Advancing Technology for Humanity
November 2011, Vol. 59, No. 11
New York City’s Marathon covering 26 miles of roads through its five boroughs
stands as a test of physical endurance and sheer determination independent of race, creed or color. The picture of the start of the November 7, 2011 race was taken from a TV broadcast
To skip more photographs of the 2011 Marathon click here
Some 47,000 people enrolled in the New York City’s 41st annual race making it still the most famous Marathon in the world
The invincible lot! You give us the inspiration for facing challenges
Catch her! New York City Marathon 2011
We, at the New York Section of the IEEE congratulate all who ran the race. You helped our city to continue as unique on this planet!
“The important thing is to know how to take all things quietly” – Michael Faraday
IEEE New York
Monitor
November, 2011
Editor: Amitava Dutta-Roy, PhD, Life Fellow
CONTENTS
Cover page: New York City Marathon, November 5, 2011 Calendar of technical events in and around the NY Section (posted separately, please see the anchor page)
Election of Section officers for 2012
Election of officers of LMAG for 2012
See the results See the results
Election of officers of PES/IAS for 2012 Election of officers of EDS/SSCS for 2012
Activities
Leon Knock on continuing education at New York Section. In this article he explains the offerings of
In this Section you will find abridged reports of the the continuing education program at the Section activities of chapters and affinity groups within the New York Section and how to enroll in them.
Book announcement
Feature article
Growing up with the Internet Age: Part V by John Unexpected magnetism discovered in gold nano- LeGates, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. structures turns the noble metal even more at- Mr. LeGates continues with his journey within the tractive. Dr. Simon Trudel, Univ. of Calgary, Alber-
- labyrinth of networking and business politics.
- ta, Canada explains this new phenomenon. Nan-
structures of gold may soon have interesting ap- plications in science and engineering.
Nobel prizes in 2011
Read about the Nobel medals and the list of the laureates in 2011
Notables in science and technology we lost in recent months
Click here to access the section
Contributors:
We would like to thank Leon Nock of the IEEE NY Section, John Legates of Harvard University, Dr. Simon Trudel of University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada and William Coyne, chair of the bylaws committee at the New York Section for their time and effort to contribute articles and news items to the Monitor. We also thank Nobel.org and World Gold Council for the permission to reproduce the photographs that appears on their Web sites.
A few words from the editor
The glorious autumn days are over and we are now on our path to the wintry days again. But I suppose this has some hidden benefits. Most of us dread to go outside and that gives us more time to get some work done. I may change my tune if the long-range forecasters and the Old Farmers Almanac prove to be right. They are expecting a terrible winter in 2012. Be prepared!!
We offer you a lot to read and ponder in this issue of the Monitor. We have had an excellent presentation by Ms. Yuri Estrada who represented the non-profit Engineers without Border (EWB-USA). I imagine that the idea of founding EWB came from the work of Doctors without Borders that do marvelous work in many parts of the world, especially in disaster areas such as Haiti, Turkey and Guatemala. I always wanted to know if the engineers could do similar work in giving a hand to other fellow human beings who find them in less fortunate situations. I admit that it is not easy for engineers to suddenly arrive at a disasterstricken place and jump headlong into a project. In such situations engineers and doctors are viewed from totally different angles. The doctors usually arrive in a disaster area ready with their medical kits and immediately try to alleviate pain of the victims. The needs for non-local engineers are not the same as that for doctors. Even then we can do a lot for our communities and the world. EWB is a starting place. We should seriously look into the idea, what we as engineers can do. The IEEE has already set its motto as “advancing technology for humanity.” You will find that the anchor page of this issue has changed. I would invite your opinions on this change. With every issue we try to embellish the pages of the Monitor. It has been a gradual transformation of the publication since January, 2011 when yours truly started to post it online. Thank you for your support.
In this issue we have an article on magnetism in nanoparticles of gold. This property of the noble metal is new to many engineers. I am sure that before long we will find novel applications.
We have also included a section on 2011 Nobel prizes. You will notice that most the prize winners are from this country. The ceremonies around the award of the prizes will start on December 5 in Stockholm and continue until December 9 in Oslo.
