The Denver Chapter Celebrates Its First Anniversary
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| Newly elected officers from left to right: Alvin Loke, Vice Chair; Don McGrath, Chair; Bob Barnes, Treasurer; Tin Tin Wee, Secretary/Webmaster. |
The SSCS Denver Chapter
recently celebrated its first anniversary, having hosted regular monthly
technical seminars and occasional social meetings throughout its inaugural
year. Attendance regularly exceeded 20 to 35 people, especially positive
considering that the meetings were scheduled for Friday afternoons! So
far, seminars have been held at Colorado State University in Fort Collins,
Colorado, thanks to the assistance of Professor Derek Lile of the EE Department.
The Denver Chapter was founded by Dr. Randy Rannow of Hewlett-Packard
and kicked off its inaugural meeting on 27 September 2002 with a much-anticipated
Distinguished Lecture on phase noise in LC oscillators by UCLA EE Professor
Asad Abidi. Since then, invited speakers have covered topics ranging from
circuit techniques and systems to device technology trends and innovations.
Following Professor Abidi’s talk, Dr. Stan Williams of HP Labs, Palo
Alto, California, gave an inspiring presentation on molecular electronics
and quantum computing. The following month, Peter O’Neill of Agilent
Labs, Fort Collins, Colorado, shared his perspectives and insights on
IC technology trends. Chapter founder, Dr. Rannow, was soon transferred
to another HP site—many thanks to him for his initiative and efforts.
Chapter activities were continued by Dr. Don McGrath of LSI Logic and
Dr. Alvin Loke and Bob Barnes, both of Agilent Technologies. The first
technical activity in 2003 was an editorial of ISSCC 2003 papers and trends,
presented by Jay Ackerman and Steve Burnham of LSI Logic and Bob Barnes
of Agilent Technologies. That was followed by two Distinguished Lecturer
seminars—the first by Professor Albert Wang of the Illinois Institute
of Technology, Chicago, Illinois, who presented novel ESD techniques,
and the second by Dr. Dick Hester of Texas Instruments, Dallas, Texas,
who taught an insightful forum on techniques and challenges of analog
front-end design for ADSL. In the next month, Chapter Chair, Dr. Don McGrath,
presented a well-received tutorial on sigma-delta A/D converters and summarized
his PhD. findings on applying genetic algorithms to optimize sigma-delta
designs. Next, Professors Dragan Maksimovic and Regan Zane from the University
of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, delivered an informative lecture on digital
control of switching power converters and pulse-width modulators.
The Chapter’s most recent activity was another well-received tutorial,
this time conducted by Dr. Alvin Loke, Chapter Secretary/Webmaster, who
lectured on copper/low-K interconnects and electromigration fundamentals
and shared his perspectives on technology trends. Within the year, two
well-attended social events were hosted at a local clubhouse. Members
of the local SSCS chapter and interested non-members are discovering that
Fort Collins and its vicinity are home to a large community of friendly
designers engaged in many exciting circuit activities. We have just conducted
annual elections for 2004 at which time Tin Tin Wee joined the existing
officer team. Here’s to a successful chapter start!
Please visit our Web site at ewh.ieee.org/r5/denver/sscs/
for more information (including past presentation slides) about our chapter
events.
Alvin Loke
Denver Chapter Vice Chair
alvin.loke@ieee.org
