NEWSLETTER OF
THE
May 2008
The web site for the
IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Communications and Signal Processing
Joint Meeting
2. Signal
Processing Society Meeting
3. Baltimore
PELS Chapter Meeting
4. IEEE
Lasers and Electro-Optics Society Graduate Student Poster Competition
5. IEEE SP
Society to Offer Free Access to Signal Processing Materials
7. Notes
from the Desk of the Chair of Baltimore Section
8. Call for
Ideas and Mentors for Local Engineering Programs
9. TechMatch
2008 to Highlight Medical Device Entrepreneurs
11. Financial
Engineering: a Growing Career Path for Technical Professionals
12. Baltimore
Region Conferences
1. Communications and Signal Processing Joint Meeting
This meeting is jointly sponsored by the Communications Society and the Signal Processing Society.
Topic:
Hyperspectral Imaging: An Emerging Technique in Remote Sensing
Speaker:
Dr. Chein-I Chang
Remote Sensing Signal and Image Processing Laboratory
Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
Date:
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Time:
5:30 PM: Food.
Location:
Historical
410-765-0230
Please Respond To:
Please respond to ronald_aloysius@ieee.org if you are planning to attend this meeting.
Abstract:
Hyperspectral imaging has expanded capability of multispectral imaging in many prospects. Specifically, it changes many ways how algorithms are designed from traditional spatial-domain (literal) analysis to spectral-domain (non-literal) analysis. This is mainly due to the fact that many unknown substances which cannot be identified by visual inspection or prior knowledge can now be uncovered by high spectral resolution provided by hyperspectral imagery. It is particularly evidential in spectral unmixing, anomaly detection and subpixel/mixed pixel analysis where target signatures are on longer pure but rather mixed by other substances or background signatures within a single pixel. In this case, no inter-pixel spatial correlation is available to perform literal analysis and data processing must be carried out on a single pixel basis in an unsupervised manner without appealing for spatial information. This talk investigates issues arising in hyperspectral imaging from statistical signal processing view points and further explores applications in which multispectral imaging seems ineffective but hyperspectral imaging has found potential promise and great success.
Biography:
Chein-I Chang received his B.S. degree from Soochow
University, Taipei, Taiwan, M.S. degree from the Institute of Mathematics at
National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan and M.A. degree from the State University
of New York at Stony Brook, all in mathematics. He also received his M.S.,
M.S.E.E. degrees from the
Dr. Chang has been with the
Dr. Chang is the author of Hyperspectral Imaging: Techniques for Spectral Detection and Classification published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2003 and the editor of two books, Recent Advances in Hyperspectral Signal and Image Processing, Trivandrum, Kerala: Research Signpost, Trasworld Research Network, India, 2006 and Hyperspectral Data Exploitation: Theory and Applications, John Wiley & Sons, 2007. Dr. Chang is currently working on his second book, Hyperspectral Imaging: Signal Processing Algorithm Design and Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, due 2008 and co-edited with Dr. Plaza a book on High Performance Computing in Remote Sensing, Chapman & Hall/CRC Press, 2007.
Dr. Chang is a Fellow of SPIE and a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Eta Kappa Nu.
2.
Signal Processing Society Meeting
Topic:
MIMO Radar Signal Processing of Space-Time Coded Waveforms
Speaker:
Marshall Greenspan, Ph.D.
Senior Consulting System Engineer
Northrop Grumman Corporation
Date:
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Time:
Location:
Historical
410-765-0230
Please Respond To:
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:
Multiple Input Multiple Outputs (or MIMO) system architectures have become increasingly common in digital data communications products. Only in the past few years, however, has the radar community started to understand this new technology and its many radar system benefits. Key to the implementation of such MIMO radar system architectures is an understanding of space time coded waveforms that make many of the classical concepts of temporal waveforms and spatial beam patterns obsolete. In such space-time coded waveform systems, the time-domain pattern is a function of where in space it is observed and the spatial domain pattern is a function of when in time it is observed.
