The IEEE Leadership Wire
6 February 2008
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 the first week of each month.
CONTENTS:
*FEBRUARY MEETING SERIES ON-SITE CONTACT INFORMATION
*INAUGURATION OF IEEE CHINA OFFICE
*CELEBRATE ENGINEERS WEEK 16-23 FEBRUARY
*IEEE MISSION AND VISION UPDATED AS PART OF IEEE ENVISIONED FUTURE
*NEW IEEE ANNUAL ELECTION DEADLINES
*IEEE SPECTRUM SPECIAL REPORT EXPLORES ENGINEERING DREAM JOBS
*FINAL REMINDER FOR THE CLASS OF 2009 FELLOW NOMINATIONS
*IEEE.TV LAUNCHES NEW SERIES ADDRESSING ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
*PATENT BAR REVIEW COURSE AVAILABLE TO IEEE MEMBERS AT A 10 PERCENT DISCOUNT
*IEEE XTREME STUDENT COMPETITION TO BE HELD NEXT MONTH
*IN THE NEWS
**FEBRUARY MEETING SERIES ON-SITE CONTACT INFORMATION**
Following is information on how to contact IEEE staff and volunteers during the February Meeting Series at the Louisville Marriott Downtown, Louisville, Ky.
The Onsite Volunteer Resource Center will be located in the Rose Room on the 2nd level and will be open:
- Tuesday, 12 February: 2 to 6 p.m.
- Wednesday – Saturday, 13 – 16 February: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Sunday, 17 February: 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The IEEE Information Desk will be located outside the Volunteer Resource Center and will be open:
- Tuesday, 12 February: 2 to 6 p.m.
- Wednesday – Thursday, 13– 14 February: 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Friday, 15 February: 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Saturday, 16 February: 7 a.m. to 6 p.m
- Sunday, 17 February: 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
To contact an attendee during these hours, call the hotel at +1 502 627 5045 and ask for the IEEE Information Desk. A direct line to the IEEE Information Desk is available at +1 502 671 4408. It is not always possible to immediately deliver a message, therefore all telephone messages will be posted to a message board.
The guest fax number at the hotel is +1 502 627 5044. Faxes should be addressed to both “IEEE” and the recipient. The hotel will leave a message in the recipient's room and will hold the fax at the Front Desk.
To contact Meeting Planning Services staff on-site at the hotel after hours, please call the Meeting Planning Services cell phone at +1 732 718 5543.
For questions prior to the meeting series, contact Melissa Isbitski, Technical Activities, at +1 732 562 5597 or m.isbitski@ieee.org.
**INAUGURATION OF IEEE CHINA OFFICE**
The official inauguration of the IEEE China office in Beijing took place 21 January with more than 150 representatives from industry, academe, government and the IEEE in attendance. Local dignitaries who attended the ceremony included:
- Kai-Fu Lee, Vice President, Google (IEEE Fellow)
- Yaqin Zhang, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft (IEEE Fellow)
- Yanchang Lu, vice president of the China Association for Science and Technology
- Shang Yong, Vice Minister, Ministry of Science and Technology
- Wu Hequan, Vice President, Chinese Academy of Engineering
Lew Terman, 2008 IEEE President, delivered opening remarks to the attendees which also included IEEE Section chairs and representatives from Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, Harbin Chengdu, Wuhan and Nanjing, as well as former region 10 director Seiichi Takeuchi.
"It is our hope that through our presence here we will enhance the visibility of IEEE members in China as they link more easily to the global technical community," Terman said.
**CELEBRATE ENGINEERS WEEK 16-23 FEBRUARY**
As part of this year’s official Engineers Week events, IEEE-USA is holding its first online engineering video competition on “How Engineers Make a World of Difference." Undergraduate students are being asked to develop videos for YouTube that will make engineering “cool and meaningful” to 11- to 13-year-olds. Seven scholarships totaling US $10 000 will be handed out for those entries that best reinforce engineers’ contributions to the quality of life.
On Monday, 18 February, the U.S. version of the popular television program Jeopardy! will feature a category devoted entirely to Design Squad – the reality television show funded by IEEE and other groups – as part of its Teen Tournament Week. Footage from Design Squad’s first season will be used to test contestants' knowledge of basic engineering concepts through a series of questions co-developed by Design Squad and Jeopardy! producers.
Other eWeek activities supported by IEEE-USA include:
- eWeek Future City Competition – which in the past has included submissions from schools in Egypt, India, Japan and Sweden as well as the U.S. IEEE-USA is sponsoring the essay component of this event.
- Global Marathon For, By, and About Women in Engineering.” Held in March, the 24-hour global marathon will incorporate live Internet chats, telephone conversations, and Webcasts. In the past, the marathon has featured presentations from as many as 11 countries, including Egypt and Poland.
- Discovering Engineering Family Day in Washington, D.C.
Read more about eWeek in The Institute.
**IEEE MISSION AND VISION UPDATED AS PART OF IEEE ENVISIONED FUTURE**
As part of the “IEEE Envisioned Future”, a synopsis of the new enterprise-wide, long-range strategic plan that was approved by the IEEE Board of Directors in June 2007, the IEEE mission and vision have been updated. The “IEEE Envisioned Future” is based on the balance between the timeless principles of IEEE and what IEEE seeks to become within 10 to 30 years.
