The agenda for this seminar is to provide the attendees with an overview of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA). By their nature, FPGAs can address many applications so we will look to build a strong foundation for future FPGA discussions. This foundation will include a high level overview of FPGAs as well as design flow and design methodologies. Additional topics to be discussed include embedded systems, DSP, and power.

Speaker:

The Presenter will be Brian Hoey. Brian is a Senior Field Applications Engineer (FAE) with Altera Corporation. As a FAE, Brian manages the technical engagement between Altera and some of their top customers within his geography. This engagement encompasses the whole design flow from consulting on system architecture to device selection and design implementation to prototype and production support. Brian has been with Altera for 7 years and has worked with companies in the military, test, computer, wireline and wireless communications markets. Prior to joining Altera, Brian was a design engineer with Northrop Grumman.

After the course, a CEU certificate can be obtained by each participant directly from IEEE Headquarters for $15.

Course applicants should register by sending an email to Boris Gramatikov (bgramat@jhmi.edu). The email should contain the following information:

Name and IEEE member number

Email address

Affiliation

IEEE membership (Y/N and Chapter, if any)

Age (optional)

Is the applicant applying for CEU certificate? (Y/N)

3. Signal Processing Society Meeting

Topic:

From Still Images to Moving Pictures: How a Radar is Used to Detect Ground Moving Targets

Speaker:

Charles Y. Chen, PhD

Program Management

Space Development Programs

Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems

Date:

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Time:

5:45 PM: Snacks.

6:00 PM: Talk begins.

Location:

Historical Electronics Museum (HEM)

1745 W. Nursery Road, Linthicum, MD 21090

410-765-0230

Please Respond To:

ronald_aloysius@ieee.org

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. Only the speaker’s dinner is paid for. The rest of us need to pay our own way.

Abstract:

Traditionally, war fighters have relied upon pictures, photographs, and other still images for intelligence and reconnaissance of the battle space. Since the 1970s, an alternative radar measurement technique, known as Ground Moving Target Indication (GMTI), was developed to provide the user near-real-time surface vehicular movement occurring throughout a large area, regardless of weather. The ability of GMTI to provide the war-fighter near-real time indications and warning of enemy movement can transform future Surveillance and Battle Management of air-to-surface operations. This talk will discuss the basic principles of GMTI, and provide examples of its utility.

Biography:

Dr. Charles Chen joined Northrop Grumman in 2002. Before joining Northrop Grumman, he was an Assistant Professor at LeTourneau University and a Lecturer at Cornell University. He received his BS and PhD in Electrical Engineering, both at Cornell University. He started his career designing Ground Moving Target Indication (GMTI) modes for a variety of sensors, and led several GMTI technology development efforts. He is currently a Program Manager, working to insert GMTI technologies in future sensors.

4. IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society

Meeting Notice:

IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society, Baltimore-Washington Chapter

Date:

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Time:

Dinner/Social, 6:00-7:00 PM

Talk, 7:00-8:00 PM

Location:

JHU Applied Physics Laboratory, Building 1, Howard County Room 3

Directions available at http://ewh.ieee.org/r2/baltimore/leos/

Contact:

Please RSVP to Baltimore.LEOS@ieee.org

Speaker:

Dr. Christina Lim

Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

The University of Melbourne, Australia

Title of the presentation:

Millimeter-Wave Fiber-Wireless Systems

Abstract:

Hybrid fiber-wireless networks operating in the millimeter-wave frequency region are being developed to provide ultra-high bandwidth untethered connectivity. Operating at mm-wave frequencies overcomes the spectral congestion in the microwave region (currently utilized for mobile and fixed wireless services), enabling the growth of truly broadband wireless access networks. The architecture of such networks requires the deployment of many antenna base stations with high throughput to maximize the geographical coverage. It is thus essential to minimize base station complexity by moving most of the signal routing, processing, and switching functionalities to a centralized location within the network (the Central Office.) Optical fiber transport, with its low loss, high bandwidth and immunity to electromagnetic interference, is the ideal solution for high bandwidth interconnections between the many base stations and the Central Office. Total capacity per antenna base station can be of the order of 1–2 Gb/s. By incorporating wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology, efficient fiber fed network architectures can be realized to enhance the capacity, efficiency, and distribution capabilities of the system. In this talk, Dr. Lim will present an overview of recent research into WDM-based architectures for fiber-wireless networks, focusing on technologies to overcome the principal technical challenges.

Biography:

Christina Lim is currently Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow with the ARC Special Research Centre for Ultra-Broadband Information Networks (CUBIN), Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Melbourne Australia. She received the B.E. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Melbourne in 1995 and 2000, respectively. In 1999, she joined the Photonics Research Laboratory (part of the Australian Photonics Cooperative Research Centre) at the University of Melbourne. Between 2003 and 2005 she was the Project Leader of the Australian Photonics CRC Fiber-to-the-Premises Challenge Project. Christina has received the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (IEEE LEOS) Graduate Student Fellowship in 1999 and the Australian Research Council Australian Research Fellowship in 2004. Her research interests include fiber-wireless access technology, modeling of optical and wireless communication systems, microwave photonics, application of mode-locked lasers, optical network architectures, optical access technology, and optical signal monitoring. She has published more that 140 papers in these and related areas.

