IEEE Toronto - serving members from 1903

Mar 6, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. Celia Desmond, President of World Class – Telecommunications presents a seminar on "Project Management – Completing Projects with Success," organized by the GOLD Affinity Group. Click for details.

Mar 10, 2008 at 3:00 p.m. Dr. Stephen Se, Senior Engineer, MDA Space Missions presents, "Photo-realistic 3D Model Reconstruction," organized by our Signals and Computational Intelligence Joint Chapter. Click for details.

Mar 12, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. The GOLD Affinity Group and Ryerson IEEE Student Branch present a "Panel Session with GOLD Members." Click for details.

Mar 19, 2008 at 3:00 p.m. Christos G. Christodoulou presents an Antennas and Propagation Society Distinguished Lecture, "Reconfigurable Multifunctional Antennas," organized by our Electromagnetics and Radiation Joint Chapter. Click for details.

Mar 27, 2008 (revised agenda) at 6:30 p.m. "Engineering Forum for Nuclear Technology in Ontario – Joint IEEE Toronto/Association of Polish Engineers in Canada Conference," organized by our Engineering & Human Environment Chapter. Click for details.

Postponed due to speaker illness Mar 27, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. James A. Whatley, Senior Protection Specialist, Hydro One Networks, presents "Recent Applications and Developments in Digital Protective Relaying," organized by our Power Engineering Chapter. Click for details. Registration required

Mar 28, 2008 at 3:00 p.m. Dr. David Root of Agilent Technologies, Inc. presents a Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) Distinguished Lecture, "X-Parameters: Revolutionary Paradigm for Interoperable Measurement, Modeling, and Simulation of Nonlinear Microwave and RF Components," organized by our Electromagnetics and Radiation Joint Chapter. Click for details.

Apr 3, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. Benjamin Mak, Associate – Ridout & Maybee LLP presents a seminar on "What is my invention? Performing Your Own Preliminary Patentability Searches," organized by the GOLD Affinity Group. Click for details. Registration required

Apr 10, 2008 at 6:30 p.m. Michael Wong of IBM Canada presents "The Concurrency Revolution in C++0x Standard," organized by our Computer Chapter. Click for details.

April 11, 2008 at 3:00 p.m. Dr. Colin J. McKinstrie of Bell Laboratories, Alcatel-Lucent, presents a Lasers and Electro-Optics Society Distinguished Lecture, "Optical Signal Processing by Parametric Devices," organized by our Circuits and Devices Chapter, and co-sponsored by the Institute for Optical Sciences at the University of Toronto. Click for details.

May 14, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. Walter Banks, President, Byte Craft Limited presents, "Linguistic Variables: Clear Thinking with Fuzzy Logic," organized by our Signals and Computational Intelligence Joint Chapter. Click for details.

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Local IEEE Educational Programs

"Project Management - Meeting those Pesky Requirements" by Celia Desmond — March 29 & 30, 2008
This two day seminar is for those who manage or work on projects, but have little or no formal training in the field. The course touches on key process areas described in the Project Management Institute's "Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge", including Project Integration, Scope Management, Cost Management, Time Management, Risk Management, Procurement Management, Quality Management, Communications Management, Human Resources. Techniques addressing the key areas of scope definition and management, risk assessment, managing the people aspects, schedule preparation, and budget management will be introduced.
Click for details. Registration deadline: March 27, 2008. extended

"USB Hands-On in Linux" by Dennis Cecic — April 26, 2008
USB has emerged as the de-facto standard interface for PC connectivity. Unfortunately for developers, the USB programming model is relatively complex, compared to these traditional interfaces. The objective of this 1-day class is to de-mystify the USB, and kick-start your USB Device development in Linux by reviewing the important aspects of the USB, as well as getting some hands-on experience in implementing generic data exchange between a Microchip PIC18 USB MCU and a Linux user-space C-program.
Click for details. Registration deadline: April 16, 2008.

Dr. Bruno N. Di Stefano Awarded the 2008 IEEE Canada W. S. Read Gold Medal

Bruno DiStefano, a Senior Member of IEEE residing in the Toronto Section, is President of Nuptek Systems Ltd. He is being awarded the 2008 W.S. Read Gold Medal (Outstanding and Sustained Service to IEEE Canada and the Institute) in recognition of service to the profession & IEEE

The IEEE Toronto Section would like to congratulate Bruno Di Stefano for his achievement and thank him for his service to the profession.

There are ten awards, six for achievement and four for service, which will be presented at the IEEE Canada Awards Banquet on the evening of May 5, 2008 in Niagara Falls during the 21st annual IEEE Canada Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering (CCECE08). Nominations for these awards closed on Nov. 30. Your awards committee then ranked the nominations and proposed the recipients who were then approved by IEEE Canada.

