saving lives, one land mine at atime - the...

The

IEEE MEMBER HELPS ROVERS EXPLORE THE RED PLANET P. 6

http ://www. ieee.org/the inst i tute MARCH 2004 VOL. 28, N0. 1

BY KATHY KOWALENKO

IEEE MEMBERS ARE answering the callto rid the world of land mines. They areworking to develop sensors that will detectthe mines quickly, accurately, and safely.

Some might consider it an impossibletask. More than 100 million land minesare buried in over 80 countries aroundthe world, according to the InternationalCampaign to Ban Land Mines, headquar-tered in Washington, D.C. It estimatesthat removing them at the present ratewill take more than 500 years and US$33 billion. Mines kill or injure anaverage of 70 people every day.

“I get a good feeling knowing that Iam helping to foster technology that willclear an area of these destructive devices,”says IEEE Fellow James Keller, a professorof electrical and computer engineering atthe University of Missouri-Columbia,USA. In addition to developing sensingsystems, Keller and others are workingon the data processing systems that arealso needed for detecting mines.

Considering the amount of researchcarried out on detection systems, findingburied land mines is still incredibly diffi-cult. Most are encased in plastic, not metal,and there is no such thing as a reliableplastics detector—yet.

LAND MINE BASICS Mines can be square,round, cylindrical, or bar-shaped. Most areantipersonnel mines, while some are anti-tank mines, meant

IEEE members work to develop new sensors that detect metal and plastic mines

IEEE Fellow Larry Carin [right] holds aprototype of a hand-held land-mine detectoroutfitted with ground penetrating radar.Another researcher views signals on a laptop,returned from a metal mine [foreground].

Saving Lives, OneLand Mine at a Time

Business 101For EngineeringEntrepreneursBY ERICA VONDERHEID

DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE what ittakes to run your own engineering busi-ness? Some IEEE members took timefrom their busy schedules to tell us theirreasons for going out on their own andof their adventures in entrepreneurship.

“I got tired of living by other peo-ple’s rules,” says Dan Berube, a mem-ber who runs BeruGold ResearchCorp., an engineering contractingbusiness, specializing in electronicwarfare and intelligence applications,from Manasquan, N.J., USA. “Therewas no opportunity for any creativityby working for a big corporation.”

To keep overhead low, many engi-neering entrepre- [Continued on page 12]

[Continued on page 10]

Dan Berube

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .IEEE INFORMATION DRIVING INNOVATION

Go here.

www.ieee.org/discover

The most valuable assets in Lee’s company are patents based on

IEEE-published research.

IEEE science is the foundation for today’s inventions and tomorrow’s

technology innovations. Patents cite IEEE research three times

more than any other publisher — and referencing to IEEE papers

has increased 267% in the last decade.

Patents mean more successful products and higher sales. Studies

show that patents and investment in R&D are key factors in a

company’s profitability. Access to IEEE publications can help your

company develop new patents, compete in the global marketplace

and become a leader in your field.

To Lee, IEEE is patents. Discover what IEEE can be for you.

Source: CHI Research, Inc.

IEEE is

THE INSTITUTE | MARCH 2004 3

1 Saving Lives, One Land Mine at a TimeBY KATHY KOWALENKOIEEE members are answering the call to rid the world of landmines. They are working to develop sensors that will detectthe mines quickly, accurately, and safely.

1 Business 101 forEngineering EntrepreneursBY ERICA VONDERHEIDEngineers have a long history of entrepreneurship and IEEEmembers are, of course, still keeping the spirit of enterprisealive by starting their own businesses. Here are some do’s anddon’ts for becoming your own boss.

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

5 Technology ReachesBeyond Borders—So Do WeBY ARTHUR WINSTONOne of the toughest issues the IEEE is confronting—how toserve members in countries embargoed by the U.S. TreasuryDepartment’s Office of Foreign Assets Control—has reviveda long running debate among many members. Is the IEEE a global organization or a U.S. organization with membersaround the world?

6 Living On Martian TimeBY ERICA VONDERHEIDMember Albert Haldemann, deputy project scientist forNASA’s rover vehicles on Mars, lives like a Martian. He works on Mars every day, lives by Mars time, and the license plate on his car reads “MARS ROX.”

8 Standards Hidden In Plain SightBY ERICA VONDERHEIDStandards set guidelines and specifications for dozens oftechnologies we use every day, but most people don’t evenknow the standards exist.

THE INSTITUTEONLINEFind information on these topics and more atwww.ieee.org/theinstitute on 5 March.

Newsletters MonitorStandards Activities Three free e-newsletters have been introduced to cover technicalstandards developments in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

New Award for CircuitsMembers who have made exceptional contributions with long-term significance to electronic circuits and systems have a newaward: the IEEE Gustav Robert Kirchhoff Award.

Art & photo credits: Page 1: NASA (top right);Chris Hildreth/Duke University(center); John Ritter(bottom); : Jayanta Shaw/Reuters; Page 4:Michael Pilla/Corbis (Lightner); Levent Onural;James Tien; NEC (bottom); Page 5: JordanHollender; Page 6: Mark Abraham/EPA (left); NASA(right); Page 7: FSI; Page 8&9: Phil Marden; Page 10:Corbis Sygma (left); Arko Datta/Reuters (right); Page 11: Geo-Centers Inc.; Page 12&13: John Ritter;Page 14: General Electric Co. (right); Page 17:National Science Foundation

SERVICES IEEE Travel Services takes on a new partner.

NEWS IEEE Standard 802.11g named Top InnovativeTechnology by Popular Mechanics.

FEATURED CONFERENCE International Conference on Acoustics Speech and Signal Processing, 17-21 May, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

NEWS4 AMENDING THE IEEE’S

CONSTITUTION

CANDIDATES RUNNING FOR 2005 PRESIDENT-ELECT

MILLIONTH IEEE DOCUMENT GOES ONLINE

FORMER NEC CHAIR RECEIVES IEEE MEDAL OF HONOR

DEPARTMENTS7 PRODUCTS & SERVICES

14 LETTERS

15 MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS

16 ELECTION DEADLINES

17 MEMBER RECOGNITION

17 IN MEMORIAM

18 AWARDS

19 BEST PRACTICES

1

CONTENTS

PLUS

THE INSTITUTE (ISSN 1050-1797) is published quarterly by The Institute of

Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., 3 Park Ave., 17th Floor, New York, N.Y.,

10016-5997; tel. +1 212 419 7900. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at

additional mailing offices. Canadian GST#125634188. Annual subscription rate:

US$26.00. The editorial policies for IEEE’s major publications are determined by the

IEEE Board of Directors. Unless otherwise specified, the IEEE neither endorses nor

sanctions any positions or actions espoused in THE INSTITUTE. Major IEEE boards

review items within their purview prior to publication. When published in THE INSTI-

TUTE, individual viewpoints of elected IEEE officers are labeled as such. They are

reviewed by the individuals to whom they are attributed, unless they are a matter of

record. The editorial staff is responsible for selection of subject matter and its

placement within the issue. Copyright © 2004 by The Institute of Electrical and

Electronics Engineers, Inc. THE INSTITUTE is a registered trademark owned by The

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. POSTMASTER: Send address

changes to THE INSTITUTE, IEEE Operations Center, Coding Department, Box 1331,

Piscataway, N.J. 08855-1331.

Former NEC Chair ReceivesIEEE Medal of Honor

TADAHIRO SEKIMOTO, former chair ofNEC Corp., Tokyo, is the recipient of the2004 IEEE Medal of Honor. An IEEE LifeFellow, Sekimoto is being recognized forhis remarkable career of contributions tothe field of digital satellite communica-tions, his promotion of information tech-nology research and development, andtechnical and corporate leadership incomputers and communications. He isalso credited with turning NEC into aglobal giant that excels in a wide spec-trum of technology.

The Medal of Honor, sponsored by theIEEE Foundation, is the IEEE’s highestaward. It will be presented to Sekimoto atthe annual IEEE Honors Ceremony inJune in Kansas City, Mo., USA.

Millionth IEEE Document Goes OnlineIEEE XPLORE, the document delivery system for all IEEE technical papers, articles,

and standards, placed its one-millionth document online in January. The article,

“Novel Frame Buffer Pixel Circuits for Liquid-Crystal-on-Silicon Microdisplays,” was

originally published in the January 2004 issue of IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

“This milestone illustrates the IEEE’s importance as the primary source for current

technical literature,” says Anthony Durniak, IEEE Publications Staff Executive.

The IEEE online collection of technology articles and papers has grown by more

than 25 percent over the last 18 months, and now includes more than 80 000 docu-

ments originally published between 1950 and 1987.

MICHAEL LIGHTNER, Fellow Lightner is a professor ofelectrical and computer engineering and computer scienceat the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA. He is theIEEE Vice President of Publication Services & Productsand serves on the IEEE Board of Directors. He became anIEEE Fellow for contributions to the computer-aideddesign of integrated circuits.

LEVENT ONURAL, Senior Member Onural is a professor inthe electrical and electronics engineering department at BilkentUniversity, Ankara, Turkey, where he is involved in all aspectsof the department, including curriculum development, stu-dent affairs, and rules and regulations. He is associate editor ofIEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology.He also has held several positions with the IEEE, includingRegion 8 Director and member of the IEEE Assembly.

JAMES M. TIEN, Fellow Tien is Vice President of Edu-cational Activities at the IEEE and a member of the IEEEBoard of Directors. He is professor and chairman of thedepartment of decision sciences and engineering systemsat Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y., USA. Tienis a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineer-ing and was made an IEEE Fellow for contributions to sys-tems engineering as applied to public systems.

4 THE INSTITUTE | MARCH 2004

IEEE Members Save on Business Services

Office Supplies from PennywiseLowest-price guarantee on more than 25,000 name-brand items.

Express Delivery Servicewith Airborne ExpressSave up to 25% on express shipping costs.Identify yourself as an IEEE member for a FREE Airborne Express Starter Kit.

