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Calendar Archive, March 2006
Wednesday, March 1, 2006
Understanding the West Antarctic Ice Sheet from Space: Beyond Dogsleds and Frozen Toes
Sponsor: Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society, Washington and Northern
Virginia Chapter
Speaker: Dr. Robert Bindschadler, Chief Scientist, Hydrospheric and
Biospheric Science Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Time: 3:30 pm
Place: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Visitor Center, Greenbelt, MD
Directions: From the south, take the Baltimore-Washington Pkway to Greenbelt Rd. East (Route 193). Follow Greenbelt Rd. past NASA's main gate. Turn left onto Soil Conservation Rd., then take the next left to reach the Visitor Center. See
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/visitor/directions/index.html.
More Info: See Diamond story, below, or
http://ewh.ieee.org/r2/no_virginia/grss.
Cost: Free, including refreshments.
Contact: Please RSVP to James Tilton at 301-286-9510 or
james.c.tilton@nasa.gov.
Tuesday, March 7, 2006
Washington Section Administrative Committee Meeting
Time: Dinner at 6:00 pm; meeting at 6:30 pm
Place: Allie's American Grill, Bethesda Marriott, 5151 Pooks Hill Rd., Bethesda, MD
Directions: From the north, take 270 South to Route 355 and exit at Wisconsin Ave. From the south, take 495 exit 34 (which is Wisconsin Ave.) to Pooks Hill Rd.
More Info: All interested IEEE members are welcome to attend.
Contact: Debra Meale at 703-492-0047 or nca-admin@ieee.org. Please include the term IEEE in the subject line of your email.
Tuesday, March 7, 2006
Self publishing: Process, Pitfalls and Rewards
Sponsor: National Capital Area Consultants' Network
Cosponsors: Women in Engineering; Graduates of the Last Decade (Northern Virginia Section); Computer Society, Northern Virginia and Washington Chapter; Lasers and Electro-optics Society, Washington and Northern Virginia Chapter; and Oceanic Engineering Society, Washington and Northern Virginia Chapter
Speaker: Rick Miller, Senior Software Engineer, SAIC
Time: Dinner at 6:00 pm; speaker at 7:00 pm
Place: Corner 7 Cafe, Tysons Corner Marriott, 8028 Leesburg Pike, Vienna, VA
Directions: From the east or I-495, take Route 7 West, turn right on Towers Crescent Drive, then immediately right into the Marriott parking lot. From the west on Route 7, turn right onto Old Gallows Road just opposite the Marriott, proceed around to the left until you have completed almost a full circle, and turn left into the Marriott parking lot. Free parking.
More Info: Following Miller's talk, Jerry Castellucci will present a short review of the NIST Advanced Technology Program. For more information about both presentations, see Diamond story, below.
Cost: Attendees are responsible their individual orders.
Contact: Rick Cunningham at 703-624-6551 or
rick@corridor-rd.com.
Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Northern Virginia Section Administrative Committee Meeting
Time: 6:30 pm
Place: New 2006 Location! Wickers Cafe, Tysons Corner Holiday Inn, 1960 Chain Bridge Road, McLean, VA
Directions: From I-495 or I-66, take Route 267 West. Exit at Route 123 West (Chain Bridge Road). Turn right on International Drive, then left on Greensboro Drive. Look for the Holiday Inn entrance on the left. Free parking.
More Info: All interested IEEE members are invited to attend.
Contact: Debra Meale at 703-492-0047 or nca-admin@ieee.org. Please include the term IEEE in the subject line of your email.
Time: Continental breakfast at 8:30 am; program at 8:50 am
Place: 1910 Oracle Way, Reston, VA
Directions: From I-495, take the Dulles Toll Road (Route 267) to Exit 12, Reston Parkway. Turn right onto Reston Parkway, right onto Sunset Hills Road, and right onto Oracle Way.
Updated! Parking: Participants must park in the garage: turn right, go down and around the curve up to the stop sign, and turn right into the parking garage.
More Info: IEEE provides a wealth of materials, tools and other resources to help organizations be successful. We are planning a half day of presentations, discussion and networking to help get you off to a good start. The training is open to all members, but we particularly encourage every chapter to send at least one officer to the session. View the Agenda (Word document).
