Philadelphia 1 2 3 4 Advancing Technology for Humanity ...sites.ieee.org/philadelphia/files/2016/07/Almanack_Summer_2016.pdfProgrammable Solutions Group ... (Quartus Prime Lite 15.1

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Philadelphia Section

ALMANACK

Vol. 61, No. 6 Summer_2016

Advancing Technology for Humanity

ALMANACK

Published ten times/year, January through

May, a Summer issue covering (June, July,

August) and September through December.

IEEE SECTION NIGHT IEEE Section Night meetings are con-

ducted nine times/year on the 3rd Tues-

day of the Month, January through May

and September through December.

ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE

ADCOM meetings are conducted on the

2nd Tuesday of the Month, January

through June and September through De-

cember. Members are welcome to attend the

meeting only. Reserve a seat by calling the

office by the Friday before the meeting.

June 2016 (Only June is shown here)

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

1 2 3 4

NORTHERN VA

WORKSHOP

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12 13 14 15 16 17 18

ADCOM

PSEG Tour

ALTERA

WORKSHOP

19 20 21 22 23 24 25

26 27 28 29 30

INSIDE THE ALMANACK

CURRENT EVENTS

Altera University Workshop……….2

IEEE Sarnoff Symposium………….4

PSEG Life Member Tour…………..6

Gerald W. Gordon Award……….....8

IEEE Northern VA Workshop…....11

ADDENDUMS

SPMB16…………………………..18

RECENT NOTABLE EVENTS

IEEE Radar Conference 2016…….12

SECTION NOTES

Status Change………….…….........15

Ernest’s Page……………………...16

Section Notes………………….. ...17

Almanack

http://sites.ieee.org/philadelphia/

PHILADELPHIA SECTION of the IEEE Counties of Membership: Pennsylvania: Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia.

New Jersey: Burlington, Camden and Gloucester



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ALMANACK



ALTERA UNIVERSITY WORKSHOP

IEEE PHILADELPHIA CHAPTER OF CONTROL SYSTEMS SOCIETY

PRESENTS

An Altera® University Program Training Workshop

INSTRUCTOR: DR. STEPHEN BROWN

June 15, 2016 Drexel University, Bossone Research Center

10:00 AM - 3:30 PM Bossone 605, 3140 Market Street, Philadelphia,

PA 19104

Workshop Description:

This Workshop is a derivative

of class room training provided by

The Altera® University Program

Training courses. This program is

meant to provide introduction to the

many state-of-the-art educational ma-

terials Altera has developed to enrich

your digital logic and computer opti-

mization skills. This course will in-

clude development hardware to be

used along with hands on training.

Instructor Biography Stephen Brown received the Ph.D.

and M.A.Sc degrees in Electrical En-

gineering from the University of To-

ronto, and his B.A.Sc. degree in Elec-

trical Engineering from the University

of New Brunswick. He joined the

University of Toronto faculty in 1992,

where he is a Professor in the De-

partment of Electrical & Computer

Engineering. He is also the Director

of the University Program at the Intel

Programmable Solutions Group (for-

merly the Altera Toronto Technology

Centre), a world-leading research and

development site for CAD software

and FPGA architectures.

His research interests include

field-programmable VLSI technolo-

gy, CAD algorithms, and computer

architecture. He is a principal investi-

gator in the LegUp project, which

provides an open-source high-level

synthesis framework. He won the Ca-

nadian Natural Sciences and Engi-

neering Research Councils 1992 Doc-

toral Prize for the best Ph.D. thesis in

Canada.

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He has won multiple awards for

excellence in teaching electrical engi-

neering, computer engineering, and

computer science courses. He is a co-

author of more than 100 scientific re-

search papers and three textbooks:

Fundamentals of Digital Logic with

Verilog Design,

Fundamentals of Digital Logic with

VHDL Design, and Field-

Programmable Gate Arrays.

Details:

- Fee: $20 for IEEE Student Members;

$30 for IEEE members and Students;

$40 for Non-IEEE members - Lunch will be provided.

- Registration Link: https://meetings.vtools.ieee.org/m/39921

Agenda:

10:00-

10:30

30

min.