This type of space-time coupling of the radiated RF signal provides a new degree of freedom to the radar designer that can yield improved performance in existing modes and can provide capabilities that are simply unattainable by other more conventional radar system architectures. Some of the system benefits made possible by this emerging technology include:
* Denial of the radar waveform to a threat intercept receiver
* Immunity to sidelobe repeaters or discretes
* Reduced sidelobes from sparse arrays
* Improved suppression of mainlobe and sidelobe clutter
* Improved detection of slow-speed surface moving targets
* Improved angle accuracy at any target detection level
This presentation will describe Space Time Coded Waveforms as implemented in each of several signal domains. The paper will then describe various multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) radar system architectures and associated signal processing techniques that will be needed to exploit some of the unique capabilities of such Space-Time Coded waveforms.
Biography:
Dr. Greenspan graduated from MIT with his MSEE degree in
1962 and obtained his PhD in EE from the
He is a Senior member the IEEE and has been a long term member of the Aerospace and Electronic Systems (AES) society’s Radar Systems Panel.
He is the primary author of 16 professional conference papers and has been an invited speaker at four national technical symposiums. He also holds four U.S. Patents in the area of Radar and Weapon Systems.
3.
Baltimore
The Baltimore PELS chapter is hosting one more technical talk before breaking for summer (details follow). Stay tuned for information on our planned Fall 2008 events: a replay of last year's successful end-of-summer BBQ, and a technical talk on JFETs by NGC's Victor Veliadis.
Talk Title:
Advanced Nanocrystalline Magnetic Core Materials for Future Combat Vehicles
Speaker:
Dr. Thomas Salem (Army Research Laboratory)
Date/time:
Thursday, May 15, 6 pm (refreshments followed by talk)
Location:
Pioneer Hall at the Historical
Directions:
http://www.hem-usa.org/hours-directions-parking.shtml
RSVP to Heather at hobrien@arl.army.mil
Abstract:
Recently, the Army initiated the Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, which is a comprehensive modernization effort to rejuvenate and introduce state-of-the-art technology into the equipment, weapons, and platforms used by our soldiers. Supporting this effort, the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) is investigating advanced materials and technologies related to both active and passive power electronic components for use in these future systems. For power electronics, one of the primary impacts on the FCS program is found in the development of future electric and hybrid electric combat vehicles. These applications require various power conditioning subsystems ranging from electric motor drives (inverters) to bi-directional DC to DC converters. This presentation will discuss ongoing research efforts at ARL on advanced nanocrystalline magnetic core materials.
Speaker bio:
Dr. Thomas Salem, a licensed professional engineer, has
twenty years of engineering experience in a wide variety of work settings. After
graduating from
Dr. Salem's research area is power electronics, with specific interest in technology development for both active and passive components.
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE
4. IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society Graduate Student 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
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 May 18, 2008. 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.
5. IEEE SP Society to Offer Free Access to Signal Processing Materials
The IEEE Signal Processing Society is partnering with Connexions, which produces Web-based educational materials, to develop a free online repository on signal processing. This collaboration is among the first to promote the IEEE's new public-access-friendly policy. For more information, visit:
http://bmsmail3.ieee.org:80/u/11168/02884302
6. Robot Challenge
The following is a note from Neville Jacobs, Jay Gamerman, and John Dentler:
“We would like to thank the Judges, Repair Engineers, Photographers and Administrators who worked so hard during the weekend of April 12 and 13 to make the Robot Challenge event such a success. We had a record number of participating teams at the Challenge Event (57), the greatest number of teams completing the course (24), the highest number of points scored (109.5), and the most 4-leg teams ever completing the course (6). Most important of all, the students seemed to be having a terrific time.
The judges also had a great experience, though they had a difficult time on Sunday, when twice as many teams showed up than what we had expected. This required many of the judges (and some others as well) to work both as Track judges and as Oral Presentation judges, but they/you rose to the occasion, and it all went off without a hitch. Kudos to all of you and many thanks for your contribution. From the nice comments we've received from teachers, students and parents, you have really made a difference to the lives of these students.”
7.
Notes from the Desk of the Chair of Baltimore
The following is a note from Bill Semancik, Chapter Chair for the IEEE Baltimore Section.