IEEE Toronto Women in Engineering (WIE) Affinity Group Call for Nominations

The IEEE Toronto Women in Engineering (WIE) Affinity Group is looking to fill the positions of Chair and Vice-Chair. Read more on the WIE page.

Pas Pasupathy: Meeting Challenges Head On

IEEE Life Fellow and Toronto Section member, Prof. Subbarayan "Pas" Pasupathy, was recently profiled in the IEEE publication "The Institute":

"A lunch with co-workers and perhaps a fancy watch or a piece of luggage are typical retirement gifts for many people. But those weren’t adequate to mark the career of IEEE Life Fellow Subbarayan “Pas” Pasupathy. Instead, his students and colleagues at the University of Toronto, in Canada, devoted an all-day workshop to honor his contributions as teacher, pioneering researcher, and international authority on wireless digital communications, detection and estimation theory, and biomedical signal processing."

Read the full article by Kathy Kowalenko and visit the official workshop web page.

IT360° Conference & Expo 2008

Conference Dates: April 7 – 9, 2008
Trade Show Dates: April 8 – 9, 2008
Location: Metro Toronto Convention Centre, North Bldg.
Website: www.it360.ca

IEEE members receive a 25% discount and a FREE trade show pass! Use code A101 when registering for the Conference before April 6th. If you would like to visit the trade show only, please use Code: TS1 for free admission.

IT360° is an interactive experience for IT professionals and business executives. Faced with the challenge of shrinking budgets and limited time to test or evaluate, IT360° provides a conference of 80+ educational sessions and an informative exposition where professionals can compare applications and solutions while learning first-hand from leading companies and their experts in this immersive arena.

IEEE Toronto Section Members Elevated to Fellows of the IEEE

"The grade of Fellow recognizes unusual distinction in the profession and shall be conferred only by invitation of the Board of Directors upon a person with an extraordinary record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE’s designated fields of interest." The IEEE Toronto Section would like to congratulate to following members for their recent elevation to the grade of IEEE Fellow (FIEEE):

Prof. Ling Guan, Ryerson University
FIEEE citation: for contributions to image and multimedia signal processing

Guan Ling received his B.S. degree in electronic engineering from Tianjin University, China, in 1982, M.S. degree in systems design engineering at University of Waterloo, Canada, in 1985, and Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from University of British Columbia, Canada, in 1989. From 1993 to 2000, he was on the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Sydney, Australia. Since May 2001, he has been a Professor in electrical and computer engineering at Ryerson University, Canada. In 2001, he was appointed to the position of Tier I Canada Research Chair. He is the recipient of Ontario Outstanding Researcher's Award in 2002, and IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology Best Paper Award in 2005. He held visiting positions at British Telecom (1994), Tokyo Institute of Technology (1999), Princeton University (2000), and Microsoft Research Asia. Dr. Guan has authored/coauthored more than 200 scientific publications in multimedia processing and communications, computer vision, machine learning, and adaptive image/signal processing. He served as Associate Editor and Guest Editor of numerous international journals, including Proceedings of the IEEE, IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, and two IEEE Transactions. He was the General Chair of the 2006 IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo, the Founding General Chair of Pacific-Rim Conference of Multimedia and numerous other IEEE and ACM conferences.

Dr. Bogdan Kasztenny, General Electric Company
FIEEE citation: for contributions to protective relaying methods, designs, and applications

Bogdan Kasztenny holds the position of Protection and System Engineering Manager for the Digital Energy business of General Electric. Prior to joining GE in 1999, Dr.Kasztenny worked as an Assistant Professor conducting research and teaching power system courses at the Wroclaw University of Technology, Texas A&M University, and Southern Illinois University. His full time academic career culminated with a prestigious Senior Fulbright Fellowship in 1997. Between 2000 and 2004 Bogdan was heavily involved in the development of the globally recognized Universal RelayTM product line, for which in 2004 he received GE’s Thomas Edison Award for innovation. Bogdan remains hands on and instrumental in new product development at General Electric. He acts as an R&D liaison with several universities and Corporate Research. Bogdan authored more than 160 papers, conceived numerous protection and control products, is an inventor of several patents, IEEE Fellow, and a member of the Main Committee of the IEEE PES Power System Relaying Committee, where he chairs or co-chairs several working groups. Dr. Kasztenny is a registered Professional Engineer in the province of Ontario, an Associate Professor at the University of Western Ontario, and a Member of the Canadian National Committee of CIGRE, Study Committee B5 – Protection and Automation.

