Yearly Archives: 2009

[singlepic id=1303 w=152 h=115 float=left] Sensors Applications Symposium provides an established forum for sensor users and developers to meet and exchange information about novel and emergent applications in smart sensors, homeland security, biology, system health management, and related areas. Collaborate and network with scientists, engineers, developers and customers, in a balance of formal technical presentations, workshops, and informal interface meetings. For more information please visit http://www.sensorapps.org/.

Following our general strategy to organize the OpCom’s meetings in the distantly located or newly established Sections, the 2nd 2009 OpCom meeting was held in Tunisia on the 9th-12th of July. The main theme of the session was the financial condition of the IEEE as a whole and of the Region 8 in particular, as well as the related revision of our activities and plans for this and next year. Agenda of the Fall R8 Committee Meeting to be held in Lisbon, has also been prepared. The other reason for our visit to Tunisia was the 125th IEEE Anniversary and the 1st Anniversary of the Tunisia Section.

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It is the youngest R8 Section (established last year), but the most dynamically developing one, currently with nearly 400 members, 12 new Chapters and 3 Student Branches. We have also held a frutiful visit to an actively operating Techno-Park. More details can be found in the article by R8 Secretary. Please click here … 
Taking this opportunity, I would like to express words of satisfaction and praise for the achievements and involvement of the Tunisia Secion.

Jozef Modelski, Region 8 Director

2010 is the 70th anniversary of the development of the high-power cavity magnetron by Randall and Boot at Birmingham University. This invention, which made high power microwave generation possible, was made into a practical device by the GEC Company in England and put into large-scale production in the USA.   It had a decisive impact on military operations in World War Two, and gave birth to much of the radar technology which followed, and much later, to the development of the microwave oven as a widely used and inexpensive consumer product

[singlepic id=1302 w=300 h=193 float=left] The origins of the cavity magnetron, which are much less well-known go back to at least the mid-1930s with key work being done in Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Japan and the USA.

To mark the anniversary and to bring together knowledge of the early work and also to learn how the magnetron has been improved and used since then, the IEEE United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland Section, the UK Defence Electronics History Society, and the Institution of Engineering and Technology are jointly sponsoring an international conference CAVMAG 2010 on the origins and evolution of the cavity magnetron with the support of the R8 History Activities Council and the IEEE History Center.

CAVMAG2010 will take place at Bournemouth University, England, 19th-20th April 2010.

Further information is available at www.cavmag2010.org.uk

In order to encourage a good attendance, the advance registration fee has been set at the low level of 65 pounds (for members of IEEE, IET and DEHS) and 80 pounds for others.

This rate applies for payments received up to 22^nd March 2010.

Registration may be done on-line at the IET website  (using the link from the CAVMAG2010 website), or by sending payment by cheque or BACS (see Registration page of the conference website www.cavmag2010.org.uk)

Numbers for an optional visit to the Royal Signals Museum on 18^th April and for the conference dinner on 19^th April are limited, and early registration is recommended to be sure of a place.

The conference is sponsored by 

The Defence Electronics History Society (DEHS)
IET (History of Technology TPN)
IEEE UKRI Section Life Members Affinity Group
UKRI Microwave Theory and Techniques/Electron Devices/Photonics/Antennas and Propagation Joint Chapter
IEEE History Center
IEEE Region 8 History Council

IEEE UAE Student Day has become an annual event of IEEE UAE Section. American University in Dubai (AUD) and Dubai Cable Company (DUCAB) were proud to host it and sponsor it, respectively, for this year on May 2nd, 2009.

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This event gathers all IEEE members all around the UAE. Students from all universities in UAE participated in the fun and exciting competitions. This year 10 universities were participating, UAE University (UAEU), University of Sharjah (UOS), American University of Sharjah (AUS), American University in Dubai (AUD), Petroleum Institute (PI), Ajman University of Science and Technology (AUST), Khalifa University of Science, Technology & Research (KUSTAR), BITS Pilani in Dubai (BPD), Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT), and Michigan State University in Dubai (MSU).

The main objectives of this day were to enhance the culture of competition among engineering students, to recognize outstanding achievements of IEEE student members, to exchange experience between UAE IEEE Students, to enhance leadership qualities of IEEE students, and to introduce the IEEE to the public.

Students participated in the following competitions:

• Common Design Project Competition
• Senior Design Project Poster/Demo Competition
• Software Engineering Design Competition
• Engineering Design Competition
• Community Service Competition
• Made in UAE Competition

The day was full of activities; it started by an opening ceremony where Dr. Eesa Al Bastaki – IEEE UAE Chair –, Dr. Colin Christy – Organizing Committee Chair – and Dr. Hasan Al Nashash – Steering Committee Chair – delivered speeches about the event itself.
After the opening, all visitors and coordinators of the competitions reviewed the projects and asked the students about their projects.
Two workshops were held; Tips for Professional Success which was organized by WIE and sponsored by Dubal, delivered by both Mr. Ali H. A. Al Zarouni and Mr. Mohamed Jame. The other workshop was Engineering Ethics, delivered by Dr. Sami W. Tabash, Professor at American University of Sharjah.

