Section Meeting

Wednesday, October 18, 2000

Marquette University
Alumni Memorial Union
1442 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53233

Yahoo! Map

Schedule

Dinner Cost

Reservations

For reservations, call Bonnie at 414-288-6820. Reservations must be made before Thursday, October 12th, 2000.

Urgent Message for Computer Society Members!

The Computer Chapter of the IEEE Milwaukee Section no longer has an active Chairperson. A volunteer is urgently needed to take over this task. Of all the IEEE Chapters in the IEEE Milwaukee Section, the Computer Society has the most members. I am confident that at least one of you will come forward to save your local Chapter. Do not assume someone else will volunteer! If no one volunteers, the Computer Chapter will be dissolved. If this occurs, there is very little chance that it will be allowed to start up again. The Chair position requires organizing a minimum of two Computer Chapter meetings a year. The Chair would arrange for a speaker and prepare a meeting announcement to be in-cluded in the Informer newsletter. The most convenient place to hold the meeting is jointly with the Milwaukee Section. The Computer Chair would also attend about six IEEE Milwaukee Section Executive Board meetings a year (most about 30-45 minutes in length). To volunteer for this position, please contact me as soon as possible, thank you!

Mr. Val Werner
IEEE Milwaukee Section Chair
414-221-2519
v.werner@ieee.org

Dinner Presentation

AMU Ballroom B

Electric Trains for Big "Kids"

Bernard Van Dinter, Director, The Friends of East Troy Railroad Museum, Inc.

The East Troy Electric Railroad runs from Mukwonago to East Troy in southeast Wisconsin. Built in 1907 by the Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Company, it continues in its 93rd year as both a living shortline as well as a museum. The Friends of East Troy Railroad Museum, Inc. is a not-for-profit educational corporation working to secure the future of the East Troy line. It was formed in 1975 to assist in the development of the Museum. It purchased the actual railroad property from the Village of East Troy in January, 1995 and licenses the operations to Wisconsin Trolley Museum, Inc., a corporation that Friends is in the process of purchasing in order to keep the entire railroad and collection preserved. Mr. Van Dinter will discuss the history of this railroad and the past preservation efforts. He will describe the connection this railroad has with the electric power industry and look at some of the engineering problems they encounter. The East Troy Electric Railroad Museum website is located at: http://www.easttroyrr.org

Bernard Van Dinter graduated from Marquette University in 1955 with an electrical engineering degree and joined Wisconsin Electric Power Co. as a cadet engineer. He worked in various engineering and management positions over 40+ year with WEPCO. He retired in 1996 as Vice President and Assistant to the President of Wisconsin Electric Power and Wisconsin Natural Gas Co. He is presently a Director of the Friends of the East Troy Railroad Museum, a not-for-profit educational corporation dedicated to preservation of the electric rail heritage of Wisconsin. He has been active in various professional organizations including IEEE, EEI, AGA and ESM. He is a professional engineer in Wisconsin and Michigan.

Communications and Signal Processing Society

AMU 305

Wireless Networks, IEEE 802.11 & BlueTooth

Ivan Howitt, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee

The era of wireless network commercialization is quickly approaching, especially with the upcoming release of the much-anticipated BlueTooth enabled products. These products will provide an untethered connectivity to electronic devices in ones workspace, car, and home. In addition, the IEEE 802.11 provides a complimentary standard for supporting campus, home, and office building local area network solutions. With recent advancements, the 802.11 data rates, 11 Mbps, are competitive with wireline Ethernet. Both wireless networks operate in the same license free frequency band, 2.4 GHz, along with a number of additional wireless network standards being considered for the same band. This talk will present a brief overview of the BlueTooth and IEEE 802.11 as well as examine their complimentary aspects and address the coexistence issues facing their operation within the same environment.

Ivan Howitt is the Director of the Wireless Communications and Signal Processing Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and an Assistant Professor in the Electrical Engineering & Computer Science Department. The Lab's research has focused on the WLAN's coexistence issues, the analysis and solutions, in addition to standard's activities with the IEEE 802.15 TG 2. Other areas of research include directive and adaptive antennas for enhancing wireless network performance. Dr. Howitt received his BSEE and MSEE from Georgia Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. from University of California Davis. He was also a Visiting Professor at Virginia Tech for a year, collaborating with faculty in the Mobile and Portable Radio Research Group (MPRG). Dr. Howitt is the current Communications and Signal Processing Society Chairperson for the Milwaukee IEEE Section.

