December Newsletter
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Madison Section
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Vol. 20, No. 11 | Serving IEEE Members of South Central Wisconsin |
December 2017 |
- Entrepreneurs and Consultants Network Meeting
- Professional Meeting
- Date: Thursday, December 7th at 11:30 AM
- Fee:
Free
- Location:
Sector67
2100 Winnebago Street
Madison, WI - Snacks and Drinks are available at Sector67
- Please Register at the IEEE-Madison
event page. - Non-member guests are always welcome.
Talk:
The Holiday Season is just around the corner.
What Hi-Tech consumer items have impressed you? Bring your
favorite one and be prepared to discuss it’s technical merits.
Also, be prepared to give give a brief introduction to what
you do (“Elevator Speech”). This is your opportunity to
discuss your company, or your consulting expertise while
having fun. Note: Tom Kaminski will bring the latest
Turtlebot 3 robot and his Daydream VR goggles.

- Social/Election Meeting
- Date: Tuesday, December 19th at 6:00 PM until 8:00 PM
- Note: Evening Meeting on Tuesday
- Fee:
Free Appetizers, Cash Bar
- Location:
Brasserie V
1925 Monroe Street
Madison, WI53711 - Election of 2018 Officers (See Newsletter Below)
- Please Register at the IEEE-Madison
event page. - Non-member guests are always welcome.
Event:
The meting will be a social event to honor the
IEEE-Madison Volunteers who have helped make this past year
for all IEEE Section members. It will be preceded by a
short election for the officers for 2018. The event will
feature free appetizers with a cash bar available for all.
Volunteers will also get free drinks. Plan to attend for a bit
of fun and camaraderie and to thank the volunteers who help to
make the section work for you. Bring a guest and have fun!
- Talk: On Stock Trading Algorithm Research
Based on Adaptive
Feedback Control Loops - Speaker: Professor B. Ross Barmish, UW-Madison ECE
- Date: Wednesday, January 3rd at 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM
- Fee:
Meal Donation (Suggested): Members: $5, Guests:
$10, Students: Free - Location:
Sequoya Library
4340 Tokay Blvd.
Madison, WI53711 - Please Register at the IEEE-Madison
event page. - Non-member guests are always welcome.
Talk:
This talk will provide an overview of my
research on the development of new stock-trading algorithms.
The most salient feature of the work is that no model of any
sort is used for the underlying stock-price dynamics. Instead,
the size of the time-varying stock position is determined
using some simple ideas involving the adaptive power of
feedback control loops. This approach is said to be “reactive”
rather than predictive and amounts to assigning high priority
to sound money management. Our emphasis in this talk will be
more on the application than the theory. To this end, after
explaining the key ideas driving this work, I will describe a
number of software implementations which are used for
back-testing simulations using historical data with attention
paid to practical considerations such as transaction costs,
leverage and margin.Speaker: B. Ross Barmish is Professor of Electrical and
Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Prior to joining UW in 1984, he held faculty positions at Yale
University and the University of Rochester. From 2001-2003, he
served as Chair of the EECS Department at Case Western Reserve
while holding the Nord endowed professorship. He received his
Bachelor’s degree in EE from McGill University and the M.S.
and Ph.D. degrees, also in EE, from Cornell University.
Throughout his career, he has served the IEEE Control Systems
Society in many capacities and has been a consultant for a
number of companies. Professor Barmish is the author of the
textbook “New Tools for Robustness of Linear Systems” and is a
Fellow of both the IEEE and IFAC for his contributions to
robust control. He received two Best Journal Publication
awards, each covering a three-year period, from the
International Federation of Automatic Control and has given a
number of keynotes and plenary lectures at major conferences.
In 2013, he received the IEEE Control Systems Society Bode
Prize. While his earlier work concentrated on robustness of
dynamical systems, his current university research involves
building a bridge between feedback control theory and trading
in complex nancial markets. In addition to this academic
pursuit, in his capacity as CEO of Robust Trading Solutions,
his work involves transition of stock-trading algorithms from
theory to practice and government sponsored research on the
NASDAQ Limit Order Book.
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Section News
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Section
Elections
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Meeting
Reviews
November Life Member
Affiliate Group Meeting: (Review by Charles
Kime) The November LMAG Meeting featured a presentation,
Back to the Future: Emulating Classic Audio with 21st
Century Technology, by Steve Schultheis, the Secretary of
the IEEE Madison Section, a musician, producer and audio
engineer. A brief history of instruments including the,
piano, Hammond Organ and Moog synthesizer, served as an
introduction illustrating mechanical, electromechanical, and
electronic instruments. Today these instruments from the
20th Century have significant disadvantages for the
purchaser compared to virtual music alternatives and in many
cases are no longer manufactured as new products. Although
audible perception of music by the listener is highly
subjective, simply distinguishing between recordings of
physical instruments compared to software emulations is
impossible, even for many musicians. With this background,
the remainder of the presentation covered the many steps of
musical production from composition to distribution dealing
with both 20th century traditional instruments and 21st
century virtual instruments that use only hardware and
software. Examples included a review of microphone
technology and software emulations for different microphone
types. Similarly, emulations provide the capability for
virtual instruments such as the grand piano and the Hammond
Organ. A major challenge for these latter virtual
instruments is the potential for significant time delay,
i.e. latency, arising from both hardware and software. Total
delays can easily exceed 20ms, whereby it becomes impossible
for humans to maintain synchronization with recordings and
each other. One approach to dealing with latency is the use
of two computers with a synchronizing clock sent from the
first to the second computer. The mastering step for CDs is
especially complicated because 24-bit master recordings must
often be dithered and resampled, reducing audio quality. In
contrast, streaming audio is not subject to these
limitations, and offers the potential for increased audio
quality over CDs as emerging standards are implemented. As a
final highlight, Steve offered a brief piano performance to
an enthusiastic audience using a very inexpensive virtual
music technology to demonstrate high quality sound
achievable at low cost. A printed copy of Steve’s
Presentation is available here
and a short take of Steve playing is available at
Google Docs here.
November Joint EMB/UW-Madison Student Chapter:
This was a joint UW-Madison IEEE Student Branch and
IEEE-Madison Engineers in Medicine and Biology Chapter
meeting. Dennis Bahr presented his up-to-date research on
how to utilize the Raspberry Pi Zero, a “System on a Chip”
selling for $10 in single quantities as a “bare metal”
system. Dennis explained a bit about the architecture of the
system and how to utilize the Graphics and Floating Point
processors without the benefit of an operating system.
He then explained how to use the GNU cross-development tools
to build an application in “C” and generate a downloadable
image in “bin-hex” format. His goal is to use this
powerful processor in a low-power, battery-operated blood
pressure system with a useful time of about 10 hours between
charges. He
was able to give the audience good tips on building
digital filters for real-time signal processing by
using Matlab to design the filters. Dennis
also explained how to build a simple real-time operating
system to support the digital signal processing applications
required for the product. Dennis is willing to share the
code he has developed with the students.


Vote in Person: IEEE
Madison officers are up for re-election and because of problems
with the email voting process, we are forced to have a vote at the
last Section meeting of the year on Tuesday, December 19th.
After the vote, the meeting will be open as a social event,
honoring the volunteers who have worked for the semester. Please
show up for the meeting and vote! Current slate of officers
on the ballot (this will be opened for additional nominations
prior to the vote) is: Chair: Tom Kaminski, Vice Chair: Nate Toth,
Treasurer: Charles Gervasi, Secretary: Steve Schultheis, with
Clark Johnson, Dennis Bahr, San Rotter, and Craig Heilman running
for Member at Large.
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Upcoming Meetings
December ECN Meeting:
This is an opportunity to pitch your consulting/entrepreneur
skills while having fun discussing your favorite current
technology. You might just get a few ideas for the upcoming
“giving” season. Bring your own Brown Bag lunch and your
elevator pitch.December Section Meeting/Social Event: Please attend this
event and vote for the officers that will represent the Madison
Section for the next year. Vote first then socialize and
enjoy appetizers on the Madison Section. Cash bar for
general membership and guests. Note: Tuesday
Evening time. Please do register so we can order the proper
amount of food.January Life Member Affiliate Group: Professor Barmish will
be discussing how control theory can be used to manage stock
portfolios. Kick off the new year with a bang and hopefully
some insight on how to manage your investments.
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Regular Meetings
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Section Meetings
The third Thursday of January through May, and September through
December is reserved for a meeting to provide recent research,
developments, trends and/or innovations in one of our membership’s
technical areas. -
Life Member
Affinity GroupThe first Thursday of January, March, May, September and November
is reserved for a meeting on a topic selected from a broad range
including such areas as technology, science, history, culture and
leisure. -
IEEE-MSN-ECN
Networking Meetings- Purpose: Presentations, Discussions, networking
- Date: First Thursday of even-numbered months
- Time: 11:45 AM to 1:00 PM
- Location: Sector67, 2100 Winnebago Street (East Side of
Madison) - Parking: Park in lot or on Winnebago Street.
- Process: Members are encouraged to make introductions,
describe endeavors, and make request for: contacts in target
companies, needs, resources.
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Membership Upgrades
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About IEEE
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Madison IEEE Section
The IEEE-Madison Section of the IEEE is a section in Region 4 of the
IEEE-USA organized to serve IEEE members in the Madison, WI area
with over 600 members. The 2017 Officers and Board Members are Tom
Kaminski – Chair, Scott Olsen – Vice Chair, Charles Gervasi –
Treasurer, Steve Schultheis – Secretary, Nate Toth – Webmaster, Tom
Kaminski – ECN Chair, Dennis Bahr – Engineering in Medicine and
Biology Chapter Chair, Chuck Kime – Life Member Affinity Group
Chair, Charles Cowie – Life Member Affinity Group Vice Chair, David
Jensen – Life Member Affinity Group Secretary,
Members at Large: Clark Johnson, Craig Heilman, Dennis Bahr,
Sandy Rotter. -
Job Openings
Check out WIEES.com
for electrical engineering jobs in Madison and the surrounding
region. This site is maintained as a service for electrical
engineers. Jobs are displayed starting with the most recent postings
first. You can filter results by location and job type. If you are
hiring an electrical engineer in our area, for full-time or contract
work, you can post the job in the Contact
Us section
on the WIEES.com site.
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Sponsored Content
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Those interested in upgrading their IEEE membership level should send
their resumes or other information showing five years of significant
performance in an IEEE-designated field to Charles J Gervasi via email
at cj(at)cgervasi.com. Madison Section Board will attempt to find
Senior IEEE members knowledgeable in the applicant’s area of practice
who may be able to provide references. You are invited to attend the
informal networking portion of the monthly Section meetings (starting
at 11:30am) to meet the Section Board members and discuss intentions.

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