At the closing ceremony, all visitors, competitors, and professors had met in the auditorium where all winners received their certificates and prizes.

The winning institutions according to number of prizes they got were as follows: PI and AUS equally won 2 prizes as second place and 1 prize as the third place. KUSTAR won 2 prizes as first place, AUST won 2 prizes; 1 prize as the second place, and the other was as the third place. UOS, HCT, and AUD all won equally 1 prize as the first place.

Finally, the steering committee announced that next year the Petroleum Institute will host this event.

Reported By:
Eng. Soha Jawabreh,
WIE Coordinator in Sharjah, UAE
[email protected]

A group of IEEE and WIE members in University of Sharjah and Friends of Cancer Patients in UAE (FOCP) – http://www.focp-uae.org/ – had arranged for a visit to the Children Cancer Patients in Dubai Hospital on 22 April 2009.

The aim of the visit was to delight the children and to help in raising their joy and happiness by holding a party for them.

There is no such a good feeling as the one you have when you draw a smile on a patient’s face.

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The party was started by giving the children gifts, playing with them puzzle games, drawing on their faces and hands, and coloring paints.

It was a full of fun, the kids were so happy in playing with the students.

The party was finished by a magic show done by a magician; they played with him and had a lot of fun.

One of the comments we got from the senior social worker Ms. Fatma Al Sewad in Dubai Hospital that “This party made great impact on the kids and encouraged them to take the treatment kindly”.

The students promised to come back and hold parties for the children in the future which made the kids so happy.

Reported by:
Eng. Soha Jawabreh
WIE Coordinator in Sharjah, UAE
[email protected]

IEEE WIE organized a visit to Al Qasemeya primary male’s school in Sharjah. The main purpose of this visit was to encourage the kids to study well and to focus on both math and science subjects in order to become engineers in the future.

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Volunteers from IEEE student branch in University of Sharjah participated in this visit. They played some mental games with the kids, and hold competitions between them.

The kids started the program by doing some songs. They played with the engineers and had a lot of fun playing and learning in the same time. Prizes were distributed to the winners of the competitions. At the end of the day, appreciation certificates were distributed to the school representatives, Mrs. Badreya Mohammed Murtada and Mrs. Amnah AI Gharby.

April 2009, Sharjah – United Arab Emirates
By Eng. Soha Jawabreh, WIE Coordinator in Sharjah, [email protected]

[singlepic id=1298 w=250 h=125 float=left] SIBIRCON is one of the major international conferences held by the IEEE Region 8.  It aims to provide a platform for technical exchange between researchers and practitioners from different technological fields.

Proceedings of the conference will be published in print and on CD-ROM and indexed in IEEE Xplore.

Previously unpublished contributions from a broad range of topics in the scope of the IEEE are solicited, including (but not limited to) the following areas:

• information theory
• cryptography and data security
• education and e-learning
• telecommunications
• wireless communications
• microwave theory and techniques
• development and control of energy systems
• power electronics
• energy conversion and renewable energy
• industry applications

Important dates:

Submission of papers (up to 6 pages):  March 1, 2010
Paper acceptance notification:  April 26, 2010
Camera-ready papers and registration:  May 24, 2010

For general inquiries, please use the following address

SIBIRCON 2010 Office
NSTU
building 4, room 121a
Karl Marx Ave. 20
Novosibirsk 630092 Russia

e-mail: [email protected]

…a successful kick-off of the IEEE Engineering the Future Global Event Series!

[singlepic id=1297 w=296 h=222 float=left] After long and arduous preparations, Munich kicked-off the IEEE Engineering the Future Global Events Series. On April 27^th, already about 5 p.m. the first guests have entered the Audimax of the Technische Universität München – at 6 p.m., when the Speakers Session was about to start, more than 300 invitees have already taken their seats to first watch the IEEE Germany Section presentation and consequently to be welcomed by Dr. Andreas Luxa – Germany Section Chair. Speakers Session, revolving around the “Horizontal and vertical integration of technology disciplines to engineer the future” was started by Dr. John Vig – IEEE 2009 President, who reminded the guests of IEEE achievements through the long period of its existence but also emphasized its meaning in today’s and future’s engineering. The “One Voice” video presented afterwards approved the thesis about the universal values of IEEE shared by its volunteers around the world. Prof. Wolfgang Herrmann, TUM’s President, expressed his delight about IEEE celebrating in the walls of one of the Germany’s most meaningful universities and stressed how many of his students and scientific staff representatives are IEEE’s Members, having their stake in its success. The guests had subsequently the chance to hear Mr. Martin Zeil – Bavarian State Secretary of Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology, talking about the role of engineering in the development of Bavarian economy and Prof. Jozef Modelski – IEEE region 8 Director, discussing the Region’s contribution to the international cooperation of the engineers, representing numerous fields and interests. Prof. Josef Nossek, the VDE Deputy President, reminded of the close cooperation of IEEE and VDE and their commitment to promote engineering, innovations and education. Last but not least, Prof. Felicitas Pauss – CERN’s Coordinator for External Relations, entered the stage to explain why IEEE and CERN “share the same destiny” in innovations development and their service to the humanity. After all the speakers were given long and warm applause, all the invitees proceeded to Theresianum, where the evening reception took place. Drinks and hors-d’oeuvres found a good welcome and one could hear a lot of interesting discussions until almost 9.30 p.m.