Computer Hardware &Software Purchasing Programwith INSIGHT, Inc.Special discounts on more than 200,000hardware and software products.

Visit www.ieee.org/fapor Call +1 800 GET IEEE, the onlytelephone number to remember

The IEEE Financial Advantage Program®

Tools to Secure Your Tomorrow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Amending the IEEE’s ConstitutionTHE BOARD OF DIRECTORS has initiatedseveral revisions to the IEEE Constitutionbased on requests from the IEEE leader-ship and several major boards. One revi-sion will clarify the constitution’s languageregarding the organization’s procedure forelecting corporate officers, such as the Pres-ident of IEEE–USA and the Vice Presidentof Technical Activities.

For example, because the TechnicalActivities Board oversees the IEEE soci-eties, only the members of societies—instead of the entire voting member-ship—vote for the Technical ActivitiesVice President.

In addition, the Board proposes to mod-ernize the constitution’s language and todelete requirements that no longer makesense in a global organization or are no

longer required by law. It also proposes toremove a conflict between Robert’s Rules ofOrder and the IEEE process governing theIEEE President’s voting rights when chair-ing a meeting.

The Board asks members to vote yes ona proposed amendment containing the con-stitutional revisions, which will be on theannual election ballot arriving in September.

To adopt an amendment requires anaffirmative vote of at least two-thirds of allballots cast, provided the total number ofthose voting is not less than 10 percent ofall the IEEE’s voting members.

More details on the revisions will be onthe IEEE Web site by 15 March.

IEEE Policy 13.8 outlines the procedureon how to oppose proposed revisions: visithttp://www.ieee.org/about/whatis/policies.

NEWSFROM AROUND THE IEEE & THE WORLD

Candidates for 2005 President-ElectThree candidates will be on the 2004 election ballot tosucceed W. Cleon Anderson as President in 2006.

There are no easy answers to this question, and Idon’t intend to offer a solution here. However, theIEEE founders intended the organization to be inter-national in scope. In Engineers and Electrons: A Centuryof Electrical Progress (IEEE Press, 1984), coauthors JohnRyder and Donald Fink state that the engineering lead-ers who united our two predecessor societies in 1963to form today’s IEEE believed the name of the neworganization should exclude “American.” Indeed,Ryder and Fink added, “The proposed Institute wouldbe transnational in character, serving electrical engi-neers around the world.”

I believe the IEEE has remained true to our founders’vision—a global organization that encourages engineersand other technical professionals to exchange ideas andparticipate in scholarly activities. Almost 38 percent ofthe IEEE’s more than 360 000 members are citizens ofcountries other than the United States, and for someyears our non-U.S. regions have been the fastest-grow-ing area of membership.

Two factors may fuel the perception of the IEEE as aU.S. organization. First, while we are a global associationserving members in more than 150 countries, we are

headquartered in the United States, and we conduct ourbusiness according to its laws.

Historically, U.S. laws have posed minimal hindrance tohow the IEEE has served our worldwide membership.While the current embargoes, which impose barriers onwhat members in embargoed countries may publish inIEEE publications, our organization is committed to over-coming these obstacles. Last September, the IEEE won anunprecedented decision from OFAC that exempts theIEEE’s publication processes for articles submitted by mem-bers in Iran. We are working to resolve other OFAC issues,and we hope to achieve additional positive results this year.

The other reason for the perception of the IEEE asanything but a global organization is IEEE–USA’s con-fusing name and its perceived status in relation to ourother organizational units. While many of IEEE–USA’sactivities—notably intellectual property and career strate-gies—help to positively influence our global member-ship, other actions create internal friction and externalmix-ups. For example, members are asking the IEEE’sleadership to improve relationships with companiesworldwide, but IEEE–USA’s position to reduce the num-ber of visas that permit technical personnel who are not

U.S. citizens to work in the United States, combined withthe similarity of the names “IEEE” and “IEEE–USA,” neg-atively affect our efforts to forge stronger relationshipswith industry.

Despite these issues, the IEEE will continue workingto provide services and maintain the interests of ourworldwide constituency. Technology, communications,and economic factors in our dynamic world demand thatwe must be global. After all, technology is global.

In his book, Fortune Favors the Bold (HarperBusi-ness, 2003), Lester Thurow says that we must boldlyembrace globalization if we are to assure prosperity.The Massachusetts Institute of Technology economistadvises developed nations to build economic systemsthat minimize instability in other countries and allowdeveloping nations to thrive.

I don’t pretend to have the answers, but problem res-olution begins with healthy discussion. I welcome yourcomments at [email protected]. •


PRESIDENT’S COLUMN BY ARTHUR W. WINSTON

ONE OF THE TOUGHEST ISSUES the IEEE confronted last year—how to

serve members in countries embargoed by the U.S. Treasury Department’s

Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)—has revived a long-running

debate among many members. Stated simply, these members are

asking whether the IEEE is a global organization or a U.S. organiza-

tion with members from around the world.

Technology Reaches BeyondBorders—and So Do We

Contact Points:IEEE Operations Center445 Hoes LanePiscataway, NJ 08855-1331 USA Tel: +1 732 981 0060URL: http://www.ieee.org

IEEE Corporate Office3 Park AvenueNew York, NY 10016-5997 USATel: +1 212 419 7900

IEEE-USATel: +1 202 785 0017E-mail: [email protected]: http://www.ieeeusa.org

Conference InformationTel: +1 732 562 3878URL: http://www.ieee.org/conferencesearch

IEEE Financial Advantage ProgramTel: +1 800 438 4333URL: http://www.ieee.org/services/financial/fap

OmbudsmanTel: +1 800 678 4333E-mail: [email protected]

Technical Societies InformationTel: +1 732 562 3900E-mail: [email protected]: http://www.ieee.org/organizations/tabsociety.html

To Order ProductsTel: +1 800 678 4333Fax: +1 732 981 9667E-mail: [email protected]: http://shop.ieee.org/store

Travel ServicesTel: +1 800 TRY IEEE(Outside U.S., call+1 732 562 5387)Fax: +1 732 562 8815E-mail: [email protected]

INQUIRIES ABOUT YOUR MEMBERSHIPFor service and expertise specific to your region, contact your

dedicated Member Services representative via e-mail, phone, or fax.

If you live here use this e-mail addressNortheastern USA [email protected]

Eastern USA [email protected]

Southeastern USA [email protected]

Northern Midwest USA [email protected]

Southwestern USA [email protected]

Western USA [email protected]

Canada [email protected]

Europe, Middle East, Africa [email protected]

Latin America [email protected]

Asia/Pacific, Australia [email protected]

To reach your representative by telephone, call +1 800 678 IEEE(4333) — toll-free U.S. and Canada only, or +1 732 981 0060. Fax: +1 732 981 9667.

Members may change their address, obtain information aboutSection activities, learn about student resources, and more at the IEEE’s Member Services Web site at www.ieee.org/membership

Quick GuideEditorial offices:IEEE Operations Center, 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, N.J., USA 08855-1331Telephone: +1 732 562 6825 Fax: +1 732 235 1626 E-mail: [email protected] Web: http://www.ieee.org/theinstitute

Editor: Kathy Kowalenko

Assistant Editor:Erica Vonderheid

Editorial Consultant:Alfred Rosenblatt

Copy Editors: Sally Cahur, Joseph Levine

Editorial Board:Jim Anderson, A. M. Bhagwat, Jan Brown, Anthony Durniak (IEEE Staff Executive ofPublications), Murray Eden, Gus Gaynor, Abhi Gupta, Susan Hassler (IEEE Spectrum Editor), Eric Holdrinet, Michael Lightner (IEEE VicePresident–Publication Services & Products), Harry McDonald, and Roland Saam

Senior Art Director:Mark Montgomery

Editorial Production Director: Robert Smrek

Graphic Designer: Bonnie Nani

Web Production Coordinator: Robin Edwards

Web Production Assistant: Jacqueline L. Parker

IEEE MEDIA

Publisher: Jame A. Vick

Associate Publisher, Sales & AdvertisingDirector: Marion Delaney

Business Manager: Robert T. Ross

Marketing & Promotion Manager:Blanche McGurr

Advertising Sales:+1 212 419 7760

Advertising Production Supervisor:Felicia Spagnoli

Advertising Productions:+1 732 562 6334

The

BY ERICA VONDERHEID

MEMBER ALBERT HALDEMANN is liv-ing like a Martian. He goes to work on Marsevery day, he lives by Mars time, and thelicense plate on his car reads “MARS ROX.”

Haldemann is the deputy project scien-tist for NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity vehi-cles, the rovers that landed on Mars in Jan-uary. Once the rovers touched down,Haldemann began working on Martiantime to coincide with the rovers’ sleep andwork cycles. The Martian day is 24 hoursand 39 minutes long, which means that hiswork cycle shifts by 39 minutes every day.

“I’ve been a space nut since I was a kidreading science fiction and watching ‘StarTrek,’ ” Haldemann says. “My interest inMars jelled when I saw the images sent backfrom the Viking landing on Mars in 1976.”

He describes his job at the Jet Propul-sion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., USA,as similar to that of a customer servicerepresentative in a traditional engineer-ing firm. He makes sure that the JPL engi-

neers who build the rovers have the rightinformation about the Martian environ-ment for design and planning purposes.He makes sure that the scientists workingwith the data—mostly academics work-ing at universities around the country, notat JPL—understand the hardware con-straints. And he and his colleagues must

also be aware of how an engineering deci-sion might affect the scientific informa-tion being transmitted back to Earth.

Haldemann’s eye is always on the data.“The project scientist is there to make surethe science returned to Earth meets theobjectives that were laid out,” he says.

He got involved in the Mars Explo-ration Rover project in October 2000,shortly after NASA asked JPL to take thetwo rovers on. Spirit and Opportunitywere sent to gather data from Martianrocks to try to determine if Mars’s past cli-mate could have sustained life.