Under the heading Tidbits we have cited a gizmo the link of which was sent by Bill Coyne, chair of the bylaws committee. If you find anything that might interest our colleagues please send the item, article or link to us. We will be happy to post all interesting items. Dissemination of information is our task.
Hope you will enjoy reading the Monitor!
Section activities Election of the 2012 Section officers
The annual election of the 2012 officers for the IEEE New York Section was held on November 15, 2011. The positions and the names of the elected officers are given below.
Section Chair: Balvinder Denarine (née Blah)
Section vice chair for chapter operations: Shu-Ping Chang
Section vice chair for section activities: Kai Chen
Section Treasurer: Michael Haroutunian
Section Treasurer: Wilson Milian
Chapter organization committee chair: Darlene Rivera
Historian: Mel Olken
Long-range planning committee chair: William Perlman
Special events committee chair: Ralph Tapino
By-laws committee chair: William Coyne
Publications committee chair: Darlene Rivera
Webmaster committee chair: Harold Ruchelman
The 2012 chair of the New York section Ms. Balvinder Deonarine obtained the degree of Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from City College of New York and an MBA from Fordham University. She also has a Project Management Certification and currently is a manager at Consolidated Edison Company of NY. She has been volunteering at IEEE over ten years. Her volunteer positions have included: student activities chair in the society as well as the NY Section; NY Section secretary; NY Section treasurer; NY Section vice chair; and Industry Application Society Chapter Awards Chair. In her acceptance speech chair-elect Ms. Deonarine reflected on her association with the New York Section and emphasized that she will make every effort to foster an atmosphere replete with mutual respect, credibility and congeniality. She envisions that, with collaboration and goodwill, of all members the Section will be a happy and active forum to achieve the noble goals of the IEEE.
More elections at the New York Section
Life Members Affinity Group (LMAG)
The election of the 2012 officers of the LAMG was also held immediately following that of the 2012 Section officers. The following were elected.
Chair: Ralph Mazzatto Vice chair: Amitava Dutta-Roy Member-at-large: Roland Plottel Treasurer: Ralph Tapino Secretary: Michael A. Miller Program chair: Lewis Terman
The joint PES/IAS chapter
The election of 2012 officers of the joint PES/IAS chapters was also held following that the LMAG. The newly elected officers are:
Chair: Arnold Wong Vice Chair: Paul Sartori Treasurer: Sharene Williams Secretary : Sukumar Alampur Senior Member-at-Large: Thomas Villani Junior Member-at-Large: Thomas Li
EDS/SSCS joint chapter
We were informed by the EDS/SSCS Joint Chapter at the New York Section that the following 2012 officers were elected.
Chair: Harish Krishnaswamy (http://www.ee.columbia.edu/fac-bios/Krishnaswamy/faculty.html) EDS Vice-chair: Ioannis Kymissis (http://kymissis.columbia.edu/john-kymissis) SSCS Vice-chair: Mingoo Seok (http://www.ee.columbia.edu/~mgseok/team.html) Treasurer: Peter Kinget (http://www.ee.columbia.edu/~kinget)
The Monitor congratulates all elected officers and pledges to give support during their tenures
Chapter and affinity group activities PES/IAS joint chapters and the Life Members Affinity Group
On October 23 the group sponsored a presentation on “Moore’s Law, Metcalfe’s Law and Murphy’s Law
– Success and Failure with New Technology” by Simon Maddison. Drawing from his 40 plus years’ expe-
rience working for many large and small companies in the field of telecommunications, Maddison learned that all moons must be in alignment before a new technology can become universally popular and financially successful.
Hitting the magic point on the ‘hockey-stick’ curve is the dream of every hi-tech entrepreneur. But how
does this happen, and what are the factors that result in an explosive success? Invariably a number of things has to come together at the right time.