Introductory slides

10:30-

12:00

90

min.

Hands-on Tutorial for Digital Logic (Quartus Prime Lite

15.1 tools will be used)

12:00-

12:30

Lunch (provided by IEEE CAS Society Philadelphia Chapter)

12:30-

2:10

100

min.

Introduction to ARM with Hands-on exercises:

Exercise 1: Greatest Common Divisor (Basic assembly

program)

Exercise 2: Dot product (Assembly program with

memory access)

2:10-

2:15

Break

2:15-

3:30

105

min.

Introduction to Cyclone V HPS with Hands-on exercises:

Exercise 3: HPS Peripherals

Exercise 4: FPGA peripherals

Exercise 5: Data streaming from ARM core to FPGA

fabric over AXI/Avalon

https://meetings.vtools.ieee.org/m/39921

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CALL FOR PAPERS

The 37th IEEE Sarnoff Symposium 2016

New Jersey Institute of Technology Conference Center

Newark, New Jersey, USA

September 19-21, 2016

Sponsored by IEEE Princeton/Central Jersey Section (IEEE Region 1)

http://sites.ieee.org/SARNOFF2016

ABOUT IEEE SARNOFF

Since 1978, the IEEE Sarnoff Sympo-

sium has been bringing together tele-

com and communications experts

from industry, universities, and gov-

ernments. The Sarnoff Symposium

continues to grow as a premier forum

in the northeastern United States for

researchers, engineers, and business

executives, drawing an attendance

from all over the world. Besides tech-

nical sessions, the Symposium will

include keynotes, invited talks, expert

panels, tutorials, demo/exhibits and

posters presentations.

The Symposium is soliciting state-of-the-art research papers, panels and tutorial

proposals including, but not limited to, the following topics:

* 4G/5G Communications

* Network Architecture

* Cloud and data center networks

* Network Design

* Cognitive radio and opportunistic

networks

* Network Performance

* Communications and Information

Theory

* Internet-of-Things

* Cyber-physical systems and networks

* Optical Communications

* Green networking and Sustainability

* Optical Networking

* M-Health, E-Health and Smart Health-

care

* Self Configuring Networks

* Mobile Networks

* Smart Cities and Communities

* Near field communications

* Software-Defined Networks

* Network Function Virtualization

* Standardization Efforts and Needs

* Cloud Computing

* Security, Trust, and Privacy

* Network architectures for Smart

Infrastructures

* UAV, Underwater and Underground

Communications

* Network virtualization

* Wireless Communications

* Networked Applications and Services

* Wireless Networks

* Network Analytics

* Wireless Sensor Networks

http://sites.ieee.org/SARNOFF2016

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SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

Authors must submit their papers using

EDAS on or before Tuesday, May 31,

2016:

https://edas.info/newPaper.php?c=22080.

All papers will be reviewed for tech-

nical content and scope by the technical

program committee. Accepted and pre-

sented papers will be published in the

conference proceedings and will be in-

cluded in IEEE Xplore.

The page limits are SIX (6) pages for

the long paper track and THREE (3)

pages for the short paper track. Papers

should be in PDF format, two columns,

font size 10 or greater and compliant

with other IEEE Sarnoff Symposium

manuscript guidelines, which can be

found on the conference website. Sub-

mitted papers must be unpublished and

not currently under review for any oth-

er publication. Authors of accepted pa-

pers must sign an IEEE copyright re-

lease form and also present their paper

at the conference for their paper to be

submitted for inclusion in IEEE

Xplore.

