RSS Feed
HomeLiveWire Blog › 2010

Controls Society Presents an Approach to Optimizing Classes in Multi-Agent Systems

Upcoming IEEE CSS Lunch Meeting

When: 19 November 2010, 11:00 – 1:00

Where: Gibson’s Bar-B-Q, 3319 South Mermorial Parkway (Just East of “Useless” Overpass North of Airport Road)

Guest Speaker: Dr. Vadim Azhmyakov, CINVESTAV (The Mexican Center of Advanced Study and Research), Department of Automatic Control, Mexico

Topic:

A Hybrid Linear Quadratic Approach to Optimization of some Classes of Multi-agent Systems: Applications to the Safety Control

Abstract

The increasing complexity associated with many real-world engineering applications, including flight control, autonomous robots and vehicles guidance, automation of complex technological processes, power electronics, process control in sensor-rich environments, and control of biological systems, has far-reaching implications for modern systems design. As an example, switched/hybrid and multiagent systems, interacting among themselves and remote users over control/communication networks, introduce a whole new set of system-level challenges. In this situation the main classic control design objectives such as stability and performance are being complemented with a number of new technical modifications and extensions. In general, a sophisticated interconnection of the complex nonlinear dynamical objects such as autonomous robots/vehicles, airplanes, satellites in the presence of the associated communication networks is a prevailing attribute of many modern applied control systems. Therefore, the necessary analysis and adequate (optimal) design procedures for these systems has been recognized as major challenging problems in the control engineering. Our talk is devoted to a specific optimal control problem associated with a class of multi-agent dynamic system. The interest is placed on minimization of the tracking error in the so called multi-agent leader-follower model. We apply the hybrid approach to the initial path following optimization problem related to a group of dynamic agents. By this means, the initial problem is replaced by a specific hybrid optimal control problem. In particular, we consider multi-agent control systems with monotonically increasing dimensions of the state vector. The change of the state dimension has the character of a state jump and is modeled by an impulsive hybrid system. We also discuss the possible computational procedure associated with the above optimal tracking multi-agent control problem in the specific setting. The theoretical and numerical approaches presented in our talk are applied to some practically motivated examples.

Bio-sketch. Having graduated with concentration in Aerospace Control from Moscow Technical University, Russia, in 1990, Vadim Azhmyakov went through graduate studies in Control Theory at Institute of Control Sciences, Moscow, Russia with PhD degree in 1994, and Habilitation (the Postdoctoral thesis) in Applied Mathematics, University of Greifswald, Germany in 2006. In 1999-2005 he was with University of Greifswald, Department of Numerical Analysis, Germany; in 2005-2007 he was a Senior Researcher at the Departments of Electrical Engineering, the Universities of Magdeburg and Berlin, Germany. Since 2007 he is with CINVESTAV (The Mexican Center of Advanced Study and Research), Department of Automatic Control, Mexico, where he holds a rank of Professor. His research interests include optimal control, numerical methods in optimization/optimal control, hybrid/switched, stochastic and variable structure dynamical systems, networked control methodologies, communication and control over networks.

Tags:
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Wayne Kendrick
November 16th, 2010

Call for 2011 Officer Nominations

This is a call for IEEE Huntsville Nominations Submission for the six
elected 2011 Section Officers:

* Chair
* Vice Chair
* Secretary
* Treasurer
* Member-at-Large, Position 1
* Member-at-Large, Position 2

Any nominations are due to Woody Williams, no later than 9 P.M., 15 Nov
2010.
Email: woodyw@ieee.org

Some of the current officers — Chair, Vice Chair, & Treasurer may not repeat in their current position.

The rest of the current officers — Secretary, Member-at-Large, Position 1, & Member-at-Large, Position 2 may repeat in their current position if nominated, including self nomination.

All nominees must be current paid Fellow grade, Senior grade, or Member grade of any level to be consider for office.

Woody Williams
November 2nd, 2010

Call For Engineer Mentors

Engineer mentors are needed for the Alabama Regional Future City Competition, a National Engineers Week Event.  The mission of this event is to provide a fun and exciting engineering program for 6th, 7th and 8th grade students that provide a challenge and hands-on experience with the design of a futuristic city.

Our annual Future City Competition, is in DIRE needs of engineer mentors.  These are volunteered positions and the time available for mentoring is totally up to the individual. Basically, all we would do is pair you up with a local school of your choice and you would schedule with the teacher convienent times for you to meet with the students.  You can go to the school as few or as many as you wish, because you are voluteering your time. Any time with the students is greatly appreciated by the teachers and students.

Main topics of discussion are: engineering as a future career, the importance of engineering, types of engineering, and specific competition criteria and requirements (which will be given to the engineer).  The competition runs now until the competition date of Saturday,  January 15th, 2011 at the Shelby Center on the campus of UAHuntsville.

The Alabama schools needing engineer mentors are as follows:

Elmont High School – Elkmont;   Alabama School of Fine Arts – Birmingham;   Cedar Ridge Middle School – Decatur;   Madison County Elementary – Gurley;   Hampton Cove Middle School – Huntsville;   W.J. Christian School – Birmingham;   Robertsdale Elementary – Robertsdale;   Tuscaloosa Magnet Middle – Tuscaloosa;   Eastwood Middle – Cottondale;   Charles R. Drew Middle – Lincoln;   Davis Hills Middle – Huntsville;   Walker County School of Technology – Jasper;   Farmstead Junior High – Jasper;   Horizon Elementary – Madison;   Tarrant Middle – Tarrant;   Westminster Christian Academy – Huntsville

Winners of the Alabama Regional will compete nationally in Washington D.C. during National Engineer’s Week in February 2011.

For more information on the Future City Competition, please go to:

www.futurecity.org

If you are interested in mentoring one of the teams listed above, please contact Sonya Dillard (Regional Coordinator), or Willie Fitzpatrick (Engineer Mentor Recruitment).

