The IEEE
Newsletter 
A Publication of the IEEE North Jersey Section
August 2002 Newsletter
North Jersey Section Activities
NJ Section PACE: Manpower Issues
NJ Consultants' Network: .NET, C#, and What's Next?
PES/IAS: National Electric
Code and Uniform Construction Code Updates
Advance To Senior Member Grade
North Jersey Student Activities Committee and GOLD Seek Volunteers
and Speakers
IEEE Members Now Receive
Discount on MIT Advanced Study Program Courses
NJ PES/IAS: Power Transfer Switch Seminar
Another Honor for the IEEE
Virtual Museum
ATTENTION IEEE MEMBERS, FREE 1/2 year membership in Communications
Society!
August
2002
Volume 49, Number 2
Publication No: USPS 580-500
"The IEEE Newsletter" (North Jersey Section), is published monthly except June and July by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Headquarters: 3 Park Avenue, 17th Floor, New York, NY 10016-5997. $1.00 per member per year (included in annual dues) for each member of the North Jersey Section. Periodicals-class postage paid at New York, NY and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster send address changes to: "The IEEE Newsletter", 445 Hoes Lane, P.O. Box 1331, Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331. USPS 580-500 (ISSN 1076-3732).
NEWSLETTER STAFF
Editor:
Keith Saracinello
Business Manager: Theresa Saracinello
Deadline for receipt of material is the 1st of the month preceding the month of publication. All communications concerning editorial and business matters, including advertising, should be sent to the Business Manager via e-mail at mailto:k.saracinello@ieee.org or to The IEEE Newsletter, c/o Keith Saracinello, 25 Messenger Ln, Ringoes, NJ 08551, (732) 465-4067.
IEEE
NJ SECTION HOME PAGE http://www-ec.njit.edu/~ieeenj/
IEEE NJ SECTION NEWSLETTER HOME PAGE http://www-ec.njit.edu/~ieeenj/NEWSLETTER.html
REPORT
ADDRESS CHANGES TO:
IEEE Service Center, 445 Hoes Lane, P.O. Box 1331, Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331,
(732) 981-0060. It is not necessary to inform the North Jersey Section when you
change your mailing address. "The IEEE Newsletter" and other section
mailings use a list provided by IEEE's national headquarters.
SECTION
OFFICERS
Chairman: Dr. Nirwan Ansari, mailto:nirwan.ansari@njit.edu
(973) 596-3670
Vice-Chairman-1: Rodney Cole, mailto:rgcole@ieee.org
(973) 299-9022 Ext. 2257
Vice-Chairman-2: Har Dayal, har.dayal@baesystems.com
Treasurer: Durga Misra, mailto:dmisra@njit.edu
(973) 596-5739
Secretary: Wayne Owens, mailto:wowens@crestron.com
(201) 767-3400, ext. 226
Members-at-Large:
Vineeta Arora (arora@ieee.org)
Bhanu Chivakula (b.chivakula@computer.org)
Naz Simonelli (naz@sprynet.com)
Dr. Richard Snyder (r.snyder@ieee.org)
The North Jersey Section Executive Committee usually meets the first Wednesday (except holidays and December) of each month at 7:00 PM. Meetings are open to all members. For information on meeting agenda contact Secretary Wayne Owens at (201) 767-3400, ext. 226, or mailto:wowens@crestron.com
IEEE North Jersey Section Activities
August 2002
Aug. 7-"NJ Section Executive Committee
Meeting" - 7:00 PM, ITT, 100 Kingsland Rd, Clifton, NJ. Wayne Owens at (201) 767-3400 ext. 226 or mailto:wowens@crestron.com.
Aug. 14-"Manpower Issues" - NJ
PACE, 6:30 - 8:30 PM, Clifton Memorial Library, 292 Piaget Ave, Clifton,
NJ. Richard F. Tax, (201) 664-6954, mailto:rtax@bellatlantic.net.
Upcoming
Meetings
Sept. 4-"NJ Section Executive Committee
Meeting" - 7:00 PM, ITT, 100 Kingsland Rd, Clifton, NJ. Wayne Owens at (201) 767-3400 ext. 226 or mailto:wowens@crestron.com.
Sept. 10-".NET, C#, and What's
Next?" - NJ Consultants' Network, 7:00 PM, Public Meeting Room, Morris
County Library, 30 E. Hanover Ave, Whippany, NJ. Howard Leach (908) 255-1634 or
mailto:h.leach@ieee.org.