Important Dates: * Paper submissions: May 31, 2016

(FINAL AND FIRM EXTENSION)

* Notification of acceptance:

July 15, 2016

* Camera-Ready Paper Submission

and Author Registration:

July 29, 2016

* Conference dates:

September 19-21, 2016

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

General Co-Chairs:

Deepak Kataria, IP Junction Inc.;

Ziqian (Cecilia) Dong, New York

Institute of Technology;

TPC Co-Chairs:

Christian Makaya, IBM T.J. Watson

Research Center;

Rudra Dutta, North Carolina State

University;

Byrav Ramamurthy, University of

Nebraska-Lincoln.

https://edas.info/newPaper.php?c=22080

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ALMANACK



IEEE Life Member Tour

PSEG Mercer Generating Station

June 14, 2016 By M. Robert Paglee, P.E. (Ret.), IEEE LM

The Life Member Group, headed by

Merrill Buckley, is sponsoring a tour of

the PSEG Mercer Generating Station

on June 14, 2016 at 2:00 p.m. The

large coal-burning facility was upgrad-

ed in recent years with advanced tech-

nology pollution controls, creating an

example that demonstrates what can be

achieved.

The Mercer Generating Station of

PSEG Power LLC is capable of gener-

ating 648 MW of electricity by utiliz-

ing steam turbine generators. Steam

is produced by two coal-fired natural

circulation boilers. Although these

boilers are capable of burning natural

gas, the primary fuel is bituminous

coal. The two steam units have similar

equipment supporting each unit, includ-

ing coal scrubbers, electrostatic precipi-

tators, selective catalytic reduction and

flue gas desulfurization, boilers, gener-

ators, and mechanical support equip-

ment.

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After investing over $600 million in

recent years for pollution control

equipment, Mercer Generating Station

is demonstrating how 200 tons of coal

can be burned per hour for power gen-

eration with relative cleanliness. Emis-

sions of sulfur dioxide, mercury, ni-

trous oxides and soot have been re-

duced by up to 90 percent according to

company officials. Environmental con-

trols include a 14-story dry scrubber, a

baghouse with 10,000 fabric filters, a

carbon-injection system for mercury

reduction, and a catalytic reduction unit

where ammonia is injected to convert

nitrous oxide into nitrogen and water.

The tour is open to IEEE members and

others, but it is necessary to make a

reservation by phoning the IEEE office

at (484) 270-5136; space may be lim-

ited to 25 visitors, so it's best to call

early. Each visitor's name and his/her

employer's name or affiliation must be

stated; retired persons or students can

be so listed.

DIRECTIONS

In traveling north from the Philadelphia

area, PSEG's Mercer Generating Sta-

tion is easily reached via either I-95 or

I-295. For directions via GPS, use the

following address: 2512 Lamberton

Rd., Hamilton NJ 08611. To travel on

the PA side, use I 95 north to the inter-

section with U.S. 1 eastbound, then

cross the river (as if toward Trenton).

But instead take NJ 29 immediately

southbound, then exit onto Lamberton

Rd., continuing south to the PSEG en-

trance gate. You will be met there by

the PSEG Tour Director, Mark

Schwartzkopf, Fossil Compliance and

Programs Manager (or his aide) for di-

rection to the parking area.

On the NJ side, take I 295 north to its

intersection with NJ 29 north (toward

Trenton), then exit to southbound NJ

129/Canal Blvd. until it meets Lamber-

ton Rd. next to the river. Turn left onto

Lamberton and follow it to the PSEG

entrance gate as described above.

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ALMANACK



ITC Is Now Accepting Nominations for the 2016

Gerald W. Gordon Award for Student Volunteerism

The International Test Conference

(ITC) is offering the Student Service

award described below. It is in memory

of Gerald W. Gordon, who was a

member of the Philadelphia IEEE Sec-

tion, and a dedicated volunteer on

ITC’s Steering Committee from its in-

ception.

The International Test Conference

(ITC), the Test Technology Technical

Council and the IEEE Philadelphia

Section sponsor the Gerald W. Gordon

Award. The award to the recipient

consists of complimentary tutorial reg-

istration for one morning and one af-

ternoon tutorial for each of the 2 days

they are offered, complimentary full

conference registration for ITC, com-

plimentary registration for one of the at

conference workshops, up to $750 for

travel expenses to the conference and

free lodging for the nights of attend-

ance.

Eligibility Requirements

The Gerald W. Gordon Award recip-

ient must be a student in good standing

at an accredited university or college.

Award recipients must have done vol-

unteer work for one or more IEEE con-

ferences, symposia, workshops and/or

organizations dedicated to the devel-

opment of electronics design and test-

ing fields.