Maddison described the three laws that often apply to the success of any new technology
(Gordon) Moore’s law - transistor density in IC chips doubles every 18 months while cost of a chip remains constant (Robert) Metcalfe’s law – the value (usefulness) of a network is proportional to the square of the number of users (Robert) Murphy’s law - if anything can go wrong, it will
Mr. Maddison said that review of some successes such as Group 3 fax, PC, GSM cell phones, SMS text messaging, and Facebook, makes some of the moons easier to comprehend. So, what are those moons? Some frequently encountered moons include: common industry standards that break down the barriers erected around proprietary silos held by individual companies; reduced size, weight and cost; improved performance that pushes up sales volumes; and, most importantly, the first- to-market advantage.
When the moons are not in alignment Murphy’s Law can kick in and that may result in a failure, as hap-
pened with BetaMax, WAP, Token Ring and 3G. Some common negative moons include: premature technology; not the first company to market; and no real market need.
IEEE New York Chapters of Power & Energy Soc. (PES), Industrial Applications Soc. (IAS), Women in Engineering (WIE) and Life Members Affinity Group (LMAG)
On November 22 the four groups sponsored a presentation on the objectives and practical aspects of an organization known as Engineers without Borders – USA (EWB-USA.) The organization envisions a world in which all communities have the capacity to meet their basic human needs. The realization of that vision is actively being pursued by engaging engineers in community-driven programs through design and implementation of sustainable engineering projects. Note that the objective of EWB meshes well with the objective of the IEEE: advancing technology for humanity.
The speaker Yuri Estrada who is currently a project manager within Global Program Management at AE- COM Technology Inc., has been with EWB-USA for five years as an adviser and project leader. She has traveled to Mexico, Peru, Honduras, Kenya and Australia on behalf of EWB-USA and knows first-hand the pros and cons of getting involved in a project abroad. She mainly worked on transportation and bridge building projects in which she has specialized in her regular job. She elaborated on education, training, work opportunities and internships. She also showed the times that a volunteer in various capacities is expected to spend on a project. This time could vary from 2 – 5 hours a week in mentoring to several weeks on the site of a project. An interesting discussion followed the presentation and it was heartening to see many in the audience felt encouraged to join the group.
Continuing Education and Professional Engineering Licensure
The Roles of the IEEE and the New York Section
Leon L. Nock*
Why continuing Education?
As technology continuously ascends to higher levels of complexity, it becomes increasingly important for engineering professionals to keep abreast of the latest developments, both in their own fields of expertise as well as in many other related disciplines. Engineers must also be aware of the impact of the developments of technology on the environment and society in general. The focus of engineering has indeed changed during the last couple of decades and continuing education (CE) has become a major ve-
hicle for expanding one’s knowledge of engineering and has turned out to be a pre-requisite for renew-
ing professional engineering (PE) licensure in the state of New York. Professional engineering licensure is generally a requisite for the practice of engineering involving projects or endeavors on which public safety strongly depends. The licensure involves passing of nationally approved licensing examinations, the attainment of relevant experience and the participation in continuing education programs. PE licensure, however, is not a requirement for engineers practicing in areas of electronics or computer science unless their responsibilities concern safety issues, for example, instrumentation for public security or avionics, etc. However, continuing engineering education keeps an advanced practitioner at the edge of cutting technologies. Additionally, the mention of participation in continuing education programs in resumes of new applicants is very favorably seen by employers in
today’s fiercely competitive job market. The participation in CE programs is also beneficial to existing
employees seeking promotions or new positions within their corporate structures. The diversity of present offerings in continuing engineering education has increased immensely in recent years. In the past, CE offerings in subjects related to civil, mechanical and power engineering predominated, as professional engineering licensing exams stressed those areas. Thus, courses were closely related to engineering safety matters such as fire protection, strength of materials, plant design and new construction techniques as well as the familiarity with official safety codes. Newer and more advanced topics in engineering were not emphasized.
Now, emerging fields of computer engineering/technology, data processing and data storage as well as solid state circuitry, communication technology, digital design, and communication protocols have become increasingly important as has the need for new educational offerings.
Providers of CE courses
Since some of the newer areas are still not being covered by traditional bachelors or masters degree engineering courses or in community college associate degree programs, they are being taught, both in classrooms and online by institutions such as the Cooper Union and New York University, not as part of their degree programs, but as CE courses accredited for professional licensing purposes.
