Chair’s Message « IEEE Huntsville Section

Chair’s Message – Section Events and Outlook, August 2011

IEEE Huntsville Section has seen some great events this year so far, and we’re hosting even more exciting offerings later this year. IEEE Member Geographic Activities (MGA) and Huntsville Section have kicked off the 2-day IEEE Smart Tech: Metro Area Workshop , an tremendous opportunity for current and potential IEEE members. Attendees choose two 8-hour workshops from a palette of Wireless Communications Engineering, Software Engineering Essentials, and Introduction to Smart Grid Power Systems. IEEE Communications Society will present the Wireless Communications Engineering Workshop only on Friday, and the Computer Society and Power Systems Society offer the Software Engineering and Smart Grid Power Systems workshops on both Friday and Saturday. IEEE-USA Employment and Career Services Committee (ECSC) volunteers will also present a Career Enhancement Workshop option on Saturday, which will assist engineers and technology professionals in developing and maintaining lifelong employment skills in continuously changing career and employment environments. The workshop will provide information and tools to help engineers and technology professionals focus on professional and career development. In addition to classroom sessions, an expert panel of Human Resource Executives, Engineering Managers, and Career Counseling Professionals will discuss gaps between what the company needs and what the applicant presents and how the applicant can best address those gaps. Whether you are a technical professional transitioning to new employment or looking for future opportunities within your own company, this panel will help you better market your skills and learn how to make transitions from the career that was to the career of the future. The website at http://www.ieee.org/membership_services/mga_maw_agenda.html describes the IEEE Smart Tech Metro Area Workshop agenda and provides detailed course descriptions. IEEE MGA and Huntsville Section are hosting the IEEE Smart Tech Metro Area Workshop in the the Von Braun Center (VBC) North Hall on November 4-5, 2011 (Friday and Saturday), economically priced for members and non-members. Workshops include breakfast and lunch both days, with a reception/dinner that features Dr. Michael Griffin as plenary speaker on Friday evening. IEEE Communications Society, Computer Society, and Power Society are providing workshop technical content, the same content provided in separate workshops priced much higher. Huntsville registration links appear at http://mawhuntsville.eventbrite.com/, stay tuned for updates and additions, the program looks great!!
Huntsville Association of Technical Societies (HATS) hosted the 28^th Annual Professional of the Year (POY) Banquet at the Huntsville-Westin, Tuesday June 21, 2011, 5-8 PM. IEEE Huntsville Section selected Dr. Willie J. Fitzpatrick as 2011 POY. Willie J. Fitzpatrick, PhD, is past Huntsville IEEE Section Chair (2007-2008), and received previous Section awards for 2002 Outstanding Engineer and 2009 Outstanding Service. Willie is Chief of Aviation Division in the Software Engineering Directorate of the U.S. Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command’s Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center. Dr. Fitzpatrick has a B.S.E.E. (Tuskegee University, 1974), M.S.E.E. (Leland Stanford University, 1975), and Ph.D., Industrial and Systems Engineering (UAHuntsville, 2001). He now serves as UAHuntsville Adjunct Professor and sits on their PhD committee as well as AAMU curriculum steering committees. Willie’s 35 year distinguished aviation and missile system career spans Apache, Blackhawk, Chinook, Comanche, Scout, and Kiowa automatic control systems and systems/software engineering. Willie demonstrates exceptional commitment to IEEE Huntsville Section K-12 STEM and university activities, serving as IEEE team judge and coordinator. He annually leads the IEEE Technical Team for the BEST Robotics Competition.
Each years at the POY Banquet, HATS selects an outstanding awardee from the member society POY awardees as meriting particularly noteworthy achievements and awards that candidate with the prestigious Joseph C. Moquin Award. Per the HATS criteria that define the award, the Moquin award is “Named in honor of Joseph C. Moquin for his career contributions to our community, the HATS selection committee chooses the Moquin honoree from among the current year’s POY group who has stood above their peers by providing exemplary leadership to the North Alabama technical community. This involvement and leadership shall have been long-standing with commitment and consistency.” This year, the HATS Moquin award committee presented the “best of the best” Moquin award to Dr. Willie Fitzpatrick, a most deserving candidate for his prestigious and continuing career accomplishments. The photo below shows Willie with the IEEE POY Award and the Joseph C. Moquin “Flame of Technology” Award. At left in the photo is Bill Whipple, 2010 Moquin Award winner and HASBAT POY.