Consideration shall be given to the

amount of volunteer service given; the

breadth of volunteer service given; the

impact of the volunteer service give;

and worthiness of the candidate.

Nomination Process

The form for nominating a candidate

can be obtained by clicking on the fol-

lowing link, “2016 Gerald W. Goradon

Award Nomination form”. The nomi-

nator must complete and submit an ap-

plication form to summarize why the

applicant is qualified for the award and

list the relevant service work. In addi-

tion, the nominator must identify 2, but

not more than 5 endorsers. The nomi-

nator must inform the endorsers that

they need to email an endorsement of

the candidate as described on the nom-

ination form. The nomination form and

endorsement emails should be sent to

[email protected]. No lat-

er than September 1, 2016. All candi-

dates will be notified of the selection

decision by September 15, 2016.

mailto:[email protected]

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Gerald W. Gordon Award Endorsements

Endorsers

This award requires at least two and

no more than five endorsements.

Please provide the names and ad-

dresses of your designated endorsers

below.

Your endorsers will need to send an

email endorsing the candidate for the

Gerald W. Gordon Award.

The endorsement should be sent to

[email protected] and

should evaluate the nominee on the

"criteria for volunteer service record"

above. Endorsements must be submit-

ted by 1 September, 2016.

Note: All applicants/nominators should email the endorsement forms to the en-

dorsers and make sure they are sent in no later than September 1, 2016.

Endorser 1

First name/initial:

Last name:

Address:

Phone:

E-mail:

Endorser 2

First name/initial:

Last name:

Address:

Phone:

E-mail:

Endorser 3

First name/initial:

Last name:

Address:

Phone:

E-mail:

Endorser 4

First name/initial:

Last name:

Address:

Phone:

E-mail:

Endorser 5

First name/initial:

Last name:

Address:

Phone:


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Nomination Form

Gerald W. Gordon Award

For Student Volunteer Service to the IEEE

This nomination form and all endorsements must be received by

September 1st, 2016.

All forms must be sent to:

Kenneth Mandl

Teradyne Corp.

e-mail: [email protected]

Nominee

First name/initial:

Last name:

Address:

Home phone:

E-mail:

Fax:

University/College of Enrollment

Name:

Address:

Degree Program:

Expected date of Graduation:

Citation

Give a brief citation (thirty words

or less) indicating the most salient

reason the nominee is qualified for

the award.

Relevant Service Work

List and explain the candidate’s

volunteer service to IEEE events,

programs and organizations.

Nominator’s Contact Information

First name/initial:

Last name:

Address:

Home phone:

Business phone:

Email:


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ALMANACK



The IEEE Northern Virginia Section Hands-On Technical Workshop Series Presents:

Build an Internet of Things Weather Station June 4, 2016

By the end of this course you will:

• Learn what is meant by the "Internet of Things”

• Compare several platforms and protocols

• Experience breadboard prototyping techniques - no soldering needed

• Program the ESP8266 System on Chip (SoC) using Arduino sketches

• Interface temperature, pressure, and humidity sensors on an I2C bus

• Create an account on the free ThingSpeak IoT service and upload data

• View and analyze your data graphs on a standard web browser

• Take home your working IoT Weather Station!

You will also perform remote Over the

Air (OTA) firmware updates and create

a smartphone app if time permits.

Instructor: Karl Berger is a licensed

Professional Engineer with over forty

years of rail vehicle design experience.

He is also chair of the Northern

VA/Washington joint section Vehicular

Technology Society chapter and an

amateur radio operator.

Prerequisites: Bring and know how to

use a laptop running a recent version of

Windows, OS X, or Linux with Wi-Fi,

an open USB port, at least 1 GB of

available disk space, a modern web

browser, and power supply. You must

have sufficient privileges to install

drivers and programs and view docu-

ments. An Android or Apple

smartphone with a browser and text

messaging capability is optional.

Credit: 6 PDH (0.6 CEU)

Date/Time: Saturday, June 4, 2016, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm US Eastern Time

Location: DeVry University

2450 Crystal Drive

Arlington, VA 22202

Cost: $45 for IEEE members, $65 for non-members. Students, seniors, and mili-

tary receive 10% discount. Lunch and a Wi-Fi development kit including no-

solder breadboard, sensors, LCD display, and power supply are included.

