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)

2. Signal Processing Society Meeting

Topic:

Signal Processing for Cancer Research: Unmixing Composite Signals in DCE-MRI

Speaker:

(Joseph) Yue Wang, Ph.D.

Professor of Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech)

Date:

Wednesday, April 16, 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:

Dynamic functional imaging promises powerful tools for the visualization and elucidation of important disease-relevant biological processes in living tissue. Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) uses various molecular weight contrast agents to assess tumor vascular permeability and quantify cellular abnormalities in blood vessel walls. DCE-MRI can characterize vascular heterogeneity features that distinguish angiogenic blood vessels from their normal counterparts, and has potential utility in assessing the efficacy of angiogenesis inhibitors in cancer treatment. To test various hypotheses on the mechanistic and therapeutic responses of microvascular permeability and perfusion at tumor site, recent research aims to dissect the spatial-temporal patterns of microvascular permeability with differential perfusion rates, where the signal at each pixel often represents a composite of more than one distinct permeability source independent of spatial resolution. Formulating the task as a blind source separation problem, this talk reports a hybrid convex analysis of mixture framework for unmixing non-negative yet dependent microvascular permeability maps in DCE-MRI. A series of theorems and required conditions are briefly introduced to illustrate the identifiability when pure-source pixels exist for all sources and the lateral edges of observational scatter pyramid can be identified. The computational algorithm is based on a latent variable model whose parameters are estimated using non-negative clustered component analysis, convex analysis of mixture, and non-negative well-grounded component analysis. The principle and performance of the proposed approach are demonstrated using lung cancer dual-energy chest X-ray and breast cancer DCE-MRI data.

Biography:

Yue Wang received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical and computer engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1984 and 1987 respectively. He received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from University of Maryland Graduate School in 1995. In 1996, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University School of Medicine. From 1996 to 2003, he was an assistant and later associate professor of electrical engineering at The Catholic University of America. In 2003, he joined Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and is currently a professor of electrical, computer, and biomedical engineering. He is also a co-leader of the Biomedical Informatics Program at Wake Forest University Translational Science Institute. Yue Wang became an elected Fellow of The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) in 2004. His research interests focus on statistical machine learning, pattern recognition, information visualization, and advanced imaging and image analysis, with applications to computational bioinformatics and biomedical imaging.

3. Robot Challenge

The Robot Challenge will be taking place Saturday morning, April 12 and Sunday afternoon, April 13 at the Baltimore Museum of Industry, located at 1415 Key Highway (just across from the Inner Harbor near the Domino Sugar sign).

Many thanks to the many volunteers who have signed up to be judges for the event. We couldn't do it without you. Others who would like to come and watch the students and their robots are also welcome to come - there'll be a lunch truck at the Museum on Saturday, so come any time between 9:30 AM and 12:30 PM. Watch the teams struggle and cheer them on!

Also take a look at the Cargo Ship Challenge on Saturday and the Eco Power Challenge on Sunday, and explore some of the Museum exhibits as well. For further information contact Nevilleed@aol.com.

4. Notes from the Desk of the Chair of Baltimore Section

The following is a note from Bill Semancik, Chapter Chair for the IEEE Baltimore Section.

“Region 2 Meeting Summary:

This year the Region 2 meeting was held in Harrisburg in early March. We chose candidates who will appear on the ballot for election of Region 2 Director Elect. The names that you will see will be Murty Povalarapu who is the current Region 2 South Area Chair and Ralph Ford of Buffalo Section. The two candidates had definite differences in what they stressed in their talks supporting their candidacy. Ralph emphasizes large issues that affect the entire profession. Murty emphasized local and regional issues. I am sure that both candidates will further develop their platform as the election draws near. At that snapshot in time, it appeared to me one of the few times that I have seen such an election where you could clearly pick a direction of emphasis that you wanted to see for your professional organization. Take the time to familiarize yourselves with the candidates. I had not realized the commitment that these regional volunteers make on behalf of the profession. This is 6 years in total duration and 30 days to 6 weeks of personal time on your behalf.

You will see a growing emphasis from IEEE on both membership development – growing the numbers of people who are members of IEEE and member development – helping prepare our members for how our jobs and profession will change in the future. IEEE has reached the conclusion that it has lost touch with its membership and is determined to try to correct that failing. One manifestation of that aim is the dissolution of the Regional Activities Board and its replacement with a new board called Member and Geographic Activities.

Be on the look out for announcements on the next Women in Engineering Conference which will be held 3-5 October 2008 in Atlantic City. Holly Cyrus, the R2 WIE coordinator is organizing the conference.

For people who are looking for other opportunities to help young people appreciate what engineering has to offer as a career, Amarjeet Basra, R2’s Pre-College Education Representative is encouraging each Section to start and participate in engineering clubs in the local high schools. In this area, many schools already have engineering clubs. For people who would like to take this on, our job will be to identify schools who would like to have a professional work with their clubs and pair the professionals with the schools. If you are interested in this opportunity, drop me an e-mail.

Maryland Computer Tax:

I wanted to communicate to you the efforts that are continuing on your behalf by IEEE for repeal of the Computer Services Tax. People who are contributing to this include R2 Chair John Dentler, R2 Technical Policy Issues Coordinator Larry Stern, IEEE USA Legislative Representative Russ Harrison, DC Section Chair Gerard Christman, and myself. John and Larry were present for verbal testimony in favor of the repeal two weeks ago. While the law has not yet been repealed, there is increased momentum behind such a move. The negotiations have to include ways to replace the expected $200M per year the tax would have brought in. So continue contacting your State representatives. We haven’t won until a new law is signed.