REACHING FOR THE STARS Born in Bern,Switzerland, Haldemann moved with hisfamily in 1970 to Toronto, where he grewup and attended high school. He returnedto Switzerland in 1984, however, to attendthe Université de Neuchâtel, and he alsoserved in the Swiss Air Force as a jet pilot.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in par-ticle physics, Haldemann attended the Cal-ifornia Institute of Technology (Caltech) inPasadena, USA, to pursue a Ph.D. in plan-etary science. For part of his thesis, he usedradar remote sensing to evaluate possiblelanding sites for NASA’s Mars Pathfinderrover that landed in 1997. With radarremote sensing, Haldemann and his col-leagues can get a preliminary idea of whatthe surface of Mars looks like. This workgot him a postdoctoral position on thePathfinder team, which turned into a staffposition within JPL’s planetary radar group.

On the Pathfinder mission, Halde-mann worked on soil mechanics as well asgeomorphology—a fancy way of sayinghe counted the rocks, more than 4000 ofthem, in the images the rover sent back.

Spirit touched down in the Gusevcrater, a dry lake bed near the Martianequator, on 5 January, and Opportunitylanded in the Meridiani Planum, wheremineral deposits might indicate the pres-

ence of water, on 25 January. The space-craft traveled the more than 450 millionkilometers to Mars in seven months.

Haldemann was not in the controlroom at JPL when Spirit and Opportunitylanded. Because more than 1000 engineers,scientists, and support staff are involved inthe project, JPL set up a large auditoriumon the nearby Caltech campus for them toview the images from Mars. The audito-rium had a direct feed from the JPL controlroom, and Haldemann served as the mas-ter of ceremonies during both landings.He provided commentary on the imagesand cheered along with everyone else,including his wife and two daughters.

Haldemann says his reaction when see-ing some of the first images that Spirit sentback to Earth was, “Hey, the radar works. Igot it right.” Radar signals from Earth playeda role in choosing the landing site on Mars.

“It’s a small contribution that I sharewith a small group of people in planetaryradar at JPL,” Haldemann says.

Haldemann and other engineers hadcause to be pleasantly surprised that it allworked, at least at first. Most attempts toland on the Red Planet in the last decadehave failed. And just two weeks before Spirittouched down, a British-built rover calledBeagle II tried to land. But by late January,Beagle II still had not been heard from.

After Spirit sent some pictures and databack to Earth, it too had problems. Its trans-missions stopped. JPL engineers and sci-entists diagnosed the problem, whichappeared to relate to the flight software andmemory systems that caused the rover’scomputers to reboot several times a day.

BACK TO HEALTH At press time, engineershad erased and reformatted Spirit’s flashmemory system and they expected theproblems to be fixed. “We have plenty ofreason to be optimistic, and we’re lookingforward to having a healthy Spirit rover,”Haldemann says.

For Haldemann the strange hours andhard work have been worthwhile.

“The big payoff is the exploration, see-ing new vistas, being able to influencehow that information is acquired, andbeing right there when that information isreturned,” he says. “It’s a big mission andit generates big science.”

For more information about the Marsrovers, visit http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home. •

MEMBER PROFILE


IEEE Member Albert Haldemann, deputyproject scientist for NASA’s Mars Explor-ation Rover Project, keeps his eye on thequality of data sent by rovers Spirit [inartist’s rendering] and Opportunity.

Easy.Efficient.Powerful.Essential.

The IEEE Member Digital Library brings you access

to IEEE journals, magazines and conference papers back

to 1988, with select titles back to 1950. Full-text access

with one convenient subscription. It’s all you need.

Subscribe: www.ieee.org/ieeemdl

The IEEE Member Digital LibrarySeek. Discover. Innovate.

Living on Martian Time


BY CAROL GOODALE

IEEE FELLOW DAVID FOGEL says that publishing withthe IEEE Press offers special benefits. The editorof the new IEEE Press Series on ComputationalIntelligence adds that this series, as well as oth-ers published by the IEEE, “brings cutting-edgeresearch to a large cross section of people whoare in the best position to move the research intoreal-world applications.” And if you’re unsure ofyourself as a writer or of the process for getting abook published, IEEE Press staffers will helpteach you what you need to know, says Fogel.

With its focus on electrical and electronics engi-neering and computer science, IEEE Press pub-lishes a broad range of authored and edited mono-graphs, as well as handbooks, textbooks, andreprints of collected papers.

Authors come from the entire range of theengineering professions, including educators,researchers, manufacturers, consultants, and man-agers. Most IEEE Press authors have publishedtechnical papers, while others have conducted pro-fessional seminars or short courses on their book’stopic. But all IEEE authors are experts in their fieldswith a commitment to sharing their knowledge.

The Authors Pages at the IEEE Press Web siteoffer prospective writers step-by-step information about get-ting published, including proposal guidelines, an overviewon the book-development and writing process, and an intro-duction to book production and publishing, a procedurethe Web site terms “sometimes mysterious and confusingfor the uninitiated.” But helping the uninitiated becomepublished authors is what the IEEE Press does well.

START WITH A PROPOSAL The first step for a prospec-tive author is to submit a proposal to explain what thebook will be about and how it will be organized, includ-ing a detailed table of contents and information aboutwhy the book is needed and who will want to buy it.IEEE Press staff as well as external reviewers evaluatethe proposal and provide feedback to the author onboth the technical merit and market potential of theproposed book. The initial process, from submitting aproposal to negotiating and signing a book contractcan take about two to three months, though the timevaries with each project.

Once a contract is signed, the writing and develop-ment process gets into gear. Portions of the manuscriptmay be reviewed as it moves along to provide the authorwith useful feedback during the writing process. Thetechnical review process is a critical part of producing aquality book and the IEEE Press offers authors a largebase of reviewers who are experts in their fields.

REVIEWS BY EXPERTS New authors may be hesitantabout having experts review their manuscripts, saysauthor John Anderson, professor of digital communi-cations at Lund University in Sweden and editor of theIEEE Press Series on Digital and Mobile Communica-tion. “But the more you write, the more you realize youwant to find out the weak spots sooner rather than later.”

In addition to their techni-cal expertise, authors need organization,commitment, and consistency, because a book cantake several years to complete, says Anderson.

“You have to know how to maintain the effort,” Ander-son explains. “You also have to consider how to organizeinformation and how people absorb words.”

An IEEE Press staff editor works with each author.While the author is the expert on the book’s content, theeditor is the expert in marketing IEEE Press books, andmay suggest ways, such as changing length and number

of illustrations, to improvemarketability and profitability of a book.

The IEEE Press offers a competitive royalty, com-mensurate with the sales expectations for the book andexpenses of publication. The royalty is determined dur-ing contract negotiation.

Through an agreement between IEEE Press andJohn Wiley & Sons of Hoboken, N.J., USA, Wiley handlesall production details, including copy-editing, art prepara-tion, and page makeup. Wiley also manufactures and dis-tributes the books. It uses a variety of marketing tech-niques, including providing a special page at its Web sitethat promotes IEEE publications. In addition, the IEEEand individual IEEE Societies market the books throughtheir publications and conferences.

For the IEEE Press, which has published more than400 books for the engineering community, successfulbooks are not the ones that generate the most money.They are the ones that receive professional recognition asthe definitive works in their subject areas, and contributeto the advancement of electrical engineering knowledge.

To help focus its editorial acquisition activities as well asto attract authors, the IEEE Press staff and IEEE volunteerscollaborate on determining topics in electrotechnology. “Welike to work with IEEE Societies to develop our target list ofhot topics and new titles,” says Cathy Faduska, senior acqui-sitions editor of IEEE Press. [See “The 10 Hottest TechnicalTopics,” left.] New topic suggestions are welcome and the listis not intended to be exclusionary, she notes.

Online information and guidelines for prospectiveauthors can be found at http://www.ieee.org/organizations/pubs/press/AuthorsPages.htm. •

PRODUCTS & SERVICES

Turning Experts Into Authors

The 10 Hottest Technical Topics BASED ON INPUT FROM THE IEEE SOCIETIES

and IEEE members, the IEEE Press is seeking authors

for books in these 10 cutting-edge areas:

Embedded sensor technology

Home networking theory or applications

Intelligent transportation systems

Magnetic data storage

Nanotechnology

Next-generation power sources

Optical networks

Security applications

Solid-state lighting

Storage area networks

If you have an idea for a book on these or any other

topic, contact Cathy Faduska at [email protected].

from a credible source. If the site conformsto IEEE Standard 2001, developed in collab-oration with Consumers Union and onlyreleased in 2002, there should be some reas-suring information there. For example,every page would have a link that namesthe organization supplying the information,how to contact it, and a statement that yourprivacy will be protected. Expiration dateson the pages ensure that the informationpresented is current. The standard also hasguidelines for creating Web sites that peoplewith disabilities can use. Isaak says he’s haddiscussions with Google and the EuropeanUnion about adopting the standard.

TEARING UP THE AIRWAVES: 2:30 P.M.—Between client meetings, you stop at acoffee shop with wireless networkingcapability—also known as a hotspot—anduse your laptop to log onto your com-

pany’s e-mail system. Thanks to IEEEStandard 802.11, you and your fellow

caffeinated road warriors can usethe same wireless connection atspeeds up to 54 Mb/s.

If the battery in your laptopcomplies with the proposed IEEEStandard 1625, your laptop has a bet-

ter chance of having enough power foryou to reply to all those urgent e-mailsfrom the office. The standard also spec-ifies ways to make batteries more reli-able, notes Jeff Layton, chair of the IEEE1625 Working Group.

IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH: 5:30 P.M.—Onyour way home from work, you stop at thecardiologist’s office for an electrocardiogram(EKG). If the EKG, like other medical elec-tronic equipment, meets IEEE Standard

1073, a nurse can plug the EKG device intoa network—no complex configuration orprogramming required—and the data arecaptured, processed, and archived in thehospital’s computer system without extrasoftware, additional hardware, or loss ofinformation. The guidelines in the standardmake all this possible.