Registration: https://meetings.vtools.ieee.org/m/39229

https://meetings.vtools.ieee.org/m/39229

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ALMANACK



IEEE Radar Conference 2016 May 2 to May 6

Loews Hotel Philadelphia

1200 Market St.

Philadelphia, PA 19107

Sponsored by the IEEE Philadelphia Section, the IEEE Aerospace and Elec-

tronic Systems Society and also Lockheed Martin as a Premier Supporter.

Lockheed Martin Space Fence

2016 Radar Conference Premier Supporter

Known as birthplace of the country,

the dynamic city of brotherly love is

also well-known as a science place of

firsts. From Ben Franklin’s elemen-

tary electricity experiments to ENI-

AC’s far more advanced use of elec-

tricity, innovators have come to Phil-

adelphia for centuries and the city has

rewarded them. Philadelphia is home

to the oldest annual awards for scien-

tific achievement, the Franklin Insti-

tute of Philadelphia’s gold medals.

Also, over a hundred recipients have

gone on to win Nobel prizes. The re-

gion is also home to many companies

whose products have for over 50

years shaped what the radar commu-

nity acknowledges as some of the

world’s most advanced radar technol-

ogies.

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More than five hundred radar

students and professionals joined us

and participated in the IEEE Radar

Conference 2016 appropriately themed

"Enabling Technologies for Advances

in Radar.” Original papers were pre-

sented describing new technologies and

techniques that significantly advance

radar system capabilities for ground

penetration, land, ocean, air, space and

astronomy applications are welcome.

Innovative system applications in air-

defense, anti-missile, imaging, and mo-

bile radar. Wide range of technology

areas were presented such as wideband

systems, MIMO, antenna signal pro-

cessing, hardware and devices, materi-

als, lasers, scattering, big data pro-

cessing, architectures, multi-function

operation, multi-site coordination

In addition to the presentation of

contributed technical papers in high

quality oral and poster sessions, the

committee planned a conference agen-

da that included invited talks from

leading experts within our community,

an excellent selection of tutorials, ex-

hibits, and informal gatherings for col-

leagues to share ideas.

Radar Conference Volunteers

By Peter Silverberg

The 2016 IEEE Radar Confer-

ence was held at the Lowes Hotel in

Philadelphia May 2-6. It was a success

with 686 registrants from 29 countries.

There was joint sponsorship by AESS

(IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Sys-

tems Society) and the Philadelphia Sec-

tion. There were 16 exhibitors of which

seven were also corporate sponsors.

The largest was Lockheed Mar-

tin, a local employer.

A conference does not just hap-

pen. A committee plans it and runs it.

Most of the committee persons are

from the section and this article recog-

nizes them for a fine job,

Dr. Joseph G .Teti, Jr.; General Chair

Mr. Allan Croly, Deputy General

Chair

Dr. David J. Farina, Technical Pro-

gram Chair

Dr. John K. Smith, Senior Conference

advisor

Mr. Thomas L. Fagan, Local Ar-

rangements Chair

Mr. Joseph J. Schanne, Exhibits &

Corporate Support Chair

Dr. Fauzia Ahmad, Publications Chair

Mr. Michael A. Mayor, P.E., Regis-

tration Chair

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Mr. Patrick Cahill, Electronic Ser-

vices Co-Chair

Mr. Justin M. Buckley, Electronic

Services Co-Chair

Mr. Robert L Johnston, Finance Chair

Mr. I. Marvin Weilerstein, IEEE Sec-

tion Liaison

Mr. Peter M. Silverberg, Publicity

Chair

From outside the Philadelphia section

Mr. James Onorato, Competition Chair

Dr. Marshall Greenspan, Tutorials Chair

Ms. Linda L. Marciano, Conference Coordinator

107 persons served as Technical Review Committee members

(listed in the conference program)

35 persons served as Session Chairs (listed in the conference program)

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STATUS CHANGE

By Peter Silverberg, Vice Chair

Ask not what you can do for the

IEEE. Ask instead what the IEEE can

do for you. Specifically, many of you

can advance from Member to Senior

Member with a little effort. IEEE has

some goodies for you when you do:

Senior Member plaque, $25 coupon for

joining a new society, letter of com-

mendation to your employer, an-

nouncements in local media, and pro-

fessional recognition. More detail is on

the IEEE website including the applica-

tion form.