Teacher In-Service Program:

The date for Meade Middle School has been delayed one more time until after the MSA exams in April. In the mean time, I participated in the Howard County conference on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. Howard County is putting in place a 5 year plan to lead in STEM education in schools. County educators are now aware of TISP and that they don’t have to wait 5 years to take advantage of what the professional societies bring. I also met a person from Arlington County Schools there and will be participating in their STEM conference in May. We are also being contacted again by Frederick County Schools for a TISP program.

Admissions and Advancement Meeting in Baltimore:

A meeting of the committee to review Senior Member Applications was held in Baltimore on 15 March. Nineteen volunteers reviewed 235 applications. The A&A committee has a goal to hold a meeting in each of the 10 regions this year. Baltimore was the city chosen from Region 2.”

Bill Semancik

Chair, Baltimore Section

wsemancik@ieee.org

5. TechMatch 2008 to Highlight Medical Device Entrepreneurs

IEEE-USA is partnering with LifeScience Alley to create a new event that will benefit members of both organizations. TechMatch 2008 will take place on May 12, 2008, at the Radisson Plaza Hotel, just prior to the 7th Annual MedTech Investing Conference (May 13-14) in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The goal is for selected small and emerging medical device companies to meet with Chief Technology Officers of larger life science/medical device firms, as well as with venture capitalists, corporate investors and angel investors. These one-on-one meetings will allow the emerging companies to showcase their technologies for the purpose of acquisition by corporations or investment by others.

Applicants will be pre-screened and provided with coaching prior to the event. The program will kick off with a luncheon featuring a keynote address by one of Minnesota's most well-respected life science entrepreneurs, Mike Berman, investor/entrepreneur; co-founder of Velocimed, and former President of Boston Scientific’s (Scimed) Cardiology business. The afternoon will be filled with pre-arranged one-on-one meetings and the program will conclude with a joint networking reception of the TechMatch participants as well as incoming guests for the MedTech Investing Conference.

For more information please visit:

http://www.ieeeusa.org/careers/entrepreneurs/techmatch/

6. NCEES Honors Mel Hotz with Distinguished Service Award

MDSPE Member Melvin Hotz, P.E., received the Distinguished Service Award for his dedicated service to the engineering profession at the 2007 Annual Meeting, the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES). Hotz was a member of the Maryland Board for Professional Engineers from 1988 to 2005. During his 17 years of service, he was board secretary for six years and chaired the Board's complaint committee.

He was elected board chair in 1996 and continued to hold this position until his departure from the board in 2005. Hotz also testified before the state legislature on a number of bills of importance to the Maryland Board and was a principal member of the board task force that developed Maryland's Code Officials Guide.

In addition to his board service, Hotz was also an active member of NCEES for 13 years and served as 2001 2003 Northeast Zone vice president. Hotz was a member or board liaison on a number of NCEES committees, most recently serving as a member of the Advisory Committee on Council Activities. He is the recipient of a Meritorious Service Award from the Northeast Zone.

Hotz has also strongly promoted the value of licensure. He has spoken at numerous student meetings to promote licensure, and he has chaired meetings with officials from Maryland universities to discuss the use of the Fundamentals of Engineering examination as an outcomes assessment tool.

Hotz retired in 1998 after a 34 year career with Westinghouse Electric Corporation. A senior life member of IEEE, he was active in the Baltimore section and held every elected section office, including chairman. He is a recipient of the IEEE Centennial medal and the IEEE USA Citation of Honor. In 2002, Hotz received the Maryland Society of Professional Engineers Distinguished Service Award.

NCEES is a national nonprofit organization composed of engineering and surveying licensing boards representing all U. S. states and territories. NCEES develops, scores, and administers the examinations used for engineering and surveying licensure throughout the United States. NCEES also provides services facilitating professional mobility for licensed engineers and surveyors. Its headquarters is located in Clemson, S.C.

7. New DVD about George Westinghouse

There is a new DVD out that features the life and legacy of George Westinghouse and his partnership with Nikola Tesla. The film is titled Westinghouse. Westinghouse was a pioneer in engineering and his companies continue to advanced technologies in America. More information can be found at http://www.westinghousefilm.com. For more information, contact:

Jeremiah Huth

Inecom Entertainment Company

http://www.inecom.com

150 Beta Drive

Pittsburgh, PA 15238-2932

(412) 967-2700x3115

jhuth@inecom.com

8. 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

9. 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

2008 IEEE Workshop On Signal Processing Systems (SIPS)

08 Oct - 10 Oct 2008

Radisson Hotel Reagan National Airport

Arlington, VA, USA**

2008 IEEE 58th Annual Broadcast Symposium (BTS)

15 Oct - 17 Oct 2008

The Westin Hotel

Alexandria, VA, USA

http://www.ieee.org/bts/symposium

2008 IEEE Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference - Intelligent

Biomedical Systems (BioCAS)

20 Nov - 22 Nov 2008

*Location:* TBD

Baltimore, MD, USA

http://www.biocas2008.org

10. 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