5. Power Electronics and Women in Engineering Joint Meeting

The Power Electronics Chapter (PELS) and the Women in Engineering affinity group (WIE) are hosting a technical presentation by Sharon Beermann-Curtin on Monday, January 14, 2008. Ms. Beermann-Curtin is a Program Manager with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). She will be speaking on current programs that focus on energy-dense capacitors, nanostructure materials, and wide band-gap, high-power electronics. Event details and a brief bio are included below.

If you anticipate attending, please RSVP to hobrien@arl.army.mil any time before Wednesday, January 9th.

Date:

Monday, January 14, 2008

Time:

Light fare and casual networking at 6pm, followed by presentation

Location:

Historical Electronics Museum, Pioneer Hall

Speaker Bio:

Sharon Beermann-Curtin is currently a Program Manager in the Defense Systems Technology Office (DSO) at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Her portfolio of programs has a focus on power and energy, including batteries, fuel cells, high power capacitors and high power semiconductor efforts. Previous to DARPA, she spent 10 years at the Office of Naval Research (ONR) where she was most recently the Acting Deputy Department Head of the Materials and Physical Sciences, and Ship Hull Mechanical & Electrical Science & Technology Department.

In the 2002-2003 school year, she was a visiting scholar in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Ocean Engineering Department (13-A program). From 1999-2001 she was detailed to the Program Executive Office - Aircraft Carriers as their first Chief Technology Officer to transition technologies to both in-service and future Aircraft Carriers. Earlier positions held at ONR include Technology Manager for Ship Systems in the Hull, Mechanical and Electrical S&T Division, and Underwater Weapons Countermeasures Program Manager. Ms. Beermann-Curtin holds master’s and bachelor's degrees in Electrical Engineering.

6. PES Announces Engineer’s Week Dinner Meeting

When:

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Where:

Historical Electronics Museum

1745 West Nursery Road

Linthicum, MD

410-765-0230

Time:

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Guest Speaker:

Ms. Carol Dodson

Vice President - BGE Business Transformation

RSVP to:

baltimorepes@ieee.org

RSVP by:

Friday, February 15th 2008.

See the website at:

http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r2/baltimore/baltimorepes/

7. Robot Challenge

The Robot Challenge will be held this year on Saturday, April 12 and Sunday, April 13, and we will soon be seeking IEEE members to become judges of the teams that will be participating in this special event. Some folks have asked what the Challenge is all about, so we are offering a special 4 hour training session at 10 AM on Saturday, January 19 at the Baltimore Museum of Industry. There is no cost to attend, lunch is provided, and it’s open to teachers, mentors and judges. Please contact Neville Jacobs at Nevilleed@aol.com, or Jay Gamerman at jay.gamerman@acrodyne.com to register.

8. Communications Society

Dr. Curtis Menyuk of UMBC has agreed to be Chapter Chair for Baltimore Communications Society.

9. Call for Officers for Chapters

Baltimore Section is looking for Chapter Chairs for Aerospace and Electronic Systems Chapter and for Computer Society. Any interested members of those societies please contact Bill Semancik at wsemancik@ieee.org.

10. Financial Engineering: a Growing Career Path for Technical Professionals

The following is a paid advertisement by T. Rowe Price, a leading global investment management firm.

It might surprise you to hear that the financial industry is now one of the hottest destinations for sharp-minded engineers. And for good reason, says Richard T. Whitney, head of Quantitative Equities at Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price, a leading global investment management firm.

“The financial industry has matured to a point where sophisticated and innovative models are now a big part of decision-making,” explains Whitney. This is prompting many financial firms to reach out to engineers and others with technical backgrounds to apply their expertise to the world of investing.

See the following website for more information:

http://www.troweprice.com/financialengineering

11. Baltimore Region Conferences

The following conferences are planned for Maryland, Washington, DC, and Northern Virginia. This list can be used for planning purposes and also represents potential volunteering opportunities.