Many of you are eligible and just

need a helping hand from the Section.

This is the summary of requirements:

1. A candidate shall be an engineer,

scientist, educator, technical executive

or originator in IEEE-designated fields:

Engineering Computer sciences and in-

formation technology, Physical scienc-

es, Biological and medical sciences,

Mathematics, Technical communica-

tions, education, management, law and

policy

2. Candidates shall have been in pro-

fessional practice for at least ten years.

(If you graduated any year up to 2007,

no problem)

3. Candidates shall have shown signifi-

cant performance over a period of at

least five of those years

4. In addition, candidates for Senior

Member grade must supply three refer-

ences from current IEEE members

holding the grade of Fellow, Senior

Member, or Honorary Member.

I hear many times that references

are hard to find. That is where the Sec-

tion can help. We can identify refer-

ences in your company who you did

not know were Senior Members. We

have Senior Members standing by who

can interview you and then write a

good reference. Later this year we will

hold a workshop where you can meet

Senior Members who will be refer-

ences. Also, a reference can be from

anywhere in the IEEE – no restrictions

in geography.

I was on the Admissions and

Advancement Committee for a three-

year term, so I can tell you a few extra

things. There is a general goal that a

Section should advance 1% of its

membership each year. For us that is

40. In 2015 we did 8. I think we can do

better. Panels meet 10 times a year, so

the delay from completed application to

approval averages six weeks. Com-

pared to a lot of things you apply for

that is fast. So, it is time to advance.

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ALMANACK

Vol. 61, No. 6 June_2016


Ernest’s Page

May, 2016, Part I I was a registered Professional Engineer (Electrical) in Pennsylvania, but I often think of

myself as "an accidental engineer". At around the age of 12, I came across a bound volume of

the British Magazine Television for the years 1928-1929, and read the whole thing through. In

Junior High school, I entered a hobby show, playing records backwards. To do that, I cut the

shading coils on the drive motor; the turntable would not start itself, but ran nicely whichever

way you turned it. Of course, that meant cutting the shading coils on the family phonograph, so

it wouldn't start by itself, but would rotate whichever way you turned it. Looking back upon my

early life, it was a bit unusual. My oldest brother had a chemistry laboratory in the attic, and my

next older brother, who actually studied electrical engineering in college, had an electrical la-

boratory. I took apart bicycles.

I attended the Bronx High School of Science, which had a required shop course, called

"Science Techniques Laboratory". I made an electric motor, which didn't work. My girlfriend,

now my wife for almost 62 years, made a slide-wire Wheatstone bridge. Some of the work

which couldn't be done at school, was done at my house, such as soldering on the kitchen stove.

Her project was put on display. The other electrical thing in high school was that I took a course

called Radio Physics in my senior year. I learned a lot about vacuum tubes. My brother had a

copy of a 1928 electrical engineering handbook, which I read. Many years later, I answered a

question in the professional engineering exam from the memory of things in that book.

Graduating high school in January, 1950, I started in mechanical engineering at CCNY.

Not being sure of what to do with my life, I went to the guidance office. After a series of tests,

the counselor said, "You have enough aptitude to do anything you want, and you seem to have

equal interest in engineering and social sciences." (I still haven't made up my mind.) When I

showed up at Cornell that fall, I switched from engineering to liberal arts. I did hedge my bets

by majoring in Mathematics, with a minor in Physics. I stayed an extra two years to get a Mas-

ter’s degree in Industrial Psychology, with a minor in Industrial Engineering. At that time, I

thought that I would go into the family business, which was a manufacturing plant in New York

City. I had worked there summers while in high school, and I knew that I could design produc-

tion machinery for wire products. Just to check that out, as a graduate student I took the senior

course in machine design, and passed with a respectable B+. My first job was in the Examina-

tions Division of the New York State Civil Service Department.

