News

It is with great sadness that we learned of the plane crash at Smolensk in which so many distinguished Polish citizens died, and on behalf of IEEE Region 8, send our condolences to the relatives and friends of all those killed in this tragic accident.

[singlepic id=1325 h=150 float=left]Brain-computer interfacing (BCI) is a technique to provide a means of communication through brain activity alone, in those with severe communication difficulties such as those suffering with “locked-in” syndrome. Brain activity, detected from electrodes glued to the scalp, is decoded to understand communication instructions. In the past we have used the so-called motor-imagery (MI) based BCI to steer the direction of a motorised wheelchair (see Figure 1) through thought alone, as can be seen here.

In May of 2009 our BCI laboratory performed and recorded a simple proof-of-concept experiment whereby, for the first time, we showed rudimentary brain-to-brain (B2B) communication. We did this by bringing together two well known BCI paradigms and combining them over an internet link to allow information extracted from one person’s brain to be transmitted and detected off the brain of another.

On the transmitter side a standard motor-imagery based BCI paradigm was established using a 2-channel electroencephalography (EEG) system with recording electrodes placed over the motor cortext. For the sake of simplicity a binary system was used whereby EEG activity recorded during imagined LEFT arm movements was decoded to characterise a “0” and imagined RIGHT arm movements for a “1”. The MI system characterised the two states based on a 3 s recording of the 1st user’s brain signals (EEG).

The two states were transmitted over the internet through a simple two-way protocol, using simple hand-shaking to acknowledge transmission and arrival of the information over the communication link (see Figure 2).

[singlepic id=1326 h=150 float=left]At the receiving station, a BCI paradigm based on a steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) system was used. This system utilises a white LED bank that flashes at one of two frequencies (f1=14 Hz, f2=16 Hz). The LED flashes evoke EEG signals, recorded over the visual cortex, that exhibit a central frequency around the flashing rate. Recordings from the receiving station were made with a 2 channel EEG system from electrodes placed over the visual cortext. When a “0” or “1” was received from the communication channel, the LEDs flashed at either of f1 or f2 respectively and a 3 s segment of EEG from the visual cortext of the wearer was acquired and a classifier based on spectral power was used to detect the central frequency which was then interpreted as a “0” or “1” (based on the detected core frequency).

Once the transmitted and detected “bit” of information was established, the system restarted and the cycle began once again. The system was trialed and tested a number of times and the experiment was documented here.

This experiment was devised as a proof-of-principle study, specifically to show the state of the art in BCI. The use of simple, two-channel, affordable amplifiers and very simple algorithms on both of the transmitting and receiving stations, coupled with a very simple and easy to understand B2B paradigm, have shown that BCI is not science-fiction but is indeed science-fact.

This experiment highlights the reality of BCI as a means of establishing an alternative means of communication, delivered to those that really need it. It shows that research in the neurosciences, with support from engineers, physicists and computer scientists can result in meaningful applications across the life-sciences.

Prof Christopher J. James, B.Elec.Eng.(Hons), PhD, SMIEEE, FIET, FRSM
IEEE UKRI Section Chair, IEEE UKRI EMBS Chapter Chair, IEEE EMBS ADCOM Europe Representative

Institute of Digital Healthcare
International Digital Laboratory
University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 [email protected]
UNITED KINGDOM+44 (0)24 7615 1261

The inter-disciplinary approach is becoming an increasing need in scientific and industrial communities. The most evident example of such a need is represented by the strong interconnection between biomedical and communication engineering. On the one hand, ICT can provide new tools for making healthcare systems more efficient and responsive in order to supply in-the-home and mobile healthcare solutions. On the other hand, many of the most recent advances in communication technologies – from algorithms to the electronics and materials – are “bio-inspired”. Moreover, it is increasing the awareness of the great potentials offered by the synergistic combination of many disciplines (e.g., mathematics and physics, biology and chemistry) in both biomedical and communication engineering.

This conference aims at creating a stage where researchers, scientists and business people can discuss and share ideas at the frontiers of life sciences, pure sciences and engineering.

The global interest towards a sustainable Planet is forcing the industrial and scientific worlds to seek for “sustainable” engineering solutions in order to preserve the natural environment and efficiently exploit the energy, which is a limited resource. Hence, from 2010 onward, ISABEL will also look upon the application of sciences in biomedical and communication engineering so as to develop novel technologies and solutions that can make our lives “greener”.

