The Student Branch participated in the 50th Anniversary of Engineers' Week Banquet in which they witnessed their own Department Chairman receive the Outstanding Educator Award by the IEEE Huntsville Section Executive Committee. This event is one of the UAH IEEE Student Branch's various activities which offer student members opportunities to interact with peers, industry leaders, and other professionals including faculty from both UAH and A&M universities.

The UAH-IEEE Student Branch with Dr. Reza Adhami who received the Outstanding Educator Award by unanimous vote of the IEEE Huntsville Section Executive Committee. First row: Tina Ellson, UAH-IEEE Student Branch Chairperson; Dr. Reza Adhami, Professor and ECE Chairman; Dr. Laurie Joiner, Assistant Professor and Student Branch Faculty Advisor. Second row: David Corredor, PR/Correspondence Secretary for Faculty; Jhen Krishnamurthy, Staff Correspondence Secretary; and Ande Boyer, Executive Secretary.

National Engineer's Week (better known as E-Week) is commemorated annually during the week, February 18 - 24. The IEEE Student Branch at UAH commemorated the event on February 20th of this year. In conjunction with this event, the student organization also participated in the 50th Anniversary of E-Week's debut of the legacy program, "Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day" with guest speaker, Lisa Williams, the President and Founder of 3D Research. All UAH students and area home-schooled students were invited to attend.

The IEEE Huntsville Section Chairman, Eric Grigorian, who presented the awards at the Engineers' Week banquet, is a UAH alumnus and was the Student Branch Chairman in 1983-84. Moreover, during Eric's term in 1983-84, the Student Branch made the IEEE Car Project into a class project. In the same year, the IEEE SouthEastCon changed the rules of the competition to require a robot with a spinning wheel that must shoot at a target to obtain the maximum score. In 1981, prior to the rule change, the UAH IEEE Student Branch won first place, submitting a car powered by solar panels. Last spring of 2000, the EE 412 class won first place in the annual competition, a first for this class.

The UAH EE 412 Class working on the robot which participated in the IEEE SouthEastCon Hardware Design Competition on March 31, 2001 at Clemson University, South Carolina. Thanks for the support of the ECE Department, IEEE Huntsville Section, IEEE Student Branch, and the Student Government Association. Special thanks to Dr. John Piccirillo (not pictured), the instructional professor for this class, as well as for last spring's first place winning team. Left to right: Rajesh Shah, senior with EE major; Thomas Christian (Chris) Farless, senior with EE major; Marty LeBlanc, junior with EE major; Ellen LaFiore, senior with EE major. (Photo by Tina Ellson)

The EE 412 class is an elective senior design class taught by Dr. John Piccirillo. For more information about the class, please contact Dr. Piccirillo. The students of EE 412 are not required to become IEEE members. IEEE Student Branch has supported and sponsored the annual IEEE Car Project Competition at SouthEastCon since 1981.

For more information about the IEEE SouthEastCon, please go to www.carol.net/ieee/secon2001/general_info.htm". You may contact President and Programs Committee Chairperson, Tina Ellson at hootina@yahoo.com or the Faculty Advisor, Dr. Laurie Joiner at ljoiner@ebs330.eb.uah.edu. If interested in joining IEEE Student Branch, students may visit www.ieee.org/join.

At the recent elections of officers for the academic year 2001-02, Ande Boyer was elected as Chairman, David Corredor as Vice-Chairman, Jhen Krishnamurthy as Treasurer, and Jeremy Nuckols (not pictured) as Executive Secretary. Tina Ellson and Misty Pearson (not pictured) will remain active in the IEEE Student Branch Committees and activities, as well as lending support to the new officers. The Student Branch would like to extend to all engineering and computer science students an invitation to participate in their events. Moreover, there is a call for ECE and CS students to participate in the IEEE sponsored Paper and Software competitions, the two areas in which UAH has yet to compete. For more information about the competition and the cash prizes, please visit the above website of the IEEE SouthEastCon. Once again, the Student Branch is inviting all engineering and computer science students to attend upcoming activities. There will be a social event scheduled in April.