2008 IASTED International Conference on Antennas, Radar and Wave Propagation (ARP)

16 Apr - 18 Apr 2008

Best Western Conference Centre

Baltimore, MD, USA

http://www.iasted.org/conferences/home-616.html

2008 Integrated Communications, Navigation and Surveillance Conference (ICNS)

05 May - 07 May 2008

Bethesda Maryland USA

http://spacecom.grc.nasa.gov/icnsconf/index.shtml

2008 IEEE 23rd Annual Conference on Computational Complexity (CCC)

22 Jun - 26 Jun 2008

University of Maryland

College Park, MD, USA

http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/jrogers/complexity/

2008 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering

(CASE 2008)

23 Aug - 26 Aug 2008

Marriott Key Bridge

Arlington, VA, USA

http://www.ieee-case.org

2008 IEEE International Symposium on Modeling, Analysis & Simulation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems (MASCOTS)

07 Sep - 10 Sep 2008

Tremont Suite Hotels

Baltimore, MD

12. Engineer of the Year Awards

The Engineering Society of Baltimore is again soliciting nominees for Engineer of the Year Award. There are four awards.

1. Engineer of the Year

2. Young Engineer of the Year (under 35)

3. Meritorious Service to the Engineering Profession

4. Engineering Achievement of the Year

Information is available on line at:

http://esb.org/balteng/ (scroll down the page to the big bullet)

In the recent past 3 of our members received these awards, Robert Runser, Young Engineer of the Year, David Sherman, Engineer of the Year and Neville Jacobs for Meritorious Service to the Engineering Profession.

This is an opportunity to honor our outstanding members. The winners will be announced in a press release and will bring credit to the individual as well as their company. Nominate one of your colleagues or write up a nomination for yourself and ask one of your colleagues to be the nominator.

Note that there have been very few nominations in the recent past, last year there were no nominations for several of the awards, so please consider making a nomination.

Nominations in soft copy are due to Bill Semancik by 25 January 2008, so the section can determine whom to endorse.

Contact Jeff Friedhoffer with any questions (jafried@ieee.org).

13. Mentoring

The IEEE Mentoring Connection is looking for "online" mentors to help guide younger IEEE professionals in career planning and professional development. Currently, 989 mentees, but only 440 mentors have registered to participate. Mentor participation is open to all IEEE members above the grade of Student Member. Shortly, we will be inviting Graduate Student Members to join the program. These members have graduated with their first professional degree and are presently in a graduate program (Masters, MBA, PhD, etc.). We will need additional mentors in the program to handle the requests from this new group. We need you! Presently our mentors represent positions in academia including Associate Dean and Professor. Various Industry positions are represented by Director of Engineering, Senior Sales Engineer, Project Manager, Corporate Owner, Consultant, R&D Technical Manager, Licensing Manager, Division Manager - Control Systems, Electrical Engineer, Vice President Research, Director - Customer Operations, Computer Scientist - Branch Chief, Senior Product Development Engineer, Design Engineer - Power and Retired.

If you have received an invitation to join the program and been thinking about it, now is the time to join. If you have already signed in as a mentor - thank you for participating. Gary Hinkle, a mentor in the program, says "Helping young engineers develop in their careers is very rewarding. Working with some of these individuals has proven to be quite a challenge, because of the diversity among those seeking mentors. I'm glad to be contributing to this program."

The program enables the mentee to select their mentoring partner online from a list of individuals who have volunteered to serve as mentors. After mentors are identified as a potential match, they are contacted and asked to begin establishing a relationship.

Interested members can visit http://www.ieee.org/mentoring for information on the roles and responsibilities of each mentoring partner, including additional program information and an FAQ page. Potential mentors are asked to review the time and effort commitment to the program necessary to ensure a successful mentoring partnership. To enter the program website, please go to http://www.mentoringconnection.com and use the IEEE Group ID "IEEE2006" to enter for the first time. Once in, you will need to set your own User ID and Password.

If you have any questions, please contact Cathy Downer, Regional Activities, at c.downer@ieee.org.

14. IEEE Foundation Announces 2008 Application Deadlines

The IEEE Foundation, Incorporated, the philanthropic arm of the IEEE, is committed to improving the technological literacy of society from childhood through adulthood. One way the IEEE Foundation seeks to achieve this goal is by awarding grants to new and innovative projects. During 2008, unsolicited applications will be accepted in three cycles from IEEE units and other organizations working in areas of relevance and importance to the IEEE and its membership. Projects should achieve one or more of the following objectives:

- Improve primary and secondary science, technology, and math learning

- Encourage pre-university students to consider engineering as a career path

- Increase the public’s understanding of the role of engineers and technology in society

- Preserve the history of IEEE associated technologies

- Tap the technological expertise of IEEE members

- Demonstrate ability to be replicated

Application deadlines:

Deadline IEEE Foundation Meeting Date

4 Jan 2008 Mar 2008

18 Apr 2008 Jun 2008

5 Sep 2008 Nov 2008

Before submitting the online application, please review “How to Apply for a Grant” (http://www.ieee.org/organizations/foundation/grants.html). All applications will be considered for funding by both the IEEE Foundation Board of Directors and the IEEE Life Members Committee. Questions should be directed to the IEEE Foundation Administrator at +1 732 981 3435 or foundation-office@ieee.org.

15. 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

Web Page Design

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

Baltimore Section

Bgramat@jhmi.edu