This Month’s Articles
Chair's Column: Making Progress. There has been a lot of talk in the media lately about the fact that many recent grads are either unemployed or underemployed in their fields. Of course, much of this is due to the recent downturn, but one cannot dismiss recent trends in employment either–many general studies find people are being left behind while technical degrees are in demand and go unfilled. [more]
Local IEEE Fellows Recipients Honored. On April 21, IEEE-Chicago held its annual Awards and Recognition Dinner to honor three new IEEE fellows. Opening remarks by IEEE-Chicago Section Chairman Bob Burke focused on the accomplishments and contributions of the 2012 class of IEEE Fellows. Members of the IEEE-Chicago Section, board members, friends, co-workers and family of the Fellows were on hand to congratulate the 2012 class. [more]
Soft Skills: A Global Work-In-Progress. My passion for information technology (IT) has led me to many countries, but none of the countries I visited so far paralleled my visit to Peru. They have not even come close. Peru, although a small country, has a big heart. The first stop was the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas in Monterrico. [more]
Chicago Section Reliability Society Re-Launch. The newly re-launched Reliability Society of the IEEE-Chicago Section is a group focusing on the design engineering discipline which applies scientific knowledge to assure reliability. Reliability is best described as product performance over time. This includes designing the ability to maintain, test, and support the product throughout its total life cycle. [more]
IT Security & Forensics Conference & Expo. IEEE recently co-sponsored ForenSecure ‘12, the 10th Annual IT Security and Forensics Conference and Expo hosted by the Illinois Institute of Technology’s School of Applied Technology. This multi-track, technical conference attracted 200+ professionals for discussion and debate on forensics, security, data/information governance, and cyber-crime. Also included in the discussion were sessions on ethical hacking, eDiscovery, cloud computing and forensics, steganography, policy and compliance, privacy, wireless security, and identity theft. [more]
NEMA Overview. The Technology Management Council (TMC) hosted a presentation at the Woodridge, IL offices of EN Engineering, this past month. Elaine Thompson of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) spoke on NEMA standards. Founded in 1926, NEMA is a Washington D.C. based trade association for the electrical manufacturing industry. With approximately 450 member companies, they represent product manufacturers in the generation, transmission, distribution, control and end use of electricity. [more]
Chair's Column: Making Progress
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2012 IEEE-CS Board Chair Bob Burke |
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There has been a lot of talk in the media lately about the fact that many recent grads are either unemployed or underemployed in their fields. Of course, much of this is due to the recent downturn, but one cannot dismiss recent trends in employment either–many general studies find people are being left behind while technical degrees are in demand and go unfilled. At least, that’s what the folks on the TV say.
Couple this with other stories prominent in the newspapers lately:
- College tuition is increasing much faster than the rate of inflation.
- State and local support of schools is decreasing as budget problems hit most states.
- Secondary education in math and science is lagging behind the rest of the world (also hurt by state cutbacks)
- Engineering in its various forms (Computer Science through EE, ME and ChemE) usually fill the top ten “in demand degrees”, as well as starting salary.
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Source: www.thinkprogress.com |
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One of the most disturbing trends I hear about, when speaking to student members, is the price of tuition. One student attending the University of Illinois–Champaign Urbana, told me that they charge a premium on the engineering program to help support the other programs. Tuition and board will total around $30,000, an astonishing number for a state college. At Northwestern, tuition alone will run as high as $56,000.
None of this takes into account work study or financial aid–an area I am not familiar with. But by any estimation, the burden on students is tremendous, and the job prospects precarious. This is a difficult situation to put our new graduates in, and presents a challenge in the future.
IEEE has been in the forefront of efforts to promote engineering in this country. In past columns I have written about the various activities that help potential and current engineers:
- STEM programs promoting science to primary and secondary students–take the Chicago section’s “Science Kits for Libraries” program.
- Support for our College students, through networking, competitions (with awards!) and training.