Help us help you make Huntsville Section better. We want to meet member needs and look forward to your suggestions to make IEEE better support your career development and professional networking needs. Join us on the Section website at http://www.ieee-huntsville.org and Huntsville Section LinkedIn group site. Photo credits above to Woody Williams, HATS Photographer

Bob Robinson
August 14th, 2011

Chair’s Message – Section Events and Outlook, Spring 2011

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.

Tags: ACTE, ASEF, Chair's Message, Computer Society, Highly Reliable Systems, IEEE-USA, NARSEF, Software, SoutheastCon, UAHuntsville
Posted in Headline | Comments Off

Bob Robinson
April 12th, 2011

Chair’s Message – Welcome to 2011 Engineers Week!!

I hope you are all excited as we begin this year’s Engineers Week, and that you and your organizations have planned some events for this annual celebration of the profession! We had another terrific Alabama Regional Future City Competition (ARFCC) last month at UAHuntsville, where enthusiastic student teams from across the state and one school from Louisiana competed for the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C. this week for the National Future City Competition face-off.

IEEE Huntsville Section will join engineers and scientists from corporations and government offices over the next few weeks as other students compete in the Alabama Council on Technology in Education (ACTE) Team Programming Challenge (TPC) and other technology competitions the following day at the Von Braun Center. Along with the ACTE events, IEEE Section and others will help judge and orchestrate the North Alabama Regional Science and Engineering Fair (NARSEF), immediately followed by Alabama Science and Engineering Fair (ASEF). UAHuntsville is hosting both these events.

If you are looking for ways to better connect with local teacher/students and heighten technology in area schools, please join us there. This week, community technical organizations including IEEE Section are also honoring several of our outstanding students, educators, and technical professionals at the annual Engineers Week Banquet, hosted this year by ASHRAE at the UAHuntsville Student Center. We congratulate the awardees listed below and hope we see you at some of our upcoming meetings!!

2011 Engineers Week Awards
UAHuntsville Student Chapter Outstanding Student – William Tyler Helms William is a senior at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, pursuing a degree in computer engineering. He has been a member of UAHuntsville IEEE student branch for a year and a half. William was a major contributor to UAH team success at 2010 SoutheastCon, where UAH placed 5^th out of 44 teams. He is currently the Director of Communications for UAHuntsville student branch, which includes maintaining and posting significant events and activities to the website and also serves as the 2011 SoutheastCon project leader. He is an engineering coop, student, and IEEE student branch participant. William serves as project leader with teammates to make this robot successful and relishes the competition challenge of designing, building, soldering, and programming the robot to meet objectives.
AAMU Student Chapter Outstanding Student – Taliah Buford Ms. Taliah Buford is a junior from Birmingham, AL majoring in Electrical Engineering with a concentration in Computer Engineering. She has a cumulative GPA of 4.0 over the past five semesters at Alabama A&M University. Taliah is multifaceted in her approach to education as demonstrated by involvement in numerous on campus organizations including IEEE, NSBE, SWE, and Alabama A&M University’s Honors Program. She is President of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). In her spare time, Ms. Buford enjoys reading, sports, volunteering to tutor young girls at Girls Incorporated of Huntsville, and helping others.
Outstanding Educator – Dr. William Y. (Buddy) Bishop Buddy Bishop is a retired civil servant, having served 34 years in senior level engineering positions on these ACAT I missile systems: Improved HAWK, TOW family of weapons, U.S. ROLAND, JAVELIN, and NATO Medium Extended Air Defense System. He served his final 12 Years Civil Service as Chief Engineer at NATO Medium Extended Air Defense System Management Agency (1999 – 2002) and Javelin Project Office (1990 – 1999). Buddy has taught the electrical and electronics review portions for the Fundamentals of Engineering Examination and the Professional Engineering Examination Review Courses at UAH, Dept of Continuing Education and he is currently a part time Instructor, UAH Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept. Buddy teaches courses in Electronics (Jr. and Sr. level), an analog electronics graduate course, and mathematical analysis of continuous time systems. He began teaching at UA Huntsville in 1978, and now teaches EE416, Electronics II. Buddy is a registered Professional Engineer and serves as Chairperson, UAH Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept, Industrial Advisory Board.
Outstanding Engineer – Susan K. (Kathy) Land Kathy Land currently works in Army civil service at Missile Defense Agency (MDA), where she provides continued support for the MDA Ballistic Missile Defense Systems (BMDS) Concurrent Test Training and Operations (CTTO) effort as independent technical lead for software and simulations. She has more than 20 years past industry experience at Mitre and Northrop Grumman in software engineering methodology, information systems management, and software development team leadership. She served as 2009 IEEE Computer Society president, and currently serves on the Computer Society Board of Governors. She served as vice president for standards and conferences and tutorials and works on the CS Standards Activities Board (SAB), Software and Systems Engineering Standards Executive Committee (S2ESC) and other CS boards and committees. Kathy received the IEEE Standards Association Standards Medallion in 2007. Kathy authored Jumpstart CMM/CMMI Software Process Improvement: Using IEEE Software Engineering Standards (John Wiley & Sons, 2005). She is coauthor of Practical Support for CMMI-SW Software Project Documentation: Using IEEE Software Engineering Standards (John Wiley & Sons, 2005), Practical Support for ISO 9001 Software Project Documentation: Using IEEE Software Engineering Standards (John Wiley & Sons, 2006), and Practical Support for Lean Six Sigma Software Process Documentation: Using IEEE Software Engineering Standards (John Wiley & Sons, 2008). She also contributes to CS ReadyNotes and the CS PodCast program IEEE Talks Software Process.
Outstanding Service – Matthew (Matt) Spivey Matthew Spivey is a software director at kSOLD, a Huntsville based gaming startup with developers from Seattle to New York. Matthew’s experience includes developing software for both startups and defense contractors. Matthew is a graduate of the University of Alabama in Huntsville, where he acquired a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a Master of Science in Software Engineering. He demonstrated his expertise in human interface web skill when he conceived and developed the IEEE Huntsville website, which has achieved recognition from IEEE-USA headquarters for its innovative approach.