Adhering to the guidelines will also cuterrors in transferring information. Medicalpersonnel will no longer need to manuallyrecord readings produced by several differ-ent kinds of diagnostic equipment into apatient’s chart. The chart is also on the com-puter system, points out Todd Cooper, chairof the IEEE Standard 1073 Working Group,and readings would go into it automatically.

PLAYTIME: 7 P.M.—Spend some qualitytime with the kids by enjoying a videogame without wires snaking across the

living room. IEEE Standard 802.15.4provides a common framework forsmall, low-data-rate wireless devices,such as video-game controllers, toconnect to a game-playing console at10 to 250 kilobits per second at dis-tances of 10 meters or less.

MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC: 8 P.M.—Takeyour special someone to a concert.A performance that uses equipmentconforming to IEEE Standard 1639,currently under development, canconnect musical instruments, spe-cial effects equipment, and lights toa personal computer over Ethernet-based networks or IEEE Standard802.11 wireless devices.

The new standard updatesthe 20-year-old musical instru-ment digital interface—orMIDI—standard and booststhe data rate among musi-cal instruments and equip-ment to 10 gigabits a sec-ond. It also increases thepotential number ofdevices that can be con-nected on a port from theold 16 to, theoretically atleast, close to 16 million.

“The amount of datathat can be transmittedis fantastically greater,plus you have the free-

dom of movement and expression if you gowireless,” says Phil Kerr, chair of the 1639Working Group.

LATE-NIGHT RECORDING: 11 P.M.—Beforeturning in, you set your digital videorecorder on top of your television to recorda program broadcast in the middle of thenight. Using a network connection thatconforms to IEEE Standard 1394, you caneither save that program digitally with adevice like TiVo on an external hard driveor transfer it to your personal computer towatch at a more convenient time.

“IEEE Standard 1394 is gaining momen-tum for a digital video interconnect in thehome,” says Peter Johansson, chair of theIEEE Standard 1394 Working Group. •

FOR MORE INFORMATION on IEEE Stan-

dards, visit http://standards.ieee.org.


They’re responsible for theway your computer works,as well as for your televisionset, wireless router, videogames, and many otherelectronic products. Most

people don’t even know they exist. These products all depend on IEEE

technical standards, which establishguidelines for how things are designedand the specifications they should meet.IEEE Standard 802.11, which also goesby the popular name of Wi-Fi, is onestandard the public does know about,thanks to the wireless products and pub-licity it fostered. An amendment to thestandard released last June boosts thespeed of wireless local-area networks to54 megabits per second from 11 Mb/s.

A standard is a document produced bya committee of experts in a particular tech-nical field that specifies how a productshould be designed, provides a commonset of definitions, or sets up safety regula-tions. Manufacturers, researchers, andpublic utilities use the guidelines in thesedocuments, for example, to design sys-tems that make electric power clean andreliable, electronic devices easier to use, orresearch data simpler to share. Having acommon terminology is crucial.

“The IEEE has a long history of creatingtechnical standards that help engineersunderstand what other engineers are talkingabout,” says Edward Rashba, manager ofnew technology projects for the IEEE Stan-dards Association (IEEE–SA). The IEEE—through its predecessor society, the Ameri-can Institute of Electrical Engineers—hasbeen involved in standards since 1892.

“The ideal standard disappears be-cause it solves a problem that was causingfrustration,” says Jim Isaak, the chair ofthe working group that developed IEEEStandard 2001 for Web site reliability.

For example, consider that many of ustake for granted that the cable from a printerpurchased two years ago will work on a newmodel from a different manufacturer. Thatinteroperability is possible thanks to IEEEStandard 1324. Similarly, because of stan-dards, it’s possible for a 100-watt incandes-

cent light bulb to fit the socket of all tablelamps and for a Beatles CD to play in theconsole in your living room, in your car, orin a portable CD player.

An individual standard is developed inan IEEE working group by experts in thearea covered. These volunteer experts aretypically compensated for the time andexpenses incurred in this endeavor bytheir companies or organizations. Cur-rently, more than 11 000 participants in 95 countries support the IEEE standardsdevelopment effort.

Whether companies in an industryadopt an IEEE standard is voluntary. Butselling a product may be next to impossi-ble if it cannot operate with other productsthat do adhere to the standard.

The IEEE Standards Association haspublished about 900 standards that are nowin use, and some 400 more are currentlybeing developed. Every year the associationreleases about 100 new standards. Hereare a few standards that affect devices youmight come across in your daily routine.

GOOD MORNING: 6 A.M.—Your clock radiosignals the start of a new day, eventhough many other homes in your townlost power in the middle of the night.Your subdivision uses a small generatorthat runs on diesel fuel and suppliespower when the grid in your area goes

down. IEEE Standard 1547 outlinesthe requirements for running dis-tributed generators when poweris out. Also thanks to the stan-dard, when the power grid isup and working, distributedenergy sources like yourgenerator can supplyexcess power back tothe grid.

This capability brokenew ground. “The electricpower system as we knowit—ever since Thomas Edison—is aradial grid where power flows out fromthe central generating station to users,not backward,” says Richard DeBlasio,chair of the IEEE 1547 Working Group.“IEEE Standard 1547 allows the grid tooperate in both directions, and one ofthem is, in effect, backward.”

GLIDING DOWN THE FREEWAY: 8:30 A.M.—An early-morning accident and fuel spillon the highway during your morningcommute brings rush-hour traffic to acrawl. But thanks to IEEE Standard 1512,the local police and fire departments andemergency medical services arrive at thescene to get people and vehicles off theroad fast and get you to work on time.

The standard sets up guidelines allow-ing each emergency responder to com-

municate with the others. Also, thestandard outlines a common set ofdata fields to communicate details ofthe accident uniformly, ensuring thatthe right people and equipment arriveon the scene.

AT WORK: 9 A.M.—At the office, youneed to share documents over a net-work with colleagues. If your companyuses a wireless local-area network thatconforms to IEEE Standard 802.11g,you can share those documents four

times faster than you could a few yearsago. This standard—an amendment to802.11—transmits data up to 54 Mb/s, upfrom the 11 Mb/s called for in 802.11b.Another standard, 802.11a, operates in the5-gigahertz band rather than in the lower 2.4-GHz band where there can be inter-ference from devices such as cordless tele-phones and microwave ovens.

Then, while doing research on the Internet for a project in the office, you needto know if the information on a Web site is

FEATURE


IEEE Standards can be found behindtechnologies we use every day at home,at work, and at play

BY ERICA VONDERHEID

Standards Hidden in Plain Sight

to destroy vehicles. They are wrapped inmetal, the more difficult to detect plastic, oreven wood. Antitank mines are buried asdeep as 40 cm, while antipersonnel minesare buried just beneath the surface.

Detection and removal is slow andtedious. The design of the mine detectorcurrently in use, which is sensitive tometal, dates back to World War II, thoughtoday it has more sensitive sensors.

A crew divides a search area into lanes ofabout a meter wide. They carefully clear anythick vegetation from the ground just ahead.Another crew member swings a hand-heldmine detector over the cleared ground fromone side of the lane to the other. If nothingis detected, the crew moves forward a step ata time. The key to survival is not to stepbefore you swing.

If the detector comes across metal, itsends signals through headphones wornby the operator. Another crew memberthen probes the ground with a fiberglassstick to determine whether there’s a buriedland mine, and then marks the spot fordigging. Prodding with too muchforce can detonate the mine. Falsealarms are common in earth thathas a naturally high metallic con-tent or buried metal debris.

But debris is not the biggestproblem. Metal detonators and fir-ing pins in plastic mines can weighas little as 0.6 gram, making themimpossible for the most sensitivemetal detector to find. Some plasticmines may have no metal at all.

Because of difficulties with plas-tics, sensors are being developed todetect thermal, chemical, or dielec-tric changes in the soil that could becaused by plastic or other mines.

NEW INITIATIVE SPURS R&D Most of thefunds for demining technology todaycome from the U.S. military, which hasboth the money and the need. Certainly,soldiers need something more efficientthan a stick to probe the ground. The mil-itary has turned to academia for expertise.

“Five years ago, the U.S. governmentmade a very significant investment in get-ting universities involved,” says IEEE Fel-low Lawrence Carin [see photo, p. 1], aland-mine-detection expert and a profes-sor of electrical and computer engineeringat Duke University, Durham, N.C., USA.“That move made a huge difference in thefield. Researchers at universities lookedat the problems of land-mine technologywith fresh eyes.”

The U.S. Directorate of DefenseResearch and Engineering, part of theDepartment of Defense, created andfunded the Multi University Research Ini-tiative, or MURI, which is managed by theU.S. Army’s Research Office, in Durham.Among those working on countermining

projects are the University of Florida, OhioState University, the University of Mem-phis, as well as the University of Missouri-Columbia and Duke.

Previously work was done in a very non-systematic way, primarily by small compa-nies without enough people or time toinvestigate new possibilities, says Carin, coauthor of the paper “Alternatives for LandMine Detection,” published in February2003 by the RAND Science and TechnologyPolicy Institute, Arlington, Va., USA.

MURI is funding about a dozen techni-cal approaches because there is no consen-sus yet about which is best. Some of thetechnologies are further along, while othersare in the initial stages of development. Sev-eral of them are described below, and othersare presented in the table, “Other Detec-tion Technologies” [left].

Although these applications are for themilitary, once developed, some of thesedevices could be used for humanitariandemining projects.

NEW SENSORS Ground penetrating radar(GPR), perhaps the most advanced of thenew technologies, can detect both metaland plastic mines in a variety of soils. GPRsends a series of microwave pulses rangingfrom 1 to 4 GHz into the ground. It thenlooks for anomalies in the reflected signalthat could indicate mines. But its imperfectsignal processing can be fooled. The tech-nique has proven most effective at spot-ting mines buried one to two meters deep,

where antitank mines are usually hidden. GPR gear has been packaged in several

ways: on a platform mounted on a vehiclesimilar to a Humvee, in hand-helddevices, on remotely controlled vehicleslike robots, or even in helicopters thatsweep the ground for mines.