Download Brochure:  CFP-ISABEL10

Important Dates
Symposium/Workshop/Special Session proposals: March 15, 2010
Tutorial proposals: March 15, 2010
Regular paper submission: June 15, 2010
Demo/Prototype proposals: July 15, 2010
Review completion deadline: September 05, 2010
Invited paper submission: September 15, 2010
Notification of acceptance: September 15, 2010
Camera-ready submission: September 30, 2010
Video submission: September 30, 2010
Early registration: September 30, 2010

The IEEE 802.1 Working Group Higher Layer Interface and IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Working Group interim meeting series will be held at the ITU headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland from Monday 24th through Thursday 27th May, 2010. Groups meeting include the IEEE 802.1 Interworking Task Group, the IEEE 802.1 Data Center Bridging Task Group, the IEEE 802.1 Audio/Video Bridging Task Group, the IEEE P802.3az Energy-efficient Ethernet Task Force, the IEEE P802.3.1 Ethernet MIBs Task Force, the IEEE P802.3bf Ethernet Time Synchronization Task Force and the IEEE P802.3bg 40Gb/s Ethernet Single-mode Fibre PMD Task Force.

Theses meetings will be followed be a joint ITU-T/IEEE Workshop on The Future of Ethernet Transport on Friday 28th May. Workshop topics will include Protection switching, Time synchronization and Beyond 100Gb/s.

Registration for both meetings and workshop are free of charge.

For IEEE 802.1 Working Group information please see <www.ieee802.org/1>.
For IEEE 802.3 Working Group information please see <www.ieee802.org/1>.
For IEEE-SA/ITU-T workshop information please see the URL <http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/worksem/tfet/index.html>.

IEEE offering $500 Mini-grants for Student Application Papers with industry standards component.

The IEEE, through the IEEE Standards Education Committee, is offering $500 mini-grants to students, with an additional mini-grants for faculty mentors, to help with student design projects with an industry standards component. The IEEE will publish the results as Student Application Papers. To apply for the grant, students beginning a design or development project need to submit an application found at the URL <http://www.ieee.org/web/education/standards/applications.html >.
Applications may be submitted at any time, the deadline for the Summer 2010 funding is 15th June 2010, the deadline for the Autumn 2010 funding is 15th October 2010.

The IEEE Standards Education Committee is a joint committee of the IEEE Standards Association and the IEEE Educational Activities Board. The IEEE Standards Education website <http://www.ieee.org/web/education/standards/index.html> serves as the focal point for the delivery of all relevant information on education about standards. Among items provided on this web site are Tutorials, Case Illustrations and Student Application Papers.

On behalf of CCSC and the Host Organisations and Chapters I am pleased to invite all R-8 Chapters to participate in the Chapter Chair Conferences. The names of CCCs are displaying only the Host Chapters and the Chapter Coordination Groups. None Chapter is excluded.

Peter Magyar, CCSC Chair

Computer Chapters Group and Control Chapters Group

A successful Student in Transition & Elevation Partnership (STEP) program was hosted by the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA SB), Nigeria on 5^th December, 2009. The event took place at Solab Suites, an Hotel some few meters from the University campus. This was the first major event of the student branch.

Over 50 participants were in attendance. It was attended by the Graduating and undergraduate students members of the branch as well as faculty members from Electrical Electronic Engineering and Computer Science Departments. The Nigeria section GOLD Chair, Prince Ikenna Ibe was also present.

Two keynote speakers were invited; Engr. Ebenezer Aderibigbe from Zain/Ericsson managed service, Akure who made a presentation on Overview of GSM technology/Pursuing a career in Telecoms; prospects and challenges. In addition, the second speaker, Engr. B.S.S Oke from Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Abuja presented The Relevance of IT in the Oil and Gas sector. In his presentation he emphasized the use of IT in the up and downstream and explained the need to coach and mentor young graduate engineers. He also gave some post graduation job key-in issues, tips on post-graduation, professional registrations, certifications, job hunting and writing a winning CV. Furthermore, the NIG section GOLD Chair also spoke on the benefits joining and staying with IEEE. The events also had presentation of awards, Q&A and networking Sessions.

[singlepic id=1324 w= h= float=center]

Nigeria Section GOLD Chair, Prince Ikenna Ibe(centre) with Faculty members, Invited Speakers, Graduating and undergraduate student members at the Event.

Title: STEP program at FUTA SB
Authors Name: Demilade Jemilugba
City: Akure
State: Ondo
Country: Nigeria
Member Grade: IEEE Member
Member NO: 90369853
Email: [email protected]
Volunteer position: (Ex-Chair, IEEE FUTA SB)

As from January 1st we have 3 new Region 8 Committee Coordinators:

Women in Engineering: Bashayer Al Awwad from the Kuwait Section

Voluntary Contribution Fund: Milan Polivka from the Czechoslovakia Section

Student Representative: Amélie Anglade from the UKRI Section

This is a reminder that the deadline of the Region-8 Chapter of the Year Award Contest 2009 is Feb 15, 2010. Please go to page R-8 Chapters webpage for more details. The Chapter of the Year 2009 Certificates of the two winners will be presented during the R-8 Committee Meeting on Mai 8-9, 2010, in Riga.

Baikal-Hotel, Irkutsk, Russia

July 11–15, 2010

CALL FOR PAPERS

[singlepic id=1323 h=150 float=center]

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]