Prof. Jörg Liebeherr, University of Toronto
FIEEE citation: for contributions to the design and analysis of computer networks and their protocols

Jörg Liebeherr (S'88, M'92, SM'03, F'08) received the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1991. After a Postdoc at the University of California, Berkeley, he joined the Department of Computer Science at the University of Virginia in 1992. In 1997-1998 he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Polytechnic University. Since Fall 2005, he is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of Toronto as the Nortel Chair of Network Architecture and Services. His current research interests are networks with service guarantees and self-organizing peer networks. He has served on editorial boards and program committees of several journals and conferences in computer networking. He was Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Network in 1999-2000. He is a co-author of the textbook "Mastering Networks: An Internet Lab Manual", published by Addison-Wesley in 2004. He was an elected Member-at-Large of the IEEE Communications Society Board of Governors in 2003-2005, and chair of the IEEE Communications Society Technical Committee on Computer Communications in 2004-2005. He received an NSF Career award in 1996, a University of Virginia Teaching and Technology fellowship in 1995, a Virginia Engineering Foundation fellowship in 2002, and an Outstanding Service award from the IEEE Communications Society Technical Committee on Computer Communications in 2006.

Prof. Bin Wu, Ryerson University
FIEEE citation: for contributions to high-power converter technology and adjustable speed drives

Bin Wu received Ph.D. degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Toronto, Canada, in 1993. After being with Rockwell Automation as a Senior Engineer from 1992 to 1993, he joined Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada, where he is currently a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and NSERC/Rockwell Industrial Research Chair in Power Electronics and Electric Drives. Dr. Wu has published more than 130 technical papers, authored a Wiley-IEEE Press book, and filed 16 patents (7 issued and 9 pending) in the area of power electronics, energy systems, advanced controls, and adjustable-speed drives.

Dr. Wu is the recipient of the Gold Medal of the Governor General of Canada, the Premier’s Research Excellence Award, Ryerson Sarwan Sahota Distinguished Scholar Award, Ryerson Research Chair Award and the NSERC Synergy Award for Innovation. He is the founder of Laboratory for Electric Drive Applications and Research (LEDAR) at Ryerson University. Dr. Wu is an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics and IEEE Canadian Review, and Guest Editor of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics Special Section on High Power Drives. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario, Canada.

On October 27, 2007, the IEEE Toronto Section held its Annual General Meeting at the Old Mill Inn. The keynote speaker was Dr. Ron Dembo, founder and CEO of ZeroFootprint, a Toronto, Ontario-based organization created to fight global warming by mitigating the environmental impacts of businesses and individuals as well as build a marketplace for people worldwide to engage in sustainable commerce. A photographic record of the evening can be seen on the event page.

IEEE Toronto Section Receives 2006 Sustained Membership Growth Award

The IEEE Toronto Section has been recognized by the IEEE Regional Activities Board (RAB) for its continued success in attracting and retaining Outstanding Leadership and its results in IEEE Membership Development Activities for the period of 2004 to 2006 in Region 7. The section would like to thank volunteers Dimitri Androutsos and Alex Bot for their leadership in membership development.

Communications Society Free Online Tutorial

Sept 18, 2007: IEEE Communications Society is pleased to offer all IEEE members a free two-hour online tutorial...presentation on "Software Radio Implementation for MIMO/OFDM High Speed Wireless LAN/MAN" from IEEE Communications Society's popular Tutorials Now. Free for a limited time only.

This tutorial was originally presented at the IEEE Wireless Communications & Networking Conference, and covers cutting-edge wireless parallel transmission technologies in OFDM and MIMO. Development and systems engineers and technical managers will find the fundamental and helpful information very useful.

Summary of Local IEEE Conferences

May 4–7, 2008 The 21st IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering – CCECE 2008 will be held in Niagara Falls, Ontario, at the Sheraton Fallsview hotel. CCECE is a flagship conference for researchers, students, and practising engineers in the area of Electrical and Computer Engineering from Canada and around the world to meet annually for 3 to 4 days in a Canadian city to present the latest technological advancements and discoveries, to network and exchange ideas, to strengthen existing partnerships and foster new collaborations. See website for further details.

All IEEE Conferences in Canada - please use this link.

IEEE Milestone - First External Pacemaker The IEEE Toronto Life Members affinity group has successfully nominated the "Hopps First External Pacemaker" as an IEEE Milestone.

Pat Finnigan (LM Chair) is leading this initiative and he needs some help in working with researchers and IEEE members in the life sciences/medical area to gather some more information about Dr. Hopps and his pioneering work in the late 1940's. Click this link to see Dr. Hopps interviewed on a 1950's CBC archive clip from Front Page Challenge.

If you have any relevent information or expertise or are just interested to help out, please contact Pat using his .

Contact us - to contact any member of our executive please use the mailtos on our executive page.

Your 2008 Section Officers (L to R):
Wai Tung Ng - Vice Chair
Alex Bot - Chair
Marcelo Mota - Secretary
Pelle Westlind - Treasurer

Toronto is one of 20 sections in Canada. For more information about national activities and publications, please visit the IEEE Canada links on the left. You can visit the IEEE (worldwide) and EIC web sites by clicking on their logos below.

Home Page: http://toronto.ieee.ca

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