Tags:
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Sonya Dillard
October 18th, 2010

AESS and JCAM Presentation on AT&T’s U-Verse

Lecture Content: Dixon Tidmore, with AT&T, will deliver a presentation on the technology behind AT&T’s U-Verse service.  U-Verse is a multi-service platform that integrates IPTV (internet protocol television), high speed internet, and VOIP (voice over internet protocol).  AT&T is the only national service provider to offer a 100-percent IP-based TV service.  AT&T has started construction on the local U-Verse network and will begin offering service in Huntsville, Madison, and Madison County soon.

Speaker Biography:

Dixon Tidmore holds a BSEE degree from The University of South Alabama.  He has held various positions, all in North Alabama, with the land line side of the RBOC (regional bell operating company) part of AT&T (formerly Bellsouth).  Currently he works in Central Office Operations where he is a maintenance engineer.  He is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Alabama.

Directions:

The meeting will be held in the McDonnell Douglas Auditorium (MSC 100) in the Material Science Connector Building on the UAHuntsville Campus.  The Material Science Connector Building is located at the south end of the campus between the Optics Building on the North (#24 on attached map) and the Material Science Building on the South (#25 on attached map). Please park in the parking lots in the vicinity of these buildings in a “Visitor” space or in an unmarked space. Due to the anticipated large attendance, arrangements are being made with Campus Public Safety for you to park without needing to obtain a visitor permit. Note:  Vehicles with a UAH decal cannot park in a “Visitor” space.

Everyone is invited!

Date: Thursday, October 21, 2010

When:            11:30 am – 1pm (networking 11:30-noon)

Place:            University of Alabama in Huntsville, Material Science Bldg

McDonnell Douglas Auditorium (MSC 100)

http://www.uah.edu/sitefeature/campusmap.php (Marked 25a on Map)

Bring your own brown bag lunch!

RSVP not required, but appreciated, please send to rick.tuggle@peopletec.com

Tags: ,
Posted in Featured | No Comments »

Eric Grigorian
October 13th, 2010

Range Improvement of RFID Tags

Please join the Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society (AESS) for complimentary food and refreshments, networking, and a technical presentation led by Matthew Trotter.  The presentation “Survey of Range Improvement of Commercial RFID Tags with Power Optimized Waveforms” is authored by Matthew Trotter, Georgia Institute of Technology, ECE, and co-authored by Dr. Gregory D. Durgin, Georgia Institute of Technology, ECE.

Abstract

The power sensitivity of passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags heavily affects the read reliability and range. Inventory tracking systems rely heavily on strong read reliability while animal tracking in large fields rely heavily on long read range. Power Optimized Waveforms (POWs) provide a solution to improving both read reliability and read range by improving RFID tag RF to DC power conversion efficiency. This poster presents a survey of the improvements and reductions of common RFID tags’ power sensitivity using POWs. In addition, POWs are explained in detail with examples and methods of integration into a reader.

Event Details and Registration

Date: Thursday, May 20, 2010
Time: 11:30 am – 1pm, Beginning with refreshments and networking
Location: Georgia Tech Research Institute (256) 716-2177
1525 Perimeter Pkwy, First Floor Conference Room, Huntsville, AL

Everyone is invited; you do not have to be an IEEE member to attend.  To reserve your seat at this presentation, please RSVP by email to Rick Tuggle.

Tags:
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Rick Tuggle
May 10th, 2010

Buried Capacitance in Printed Circuit Boards

You are cordially invited to a  Technical Presentation by the IEEE Huntsville EMC Chapter.  Mr. John Andresakis of Oak-Mitsui Technologies, will present “Use Of Buried Capacitance Layers In Printed Circuit Boards: Performance And Lessons From A Real World Example”.

A complimentary supper of “Fried Chicken with All the Fixin’s” will be provided, care of Mr. Mike Kirk, Agilent Technologies.

Abstract

Embedded capacitor technology has been driven by the need to save board area and/or reduce board size, increase functionality, lower costs and improve electrical performance. This technology has been utilized to enhance signal integrity, reduce impedance at high frequency and dampen noise, and not necessarily just to remove discrete capacitors.

We will show that by using thin core planes and simulation tools one can reduce the number of discrete capacitors and get better electrical performance. The actual number and type (size) of capacitors removed will be presented. In addition to discrete capacitor reduction, the amount of electro-magnetic radiation from the board (which can cause EMI issues) will be shown to be reduced by utilizing the embedded capacitor planes. This is attributed to the reduction in power/ground plane resonance. With a good predictive model, the decision to utilize embedded capacitors is simplified.

The meeting will be held at ADTRAN in the East Tower Lobby Conference Room. The meeting is open to anyone interested in EMC.  IEEE membership is not required to attend.

Please RSVP to Paul Stover by 11 May 2010 with your intent to attend.

I hope to see you there!

Event Details and Reservations

Date: Thursday, 13 May 2010

Time: 5:30 p.m.

Location: ADTRAN Inc. 2 East Conference Center Room #273

(Do not park in the visitor parking lot or try to use the main entrance to the East Tower.)

Related Sites

IEEE EMC Society

Tags:
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Jack McFadden
May 10th, 2010

SOA, Now What?

SOA, Now What?

The IEEE Huntsville Computer Society presents IEEE Senior Member Roger Bolton with “SOA, Now What?”, an analysis of what the Service Oriented Architecture paradigm means to software engineers and architects, as well as how it affects corporate business models.

Much has been written about Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).  Some authors have even gone as far as stating that it is the best thing to happen since Object Oriented technologies hit the scenes.  Plus now that we have a SOA Manifest, we know that this trend is not dead.  But once you bite on that bullet, what does it mean to the rest of your software development practices?  Please join our meeting this month as Roger leads a discussion on the ramifications of adopting SOA.  This presentation will look at how SOA solutions affects the design, measuring, and testing of software.

