The IEEE LEADERSHIP WIRE

1 June 2005

Index

The IEEE LEADERSHIP WIRE is a report for top-level IEEE volunteers about IEEE affairs and organizational information. It is intended specifically for members of the IEEE Board of Directors, key Board committees and the six major operating boards. The newsletter is sent on or around the first of the month.

CONTENTS:
*IEEE MEMBERSHIP HIGHLIGHTS
*IEEE PRESIDENTS' SCHOLARSHIP AWARDED TO COLORADO TEEN
*UPDATES TO IEEE WEB SITE
*IEEE-USA LAUNCHES SALARY SERVICE FOR MEMBERS AND EMPLOYERS
*SIX JOIN IEEE LIBRARY ADVISORY COUNCIL
*IN THE NEWS

**IEEE MEMBERSHIP HIGHLIGHTS**
IEEE membership totaled 324,561 in April -- an increase of 0.5 percent from April 2004. Higher-grade memberships declined 0.5 percent to 258,351, while student memberships climbed 4.6 percent to 66,210. For complete details, access the Membership Development Progress Report at http://www.ieee.org/mdprogreport.

**IEEE PRESIDENTS' SCHOLARSHIP AWARDED TO COLORADO TEEN**
A 17-year-old high-school student from Colorado Springs, Colo., USA, was awarded the 2005 IEEE Presidents' Scholarship at the 56th Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), held 8-14 May in Phoenix, Ariz., USA.

For his winning project, Adam Daniel Sidman designed, built and optimized a low-cost, compact gyro-based servo stabilization device for a professional hand-held motion-picture camera.

A group of IEEE volunteer judges selected Sidman's project from more than 1,400 entries from over 40 countries. IEEE President-elect Michael Lightner presented the scholarship to Sidman during the ISEF awards ceremony.

The IEEE Presidents' Scholarship, sponsored by the IEEE Foundation, is a four-year US$10,000 scholarship that recognizes a deserving student for outstanding achievement in research and presentation of engineering knowledge in electrical engineering, information technology or other IEEE fields of interest. Sidman, who will graduate high school in 2006, has not yet chosen a university, but says he plans to study both engineering and film.

This is the first time the scholarship has been awarded to the child of an IEEE member. Sidman's father, Dr. Michael D. Sidman, is an engineering consultant and an IEEE senior member.

**UPDATES TO IEEE WEB SITE**

USABILITY TESTING: Last October, the IEEE conducted usability tests of ieee.org, asking participants in one-hour interviews to perform tasks such as finding, viewing and buying an article and finding an IEEE conference. The new MyIEEE and IEEE Xplore(R) interfaces were tested in May. High-level results will be presented at the June IEEE Board Series.

Other areas slated for testing this year include the processes for joining the IEEE, renewing membership, updating a member profile, and obtaining an IEEE Web Account.

Findings from these tests are being used to improve the content, navigation and other aspects of the IEEE Web presence.

WEB ANALYTICS: The IEEE has several Web-tracking applications, including Web Trends, which is used on ieee.org. A team of volunteers and staff are meeting to evaluate available data and determine how it can be used to develop better navigation and content. The data includes where users enter the site, where they exit, what links are used most often, IP addresses, dates and times of visits, pages requested, operating systems, monitor resolutions and more.

For more information, contact Sonny Barber, IEEE Corporate Strategy & Communications, at mailto:s.barber@ieee.org.

**IEEE-USA LAUNCHES SALARY SERVICE FOR MEMBERS AND EMPLOYERS**
IEEE-USA has launched both the member and employer versions of its Salary Service. U.S. IEEE members can use the service to benchmark their current or prospective compensation based on data from the 2004 IEEE-USA Salary Survey. Employers can access detailed salary information on every industry, line of business, job function, specialty and U.S. location in the technical workforce.

For more information, visit http://salaryapp.ieeeusa.org/rt.

**SIX JOIN IEEE LIBRARY ADVISORY COUNCIL**
The following six new members have recently joined the IEEE Library Advisory Council.

• Jagdish Arora, Indian National Digital Library in Engineering Science Consortium (New Delhi)
• Jay Bhatt, DrexelUniversity (Philadelphia, Pa., USA)
• Kathy L. Nordhaus, Raytheon Company (Norfolk, Va., USA)
• Tracy Primich, Ford Motor Company (Dearborn, Mich., USA)
• Priscilla Ubysz, Pratt & Whitney (East Hartford, Conn., USA)
• Sarah White, QUALCOMM (San Diego, Calif., USA)

They join the returning members of the council, who include:

• Susan Ardis, University of Texas at Austin (USA)
• Rudi G. Bakker, Eindhoven University of Technology (Eindhoven, The Netherlands)
• Beth Brin, Boise State University (Boise, Idaho)
• Cheryl Cohen, Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (Ottawa, Ontario)
• Mariann Cyr, 3M (St. Paul, Minn., USA)
• Bradley E. Gernand, The Institute for Defense Analyses (Alexandria, Va., USA)

Formed in 1999, the IEEE Library Advisory Council is a group of corporate, academic and government librarians who consult with the IEEE to help develop products and policies.

**IN THE NEWS**
The IEEE, its members and its products and services are mentioned frequently in journalists' reports on technology and the engineering profession. Here are just a few recent references.

11 May -- THE STAR-LEDGER (NEWARK, N.J., http://www.nj.com) featured an extensive interview with James Flanagan, who is receiving the 2005 IEEE Medal of Honor for his sustained leadership and outstanding contributions in speech technology. In addition to covering his pioneering work, the article discussed his role, as a Bell Labs expert on audio processing technology, in examining the well-known 18-1/2 minute erasure in Richard Nixon's taped White House conversations. The story described the Medal of Honor as "one of engineering’s top prizes." In another interview, with SPEECH TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE (http://www.speechtechmag.com), Flanagan said, "The award is a stamp of approval of my work...a precious thing to have."

9 May -- MASS HIGH TECH (New England, USA, http://www.masshightech.com) noted that Michael Stonebraker, chief technology officer of Streambase Systems Inc., Lexington, Mass., is being presented with the 2005 IEEE John von Neumann Medal. Stories about Princeton University Professor H. Vincent Poor's receiving the 2005 IEEE James Mulligan Jr. Education Medal appeared in 25 April PRINCETON (N.J.) WEEKLY BULLETIN and in the 19 May online "News @ Princeton." On 6 May, NEWS INDIA TIMES noted that Krishnan Sabnani of Bell Labs, Holmdel, N.J., USA, is receiving both the 2005 IEEE Eric E. Sumner Award and the IEEE Computer Society's 2005 W. Wallace McDowell Award.

31 March -- ELECTRONIC NEWS (http://www.reed-electronics.com) was one of numerous publications reporting the IEEE will form a new council on electronic design automation pending approval in June by the IEEE Board of Directors. Stories also appeared in the 31 March ELECTRONIC COMPONENT NEWS (http://www.reed-electronics.com/ecnmag), 12 April CONTROL ENGINEERING (http://www.manufacturing.net/), 31 March ELECTRONIC BUSINESS ONLINE (http://www.reed-electronics.com/eb-mag/) and 31 March SEMICONDUCTOR INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY (http://www.reed-electronics.com/semiconductor/).

16 May -- THE KOREA HERALD (http://www.koreaherald.co.kr) noted that more than 2,000 papers were submitted for the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), held 16-20 May in Seoul with the theme "Towards the Era of Ubiquitous Networks." The 20 April TMC NET (http://www.tmcnet.com/) reported a record 700 global attendees at the 2005 IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium, held 17-21 April in San Jose, Calif.