My next job was a computer programmer at the Westinghouse Steam Division in Lester,

Pennsylvania, since sold to Siemens. Two jobs later, I was hired by the General Electric Com-

pany, Space Division. They wanted to hire me as an operations analyst, because of my comput-

er experience, but they had an opening for a "Systems Engineer, Electronics", and the manager

who had to sign off on a position change was not available. So, on the basis of my teenage ex-

perience designing production equipment in my father's business, I was now a "System Engi-

neer" by title.

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ALMANACK

Vol. 61, No. 6 June_2016


An Accidental Engineer - Part II I was accepted into an elite training

program at General Electric: the Systems En-

gineering Development Program" (SEDP).

One of the program options was graduate

school. I had already taken several night

courses in computer subjects at the University

of Pennsylvania, Moore School of Electrical

Engineering, but now I wanted to apply Sys-

tems Engineering in the civilian economy, not

just the military. Since the Moore School did

not recognize my first master’s degree, I

wrote up a project report in 1967, Contingen-

cy Accommodation Planning (CAP), as a the-

sis, and received an MS in Engineering. Now,

on to the doctorate.

At that time, the Moore School insti-

tuted a qualifying examination for doctoral

students, which was a review of undergradu-

ate electrical engineering. After a conference

with my advisor, I hunkered down for a few

weeks with a load of undergraduate electrical

engineering texts, and I passed the exam. I

was getting closer to being an engineer. In

1969 I obtained an internal contract from the

General Electric Transportation Division, to

study the electric car. When they quickly re-

alized that there was no way that a battery car

could out-perform the regular Detroit product,

that contract was terminated. But I used the

concepts of niche markets and the interaction

of central decisions (such as building a facility

or factory) and individual decisions (such as

buying services or a product) in bringing new

technology into use. The resulting study,

printed as Optimum Acceptance Rates for

Public Service Systems in 1969, was about

half social science, but it was accepted by the

Moore School, and I was awarded a Ph. D. in

Electrical Engineering. General Electric re-

warded me with a layoff notice. The last

thing I did at General Electric was to write an

interesting paper with two co-authors: Control

Engineering for Ecological Systems, with

Specific Reference to Fisheries. This paper

received special award at a Space Technology

Utilization Seminar in November 1970. As I

found out from Dr. Jane Lubchenco, a marine

biologist, the concept in this paper was be-

yond anything that marine biologists were

thinking at the time.

I spent the next 2« years as a Man-

agement Scientist at Atlantic Richfield, a pe-

troleum company, but I refused a transfer to

Los Angeles. Instead, I took a job with Unit-

ed Engineers and Constructors doing long

range energy predictions. Six months later,

when they cancelled that program, I was un-

employed, with four children. So, I accepted

an internal transfer to work on a big coal-

burning power plant in West Virginia. I dealt

with a wide variety of engineering matters,

most of which are not covered by the standard

undergraduate curriculum; such as purchasing

a communication system, lightning protection

for a cooling tower, grounding and corrosion

protection, and a battery backup in case the

plant lost all power.

It seemed a good thing at that time to

have a PE license. I passed the exam, and fi-

nally was an electrical engineer, officially

recognized by Pennsylvania. Some of the

questions I answered on the basis of a 1928

Electrical Engineers Handbook, which I read

in my teens. Not having clients, I did not

keep up with continuing education, and lost

my engineering license.

Page 18 of 19


ALMANACK

Vol. 61, No. 6 June_2016


Rates

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PHILADELPHIA SECTION NOTES

IEEE PHILADELPHIA SECTION OFFICERS

Chair: Philip Gonski, P.E.: [email protected]

Vice Chair: Peter M. Silverberg: [email protected]

Treasurer: Robert Johnston: [email protected]

Secretary: Chris Vaile: [email protected]

Past Chair: Mark Soffa; [email protected]

ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE (ADCOM)

ADCOM meets the second Tuesday of the month (Tuesday, May 10) at the Shera-

ton University City. Members are welcome to attend. Reserve a seat by calling the

office by the Friday before the meeting

ALMANACK STAFF

Publisher: Phil Gonski, P.E.: [email protected]

Editor: Michael Mayor, P.E.: [email protected]

Assistant Editor: Peter Silverberg: [email protected]

News and notices contact: [email protected]

ADVERTISE IN THE ALMANACK:

The Philadelphia Section of the IEEE encourages placement of technical, profes-

sional, promotional and commercial advertise-

ments in the Almanack.