“Although GPR has been shown to beeffective on a test track against a variety ofland mines in a range of soil conditions, itis technologically complex,” according to“Land Mine Detection,” an article in IEEEInstrumentation & Measurement magazine(December 2002), written by IEEE Mem-ber Rob Siegel. He’s with Geo-CentersInc., a company in Newton, Mass., USA,that builds mine-detection systems.

Another drawback of GPR is the sub-stantial time it takes to process the dataand then “decide whether to dig in a par-ticular location,” says Senior MemberIsmail Jouny. The department chair in theelectrical and computer engineeringdepartment at Lafayette College, in Eas-ton, Pa., USA, Jouny is working on algo-rithms for mine detection systems.

“A brick or piece of metal in the groundcan confuse the GPR sensor,” Jouny says.He outlined some of the problems in “Clut-ter Suppression and Feature Extraction forLand Mine Detection Using Ground Pen-etrating Radar,” a paper he presented atthe 2003 IEEE Antennas and PropagationSociety’s International Symposium.

Another kind of sensor, around sinceAlexander Graham Bell’s time, relies on


The antipersonnel mine [above] was found in Bosnia by mine-clearing experts.

An Afghan soldier [right] swings a metal detector over the ground in Kabul insearch of land mines. Afghanistan is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world and the land mines left over from its 23 years of war kill or injure50–75 people a month.

LANDMINE DETECTION from page 1

• Other Detection TechnologiesTECHNOLOGY OPERATING PRINCIPLE

Acoustic/seismic Examines acoustic waves reflected by mines

Biological Living organisms react to (dogs, bees, bacteria) explosives vapors

Electrochemical Measures changes in electrical resistance

Infrared Measures heat differences in the soil

Neutron Induces radiation emissions fromthe explosive’s atomic nuclei

Piezoelectric Measures the shift in resonant frequency of various materialsexposed to explosives vapors

electromagnetic induction (EMI). It isbeing used in highly sensitive metaldetectors that can find very smallamounts of metal in the wiring of plasticmines. EMI induces electric currents inmetal and these currents create a fieldthat can be sensed.

Other promising technologies includequadrupole resonance (QR) and opticaltechniques. QR uses magnetic high-

frequency pulses to which explosive com-pounds like TNT have been found to react.The pulses cause the chemical bonds inthe explosive to resonate, and the detectorsenses this effect.

Scanning the ground with infrared isan optical technique used to detect tripwires, a feature of some land mines. “If youlook at vegetation with near infrared, it’svery bright, whereas man-made objects

tend to be dark, so you can sometimessee the wires easily,” says IEEE FellowPaul D. Gader, a professor of computerand electrical engineering at the Uni-versity of Florida in Gainesville, USA.Gader has just begun testing aninfrared system.

ANALYZING IT ALL Other IEEE mem-bers are concentrating on techniquesfor processing signals gathered bythe sensors. For example, Keller, atthe University of Missouri, andMember Hichem Frigui at the Uni-versity of Memphis in Tennessee,USA, are using fuzzy logic to processthe data from radar sensors.

“Fuzzy logic is simply a way todeal with uncertainty,” Kellerexplains. “It’s how to get computersto make decisions that are closer tothe way humans might make a deci-sion, with incomplete or uncertaininformation.” No mine returns a per-

fect signal, “so we need something thatexplicitly deals with uncertainty,” he says.

This approach is described in a tech-nical paper coauthored by Keller andGader, “Recognition Technology for theDetection of Buried Land Mines,” whichappeared in IEEE Transactions on FuzzySystems (February 2001).

“Decisions about demining have to bemade in real time, and there’s only a frac-

tion of a second to process the data anddecide if a mine is there,” Frigui says.“Instead of using large amounts of data torepresent a mine, we try to represent itwith a few key features.”

He’s proposed a system that relies ona small library of mine characteristics,called signatures. They’re grouped intofour classes: strong mines, weak mines,false alarms, and background noise.Frigui described his techniques in“Detection of Land Mines Using Fuzzyand Possibilistic Membership Func-tions,” which appeared in the 2003 Pro-ceedings of The IEEE International Confer-ence on Fuzzy Systems.

“The goal is to develop an algorithmsimple enough so that a soldier looking ata display screen or even an automatic sys-tem can read the signals and decide ifthere’s a mine,” he says.

COORDINATED SENSORS Each sensor hasits drawbacks, detecting one type of minewell but failing to detect others. “Whereinduction does well, QR could do poorly,”Carin says. “But if you bring themtogether collectively, the combinationdoes well.”

In his RAND report, Carin concludedthat given the limitations of individualsensors, any major breakthrough in minedetection probably will require a multi-sensor system. •

Want more from your IEEE membership?You can make changes to your servicesand subscriptions at any time!

Customize your membership online at:www.ieee.org/addnewservices

■ ■ Subscribe to IEEE publications! Five new journals to choose from in 2004:IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics

IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters

IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering

IEEE Distributed Systems Online

IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing

■ ■ Join an IEEE Society■ ■ Subscribe to the IEEE Member Digital Library■ ■ Join the IEEE Standards Association or IEEE Women in Engineering■ ■ Make a charitable contribution to the IEEE Foundation or one of seven

other IEEE funds■ ■ Edit your membership address and other contact information

Your IEEE Membership Card is Just the BeginningMAKE THE MOST OF YOUR IEEE MEMBERSHIP!

Ground penetrating radar is the key sensor on this wheeled vehicle, which can detect

metallic and nonmetallic antitank mines. Built by Geo-Centers Inc., the system can be

operated remotely and has automatic target recognition.

neurs run their businesses from their densor kitchen tables.

“Right now I’m working out of myhome—partially for cost savings andbecause there’s nothing more convenientthan going up the stairs when you need towork, rather than driving somewhere,” saysErin Mace, member and cofounder ofSavant Engineering, a design firm that spe-cializes in commercial buildings, inAtlanta, Ga., USA.

Mace reports that besides a commutemeasured in minutes rather than hours,running a business out of her home alsogives her more flexibility when caring forher two-year-old daughter, Hannah.

“This morning I was able to spend afew extra hours with Hannah before shewent to day care, because she was feelingsick,” Mace says. “I don’t typically workwhen she’s at home, because Hannah isvery active and not conducive to a busi-ness environment.”

Besides the independence you gain inrunning your own business, entrepre-neurship can be financially rewarding.

“If you can stay busy as a contractor,you’re going to make more money than at

a traditional job,” says EricAnderson, an IEEE memberand owner of Andar Engi-neering Inc., a business spe-cializing in BIOS (short forbasic input/output system)programming in Minneapo-lis, Minn., USA, since 1998.

Any start-up—engineer-ing or otherwise—carriesrisk, but Mace, for one, keepsit in perspective.

“The worst-case scenario isthat I go back to working forsomeone else,” Mace says.

SECRETS OF SUCCESS Anengineer looking to start asmall business might beginby thinking about introducinga new technology or product.After all, engineers knowhigh-tech best.

But Berube doesn’t recom-mend that. Instead he suggests that fledg-ling entrepreneurs might find it easier ifthey could offer a competitive advantagefor a product that’s already out on the mar-

ket or a special service that isn’t otherwiseavailable. While it sounds simple, in prac-tice it’s not. Dave Callahan, who teaches aclass on entrepreneurship at the Univer-

sity of Alabama at Birmingham,recommends seeking advice fromone of the best sources around, fel-low entrepreneurs.

“In every city, there seems to be acommunity of entrepreneurs,” Calla-han says. “Most of them are serialentrepreneurs and want to be helpfulto others. The number one thing todo is seek advice.” Engineers mayfind this particularly valuable advice,he says, because they tend to thinkthey are expert in everything and gen-erally try to do too much themselves.

Anderson suggests enlisting ateam of legal, financial, and account-ing experts to contribute knowledgethe engineer does not have.

But John Cosgrove, a memberwho has run his own computer con-sulting company, in Playa del Rey,Calif., USA, has an inexpensivemethod for getting the help he needs.

“I borrowed the term ‘favorbank,’ from the novel The Bonfire ofthe Vanities by Tom Wolfe, meaning

you help yourself by helping others,” Cos-grove says. “You make sure people oweyou more than you owe them. If some-body comes to you for help, you stop what


ENTREPRENEURS from page 1

Tomorrow Starts with What’s New Today

Sign up today! whatsnew.ieee.org

◗ Circuits

◗ Communications

◗ Computing

◗ Career Alert

◗ Eye on Washington

◗ Libraries

◗ Power

◗ Signal Processing

◗ Students

◗ Wireless

Choose from 10 free email newsletters covering the latest technology, IEEE news,career advice and more every month.

Pick the ones that are right for you!

Subscribe to

What’s New@IEEE

Erin Mace

you’re doing and do what is neededbecause that person is going to feel anobligation to help that’s going to pay offfor you later.”

Small business owners can also gainthe expertise they need just by observ-ing how other businesses run, accord-ing to Callahan.

“When you work for a company, youoften want to say, ‘That’s a stupid deci-sion,’ ” he says. “Sometimes it is. Butsometimes when you start asking ques-tions of the right people, you recognizethat there might be some tax or marketimplications you might not have seen.”

Some secrets of small-business suc-cess offered by established entrepre-neurs are less tangible. Cosgrove empha-sizes a good balance between work andpersonal life.

“I’ve always had outside interests thatgive me a certain amount of balance, soI’m not stuck in a narrow technical view ofthe world,” Cosgrove says. He’s serving onthree volunteer boards and is involved inthe Jane Austen Society, a group that meets

to study the works of the English novelist.As trite as it may sound, Member Hol-

ger Ronquist stresses the power of positivethinking. He is the cofounder of42Networks, a telecommunications com-pany with 16 employees that providestelephony and video systems that operateon the Internet in Stockholm, Sweden.