Many independent for-profit providers have also jumped into the foray to fill the void caused by the lack of adequate CE courses on newer technologies. They offer both in-premises and online courses. Companies such as Verizon and AT&T pay for these courses to be taught in their own brick and mortar offices and they may last from six to eight weeks. The advantage of in-premises courses is that the employees do not have to leave their places of work and take the courses during periods that are either convenient for them or have been negotiated between the employees’ unions and their employers. Some of the course providers are accredited by Distance Education and Training Council (DETC), but they are expensive and may cost anywhere up to $2,000 per course per student. Naturally, the students may be reluctant to take these courses on the own initiative unless they are paid for by their employers.
Continuing Education - role of the IEEE
The IEEE and other similar professional engineering associations have for years been staunch proponents of engineering education both in the traditional sense and through continuing education programs covering emerging technologies. As a collective body, the IEEE has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the fields of electrical engineering and the physical sciences. The IEEE also publishes learned journals in many technical fields including those related to power and energy and communications and computer engineering. The IEEE holds conferences and symposia in these fields and sponsors lectures and courses.
However, the IEEE has not, until recently, begun to associate these offerings with continuing education (CEU) credits. Since one of the primary goals of the IEEE includes helping engineering professionals to keep abreast of the newer technologies and thus assisting them in fulfilling their requirements for continuing education credits needed for professional licensure, the IEEE is now beginning to do so on a regular basis and in an affordable manner. The IEEE Sections announce the availability of CEU credits through its courses and seminars on the respective web sites and in their publications such as the Monitor. Since the IEEE is a not-for-profit organization, it can keep the tuition fees down to a nominal amount only to cover the administrative expenses. Announcements of seminars and courses sponsored by the IEEE show the availability of the CEUs. A technical seminar lasting two hours is worth 2 professional development hours (PDH) and 10 PDHs are equivalent to 1 CEU. Courses that continue for longer periods would offer more CEUs.
Continuing Education – offerings of the New York Section
The New York Section is active in stimulating continuing education. For example, the Vehicular Technology Society (VTS) Chapter in New York and the Life Members Affinity Group (LMAG) recently sponsored a joint seminar on electric vehicles that was worth 2 professional development hours. Also, for quite some time now, the New York chapter of the Power and Energy Society (PES), the Industrial Applications Society (IAS) and the LMAG have been jointly organizing monthly technical presentations in each of the 12 months of the year. Each of these presentations awarded 2 PDHs to the attendees. Engineers attending all 12 presentations can earn 24 PDHs or 2.4 CEUs. During May and June, 2011 the PES Chapter sponsored an 8-week course (2 hours/week) on arc flash hazard analysis that was worth 1.6 CEUs.
Usually, the accreditation of the CEUs is done once a year, at the end of each year. In 2010, the IEEE charged an administrative fee of $25.00 for the issuance of a CEU certificate to course attendees for all courses attended during that year by the applicant of the certificate.
Though the IEEE has the capacity to offer continuing education seminars and courses given by its volunteers and guest speakers, it has been found that consulting engineers, in general, may be more readily prepared and have more experience in teaching longer courses at a proper professional level. Some of these instructors are teachers at local universities and charge professional fees for their classes. Additionally, these instructors may schedule their workload in a fashion that is not practical for members who are employed in jobs that require full-time dedication.
The New York Section would only charge attending students enough to cover the costs. The fee for the arc flash hazard course cited above was fixed at $495 for each attending IEEE member student. Fees for non-members taking continuing education courses are always slightly higher than they are for members. Even then, the IEEE sponsored courses always cost much less than those offered by for-profit institutions. In 2010, a significant number of engineers were awarded CEUs through the IEEE. It is to be noted that accreditation by the IEEE is widely recognized and highly respected, not only in the USA but in most countries of the world.
The New York State Education Department requires that registered professional engineers renew their PE licenses tri-annually. To renew their licenses for an up-coming three year period, engineers must affirm that they have completed 36 contact hours (PDHs) of continuing engineering education courses during the previous three year period. The PEs who are able to regularly attend the IEEE-sponsored sessions on a continuous basis could easily meet their licensing requirements.
