IEEE Northern VA Section Newsletter for June 2016
IEEE Northern VA Section Newsletter for June 2016
In This Issue
- Section Report: We are on Twitter!
- Volunteer for Camp Invention
- Alliterative Acknowledgements
- Congratulations To St. Thomas More Cathedral School
- Upcoming Events
- Survey: What Tours Interest You?
Section Report: We are on Twitter!
Last month featured several unique learning experiences in Northern VA. Early in May, Kevin Hanft and John Tracy from IEEE MCE and Bob Rassa from R2 described the requirements and resources for hosting local conferences at the Conference Leadership Workshop. Then last week, Bob Carritte of MPR Associates described how the Byron Nuclear Generating Station responded to a degraded external power feed and what steps the industry has taken to improve at a Power and Energy Society chapter meeting. Lastly in a Distinguished Lecturer talk hosted by the Electron Devices Society chapter, Dr. Xing Zhou from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University described work that will see high frequency, high power semiconductor devices integrated onto the same wafers as digital electronics, resulting in computers, networks, radios, and other devices with increased performance, smaller sizes, and lower costs.
Colleges and universities may be out, but educational opportunities will continue in June. This evening’s Microwave Theory and Techniques Society chapter talk will describe how Time Modulated Arrays can locate RFID devices and other sensors and efficiently transfer RFID data and power. Attendees will build an Internet of Things Weather Station at the first in our Hands-On Workshop series this Saturday; we hope to re-run the sold out class again this year. Later this month Cyber Security issues in Electric Power Systems will be the topic for a Power and Energy Society presentation.
Also in June, Graham Fuller and Steve Lang from Mercer Consumer will present and take questions about IEEE’s Group Insurance Program. Discounts on portable health, life, disability, and liability are included with your membership, and consultants, young professionals, and individuals without coverage through an employer should be particularly interested. Please register so we can order the right amount of wine and cheese. If you’ve ever spent days thinking about an obscure technical problem unlikely to impact even a stranger, why not spend a few hours on June 20th learning how to protect you and your family from the type of large unexpected expenses that affect people every day?
Mark your calendars for August! The annual section picnic will be held jointly with the Washington section on the 6th. On August 25th Northern VA, Washington, and Baltimore sections will converge on National’s Stadium to watch the Nats host the O’s. Buy your tickets online at http://www.nationals.com/ieee. For more reminders of upcoming events, occasional live event information, and last minute change notifications follow our new feed @ieeenova on Twitter. For more information or to see events further in advance, visit our web site, http://sites.ieee.org/nova.
Marty Schulman
2016 IEEE Northern VA Chair
Volunteer for Camp Invention
June marks the end of the school year for elementary students, but many in our area will be excited to return to their classrooms for Camp Invention, a week-long program whose activities encourage kids to explore, experiment, and create. In our area, programs are hosted in children’s schools, taught by teachers, and assisted by high school students. Our section sponsors local scholarships – check out some short videos of the fun at http://campinvention.org/2016-program/ and email nova.chair@ieee.org if you’d like to volunteer for a few hours at any of the sessions below.
June 13 – 17
Nysmith School for the Gifted, Herndon
June 20 – 24
Hutchison Farm Elementary School, South Riding
John W. Tolbert Jr Elementary School, Leesburg
Manassas Park Elementary School, Manassas Park
Old Bridge Elementary School, Woodbridge
Coles Elementary School, Manassas
June 27 – July 1
Victory Elementary School, Bristow
Alliterative Acknowledgements
This month we express our appreciation (alphabetically by first name) to:
- Manori Nadesalingam for increasing awareness of the IEEE by hosting tables at multiple Northern Virginia Community College events.
- Monica Mallini for arranging numerous excellent talks as Nuclear and Plasma Society Chair. (She also served as section webmaster for many years!) She stepped down from NPS this month, but she will continue to increase our presence where she teaches at Montgomery College.
- Murty Polavarapu for proposing and organizing the Conference Leadership Workshop.
Congratulations
Congratulations to St. Thomas More Cathedral School in Arlington, the first elementary school students to design and build a satellite! With help from NASA, the CubeSat was placed into orbit from the ISS last month after three years of planning and work. For more about STMSat-1 visit http://www.stmsat-1.org/.
Upcoming Events
Following is a list of events in June brought to our attention that may be of interest to members. Inclusion in this list does not imply section involvement and registration may be required. Follow the link for details, and click on the “Add Meeting to Calendar” link on vTools for an automated import into popular calendar managers.
Wednesday, June 1, 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Wireless Power Transfer and Energy Harvesting for RFID
The Lyceum, Alexandria, VA
https://meetings.vtools.ieee.org/m/39856
Monday, June 20, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
The IEEE Member Group Insurance Program
Teqcorner, McLean, VA
https://meetings.vtools.ieee.org/m/39956
Tuesday, June 21, 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Cyber Security Issues in Electric Power Systems
Arlington Public Library (Quincy St), Arlington, VA
https://meetings.vtools.ieee.org/m/40062
Thursday, June 23, 8:30 am – 4:00 pm ($45)
Seminar on Aerial Drone Technology and Applications
Dominion’s Grayland Auditorium, Richmond
https://meetings.vtools.ieee.org/m/39405
Survey
Summer is the time of vacations, travel, and sightseeing, but you don’t need to wait through long TSA lines to see interesting sites in the Washington, DC area. Please take a minute to answer this month’s two-question survey on what type of local private tours would interest you.