Dear Connecticut Section Member,  

This is our monthly newsletter reporting on events in Connecticut.

Updates

New Young Professionals (YP) Affinity Group

Saumya Sharma of ABB (saumya.sharma.us@ieee.org) has successfully established a new Young Professionals Affinity Group in Connecticut and is the inaugural Chair of the group. The first event YP helped with is the Self Defense course reported below.  There will be a planning / social meeting for Young Professionals soon. Look out for events on our Section event calendar and an eNotice once it has been organized. Please email Saumya directly if you are interested.

PACE Workshop

Gary Felberbaum, Oscar Tonello and I are organizing a Professional Development workshop for April 30th, to be held at the Hartford Marriott Farmington in Farmington, CT. The event will be free to all IEEE members, and registration will be required. Watch out for more details in our April Newsletter.

Region 1 Student Conference @ CCSU : Registration fee re-imbursed for Connecticut Students

Students! Please get involved in the Region 1 student conference at CCSU.  Our Student Activities Chair, Prof. David Broderick, has decided that SAC will reimburse the registration fee for up to 20 CT students! Register here.

Brief Reports on Past Events 

March 5: WIE / YP / SAC / RAS  Self Defense Concepts & Tactics

As a way of engaging our student membership, and raising awareness for Women in Engineering, Young Professionals, Student Activities, and the Robotics & Automation Society, a self-defense course was held at Trinity College in conjunction with the Society of Women Engineers, and Real Krav Maga.

The course was free to IEEE members and student members and $10 for non-members.  Fifty-one people attended, twelve of them IEEE members.

A video of some of the activities is available on YouTube.

The event would not have been possible without the strong support of the on-campus student IEEE and SWE members: Thank-you!

Another self defense course will be held at Fairfield University in the near future. Watch our events page for more details.

March 17: Connecticut Science & Engineering Fair Judging

Bill Wessman, Gary Felberbaum, Biao Zhang, and I went to the fair and awarded prizes to seven electrical /electronic engineering projects.

• Senior Honors: Hanson Mo for Application of Computer Vision in Pupil and Eye Center Tracking
• Juniour Honors: John Oei for Hydropower Tiles: A Novel Approach to Harvesting Energy from Human Locomotion

For a full list of winners and more pictures, see our website.

Below is a shot from the Senior Honors winner’s display.

Current Calendar of Events for 2016

All events will be published on Collabratec and our website.  

Near Term Events

March 28: “Auto-Transformer Fundamentals & Preparation of Transformer Specifications”, Eversource, Berlin CT. 

March 29: “Auto-Transformer Fundamentals & Preparation of Transformer Specifications”, United Illuminating, Orange CT.

This workshop will be offered twice by the Power & Energy Society chapter : once at Eversource in Berlin and once at United Illuminating in Orange. 

Professional Development Hours (PDHs) will be offered to all who attend the workshop.

April 6th: CMOC Workshop: The 25th Annual Connecticut Microelectronics and Optoelectronics Consortium (CMOC) Symposium will be held on Wednesday, April 6th at the Dodd Research Center at UConn’s Storrs campus. All undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in nanotechnology in electronics, photonics, biosensors, and energy sources are encouraged to present a paper on their projects.  The Section sponsors prize certificates from Barnes & Noble for students studying in Connecticut who present, so don’t miss out! 

April 15-16: IEEE Region 1 Student Conference.  CCSU has volunteered to host the 2016 IEEE Region 1 Student Conference!  All Connecticut-based IEEE Student Members should try to attend! The first 20 to register will have their registration fee reimbursed by the Section’s Student Activities group!  Register here.  

Future Events Of Interest to IEEE Members

April:

• 1 to 3 — Trinity College Fire-Fighting Home Robot Contest
  
• 2 to 3 — FIRST Robotics — Hartford District Competition Event – Hartford Public High School, 55 Forest St, Hartford, CT 06105
• 6 — CMOC Symposium
• 11 — AP/MTT/UFFC: Dr John Wood will present at UTRC in East Hartford. UTRC employees only, due to site restrictions.
• 12 — CT Section IEEE Executive Committee meeting.
• 12 — ASME event: A talk by Mr Burt Dicht on Rockets for War…and Peace: A History of the US Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Force will be held at the Yale Center for Engineering Innovation and Design (CEID).
• 14 to 16 — FIRST Robotics — New England District Championship – XL Center – Hartford, 1 Civic Center Plaza, Hartford, CT 06120
• 15 to 16 — IEEE Region 1 Student Conference
• 27 — ASME event: Two engineers from the Connecticut Department of Transportation will give a presentation on the I-95 New Haven Harbor Crossing Corridor Improvement Program at the University of New Haven. More details will be available shortly.
• 30 — Connecticut Invention Convention (State Final Judges). CIC promotes STEM among elementary to middle school children. While the IEEE CT is not officially a sponsor, we support their mission, and would like to see if our members are interested to become involved.
• 30 — PACE Workshop @ Marriott
• PES: “Induction & Permanent Magnet Machines applications with Inverters” @ UCONN (date TBD)

May:

• 10 — CT Section IEEE Executive Committee meeting.

June:

• 14 — CT Section IEEE Executive Committee meeting.
• Fellows Dinner 2016  (date TBD)

October:

• 20 — Annual General Meeting. Registrations open in September.

November:

• 13 to 15 — Entrepreneurs’ Network: Startup Weekend New Haven (Reduced rates for IEEE members)
• R1 & R2 WIE Global Exchange conference in Boston area (date TBD)

December:

•  9 – Computer Science Education Week @ Fairfield University (CSEdWeek is held in recognition of the birthday of computing pioneer Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (December 9, 1906)).
• Masuk High School Robotics Competition (Judges needed!)

The IEEE is your organization. The more you get involved the more you benefit, and the more we all benefit.

Please contact me, or any member of the Executive Committee, if you want to see something added to our agenda!

Regards,

Peter J. Kootsookos, 

CT Section Chair 2016-2017

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