The Sacramento Chapter embarked on a period of revitalization in the 2004-05 year. The Chapter had experienced a period of dormancy in recent years as key officers relocated to other areas or had to deal with increased responsibilities on the job. The Chapter draws a majority of its members from the two Universities in the area: California State University, Sacramento and the University of California, Davis. Other members are involved in the optical engineering industry in the area. The Chapter hosted a variety of events during the 2004-05 year that included technical talks, tours of area companies involved in optical engineering, student research posters and papers and a pre-college outreach program that encourages high school students to study engineering.
Using our online newsletter for communication http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r6/sacramento/laser.htm) we have put together a broad program focusing on the needs of our chapter members. In 2004-05, this included tours of local companies involved in optical engineering such as Sure West Communications (the primary deployer of fiber optic communications in the Sacramento region), New Star Lasers (a medical laser manufacturing company) and Schilling Robotics (a company that uses optics extensively in its ROV’s for underwater exploration). The tours were complemented with technical presentations, again covering a wide range of interests in Lasers and Electro-Optics. A good example was the presentation by Dr. Stephen Lane, the Chief Science and Technology Officer of the new NSF Center for Biophotonics in Sacramento. The Center’s science and technology program consists of 3 theme areas: bioimaging, molecular and cellular biophotonics, and medical biophotonics. Some of the projects described by Dr. Lane included optical microscopy with resolution beyond the diffraction limit, single molecule protein structure determinations, optical detection and treatment of epileptic cells, and Raman characterization of individual B and T cells.
One of the key challenges has been the depletion of the officer corps serving the LEOS Chapter. To encourage graduating students to stay connected with IEEE and specifically serve the LEOS Chapter, the Sacramento Chapter co-sponsored the biannual research paper and poster presentations in the graduate Fiber Optic Communications class at California State University, Sacramento. This has resulted in two graduating students volunteering to serve the LEOS Chapter in 2005-06. Victor Maiello and Benedict Khoo were both past IEEE Student Branch Chairs at CSUS and will assist Dr. Ramesh as Vice-Chairs in the LEOS Chapter in the coming year.
Finally, the Section has had a long and focused program to strengthen the pipeline of students entering the engineering professions. An outreach initiative has been developed under the auspices of the Accelerated College Entrance (ACE) program at California State University, Sacramento that allows qualified high school students to complete an Introduction to Engineering – hands on laboratory course for college credit. Over 125 students from five area high schools participated in this program last year. One of the hands-on labs in the program is in Optical Engineering and is hosted by volunteers from the LEOS Sacramento Chapter at the CSUS Optical Engineering Lab.
The IEEE LEOS Sacramento chapter has co-sponsored (along with California State University, Sacramento) high school teachers workshops designed for teachers in math, science and engineering and was described in an invited presentation at the IEEE Dean’s Summit II in 2003 (www.ieee.org/eab/fcc) CSUS has been very successful with its ‘Introduction to Engineering’ course that focuses on fundamental problem solving skills while highlighting the interconnection among the various engineering disciplines. The hands-on nature of the course encourages teamwork, problem solving and critical thinking. The spark of excitement and the discovery-based learning that naturally accompanies the hands on approach motivates students. Our philosophy is that an introductory course be an introduction to engineering as opposed to an introduction to the discipline of a specific department. The experience of a ‘holistic’ integrated engineering approach to problem solving is invaluable to students. The emphasis in this course is to learn the engineering approach by performing some carefully designed experiments. One example of this approach is the experiments we have designed and conducted in Optical Engineering. High school students perform these experiments under the supervision of volunteer leaders from the IEEE LEOS Sacramento Chapter.

LEOS volunteer Russ Tatro with high school students in ENGR 1

We are confident that we can build for the future and continue to expand on our programs and services to benefit LEOS members in the region with the momentum and interest generated from our activities last year.

Biography
S. K. Ramesh (SM 1993) is a Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at California State University, Sacramento. He has served as the Department Chair since 1994 leading a department with 20 full time faculty members and over 700 students. Prior to joining CSUS in 1987, he was a Visiting Professor at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. His research is in the area of Optical Communication Systems. Ramesh teaches courses in Optical Engineering, and Analog IC Design and is presently authoring a textbook on Fiber Optic Communications. He has been recognized with several awards for Outstanding Teaching, and Community service and held positions of increasing responsibility within the IEEE at the Chapter, Section and Regional Levels. He served as the Chair of the IEEE Central Area in Region 6 from 2000-2004. In 2004 he received the IEEE Region 6 Community Service Award in recognition of his activities in the pre-college arena. He was the Founding Chairman, Sacramento Chapter of IEEE LEOS (1989-1992): The Chapter won the Most Improved Chapter Award in 1991-92 and an Award for Largest membership growth in 1992-1993.
Ramesh graduated with a B.E. (Honors) degree (’81) in Electronics and Communication Engineering from the University of Madras, and received his MSEE (’83) and PhD (’86) degrees from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.