News & Notes
a service of the IEEE Education Society

March 23, 2004               Vol.2 No.3

Rob Reilly, Editor
reilly@media.mit.edu

NOTE: You MAY encounter problems reading this newsletter if you are using Netscape
in the range of Version 4.7—it *might* not display the rest of the newsletter.


Table of Contents

IEEE OFFERS FREE ONLINE TRAINING SESSIONS FOR NEW TECHNOLOGIES
The IEEE Educational Activities Board continues to offer free online training courses. 26 courses are available at
the Educational Activities web site. They are PowerPoint with audio presentations, however PowerPoint is not required to view these presentations. The topics are intended to introduce you to new technologies.

Click here to go to the Educational Activities web site

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WHERE ARE GRAD STUDENTS GOING—THE USA?
A survey of some 500 US colleges and universities has shown that the number of graduate school applications by foreign students had declined significantly over the past year. The most noticable decline has been in Chinese grad student applications. This general decline has been attributed to changes in the visa process.

Click here to see the report, which is located at the NAFSA's Web site (click here).

Click here to see a report from the Chronicle of Higher Education. NOTE: a subscription to the Chronicle of Higher Education is required to access this article.

There is also a report that indicates there is a decline in the number of foreign students taking the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). Also see an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education. NOTE: a subscription to the Chronicle of Higher Education is required to access this article.

In a related story: The USA Congress has faulted agencies for visa delays. Members the US Congress recently chastised the State Department, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security for unnecessary delays in the processing of visas for students and scholars applying to study in technology-related fields. This article can be viewed at: The Chronicle of Higher Education's online site. NOTE: a subscription to the Chronicle of Higher Education is required to access this article.

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USA GOVERMENT ATTACKED ON DISTORTING SCEINTIFIC INFORMATION
A Chronicle of Higher Education article reports that the USA White House has distorted some scientific information. The article reports that sixty prominent scholars have accused the USA White House of distorting information that differs from its agenda. Another report states that unqualified people have been appointed to important policy posts and that those appointees have selectively censored reports to their benefit the Bush administration's agenda.

For more information read this article. NOTE: a subscription to the Chronicle of Higher Education is required to access this article.

In a related story its author states that the USA Council on Bioethics has been for distorting scientific information. The author believes that the Council distorted information to make their report more consistent with the Bush administration's position, which is in opposition to stem cell research. The on-line critique is available at:

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ENGINEERING EDUCATION AND GLOBAL AWARENESS CONFERENCE—SWITZERLAND
The International Global Awareness, Engineering Education Today conference will be held in Fribourg, Switzerland from September 27th through October 1, 2004. This international meeting should be of special interest to the Applied Engineering and Engineering Technology community. The meeting is hosted by the well-respected University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland with the active participation of the leadership of the
ASEE, IEEE Education Society, SEFI and IGIP.

For further details see the conference's website at: http://cflwww.eng.temple.edu/engredu2004.

Important conference dates:

Abstracts are due: March 31.
Notification of Acceptance: April 30
Final Paper Submission: June 15

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INTERACTIVE COMPUTER AIDED LEARNING CONFERENCE—AUSTRIA
This interdisciplinary conference aims to focus on the exchange of relevant trends and research results as well as the presentation of practical experiences gained while developing and testing elements of interactive computer aided learning. This conference will be organized by the Carinthia Tech Institute, Villach, Austria.

Click here to go to the Interactive Computer Aided Learning conference's Web site.

Important dates:

  • 28 May 2004: Submission of abstracts
  • 11 June 2004: Proposals for workshops, tutorials, demos, exhibition
  • 21 June 2004: Notification of acceptance
  • 17 September 2004: Camera-ready due
  • 29 Sept.-01 Oct. 2004: Workshop ICL2004

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ADMINISTRATIVE COMMMITTEE MEETING AT ASSE CONFERENCE IN UTAH
The
Administrative Committee (AdCom) of the Education Society will be holding meetings at the ASEE Conference this June in Utah, USA. The AdCom will meet from 7-8:15am on Tuesday, June 21st and from 7-8:15am on Wednesday, June 22nd. These meetings are quite interesting. The AdCom deals with all issues that are critical to the operation of the Education Society. You should attend an AdCom meeting at least once!

Come and see how your Society operates. Who knows, you may want to become involved in one of the many committees that are needed for the smooth operation of YOUR professional organization.

For more info about the AdCom click here.

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SOFTWARE ENGINEERING EDUCATION & TRAINING CONFERENCE—OTTAWA, CANADA
The Software Engineering Education and Training Conference will be held in Ottawa, Canada from April 18-20, 2005. The conference is entitled: "Assessment of Software Engineering Education: Are Educators Making the Grade?"

This conference addresses the radical changes that the field of software engineering has undergone in the past three decades.

To view ISEE&T 2005 conference information click here.

View the ISEE&T Call For Papers

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ENCORE: ARE YOU A SENIOR MEMBER??
And why not? Many members do not understand the requirements for and benefits of becoming a Senior Member. Contrary to popular opinion, a Nobel Prize in Physics, 40 years of experience, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering are not prerequisites for becoming a Senior Member! Senior Membership confers benefits not only on the member but on his Section as well...
apply now! For details on becoming a Senior Member, visit the IEEE Senior Member Program page. (Connecticut IEEE Section's home page, 2003).

If you are interested in pursuing this, you should start in your local chapter or section, or contact people you 'know' from conferences as you will need to have 3 references from IEEE members who know you personally.

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ENCORE: CALL FOR PAPERS: WEB-BASED INSTRUCTION

The IEEE Transactions on Education is soliciting manuscripts from academia, industry, government, or other interested professionals that address state-of-the-art Web-based instruction practices, instructional tools, programs, analysis and design techniques, assessment of learning methods, and other relevant issues that are described in the Call For Papers.

For more details, view the complete Call For Papers document by clicking here

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ADMINISTRIVIA
This is a service of the IEEE Education Society. It will be published as the need for information dissemination arises. Our expectation is that News & Notes will be published monthly to bi-monthly. However, if urgent information surfaces a bulletin with just that information will be sent out.

If you would like an item placed in News & Notes, send it to: Rob Reilly, Editor (reilly@media.mit.edu).

Click here to view a list of the Education Society officers.

Click here to view a list of Administrative Committee (AdCom) members.

All issues of News & Notes are available on the EdSoc's web site just click here.

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