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| Highlights | Upcoming |
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| MUN IEEE Night 2000 | Annual Lobster Boil |
| First Quarter Technical Meetings | NECEC 2000 Conference |
| New IEEE Scholarship | Technical Meetings |
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| Mike Wrinch receives award from Dennis Peters |
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The IEEE section judges for the presentations were Bob Daye (Regional Cable Systems), Mark Ploughman (Lotek Marine) and Doug Squires (IEEE Member). All students had excellent presentations, making the judging that much more challenging. The IEEE Newfoundland and Labrador Section Awards for IEEE Night 2000 presentations were distributed by Dennis Peters as follows: 1st ($250) Mike Wrinch, 2nd ($150) Jagan Seshadri, and 3rd ($100) David Williams.
IEEE Night was preceded by afternoon demonstrations of the MUN Electrical Engineering Term VIII projects. This gave the demonstration judges ample time to visit each individual student's project. The team of judges consisted of MUN faculty members and industry members noted below:
Terry Carter (ABB), Gerard Dunphy (Newfoundland Hydro), Todd Hynes (Newfoundland Power), Benjamin Jeyasurya (MUN), Steve Lethbridge (SEA Systems), Dennis Peters (MUN), Madan Rana (Newfoundland Hydro), John Robinson (MUN), Gerry Stone (IEEE Member), Dale Temple (CONA), Deana Yetman (Aliant Telecom),
As a distributed team the judges reviewed all the student projects and then, as a collective team, decided upon the top demonstrations. The IEEE Newfoundland and Labrador Section awards for IEEE Night 2000 demonstrations where distributed by Dennis Peters as follows: Mike Wrinch (Acquisition of Biophysical Signals from Neonates), Tod Engram (Programmable Synthesizer Interface), and a joint award to Lloyd Smith (Development of a Cost-Effective Device Capable of Data Acquisition and Control) and Barry Hogan (Development of a Control System for Monitoring Temperature and Pressure Conditions in an Automotive Engine). Each prize was valued at $100.
The evening was well attended by IEEE members from the local
community. Siu O'Young is credited with co-ordinating yet another
successful IEEE Night and ENGR 8800 - Electrical Engineering
Project. Congratulations to all students. We appreciate
the time that the judges and organizers made available to ensure
a successful event. Pictures of this event can be found at
IEEE
Newfoundland and Labrador Section's web site.
We are maintaining an active schedule of regular technical
meetings intended to be of interest to a wide cross-section of
our membership. Some of the recent technical meetings are listed.
If you have any suggestions for meeting topics, speakers or
tours please feel free to pass them along to Gervase White at
gjwhite@newtel.com or 739-2069,
or through any member of your Section executive. Tuesday, March 14, 2000 The technical
meeting consisted of an overview of the CBC Distribution Services
Department. The basics of their responsibilities are to manage 104
sites that keep 154 transmitters operational. This includes the
satellite uplinks and receivers, microwave systems, diesels,
terrestrial links, control systems and associated infrastructure.
The tour consisted of an overview of these systems and an
introduction to some of the people that are required to make it run
efficiently.
Wednesday, May 10, 2000 On Friday March
31, 2000, Newfoundland Power officially opened its new System
Control Centre in Mount Pearl. From this location Newfoundland
Power remotely controls 60 substations and generating stations
across the province using its state-of-the-art Supervisory Control
and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system.
The system
architecture includes eight Compaq AlphaServer DS20 computers, five
man-machine interface PC consoles, and redundancy appropriate for a
mission critical system such as this. The system includes real-time
control servers, historians, advanced network application servers,
decision support servers, training simulators and a disaster
recovery site.
In addition to the
baseline SCADA functionality the system provides advanced
applications for automatic generation control and managing the high
voltage transmission system and the low voltage feeder network. The
system includes an operator-training simulator to support ongoing
development of the control room staff. The project also involves
the replacement of the existing 60 substation computers or remote
terminal units that provide the monitoring and control functionality
at the local level.
Technical Meetings 1st half of 2000
Tour of CBC
Transmission and Engineering Facilities
Location: 29-31 Pippy Place
Host: Shawn Williams
Tour of Newfoundland Power System Control Center
Location: 877 Topsail Road
Host: Jack Casey
IEEE Employer/Student Career Fair
In March the IEEE Newfoundland and Labrador Section – Student Branch held an Employer/Student Career Fair. The purpose of the career fair was to introduce students enrolled in the Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering programme at MUN to employers within Newfoundland & Labrador.
The event was a resounding success from both a student and employer perspective. Students were able to assess future employment opportunities that exist with local companies and employers were able to gauge the high calibre of academic and professional training offered by the programme
Based upon the positive response to the career fair, it is hoped that the exercise will become an annual event.
Just a reminder to visit your local section's web site at: www.ieee.nfld.net. You will find all the current goings-on and details on upcoming events.
A further
reminder that we now have a listserv available for distribution of
information to IEEE members and interested industry partners. Now,
if you want to stay in touch with local section activities, in
addition to referencing our web site you can subscribe to the
listserv as follows: send an e-mail to
Majordomo@engr.mun.ca,
with "subscribe ieee" (no quotes) as the body
of the message. You should receive
an e-mail asking
you to confirm your subscription within 24 hours.
This will not (at
least initially) be a moderated list; the intent is that it will be
used for notification of IEEE events and news. We urge you to
subscribe to the listserv as it will be the primary forum for e-mail
announcements. If you have any questions please feel free to contact
Dennis Peters (dpeters@engr.mun.ca).