The Almanack is published ten times a year and

is read by more than 4,000 members with an av-

erage annual salary of over $70,000 in over 150

key industries. For more information, contact

[email protected].

Email blasts: We send emails every week. The

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IEEE Philadelphia Section Main Office:

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Page 19 of 19

Sixth Annual

IEEE Signal Processing in Medicine and Biology Symposium (SPMB16) Saturday, December 3, 2016

Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

IEEE SPMB16 is a regional symposium intended to provide a high-

ly interactive forum where bioengineering and signal processing re-

searchers can collaborate on emerging trends in signal processing.

We expect approximately 125 researchers to attend. We specifi-

cally encourage graduate students to attend and present their

thesis or dissertation research. Awards for best student paper

and presentation will be given. This is an excellent opportunity to

network with leading professionals in your field and to form new

collaborations.

Signal processing plays a vital role in applications ranging from

medical electronics to data mining of electronic medical records.

The enormous amounts of data that can be acquired from devices

are enabling a new generation of technology based on big data.

This symposium is intended to bring together a wide range of

professionals interested in applications of signal processing medi-

cine and biology. The symposium is sponsored by IEEE-USA,

IEEE Region 2, IEEE Region 2 Philadelphia Section, Temple Uni-

versity, the Neural Engineering Data Consortium and NYU Poly-

technic School of Engineering.

The symposium will consist of two plenary talks, two oral sessions

and two poster sessions. Exhibits and demonstrations are en-

couraged as well. Interested parties should contact the conference

organizers at: [email protected] for further details.

Symposium Topics:

Traditional signal processing topics include:

• Signal analysis (e.g., EEG, ECG, EMG)

• Medical imaging (e.g., MRI, fMRI)

• Machine learning, data mining and classification

• Big data resources and applications

• Signal processing methods in bioinformatics

• Linear, nonlinear, and adaptive filtering and prediction

• Time-frequency and non-stationary signal analysis

Applications of particular interest this year include:

• Wearable healthcare devices

• Data mining and analytics in healthcare

• Security and reliability in wireless medical technologies

• Biomedical Nano sensors and wireless technologies

• Biomedical instrumentation and electrical stimulation

• Emerging medical devices, technologies and applications

If you have questions about the relevance of a planned

submission, feel free to contact the technical committee at

[email protected] for guidance.

Paper/Abstract Submission:

Presenters may choose to submit to one

of two peer-reviewed tracks:

(1) Paper: An original four to six-page paper

for oral presentation.

(2) Poster: A one-page abstract that will be

presented as a poster.

All papers and abstracts are indexed in

IEEE Xplore (search for “IEEE SPMB”).

Papers/abstracts can be submitted via

email to: [email protected]. Papers

must be prepared using the standard

IEEE conference paper template (see

IEEE Templates for more information.)

Important Dates:

Submission Sept. 1, 2016

Notification Oct. 1, 2016

Early Registration Nov. 1, 2016

Organizing Committee:

General Chairs:

Joseph Picone (Temple)

Ivan Selesnick (NYU-Poly)

Conference Co-Chair:

Charles Rubenstein (Pratt)

Program Chairs:

Iyad Obeid (Temple)

Nashwa Elaraby (Penn State)

Vira Oleksyuk (Temple)

Xiaomu Song (Widener)

Industrial Liaison:

Mike Mayor (IEEE SPS)

Publications Chair:

Georgios Lazarou (USA)

Local Arrangements:

Shawn Fagan (Temple)

Tamika Butler (Temple)

Gabriella Suarez (Temple)

Web: http://www.ieeespmb.org/2016

Contact: [email protected]




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http://www.ieeespmb.org/2016


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