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The Baton Rouge section on October 24, 2013 held its first NEC code changes seminar. It was well attended and highly liked by the attendees. We appreciate the support of our local host Demco.
This workshop may be the first of many other training events to come to the Baton Rouge area. To petition topics of interest or if you would like to sponsor an event, please contact the section leadership to help you out.
Seminar Participants
Legislation has passed the U.S. Senate and is pending in the U.S. House of Representatives that would roughly double the size of the H-1B temporary visa program. If an immigration reform bill passes this year, the H-1B increase will almost certainly be part of the bill unless legislators hear from their voters soon.
The bills are part of Congress’ on-going efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform. While most media attention has focused on issues like amnesty and boarder security, the legislation would also profoundly change high-skill immigration into the United States.
At the moment, both the House and Senate are supporting legislation that will increase the H-1B visa cap from its current 65,000 visas to around 180,000 visas annually. Along with new and existing exemptions from this cap, the total number of H-1B visas available each year would likely be around 250,000, up from 130,000 now.
The Senate bill (S. 744, which is the big comprehensive immigration bill) also includes a number of useful reforms to the H-1b program. While these don’t undo the damage done by a cap increase, they will help. The reforms include:
• Improving the formula for calculating the prevailing wage, so that H-1B wages will be closer, although still less than, American wages
• Requiring most companies to hire American workers before turning to the H-1B
• A ban on most companies using the H-1b to outsource jobs
• Limiting companies to having only 50% of their total U.S. workforce on an H-1B
The House bill (H.R. 2131) includes none of these protections.
Between 2001 and 2012, the United States created, on average, 58,000 new STEM jobs each year. A recent analysis by IEEE Spectrum estimated that there are a total of 277,000 new STEM job vacancies each year, which includes retirees and individuals leaving the STEM workforce.
IEEE-USA opposes any attempt to raise the H-1B visa cap, and supports efforts to protect American and foreign workers from the unintended consequences of this visa program. At the same time, IEEE-USA recognizes that there are many highly skilled and innovative people around the world who were not born in the United States. It is in our country’s interest to let some of these people live and work here – but they must be allowed to live and work here as American citizens, not merely temporary workers.
The Senate bill includes a large expansion of the EB green card program, which IEEE-USA supports. The bill would create a new green card for every international student who earns a Masters or PhD in a STEM field in the United States. The House bill includes a more limited, but still very useful, version of this provision.
Problems with the H-1B program have been well documented. The most damming problem with the program is that more than half of the visas last year were used to replace American workers with lower-cost foreign workers. Outsourcing companies received around 55% of the visas. These companies employ tens of thousands of workers in the United States, almost none of whom are Americans.
IEEE-USA encourages everyone who is concerned about expanding the H-1B visa program to send an e-mail to their legislators as soon as possible. This can be done at IEEE-USA’s Legislative Action Center (www.ieeeusa.org/policy, look in the upper right.) or at www.house.gov and www.senate .gov.
The Baton Rouge Section is proud to have helped the Southern Students make it to the Region 5 robotics competition held in Denver, Colorado this past April. We hope to continue supporting students in their attempt to represent our section, their universities, and the pursuit of their dreams. The following students participated at the event:
Here is a pictorial account of their preparation and participation while at the event.
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Are you an engineer, scientist, educator, technical executive, or originator in an IEEE-designated field? Have you been in this field for 10 years or more? Do you want recognition from your peers and other industry professionals? If your answer is yes to all the above, you should strongly consider applying to become a Senior Member of the IEEE. Read more about the benefits and other aspects of the program here.
Grade Elevation
What To Do
Fellow Baton Rouge section members, if interested in becoming a Senior Member, begin by filling out the Senior Member application.
https://www.ieee.org/membership_services/membership/senior/application/index.html
In the application process, you will need referrals from fellow IEEE Senior Members. Use the Contact Form to reach section officers to help you find Senior Members willing to help you out. Make sure to have a resume and accurate contact information handy so the proper referral can be made.
Two LSU students took the brave task to compete against 1500 more teams around the world in a 24-hour programming content. After 15 hours of programming, here is what they looked like:
Michael (left) and Anthony (right) after 15 hours of competing.
Congratulations on these students for surviving. Now, they are awaiting the results of their efforts. Best of luck!
More on the IEEEXtreme competition here.
Back in April 2011, the Baton Rouge Section was the host of the Green Technologies Conference and Region 5 Conference and Student Competitions. Staff and Faculty of the Electrical Engineering Department of LSU played a big role in the success of these activities. These activities included but were not limited to:
As a sign of appreciation, the Section Leadership, along with the unanimous support of section member at the February 2012 Monthly Meeting, agreed to give the Electrical Engineering Department at LSU a donation $750. These funds will be used to continue the support IEEE activities for students. They are the future of IEEE!