“First of all, you must believe in what

you’re doing— then you must have courage,because without it, you’ll do nothing,” Ron-quist says. “All the rest are technicalities.”

LEARNING WHAT WORKS Despite stacks ofresearch and months of preparation, someentrepreneurs discover that they find outhow to run a successful business by mak-ing mistakes.

“We learned by breaking things,” saysMember Roberto Poujol, general managerand one of eight partners of TelexpertiseMexico in Saltillo. The company wasformed out of a Mexican division of L.M.Ericsson that closed in 2002 after the tele-com crisis. “My partners and I lackedexperience in sales and marketing. We allcame from R&D and engineering, so wehad to develop skills in positioning ourcompany and making sales calls.”

Many other engineering entrepreneursfind themselves in the same situation asPoujol. About half the entrepreneurs TheInstitute interviewed for this article saidthey found marketing and selling them-selves troublesome.

“I think I might be a stereotypical engi-neer in that I don’t know how to go out andsell my business,” software-programmingcontractor Anderson says. “To come into acompany that doesn’t know me and con-vince them that I can pull a team togetherto design anything needed is not easy.”

Commercial building designer Macealso found that her responsibilities went

beyond sales and marketing.“I wish I was a little more prepared for

the extras and how much time they wouldrequire,” she says. As the only person inher office, Mace also must order suppliesand fix her computers. “It’s frustratingbecause all I want to do is design.”

Some business lessons are onlylearned the hard way. Anderson, who isnow looking for a full-time corporate jobafter contract work dried up, sufferedfrom the dot-com fever that infected thestock market five years ago.

“I took all the extra money I madefrom my business and put it in the stockmarket,” he says. “My stock portfolio wasthe who’s who of where not to invest dur-ing the late 1990s. I tended to put mymoney in high-tech businesses becausethat’s what I thought I knew.”

Anderson says the money his businesslost in the stock market could have sus-tained him for a year. Now, he recom-mends diversifying investments and hir-ing a financial advisor.

THE FLIP SIDE Although a small busi-ness can offer an engineer independ-ence and creativity, it can also bringfinancial insecurity.

“People think the hard part is gettingclients,” Cosgrove says. “That’s important,but the really hard part of running a busi-ness is getting paid for your product orservice.” For an engineer who worked inindustry before becoming an entrepre-neur, receiving a paycheck every twoweeks that doesn’t bounce was a given,Cosgrove says. As an entrepreneur, that isno longer true.

“Nobody cares whether you get paidexcept you,” he says.

Berube says getting his invoices paid cantake from two weeks to up to two months.

“I would describe my business as onlymarginally successful, because I can’t feedmyself yet,” Berube says. “During the pastfour months, I ran out of contract funds onthe projects I was working on, althoughthere’s still work for my employee. So Ilaid myself off.” He recently took a full-time job with a large corporation, but stillruns his business on the side.

An entrepreneur with a number ofemployees has the added pressure of notonly supporting his or her family, but alsothe employees’ families.

“I have 32 employees, who supportabout 240 people in their families,” saysMember Fritz Braun Jr., who in 1993started Biotek Pharmaceutical IndustriesLtd., a biomedical-engineering research

and manufacturing facility, in Rio deJaneiro, Brazil. “When we make decisions,we have to remember that we’re feeding240 people.”

Berube avoided that situation by mak-ing an unusual hire, a retired engineerwho receives a pension and doesn’t needa regular paycheck.

“My one employee’s health insuranceis taken care of by his retirement plan,and he doesn’t care when he gets paid,”Berube says.

For some entrepreneurs, the biggestchallenge doesn’t come from competitionor the bottom line, but from the countrythe entrepreneur works in. Braun inBrazil, Ronquist in Sweden, and Poujolin Mexico report that with no tradition oftechnological entrepreneurship in theircountries, starting a small engineeringbusiness was difficult.

“Brazil has got to be one of the tough-est places to start a business, because ofthe bureaucracy,” Braun says. He openeda subsidiary for his company in Mel-bourne, Fla., USA, in less than a week.He says the same process in Brazil takesat least six months.

In 1970, when Ronquist started hisfirst business, developing word processingequipment, in Sweden, the climate for asmall business owner was difficult.

“Government authorities looked at youwith suspicion 30 years ago,” he says.“Today entrepreneurs are a bit moreaccepted.” Ronquist says that high taxes inSweden make saving money for invest-ments in a business difficult. Like Pou-jol’s firm, Ronquist’s company is a spinofffrom Ericsson.

“Telexpertise Mexico is a curiosity forour area, because Mexico is not knownfor telecom technology services,” Poujolsays. “But we have to start creating ourown success stories in Mexico. If wedon’t do it for ourselves, no one else willdo it for us.” •

FOR MORE on some of the organizationsmentioned in this article, visit their Web sites.

Telexpertise Mexico:http://www.txm.com.mx

Cosgrove Computing:http://www.cosgrovecomputer.com

42Networks: http://www.42Networks.com

Biotek Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.:http://www.biotekbr.com

University of Alabama at BirminghamInformation Engineering and Managementprogram: http://www.eng.uab.edu/iem

Despite stacks of research and months of preparation, some engineering entrepreneurs discovered they had to find out how to run a successful business by MAKING MISTAKES


Roberto Poujol

.............................. .............................. ....................................................... ....................................................... .......................................................

10-Year Level Term LifeNew program! Offer your family financialsecurity if you or your spouse were to dieprematurely. Ten years of financial securitycome with a benefit amount and premiumsthat are guaranteed to remain level.

For more information, visitwww.ieeeinsurance.comor Call +1 800 493 IEEE (4333)

Protect Your Plans and Dreams

Term LifeIs your family protected in case of anemergency? Choose up to US $1,000,000 ofcoverage for yourself, and another US$1,000,000 for your spouse.

Level Term of Age 65Available to members and their spousesages 50 through 59. Once coverage isissued, your premiums will remain leveluntil you or your spouse reaches age 65.

Term Life Plans fromthe IEEE Financial Advantage Program

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


Tools to Secure Your Tomorrow

The IEEE Financial Advantage Program now offersthree Term Life programs to help insure your future:

Feeling GreenWas it an accident or deliberate that thebrain scan shown in the article “Seeingthe Invisible” was in green [December, p. 1]? I have always advocated the use ofgreen as the color for such imagesbecause of my background in the designof color television in the 1950s.

Green dominated the range of colorsthat our eyes see or our brains interpret.Could this be attributed to our ancientneed to observe what’s going on in thejungles of prehistoric humans? Whateverthe reason, I think radiologists interpret-

ing imaging scans and X-rays could ben-efit from seeing the images in green so asto better analyze subtle differences inwhat’s displayed.

ALAN O. PLAITSarasota, Fla., USA

The editor responds: Our use of green wasa happy accident.

Off the ChartsIn the December issue [p. 18], two chartswere intended to demonstrate the popu-larity of IEEE publications. The charts use

a common technique to exploit perspec-tive to exaggerate the data. For example,the chart labeled “Number of U.S. PatentReferences to IEEE Publications” showsthe 1998–2002 bar as 57 357 and the1993–97 bar as 31 228. However, the1998–2002 bar is over twice the height ofthe 1993–97 bar because of distortion ofperspective. While it is helpful that num-

bers are attached to the bars, that doesn’texcuse the exploitation of the reader’svisual sense of scale.

A simple, flat bar chart would havebeen enough. I would ask the editors toeliminate these false charts from theirgraphical lexicon.

TIM DAVISBroomfield, Colo., USA

LETTERS

TELL US WHAT YOU THINKWe welcome letters from readers expressing

opinions on matters of interest to IEEE mem-

bers and to the technical community at large.

Along with your name, please include your

city and state, or province and country.

Mail: The Institute, IEEE Operations Center,

445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ USA 08855-1331

Fax: + 1 732 235 1626

E-mail: [email protected]

Number of U.S. Patent

References to IEEE Publications

31 228

15 625

1998-2002

1993-97

1988-92

57 357

SOURCE: CHIRESEARCH INC., 2003

Greenish hue of a magnetic resonanceimage could make its analysis easier.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1998–2002 1993–97 1988–92

Thou

sand

s

57 357

31 228

15 625

Using perspective, as The Institute did to make a bar chart look more interesting [left],gives a false impression of relative size, says reader Tim Davis. Though the numberson the bars help, he says, he much prefers a simple flat bar chart [right].

BEFORE AFTER



MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS

Engineers Can Do It!Those of us in the power industry intu-itively understand what to do because weunderstand the principles of integratedpower-system operation.We also under-stand how to increase system reliabilityand mitigate the effects of system distur-bances. We should have the chance toapply our expertise.

Those who are now making the regu-latory and investment decisions don’teven try to understand the technical con-sequences of what they do. We shouldinvest prudently in power and commu-nication systems and rely on qualifiedpower engineers empowered to make theappropriate decisions.

CHARLIE PENCINGERWestwood, Mass., USA

Feeling ThreatenedWe will have to face the threat of blackoutswith more frequency in the next few years.We are paying for the bad decisions ourpoliticians made years ago.

In Italy we had a referendum in the late1980s, right after the Chernobyl nucleardisaster. This referendum prompted theItalian government to close down nuclearpower facilities—a big mistake, in my opin-ion. The nation’s energy future was put inthe hands of ignorant politicians and peo-ple with no technical expertise.

The situation is going to get evenworse when we have to face the hugedemand for power needed when elec-tric cars become a reality. We are livingon a razor’s edge. What will happentomorrow if we don’t have an energyalternative?