Abstract

Roger will discuss how Service Oriented Architecture adoption as an organizational software strategy affects systems and software architecture development across a range of project types ranging from commercial, space, and defense domains.

Speaker Biography

Roger Bolton is an Associate Technical Fellow-Software Systems Engineering at The Boeing Company. He has over 25 years of software engineering experience in missile defense (MDA, GMD, Avenger), space systems (ISS, Chandra), and commercial enterprises (Chemical, Wastewater Treatment, and Forestry). Current interests include Architecture, Simulation, SOA, Modeling and Design, and Agile/Lean software development.

Roger  is an IEEE Senior Member and serves as Huntsville Section Secretary. Roger holds degrees from Southeastern Institute of Technology, Auburn University, and Southern Illinois University.

Event Details and Reservations

Lunch provided free of charge to all attendees, courtesy of Bo Ryals and TekSystems.

Date: Thursday, May 27th, 2010

Time: 11 A.M. – 1 P.M.  (Lunch starts at 11:15 am).

Location: Adtran, Inc., East Tower, 901 Explorer Blvd., Huntsville, AL

Please RSVP to Bob Robinson at robert.a.robinson5@ieee.org no later than Monday, May 23rd so that we can supply the caterer with an accurate headcount.  Click here for additional details.

Tags: ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Bob Robinson
May 5th, 2010

Nominate an Outstanding IEEE Member for Professional of the Year

Do you know an outstanding person in our technical community?  This is a great opportunity to show your appreciation by recognizing his or her excellence.  Your nomination will be reviewed by our Awards Committee to select a winner of the IEEE Huntsville Section Professional of the Year (POY).   The Awardee will be recognized at the 2010 HATS POY Banquet.  To submit a nomination, please email the candidate’s name to my attention, on or before May 18.  Please contact me via telephone with any questions about this award.

Professional Of the Year Criteria

The Huntsville Association of Technical Societies (HATS)  provides criteria for recipients of the award.

He or she has:

1. Retained membership in the professional organization that is a member in good standing of HATS.  To be eligible for the IEEE nomination, this means that the candidate must be an IEEE member in our Huntsville Section.

2. Demonstrated excellence in some professional (technical or managerial) work or activity that is concerned with broad and beneficial technical, scientific, social, or economic consequences.  This excellence shall be exemplified in his or her workplace, in the professional organization in which they are participant members of, and/or in volunteer efforts.

3. Exhibited an extraordinary dedication, creativity, or leadership in that work or activity that results in excellent contributions to the technical and economic development of the City of Huntsville and the surrounding areas.

HATS POY Awards Banquet Details

Date: Tuesday June 22, 2010

Time: 5:00 – 8:00 PM

Location: The Westin Huntsville at Bridge Street Town Centre

Master of Ceremonies:  Greg Screws, WHNT NEWS ANCHOR

Program

Featured Speaker

Professional of the Year (POY) Award Presentations

Moquin Award Announcement and Presentation

More details may be found on the HATS POY website.

Tags:
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Ron Ogan
May 5th, 2010

Winners of the 2010 E-Week Awards

Awards for the Huntsville IEEE Section National Engineers Week Awards Banquet held on February 20, 2010

Congratulations to all of our 2010 National Engineers Week award winners.  Once again we received wonderful nominations from our volunteers, student members and local IEEE members; and once again, we gather to honor the very cream of the crop.  Those that we honor today are recognized by their peers as truly outstanding individuals.  On behalf of the IEEE Huntsville Section, please allow me to express our gratitude for your leadership and your commitment to excellence.

Sincerely,

Ron Ogan, Awards Chair – IEEE Huntsville Section

Courtney Spivey, Chair – IEEE Huntsville Section

Student of the Year – AAMU IEEE Student Branch

Brandon Lewis is a junior in Electrical Engineering at Alabama A&M. He served five years in the U.S Army as a sniper. His assignments include serving in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He  co-oped at International Paper for one year and saved the company over $70,000 by programming touch screens for PLC’s. He enjoys building his own electric guitar pedals and enjoys building robots in his spare time.  Brandon wants  to work in the development of robotic prosthetics for injured soldiers. He is currently the Vice President of A&M’s IEEE Student Branch.

Student of the Year – UAH IEEE Student Branch

Renée is an IEEE Student Member and active with the UAH Student Branch, senior in Electrical Engineering who is excited to graduate in May 2010. She has been very involved with several organizations at UAH – Society of Women Engineers, National Society of Leadership and Success, Engineering Student Council. She is member of the UAH Hardware team and assisted in building all of the practice and competition fields for the Hardware competition.  She also has been able to compete with the Hardware team at SoutheastCon 2009 and again this year in 2010.

Outstanding Service

Buddy Bishop, PhD, IEEE Senior Member

Senior Technical Consultant, Systems Studies and Simulation, Inc. (2002-Present):  Provides technical advice in the areas of missile system engineering with primary emphasis on missile system integration activities, design and development on missile seekers and sensors, system level counter-countermeasures, and technical liaison with the threat community.

B. S. Electrical Engineering, Auburn University

M. S. Electrical Engineering, University of Alabama in Huntsville

M. S. Administrative Science (Public Policy), University of Alabama in Huntsville

Ph.D.  Electrical Engineering, University of Alabama in Huntsville

Outstanding Engineer – Joint Award

Allen Stults, IEEE Member

Allen has been the lead AMRDEC researcher on explosive pulsed power.  Explosive pulsed power is the conversion of the chemical energy of high explosives into electrical energy.  This enables the development of ultra compact pulsed power sources for munitions.