Tags: Chair's Message, Engineers Week
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Bob Robinson
February 21st, 2011

Welcoming 2011, Reflecting on a Great 2010

Each year we look with anticipation to what the world of technology and innovation will bring us and reflect on what we learned in 2010. As a community, we rolled up our sleeves and dove in to local events such as the Alabama Regional Future City Competition, National Engineer’s Week, Tennessee Valley BEST, Alabama Science and Engineering Fair (ASEF), and North Alabama Science and Engineering Fair (NARSEF). As a Section, our technical chapters hosted events that brought together some of the sharpest minds in the area and Distinguished Lecturers from around the United States. We watched as the UAH Student Branch took their robot head-to-head with other schools from around the IEEE Region 3 at SoutheastCon 2010. And with the conclusion of another great year, I wish to express my sincere appreciation to all of our volunteers who have worked so hard to organize these events, reach out to others in the community, and cultivate the local brain trust that makes Huntsville such a unique home to us.

For my own part, this is the conclusion of two years as Chair of the Huntsville Section. Over these two years, we have grown stronger with the continued support of some of our long time volunteers such as Woody Williams, Doug Parker, Eric Grigorian, Willie Fitzpatrick, Buddy Bishop, Sonya Dillard, Will Preussel, Jack McFadden, Bob Berinato, and Wayne Kendrick. But also, the landscape of our Executive Committee has evolved. New friends Tommy McGuire and Roger Bolton, and Ron Ogan have joined us; steadfast friends, Keith Jadus and Bob Robinson have moved for long term but temporary assignments, and have supported us all the while from far away; and this year, we said farewell to Frank Parris, an inspired and vibrant volunteer, the heart of our educational events, and a very dear friend to us all.

Let’s welcome all that 2011 has to bring. Under the care of our new Chair, Bob Robinson, we will continue to strengthen the local community, support the up-and-coming engineers of tomorrow, and recognize those shining stars among us. With that, I thank you all for a wonderful 2010, and an amazing opportunity to serve as your Chair. Congratulations to our new slate of officers for 2011, and may this be the greatest year yet!

2011 IEEE Huntsville Section Officers

Chair: Bob Robinson

Vice Chair: Tommy McGuire

Treasurer: Willard Preussel

Secretary: Roger Bolton

Tags: Chair's Message
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Courtney Spivey
January 21st, 2011

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: Chair's Message
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Courtney Spivey
February 5th, 2010

Chair’s Message – Section Events and Outlook, August 2011

Chair’s Message – Section Events and Outlook, Spring 2011

Chair’s Message – Welcome to 2011 Engineers Week!!

2011 Engineers Week Awards

Welcoming 2011, Reflecting on a Great 2010

UAHuntsville Professor Featured in IEEE Spectrum

Archives

Older Archives

Upcoming Events

Sponsors

UAHuntsville ConEd Tweets

Tags