IEEE-Boise Section Newsletter

April 2021

From the Chair (Randy Rannow)

Thank you for your membership in IEEE. You are receiving this newsletter because you are a member of the IEEE-Boise section. Previous newsletters are on our section web site at https://site.ieee.org/boise/archive/ .

In this issue, we have articles about upcoming events, job, networking and volunteering opportunities, and pointers to free resources available from IEEE for students and educators.

Please feel free to forward this newsletter to any of your friends and colleagues who may be interested in what IEEE has to offer. Let them know one benefit of joining IEEE is the opportunity to network with other professionals in your local area or within a specific technical interest. There’s much more information about the benefits of IEEE membership at https://ieee.org/join .

If you have any questions or feedback about the IEEE-Boise section and our activities, please feel free to contact me at pi-boson@ieee.org .

Upcoming Local Events

Find out more about these upcoming events on our section web site at https://site.ieee.org/boise . You can also follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/IEEEBoise .

  • IEEE Workshop on Microelectronics and Electron Devices (WMED-2021), April 23, http://www.ieeewmedboise.org/ . Discount for IEEE student and life members ($10 late registration)
  • Enabling Operational Resilience for the DER-Rich Active Power Distribution System, April 21, co-hosted by IEEE-Boise PES chapter, https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/266319
  • NNU and BSU Senior Design Presentations, various dates, see article below.

Other Upcoming Events

Learn more about these events by following the links provided.

Recordings of past events available

Dr. Elisa Barney’s Feb. 17th talk “An Engineer’s Exploration of Voting Technology” is available here: https://boisestate.zoom.us/rec/play/WprJXoeZIvJn-n2tXXrVyUBdIP9lodNZd23eIlIoKo5it6wgwdUZxLI15NFmJZKmirU4bxhC7TzPY48.Nw61Pjfd9AEpDkS2?continueMode=true . More information about her talk, which was organized by the IEEE-Boise Section WIE Affinity Group, is available at https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/261670 .

Dr. Barney’s talk will be available soon on IEEE.tv. IEEE.tv contains an ever-growing library of content about technology and engineering for the benefit of IEEE’s members and the general public. Tune in at https://ieeetv.ieee.org/ .

NNU and BSU Senior Design Showcases

The IEEE-Boise section, with co-sponsorship by IEEE-USA, plans to recognize the top Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science capstone projects at BSU and NNU with cash awards. Results will be announced on our section website and in next month’s newsletter.

Showcase/expo dates and times:

If you would like to help judge the BSU projects, please contact Chris Gunning at cgunning@ieee.org .

BSU ECE Job Opportunity

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boise State is seeking a Clinical Assistant Professor to manage the microprocessors course and associated labs as well as assisting with upper-division electives in computer engineering. For details see https://jobs.boisestate.edu/en-us/job/495495/clinical-assistant-professor .

Continuing Education Courses from IEEE

IEEE makes hundreds of online high-quality continuing education courses available for free to IEEE members through the IEEE Learning Network (ILN). Topics include 5G, cybersecurity, Smart Grid, Green Energy, AI, IoT, Smart Cities, and much more. Find out more at https://iln.ieee.org/ .

Free Resources for Educators and Students

In the last two newsletters we’ve spotlighted https://tryengineering.org, an IEEE website that provides free pre-university-level engineering resources for educators, parents, and students. The site offers a catalog of engineering lesson plans with hands-on design challenges, resources for teaching in a virtual environment, career profiles, games, and much more.

Another resource is IEEE REACH, “Raising Engineering Awareness through the Conduit of History”. Understanding that technology and history are not mutually exclusive subjects, IEEE REACH provides teachers with free educational resources that situate science, technology, and engineering in their social and humanistic contexts. IEEE REACH offers an opportunity to expose students to the different ways that science and technology interrelate and play out in society. Find out more at https://reach.ieee.org/.

IEEE GHTC 2021 – Call for Papers & Reviewers

The 11th IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC) will be held virtually on Oct 19-23, 2021. Details at https://ieeeghtc.org/author-central/call-for-papers/ . If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, see https://ieeeghtc.org/committee-contacts/reviewer-application/ .

Section Volunteers Needed

As an IEEE member in the Boise section, you are invited to participate in our section operations committee (OpComm). We meet virtually at noon on the third Thursday of the month. The meeting link varies, so the best way to stay informed is to subscribe to our IEEE Boise OpComm mailing list. Contact Walter Bruehl (bruehlwalter@gmail.com) to be added to the mailing list.

The Boise section is currently seeking volunteers for the following positions:

  • Education Activities Chair (Professional education and K-12 STEM outreach activities)
  • Student Activities Chair – Your principal responsibility is to promote student activities in all student branches within our section. You will be working with student officers and branch counselors as well as your Regional leadership team to ensure that our section has a strong and vital student activities program.
  • Signal Processing Society Chapter Chair
  • Membership Development (MD) Chair

If you are interested in any of these positions or volunteering for another role within the section, please contact Randy Rannow at pi-boson@ieee.org .

Our current section officers are listed on our website at https://site.ieee.org/boise/contact/ .

IEEE Swag Winner

Congratulations to Kent Venosdel, the winner of the drawing announced in our March newsletter. He won an IEEE travel mug and a set of the new IEEE printed circuit board drink coasters, similar to the one pictured below. Watch upcoming newsletters for more opportunities to win swag.

Future Newsletters

If you have a topic you’d like to suggest or an article you’d like to contribute to a future newsletter, please send it to Chris Gunning at cgunning@ieee.org . Thank you!