The Electronic Newsletter of the IEEE Toronto Section - the latest news about upcoming events and the people that make them happen - Section and Chapter meetings, workshops, conferences, and other events of interest occuring in Toronto and surounding areas.   Posted every month.   Now formatted for portrait-orientation printing.

Upcoming Chapter/Group Meetings

Apr 7, 2005 at 3:00 p.m.   Dr. Omid Jahromi of Bioscrypt Inc. will present a seminar entitled "Biometric Identity Verification", organized by our Signals & Applications and Computer Chapters.   Click for details. Apr 8, 2005 at 5:00 p.m.   Dr. Alyssa Apsel of Cornell University will present a seminar entitled "Merging Traditional VLSI with Photonics", organized by our Solid State Chapter.   Click for details. Apr 12, 2005 at 6:00 p.m.   Haydn Povey of ARM Ltd. will present a seminar entitled "Future-Proof Your Embedded Design with ARM-Based MCUs", organized by our Computer Chapter.   Click for details. Apr 14, 2005 at 3:30 p.m.   Dr. Ali Sayed, F-IEEE, of the EE Dept. at UCLA will present a Signal Processing Society Distinguished Lecture entitled "Signal Processing Challenges in Wireless Location", organized by our Signals and Applications Chapter.   Click for details. Apr 18, 2005 at 6:30 p.m.   Randy Park, Professional Speaker and Author, will present a seminar entitled "Thinking for Results", organized by our Engineering & Human Environment Chapter.   Click for details. Apr 21, 2005 at 7:00 p.m.   Dr. Ian Hastings, Director of Reactor Development Operations at Atomic Energy Canada Ltd., will present a seminar entitled "Nuclear Power Generation – Where are we going?", organized jointly by our Power Engineering Chapter and Life Members Affinity Group.   Click for details. Apr 22, 2005 at 6:30 p.m.   Round table discussion on: "How to have an effective meeting with your manager"   +   at 7:30 p.m.   "WIE Affinity First Anniversary Celebration", organized by our Women in Engineering Affinity Group.   Click for details.   Note: Revised Date Apr 26, 2005 at 4:00 p.m.   Dr. Luca Dal Negro, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will present a seminar entitled "Silicon-based Light Emitting Nanomaterials and Photonic Structures", organized by our Circuits & Systems Chapter.   Click for details. May 5, 2005 at 2:00 p.m.   Tour of the Trillium Hospital (Mississauga Site) featuring their Cardiac Department with the latest technical equipment for diagnostics and treatment.   This tour should appeal to those interested in instrumentation and medical applications as well as anyone interested in the state of our health care system.   Organized by our Life Members Affinity Group.   Click for details. May 11, 2005 at 6:30 p.m.   Captain Stephen Boyne of Defense Research & Development Canada, will present a seminar entitled "Human Factors Engineering; Military applications, Civilian benefits", organized by the PEO Toronto Dufferin Chapter and supported by our Engineering and Human Environment Chapter.   Click for details.

Upcoming Courses   Now is the time to register if you have not done so.

Apr 9, 2005   1-day course, “Positioned for Success, Differentiating Yourself”, Celia Desmond & Carolyn Wright, lecturers   Click for details

Apr 23, 2005   1-day course, “Breakthrough Thinking”, Celia Desmond & Randy Park, lecturers   Click for details

May 7, 2005   1-day course, “Networking with Others: The most important job you will ever have”, Celia Desmond & Carolyn Wright, lecturers   Click for details

May 13 & 14, 2005   2-day course, “Project Management – Meeting those pesky Requirements”, Celia Desmond, lecturer   Click for details

May 21, 2005   1-day course, “Understanding Personality Type: Reading Character through TRUE COLORS”, Carolyn Wright, lecturer   Click for details

Jun 4, 2005   1-day course, “Essential Communications for Engineers”, Celia Desmond, lecturer   Click for details

LinuxWorld & NetworkWorld 2005 Conference & Expo, April 18 - 20, 2005, Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Your Connection to Today's Applications and Solutions - Linux overview [PDF] - Network overview [PDF]
	LinuxWorld Conference & Expo Canada & NetworkWorld Conference & Expo Canada are the #1 Linux/Open Source and Network IT events in the third largest region in North America, following New York and San Francisco.   Both events are co-located in Toronto, providing a powerful combination of education and vendors.   The conference offers dynamic keynotes, case studies, tutorials and hands on labs by renowned industry specialists, while the trade show feature high profile experts from leading vendor companies. All this under one roof - A Total Linux & Network Experience!   For more information and registration, please visit the LinuxWorld conference & expo web site and the NetworkWorld conference & expo web site.
IEEE members - free admissionto the trade show with this IEEE Pass [PDF], as well as 25% discount on pre-registration for the conference and tutorials if you use code A101 when you pre-register and show your IEEE membership card at the door.

