Daily Archives: 28 January 2010

Baikal-Hotel, Irkutsk, Russia

July 11–15, 2010

CALL FOR PAPERS

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Organizers: IEEE Region 8, IEEE Russia Siberia Section, Institute of Computational Technologies SB RAS, Institute of Systems Dynamics and Control Theory SB RAS, Energy Systems Institute SB RAS, Siberian State University of Telecommunications and Information Sciences, Novosibirsk State Technical University

Honorary Chairman: Józef Modelski (IEEE R8 Director)

General Co-Chairs: Yury Shokin, Sergey Sitnikov

Previously unpublished contributions from a broad range of topics in the sphere of the IEEE activities are solicited, including (but not limited to) the following areas

Main Areas and Committee Members:

• Information theory, Cryptography and data security

Arkadii Dyachkov, Sergei Fedorenko, Boris Ryabko, Wojciech Szpankowski, Sergio Verdú

• Telecommunications

Sergey Balandin, Jose A. Delgado-Penín, Alex Gelman, Lajos Hanzo, J. Roberto B. de Marca, Alexei Vostretsov

• Microwave theory and techniques

Shmuel Auster, Georg Boeck, Daniel Pasquet, Barry Perlman, Robert Weigel, Ke Wu, Felix Yanovsky

• Power electronics, Development and control of energy systems

Energy conversion and renewable energy, Industry applications

K Gopakumar, Marian Kazmierkowski, Peter Magyar, Gil Marques, Rami Mushcab, Nikolai Voropai, Helmut Weiss

• Education and e-learning

Michael E. Auer, Boris Krouk, Friedemann Mohr, Rob Reilly

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]

Conference web site: http://sibircon2010.sibsutis.ru

(previous SIBIRCON web site: http://sibircon2008.sibsutis.ru)

Deadline for submission of papers (up to 6 pages, IEEE transactions two-column format): March 1, 2010 All submissions will be carried out through the web site

[singlepic id=1322 w=300 float=left]Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) (http://epics.ecn.purdue.edu) is a program that organizes university and high-school / secondary school students to work on engineering-related projects for local area humanitarian organizations. An IEEE New Initiatives Committee (NIC) pilot project has successfully shown how EPICS can be integrated with IEEE in the Philadelphia Section and South Africa Section.

The purpose of this new initiative was to further incorporate EPICS into IEEE by empowering student branches to work with high school students on EPICS community service-related engineering projects.

The IEEE Student Branch, University of Cape Town (UCT), was one such student branch that participated in the pilot project in South Africa.

Wind speed varies between 20 and 30 m/s in the Western Cape and therefore enables this South African province to be classified as a wind power density class 2 or class 3 region (150 to 200 W/m²). Over the past decade, wind power has generated significant research and development interest in the Western Cape, and the interest also exists at both high schools as well as higher education institutes, such as UCT. It was for this reason that the IEEE UCT student branch proposed an EPICS-High project, which aimed at developing a wind power turbine out of scrap material. A prototype was constructed, which delivered some 50 W of power.

The technical work for the project was lead by Justin Alvey. The project was aligned to Justin’s final year undergraduate project, and the technical intellectual property belongs to the creator, in this case, the UCT.

Two schools participated in the project: Thandokhulu Secondary School and Westerford Secondary School. While the two schools are nearby, the two schools have quite a different background. In South African terms, Thandokhulu Secondary School is classified as a previously disadvantaged school, but has made considerable progresses over the past few years, recognized by a Ministerial award in 2002. Westerford Secondary School ranks in one of the top secondary schools in South Africa, 2009. The EPICS-High project enabled, not only for a scientific and technical bond, but also to develop a cultural synergy.

As the academic year (2009) came to an end, the IEEE EPICS-High initiative also came to an end at the Student Branch, UCT, however plans for 2010 were also documented in a report, compiled by a team lead byNana-Ampofo Ampofo-Anti. The report indicates a potential interest to install the developed turbine in a rural South African community, and also an interest towards registering as an “EPICS University” (as proposed by Purdue University), in 2010.

Nana is a Master’s student of Electrical Engineering, and also an IEEE Graduate Student Member. Nana also chairs the Projects Committee: IEEE Student Branch, UCT. In this capacity, Nana successfully lead the EPICS-High project at UCT.

The project enabled for a fresh and new appreciation of the Western Cape breeze, as a source of renewable energy.

The IEEE South Africa Section appreciates the grant (US $12,500) from the IEEE NIC, which enabled for thisfirst phase of the IEEE EPICS-High project in South Africa.

Contact: Dr Saurabh Sinha, Co-Principal Investigator, IEEE EPICS-High, IEEE South Africa Section
E-mail: [email protected]

Contact: Dr Kapil R. Dandekar, Principal Investigator, IEEE EPICS-High, IEEE Philadelphia Section
E-mail: [email protected]

[singlepic id=1321 float=left]Dr. Saurabh Sinha, chair: IEEE South Africa Section; Józef Modelski, director: IEEE Region 8; Helena Coetzee, IEEE EAB Award recipient, IEEE South Africa Section; Nico Beute, IEEE EAB Award recipient, IEEE South Africa Section and Gerhard Hancke, vice-chair: Member Devt., IEEE MGA.

In January 2009 the Educational Activities committee was introduced as a standing committee of the IEEE South Africa Section. The committee is currently led by Excellent Sithole. The new committee coordinated two EAB award nominations in the earlier part of 2009, and the awards ceremony took place in New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA on 20 November 2009. Volunteers of the IEEE South Africa Section were fortunate to receive both of the two awards for which nominations had been submitted. The first recipient was Prof. Nico Beute who received an award in informal education with the citation: “for exceptional leadership in pioneering, organising and managing the IEEE Teacher In-Service Program in South Africa”. Prof. Beute is the chairperson of IEEE’s Education Society Chapter in South Africa and also serves the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town. The second recipient was Helena Coetzee who received an award in pre-university education with a citation: “for creating opportunities for the engagement of South African pre-university students in science and engineering projects nationally and internationally”. Coetzee currently serves as the director: Academic Projects at Hoërskool Waterkloof, Pretoria, and is also the co-founder of the Expo for Young Scientists. Congratulations to our 2009 award recipients and we are calling for nominations for the 2010 EAB awards (see: www.ieee.org/eab-awards ).
Contact Excellent Sithole, IEEE, Tel 012 671-1882, [email protected]