He graduated from West Point in 1979 with a BS in Applied Sciences and Engineering (Nuclear Engineering) and was commissioned into the Ordnance Corps. He obtained a MBA from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1987.He obtained a MS from UAH in 1998. He has worked the past 5 years at AMRDEC developing pulsed power and High Power Microwave sources

Larry Altgilbers, PhD, IEEE Senior Member

US Army Space & Missile Defense Command Research Engineer and leading developer and with his independent collaborator, Allen Stults in the field of RF munitions.  This small, but very interesting field basically replaces the explosive fill of a bomb, shell, or cartridge with a high-power RF single-pulse generator.

B.S. Physics, Northeast Missouri University

M.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of Alabama at Huntsville

Ph.D. Semiconductor Physics Institute, Vilnius, Lithuania

Outstanding Educator Award

Charles Corsetti, PhD, Professor UA-Huntsville

IEEE member for 40 years

Assistant Chair and a Lecturer in the Electrical and Computer UAH Engineering Department Dr. Corsetti served as a commissioned officer in the Air Force for 24 years in the Development Engineering career field.

Bachelor, Electrical Engineering Degree (EE) at Manhattan College.

M.S. and Ph.D. in EE the Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

Tags:
Posted in Featured | No Comments »

Ron Ogan
May 5th, 2010

Job Strategies and Resume Writing Workshop

In this workshop, David McElhaney, Managing Partner at Global Recruiters, will share job strategies and resume writing techniques.  The classroom atmosphere will lend itself well to taking notes, so bring your current resume and writing materials.  Topics to be discussed include:

  • Resume writing strategies to help get you selected for interviews
  • Using the right words that get your cover letter noticed
  • Do’s and Don’ts of interviewing
  • Job search and networking strategies
  • How to successfully survive a layoff, and assessing if you are at risk
  • Networking techniques to get you noticed in various professional communities

Event Details

Date:  Thursday, May 20th, 2010
Time:  9:00 – 12:00 noon
Location:  UAHuntsville Shelby Center, Conference Room 109
Price:  FREE to community.  Lunch will be provided for the first 100 people registered

Presenter’s Bio:

David McElhaney has a diverse background with more than 30 years in business management.  He has a consistent and rapid track record of promotions, holding positions of Vice President-Health Systems, Vice President- Sales Operations, Vice President- Sales, Director of National Sales and Southern Regional Manager.

He has been involved in the recruiting and placement aspect of the business for almost his entire career and now owns and operates Global Recruiters of Huntsville.  Global Recruiters of Huntsville is a professional recruiting firm specializing in recruiting and placing top talent in the areas of IT, Engineering, HR and Sales & Marketing.  We are one of 180 offices networked across the country.  These other offices work in different specialties and we network together to enable us to assist each other in locating and placing candidates from all over the country.

How to RSVP

Click here to register by email to Sonya Dillard on or before 5/13/10.

You do not have to be an IEEE member to attend this event.

Tags:
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Sonya Dillard
April 29th, 2010

Inspection and Monitoring with Aero-Visual Sensor Networks

The Huntsville Section and JCAM Society Present IEEE Distinguished Lecturer Dr. Arun Somani, with a presentation entitled “Autonomous Aero-Visual and Sensor Based Inspection Network for Asset Monitoring”

Abstract

This talk introduces a theoretical and experimental program to develop the inspection and fault detection technology needed to integrate MAVs for persistent intelligence, reconnaissance, maintenance and surveillance for obscured or logistically challenging assets in non-urban environments. The design is explained using a context of heterogeneous deployment of wireless sensors for real-time asset monitoring by anticipating exceptional conditions and building the system to cope with them. The system converges towards an error-free state with self-stabilization, the ability to fall back to a safe mode in a financially feasible manner. This sophisticated mechanism requires a real-time capacity estimation capability to sustain the quality-of-service, which can be achieved by a distributed sensor network. We discuss issues in design and information propagation in such sensor clustered topology, optimization for power-aware networking, and link and node capacity assignment to achieve the desired goals.

Speaker Biography

Dr. Arun K. Somani is currently Anson Marston Distinguished Professor and Jerry R. Junkins Endowed Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He earned his MSEE and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from the McGill University, Montreal, Canada, in 1983 and 1985, respectively. He has worked as Scientific Officer for Govt. of India, New Delhi from 1974 to 1982 and as a faculty member at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA from 1985 to 1997.

Professor Somani’s current research focuses on scalable architectures and algorithms to manage optical fiber networks, reconfigurable architecture, and developing solution for critical infrastructure protection. He has published more than 250 technical papers, several book chapters, one book, and has supervised more than 60 MS and more than 25 PhD students. His

He has served on several program committees of various conferences in various capacities. He has served as IEEE distinguished visitor and IEEE distinguished tutorial speaker. He has delivered several key note speeches, tutorials and distinguished and invited talks all over the world. In 1999, he was elected a Fellow of IEEE for his contributions to “theory and applications of computer networks.” He has been awarded a Distinguished Scientist member grade of ACM in 2006.

Event Details and Reservations

Lunch will be provided free of charge to IEEE members.  Non-members may pay $10 upon arrival.

Date:  Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Time: 11 A.M. – 1 P.M.  (Lunch starts at 11:15 am).

Location: Adtran, Inc., East Tower, 901 Explorer Blvd., Huntsville, AL

Please RSVP to Eric Grigorian no later than Monday, May 10th.  Click here for Eric’s contact information.
View Larger Map

Tags:
Posted in Headline | No Comments »

Eric Grigorian
April 6th, 2010

Presentation on National Missile Defense

National Missile Defense

A lecture by Larry Chasteen, PhD, IEEE Distinguished Lecturers Program

The Bush Administration made major changes to the National Missile Defense (NMD) system that had been developed earlier by the Clinton Administration and established a limited system in Alaska to counter threats from North Korea. But even with the new emphasis on anti-terrorism and closer relations with Russia, NMD was still a very controversial topic as seen with the U.S. proposal to install parts of the Missile Defense System in Europe for protection against Iran. The European proposal had negative impacts on the US/Russia relations during the later years of the Bush Administration. The Obama administration is trying to mend relations with Russia by taking a new look at the system proposed for Europe.

