"I'm going to talk about what I wish I knew when I was hired," explains R.M. "Mike" Lockerd, P.E., retired vice president of Texas instruments and senior member of the IEEE, who will deliver the keynote speech at the 1999 IEEE-USA Professional Development Conference during Labor Day Weekend in Dallas. Lockerd's stellar career includes 15 years as Chair of the TI Corporate Technical Council, where he was responsible for enhancing the productivity of TI's worldwide technical staff of over 10,000 professionals.
So when Lockerd says there is something he wishes he knew right from the start of his engineering career - that is something worth knowing.
"At TI, I was responsible for what we call the 'Technical Ladder of Advancement,' as well as being the senior TI officer for supporting education at the primary, secondary, and university levels," Lockerd explains. "I also handled how TI interacted with universities and national laboratories in research, cooperation and education, so the technical skills we need as engineers - and the skills we need to teach young people so they can become engineers - have been a central part of my career. But that's not enough."
Lockerd's keynote speech titled, "The Changing Pace of Technology and Its Impact on Careers," will take place on the Saturday morning of the four-day Conference, which runs Friday evening through Monday morning, Sept. 3-6.
The Conference's 50 workshops, tutorials and panels will cover skills needed during all phases of an engineering career - including several specifically aimed at Graduates of the Last Decade.
The Saturday lunch panel will be particularly helpful for engineers who want to know the answer to the core question: What does management look for when they hire and promote? Made up of top executives from industry and academia, such as Sun Microsystems, Centaur Technologies, TU Electric, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the panel will focus directly on the non-technical aspects of career success.
Special reduced rates and block registration packages will allow companies in the Fort Worth region, both large and small, to offer the Conference to their engineers as a way to earn partial continuing education credits. Those with an interest in local rates or with other questions should contact Jean Eason at 817-923-1032, j.eason@ieee.org, or consult the 1999 IEEE-USA Professional Development Conference Web page at www.ieeeusa.org/PRODEVCON.
PLEASE VOTE! - Please take a few moments to vote in the Section election by completing and returning the ballots inserted in the printed Signals. Officers elected for this term will serve until January 2001 as we change our Section operating year.
The candidates for Section officers are:
Deadline for receipt of completed ballots is 31 July.
IEEE-USA LAUNCHES EMAIL UPDATE SERVICE - On June 3, IEEE-USA initiated its email update pilot project designed to provide all US IEEE members with timely, regular notices and special offers on the organization's products and services. Over the next few weeks, some 134,000 US IEEE members who have their email addresses recorded in the Institute's database will receive information about subscribing to the new "push" electronic service. "We're looking forward to forging a new standard of member communications for IEEE-USA and the Institute," said IEEE-USA Member Activities Vice President Jean Eason.
Members will have a choice of update services including: IEEE-USA TODAY, featuring the latest on career building products and services; and/or IEEE-USA EYE ON WASHINGTON, providing updates on career and technology policy activities. Members who wish to get on the list now, can register now through the Web at www.ieeeusa.org/emailupdates. Members will be able to subscribe or unsubscribe from the service at any time.
TODAY'S ENGINEER MAGAZINE: STORYBOARDING; PRICING STRATEGIES; AND WHEN DOES THE JOB END? - It helped its inventor Walt Disney build a Mickey Mouse outfit on Goofy ideas - and it can guide you on a shortcut to good decisions. In their special section in the second-quarter 1999 issue of Today's Engineer, authors Jim Norman and Gus Gaynor analyze "StoryBoarding," a decision-making process that uses visuals, interaction, documentation and an effective approach to imagination in a logical structure.
Each issue of Today's Engineer includes articles, columns and editorial departments that link the insights of fellow professionals to the practical problems engineers face daily. The second-quarter issue's range runs from risk management, to ethics, to the twin problems of our increasingly global environment and cultural clashes in the workplace, and includes an interview with Harley-Davidson Engineering VP Earl Werner and an analysis of the engineering class of '98.
Today's Engineer's special section on StoryBoarding relates this decision-making approach to other techniques like Brainstorming, Nominal Group Technique, and the Delphi method. The authors also detail StoryBoarding's seven steps which "demand creative thought and mental discipline," and provide feedback from four practitioners who have found this method useful and even decisive in their career success.
Other features in the Spring issue of Today's Engineer focus on aspects of engineering that all practitioners need to understand: "Low Bid Doesn't Always Win," by Edmond H. Weiss, Ph.D, identifies and evaluates pricing strategies; while "Mining for Data," by Karim Hirji, not only asks "Why compile data if you're not going to use it?," but explains how to "use data mining to pull the data you need."
