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.

Abstract:

Intelligent Vehicle systems (IV) are aimed at enhancing safety, increasing productivity, and providing less stress for vehicle operators. Mr. Richard Bishop, an industry expert, will present the Baltimore section with an intimate glimpse into the field of IV technology. Mr. Bishop will bring a few copies of his book Intelligent Vehicle Technology and Trends for sale to those interested in learning more.

Biography:

Mr. Bishop is founder of Bishop Consulting and supports clients internationally in research and business development within the intelligent vehicles arena. His clients have included federal government agencies, public transit providers, vehicle manufacturers, suppliers, research laboratories, state DOTs, and technology firms worldwide. He is Chair of the International Task Force on Vehicle-Highway Automation, and serves as a U.S. expert to ISO TC204 Working Group 16 on ITS Communications. He is also the publisher of www.IVsource.net (http://www.ivsource.net/), which covers intelligent vehicle developments.

Mr Bishop has authored a text entitled, Intelligent Vehicle Technology and Trends, published in 2005 by Artech House (available at http://www.artechhouse.com). The book examines real-world products as well as practical issues including cost, market aspects, driver interface, and user acceptance.

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 195 East to 295 North and follow directions from Washington (above)

2. EMB Meeting Notice

The October meeting will profile a small biotech/bioinformatics firm, Infinite Biomed Tech. The efforts to raise money through multiple grants and the efforts to partner with other businesses as technologies mature. The speaker will be Mr. Santosh Venkatesha, who is currently VP in charge of Finance and a student of Wharton/UPenn. This is tentatively scheduled for Oct 26. Consult the Baltimore website for details.

3. Power Engineering Society Meeting Notice

Topic:

Achieving and Maintaining Enterprise Benefits of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)

Presenter:

Hahn Tram, PE

Date:

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Time:

12 Noon: Lunch

12:10 – 1:30PM: Presentation.

To ensure lunch reservation, please RSVP to baltimorepes@ieee.org by Friday, October 6th.

Location:

Rutherford Business Complex (RBC) – South Conference Center

7225 Windsor Blvd.

Baltimore, MD 21224

See below for directions.

Abstract:

Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is much more than managing human resources and getting customer bills out accurately. It can transform electric meters into pivotal information gateways and drive efficiencies across the utility enterprise, spanning areas of customer services, system operations, asset management, and energy management. The presenter will introduce Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and examine enabling AMI technologies – from Power Line Carrier (PLC) and RF Networks to Broadband on Power Line (BPL) – through the lens of benefits and enterprise integration requirements.

Biography:

Hahn Tram is currently Senior Executive Consultant of Enspiria Solutions, Denver, Colorado. He has led numerous technology projects for dozens of utilities across the US and around the world. His work for over 25 years covered many utility business areas, including load forecasting, system planning, renewable energy, T&D engineering and operations, SCADA, distribution automation, asset management, demand side management, field force automation, customer services, etc. His contributions to the industry included about 100 publications and presentations in major journals and conferences. Hahn is a senior member of IEEE, Power System Planning & Implementation Committee, and member of DistribuTECH Advisory Committee. He was also a recipient of the Westinghouse Engineering Achievement award for innovations in distribution planning and engineering.

Directions to RBC-South:

From I-695:

Exit 17, Security Boulevard.

Bear left on the exit ramp.

Go to the 3^rd traffic light and turn right on Lord Baltimore Drive.

Left on Windsor Boulevard.

The RBC -South is the 2nd building on the left.

From I-83 and the Towson area:

I-695 West.

Exit 17, Security Boulevard.

Right on Security Boulevard.

Right on Lord Baltimore Drive.

Left on Windsor Boulevard.

The RBC -South is the 2nd building on the left.

From BWI Airport:

Leave the airport on I-195.

Take Route 295, North Baltimore.

I-695, West Towson.

Exit 17, Security Boulevard.

Bear left on the exit ramp.

Go to the 3^rd traffic light and turn right on Lord Baltimore Drive.

Left on Windsor Boulevard.

The RBC -South is the 2nd building on the left.

4. Education Society Chapter Meeting Notice

The first meeting of the Washington DC / Baltimore Joint Sections Education Chapter is to take place in the President's Room, ITE-456 the University of Maryland Baltimore County campus on Wednesday 8 Nov 6:30 - 9:00 p.m. This will be an organizational meeting in which we will plan future events and directions for the new chapter. For more details, please contact Prof David Bourner, 410 455 2855 or email bourner@umbc.edu. Refreshments will be provided.

5. EMC Society Meeting Notice

Topic:

New Advancements in Shielding Materials

Speaker:

Gary Fenical

EMC Technical Support Engineer

NARTE Certified EMC Engineer

Laird Technologies Delaware Water Gap, PA 18327

Date:

Wednesday November 1st 2006

Time:

Reception, Refreshments and Chapter Business: 5:30 - 6:00 PM

Lecture and Discussion: 6:00 - 8:00 PM

Location:

Northrop Grumman, Electronics Systems facility at BWI

Conference Room 603

See directions below

Open to Members and the General Public.

