Welcome to SSCS newest chapter in Dallas under the leadership of Paul C. Yu. SSCS now has 14 chapters with more in formation in Los Angeles, Atlanta, West Switzerland and Canada. Our goal is to have 50 chapters by 2003. For help or questions on forming a local chapter contact the author (jan@ee.upenn.edu) or Anne O'Neill, the Executive Director of the SSCS (sscs@ieee.org)
The first SSCS chapters meeting was held in San Francisco on February 17th, 1999, in conjunction with the International Solid-State Circuit Conference. The chapters represented were: Santa Clara (Jonathan David), Boston (Bruce Hecht), Benelux (Michiel Steyaeart), Tokyo (Toshiaki Masuhara), Zurich (Qiuting Huang), and the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (Peter Real). Fourteen participants gathered over lunch and shared information about chapter practices. Jonathan David of the Santa Clara chapter and Bruce Hecht of the Boston chapter talked about their groupsÕ best practices. They discussed the use of the web to advertise planned events, the use of regular email postings to keep members informed about Society projects, the holding of regular planning meetings by the Executive Committee, and the role of the program Vice Chair who coordinates technical planning discussions. Society support to its chapters through the chapters subsidy program and a distinguished lecturers series, was reviewed. Chapters were en-couraged to develop homepages in order to reach out to their membership, and to post details of upcoming activities. The IEEE can provide disk space and the Society will post the URLs on its homepage.
The Administrative Committee approved a new subsidy program for countries with emerging economies with the goal to increase SSCS membership and to help launch chapter activities in these countries. The programs provides free IEEE and SSCS membership for those whoÕs income is less than $8,600 US per year and who form a new or joint chapter. The program subsidizes up to 6 members in a joint societies chapter and up to 14 members in an SSCS only chapter. Funding is for three years. Contact the Executive Director, Anne O'Neill, if you are interested in taking advantage of this unique program.
SSCS Chapters Committee formed this January, consists
of a distinguished group of volunteers
l-r: Chris Mangelsdorf (Reg. 10), Sergio Bampi (Reg. 9), Eric Vittoz (Reg. 8), Jan Van der
Spiegel (chair),
Toshiaki Masuhara (Reg. 10), and Paul Jespers (Reg. 8), missing from this photo.
These members will take an active role in the formation of chapters and provide support
for existing chapters.
This year saw the launch of the Boston chapter with a series of lectures on innovative circuits. We had the help of some experienced crew members to get us afloat, including the support of the SSCS office and staff, and the local IEEE Boston Section. With so many eager hands pulling for us, we were off to a great start.
We are now well underway and into planning next year's events. We hope to expand our range of circuits and techniques. We will also build on our community of SSCS aficionados. We had our start in the fall of 1998 when volunteers from Analog Devices presented the first lectures. Paul Brokaw, Barrie Gilbert, and Jack Memishian all responded with an enthusiastic 'aye'. They each gave inspiring talks, with topics ranging from thermal sensing, circuit evolution, and a micromachined 2D accelerometer (complete with a live demo of a virtual motorcycle!).
In the spring we gained perspective on emerging technologies from two of the SSCS Distinguished Lecturers. Professor Charles Sodini of MIT described his group's work on designing ultra-low power wireless sensors. The following month, professor Tom Lee of Stanford gave a detailed cruise through the workings of RF CMOS circuits.
Our next meeting will be held jointly with the Electron Devices Society and the Magnetics Society. Dr. Gary Prinz of the Naval Research Lab will describe the future of magnetoelectronics at the end of May. Later this summer we hope to have a talk on VCO's and a summer social event.
Our agenda for next year is to build on our success to date by broadening our range. Our organizers now include individuals whose expertise covers analog, digital, microwave, and beyond. We also plan to increase our representation across New England, and to gain more student participation. One new event we hope to begin will be a mini-symposium/course, with this year's topic to be on medical electronics. We are in planning for this event to be held in the late fall of 1999.
I would like to personally thank everyone who helped us get going. My thanks to Jonathan David for his tutorial on chapter startup in last year's newsletter. I'm also grateful for the spirit of co-operation I encountered at the chapter building event hosted by Jan van der Spiegel, Lew Terman, and Anne O'Neill at this year's ISSCC. Best of luck to this year's up and coming chapters! Tell us what you see on your horizon!
Subsidies can be used for activities such as membership promotion, travel allowances for invited speakers to chapter events, newsletter, web development, workshops, short courses, support for student activities at local institutions, etc. The maximum amount available from SSCS is $1,000 per chapter.
Summarize the chapter subsidy request in a letter or email addressed to the SSCS Executive Director, Anne O'Neill. Report on the uses of last year's subsidy if any. Give a brief description of the proposed activities, the anticipated benefits for the chapter and SSCS, the specific amount requested from SSCS, and attach a budget. In the budget include all sources of funding; such as section and local support, and additional subsidies under request from other sponsoring Societies. For chapters with joint society sponsors, the amount requested from SSCS should be matched with subsidy requests from the other Societies.
Chapters are invited to list their upcoming meetings here.
Submit them to sscs@ieee.org by July 30 for publication in the October Newsletter.
"The Other Side of Computing" by Dr. William Trimmer, Vice-President of Technology of Standard MEMS
September, 1999 Agenda: 5:30 Refreshments, 6:00 Chapter Business, 6:15 Guest Speaker, 7:30 Adjourn. Location: Historical Electronics Museum is located at 1745 W. Nursery Rd. in Linthicum MD, next to the BWI Marriott.
For an abstract and exact date check:
http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r2/baltimore/edss/99mtgs.htm
Jan Van der Spiegel
Chapters Chair
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society
jan@ee.upenn.edu