanced, competitive computer software industries have fueled the explosive and enlightening development of the Internet as well as many technology-based modern products."
According to IEEE-USA, by exploiting shrink-wrap and click-wrap agreements, software publishers have attempted to use state-based contract law to trump fair-use rights granted under federal law. The organization believes that such agreements pose a danger to "the nation's intellectual property system" and will chill innovation.
IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of the IEEE. It was created in 1973 to advance the public good and promote the careers and public policy interests of the more than 220,000 technology professionals who are U.S. members of the IEEE. The IEEE is the world's largest technical professional society.
For more information, go to http://www.ieeeusa.org.
13. K-12 Online Writing / Programming Project
Call for Volunteers
Valerie King is looking for volunteers to assist with an online writing and programming project for K-12 students and their parents. The participants are drawn primarily from family support groups for High IQ children in English speaking countries (USA, Canada, and Australia).
The greatest need is for assistance with improving existing "help" documentation for the online collaboration environment.
The online collaboration environment is based upon a MOO Core. MOO was developed out of Xerox Palo Alto Research Center and is used by educators world-wide. The MOO environment allows participants to chat with each other in a text-based virtual reality environment. The K-12 participants "build" objects in the environment.
Previous projects included a "Curiosity Lab" where the kids invented sensors and measurement devices to use upon a "mystery" object. Observers and other participants used these "tools" to investigate and formulate their "guess" as to what the mystery object was.
The more advanced kids also have the freedom to invent collaborative projects on their own. These projects take advantage of the programming tools available on the MOO and a "C" like object oriented programming language. Adult mentors assist the kids through providing suggestions on how to phrase the wording for descriptions and short text messages that are emitted by the MOO objects in a stimulus-response mode of interaction (user "pokes" object, object responds with text message).
For more information contact Valorie King at vjking@ieee.org.
14. Final Note - The End Of Star Trek Enterprise
The TV program, Star Trek Enterprise, will end in May on Friday the 13th after four seasons.
One might ask why we would include an article about Star Trek in an engineering newsletter. Actually, Star Trek has made its presence in other engineering magazines. I remember reading an article about ten years ago in EE Times about why people became electrical engineers. A large number of people said that they were inspired by Scotty, the chief engineer aboard the Enterprise in the original series. This brings up an important point that engineering societies have been concerned with for a while. That point is how the public perceives engineers. There was a time when many people thought that if you were an engineer, you drove a train (anyone remember Casey Jones). Engineering is much more than that. And it is not that we are portrayed wrong in television programs, it is that we are mostly ignored. There are more cop shows than you can count on TV. Doctor shows are popular too as well as lawyer shows. But engineering shows are largely non-existent. That is where shows like Star Trek come in.
Star Trek has always portrayed engineers in a positive attitude. We all admire the characters Scotty, Geordi, Miles, B’Elana, and Trip. They were portrayed as brilliant engineers (miracle workers as Scotty would put it) with good character. In a day when bad behavior (and bad programming) seems to dominate American TV, Star Trek and shows like it are a welcome treat.
Some might ask why engineers and engineering are important. Simply put, we built civilization. From the time of the ancient pyramid builders, we, along with our scientist brothers and sisters, have advanced civilization to the point where we are now sending robot probes to explore the planets. The homes and buildings we live and work in, the cars and airplanes we travel in, the phones, radios, and TVs we use for communication, are all the result of science and engineering and the people who practice these professions. We have a noble profession with a long history of helping people to lead better lives.
I think Star Trek has contributed greatly to how engineers are portrayed on TV. I believe Star Trek has inspired many to study engineering in school and to strive to do good work on their jobs. We may be largely ignored on TV by other programs, but Star Trek has always treated us well. Many of us will miss the show.
