January Newsletter
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Madison Section
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Vol. 21, No. 1 | Serving IEEE Members of South Central Wisconsin |
January 2018 |
- Topic: Challenges & Solutions in IoT End-Point Security:
A Case for Implantable Medical IoT - Joint IEEE-Student Branch/EMB18 Chapter Professional Meeting
- Date: Thursday, January 25th at 4:45 PM
- Dinner: Pizza and a Drink
- Fee:
Members: $5, Guests: $5, Students Free
- Location:
Engineering Hall, Room: EH2535
1415 Engineering Drive
Madison, WI - Please Register at the IEEE-Madison
event page. - Non-member guests are always welcome.
Talk:
Implantable medical IoT devices are used for
monitoring, diagnosis, and therapy of an ever-increasing range
of medical conditions, leading to improved quality of life and
outcomes for patients. Advances in the use of implantable
medical IoT devices have been accompanied, and in great part
enabled, by increases in their functional complexity, wireless
connectivity to allow for post-deployment monitoring, and
programmability to allow therapy to be tuned to the evolving
needs of each patient. These factors have also led to a rapid
growth in concerns about security and reliability of
implantable medical IoT devices, as underscored by recent
trends in warnings and recalls of these devices due to
failures, and a series of successful attacks on them
demonstrated by academic researchers and the hacker community.
The unique usage models of implantable medical IoT devices,
and the need to provide very high levels of security and
reliability under very stringent resource constraints, set
them apart from other classes of computing platforms.In this presentation,Dr. Kim will present the security and
reliability challenges faced by designers of implantable
medical IoT devices, and two techniques for improving the
security and reliability are introduced. First, a zero-power
contactless signal probing technique is introduced. Long-term
signal monitoring for continuous physiological data collection
and device status monitoring for improved reliability is
enabled by inductively coupled circuits with no active power
consumption. Second, a vibration-based physically secure
communication technique is presented. Mechanical vibration has
a short transmission range and is highly perceptible, and thus
it is suitable as an auxiliary channel for exchanging a
cryptographic key to establish a secure wireless channel.

- Entrepreneurs and Consultants Network Meeting
- Professional Meeting
- Date: Thursday, February 8th 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.
Event: 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.
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Section News
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Section
Elections
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Meeting
Reviews
December ECN Meeting:
Several people presented their interests and “tech toys” for
the meeting. Jack Kissingler, a new member of IEEE
(welcome, Jack!) showed a PIC-microcomputer based device
that mimicked a cat’s ability to follow a sound. The
device used a pair of microphones and a fast ADC to
correlate the direction of sound arrival and drive a servo
to move the cat’s head. Scott Olsen brought in an
InfraRed camera and explained how he uses it to find wasted
energy in facilities. He mentioned that the cameras
used to cost many tens of thousands of dollars, but are now
in the range of a consumer pocketbook as attachments to cell
phones. Also shown was a weather sensor network
complete with a 3D printed sensor housing that looked like a
bird house, a Turtlebot 3 robot, and an add-on Matrix
Creator Raspberry Pi hat.December Social Event: Twenty-five people attended an
evening meeting/election event at Brasserie V on Monroe
Street. After a brief election, the evening turned to
a social event, honoring the IEEE-Madison Volunteers.
Many thanks to our volunteers. For 2017, they were Tom
Kaminski – Chair,/ECN Chair/Newsletter Editor, Scott Olsen –
Vice Chair, Charles Gervasi – Treasurer, Steve Schultheis –
Secretary, Nate Toth – Webmaster, 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.
January, 2018 Life Member Affiliate Group Meeting:
Professor Barmish gave an excellent presentation on his
research into algorithmic stock trading and showed some of
the results that he and his graduate students have attained.
His primary interest is in applying control theory to stock
trading using simple techniques
based on the current value and past history of the stocks to
be traded. First, he motivated his interest in not using
predictive models, because models do not do well under
extreme changes. Second, he used illustrative examples
of historic stock data to see how different algorithms
behaved. Using Apple, Inc. stock, he showed how day
traders would have performed poorly using daily trades and
not holding the stocks. The best strategy would have
been to buy-and-hold the stocks for the period discussed. A
simple control algorithm would have fared better, but not as
well as the buy-and-hold for the period. Dr. Barmish also
discussed some of the practical issues, such as where you
get historic data and how you can manage to defer trading
fees with a big enough investment. He encouraged everyone to
try it and join in with his research group if you are
interested.

2018 Officer Election Results:
Chair: Tom Kaminski, Vice Chair: Nate Toth, Treasurer: Charles
Gervasi, Secretary: Steve Schultheis, with Clark Johnson, Dennis
Bahr, San Rotter, and Craig Heilman as Member at Large.
Congratulations to the elected officers.
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Upcoming Meetings
January Joint Meeting:
Sorry about the short notice. The “Internet of Things (IoT)”
presents a new opportunity for low-cost, flexible device
connection. Please join us at UW-Madisno Thursday, January 25th to
hear about some of the security issues as Professor Kim from the
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison,tells us about the research at the
Wisconsin Embedded Systems and Computing (WISEST) Lab.Future Meetings: A February 22nd section meeting at
MG&E at 5:00 PM on Power quality is planned. In late
February or Early March, a talk on UAVs from the regulatory and
perspective will be given by Chris Johnson. Chris is
teaching a new course at the College of Engineering “Introduction
to UAVs”. A March 15th meeting at ETC on Lighting is in the works
as well. The LMAG group is planning a talk by Andrea Hicks
of the UW Energy Group on energy life cycle awareness and rebound
effect. Sometime in May, a 2-hour seminar on Ethics (suitable for
your Wisconsin PE License Renewal) will be held.
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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, Nate Toth – 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 Cowie – Life Member Affinity
Group Chair, San Rotter – Life Member Affinity Group Vice Chair,
Scott Olsen – Membership Development Chair,
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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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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