Founded just over three years ago, SSCS Denver has become a valuable technical resource serving the IC design and device community in northern Colorado.
The chapter had its inaugural meeting in September 2002 with a Distinguished Lecture by Prof. Asad Abidi (UCLA), thanks to the initiative of its founder and first Chair Dr. Randy Rannow. Since then, the chapter has sponsored regular technical seminars with steadily growing participation guided by the team efforts of Dr. Don McGrath (2003-2004 Chair), Dr. Alvin Loke (Chair), Bob Barnes (Treasurer), and Tin Tin Wee (Secretary/Webmaster). Inspired this year by the enthusiasm of Dr. Loke, it has been adjudged the SSCS Outstanding Chapter of 2005 for its “impressive list of seminars and tutorials” and “proactive outreach to both the local University" and public schools and to the engineering student community, said a member of the judging committee. These achievements reflect the chapter’s original goals of hosting meetings and events to foster both learning and the sharing of technical innovation and working with the local community to increase awareness of the benefits that science and engineering offer.
Tutorial and Cutting-Edge Technical Seminars
Denver’s “impressive list of seminars and tutorials has been consistent since the inception of the chapter,” said the same member of the judging committee.” In addition, he said, “there is quite a nice turnout for most of these presentations,” typically in the range of 50-60 people, plus remote participation from California and even Singapore, made possible via WebEx and audio-conferencing. The officers are flattered to have hosted many IEEE Distinguished Lecturers, speculating humorously that perhaps the attraction is the local mountains and fishing opportunities.
From left, Don McGrath, Professor Eric Vittoz (Distinguished Lecturer), Bob Barnes (Vice Chair & Treasurer), Tin Tin Wee (Secretary/Webmaster), and Alvin Loke (Chair). Photographed in March, 2004. |
Opportunities for Networking
Technical seminars remain the focus of chapter activities, with as many as 11 events between January and December 2005. “Based on membership requests, the chapter routinely hosts seminars that are tutorial in nature and others that deal with cutting-edge CMOS technology, topics that are becoming ever so important to circuit designers,” explained the officers. “We continue to offer food and drinks at our meetings at no charge, and this fosters social and networking opportunities for members before and after meetings.” Occasionally, seminars focus on contemporary engineering topics such as globalization and entrepreneurialism. In addition to technical seminars, the chapter hosts two social events each year.
Outreach to Schools
“For community service,” Dr. McGrath explained, “we continue to serve as science fair judges at a local bilingual elementary school, and saw some very good projects from the students.” The chapter intends to build more involvement with the community by means of similar projects in 2006.
Chapter officers judged a local elementary school science fair in April 2004 (left to righta): Bob Barnes, Tin Tin Wee, Alvin Loke, Isabel Chavez-McBeth (teacher at Harris Biliingual Elementary School), and Don McGrath. |
Chapter officers are already providing career advice to EE undergraduates at Colorado State University during Student Advising Days, and will be presenting an inaugural prize for the outstanding graduating senior design project in May 2006. Dr. Loke himself has also delivered lectures to the graduate-level VLSI and RF design classes at the local university.
Increasing Momentum Going Forward
Denver’s strategy for 2006 is to build on its four-year momentum and increased publicity in the hope of continuing to offer local membership a positive technical and networking experience. The Denver Chapter of the IEEE SSCS has quickly become a vital professional organization to the growing IC design community in northern Colorado.”
The Denver Chapter website is ewh.ieee.org/r5/denver/sscs/