Cost: Free, including breakfast and lunch.
Contact: To register, contact Debra Meale at 703-492-0047 or nca-admin@ieee.org by March 7. Please put "IEEE Leadership Training Registration" in the subject line of your email.
Sponsor: Computer Society, Northern Virginia and Washington Chapter
Speaker: Dr. Jeffrey Hollingsworth, University of Maryland, College Park
Time: Networking and food 6:00 pm; technical presentation 7:00 pm
Place: Room 1115 CSIC, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
More Info: See Diamond story, below.
Cost: Free for all IEEE members, $4 for all others.
Contact: Please register at least 48 hours in advance at
http://ewh.ieee.org/r2/wash_nova/computer/current.html.
For more information, contact T.K. Ramesh at
tkramesh@ieee.org.
Sponsor: Power Engineering Society, Northern Virginia and Washington Chapter; Industry Applications Society, Washington and Northern Virginia Chapter
Speaker: Dan Hollingsworth, Oberon Company
Time: 6:00-8:00 pm
Place: Virginia Tech Advanced Research Institute, 4300 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA
Directions: From Ballston Metro Station (Orange line), turn right at top of escalator then left on the street. Proceed two blocks toward Hecht’s. Turn right and walk one block to Ballston Point, 4300 Wilson Blvd. ARI is on the 7th floor in suite 750. Ballston Point is located at the intersection of Wilson Blvd. and Glebe Rd. There is a parking garage in the building with a $1 charge for 3 hours, and limited free street parking.
More Info: This presentation will review causes of arc flash, OSHA standards, NEC (NFPA 70) and NFPA 70E, and product innovation to address the PPE challenges of NFPA 70E. A light dinner buffet will be served, followed by the program. For information about the speaker, see Diamond story below.
Cost: Free for IEEE members, $10 for all others.
Contact: RSVP to Monica Mallini at 703-387-6021 or
m.a.mallini@ieee.org.
Sponsor: Washington Academy of Sciences; affiliate sponsors include IEEE Northern Virginia and Washington Sections
Place: National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA
More Info: For complete details, including registration and cost information, see
www.washacadsci.org/capsci2006/index.htm.
Diamond Stories
Wednesday, March 1, 2006
Understanding the West Antarctic Ice Sheet from Space: Beyond Dogsleds and Frozen Toes
The West Antarctic ice sheet continues to be a climatic wild card in scientists' attempts to predict the future of the planet. The mystery rests as much on what we do know about ice sheets as what we don't know. The West Antarctic ice sheet rests on a bed below sea level where ice-free periods have layered a bed of thick marine ooze. Ice can, and does, slide rapidly on this slippery material. All other ice sheets of this type have slid back into the ocean, raising sea level over 100 meters. Will the West Antarctic ice sheet be the last to go? If it happens as rapidly as its icy kin disappeared, a potential 5-meter increase in sea level around the globe could occur fast enough to cause widespread economic and ecological damage. Others have argued that the West Antarctic ice sheet is uniquely stable pointing to its persistence in our warm climate.
The study of the peculiar case of West Antarctica has been full of fascinating discoveries. These have come through a combination of wearying field work in a hostile environment, intense scrutiny from a vast stable of satellite sensors and complex numerical models. Remote sensing data are used for everything from making better maps of field areas, to quantifying surface elevations and velocities. Detailed imagery also allows us to detect surface features that record past flow directions. Twenty-five years of concentrated research have revealed a multifaceted dynamic system that responds to what falls on it, what it rests on and what it must push against. The ice sheet is changing constantly and is a collage of different basins all behaving with a high degree of independence. But what of its future?
Robert Bindschadler is a chief scientist of the NASA's Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory, a senior fellow of the Goddard Space Flight Center, a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and a past president of the International Glaciological Society. He maintains an active interest in the dynamics of glaciers and ice sheets, primarily on Earth, investigating how remote sensing can be used to improve our understanding of the role of ice in the Earth's climate. As the leader of thirteen Antarctic field expeditions, he has extensive first-hand knowledge of the hazards and challenges of working in the Antarctic environment. Other research has taken him to Greenland and various glaciers throughout the world.