 30. 04.2009
Anna Stanco, Erlangen

IEEE is 125 years old this year (2009) and will be holding ‘celebration’ events in several locations around the world. Munich and London have been chosen for IEEE Region 8.

The London event will be held at the Royal Institution of Great Britain (21 Albermarle Street) where Faraday did his famous experiments.

Provisional details are as follows:

Date: 6th October 2009
Time: ~1600 to 1830
Provisional Programme:
Opening addresses by UKRI Section Chair, Seán McLoone and Region 8 Director Józef Modelski
Lecture 1
Short address from IEEE President John Vig
Lecture 2
Closing remarks.

The two lectures will be given by Professor Dame Wendy Hall (Southampton University) and Professor Chris Toumazou (Imperial College).

For more information on these two lecturers, see
http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/wh/biography.php
and
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/people/c.toumazou

The above Programme will be followed by an evening Reception (invited guests only)

Although IEEE was really formed in 1963 by a merger of AIEE and IRE, the starting date of AIEE was 125 years ago (1884).      The IET (former IEE) claims to be older, founded in 1871 as the Society of Telegraph Engineers.

Details of the 125th Anniversary Celebration in London on 6th October 2009 will be provided on the anniversary website:

http://www.ieee125.org/celebrate/events/calendar/2009-10-06-engineering-future-global-event-series-london.html

Tony Davies 30 March 2009

IEEE Milestones recognize the technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity. Each milestone recognizes a significant achievement that occurred at least twenty-five years ago in an area of technology represented in IEEE and having a large impact. To date, more than seventy-five Milestones have been approved and dedicated around the world. Initiated by the IEEE Benelux Section, the IEEE dedicated a Milestone to N.V. Philips’ Gloeilampenf abrieken, with the following citation:

[singlepic id=1291 w=369 h=259 float=left] COMPACT DISC AUDIO PLAYER 1979

On 8 March 1979, N.V. Philips’ Gloeilampenfabrieken demonstrated for the international press a Compact Disc Audio Player. The demonstration showed that it is possible by using digital optical recording and playback to reproduce audio signals with superb stereo quality. This research at Philips established the technical standard for digital optical recording systems.

March 2009

For a video press release (March 2009), please press here.

On 6 March 2009, IEEE President John Vig presented an IEEE Milestone to Rick Harwig, Chief Technology Officer of Royal Philips Electronics, for the creation of the Compact Disc about 30 years ago. The presentation and unveiling of the Milestone was the culmination of a three-hour long event, in which short speeches were delivered by the Rector of Eindhoven University of Technology (where the event took place), by Georges Gielen, the IEEE Benelux Section Chair (which Section nominated Philips for the Milestone), by the Mayor of the City of Eindhoven, by the Deputy of her Majesty’s Governor in the Province of Noord-Brabant, and by the Deputy Director-General for Enterprise and Innovation of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

The first more or less technically-oriented and historical lecture was given by Joop Sinjou, with the title “From LP to CD”. On the occasion of the Milestone, a book was published by Springer in the Philips Research Book Series; the first copy of the book, entitled “Origins and Successors of the Compact Disc: Contributions of Philips to Optical Storage,” was presented to Joop Sinjou by IEEE Life Fellow Hans Peek. Both Joop Sinjou and Hans Peek played an important role in the development of the CD.

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After the tea break, two more lectures were presented: one by Hiroshi Ogawa, entitled “Sony’s Approach to the CD,” in which Sony’s role in the development of the CD was discussed, and a more general one by Frans Greidanus, with the title “Innovation and Optical Storage.” The ceremony ended by John Vig’s presentation of this first Milestone in the Benelux Section to Rick Harwig, who expressed Philips’ sincere appreciation for getting this important award.

 The photograph shows the unveiling of the bronze plaque by John Vig and Hans Noordanus, who was the driving force behind the Milestone nomination.

More information about the event can be found on the IEEE Benelux Section web site, in particular on the web page http://www.ieee.be/milestone.html.