The Connecticut Section 2024

Celebrating The Section

WIE Forum USA East 2024 @ Stamford

Congratulations to Dr Charlotte Blair and her co-Chair Professor Maryam Alibeik for a successful Women In Engineering forum in Stamford, CT in November.  I was particularly happy with Donna Hylton, President & CEO of STEAM Train, Inc. presenting her power skills in a keynote.

UConn Students : Showing us how it’s done

Congratulations to the UConn Student Branch Joint Chapter on Power & Energy and Power Electronics on winning the 2024 best medium sized student chapter.

Region 1 2023 Awards

Two members received Region 1 awards in 2023 and were presented with their plaques at our October AGM: Professor Uma Balaji of Fairfield University and Mr William McDonough of Masuk High School.

Professor Balaji received the Region 1 Outstanding Teaching In An IEEE Area Of Interest (Pre-University of College) For Promoting STEM Among Women And Students From Under Represented Communities.

Mr McDonough received the Region 1 Outstanding Teaching In An IEEE Area Of Interest (Pre-University of College) For  Leadership And Technical Excellence In Middle and High School Students.

CT Section Awards 2024

The Section made four member awards this year.

Outstanding Senior Career Academic Member: Prof. Michael Oristaglio, Yale University

Professor Oristaglio receives this award because “the success of Yale Energy Studies is a direct result of his vision, administrative perseverance, teaching, and mentoring to prepare students for the challenges of a global energy landscape. It has become a highly respected program within Yale College, equipping students with critical domain knowledge and applied skills to advance energy and climate work across inter-dependent fields.“

Outstanding Early Career Academic Member: Prof. Junbo Zhao 

Prof. Zhao receives this award for his “outstanding contributions to the development of advanced estimation, control and machine learning techniques for electrical power energy system reliability and resiliency.”

Outstanding Industry Member : Sanjeev Kumar Marimekala, IBM

Mr Marimekala has “demonstrated exceptional Technical Leadership and Innovation. He has led teams to success, fostering innovation and collaboration the IBM CIO. As a member of IEEE, Sanjeev Kumar Marimekala has served as Sesson Chair at IEEE AIIoT, IEEE UEMCON Conferences and as a keynote speaker in IEEE UEMCON furthering the mission of IEEE and inspiring others within the community. “

Outstanding Postgraduate Member : Clara Ramirez, UConn

Ms Ramirez receives this award for “conducting significant research in digital engineering, digital manufacturing, and model-based systems engineering with a particular emphasis on the development of safety-critical systems and the creation of practical MBSE methodologies for verification, validation, and testing. Her dedication to advancing knowledge in process control systems engineering reflects her commitment to excellence in the field.”

CT Section Member Elevations

Fellows

Congratulations to Professor Joan Feigenbaum for being elevated to the rank of Fellow!

Senior Members

Congratulations to the following members for being elevated to the rank of Senior Member!

Karthikeyan Anbalagan   
Noel Augustine   
Ankit Bhardwaj   
Suining He   
Rupal Jain   
Prasanth Kamma   
Manoj Jayntilal Kathiriya   
Mahadu Kurkute   
Micheal Okite   
Vasudev Pendyala   
Imran Ur Rehman   
Hemanth Swamy   
Oscar Tonello   
Zongjie Wang   

New Parts of the Section 

PELS

While the new CT PELS Chapter was formed in 2023, it had been heartening to see the energy in this chapter in 2024. Congratulations to the members of the chapter’s ExCom for the good work in 2024. Below are pictures from the Chapter’s visit to Ward Leonard / Morse Defense and a talk by Shashank Krishnamurthy.

LMAG

Thank-you to George Arnold for spear-heading setting up the Life Member Affinity Group in the Section. George served as interim Chair to do all the paperwork to get the group set up.  The officers for the group in 2025 are:

Continuing Activities

Robotics Workshops

Kevin Huang, David Broderick, and I find Robotics to be a good way to reach out to a younger audience by holding robotics workshops for middle schoolers at CT public libraries.

Somers Public Library Robotics Workshop

Warehouse Point Public Library Robotics Workshop

The Section also sponsors Robotics teams that have an IEEE mentor. Masuk High School’s program under Mr William McDonough have been supported, as has the Mercy High School Tech Tigers program.

Masuk High School Robotics Team Room

Yale & Entrepreneurship: 

Thanks to Jeff Katz, our connection to Yale’s Science & Engineering Association, the Section has been represented at the Yale Innovation Summit.

Adrian Rusu and Oscar Tonello at the Yale Innovation Summit in 2024.

Thank-you to the Ex Com

As Chair, it is a pleasure to work with the other members of the executive committee.

Below is a picture: Jeff Katz, Coleman Leviter, Adrian Rusu, Amalia Rusu, David Broderick, Don McMenemy, Charlotte Blair, Robert Thoelen, Bruce Lerner, Gary Felberbaum, and me.

Missing from the picture are Oscar Tonello, Kevin Huang, Bill Wessman, and Uma Balaji.

What’s new for 2025?

The main new things I want to see for the Section in 2025 are:

• More activity on the Professional Activities front. Prior to COVID we had Spring and Fall presentations for PACE, and Gary Felberbaum and Oscar Tonello are aiming to kick these off again in 2025.
• Better undergraduate student engagement. David Broderick is aiming to have a “Capstone Competition” for senior undergraduate students in any Connecticut college. More info to come.
• While there will be more section awards in 2025, we will be moving the process earlier in the year so that we can invite the awardees to and present their awards during the Section GM in late October. Watch out for call for nominations in April.

What’s not changing for 2025?

The things that we will continue to do:

• Host technical seminars.
• Host social events.
• Hold the AGM.
• Sponsor IEEE-mentored high school and middle school teams.
• Support the Connecticut Science and Engineering Fair at Quinnipiac University. 

Please let me know:

If anyone is interested in getting more engaged with any of the Section offerings above or if you have ideas for new possibilities, please let me know.

The IEEE is member-driven, and we aim to serve our members, as well as the wider community.

Peter J. Kootsookos

CT Section Chair, 2024-2025

IEEE: Advancing Technology for Humanity