Hello Everyone!!
During the month of April the Section received a commendation from The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) recognizing us as a 2007 active member of the President’s Council for “our leadership in support of the University’s academic, research, and public service programs.” On May 3, 2007, Bob Robinson and I attended the ASEF sponsors reception held at UAH, check out the final photos (courtesy UAH) from this year's event in Frank Parris' education column this month. I accepted a plaque on behalf of the Section, from UAH for a Category sponsorship of the Alabama Science and Engineering Fair 2007. Thanks to all of you for your support in volunteerism and taking an active role in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
On May 1, 2007, Bob Robinson and I attended a meeting to discuss IEEE Huntsville Section’s potential role in serving on the Tennessee Valley BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology) Steering Committee and serving in the role of the “A-Team technical crew during the local hub Competition to be held at Calhoun Community College. Thanks to your recent votes we can confirm our willingness to participate with Tennessee Valley BEST. Stay tuned for more details and calls for volunteers. Meanwhile you can find out more about BEST by accessing the following link: http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/ and going to http://www.southsbest.org/ for Regional events. If you interested in serving as a volunteer for this year’s event, please contact me at willie.fitzpatrick@ieee.org.
Special thanks to Sonya Hutchinson, Dr. Jon Bendickson, and Will Goins for representing us in the IEEE booth at the NASA Expo that was held on May 2, 2007 at the Marshall Space Flight Center. I understand we had a lot of visitors and may have signed up a few people interested in joining IEEE as well as volunteering as engineering mentors or judges for the Alabama Regional Future City Competition (AFRCC) 2008. We are also looking for volunteers to serve as Engineering mentors, judges, etc. for the AFRCC 2008. See Sonya Hutchinson for more information.
We held our monthly ExCom meeting on June 6, 2007 at 11:15 A.M at the UAH Engineering Building, Room 258, where we discussed upcoming events like SoutheastCon 2008 and the TVC BEST competition. Please see the links for important meeting dates for our Technical Society Chapters and the GOLD affinity group. The SoutheastCon 2008 Committee meets the second Tuesday of each month. Please contact Eric Grigorian if you are interested in getting involved. We need lots of volunteers from members from the Section professional society and student chapters.
Many of you are eligible for elevation to Senior Member. Please contact Woody Williams or any members of our Membership Committee to get the process started today. For an insider look at what goes on in the IEEE Standards groups, check out David Droste's special article in this month's issue. David is a Principal Engineer in the Automated Test Systems group over at DRS Test & Energy Management, and he is also SCC-20 Secretary and Co-chair of the Hardware Interfaces Sub-committee of SCC-20. This international test systems group is holding a meeting in mid-June at the DRS facility in Huntsville, a relatively rare occurrence (last meeting was in Madrid, Spain).
Please visit the UAH Professional Development link in our announcement section for access to the latest information on continuing education opportunities at UAH.
Sincerely,
Willie J. Fitzpatrick, PhD
Chair, IEEE Huntsville Section
wfitzpatrick@ieee.org