The NMD program will continue to be a key technical, political, and legislative issue facing the U.S. and the rest of the world.  The Bush Administration focused more on testing and developing new equipment for the NMD system and also investigated a wider variety of sensors (such as space-based and sea-based systems) to detect and track incoming missiles. The upgrade to the existing Early Warning Radars was one of the few features that did not change from the Clinton plan. The Obama Administration is still finalizing its approach to NMD.

Speaker Biography:  This talk will provide background information on the political issues facing NMD. It will also provide technical information on some of the major systems including upgrades to the Early Warning Radars. The talk will also provide system engineering details on the proposed elements of the system that could be installed in Europe.

Dr. Larry Chasteen was the 1998 Dallas IEEE Section Chair and received the IEEE 3rd Millennium Medal for his service to the IEEE. He was also a 2000 IEEE Congressional Fellow and worked on the National Missile Defense Program for Congress.  He had previously worked 25 years in the defense industry for Texas Instruments and Raytheon specializing in radar and smart weapons. He also served in the Viet Nam War as a USAF B-52 pilot and retired from the USAF Reserves in 2000 with the rank of Colonel.  He now teaches Strategy and Entrepreneurship at Stephen F. Austin State University and at ESC Lille in France. His research concerns evolving technical communities and their clustering. He was also a Fulbright Professor to Germany in 2006 and a science advisor at the State Department in 2007.

Presented for the IEEE Huntsville Section, JCAM Chapter, and AESS Chapter at the Adtran East Tower’s Mark C. Smith Conference Center on 901 Explorer Blvd, Huntsville, AL, on March 11, 2010 at 6-9pm (Dinner starts at 6:30pm).

Dinner is free for IEEE members and $10 at the door for non-members.

Please RSVP to Rick Tuggle, no later than Tuesday, March 9th.

Tags: ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Eric Grigorian
March 3rd, 2010

Signal Integrity and EMC – A Twisted Pair

To All Hardware Designers,

The Huntsville Chapter of the IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Society is hosting:
EMC 2010: SI and EMC – A Twisted Pair” on Tuesday, April 20th at the Von Braun Center.

The one day engineering seminar presenter is Dr. Eric Bogatin of Bogatin Enterprises LLC. Dr. Bogatin is an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer (DL) and for the past 20 years has widely taught and authored numerous papers and books on the topic of signal integrity (SI) and high speed printed circuit board (PCB) design. Dr. Bogatin has held senior engineering and management positions at Bell Labs, Raychem, Sun Microsystems, Ansoft and Interconnect Devices.

The subjects of SI and EMC are deeply intertwined and both are critical to the reliability and performance of modern electronic systems. Engineers either working in or interested in the fields of SI or EMC will come to appreciate how robust engineering practices in one field will pay off with significant dividends in the companion field.

Dr Bogatin will explore practical differential pair design, how to select capacitors for a robust power distribution network, how to utilize S-Parameters for insight into SI and EMC performance, and how to correctly engineer current return paths to minimize ground bounce and noise that commonly degrade digital system performance.

Please visit HuntsvilleEMC for further information and to register online.  View the event brochure here.

Tags:
Posted in Featured | No Comments »

Doug Parker
February 25th, 2010

Honoring Past E-Week Awardees

In celebration of National Engineers Week, we are honoring those who have received E-Week Awards from the IEEE Huntsville Section over the past decade.

2009

  • Outstanding Engineer:  Dr. Annie Saylor
  • Outrstanding Educator: Dr. David Gross
  • Outstanding Service: Dr. Willie J. Fitzpatrick
  • Outstanding Student UAH: Tony Luchner
  • Outstanding Student A&M: Augusta Johnson

2008

  • Outstanding Engineer: Sonya Hutchinson
  • Outstanding Educator: Laurie L. Joiner
  • Outstanding Service: Courtney Spivey
  • Outstanding Service: Glenn Shelby
  • Outstanding Student UAH: John Grimm
  • Outstanding Student A&M Angelo J. Manuel

2007

  • Outstanding Engineer:  Keith A. Jadus
  • Outstanding Educator: Dr. Kaveh Heidary
  • Outstanding Service: Bob Robinson
  • Outstanding Student UAH: Justin Watson
  • Outstanding Student A&M Tiffany Tarver

2006

  • Outstanding Engineer: Dr. Glenn W.  Cox
  • Outstanding Educator: Nagendra Singh
  • Outstanding Service: Wayne Wolfe
  • Outstanding Student UAH: Josh Eliser
  • Outstanding Student A&M Ebonee Walker
  • Special 40 Years Service: Dr. Carroll Johnson

2005

  • Outstanding Engineer: Robert A. Robinson
  • Outstanding Educator: Dr. Fat Duen Ho
  • Outstanding Service:Ronald D. Hackett
  • Outstanding Student UAH: Matt McDougal
  • Outstanding Student A&M: Christopher J. Payne
  • (this was first year for UAH and A&M awards)

2004

  • Outstanding Engineer: Dennis Miller
  • Outstanding Educator: Dr. Bob Berinato
  • Outstanding Service: Keith Jadus

2003

  • Outstanding Engineer: David A. Hardaker
  • Outstanding Educator: Dr. Mervin C. Budge
  • Outstanding Service: Dr. Venkata S. Atluri

2002

  • Outstanding Engineer: Willie J. Fitzpatrick
  • Outstanding Educator: Dr. Jorge L. Aunon
  • Outstanding Service: Eric R. Grigorian

2001

  • Outstanding Engineer:  “Buddy” Bishop
  • Outstanding Educator: Dr. Reza Adhami
  • Outstanding Service:  Willard G. Preussel
  • Outstanding Service: Sonya Hutchinson

2000

  • Outstanding Engineer: Larry Fullerton
  • Outstanding Educator: Dr. Trent Montgomery
  • Outstanding Service: Scott D. Trites
Tags: , ,
Posted in Featured | No Comments »

Will Preussel
February 15th, 2010

AESS Presents Dr. Robert Qui on Cognitive Radio Research

Title: Cognitive Radio Research at Tennessee Tech

Speaker: Dr. Robert Qui

Date: Thursday, February 18, 2010

Time: 11:30 am – 1pm, Refreshments and Networking 11:30-Noon

Place: Georgia Tech Research Institute, (256) 716-2177

1525 Perimeter Pkwy, Suite 415, Huntsville, AL 35086

Pizza and drinks will be provided.  Please RSVP to Rick Tuggle no later than 17 February.