Sept. 18-"Autocorrelation Matching - A
Second-Order Statistics Theory on Blind MIMO-FIR Channel Equalization for
Wireless Communications" – NJ Signal Processing Chapter, 4:45 PM (light
refreshments at 4:30 PM), NJIT, 202 ECE Center, Newark, NJ. Dr. Yun-Qing Shi (973) 596-3501, Dr. Alfredo
Tan (201)692-2324 mailto:tan@mailbox.fdu.edu or Dr. Hong Man (201) 216-5038 mailto:hman@stevens-tech.edu.
Oct. 17-"National Electric Code and
Uniform Construction Code Updates" – NJ IAS/PES Chapters, 7:00PM,
PSE&G Training Center, Edison, NJ.
Ken Oexle (973) 386-1156.
Oct. 18-"Power Transfer Switch
Seminar" - NJ IAS/PES Chapters, 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, Automatic Switch
Company, 50 Hanover Road, Florham Park, NJ.
For additional information contact Vittal Rebbapragada at (609) 720-3209
or mailto:r.rebbapragada@ieee.org.
Members
and Non-Members Welcome
PLEASE POST
Manpower Issues
Your Professional Activities Committee will
meet on Wednesday, August 14, 2002, to discuss manpower issues and Member's
professional needs.
About the Meeting
High on the list of subjects is unemployment
and the displacement of American citizens by foreign workers imported under the
H-1B legislation. This year the legislation increased the number of H-1B
workers to about 200,000 while citizens have been disregarded as "Over
Qualified." And, please do not confuse this as an "immigration"
issue. This is all about money and wage
busting.
The PACE meeting is open to discuss our
Members' professional needs. PACE provides
IEEE Members with the opportunity to meet, address, discuss and perhaps improve
the professional aspects of the engineering profession. Members should take
advantage of the opportunity to have a place and time to meet with their
associates to discuss their profession.
While checking with PACE Leaders, I found
high on the list of IEE-USA goals this year "Employment Assistance and
Career Development due to the worsening economy." More on these projects can be found at http://www.ieeeusa.org/.
Any suggestions may be emailed to Richard F.
Tax at mailto:rtax@bellatlantic.net.
Welcome!
You do not have to be a member of the IEEE to
attend. Members of other professional
societies and engineering disciplines are always welcome.
Time:
6:30 to 8:30 PM, Wednesday, August 14, 2002.
Place:
Clifton Memorial Library, 292 Piaget Ave., Clifton, NJ 07011, (973)
772-5500.
Information:
Richard F. Tax, (201) 664-6954, mailto:rtax@bellatlantic.net.
.NET, C#, and What's Next?
On Tuesday, September 10th, 2002, the IEEE
North Jersey Computer Chapter will host a presentation on ".NET, C#, and
What's Next?" by Edward (Ted) R. Byrne, PhD.
About the Talk
Some of us think that we are in the Computer
Business or in the Information Technology Profession. However, it's actually more like a technology war with Microsoft,
SUN, IBM, and others attempting to gain a competitive advantage that will make
their competitors technology obsolete.
And if you happen to be practicing in an area targeted for extinction,
it might help to know what the trends are so you can steer yourself toward a
technology that has a brighter future.
Microsoft has begun a new offensive in this
technology warfare with their release of '.NET.' '.NET' is designed to drive a wedge into the Internet business
where they expect to find their next buried treasure. '.NET' also has aimed a killer missile, called C#, at JAVA.
In fact, Microsoft won't be too worried if it also displaces or wounds
C++ or their own Visual Basic.
This talk will describe the goals and
concepts of '.NET'- what it gives us, and what it takes away. Also C# will be described and compared with
JAVA and C++. HTML has also been bulked
up to become XML and is another soldier in the campaign. We will discuss where it fits.
About the Speaker
Edward (Ted) R. Byrne, PhD, has described
himself as a software engineer, developer and consultant (and a fascinated
MS-watcher).
He operates his own consulting practice,
Flatland Computer Specialties, Inc. His practice consults on software
requirements and software development engineering techniques, and provides
training in C or C++ programming,
Object Oriented Analysis, or other
developmental methodology. He also provides
specialized software packages for businesses that include generation of bar or
postnet codes, creation of user interfaces for controllers, and the merger of
check mail lists.
All Welcome!
You do not have to be a member of the IEEE or
of the Consultants' Network to attend. Networking after the meeting is
encouraged. There is no charge for admission. Bring your friends.
Time:
7:00 PM, Tuesday, September 10, 2002.
Pre-meeting dinner 5:30 PM, at the Hanover Marriott, Hanover, NJ, (973)
538-8811.
Place:
Public Meeting Room, Morris County Library, 30 E. Hanover Ave, Whippany,
NJ, (973) 285-6930.
