• The 2008 retreat of the Jamaica Section was held on Wednesday, January 16, at the NWC's MIS Department, Credit Union Bldg, 2a Manhattan Rd at 6:00pm.

FEBRUARY

• Impproving Science and Technology in Jamaica and the Caribbean was the topic for presentation and discussion at the Jamaica Section's monthly meeting, February 20, 2008. The presenter was Dr Paul Aiken, Senior Engineer and Lecturer in physics at the Electronics Unit of the University of the West Indeie (Mona). The meeting was held at the conference room of the School of Engineering, University of Technology, Jamaica at 6:00pm.

MARCH

The Jamaica Section's monthly meeting, was held on Wednesday, March 19, 2008. The presenter was Dr Florin Ionica, Department of Physics, University of the West Indies (Mona), at the conference room of the School of Engineering, University of Technology, Jamaica at 6:00pm. The topic presented was Telemetered Multiswitched System for Geophysical Cable .

APRIL

• The Next Generation of Service Provider Services was the topic presented at the Jamaica Section's monthly meeting, Wednesday, April 16, 2008. The presenter was Mr Carlyle Roberts, Integrated Solutions Development Manager, Cable & Wireless Jamaica Ltd. The meeting was held at the conference room of the School of Engineering, University of Technology, Jamaica at 6:00pm.

MAY

• The Jamaica Section in collaboration with Mona Information Technology Services (MITS) co-sponsored the ARIN Caribbean Sector meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, May 21, 2008 at the Hilton Kingston Hotel.

JUNE

Two presentations were given on June 18, 2008 at the Jamaica Section monthly meeting held at The University of Technology, Jamaica. Distance Learning in Jamaican universities, by Damit Wickeramamayke, and Making Diesel Fuel from Vegetable Oils, by Andrew Nepaul and Adrian Warren.

JULY

A presentation on the implications of the introduction of the digital television standards by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) Forum, was given at the Hilton Kingston Hotel, Knutsford Blvd, Kingston, Jamaica on July 16, 2008 at 6:00pm. Mr Robert Graves, Chairman of the ATSC Forum was the guest speaker. The presentation included, inter alia:

• An overview of the ATSC standards and the most important associated family of standards.


• The technical and economic advantages of ATSC standards, and the status of the implementation of the standards in the U.S.A and other countries.


• Specific reasons why Jamaica/CARICOM should choose the ATSC standards.

The event was sponsored by: Cable & Wireless Jamaica Ltd, CVM TV, Digicel Jamaica, Spectrum Management Authority, and Television Jamaica Ltd.

AUGUST

• The Jamaica Section monthly meeting scheduled for August 20, 2008 was postponed due to the passage of tropical storm Gustav over the island.

SEPTEMBER

• The Jamaica Section was represented at the Region 3 meeting and the IEEE Section Congress, September 18- 22, 2008.

OCTOBER

• A proposal entitled Designing and Building an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle: Shooting for the Stars by Leotis Buchanan, Chad Andrade, and Rohan Smith was presented by Leotis Buchanan, Manager/ Electronic Design Systems Engineer, at the Electronics Unit of the University of the West Indies (Mona) on Wednesday, October 22, 2008, at the University of Technology, Jamaica.

  An award was also presented to the most outstanding IEEE student in the Engineering & Computing faculty at UTech, for the year 2007.

NOVEMBER

• A presentation was given on Wednesday, November 19, 2008 at 6:00pm, at the Physics Lecture Room C, of the University of the West Indies (Mona), Jamaica. The Main topic: Interconnects - The Bottleneck of High Speed Digital Data Transfer. was presented by Dr. Paul Aiken, Head of the Electronics Unit/ Senior Engineer & Lecturer in Physics (UWI), and former Senior R&D Engineer, Intel Corporation, Arizona, USA (April 2004 - June 2006).

DECEMBER

• The annual general meeting and election of officers for 2009, of the IEEE Jamaica Section was held on Wednesday, December 3, 2008, at the Physics Lecture Room B, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica.