Please respond to ronald_aloysius@ieee.org if you are planning to attend this meeting. Also, let me know if you will be joining us afterwards at Ruby Tuesdays for dinner so I can make reservations. Again, only the speaker’s dinner is paid for. The rest of us need to pay our own way.

Description:

Independent component analysis (ICA) is a data analysis method used for discovering hidden factors, "sources", in sets of signals, "mixtures". ICA has found a fruitful application in the analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. A principal advantage of this approach is its applicability to cognitive paradigms for which detailed a priori models of brain activity are not available.

A good example is our recent study of brain activity during simulated driving. In addition, we have demonstrated the advantages of ICA in the identification of various signal-types (e.g. task and transiently task-related, and physiology-related signals), and extended ICA to analysis of multi-subject and complex-valued fMRI data. In this talk, I will first introduce ICA and the basic motivation for using ICA on medical imaging data, and then will review the current work on ICA of medical imaging data with some specific examples from our own work.

Biography:

Tulay Adali received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, in 1992 and joined the faculty at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Baltimore, the same year. She is currently a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at UMBC. She worked in the organization of a number of international conferences and workshops including the IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), the IEEE International Workshop on Neural Networks for Signal Processing (NNSP), and the IEEE International Workshops on Machine Learning for Signal Processing (MLSP). She was the general co-chair for the NNSP workshops 2001--2003 and the technical chair of the MLSP workshops 2004--2006.

She is the past chair and current member of the MLSP Technical Committee, and is serving on the IEEE publications board and the IEEE Signal Processing Society conference board.

Her research interests are in the areas of statistical signal processing, machine learning for signal processing, biomedical data analysis (functional MRI, MRI, PET, CR, ECG, and EEG), bioinformatics, and signal processing for optical communications. Dr. Adali is the recipient of a 1997 National Science Foundation CAREER Award.

Directions to HEM:

The Historical Electronics Museum (HEM) is located near BWI airport. The address for the HEM is:

Historical Electronics Museum

1745 W. Nursery Road, Linthicum, MD 21090

410-765-0230

The directions for the HEM are as follows:

From Baltimore
Route 295 South (Baltimore Washington Parkway)
Take West Nursery Road exit, turn left at light and go through four stoplights.
Museum is on the left, next to the Marriott Hotel.

From Annapolis
Route 97 North
Take BWI Airport exit. Right at first light onto Aviation Boulevard.
Turn right at sixth light onto Elkridge Landing Road.
Turn right at second light onto West Nursery Road.
Museum is on the right, next to the Marriott Hotel.

From Washington
Route 295 North (Baltimore Washington Parkway)
Take West Nursery Road exit, stay right on ramp.
Go through three stoplights.
Museum is on the left, next to the Marriott Hotel.

From Route 195
Route 170 North (Camp Meade Road) towards Linthicum.
Left at first light onto Elm Road.
Left at light onto Elkridge Landing Road.
Right onto West Nursery Road.
Museum is on the right next to the Marriott Hotel.

From Interstate 95
Exit onto I95 East to 295 North and follow directions from Washington (above)

3. WIE Affinity Group Summer Networking Happy Hour

WIE Affinity Group will be hosting a Summer Networking Happy Hour on Wednesday, June 14th at 6:30pm at the Hard Rock Cafe in the Inner Harbor.

Please contact Cassie Wolfe at cwolfe@muellerassoc.com for further details.

4. IEEE EMC Expo 2006

EMC Design for Working Engineers and Advances in Spectrum Effects

A practical seminar designed to improve your efficiency as an engineer, product designer or technical manager where you'll learn EMC Design for working engineers, trouble shooting tips and strategies and advances in spectrum effects from the experts in order to improve your E3 engineering skills. There are two tracks to satisfy the broad interest range of members in our area.