Information:
Howard Leach (908) 255-1634 or mailto:h.leach@ieee.org.
Autocorrelation
Matching - A Second-Order Statistics Theory on Blind MIMO-FIR Channel
Equalization for Wireless Communications
On Wednesday, September 18, 2002, the IEEE
North Jersey Section Signal Processing Society Chapter will host a presentation
on "Autocorrelation Matching - A Second-Order Statistics Theory on Blind
MIMO-FIR Channel Equalization for Wireless Communications." The speaker will be Dr. Hui Luo.
About the Talk
Blind MIMO-FIR system equalization techniques
refer to a category of signal processing methods that are designed to recover a
number of unknown input signals distorted by an unknown MIMO-FIR system from
the output signals of this system based on some statistical information about
the input signals and/or some structure information about the system
model. When these techniques are
developed for wireless MIMO communication systems, they are also referred to as
blind MIMO-FIR channel equalization techniques, and the objective is to boost
spectral efficiency using antenna arrays such that high-data-rate content, such
as multimedia signals, can be transmitted using a limited bandwidth.
This talk first introduces a SOS
(second-order statistics) based theory on blind MIMO (multiple input multiple
output) FIR system equalization. The theory
states that, given an MIMO FIR system with the autocorrelation functions of
input signals satisfying a linear shift-independence condition, the MIMO-FIR
system is equalized and every output signal equals an input signal up to a
scalar and a delay, if and only if some SOS of output signals are identical to
that of input signals. Based on this
theory, this talk then proposes a new wireless MIMO communication technique,
called the Autocorrelation Matching Method, which consists of the following
steps:
1. filtering each information signal using a
distinct pre-filter such that the autocorrelations of the filtered signals
satisfy the linear shift-independence condition
2. transmitting all filtered signals
simultaneously over the same carrier
3. receiving signals using an antenna array
with spatial diversity
4. detecting filtered signals by applying an
MIMO-FIR equalizer to the received signals such that the autocorrelations of
the output signals of the MIMO-FIR equalizer matches that of the filtered
signals
5. recovering information signals by reverse
filtering the detected signals
6. identifying the scalar and the delay for
every recovered information signal.
This method can be applied to cellular
networks as well as wireless LAN for the purpose of improving spectrum
efficiency or suppressing co-channel interference. A close-form algorithm is given to compute the optimal zero-forcing
equalizer that can minimize the noise power in the output signal. Computer
simulation results are presented to verify the theory and demonstrate the
performance of the Autocorrelation Method.
About the Speaker
Hui Luo received his PhD, MSEE, and BSEE
degrees in 1994, 1991, and 1990 respectively, all from the Department of
Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. From 1995 to 1997, he was a postdoctoral research associate
with the Department of Electrical
Engineering, University of Notre Dame, where his research area was blind signal
processing. From 1998 to 1999, he worked
as an R&D Engineer with Digital Video Express LP, where his research
area was digital watermarking. Since mid 1999, he has been working with AT&T
Labs - Research, where his research areas include wireless/mobile networking,
cryptography applications on networks, and signal processing for wireless
communications. He is now a Principle
Technical Staff Member with AT&T Labs - Research.
All Welcome!
You do not have to be an IEEE member to
attend. Light refreshments will be served
at 4:30 PM.
Time:
4:45 PM, Wednesday, September 18, 2002.
Place:
New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), Room 202, ECE Center, Newark,
NJ. Directions are available at http://www.njit.edu/.
Information:
Dr. Yun-Qing Shi, (973) 596-3501, mailto:shi@njit.edu, Dr. Alfredo Tan,
(201) 692-2347, mailto:tan@mailbox.fdu.edu, or Dr. Hong Man (201) 216-5038, mailto:hman@stevens-tech.edu.
National Electric Code and Uniform
Construction Code Updates
On October 17th, 2002, the Power Engineering
and Industrial Applications Chapters will sponsor a technical meeting on recent
changes to the National Electric Code and revisions to Uniform Construction
Code. The speaker will be Won Kim, PE,
an Associate with Eckland Consultants.
Time:
7:00 PM, Thursday, October 17, 2002.
Place:
PSE&G Training Center, Edison, NJ.
Directions: Route 287 to Route 1 North, about 500 feet. Right on Pierson Road. PSE&G first driveway on left.
Information:
Ken Oexle (973) 386-1156.