If you ever need to get in
contact with the owner of the list (if you have trouble subscribing,
or have questions about the list itself), send email to
owner-ieee@engr.mun.ca
Upcoming Events
Date: Friday, June 16, 2000
Time: 6:30 for 7:30 PM
Location: St. John's Curling Club, Mayor Avenue
The menu will include steak, vegetarian and, of course, lobster. The entertainment will be as lavish as usual. Pricing for the event is as follows:
IEEE Member & Guest: $ 20
Non-member & Guest: $ 40
Single: $ 10 Member, $ 20 non-member
Buy your tickets early before the stampede: contact any of the Section executive members. Below is a snapshot of last year's festivities.
So, please come on out to see friends and associates from your Section and community in a very informal setting at what is quickly becoming one of the seminal events on the IEEE social calendar.
The aim of the Newfoundland Electrical and Computer Engineering Conference (NECEC) is to provide a forum where professionals in electrical, electronic, computer engineering and information technologies can present their work to the growing technical community within the province. The conference will focus on technical concepts, innovations and implementations. NECEC 2000 will be structured in a format similar to that found successful in previous years. The conference this year will include a complementary wine and cheese closing reception as well as complimentary coffee and treats throughout the day.
The conference will be eligible for APEGN Professional Development Hours
The conference chair for NECEC 2000 is Gervase White of NewTech Instruments. Dennis Peters of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science of MUN is the technical chair for this tenth annual NECEC conference.
Note that details concerning the conference can be found on the Call for Papers insert distributed with this mailing. Everyone is encouraged to participate to make this yet another successful conference.
In addition, look to www.ieee.nfld.net for the latest concerning conference details as they unfold.
Looking ahead to 2001, we are currently trying to establish a significant conference or symposium, as a means to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Marconi's wireless trans-Atlantic message receipt at Signal Hill. This historic event occurred on December 12, 1901. Newfoundland has been a significant player in the development of wireless and wireline technologies. We would like to recognize and highlight this with a relevant conference.
So, if you have any ideas on this, please contact any of the Section executive. We are keen to garner your participation.
The 2000 IEEE Newfoundland and Labrador Section Executive is comprised of the following members and functions:
The IEEE Newfoundland and Labrador Section is in the process of establishing a new scholarship for Term III students of the Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering programme. Part of that process involves a one-time endowment of approximately $15,000 to Memorial University of Newfoundland. The value of the annual award will be $1,000 and is expected to be available to Term III students this fall.
The objectives of the scholarship include increasing student interest in and recognition of the IEEE, enhancing a promising student's ability to succeed at the undergraduate level and providing students a reason and opportunity to think seriously about their professional goals.
To be eligible for the scholarship a student must be an active IEEE student member, of scholarship standing as defined by the University and not a previous recipient of the scholarship. Students apply in October, with a two page application letter describing their IEEE involvement, their student activities in the areas of electrical and computer engineering and their professional goals.
Selection is made on the basis of demonstrated ability, potential and contribution to the student branch of IEEE. The scholarship is presented during the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science awards luncheon, on behalf of the Newfoundland and Labrador Section of the IEEE.
This scholarship is in addition to the Term VI IEEE scholarship sponsored by the IEEE Newfoundland and Labrador Section which was instituted in 1998.
On behalf of the Newfoundland & Labrador Section of the IEEE, I would like to welcome the executive members who are listed elsewhere in this Newsletter. In the last couple of years, we have focussed on engineering students in exposing them to the many benefits of joining this, the largest association of professionals in the world. Through the ongoing assistance of several people, we have seen substantial membership growth in the student population this year. We will continue this trend. Of course, we do not want to do so at the expense of our established members.
We have a full slate of exciting activities taking place this year, including the introduction of a new Engineering Term III scholarship, NECEC 2000 in November, ongoing technical sessions, and of course our annual lobster boil on June 16. I encourage all members to join us at the Lobster Boil as that will be a fun event in a relaxed atmosphere.
Like any such organization, your section is only as successful as you make it. So, I encourage all members to become more active, to help promote the IEEE and persuade others to join. I would point out that our section is very much alive and faring well. I just returned from the Spring Regional Meeting (Region 7 - Canada) that was held in Halifax and I am pleased to report that we are doing extremely well by comparison to other sections.
I would like to congratulate Mr. Paul Thorburn, a recipient of the IEEE Millennium medal. These medals have been awarded to selective IEEE contributors to mark the year 2000 based on the number of members in a section. Given our size, we were entitled to one medal, so that is quite an honour for Paul. Thank you Paul for your years of contribution which continue to this day. The medal will be awarded as part of our Lobster Boil. I would be remiss if I did not mention that Mr. Wally Read has also been awarded a Millennium medal. Congratulations to both of you. You deserve it !!!
In closing, we want you, the member, to get as much out of the IEEE as possible, so we urge you to let us know of new ways to make your membership worthwhile. Thanks are due to Mike Janes for putting this Newsletter together and to Dennis Peters for doing an excellent job with our web site; do visit it for the latest in what your section is doing (www.ieee.nfld.net).
Yves Fontaine, P.Eng.
Chair - IEEE Newfoundland & Labrador Section
y.fontaine@ieee.org
Recognizing that it doesn't actually begin for another six months, Bob McLoud has comprised the following proverbs (published in the spring edition of the "IEEE Canadian Review").
C:\ is the root of all directories.