Note: There will be no admission charge; however RSVPs would be appreciated by COB Tuesday 31 October in order to estimate the quantity of refreshments.

RSVP to: EMC Chair: John Anderson, 410-573-7502, janderson@alionscience.com

Vice Chair: Robert Berkovits, 410-993-5403, RJBERKOV@IEEE.ORG

http://ieee.org/baltimore

Abstract

In keeping pace with the ongoing electronics boom, the wireless surge, increasing power levels and higher frequencies, there is no doubt that advances in electronic components are occurring at a rapid pace. While consumers demand more advanced products with increased features and speed, engineers work to meet the requirements of the electronics marketplace. Many factors, such as increasing frequencies, miniaturization, heat, environmental issues and more have to be weighed before working on enhancements to computers, digital cameras, video game handsets, RFID systems, LASER readers and countless other consumer and commercial devices.

In order to equip the industry with the tools needed for the next wave of electronics devices, new electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding capabilities, for one, are being improved. The latest available products help companies to lower costs, reduce waste, increase airflow and install devices in small spaces, to name a few.

Shielding products, in general, have experienced numerous noteworthy changes over the years. The uses, properties and advantages of the new materials, as well as advanced EMI shielding product designs, are significant in the world of electronics. Recent advancements include:

High-performance, dent-resistant vent panels

High aspect ratio form-in-place (FiP)

Ultrasoft sculpted fabric-over-foam (FoF)

Conductive foam (CF)

Metal mold-in-place (MIP) combination gaskets

Recyclable Clean Copper RF Gaskets

Biography:

Mr. Fenical is the EMC Technical Sales Representative at Laird Technologies, in Delaware Water Gap, PA and has been with the firm for 23 years. Mr. Fenical is a specialist in RF shielded enclosures and has been responsible for the design and/or measurement and quality control of hundreds of large-scale shielded enclosures as well as a number of shielded equipment cabinets and housings. He was instrumental in the design and construction of Laird Technologies' state-of-the-art World Compliance Centers.

He has over 40 years electronic experience in the operation and maintenance of RF and digital systems for both military and commercial applications. His experience covers classified RADAR systems, analog and digital computers, electronic and hard copy readouts, and both secure telecommunications and computer network systems.

Mr. Fenical has authored many articles on EMC Requirements for Medical Devices, Mutual Recognition Agreements and Guidelines to meet the essential requirements if the EMC Directive. He has also authored several seminars on the EMC Directive, International Compliance, and Designing for EMC and EMC Requirements for Medical Devices which have been presented worldwide. He holds the patent for the invention of heat-treated beryllium-copper knitted wire mesh gasket.

He is a special government employee for the FDA as an EMC consultant. He is the Chairman of the SAE AE-4 Committee on Aerospace EMC and a member of the IEEE-EMC Society, SMRI, and holds an FCC General Radiotelephone License (1st Class) with Ship RADAR Endorsement.

Directions:

From Washington DC and the Capital Beltway (I-495):

Take either 295 (Baltimore Washington Parkway) or I-95 north toward Baltimore. Turn off on I-195 towards BWI (east) – turn south onto MD 170. NGC ES will be on your left. Proceed to the fourth traffic light (just past the entrance to Amtrak Way, on the right) and turn left into the parking lot at the end of the building.

From the Annapolis area:

From the intersection of Routes 50 and 97, take Rt. 97 north to Rt.100 West. Exit at the next exit, MD 170 North (Aviation Blvd.). Take MD 170 north past lights at Dorsey Rd. and Stoney Run Rd. At the next light turn right into the parking lot at the west end of the Northrop Grumman building.

At the Facility:

Park anywhere at the west end of the building and go into the lobby next to the gate. Sign in with the guard; he will give you a visitor's badge. Room 603 is on the left.

6. Aerospace and Electronics Systems Society

The following is a notice from Dr. Brian Womack on the AES Society.

I am working to reestablish the IEEE AES society. The society produces a very solid journal, ‘IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems’, and sponsors great conferences covering topics like Data Fusion, Sensors, and Radar systems.

See the AES society home page for its scope:

http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/aes/

I ask for your support in this effort in terms of asking fellow engineers to participate if they have interest. I believe AESS will have the following benefits for its members:

* Networking

* Increase our network of high quality engineers including both social and career related interactions

* Data Fusion

* Discover new techniques for the data fusion, tracking and classification problems

* Sensors

* Learn about new sensors and their capabilities, as well as a forum to discuss near future trends and needs

* System Engineering

* Share the latest methods and process innovations that contribute to efficient teams that generate products that customers want

* Professional Development

* Keep all of us learning to add value to the organization

* Conference Participation

* Support related conferences by submitting papers, volunteering on organizing committees, and attending to learn about the latest techniques

You can help by forwarding me the email addresses of those interested in membership. With these email addresses, I will do the following:

* Maintain strict privacy of the addresses (to avoid unwanted solicitation)

* Add the address to a AESS mailing list such that the recipient may remove themselves at any time

* Poll the AESS mailing list for topic based areas of interest (the above is a sample), meeting format, location, and topic plans

* Encourage participation on the new AESS website (coming soon) where members can discuss research and meeting topics of interest. For example, if a member finds an interesting paper or book on a topic of interest, it could be shared with others that way. This can also be a forum to have virtual meetings to save us some driving time – though in person meetings will still be needed.