Photo taken by John Upton
Nirwan Ansari, Section Chair, addresses
gathering at Awards Reception
Photo taken by Anne Giedlinski
Ken Oexle receives Power Engineering Chapter
Award from Roland Dixon, PES Chapter Representative, Region 1
Photo taken by Anne Giedlinski
Roland Dixon (2nd from left), PES and IAS
Chapter Representative, Region 1, recognized Ken Oexle, Vittal Rebbapragada and
Won Kim for Industrial Application Chapter accomplishments and outstanding
chapter designation
Photo taken by Anne Giedlinski
New Fellows at the Award Reception with Nirwan
Ansari (2nd from left) (L-R Krishnaswamy Nagaraj, Juergen Schroeter and James
Johnston)
Photo taken by
Anne Giedlinski
Nirwan Ansari presents Region 1 Award to Amit
Patel for distinguished service to students and new graduates pursuing
electrical engineering careers
Advance To Senior Member Grade
To become a Senior Member, you need ten years
experience. A Bachelors Degree counts
for three of those years and Master and Doctorate degrees each count for one
more year of experience. You don't have
to be an IEEE member for ten years. You
don't have to be a genius to become a Senior Member but in order to qualify for
Fellow grade, you must be a Senior Member.
The dues for Senior Members, Members and Associates are the same. New Senior Members will receive an engraved
wood and bronze Senior Member plaque from the IEEE.
To get information and an application,
contact Don Weinstein, Kulite Semiconductor, One Willow Tree Road, Leonia, NJ
07605-2239, (201) 461-0900 ext 234 mornings, FAX (201) 461-0990, email mailto:don@kulite.com.
Please include your mailing address.
Deadline: 15 March 2003
Recognizing the achievements of its members
is an important part of the mission of the IEEE. The IEEE grade of Fellow is conferred upon a person of "outstanding
and extraordinary qualifications and experience in IEEE designated fields, and
who has made important individual contributions to one or more of these
fields." The total number of
Fellows selected each year does not exceed 0.1% of the total IEEE membership.
Any person, including nonmembers, is eligible
to serve as a nominator with the following exceptions: members of the IEEE Board of Directors,
members of the IEEE Fellow Committee, IEEE Technical Society/Council Fellow Evaluating
Committee Chairs, members of IEEE Technical Society/Council Evaluating
Committees reviewing the nomination, or IEEE staff. The deadline for
nominations is 15 March 2003.
The candidate must be an IEEE Senior Member
at the time the nomination is submitted, and he/she must have completed 5 years
of service in any grade of IEEE membership.
All the necessary material to assist you in
the nomination process is available on the IEEE Web site: http://www.ieee.org/about/awards/fellows/fellows.htm. If you prefer a hard copy, please mailto:fellow-kit@ieee.org. Include your name, street address, city,
state/province, postal code, country, and telephone/fax numbers.
North Jersey Student Activities Committee
and GOLD Seek Volunteers and Speakers
The NNJ IEEE SAC and GOLD are seeking new
volunteers to help conduct business at the section level for the benefit of
students in the North Jersey section and surrounding areas. Additionally local student chapters are
seeking speakers to give talks on professional and technical topics.
If you would like to speak on professional
topics ranging from career development, time or project management, engineering
experiences, and many more, or have specific technical topics and developments
you would like to contribute, or even have some pet topics of your own, please
contact the organizer below.
Additionally, the NNJ SAC is seeking
volunteers to get involved at the section level to help organize local events
for students and the GOLD membership in the NY-NJ Metro area. If you would like to help out even for short
periods of time or maybe take on leading a committee in the section, please
contact the organizer Amit Patel (mailto:a.j.patel@ieee.org)
to find out more and come to a section business meeting.
IEEE Members Now
Receive Discount on MIT Advanced Study Program Courses
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Advanced Study Program (MIT ASP) has become an IEEE Education Partner. IEEE members can now continue their life long
learning with graduate-level, credit courses provided by MIT at a 10% discount. Current ASP courses include Systems
Dynamics, a 24-month certificate program, and Economic Concepts for Engineers,
a semester-long course.
Offered over the Internet since 1995, the ASP
is in its 33rd year of providing courses to off-campus graduates. Taught by MIT faculty, the online delivery
takes advantage of the latest in technologies for working engineers to keep
pace with developments in their fields or to enlarge their knowledge base. Admission is based on the applicant's
academic and professional background.
Applications, course pre-requisites, and
systems requirements are detailed at the MIT-supplied website for IEEE
members. You must use your IEEE member number
to receive the 10% discount.
Enter through the IEEE Educational Partners, http://www.ieee.org/EduPartners,
and choose MIT from the university partners.
To learn more about the IEEE Education Partners Program contact Sasha
Eydlin, IEEE Educational Activities, mailto:s.eydlin@ieee.org.