During his 26 years at Goddard, he has developed numerous unique applications of remote sensing data for glaciological research including measuring ice velocity and elevation using both visible and radar imagery, monitoring melt of the ice sheet by microwave emissions, and detecting changes in ice-sheet volume by repeat space-borne radar altimetry. He has testified before Congress and briefed the U.S. Vice President on the issue of ice-sheet stability and served on many scientific commissions and study groups as an expert in glaciology and remote sensing of ice. He has published over 130 scientific papers, numerous review articles and has appeared on television, radio and is often quoted in print media commenting on glaciological impacts of the climate on the world's ice sheets and glaciers.
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When Rick Miller, a senior software engineer and manager with a major Washington area defense contractor, decided to write a book on the C++ language, he set out to find a good publisher. After a number of promising forays into the various publishing houses, he finally decided he wanted to control his destiny just a little more than they could promise, so he decided to become his own publisher. Miller's books (his second book, on Java, was recently released) are not the "vanity press" variety; rather, they are mainstream texts designed to teach what Rick felt was the poorly understood, and subtle, art of good software and system design.
Miller will discuss the trying process of bringing a good book to fruition, the pros and cons of becoming your own publisher, and lessons learned from his self publishing efforts. He will explain how he approaches the writing process, tools he uses to prepare the text, the critical subject of marketing, and related issues. In addition, he'll share some innovative ideas to provide a steady stream of royalty revenue by teaming with organizations like IEEE and ACM that provide members access to an online library.
He'll also address various e-commerce alternatives, and the use of open source (i.e. free) e-commerce technology. His publishing "empire" is Pulp Free Press, and his e-commerce website is
pulpfreepress.com. He has learned a lot about the self publishing process and wants to help others achieve similar success, without as much trial and error. Anyone interested in writing a book, technical or non-technical, should find his presentation interesting and informative.
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Following Miller's talk, Jerry Castellucci will present a short recap of the NIST Advanced Technology Program. He will discuss current prospects for FY06 funding, and be available to answer questions after the meeting. (His talk will supplement the material presented at the Feb. 7 NCA-CN meeting on the SBIR/STTR program.)
Mr. Castellucci has been with NIST since July 2002, working as a project manager in the Advanced Technology Program, Information Technology and Electronics Technology Office. His recent experience includes leading power electronics work for the U.S. Navy Office of Naval Research. He is active in the IEEE and is also a member of the American Acoustical Society.
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The grid offers the potential for more efficient use of computational resources both within an organization and between organizations. By allowing individuals or organizations to pool their computing power and share resources, peaks and valleys in utilization can be smoothed out. In this talk, Dr. Hollingsworth will describe the technical challenges to build grid systems and some of the current solutions to these problems. Challenges include security, scheduling, resource monitoring, and fault tolerance. He will also touch on some of the non-technical aspects of cooperative resource sharing such as social contracts.
Jeffrey Hollingsworth is an associate professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Maryland, College Park, and affiliated with the Department of Electrical Engineering and the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies. His research interests include instrumentation and measurement tools, resource aware computing, high performance distributed computing, and programmer productivity.
Dr. Hollingsworth's current projects include the Dyninst runtime binary editing tool, and Harmony, a system for building adaptable, resource-aware programs. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in computer science from the University of Wisconsin in 1994 and 1990 respectively. He earned his B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in 1988. Dr. Hollingsworth is a senior member of IEEE and a member of ACM.
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Daniel E. Hollingsworth is a senior manager with Oberon Company in Easton, Maryland. He holds a B.S. and an M.B.A. from Pacific Western University in California. He has almost 20 years of experience working with specialty fabrics and supplying major manufacturers of pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, microelectronics, and automotive and medical devices with garments suited for critical environment clean room applications.
Hollingsworth served as vice president of sales at UIC in Chicago for more than seven years. He joined Oberon four years ago to assist with continued growth of their electrical division. He has extensive hands-on knowledge of NFPA 70E and has helped companies implement the NFPA 70E Standard and requirements outlined under OSHA Compliance. He enjoys and values interaction with end-users and safety professionals throughout the petroleum, military, general industrial manufacturing and power generation industries.
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Please send meeting announcements, corrections and comments
to ncac-scanner@ieee.org.
Updated 3/30/06
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