ANDREA BUCCITorino, Italy

We’re Not AloneEngineers alone can do little to preventblackouts. They depend on many factors,such as inadequate maintenance budgetsfor plants and transmission facilities, poli-cies adopted to mitigate legal liabilities,and low-cost plant designs made on theassumption that the transmission networkcan always restart the plant. Engineers can,however, point out the negative effects ofreliability caused by these decisions.

It is up to policy-makers, legislators,and regulators to steer the power indus-try’s emphasis away from increasingfinancial returns to increasing reliability.Engineers are experts in analyzing solu-tions to maximize effectiveness and indevising new control systems to commu-nicate and respond faster—and withmore intelligence than the systems didlast August.

GEORGE GLADFELTERRapid City, S.D., USA

Wrestle Back ControlThe engineers first will have to take backcontrol of the electric power industry fromthe economists, accountants, and lawyers.Engineers have done what they can underthe current circumstances: developing tech-nologies that squeeze the last megawatt ofpower out of the existing infrastructurewhile necessary investment is deferred per-manently. In the process, reliability isreduced to zero. Then it becomes a matterof when large-scale blackouts will occur.The rules the economists and regulatorsset up leave no room to fund research todevelop new technologies.

Engineers should be the ones to regulateelectric power systems. We know enough

about power-system economics to installregulations that will guarantee healthy bot-tom lines and highly reliable energy. Withour help, the likelihood of large-scale black-outs will be considerably reduced.

F. A. SOMOLULagos, Nigeria

Ethical ResponsibilityAs Jack Casazza points out in “Engineer-ing, Ethics & Electricity” [IEEE Spectrum,July 2003, p. 11], “engineers must sharethe blame for the billion-dollar debacles inthe utility industry.”

The control of the health of the powersystem has passed from the hands of engi-neers, in the old vertically integrated util-ity model, to the hands of accountants,risk managers—who manage fiscal andlegal risk, not technical risk—and mar-keters. As Casazza points out, engineersneed to behave ethically toward theemployer (that is, contribute to the bot-tom line), but should not do so if it jeop-ardizes public safety, as power failures doin numerous ways. This is easier said thandone when your job is at risk.

Engineers can propose technicalfixes to problems such as transmissionoverloading, inadequate maintenance,and insufficient operational visibility, butthese will be implemented only if man-agers invest funds in projects that willnot bear profits immediately. If engi-neers demonstrate ethical behavior andinsist on these investments, then the cor-porate executives eventually will have tocome around because they need theengineers to design, build, and operatetheir investments.

Engineers should act ethically underall circumstances, recognizing theirresponsibility to the general public even atthe risk of losing their jobs.

LASZLO JAMNICZKYCalgary, Alta., Canada

Dramatic FailuresI believe the grid has become more reli-able overall. However, it also appears thatwhen it does fail, it does so in a big way. Isee an analogy with mountain climberstied together for safety. If one slips, theother climbers can provide the protection.But if enough of the climbers fall, theirinterconnection dooms them all.

The electric power grid seems to suffersimilarly from the addition of nodes ofgenerating points. The addition of onenode seems to decrease the odds of failure,but dramatically increases the extent of thefailure when it does occur. Additional safe-guards seem to complicate the system tothe point where the safeguards themselvesbecome sources of unreliability.

In the long run, I feel additional inde-pendent, distributed generation will bemore effective than trying to increase the

reliability of a behemoth system withalmost infinite variables.

JOHN J. CHRISTIANOFranklin, N.J., USA

Seeing ConnectionsRecent extensive power failures occurredbecause when adjacent systems are solidlyconnected together, a fault anywhereinstantly affects both systems. The onlyway to prevent this is to have an asyn-chronous connection, such as a dc con-nection with rectification and inversion atboth ends.

I believe Hydro-Québec used thismethod for its connection to the provinceof New Brunswick to prevent troubles fromaffecting Quebec. I believe it has workedsuccessfully, but, of course, such a con-nection is expensive. Until asynchronousconnections between major systems arecommon, blackouts will continue to occur.

H.R. LUCASToronto

The Grid WorksEngineers can do nothing to prevent large-scale blackouts unless legislators and util-ity executives allow generation, transmis-sion, and distribution systems to operateas an integrated enterprise. Today theoperation is controlled by those with polit-ical and economic power, and not by thosewith technical knowledge.

The reaction to the August 2003 black-out has been to condemn the grid as beingold, out of date, and obsolete. Nonsense!With deregulation and the desire to con-trol large amounts of power over long dis-tances, the transmission systems weremade to work in ways they were not orig-inally designed for.

The blackout was caused by the powersystem operating exactly as it was sup-posed to: turning itself off to preventdestruction.

BRAD PEASELEYRichmond, Va., USA

Déjà Vu?Many years ago I was driving home whenI heard the music on the radio slow down.Seconds later the radio went silent andNew York City went dark.

Much of the blame for blackouts fallson poor government regulation, which Idon’t expect to improve. We need simplesolutions to the problem of losing syn-chronization and a stronger network tocarry the power.

The solution would be for the govern-ment to convert most transmission lines todirect current. The existing lines could thenhandle almost 50 percent more power andsynchronization problems would disappear.

CYRUS F. AULTCherokee Village, Ariz., USA

Why So Few WomenProfs?

What Can Engineers Do to Prevent Large-Scale Blackouts From Happening Again?

A STUDY FROM the University of Oklahoma in

Norman, USA, reports that in science and

engineering, electrical engineering has one of

the lowest percentages of female assistant

professors at U.S. research universities—

only 10.9 percent. Why are so few women

on EE faculties?

RESPONSESTO

DECEMBER’SQUESTION

RESPOND TO THIS QUESTION by e-mail or regu-lar mail. It’s unlikely that space will permit pub-lication of all responses, although we’ll try todraw a representative sample. Your commentsare subject to editing for brevity. Suggestionsfor questions are welcome. Your answers willappear in the June issue of The Institute.

E-MAIL: [email protected]

MAIL: The Institute, IEEE Operations Center, 445Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ, USA 08855-1331.Fax: +1 732 235 1626.

THE IEEE NOMINATIONS & Appoint-ments (N&A) Committee seeks nomina-tions for both appointed and elected vol-unteer positions. The N&A Committeerecommends to the IEEE Board of Direc-tors candidates for appointment to stand-ing committees and to major boards.

Committees with openings are: Admis-sion and Advancement, Audit, AwardsBoard, Credentials, Employee Benefits,Ethics and Member Conduct, Fellow, His-tory, Individual Benefits and Services, Infor-mation Technology Strategy, Life Members,Meetings and Services (Chair only), Mem-bership Development (Chair only), Nomi-nations and Appointments, Publication Ser-vices and Products Board (PSPB)(Members-at-Large only), Strategic Plan-ning, Tellers, and Women in Engineering.

Nominations are also needed for the2006 IEEE President-Elect and for Assem-bly-elected officers: Vice President–Edu-cational Activities, Vice President–Publi-cation Services and Products, IEEESecretary/Treasurer or IEEE Secretary andIEEE Treasurer.

General qualifications for volunteerservice are competence, experience, a will-

ingness to take on the task, time to par-ticipate, enthusiasm, vigor, and the abilityto cooperate with others in achieving theobjectives of the committee or board.

Recommendations for positions can bemade throughout the year at http://www.ieee.org/committee/nac/nomform.xml or by fax to IEEE N&A Staff Secretary at+1 732 981 9515.

All recommendations will be forwardedto the N&A Committee for consideration.

ELECTED POSITIONS On 1 May, the IEEEBoard of Directors will announce the can-didates for elective positions who are to beplaced on the 2004 annual election ballot.Their terms will begin in 2005.

The list of candidates will include nom-inees for IEEE President-Elect recom-mended by the IEEE N&A Committee andapproved by the IEEE Board of Directors.Other candidates will be nominees forDirector and Director-Elect positions sub-mitted by the respective regional and divi-sional nominating committees. The ballotwill also include the nominees for StandardsAssociation Members-at-Large, TechnicalActivities Vice President-Elect, and IEEE-

Your Other IEEE Membership Card

• Low annual percentage rate• No annual fee• Auto rental collision insurance• Travel insurance coverage• And many other great features!

Every purchase made with theIEEE Credit Card helps supportongoing IEEE initiatives!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .



Sign up today!+1 800 GET IEEE (438 4333) or +1 732 981 0060 orwww.ieee.org/fap

The IEEE Credit Card from for U.S. Members


Nomination Alert: The Deadlines Are Coming THE 2004 ELECTIONS

15 March Regional committees submit candidates for open offices of RegionalDelegate-Elect/Director-Elect

Divisional nominating committees submit candidates for the office ofDivisional Delegate/Director or Divisional Delegate-Elect/Director-Elect,as applicable

Standards Association submits candidates for the offices of StandardsAssociation Board of Governors Members-at-Large

Technical Activities submits candidates for the office of TechnicalActivities Vice President-Elect

IEEE–USA submits candidates for the offices of IEEE–USA President-Electand IEEE–USA Member-at-Large

Recommendations to IEEE Nominations and Appointments Committeefor candidates to 2005 Standing Committees, Assembly-electedpositions, and 2006 President-Elect

1 May Board of Directors submits to the voting membership a list of nomineesfor President-Elect; Delegate/Director or Delegate-Elect/Director-Elect,as applicable; and other positions to be elected by voting members forthe coming term

Board of Directors announces its intention to put forward a constitutional amendment(s)

11 June (Noon EST) Petitions for constitutional amendments must be received

(Noon EST) Petition nominations for candidates to be elected by the membership must be received

Initial statements by principal initiators and opponents of constitutionalamendments must be received

Corporate Activities must receive initial statements from all annualelection candidates

21 June Corporate Activities mails initial statements by proponents of proposedconstitutional amendments to opponents and opponents’ initialstatements to proponents

2 July Deadline for rebuttal statements from initiators and opponents on constitutional amendment proposals

1 Sept. IEEE annual election ballots are sent to all voting members of Regions 1–10

1 Nov. (Noon EST) Last day for ballots to be returned by voting members

8 Nov. Last day for ballots to be tallied by Tellers Committee

11 Nov. Last day for announcement of vote tally by Tellers Committee to IEEE Board of Directors

18 Nov. Election of officers by IEEE Assembly

21 Nov. Assembly election results announced

IEEE Board of Directors acts to accept report of Tellers Committee

IEEE Annual Election and Assembly election results are made official

2004 Deadlines at a Glance

USA President-Elect and Member-at-Large. Prior to 1 May, the Board will also con-

sider placing on the ballot any proposedconstitutional amendments [see “Amend-ing the IEEE’s Constitution,” p. 4]

Members who have not been nomi-nated but who want to run for office maydo so by filing written petitions to the BoDby noon Eastern Time, 11 June 2004. To beeligible to be on the ballot, a member mustaccompany his or her petition with the nec-essary number of valid voting members’signatures and meet other requirements.