Power Transfer
Switch Seminar
The PES and IAS Chapters will present a
technical seminar on the design, operation and application of industrial grade
low - medium voltage (120 thru 15000 volt) power transfer switches. The session will be held at Automatic
Switch Company, 50 Hanover Road in Florham
Park, NJ, on Friday October 18, 2002 beginning at 9:00AM.
About the Seminar
Topics to be covered include:
* Power Transfer Switch Design and
Construction
* Industry Codes and Standards
* Power Switching Applications
* Controls and Communication Systems for
Transfer Switching
* Transfer Switch Ratings
* Tour of ASCO/Emerson Switch Assembly and
Test Facility
Mr. Ronald Schroeder, Director - Product
Management Power Switching and Controls, will lead the seminar and be assisted
by other members of the staff at Automatic Switch (a Division of Emerson
Electric). Ron has over 30 years of
experience in the design and application of power transfer switches to meet
specific application requirements. A
graduate of Kean University, he is a member of IEEE.
The registration fee for this seminar prior
to October 4th will be $175 (non-IEEE members), $125 (IEEE Members), and $50
(students with valid ID). The fee will be waived for IEEE Life Member Grades
with advance registration and verification at the seminar. Registrations after October 4th must include
an additional late fee of $25. The
seminar fee includes lunch, refreshments and handouts. Non-members joining IEEE within 30 days of
the seminar will be rebated 50% of the IEEE registration charge.
Time:
9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, Friday, October 18, 2002.
Place:
Automatic Switch Company, 50 Hanover Road, Florham Park, NJ 07932 (973-966-2000).
Directions:
From Route 80 Take I-287 to Exit 37 (NJ 24 East - Springfield). Take NJ 24 East to Exit 2B (Columbia
Turnpike). Proceed 2.2 miles to Hanover Road (6th set of traffic lights). Turn left on Hanover Road (Afton
Restaurant). Automatic Switch will be
on the right (0.4 mile). Enter first
driveway-marked shipping/receiving and proceed to visitor parking lot on the
left. Follow sidewalk to office
entrance door.
Information:
R. Vittal Rebbapragada, PE, (609) 720-3209 or mailto:r.rebbapragada@ieee.org.
Registration: Power Transfer Switch Seminar, 10/18/2002
Register via US mail to:
K. Oexle
11 Deerfield Rd
Whippany, NJ 07981
Name___________________________________________________
Address________________________________________________
Phone__________________ Email _________________________
IEEE #_______________ Student
@________________ Non IEEE____ Life Member____
Payment Enclosed $_______________ Add $25
late registration after October 4th, 2002.
Make check payable to North Jersey Section
IEEE
Another Honor for the
IEEE Virtual Museum
The IEEE Virtual Museum has been selected for
inclusion in the National Science Digital Library Report for Math, Engineering,
and Technology (July 5, 2002), by the Internet Scout Project. The Project
reaches in excess of 100,000 people weekly. To see the listing, access http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/nsdl-reports/met/current/.
The Project has published continually since
1994. It covers only the most useful resources, considering the depth of
content, the authority of the source, and how well the information is
maintained and presented. A team of professional librarians, educators, and
content specialists filter hundreds of announcements looking for the most
valuable and authoritative resources available online. Information about the
best of what is found is then summarized, organized, and provided to the
Internet community in various formats, including email and the Web. The
Internet Scout Project is a National Science Foundation- and Mellon- sponsored
organization.
Visit the newest exhibit, "Thomas
Edison: A Lifetime of Invention," funded by the Charles Edison Fund, at
www.ieee-virtual-museum.org. The original development and continued growth of
IEEE Virtual Museum has primarily been provided by the IEEE Foundation, the
IEEE Life Members Committee, and the Trustees of the IEEE History Center. The
full list of sponsor partners can be viewed at http://www.ieee-virtual-museum.org/credits/index.php.
If you are interested in helping to expand the IEEE Virtual Museum, please
contact the IEEE Development Office by telephone at +1 732 562.3915 or by email
at mailto:supportieee@ieee.org.
For further information, contact Kim Breitfelder,
The IEEE History Center, mailto:k.breitfelder@ieee.org.
ATTENTION IEEE MEMBERS, FREE 1/2 year
membership in Communications Society!
If you are interested in becoming a member of
the Communications Society, here's an opportunity you can't refuse. ComSoc is offering FREE ½ year membership in
their Society. You will get Communications Magazine as well as other Society
benefits. Simply click on http://www.comsoc.org/freeoffer
and fill out the form before 1 August 2002.