Empowered's Test & Management 2005 hits Toronto April 26th, plus dates in Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa. This focused full-day event features 6 educational sessions on testing and managing emerging technologies, applications and services.   Join us for sessions on Testing Triple Play, IP Service Diagnostics, and Quality, IP/MPLS & Synchronization. Morning sessions cover Managing Configurations, Testing Applications and Security, and Enabling IT Service Management.   If your focus is developing new technologies, creating new service offerings, or leveraging both to reduce costs & improve service, make time in your schedule for Test & Management 2005!   IEEE members attend free if you Register Now!

Section News

Report on "Telecommunication Network Architecture, taking industry to new heights" - March 3
Dr. S. Heeralall presented a new kind of telecommunication network architecture which she is now advocating based on her experience working in global telecom industry for more than twenty years.   The seminar was centered around the answers to a question of “What networks should the industry build in order to really appeal to the market?”.   The seminar was tailored for both technical and non-technical audience and was attended by people from the academia as well industry.   Among the audience, 18 were IEEE members and 6 were guests.   At the end of the presentation, lively discussions took place on the possible paths in the evolution of the existing telecommunication networks towards the proposed architecture.   Dr. Heeralall finally emphasized the need for a multi-disciplinary approach to the design of the telecom network architecture and also the research program to further advance this new kind of discipline in telecom network architecture.   Contributed by Alagan Anapalagan, chair of our Communications Chapter - which organized this event.

Report on "Patents: From an Inventor's Viewpoint" - March 14
This seminar provided first-hand insight on the patenting process from a successful inventor. Mitchell, an experienced lecturer and instructor, gave a very interesting and lively presentation in a format easy to understand and follow.   He shared his experiences with his two successful patents and one rejected patent.   Steering the intricacies of the patenting process could seem a daunting task to an inventor.   Mitchell showed how it could be done.   The important Do's and Don'ts of patenting were discussed.   This seminar provided excellent and valuable real-life information about the patenting process.   The audience participated enthusiastically.   The interest and excitement carried on - with a lot individual discussions and networking afterwards.   Contributed by Ed Lovrek, chair of our Engineering and Human Environment Chapter - which organized this event.   If you wish to view/listen to this presentation, just click on this link to the web site where it is stored in IEEE Canada's digital library as a Windows Media file.

Report on "Claim Your Career Equity" - March 23 event
Finding ones niche - that one thing that makes one invaluable to the team or company - is a challenge.   Our careers often face turbulence as a result of not being aware of this.   Ms. Fox, who has been a career coach and has coached GenX, mid-career and senior professionals and leaders to make rapid measurable career improvements for the past 15 years, gave an informative talk at WIE Affinity March meeting.   About 15 members and guests who were present at this meeting listened to Ms. Fox talk about the importance of investing time and money on career management and development.   Ms. Fox identified feasible practices and tasks that one can do in order to control and steer one's career.   She interjected numerous real life stories of career situations and improvements.   I left the meeting with lots of information to dwell on and act upon.   Many thanks to Ms. Fox for her time and such a great presentation and to our guests who participated in this event.   Contributed by Visda Vokhshoori, chair of our Women in Engineering Affinity Group - which organized this event.

Member News

Congratulations to six of our members who have been recently elevated to Senior Member grade;
  Sridhar Krishnan    Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society, Signal Processing Society
  Jody Levine             Dielectrics & Electrical Insulation Society, Power Engineering Society
  Baochun Li             Communications Society
  Alain Tabue            Power Engineering Society
  Alan Wallis             Industry Applications Society
  Pelle Westlind      Computer Society
  If you wish to apply for Senior Member elevation, or nominate someone else, please use this link.

Are you planning to apply for an IEEE Senior Membership grade?   Keep in mind that the next Admission & Advancement (A&A) panel meeting will be held in April.   Application and reference forms have to be received at IEEE Operations Center by April 6.   For the details of the IEEE Senior Member Program, please visit our IEEE Toronto page of helpful information and links.

Student News

IEEE Toronto LEOS Paper Prize   May 6, 2005 is the deadline for students members of the IEEE Toronto LEOS Chapter to apply for the award for the best student technical paper in the areas of lasers, electro-optics, optical communication or networks, or nonlinear optics.   Click for details.

2005 IEEE Electron Devices Society Graduate Student Fellowship   May 15, 2005 is the deadline for graduate students who are members of the IEEE EDS Society to apply for this US$5,000 award (plus travel stipent).   This year fellowship is awarded to promote, recognize, and support graduate level study and research within the Electron Devices Society's field of interest:   Click for details.

Student Ethics Competitions are planned for all 10 IEEE Regions - The IEEE Ethics and Member Conduct Committee wants to raise the ethics awareness of IEEE members while they're still in school.   To this end, the committee is launching the IEEE Student Ethics Competition, which will provide student members with experience in applying ethical concepts to situations that might arise in the workplace.   Find out more at this IEEE web site.