In "When Does the Job End?," Wayne Fisher and Slawo Wesolkowski explain that "For customers, the technology only works when it meets their business requirements, while engineers may determine the job is done when the technology performs the function it was designed for." Anyone who recognizes that the increasingly complex technologies of our modern economy must still meet the simple test of satisfying the customer will want to read this article.
Useful, well-written, and providing insights and examples not found elsewhere, Today's Engineer is a vital source not only for engineers, but for anyone interested in how technology and personnel interact in today's workplace. For more information contact 202-785-0017, ieee-magazine@ieee.org, or www.todaysengineer.org.
LEGISLATIVE UPDATES
GRAMM ANNOUNCES BILL TO RAISE LIMITS ON HIGH-TECH GUEST WORKERS - In June 1 comments to Dallas business leaders, Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX) announced plans to introduce the "New Workers for Economic Growth Act," which would increase the number of foreign engineers, computer scientists and other highly skilled workers who can be admitted to work temporarily (for up to six years) on H-1B visas from the current 115,000 a year to 200,000 a year. Gramm's new bill would also eliminate the Social Security earnings test that currently limits how much retirees can earn before being penalized by the IRS.
In comments to the Dallas Morning News and Washington Times, IEEE-USA President Paul Kostek questioned the need for new legislation, noting that the regulations implementing the 1999 increases (from 65,000 to 115,000) have not yet been enacted and a Congressionally-mandated National Research Council study on supply-demand issues in the IT workforce and related issues of age discrimination won't be complete until Fall 2000.
PRE-COLLEGE EDUCATION TRAINING PROGRAM TO AID K-12 TEACHERS - The IEEE has kicked off a Pre-college Engineering Training Pilot, (PET) a program that will prepare engineers to serve as classroom resources for K-12 teachers. After completing a web-based training program, participating engineers will be accessible to the pre-college education community, upon request, through a centralized database. The training will cover such issues as curriculum development, classroom dynamics, available learning materials, and local implementation of educational standards. PET will be formally introduced in Sept. at the IEEE Sections Congress '99 and then be rolled out to include engineers - both IEEE members and others - from around the world. For more information, contact Barbara Stoler, 732-562-5498, b.stoler@ieee.org.
HUNDREDS FLOCK TO IEEE ELECTION WEBSITE - More than 700 people have visited the IEEE Annual Election Candidate's Page web site at www.ieee.org/organizations/corporate/candidates.htm which identifies the candidates to be placed on the 1999 ballot and the positions for which they are running.
Running for president-elect 2000 are Raymond D. Findlay, Lloyd A. Morley, Edward A. Parrish and Joel B. Snyder. The winning candidate will succeed Bruce Eisenstein as IEEE president in 2001. Running for Region 5 Director-Elect are Jean Eason of Fort Worth and Kris Agarwal of Dallas.
Well it's the end of another IEEE year in Fort Worth and time for a another changing of the guard. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in running the section over the past 12 months and for the time and effort these volunteers have put in. IEEE is run by its members and without such efforts, the Institute would not be what it is today. Thank you!
When I look back on the past year, I see some success in the Section, but I also see some room for improvement. MetroCon has grown to be a financially profitable conference, and together with a program of corporate patronage, has ensured that we are now bringing in more than we spend. This will allow us to offer better programs in the future. The long-term stability of the Section has also improved after changes in operations were adopted. Some officers were given additional responsibilities and the recruitment of volunteers was given greater attention. Consolidated banking with IEEE National was also adopted to provide greater returns on investment and ease of transition at the end of every year.
While all of these improvements allow the section to operate more efficiently, the number of local programs has been dropping of late. The Section Executive Committee recently decided to reorganize the local Chapters to ensure better staffing and more frequent programs. Inactive Chapters such as Control Systems and Laser & Electro-Optics were closed down and will soon be replaced with new Chapters. Work is underway to launch an Engineering Management chapter and an Industrial Applications chapter. Other dormant Chapters such as Aerospace & Electronic Systems and Antennas & Propagation were re-staffed. Our goal is to provide you with at least 5-6 programs per month, and I feel we are on the right track to achieve this in the coming year.
Finally, I'd like to encourage you to vote in this month's election, and vote for our own Jean Eason in the upcoming Regional elections. Thank you for having me as your chair!
- Alan Triggs
Recognizing our Section members for their long-time commitment to the profession on the anniversary of their joining IEEE.
50 yrs
45 yrs
40 yrs
20 yrs
On the shelf are three cans, labeled "NUTS," "BOLTS," and "NUTS AND BOLTS." We know that the labels are mixed, so that none is on the right can. How many samples must we take (without looking into the cans) to establish the correct labeling?
Answer to last month's Brainbuster:
Remove the fourth and eleventh paper clips from the chain of 23 to make a chain of any length.
Jean Eason, Editor