In this Issue:
- South Dakota Student Branch visits the U of M
- Waves Chapter Hosts Multiple Events
- Distinguished Visitor Welcomed by the Computer and Computational Intelligence Chapter
- Marathon Programming Competition at Lakehead and the U of M
South Dakota Student Branch visits the U of M
On Sunday September 11th, the University of Manitoba IEEE Student Branch (UMIEEE) received a delegation of students from the South Dakota State University (SDSU) IEEE Student Branch, who were visiting Winnipeg for a tour of local power systems engineering companies. The group of thirteen students were joined by Dr. Reinaldo Tonkoski, a Power Systems professor at SDSU.
UMIEEE Officers Chelsea Taylor, Matthew Kehler, Mark Rabena, and Erik Johnson met the SDSU delegation in the EITC at the U of M. The tour was kicked off with a greeting and speech by IEEE Canada Chair Dr. Kinsner, followed by a tour of the UMIEEE McNaughton Centre laboratory space as well as the UMIEEE lounge. The group then visited the UMSATS design room and listened to a presentation about the most recent UMSATS nano-satellite, and then moved on to a quick presentation about the UMSAE student design teams, with a focus on the Formula Electric team. Following the tour, the group dined at Barley Brothers.
The next day, the SDSU group proceeded to visit RTDS Technologies, ERL Phase Power Technologies, and PTI Transformers before returning to the United States.
Submitted by
Chelsea Taylor
Vice Chair – IEEE University of Manitoba Student Branch
Waves Chapter Hosts Multiple Events
On May 10, 2016 the Waves Chapter hosted Dr. Edmund Miller, an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer for the Antennas and Propagation Society and IEEE Life Fellow. The talk was held at the Engineering & Information Technology Complex at the University of Manitoba. Dr. Miller’s talk was entitled “An Exploration of Radiation Physics”, in which he summarized some of the main observations regarding radiation physics in both the time and frequency domain.
The technical session was well attended with 22 IEEE members and 7 guests.
On September 22, 2016, the Waves Chapter co-sponsored a talk entitled “Neuroimaging of Brain and Spinal Cord at Ultra-High Magnetic Fields” along with the IEEE Computer & Computational Intelligence Chapter, IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Chapter, and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Manitoba. Details for this session are listed in the article here.
Submitted by
Chaitanya Narendra
Vice Chair – IEEE Winnipeg Waves Chapter
Distinguished Visitor Welcomed by the Computer and Computational Intelligence Chapter
Thanks to the IEEE Distinguished Visitors Program (DVP) and the IEEE Winnipeg Section, the Winnipeg Computer and Computational Intelligence Chapter (CIC) welcomed Dr. Andre Oboler to give two seminars this past August. The talks Computational Intelligence and the Challenge of Hate Speech, Incitement and Extremism in Social Media and Software Engineering for the Research Environment were given on August 24th at the University of Winnipeg and August 25th at the University of Manitoba, respectively, and were well received and well attended. Lakehead University participated in both talks remotely. Moreover, these events marked the first collaboration between the University of Manitoba (Dr. Ian Jeffrey), University of Winnipeg (Dr. Christopher Henry) and Lakehead University (Dr. Laura Curiel) for the Winnipeg CIC Chapter.
The DVP provides funding and support to encourage local chapters to offer high-calibre seminars by prominent IEEE members. In particular, the DVP covers the cost of airfare for DVP speakers within IEEE regions. In this case, Dr. Oboler resides in Region 10 (Asia and Pacific), but was planning on visiting North America during August. The result was that Dr. Oboler reached out to contacts across the continent to share his expertise on the online hate challenge to social media, controlling Wikipedia, and improving the research process. With respect to Winnipeg, the CIC Chapter acted swiftly to provide Dr. Oboler forums to disseminate his important message on the dangers of social media in regards to hate speech, incitement and extremism.
The positive outcomes of Dr. Oboler’s visit was exposure for Winnipeg Section members to a preeminent researcher in the field of online hate and social media, and increased membership awareness on these important issues. Additionally, Dr. Oboler was able to work with the Canadian Museum for Human Rights during his visit to Winnipeg and hopes to strengthen this relationship through further collaborations and funding opportunities in the upcoming year. As evidenced by this experience, the DVP is an important resource available to section chapters, with many benefits to our members and the local community.
More information regarding Dr. Oboler’s work can be found at the following links.
Online Hate Prevention Institute: www.ohpi.org.au
Dr. Andre Oboler’s personal website: www.oboler.com
Submitted by
Dr. Christopher Henry
Vice Chair – IEEE Winnipeg Computers and Computational Intelligence Chapter
Marathon Programming Competition at Lakehead and the U of M
The IEEE Xtreme 10.0 was held on Friday, October 21, 2016. In this annual worldwide competition, teams of 2 or 3 of student or graduate student members attempt to solve a series of programming problems over the course of 24 hrs. Each team is supported by a proctor within their student branch. This year, there were over 2600 teams from across the world adding up to more than 6700 participants. The Winnipeg Section was well represented with 25 students and many proctors from the University of Manitoba coordinated by Dr. Ian Jeffrey and Lakehead University coordinated by Dr. Laura Curiel.
Lakehead University:
Team:
Megan Eyben, John Simko, and Tomas Rakusan
Proctors/Supervisors:
Dr. Zhou, Dr Christoffersen, Dr Ahmed, Dr Ikki, Mr Servais, Dr Natarajan, Dr El-Ocla and Mr Toombs.
Financial Support:
Faculty of Engineering in Lakehead University
University of Manitoba:
Teams:
- Team TuringCompete: Jordan Engel, Max Hughson, and Isaac Weibe
- Team SlashDevSlashNull: Erik Johnson, Dan Milanese, and Huy Hoang Bui
- Team TheNullTerminators: Lucas Wiebe-Dembowski and Amanjyot Singh Sainbhi
- Team houseOfCodes: Chen Niu and Tom Neusitzer
- Team BananaBrosPlusBen: Kevin Brown, Nicholas Geddert, and Benjamin White
- Team AndYetItCompiles: Chai Narendra, Trevor Brown, and Keeley Edwards
- Team BalmerPeak: Becca Moffat, Rachel Peters, and Paul Schellenberg
- Team EARSSupreme: Maxine Fehr, Tim Tebinka, and Harman Brar
Proctors/Supervisors:
Vladimir Okhmatovski, Mike Domaratzki, Ahmad Byagowi, Ken Ferens, Sherif Sherif, Bob McLeod, Dustin Isleifson, Puyan Mojabi, Carl Ho, Witold Kinsner, Dario Schor, and Joe LoVetri
Organizational Support:
Mount-first Ng, Glen Kolansky, Guy Jonatschick, Chai Narendra, Trevor Brown, Janice Tilly, Keverley Malawski, Kirk Dyson, Amy Dario, Christopher Henry, Kevin Lamothe / IEEE UofM Student Branch, The Faculty of Engineering, and The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Financial Support:
The Faculty of Engineering, The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, IEEE Winnipeg Section
For more information on the IEEE Xtreme Programming Challenge, please visit ieee.org/xtreme.
Congratulations to all the students participating and a special thank you to all proctors, organizers, sponsors for making this possible.
Submitted by
Dario Schor
IEEE Winnipeg Section Chair
Special thanks to all those who contributed to this edition of the IEEE Winnipeg Section Newsletter.
Contributions for future issues, along with feedback and suggestions can be sent to:
Brent Schellenberg
IEEE Winnipeg Section Newsletter Editor
schellenberg.brent@gmail.com