IEEE News

New Improved Version of IEEE Xplore  29 Mar. -- IEEE Publications announces that IEEE Xplore Version 2.0 was successfully launched this weekend, as scheduled.   This release marks a milestone in the evolution of the IEEE's web delivery platform because it adds not only an updated graphic design, but also adds many new functions to improve the user's experience and facilitate web-first publishing.   IEEE Xplore is already widely used: during the first two months of this year the users retrieved 4.55 million documents a month -- an increase of 25% over the first two months of 2004.   We expect these enhancements will help further increase the use of IEEE's superb technical information.   Why not visit the IEEE Xplore 2 web site.

IEEE Virtual Museum Launches Exhibit on Electronic Instruments  23 Mar. -- The IEEE Virtual Museum has launched its latest exhibit, "Songs in the Key of E," which explores the numerous ways electronics have been used to create music.   With examples such as the singing arc, the theremin and the synthesizer, among others, the exhibit highlights both the inventors of electronic instruments and the instruments themselves, and uses audio clips to demonstrate the various sounds.   This is the eighth IEEE Virtual Museum exhibit since its launch in 2002.   Aimed at pre-college students and their educators, the museum explores the global impact of electrical and information sciences and technologies to demonstrate how relevant engineers are to society.   To view this exhibit, visit the IEEE Virtual Museum web site.

Insight - IEEE has partnered with Insight, Inc. to provide discounts on over 250,000 computer hardware/software products available on the site.   IEEE members receive discounts on all products presented here, and this discount will vary by item.   IEEE members always receive Insight’s best price – the lesser of the discount price or their advertised special price.   Insight hosts three separate websites for their company in Canada, USA and UK.   Click on the Insight image on the left to view their web site and get more info, then click on the Canadian flag to apply for your personal Insight account and use IEE491261 for your password to get your discount. There is no obligation to buy when you create your account, but it will give you access to view the IEEE member discounts.

myIEEE - your personal IEEE web page - click on the myIEEE image on the left, and login to your unique personalized page.   You will need your IEEE web account to login - if you don't have one yet, get one right now - its free - click here.   This is a new IEEE service - with limited capabilities at present - it is using the IEEE membership data base to automatically create links to IEEE services that reflect your geographic and technical choices.   Look for more features in future.   This personalized web page for you, makes it easy for you - in one place - to control the information IEEE has on file about you - for example; to get or update your IEEE email alias, update your mailing address, telephone or fax number, change your mailing list preferences, or your credit card information, renew your membership, learn about upgrading your membership level and applying. You can also click to view any of the home pages of the IEEE Societies that you belong to....

Membership

Future Senior Members of the IEEE Toronto Section   Have you been in professional practice for at least ten years and have shown significant performance over a period of at least five of those years?   You should be an IEEE Senior Member.   Need help in obtaining your three references?   We will help you - just contact Alex , our membership chair.   Please click this link to find out the advantages, the requirements, and an explanation of the process including key links to apply online.

Volunteers Invited

Volunteering a few hours a month is a very rewarding experience - we have a great group of about 45 volunteers who contribute to the smooth running of our Section - by distributing the workload over many Section members, the individual load is kept small - we are looking for a few additional members to help out in the following specific areas:
- Vice Chair & Secretary for our Power Engineering Chapter   If you are interested, please contact Ron
- Vice Chair & Secretary for our Women In Engineering Group
   If you are interested, please contact Visda
- Vice Chairs for our Engineering and Human Environment Chapter with specific Society responsibilities - one each for the Education Society, the Engineering Management Society, the Professional Communication Society, and the Reliability Society.   For descriptions of these positions refer to this position profile.   If you are interested in volunteering as a chapter Vice Chair please contact chapter chair Ed

NOTE - Alex Bot says "thank you" to Lena Jin who has volunteered to be the webmaster for the 2006 IEEE Intelligent Transportation System Conference which will be held in Toronto between September 5 & 8 in 2006 - IEEE Toronto will be the host Section.

Other News

Bell Canada's Anniversary   This year marks the 125th anniversary of Bell Canada, the country's largest telecommunications company.   The Bell Telephone company of Canada was incorporated on April 29, 1880.   The company originally provided the new service of voice telephony to 2100 subscribers in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Manitoba.   It has since evolved into the current Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) spanning all modern areas of telecommunications.   A chronicled history and further information can be found on BCE's website in the history section:

Advertising

The IEEE Toronto Section accepts advertising for items deemed to be of interest to our members. If you would like to advertise in our newsletter, please contact the editor.

How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Our short e-mail alert message IEEE Toronto E-News is sent monthly to all members of the IEEE Toronto Section and to a separate mailing list of non-members who have elected to subscribe (except those who have opted out) and any one else who has subscribed.   Since we are now using a new IEEE service, called e-Notice, our member mailing list is created each month using the on-line membership data base.
IEEE Toronto Section Members   If you receive two e-mail alert messages, please cancel the non-member one by using the linked web page and completing the simple web form to "Unsubscribe".   If you do not wish to receive these news letter messages, use the link on the message to cancel your subscription.
All Others (members of other sections and non-members)   If you wish to opt in or out, please use the linked web page and complete the simple web form.