IEEE Huntsville Section has seen a series of activities so far this year, beginning with the Alabama Regional Future City Competition (ARFCC) in January, followed with exception performance of the ARFCC top finisher in the national Future City Competition in Washington, D.C. during Engineers Week in mid-February. The Section presented awards to outstanding community contributors at the Eweek Awards Banquet. In March, we supported the IEEE-USA Annual Meeting in Austin, immediately followed by the Region 3 SoutheastCon 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee. The IEEE UAH Student Chapter fielded an entry in the annual SoutheastCon robotics competition, and we heard excellent presentations on cutting edge trends and technology possibilities. IEEE Region 3 members worked collaboratively to develop strategies to better meet the needs of IEEE members and mitigate issues due to challenging economic times, nationally and globally. Attendees debated and reached consensus on proposals that we will present at IEEE Sections Congress this summer.

Huntsville Section met with IEEE engineers and scientists from across the country to explore vehicle electrification challenges and opportunities, infrastructure, and enabling standards at IEEE-USA Annual Meeting “Engineering in Motion” in Austin, Texas. During that same week, engineers Wayne Kendrick, Westwood Presnall, and Woody Williams represented the Section as North Alabama Regional Science and Engineering Fair (NARSEF) category judges, where they awarded area middle and high school students who demonstrated outstanding projects that exemplified excellence in IEEE areas of interest. Top NARSEF finishers competed with students from across the state a week later in the Alabama Science and Engineering Fair (ASEF), where we evaluated statewide competitors. Students judged as demonstrating the "Best of the Best" projects from NARSEF and ASEF will compete with students worldwide at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in San Francisco later this year.

The North Alabama regional Alabama Council on Technology in Education (ACTE), led by local teachers Sylvia Dean and Sue Zupko, held the annual ACTE Team Programming Challenge last week. IEEE Section members helped judge the Team Programming Challenge Thursday night at Randolph High School, where junior-senior teams, freshman-sophomore teams, and 7th-8th grade teams displayed their teamwork and analytical problem solving skills against other area school teams. Every year, the competition becomes more heated as these students code solutions in their programming language of choice. On Friday, we returned to the ACTE Technology Fair at the Von Braun Center, where grades 3-12 students faced off against area school teams (and Boy Scout et al) in robotic competitions, multimedia competitions, computer programming, webpage design, and other competitions. Click here for full list and evaluation criteria.

In May, the Huntsville community is once again looking forward to the 2011 Third Annual Systems and Software Engineering Forum. IEEE Huntsville Section, Computer Society Chapter, Huntsville Regional INCOSE Chapter, and a small but dedicated team of professionals have supported the Forume since its inception, along with excellent leadership provided by NASA, the U.S. Army, and Huntsville corporate professionals. UAHuntsville is once again hosting the forum on its campus, and you can see more details on the agenda and content in the LiveWire article at http://www.ieee-huntsville.org/2011-systems-and-software-engineering-forum. As shown in the Forum article, space is limited, so register soon!! Click to download the Forum poster for additional ways to register.

We’re constantly searching for better ways to meet Huntsville Section member needs and look forward to your suggestions to make IEEE better support your career development and professional networking needs. Join us on our Section website at http://www.ieee-huntsville.org and our Huntsville Section LinkedIn group site.