- Networking for recent grads through Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD)
- Networking and training for current engineers
- Technical societies providing a forum for detailed discussions of engineering issues.
- Legislative activities to promote engineering and engineers interests, including sensible H1B programs and retraining.
- Insurance and other services for engineers
Individually we may not be able to solve problems like deficits and unemployment, but we can participate in the process to help solve them. As engineers, we know how to keep the goal in mind while working to overcome obstacles. IEEE is a large organization, with dedicated volunteers, working to make a difference.
Thanks and have a safe month.
—Bob Burke, IEEE Chicago Chair
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Local IEEE Fellows Recipients Honored
 Dr. Xian-He Sun shares some bumps in the road during his recognition ceremony.
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 Wanda thanks those in attendance that nominated her.
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 Dr. Ouri Wolfson recounts the varied route towards his Fellows designation.
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On April 21, IEEE-Chicago held its annual Awards and Recognition Dinner to honor three new IEEE fellows. Opening remarks by IEEE-Chicago Section Chairman Bob Burke focused on the accomplishments and contributions of the 2012 class of IEEE Fellows. Members of the IEEE-Chicago Section, board members, friends, co-workers and family of the Fellows were on hand to congratulate the 2012 class.
The Fellows reflected on the realization that when you are working on something you are passionate about, the years go by very swiftly. Each Fellow was given a few moments to share what it meant to receive the recognition of their peers and to recall the moment they were notified. Emotions ranged from disbelief to relief, but all were grateful to be recognized.
The Fellows earned their awards for “an extraordinary record of accomplishment which contributed to the advancement or application of engineering, science and technology.” Their accomplishments have brought the realization of significant value to society. Nominees are subjected to scrutiny by a peer review panel and must be Senior Members in good standing for a period of five years preceding January 1 of the elevation year.
The 2012 IEEE Fellows:
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Wanda K. Reder; S&C Electric Company - Leadership in power engineering implementation and workforce development
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Xian-He Sun; Illinois Institute of Technology - Contributions to memory-bounded performance metrics and scalable parallel computing
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Ouri E. Wolfson; University of Illinois at Chicago - Contributions to mobile data management
A special thank you to Brian Mugalian who Chaired the 2012 Chicago Section Awards Dinner planning committee as well as Chairman Bob Burke who served as emcee for the evening’s celebration.
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Soft Skills: A Global Work-In-Progress
My passion for information technology (IT) has led me to many countries, but none of the countries I visited so far paralleled my visit to Peru. They have not even come close. Peru, although a small country, has a big heart.
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Pictured L-R, Rosario Villalta, Vickie Peters, Luis Paucar, Maria Rios
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Pictured L-R, Jose Duran, Vickie Peters, Oscar Penny Cabrera, Maria Chiok Guerra
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The first stop was the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC) in Monterrico. As I briskly walked through the campus, I could not help but notice the serenity and camaraderie not only among the students, but also between the instructors and students as well. I had the opportunity to lecture the top graduating honor students in the Computer Systems and Engineering school about soft skills in IT project management and their role in professional societies such as the IEEE. The next stop was the San Isidro campus of UPC, where I witnessed an electrified Professor Luis Paucar in action, as he lectured his students on Java programming. UPC continues to maximize the value of its curriculum by strategically planning to optimize the educational experience offered to students. They recognize the importance of teaching their students that business drives technology; hence, it is important to learn how to align technology with business goals. My last stop was the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú in San Miguel where I observed the Programming Lab 1. It was evident that the instructors at each university shared the same passion for IT that I have.
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As an officer of the IEEE Chicago Section Executive Committee, I had the honor of attending the IEEE Peru Section Executive Committee in Miraflores, where I was warmly received by Jose Duran-Treasurer, Oscar Penny Cabrera- President, and Maria Chiok Guerra-Vice Chair Elect and WIE Chair.