“A Time for Thanks to IEEE Local Volunteers
The Section is planning its awards and recognition dinner for the most recent past chairs of the technical chapters and affinity groups. These are the people who work very hard to bring you technical meetings that are relevant to your current work.
In advance of the dinner I would like to add my personal thanks not only to the chairs but all the volunteers. The job of Section Chair is made so much easier because of their efforts.
Robot Challenge Completion – A View from Pit Row
A few of you are aware of the fact that I lead the repair pits for the high school robotics challenge the Baltimore Section sponsors as part of the Maryland Engineering Challenges. While Neville Jacobs and Jay Gamerman lead the effort and numerous people to mentor the high school teams, it takes about 70 person days in the final week to pull off the event between judges for the written reports, track judges, oral presentation judges, repair pits, and administration of the event.
We had a few less teams competing than in past years but the overall view from the pits is that the teams were better prepared. I saw no teams trying to build the robot kit the morning of the event as in past years. What impressed me is that most years when students came for help in the pits they were pretty passive. This year’s students were actively engaged in the repair process. They suggested possible ways to fix the problems and often only wanted access to tools to perform repairs themselves. I think that the local employers should be on the lookout for when members of this class who go into engineering graduate. I think that you will be very happy with the enthusiasm and the energy these students put into their efforts.
This is also a time to thank those who shared the time in the repair pits with me – Dave Kisak (also Vice-Chair of the Section), Pat Galante, and JF Mergen.
For next year I am planning on staffing up more for the Sunday run. We saw twice as many teams run on Sunday as in prior years but typically run half the staff on Sunday in the pits. I think this is signaling a shift in demographics as Saturday activities take more of the student’s time. If someone is interested in helping next year in the repair pits especially on Sunday, please contact me.
One item that I should have mentioned in the summary from the Region 2 meeting was that IEEE is planning a call center for helping members with issues that arise – like the web site problems that occurred during this past year’s renewal process. It is still possible to influence the functions that are placed within this call center. If you have positive suggestions, please contact me.
Those of you who have been following the news will
recognize that since the last newsletter the
If you are in favor of the repeal then you should be grateful for the efforts of not only IEEE-USA but also the behind the scenes efforts of the local technology councils and individuals like Steve Walker who spent considerable personal time in this effort.
Teacher In-Service Program
We will be looking for volunteers to help with a TISP
session for
Bill Semancik
Chair,
8.
Call for Ideas and Mentors for Local
Engineering Programs
Those of you who have graduated recently or who maintain
interest in University engineering programs are aware that programs are
required to have a capstone program that present senior projects to the
soon-to-be graduates. The Section has already provided some mentors and topics
to University of Maryland Baltimore County. We are also being approached by
A description for the UMBC program follows. If you are interested, in helping you can contact Dr. John Pinkston at pinkston@umbc.edu.
The UMBC Computer Engineering program has a two-semester senior project course taken by all of the CE students. They get an engineering experience from requirements definition through design and implementation of a system in a team environment.
In summary, we’re looking for IEEE involvement in two ways: 1; ideas for these senior projects, and 2; experienced engineers to act as mentors for the students doing these projects next academic year. These are independent - either one or the other or both is fine. We hope to present the students with several project ideas to choose from when the next class starts in the fall.
For background, the goal of the capstone course is to provide the students with an educational experience of doing a design - i.e. arriving at a solution to a set of requirements, which may have ambiguity - and implementing that design. It aims to bring together and build upon all of the course material that the student has previously taken.
It differs from the previous courses the students have taken in several ways: there is a greater element of creativity and problem solving in a less constrained environment, and the activity is done in teams, so it gives the student the experience of working with other engineers, dividing up work to be done, setting goals, milestones, and schedules and meeting them. As they implement their design, we want them to experience the selection of components, construction, and debugging of a system that is more complex than any they have worked on before.
Overlapping but perhaps extending the above is the experience of working as an engineer - doing regular reporting of progress (both written and briefings), planning for component and system testing and defining passing criteria for the tests, and giving a final demonstration. It involves negotiating with their 'customer' if trade-offs are needed.