Control Systems / Cybernetics Society

AMU 254

Steps to Success With Vision Control Systems

Howard J. Haugstad, Automated Control Technologies, LLP

Howard Haugstad will present a step-by-step formula for developers of control systems that incorporate vision. Attendees will learn about the conditioning, acquisition and analysis steps for machine vision and how it can be used in position control. The presentation will conclude with a demonstration of a vision system used in a non-intrusive position control. 

Howard received his BSEE from the Milwaukee School of Engineering where he is currently completing his MSE degree. From 1988 to 1997, Howard was a Research Engineer for Johnson Controls Inc. In 1997 he co-founded a consulting firm, Automated Control Technologies, and is currently the firm's Principal Engineer. As Principal Engineer, Howard architects and implements turnkey, factory automation systems as well as teaches throughout the country as a Certified Instructor for the Texas based National Instruments Corporation. Howard co-holds two patents in adaptive control and has been a member of IEEE for 14 years.

Power Engineering Society

AMU 313

Simplified Harmonic Analysis for 6-Pulse Rectifiers

John A. Houdek, Vice-President of Marketing, MTE Corporation

This presentation will discuss typical harmonics associated with six pulse adjustable-speed drives (ASDs), the performance of common passive filtering techniques, along with a demonstration of simplified harmonic current and voltage distortion analysis.

John Houdek is a graduate electrical engineer with a BS-ETE from the Milwaukee School of Engineering and an MBA from the Keller Graduate School of Management. John is the Vice-President of Marketing for MTE Corporation, a leading international supplier of electrical power quality equipment. He has over 20 years of experience in the industrial motor controls industry, with the last 16 years concentrating in the area of electrical power quality. His technical articles have been published in the U.S., Canada, Germany, England and Australia and he has also taught power quality seminars internationally.

EMBS Society

AMU 448

Development of a Biodegradable Ureteral Stent: An Industrial Case Study

Jay R. Goldberg, Ph.D., P.E., Director of the Healthcare Technologies, Marquette University

Academic research can be quite different from research and development (R&D) conducted in an industrial setting. Academic R&D activities comprise a small portion of the entire product development process required to develop new medical devices. The goals and emphases of academic research are different than those of industry R&D. The process required for the development and commercialization of medical devices will be presented, and the differences between academic and industry research will be discussed. The development of a biodegradable ureteral stent will be presented as a case study to illustrate the R&D process used in industry. Ureteral stents are used to maintain urinary drainage from the kidneys to the bladder. They remain indwelling for a few days to a few weeks and are then removed. Insertion and removal of uteteral stents involves hospital based endoscopic procedures requiring anesthesia and imaging equipment. Use of a biodegradable ureteral stent made of resorbable polyesters would eliminate the need for the removal procedure. This would lower the cost, eliminate the inconvenience, and reduce the risk associated with the removal procedure.

Dr. Goldberg is currently the Director of the Healthcare Technologies Management Program, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Marquette University, and Assistant Adjunct Professor of Biophysics at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He has fourteen years of product development experience with several medical device companies including DePuy (Warsaw, IN), Baxter (Deerfield, IL), Surgitek (Racine, WI), and Milestone Scientific (Deerfield, IL), and is a registered Professional Engineer in Illinois and Wisconsin. Dr. Goldberg received a B.S. degree in General Engineering from the University of Illinois, a M.S. degree in Bioengineering from the University of Michigan, a Master of Engineering Management degree from Northwestern University, and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering (Biomaterials) from Northwestern University.

2001 Officer Candidate Positions Announced

The 2001 Executive Committee Offices open for election are listed below. If anyone wishes to serve in a position or is willing to serve as a committee chairman on the Executive Committee or has questions about the open positions, please contact the present Chair, Mr. Val Werner (email: v.werner@ieee.org, phone: 414-221-2519). 

Candidates wishing to volunteer will be listed in the November 2000 issue of the Informer and also on the IEEE Milwaukee Section Web Site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r4/milwaukee/. Elections will be held at the November 2000 IEEE Milwaukee Section Social Meeting. Your IEEE Milwaukee Section is in need of your support! Please seriously consider serving in one of the following positions; no experience is required: 

• Chairperson 
• Vice-Chairperson / Program Committee Chairperson
• Treasurer
• Secretary
• Director - 3 year term (4 openings)
• Director - Professional Activities - 1 year term
• Vice-Chairperson for any of the 9 Chapters

Meeting Room Information

 Executive Committee Meeting will be in Room AMU 231. For any last minute changes in our meeting schedule, visit the IEEE-Milwaukee website.