The luncheon meeting was held at the famous Chifa Kuo Wha where I also had the pleasure of the company of Jose Valdez Calle, past Chairman of the Board of ICACIT and also a distinguished IEEE Fellow who was truly a wonderful delight! With this group, I briefly discussed the importance of soft skills for IT project management and the quest for researchers to quantify soft skills (Muzio, E., Fisher, D. J., Thomas, E. R., Peters, V. , 2007.
I also shared a couple of statistics such as:
- 1996 ABET approved Engineering Criteria 2000 (Shuman, L. J., Besterfield-Sacre , M., McGourty, J. 2005):
- Included 11 criteria for professional engineers
√ 5 hard skills
√ 6 soft skills
- 90-95% of performance issues concerned with soft skills (Muzio et al. 2007).
There is a saying in Peru, “Miraflores en tu corazon”…I would like to personalize that saying, “Peru tu tienes mi corazon!” As I wrapped up my tour and IT research in Peru, I thought to myself, “Gee, with globalization being the trend, engineers without borders is so true.”
-Vickie L. Peters, Secretary
IEEE Chicago Section Executive Committee
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Chicago Section Reliability Society Re-Launch
The newly re-launched Reliability Society of the IEEE-Chicago Section is a group focusing on the design engineering discipline which applies scientific knowledge to assure reliability. Reliability is best described as product performance over time. This includes designing the ability to maintain, test, and support the product throughout its total life cycle.
The Reliability Society provides a professional home for specialty engineering communities and the work of other disciplines such as:
- Integrity, System Safety, Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) Testability, System Security, Human System Interface (HSI), Human Factors (HF), Maintainability, and Supportability Engineering disciplines, Software Engineering with a focus on trust, Privacy and Cyber-Security
On April 13, the IEEE–Chicago Section’s Reliability Society hosted UIC Professor, Dr. David He. Dr. He received his Ph.D. in industrial engineering from The University of Iowa in 1994. Dr. He’s research areas include machinery health monitoring, diagnosis and prognosis, complex systems failure analysis, quality and reliability engineering, manufacturing systems design, modeling, scheduling and planning. Dr. He spoke on “Recent Development of Diagnostic and Prognostic Tools for Rotating Machines.” In his presentation, Dr. He shared new emerging signal processing techniques using technologies for newly designed rotating systems and components of new application materials.
Delivered in two parts, the first presentation focused on fault diagnostics and the second on health prognostics. Real case studies on split torque gearbox, full ceramic and plastic bearings, lubrication oil health monitoring, diagnostics, and prognostics were presented to demonstrate the application of the developed diagnostic and prognostic tools.
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Dr. Steven Li welcomes those in attendance. |
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Dr. Steven Li, Chairman of the IEEE–Chicago Section Reliability Society, hopes that in reviving the Reliability Society, his team will be able to, “provide a platform for reliability professionals, researchers and students to exchange and share the best industry practices and up-to-date research results.” Dr. Li’s long term goals include, “involving and educating more professionals in reliability engineering; more reliable and higher quality products and services will be produced and better serve our community and society”.
Future meeting topics are intended to draw from diverse and broad areas including, but not limited to: hardware reliability, software reliability, statistics-based reliability, and physics-based reliability. The next meeting of the IEEE–Chicago Section’s Reliability Society will be in September. A date, topic and location will be finalized soon. Visit the IEEE-Chicago Section Calendar to learn more.
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IT Security & Forensics Conference & Expo
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Dan Kaminsky is one of seven Recovery Key Shareholders who possess the ability to restore the DNS root keys. |
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IEEE recently co-sponsored ForenSecure ‘12, the 10th Annual IT Security and Forensics Conference and Expo hosted by the Illinois Institute of Technology’s School of Applied Technology. This multi-track, technical conference attracted 200+ professionals for discussion and debate on forensics, security, data/information governance, and cyber-crime. Also included in the discussion were sessions on ethical hacking, eDiscovery, cloud computing and forensics, steganography, policy and compliance, privacy, wireless security, and identity theft.