The availability of experienced mentors also often brings home the fact that the engineer doesn't have to know everything - just know whom to ask and be able to understand the answer.
What will the students know? The capstone course prerequisites are the transistor circuits course and the systems design and programming course. The latter covers assembly language programming of microprocessors and implementing them into custom systems. Many students will have had our FPGA course and some will have had the signals and systems course - or be taking them in the first semester. They will, of course, have had physics through E and M, and math through calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, and probability, and the elementary digital design and linear circuits courses. They will be able to design and fabricate PC boards but will have had very little experience with high speed issues. They are better with digital than analog, and better with software than hardware.
The selection of projects has not been real good in the past, and we are looking to do much better. This is why we are seeking project ideas. Here's what we would like. There should be a 'customer' with a requirement (that's me as a last resort). The scope must be not too big and not too small - it must be doable in 2 semesters by a team of 4 people (sometimes 3 or 5) all the way from defining the real requirements and specs to final demo. It must involve design and implementation of electronics hardware - no pure software projects. It may involve software - probably will, but not required. It can be purely digital (i.e. a coprocessor board for a PC) or it can involve mixed signals. A purely analog (rf, radio) project is possible but most of our students are not adequately prepared for this. It would be nice if the project produced something that looks like a neat product, but if it's too neat, it's probably been done and we don't want a project that just emulates an existing product.
Management of Expectations: these are 21 year olds who have never done an engineering project. It is unrealistic to expect that a company will get a prototype product ready to go into production. The goal is an educational experience, and a lot of that comes from pushing the students a little outside of their comfort zone with the occasional wheel spinning that goes with it.
If you would like to volunteer to help out at
We will be reaching out similarly to Johns Hopkins if we receive volunteers who are interested. In the mean time you can contact Bill Semancik wsemancik@ieee.org if you are interested in working with Johns Hopkins undergraduate students.
9. 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/
10.
IEEE GOLD
GOLD would like to make mention of their Facebook (GOLD) account at:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8389867595&ref=ts.
This way GOLD might be able to reach other GOLD colleagues who are already subscribed to Facebook, being a powerful and popular networking phenomena.
11. 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
12.
Baltimore
The following conferences are planned for
2008 Integrated Communications, Navigation and Surveillance Conference
(ICNS)
05 May - 07 May 2008
http://spacecom.grc.nasa.gov/icnsconf/index.shtml
2008 IEEE Spring Symposium on "Technology for the Golden Years: Leading an Independent Life in the 21st Century"
10 May - 10 May 2008
http://ewh.ieee.org/r2/capitalarea/eSCANNER/calendar.html#GOLDEN
2008 IEEE 23rd Annual Conference on Computational Complexity (CCC)
22 Jun - 26 Jun 2008
http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/jrogers/complexity/
2008 10th IEEE Conference on E-Commerce Technology and the 5th IEEE
Conference on
21 Jul - 24 Jul 2008
http://cec2008.cs.georgetown.edu/index.html
2008 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE 2008)
23 Aug - 26 Aug 2008
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
http://www.mascots-conference.org/
2008 IEEE 25th Symposium on Mass Storage Systems and Technologies (MSST)
22 Sep - 25 Sep 2008
http://www.storageconference.org
http://webapps1.ieee.org/conferenceSearch/www.storageconference.org
2008 IEEE Workshop On Signal Processing Systems (SIPS)
08 Oct - 10 Oct 2008
2008 IEEE 58th Annual Broadcast Symposium (BTS)
15 Oct - 17 Oct 2008
The Westin Hotel
http://www.ieee.org/bts/symposium
2008 IEEE Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference - Intelligent
Biomedical Systems (BioCAS)
20 Nov - 22 Nov 2008
Location: TBD
http://www.biocas2008.org
2009 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition - APEC 2009
15 Feb - 19 Feb 2009
Marriott Wardman Park Hotel
http://www.apec-conf.org
2009 IEEE Pulsed Power Conference (PPC)
28 Jun - 02 Jul 2009
Renaissance Mayflower Hotel
http://web.ece.missouri.edu/ppc2009
13. 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