Everyone is welcome! You do not have to be an IEEE member to attend.

Abstract

Cognitive radio (CR), an emerging wireless communication technique, evolves from software defined radio (SDR) and outperforms it with intelligence. It has the capabilities of cognizing the radio environment and learning from the radio environment. Cognitive radio will greatly increase the utilization of the radio spectrum. My research group at Tennessee Tech University is devoting itself to this promising research area. This talk will present the accomplished and ongoing researches on cognitive radio in my research group. Spectrum detection, prediction and modeling are performed using machine learning algorithms like hidden Markov model (HMM) and support vector machines (SVM). Leaning the optimal kernel matrix with semi-definite programming (SDP) is studied to improve the performance intelligently. Meanwhile, detection scheme from measured covariance matrix and interference cancellation based on measured covariance matrix is explored. Another research topic in my research group is wideband waveform design and optimization for cognitive radio. This kind of waveform diversity gives us more flexibility to design smart radio to well coexist with other CRs and primary radios. From a single pair of CRs to cognitive radio networks, control techniques or decision making techniques for complex system will be exploited for cognitive radio networks. Cooperative algorithms and distributed algorithms from networking’s point of view will be studied. From my research philosophy, developing the theoretical framework for cognitive radio is just the half way to the goal. No concept will be really demonstrated until testbed is built. Cognitive radio networks test-bed will be set up in my lab in the near future. In this way, more real issues on cognitive radio networks will come up, which can also support the research on the correct track. The research in this direction is funded in the total amount of $1,500,000 plus by NSF and ONR, built upon previous sponsors such as ARO, ONR and NSF.

Speaker Biography

Robert Caiming Qiu (IEEE S’93–M’96–SM’01) received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, NY. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Center for Manufacturing Research, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville. His current interest is in wireless communication and networking systems, in particular Ultrawideband (UWB). He was Founder-CEO and President of Wiscom Technologies, Inc., manufacturing and marketing WCDMA chipsets. Wiscom was sold to Intel in 2003. Prior to Wiscom, he worked for GTE Labs, Inc. (now Verizon), Waltham, MA, and Bell Labs, Lucent, Whippany, NJ. He has visited AFRL and NRL, funded by two summer faculty fellowships. He has worked in wireless communications, radio propagation, digital signal processing, EM scattering, composite absorbing materials, RF microelectronics, UWB, underwater acoustics, and fiber optics. He holds several U.S. patents pending in WCDMA and authored over 50 technical papers and 5 book chapters. He contributed to 3GPP and IEEE standards bodies, and delivered invited seminars to institutions including Princeton University and the U.S. Army Research Lab. In 1998 he developed the first three courses on 3G for Bell Labs researchers. He served as an adjunct professor in Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, New York. Dr. Qiu serves as Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology , International Journal of Sensor Networks (Inderscience) and Wireless Communication and Mobile Computing (NewYork: Wiley). He is a Guest Book Editor for Ultra-Wideband (UWB)Wireless Communications (NewYork: Wiley, 2005), and three special issues on UWB including the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications and IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. He serves as a Member of TPC for GLOBE-COM, WCNC, and MILCOM. In addition, he served on the advisory board of the New Jersey Center for Wireless Telecommunications (NJCWT).

Tags:
Posted in Featured | No Comments »

Bob Berinato
February 13th, 2010

Creating and Managing an Innovation Environment

The Technology Management Council will host a Lunch ‘N Learn on the topic of Creating and Managing an Innovation Environment.  Join us for this presentation by Ron Ogan, Research Engineer at Georgia Tech Research Institute.

  • Date: Thursday, February 25th , 2010
  • Time: 11:30am – 1:00pm (Lunch 11:30 – 12:00 noon, Presentation 12:00 – 12:45 P.M.)
  • Location: UAHuntsville Engineering Building, Conference Room 258

Biographical Sketch

Ron Ogan received a B.S., Physics, Oklahoma State University, an M.S. Engineering, Southern Methodist University and post-graduate MSEE courses at the University of South Florida. He recently completed a project as Developer and Industry Instructor for a project-oriented course for engineering at University of North Texas (UNT) to introduce Radio Frequency Identification (RFId) technology and applications in support of a National Science Foundation grant.  Currently a Senior Research Engineer for Georgia Tech Research Institute working on the Missile Defense Agency and other sensors programs.

Abstract

As stated by Jim McNerney, Boeing CEO, “To innovate — in its root sense — means to renew. Innovation is critical to business success in today’s world. It’s about taking what’s there and making it better — as quickly as possible. There’s a pace that’s implied by it. It takes advantage of anything that will delight or better satisfy a customer.” In the entire 100 year-plus history of aviation, there have been only a relatively small number of major, world-changing inventions — including the miracle of powered flight at Kitty Hawk, the invention of the jet engine, and perhaps the pressurized cabin and supersonic flight. But … there have been millions upon millions of important, significant, and noteworthy innovations.

This Lunch-N-Learn Seminar will address different techniques and tools that are used for creating and managing the innovation environment, and discuss references to explore further.