The Chicago Section of IEEE provided communications support and coverage of the event. There were also a number of members in attendance who hoped to learn more about this rapidly growing field. A highlight of Day 1 came with the session led by Dan Kaminsky. Dan, a noted security researcher, has spent his entire career advising Fortune 500 companies. Dan is best known for identifying a critical flaw in the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS) and for leading what became the largest synchronized fix to the Internet’s Infrastructure, to date. Of the seven Recovery Key Shareholders who possess the ability to restore the DNS root keys, Dan is the representative from America. Dan is working on the development of systems to reduce the cost and complexity of securing critical infrastructure.
Dan focused on two related issues facing the internet. For one, the internet is currently in a state of disrepair. However, for something broken, it actually works quite well. Dan presented the complex and interesting realities of making the Internet a secure place for commerce while still maintaining its usefulness. Dan shared his outlook on why Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) are going to revolutionize authentication, and what it means to say we need better data to facilitate better decisions when discussing security.
IIT’s Forensecure event has been adding partners since its founding, with past participants including: AccessData, Argonne National Laboratory, Authentify, Cisco, The Chicago Police Department, CompTIA, Computer Associates, the FBI, Fermilab, Fortinet, Guidance Software, IBM, IEEE, KPMG, Microsoft, Motorola, Sungard, UniForum, X-Ways Forensics and others. Having speakers and participants representing local, regional, national and international organizations and universities continues to be the goal.
If you have interest in participating at next year’s event, please contact Scott Pfeiffer at Pfeiffer@iit.edu or 630-682-6001.
For more information on this past year’s event, click HERE.
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NEMA Overview
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Ken Kaniewski of Rockwell Automation demonstrates how easily the Medium Voltage Drives can be disassembled and reassembled. |
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The Technology Management Council (TMC) hosted a presentation at the Woodridge, IL offices of EN Engineering, this past month. Elaine Thompson of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) spoke on NEMA standards. Founded in 1926, NEMA is a Washington D.C. based trade association for the electrical manufacturing industry. With approximately 450 member companies, they represent product manufacturers in the generation, transmission, distribution, control and end use of electricity.
Elaine is the Director of Industry Affairs for Atkore International, parent company of Allied Tube & Conduit, AFC Cable Systems, Unistrut, and Cope Cable Tray. She is a member of NEMA and currently chairs the Steel Conduit and Tubing Section, as well as serving as co-chair of the High Performance Building Council’s Codes and Standards Task Force. Elaine is also a member of the NEMA Codes and Standards Committee.
Elaine presented on the advocacy efforts of NEMA, the current standards environment, and the structure of the Association. With a thirty member Board of Governors organized into policy committees, NEMA operates in:
- Commerce and Economics
- Standards and Conformity Assessment
- Government Relations
- Section Affairs
Ken Kaniewski, the Power and Controls Manager of the Chicago Office of Rockwell Automation was on hand demonstrating an Allen-Bradley Medium Voltage Drive van. The two units were hard to miss as a pre-meeting gathering in the parking lot demonstrated. The sight of the medium voltage drives attracted a number of attendees to the night’s lecture.
Large medium voltage drives are increasingly being used by a variety of industrial users to solve several starting and control issues related to operation. Successful project implementation requires a full understanding of the type of machine design and limitations to determine the starting, running, and overload requirements. Designed for applications ranging from 2300V to 6600V, these air cooled drives can combine a transformer-less Direct-to-Drive topology, industry leading semiconductor technology, and heat pipe cooling in an easy to use, easy to maintain system.
For more information on NEMA, visit their website at: nema.org Elaine shared the name and email of the Midwest Field Representative. If you have additional questions and/or want to discuss NEMA further, please contact Don Iverson at Don.Iverson@nema.org
For more information on Medium Voltage Drives, contact Ken KaniewskI at: kkaniewski@ra.rockwell.com
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