CBU S-PAC Held
The twelfth Student-Professional Awareness Conference (S-PAC) 2019 was held on Friday, November 15, 2019, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception’s Marian Hall. Christine Fahey, Executive Director of Blockchain 901, gave a presentation on the “Blockchain901” and Rich Thompson, President of Memphis Makers, gave a presentation on “Memphis Makers.” IEEE Memphis Section and the CBU IEEE Student Branch hosted S-PAC 2019, and over 60 students and professionals attended S-PAC 2019. The program was organized by Conference Chairs, Jill Johnson (Interdisciplinary Studies ‘20), and Ian Dover (ECE ‘20), Website Chair, Sylvester Dzimiri (’21), and CBU IEEE Coordinator, Dr. John Ventura, PE, PS (‘65). Elizabeth Hays of Fisher Arnold and Chair of the Young Engineers of the Memphis Section of IEEE, Chair of the Memphis Section of IEEE, presented Jill Johnson, Ian Dover, and Sylvester Dzimiri the Award of Service from the Memphis Section of IEEE for their efforts in making the S-PAC a success. Steve Whatley (ECE ’20) was recognized for his award of $2,000 IEEE PES Scholarship. The S-PAC is a structured event where students interact with experienced engineers from diverse backgrounds. Hosted annually, the S-PAC (http://spac.ieeecbu.org/) brings together students and professionals from the Memphis Community where they have a chance to interact with professionals, through round table discussions. This year the round table discussions were on “Global Technology” and the “Memphis Community” ¬– Global Technology panelists: Ken Gendrich of Blockchain 901 and Methodist, Claudio Donndelinger of Aleph Objects, Ben Hoyt of FedEx Services, and Danny Thompson of Code Crew and The Google Community and Memphis Community panelists: David Hiltenbrand of SQLSaturday, Ibrahim Chum of The City of Memphis, Noah Vongphit of Wright Medical, and Joseph Johnson of Fisher Arnold. The sponsors of S-PAC 2019 were A2H, Blockchain 901, Fisher Arnold, Gadomski School of Engineering, Memphis Section of IEEE, Memphis Light, Gas and Water, Midsouth Makers, R&N Systems Design, Memphis Chapter of Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers.