• 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.
  

• Section
  Elections
  

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.

• 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.
  
  

• 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 Group

  The 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.

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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