You do not have to be an IEEE member to attend.  All guests are welcome.  Reservations will be taken on a first come-first serve basis.

To RSVP

Contact Sonya Dillard to RSVP.  Lunches will be catered by Quizno’s. Please select a sandwich and provide your lunch selection to Sonya along with your RSVP. You will receive an email confirmation for your attendance.

Tags:
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Sonya Dillard
February 8th, 2010

Engineers Week Awards Banquet

UPDATE: The E-Week Awards Banquet has been rescheduled for 6:30 P.M. on Saturday, February 20th, at the Marriott Tranquility Base, next to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center.

February 14-20 is National Engineers Week, and the E-Week Awards Banquet is one of the highlights.  Join the us as we honor our members with the following awards:

Outstanding Engineer – for advancing engineering technology
Outstanding Educator – for excellence in engineering education
Outstanding Service – for dedicated service to the IEEE Huntsville Section in promoting Engineering technology

The 2010 E-Week Awards Banquet will be Friday, February 19 at 6:30 P.M. at the UAHuntsville University Center Exhibit Hall.  The cost for the banquet is $25 per person.

To register to attend, submit the completed registration form along with payment to by February 12th.

Tags: ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Woody Williams
February 7th, 2010

UAHuntsville Professor Featured in IEEE Spectrum

Dr. John Christy, a professor of atmospheric science at UAHuntsville, is featured in the February issue of the IEEE Spectrum.  The article, A Critical Perspective on Climategate, features an interview with Dr. Christy, in which he shares the findings from a career of global atmospheric and climate research and discusses the recent controversy surrounding a hacking incident at the Climate Research Unit in Norwich, England, also called Climategate.

You can find the full article, A Critical Perspective on Climategate,  on the IEEE Spectrum online.

Tags:
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Courtney Spivey
February 5th, 2010

JCAMS Presents Dr. Hans Schantz on RF-Based Location

Joint Communications, Antennas & Propagations, and Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (JCAMS)

“Origins of RF-Based Location”

Thursday February 11, 2010 at 11:15 am

Speaker: Dr. Hans Schantz

Meeting Location: ADTRAN Inc. Executive Cafeteria

The Huntsville chapter of the IEEE Joint Communications, Antennas & Propagations, and Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (JCAMS) invite you to attend a technical meeting on February 11, 2010. The program will begin at 11:15 am Dr.Schantz’s presentation beginning at approximately 11:45 am and end about 1:00 pm.

Synopsis:
Communications may have been the first commercial application of wireless technology, but RF-based location was close behind. This talk will provide a brief survey of the origins of RF-based location technology. Misunderstandings of electromagnetics led to several erroneous direction finding concepts. Nevertheless, fundamental techniques like Direction Finding (DF) and amplitude ranging date back over a hundred years to the early days of radio. DF in particular played a critical role in both World Wars, influencing the course of history. The Second World War led to the development of time difference of arrival RF navigation as well as ultra-wideband (UWB) radio systems. The launch of Sputnik in 1957 inspired the inventors behind the first satellite navigation system that ultimately led to the ubiquitous Global Positioning System (GPS). More recent RF-based location technologies include RF fingerprinting and near-field electromagnetic ranging.

The presentations are open to anyone interested in the topic: IEEE membership is not required to attend.

Seating is limited, so please RSVP by email to Eric Grigorian at  as soon as you can, but no later than close of businessFebruary 9, 2010 if you want to attend.

I hope to see you there!

Tags:
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Eric Grigorian
February 3rd, 2010

Nominate Someone for an IEEE Award

Know an outstanding engineer, educator or IEEE volunteer?  Recognize our local talent by nominating him or her for an IEEE Engineers Week Award.

In celebration of National Engineers Week, the Huntsville IEEE Section will present three Engineers Week Awards.  The honorees will be announced during National Engineers Week, February 14-20, 2010.  Award recipients will be invited to attend the Huntsville Engineering Societies’ Engineers Week Awards Banquet on Friday, February 19, 2010, at UAHuntsville Exhibit Hall.

We are seeking candidates for these three awards:

Outstanding Engineer – for advancing engineering technology

Outstanding Educator – for excellence in engineering education

Outstanding Service – for dedicated service to the IEEE Huntsville Section in promoting Electrical Engineering technology

Please send your nomination for any or each of the awards, and provide a brief statement of why this person should receive recognition.  Also, please provide a telephone and email contact for yourself and for your nominee.  Please email your nomination to my attention on or before January 29, 2010.

Candidates must be IEEE members.

Tags:
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Ron Ogan
January 17th, 2010

Kicking Off 2010

Reflections from 2009

It’s hard to believe that 2009 is behind us already, but I’m excited about what 2010 will bring. Last year, we had some awesome events: numerous technical meetings from our six technical societies, another excellent Alabama Regional Future City Competition, social events such as the GOLD open house at the Makers 256 and the IEEE 125th Anniversary Celebration at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. This year, our own EMC Society won the Most Improved Chapter award from the global EMC Society. We recognized excellent local talent of our Section at this year’s Engineer’s Week Banquet and the Professional of the Year Banquet.

New Year, New Officers

Congratulations to all of our officers of the IEEE Huntsville Section Executive Committee:

Let’s Get Started

Our first major event this year will be the Alabama Regional Future City Competition.  If you have never attended this event, I highly recommend it!  It is open to the public.  Come and experience the scientific creativity of students from all over the state of Alabama.   Next, we have two events on January 21.  At lunch time, theAerospace and Electronics Systems Society will present a discussion on the Development and Certification of Commercial Avionics.  In the evening, the Electromagnetic Compatibility Society provides a presentation called Abraham Lincoln Assists with EMI Testing.