The updated IEEE mission and vision, as well as more details about the IEEE Envisioned Future can be viewed at http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/visionmission.html. Any Web sites/pages that currently state the IEEE mission and vision should be updated with the new link. For more information on the IEEE Envisioned Future, contact John Keaton or Providence More, Corporate Strategy and Communications at j.c.keaton@ieee.org or p.more@ieee.org.
**NEW IEEE ANNUAL ELECTION DEADLINES**
The IEEE Board of Directors approved several deadline changes related to the IEEE annual election, beginning in 2008. Most, but not all, of the annual election deadlines have been moved up by one month.
All ballots will be mailed to eligible voting members by 1 August and completed ballots must now be received by the election vendor by 1 October, 12:00 noon Central Daylight Time USA (17:00 GMT). Review the new IEEE Annual election deadlines. For more information, contact Carrie Loh, Corporate Activities, at c.loh@ieee.org.
**IEEE SPECTRUM SPECIAL REPORT EXPLORES ENGINEERING DREAM JOBS**
In a special report featured in the February issue, IEEE Spectrum profiles 10 technologists and their engineering “Dream Jobs.” This year’s crop of dream jobs include studying penguins in Antarctica, watching shooting stars in the South Pacific and tracking robots through the Amazon. Read the full “Dream Jobs 2008” story.
**FINAL REMINDER FOR THE CLASS OF 2009 FELLOW NOMINATIONS**
The deadline to submit nominations for the Class of 2009 Fellows is 1 March. Eligible Senior members can be nominated in one of four categories: application engineer/practitioner, educator, research engineer/scientist, or technical leader. Nominee eligibility requirements, nomination instructions and forms may be found on the Fellow Web site.
**IEEE.TV LAUNCHES NEW SERIES ADDRESSING ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS**
IEEE.tv has produced an “Energy Innovations” series of programs that explore how solar, renewable and coal energy are being implemented to meet growing energy needs.
All three videos in the Energy Innovations series will be available free to the viewing public. The first program, “The Hydrogen House,” profiles Mike Stritzki, an engineer who designed and built a house run entirely by solar energy. “The Hydrogen House,” can currently be viewed at http://www.ieee.org/ieeetv. The other programs, “Solar Goes Small” and “Schwartze Pump: Re-imagining Coal Power” will be added at a later date.
**PATENT BAR REVIEW COURSE AVAILABLE TO IEEE MEMBERS AT A 10 PERCENT DISCOUNT**
The Practising Law Institute (PLI), a non-profit, continuing legal education organization, has partnered with IEEE through the Education Partners Program to offer members a 10 percent discount on PLI’s Patent Bar Review course.
The PLI Patent Bar Review course – the top preparation course in the country for the Patent Registration Exam – is available live or via home-study. Anyone with an undergraduate degree in engineering or science or the equivalent is invited to take the Patent Bar Exam to become a patent agent. (Review eligibility details.) IEEE members should reference IEEE and their member number when registering to receive the member discount.
For more information on the Practising Law Institute or the Patent Bar Review course, visit http://www.pli.edu/barreview/patentbar/ieee.asp, or call toll free at (888-296-5973). To learn about other IEEE Education Partners programs visit http://www.ieee.org/partners.
**IEEE XTREME STUDENT COMPETITION TO BE HELD NEXT MONTH**
IEEEXtreme, a 24-hour online programming contest for IEEE student branches worldwide, will be held on 8 March 2008. The contest features teams of IEEE student members, supported by a Student Branch and advised by an IEEE Member, competing against each other to solve a set of programming problems within the time limit. The problems focus on the computer, programming and information technology fields. For more information, visit the IEEExtreme Web page.
**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.
14 January – NETWORK WORLD – The IEEE 802.11n standard was voted the third “hot technology” to look for in 2008, in a recent article. Two characteristics highlighted by the publication are 802.11n’s throughput and increased range. Read the full article.
17 January – ASBURY PARK PRESS (Asbury Park, N.J.) – An article announcing the selection of John Vig as 2008 IEEE President Elect appeared in the daily newspaper. Read the full article.
21 January – MSNBC.com – An article about researchers at the University of Washington that created a prototype for a bionic contact lens appeared in an online story. Other stories describing the research, which was presented at the IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems in Tucson, Ariz, appeared in The Economist, Science Daily, Yahoo! India, Nanotech Wire, FoxNews.com and MedicalNews.com, among others. Read the full article.
26 January – TELEGRAPH.CO.UK – An article describing a "camera in a pill" that can be swallowed to check for warning signs of cancer scheduled to be featured in an upcoming issue of IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering was highlighted by the publication. Read the full article.
***********************************************************IEEE LEADERSHIP WIRE staff contact:
Francine Tardo
IEEE Corporate Strategy and Communications
Tel: +1 732 465 5865
Fax: +1 732 981 9511
Mailto: f.tardo@ieee.org
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