I envision that we can take advantage of our virtual community tools that are not all ‘push’ based. No one wants to receive an avalanche of emails. Instead, I expect we will reserve the mailing list for a monthly summary of items of interest. Members can then visit the website for details. In person meetings will be reserved for things that can not be done online, such as in person socializations, or speaker presentations.

Engineers in this community have extreme demands on their time, so we will respect by conducting this organization’s business efficiently.

Brian Womack, PhD

General Dynamics Robotic Systems, 410-751-6286 x3456

bwomack@gdrs.com

7. 2006 MPAC-WIE Conference

Title:

Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century Engineer

Date:

October 14 – 15

Location:

Embassy Suites Baltimore-at BWI Airport

1300 Concourse Drive, Linthicum, Maryland 21090

Sponsors:

IEEE Region 2, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Northern Virginia, Southern New Jersey Sections and its Women in Engineering (WIE) Affinity Groups

Conference website:

http://www.ieee.org/region2/wie.htm

What is the conference all about?

This conference is a forum for communication of men and women members of IEEE, students and friends to discuss and share views on their professional needs and interests. It is a grassroots network organized by IEEE volunteers that promotes the professional interests of its members.

Attendance is open to all and not limited to Region 2 only. Registration will be limited when room capacity is reached.

Topics:

IEEE Resources for Modern Engineers

Gender Diversity in 21st Century Engineering

Conquering the Challenges of Graduate School

IEEE WIE (Women in Engineering) for the 21st Century

Our keynote speaker, Celia Desmond, President of World Class Telecommunications, 2006 Vice President of IEEE Technical Activities and 2006 VP Member Relations IEEE Engineering Management Society will talk about “Skills Requirements for Success in Today’s Competitive Environment using Trends in the Telecommunication Industry to illustrate”.

Join us for dinner on Saturday (Extra: live music entertainment). Our featured dinner guest speaker, Dr. Ruth David, is president and chief executive of Analytic Services, Inc., a public service research institution that provides research and analytic support on national and transnational issues.

Pre-conference Tour:

Oct 14 (11:00-12:00)

Historical Electronics Musuem (HEM)

1745 West Nursery Road, Linthicum, Maryland

Email: hemuseum@verizon.net

http://www.hem-usa.org/

Registration, Hotel and other information:

Online registration is currently being set up and will be announced separately.

Please mark you calendars and watch for updated information via e-mails and web announcements.

Exhibit Tables and Questions:

Call Holly Cyrus (609-226-5337) or contact any of the committee members (see enclosed flyer).

We look forward to your participation!!

Carole C. Carey

IEEE PACE Chair, Baltimore

IEEE WIE R2 Coordinator

IEEE EMBS (Engineering in Medicine and Biology)

Standards Committee Chair and Liaison to IEEE-SA Standards Board

8. UMBC Computer Engineering "Capstone" Course

UMBC's Computer Engineering program has offered a one semester senior level "capstone" course, required for all computer engineering majors, for several years. Such a course is intended to bring together all of the student's undergraduate courses into a design experience in a team environment.

This year UMBC decided to lengthen this course into a two semester experience, which will allow enough time for more ambitious projects. The model involves the students doing some reasonably ambitious design and construction project of some selected prototype system, in teams of about 4 students. It extends over the whole academic year, from the problem definition and specification and requirements capture, through high level and low level design, fabrication, and testing.

The actual projects can vary from group to group, but in general UMBC expects that there will be some custom hardware constructed, probably of an interfacing nature, probably combined with commercially available modules, often involving communication of data to another processing point, and interfacing to processing software in a general purpose PC.

UMBC would like to have some local engineers who would be willing to come to campus on occasion to listen to the students' progress reports, do some mentoring, and generally let the students see how professional engineers think and operate. The time commitment would be flexible. This is still a work in progress, and UMBC envisions various degrees of interaction depending on the willingness and availability of the visitors. It could be as few as 2 or 3 times for an hour or so each, or it could be more extensive if time and interest permits. It would be more engineering than computer science, although there might be some computer control involved for some projects.

Special Note:

For this project, UMBC is requesting that interested engineers have some hardware experience.

9. Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Show

The Wilmington ISA Section is hosting an instrumentation, systems and automation show November 16th along the Delaware / Pennsylvania line off I-95 that might be of interest to IEEE members. There is free admission and parking. There are exhibitor tables available. Please contact:

Ken Lawrence

Show Coordinator

KRL Marketing, Inc

215-453-6782 PA Office

215-622-0051 Cell

Ken@krlmarketing.com

10. Candidates for Region 2 Director Elect

There are two candidates for the Region 2 Director Elect. They are Amarjeet Basra and William P. Walsh.

The web site for Amarjeet Basra is at:

http://www.amarjeetbasra.com/index.htm

The web site for William P. Walsh is at:

http://home.comcast.net/%7Ebillwalshr2/index.html

The links provide biographical information and the candidate’s statement. Please take the time to visit these sites.

11. 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