This year, we introduce some new ways for you to follow us online by integrating our Google calendar, joining our LinkedIn group and viewing our Flickr photos online.  I hope that our members have enjoyed the past year’s events and are looking forward to our meetings this year.  Stay up to date on the events that are coming your way, and as always, please send us your ideas and feedback.

Tags:
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Courtney Spivey
January 8th, 2010

Abraham Lincoln Assists With EMI Testing

EMC Chapter Technical Meeting

Date: Thursday January 21, 2010 – 5:30 p.m.
Location: ADTRAN Inc., East Tower 2nd Floor, Conference Center Room #273
Speaker: Mr. Alan Flack, EMC Compliance
Meal Sponsor: Mr. Ken Javor, EMC Compliance
“Sunday Dinner with Pot Roast and Vegetables”

The Huntsville chapter of the IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Society invites you to attend a technical meeting on January 21, 2010. The program will begin at 5:30 pm with Mr. Ken Javor of EMC Compliance sponsoring a free catered meal. Mr. Alan Flack’s presentation will begin at approximately 6:20 pm after a short chapter status update, and will last approximately one hour.

Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying that if he had eight hours to chop down a tree, he would spend six of those hours sharpening his axe. This presentation is about replacing the axe with a chainsaw. Spectrum analyzer surveys of platform (aircraft, ground vehicles, ships) antennas are the ultimate check that RFI has been properly controlled. As envisioned in MIL-STD-464, an analyzer is connected to a platform antenna and the antenna band is swept, looking for RFI signals. This technique fails when the antenna must be tuned for each frequency of operation. In the past, this was only the case for HF, but today multi-band antennas covering 30-512 MHz are also tunable. The presenters have developed a hardware solution that allows broadband sweeping of a tuned antenna from 2 – 512 MHz (COMM Bands: HF, VHF-FM, VHF-AM, and UHF-AM) without tuning.

This event is open to anyone interested in EMC.  IEEE membership is not required to attend.  However, seating is limited, so please RSVP to Paul Stover by close of business on January 19, 2010 with your intent to attend and if you will be joining us for the meal.

Links: IEEE EMC Society, IEEE Huntsville EMC Society

I hope to see you there!

Tags:
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Jack McFadden
January 8th, 2010

Who’s Afraid of Maxwell’s Equations?

The November 12th meeting was held at the ADTRAN Mark C. Smith Conference Center. This was a joint meeting with the local IEEE AES Society Chapter. The presentation was provided by the IEEE EMC Society President Elya Joffe who was in town for the EMC Society Board of Director’s meeting. A meal was catered for the event and was provided by the local Chapter and the IEEE EMC Society board. The presentation drew record attendance with a total of 135 from across many of the IEEE Societies within the Section. We want to thank the EMC Society Board members who took time out of their busy schedules to attend our meeting.

Huntsville_6

To help promote the IEEE and encourage membership a desktop display provided information to all those attending the meeting. The meeting started off with some general business. The meeting schedule was announced for 2010 and we have the schedule filled with meals sponsors. The announcement of the 2010 officers was made. As part of the business meeting the chapter was introduced to the new officers voted in for 2010. The new officers are: Chair – Jack McFadden (Wyle), Vice-Chair – Lon Brolliar (Phase IV), Treasurer – Tom Perry (Jacobs/Sverdup), Secretary – Jeff Whitmire (ADTRAN), Member At Large – David Cavanaugh (Benchmark), Member At Large – Vaughan Carlson (Value Eng). We want to congratulate the new officers who have agreed to step forward this year. Three of our new officers have not served in leadership positions with the chapter before this term. This is really exciting as we develop new leadership within the chapter! We also extend our gratitude to the outgoing officers for 2009. The 2009 officers were Chair – Doug Parker (ADTRAN), Vice-Chair – Jeff Whitmire (ADTRAN), Treasurer – Jim Stone (UL), Secretary – Jack McFadden (Wyle), Member at Large – Paul Stover (ADTRAN) and Member at Large – Hansel Cornutt (retired). We also want to thank our meeting meal sponsors. Their support is part of the total success for the chapter.

Doug Parker presented the enlightening and entertaining introduction to our speaker, Mr. Elya Joffe. We had not realized that Mr. Joffe was so well acquainted with Mr. Maxwell and that his new book had reached such national recognition. After graciously acknowledging the introduction, Mr. Joffe’s presented “Who’s Afraid of Maxwell’s Equations? A Practical Approach”.

The presentation was very informative and well received. Even with his arrival from Israel earlier in the day, Mr. Joffe was able to inject excitement into the presentation and involve the audience. He was able to effectively dispel some of the magic around the basis of electromagnetic theory. The explanations were presented in ways that all the practicing (and retired) engineers in the audience obtained a new perspective on some parts of the theory. He held the audience to the end as he completed the journey through the material. There were much lively interaction with the audience after the presentation with many comments and questions.

We want to thank Mr. Joffe for providing this presentation to the chapter. We are not sure if he keeps an a little pink battery powered bunny in his pocket or what, but between the travel, board meetings and presentation, his energy level never seemed to change.

It has been an exciting 2009 and we look forward to the events planned for 2010!

To see everything going on with the Huntsville Chapter, check out our IEEE EMC Huntsville Chapter website.

Tags:
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Doug Parker
January 8th, 2010

LiveWire Updates on LinkedIn

Here is another great reason to join our IEEE Huntsville Section LinkedIn Group.  Now, updates to our IEEE LiveWire Blog are posted to our LinkedIn group via RSS!  This is a great new way for the IEEE Huntsville Section to keep in touch with our members.

If you’re a member of IEEE, we invite you to join our LinkedIn group to stay connected with other IEEE members and learn about IEEE activities hosted in the Huntsville and greater Tennessee Valley Area.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Courtney Spivey
January 8th, 2010

Archives

Older Archives

Upcoming Events

Sponsors

RSS UAHuntsville ConEd Tweets

Tags