Seminar Location:

The Holiday Inn

45 St Patricks Drive

Waldorf, Maryland 20603

800-645-8277

The hotel is located some 40 miles south of the Baltimore International Airport and 30 miles southeast of the Regan National Airport. Parking is free at the hotel. A small block of guest rooms has been reserved at the hotel for the reduced rate of $87/night, plus tax, for single or double occupancy. Please reserve by May 15 to receive this rate, and mention “IEEE” to get our group rate.

Date:

Tuesday, June 6, 2006

Time:

8:00 AM to 5 PM, reception 5 PM to 8 PM

Place:

Waldorf Holiday Inn, 45 St Patrick's Drive, Waldorf, MD 20603

Exit the Washington beltway Interstate 95 at the exit 7A for MD Route 5 South. Drive south to Waldorf. Route 5, merge with MD Route 301 from Baltimore/Annapolis. Remain on MD Route 301 south to right on Patrick Drive (before the St. Charles Mall) http://www.waldorfmd.holidayinn.com/walmd/directions.html.

The EMC EXPO 15 May deadline for full time graduate and undergraduate student registration at $75.00 has been extended to Monday 5 June 2006.

Online registration and seminar details can be found at:

http://www.wll.com/Jun6seminar.shtml

5. PE Review

The next PE Electrical exam preparation course will run from August 15th to October 17th. Details of the course can be found at:

http://www.umbc.edu/trainctr/engineering/pe.php

For further information please contact:

Kent E. Malwitz

Vice President

UMBC Training Centers

kentm@umbctrainingcenters.com

6. Job Ad

Arium Architects and Engineers, in Columbia, MD, is looking for a Senior Electrical Engineer to work closely with a dynamic team of experienced architects and engineers on commercial projects. The position requires electrical design capability for lighting and power system design for commercial buildings. A fundamental knowledge of the NEC and experience in CAD is preferred. Send Resume to SteveMcL@AriumAE.com or call Steve McLaughlin at 410-730-2300.

7. Continuing EE Education

We are re-running this request for interest in a continuing education program. This program will be in the format of seminars focused on a particular topic of interest. The seminars may run either during the week after work hours or possibly on Saturday. The idea for the program is described below.

Name of project: Continuing EE Education (“CEEE”)

Goal: A section-level program aimed at:

Updating the IEEE members on new developments in the EE field.

Familiarizing engineers with basic new tools, products and techniques as well as giving them the initial knowledge and skills to use them.

Inviting representatives from different vendors to present leading novel products.

Giving tutorials in new areas.

Helping IEEE fellow members become more competitive, especially in times of uncertain jobs, off-shoring and salary stagnation.

Facilitating networking.

Broadening the horizon of each IEEE member.

Fostering collaboration between members of different societies as well as generation of new ideas (“cross-pollination” element).

The program should be open to all IEEE members, including students. It is meant to be a cross-societies initiative, i.e. should not be limited to narrow topics serving the interests of a single chapter only. Emphasis should be placed on meeting with experienced experts from different fields. Critical comparisons between different solutions of EE problems are expected to be made, and trends should be discussed.

Potential topics of interest could include, but are not limited to:

Software tools:

Programming languages

Compilers

Real-Time Operating systems

Debuggers

Emulators

Hardware tools:

Novel electronic components

Single-Board Computers (SBC)

Embedded solutions

FPGAs

Printed circuit board design (schematics capture, layout)

Circuit simulation (PSPICE)

Portable devices

Signal and image processing (examples, tools, help)

Wireless devices:

Theory

Standards

Available OEM products

Trends

Internet-based methods and devices:

Standards

Available tools

Contemporary design tools (like AutoCad and Solid Works)

Reliability and Compliance issues

We plan to invite qualified speakers from academia, industry and governmental institutions. The speakers will be professionals who can give first-hand information and share front-line experience on the technology, methods and tools being presented.

We plan to organize 2-4 meetings annually. Each meeting is planned to last for 2 hours or more. We could meet on weekdays, or on Saturdays.

Please send us your suggestions and preferences regarding topics, time and place of meetings, the name/acronym of the program etc.

Boris Gramatikov

Chair,

Baltimore Section

Bgramat@jhmi.edu