OFFICES UP FOR ELECTION Chosen by all voting members:

• President-Elect

Chosen by members in Regions 1–6:

• IEEE–USA President-Elect

• IEEE–USA Member-at-Large

Chosen by members of the IEEE StandardsAssociation:

• IEEE Standards Association Board ofGovernors Members-at-Large

Chosen by members of the respective TechnicalDivisions:

• Technical Activities Vice President-Elect

• Director, Division II (two-year term)

• Director, Division VI (two-year term)

• Director, Division X (two-year term)

• Director-Elect, Division I (one-year term)

• Director-Elect, Division III (one-year term)

• Director-Elect, Division V (one-year term)

• Director-Elect, Division IX (one-year term)

Chosen by members of the respective Regions:

• Director-Elect, Region 2 (two-year term)




FOR MORE INFORMATION…

…on election procedures, contact Angela Wyckoff, IEEE Corporate Activities at +1 732

562 3934; e-mail: [email protected].

BY HENRICH S. LANTSBERGVice Chair, IEEE Russia Section,Head of the Institute ofRadioengineering & Electronics,Russian Academy of Sciences

NIKOLAI N. SHEREMETEVSKY receivedmany international and Russian awardsduring his life, but he was most eager toreceive the IEEE Simon Ramo Medal. Un-fortunately the news in December that hehad won the medal for 2004 came too latefor Nikolai. He died last July. Nikolai sharedthe medal with Boris E. Chertok for theircontributions to systems engineering andtechnical leadership of the control systemsdesign for the Mir orbiting space station.

Nikolai was a leader in modern sys-tem science and engineering. His col-leagues in the West recognized his talentand skill, but he was admired most in theformer Soviet Union, where for morethan 50 years he was considered one ofthe top inventors in this field.

In 1941 Nikolai joined the Scientificand Industrial Enterprise All-RussiaResearch Institute of Electromechanics inMoscow, devoting his career to this insti-tute and eventually becoming the advisorto the organization’s director. Severalinventions of automated systems and con-

trol devices associated with him have beenwidely implemented in space technology,including those onboard the spaceshipsdesigned at the institute.

Nikolai played a major role in develop-ing new gyroscopes used to orient and sta-bilize the Salute and Mir space stations.During his tenure at the institute, researchteams he led designed gyroscopic controlsystems for Mir that have an accuracy ofless than one angle minute, a system thatorients solar panels for a 90-kW power sup-ply, and engines that provide automatic ori-entation of the ship’s communicationsantennas.

The research teams also developedcontrol systems for Mir that allow thespace station to reorient itself quickly andguide telescopes on the station accurately.This last feature allowed astronomers todiscover a new supernova in the Magel-lanic space cloud.

In addition, under Nikolai’s leadership,scientists and engineers developed otherthings, including powerful rotors on mag-netically suspended, cryogenically cooledelectrical machines and mobile powerequipment. Also under his supervision,R&D on automated design systems pro-vided the impetus to deploy computer tech-nology in the electric power industry.

Nikolai had a great talent for organiz-ing the process of science and technologyresearch. He was a thoughtful, cultured,and educated man. His great contribu-tions in science and technology willalways be remembered.

He was a valued friend and colleagueto many of us. Nikolai will be missed byall who knew and respected him. •

BY KATHY KOWALENKO

HE’S BEEN A RENOWNED acousticalscientist, an entrepreneur, a force behindthe Internet, and CEO of a televisionstation. These are just some of the rea-sons that Life Fellow Leo Beranekreceived the U.S. National Medal of Sci-ence in the engineering category lastNovember. U.S. President George W.Bush cited Beranek at a White Houseceremony for his leadership, dedication,and contributions to the art and scienceof acoustics, for his role as cofounder ofone of the world’s foremost acousticalresearch and consulting firms, and forsustained contributions to scientific soci-eties and civic organizations.

Administered by the National ScienceFoundation’s Science Board, the award isthe nation’s highest honor in science. It isgiven to those who make outstandingcontributions to biological, chemical,engineering, mathematical, and physicalsciences.

“Getting the award was very surpris-ing, because I was chosen from amongmany research engineers in the UnitedStates,” Beranek told The Institute. “Whythey picked me, I don’t know.”

Beranek is perhaps best known as a co-founder of Bolt, Beranek, and Newman(BBN). He formed the partnership in 1948with Richard H. Bolt and Robert B. New-man, whom he met the year after becomingan associate professor at the Massachu-setts Institute of Technology in Cambridge,USA. BBN’S original forte was providingacoustic research and noise control servicesto music schools, office buildings, audito-riums, concert halls, and opera houses.

In 1969, after assembling a powerfulsoftware group, the company was alsoinstrumental in building ARPANET, thefirst packet-switched computer network.Created for the U.S. Advanced ResearchProject Agency (ARPA), it was designed tolink widely separated high-speed comput-ers. BBN’s involvement began with itspurchase of one of the first transistor-digital computers. This led the companyto contracts with ARPA, one of which wasto build the interface to ARPANET’s mes-sage processors, which was the forerunnerof the Internet.

In 1940, after earning a doctorate inphysics from Harvard University, Cam-bridge, Mass., USA, Beranek became a fac-ulty instructor there and was appointeddirector of Harvard’s Electro-Acoustics Lab-

oratory, where he helped solve problemsof voice communication and high noiselevels in military aircraft.

Later he worked as director of the U.S.Naval Research Laboratory at BeavertailPoint, Jamestown, R.I., USA, where hehelped improve the communications, radardetection, and gunnery systems on U.S.Navy ships. This work earned him the U.S.Presidential Certificate of Merit in 1948.

After leaving BBN in 1971, Beranekwas president and CEO of WCVB, aBoston television station. Later he servedon the board of directors of Wang Labora-tories in Lowell, Mass., USA, a computercompany. Leaving Wang before it wentbankrupt in 1983, he became chairmanof the Boston Symphony Orchestra and

then president of the American Academyof Arts and Sciences, a volunteer position.

At age 78, Beranek became an acous-tical consultant to several Japanese archi-tects. Between 1990 and 2001, he helpeddesign five concert halls and two theatersin that country.

At age 89 he hasn’t slowed down. LastDecember, he released the second edition ofhis book, Concert Halls and Opera Houses:Music, Acoustics, and Architecture (Springer-Verlag). In it, he ranks the acoustics of 58concert halls and 21 opera houses aroundthe world and profiles 100 of them.

To read Beranek’s oral history, producedby the IEEE History Center, visit http://www.ieee.org/organizations/history_center/oral_histories/transcripts/beranek.htm. •


MEMBER RECOGNITION

Acoustics Expert Receives U.S. National Medal of Science

Nikolai N. Sheremetevsky,Simon Ramo Medal Recipient

NIKOLAI N. SHEREMETEVSKY, 87

DIED: 29 July 2003

MEMBER GRADE: Member

EDUCATION: Moscow Power

Engineering Institute

FIELD OF INTEREST:

Electrical Engineering

CAREER MILESTONES: Worked at the

All–Russian Institute of Electromechanics

in Moscow, starting as a researcher in

1941; at his death he was serving as

the adviser to the institute’s director.

AWARDS: State Prizes, 1949 and 1967;

Honored Man in Science and

Technology, 1971; Lenin Prize, 1978;

Full Member, USSR Academy of Sciences,

1984; Hero of Labor, 1986; Member of

Electrotechnical Academy, 1991;

Honorary Member of K.E. Ziolkovsky

Astronautical Academy, 1994; Simon

Ramo Medal, 2004.

IN MEMORIAM

Leo Beranek [left] receives theNational Medal of Science from U.S. President George W. Bush.


Alejandro Acero

Shirabe Akita

Jan I.H. Askne

Les Eugene Atlas

Er-Wei Bai

Harbans L. Bajaj

Wamadeva Balachandran

Gary J. Balas

Miroslav Miodrag Begovic

Jerome R. Bellegarda

Jon Atli Benediktsson

Nihat Bilgutay

Chatschik Bisdikian

Jerome John Blair

Mark Thomas Bohr

Piero P. Bonissone

Kim Boyer

Thomas Joseph Brazil

Kevin Francis Brennan

Gary B. Bronner

Michael Jesse Buckler

James Antonio Bucklew

Constantin Bulucea

Yan Cheong Chan

Rajen Chanchani

Anantha P. Chandrakasan

Venkatachalam

Chandrasekar

Cheng-Shang Chang

Dau-Chyrh Chang

Shih-Fu Chang

Hsing-Yao Chen

Ming-Syan Chen

Ray T. Chen

Xuemin Chen

Edwin Chong

Philip A. Chou

Antonio J. Conejo

Jonothon A. Crowcroft

Thomas Allen Cwik

Frederica Darema

Bart L.R. De Moor

Casimer DeCusatis

Serge N. Demidenko

Denice Denton

Frank DeWinter

Atam P. Dhawan

John McG. Dobbs

Robert R. Doering

Edmund Durfee

Robert Howard Eklund

Aly Elrefaie

Joel S. Emer

Per Enge

John S. Engelhardt

Gary Roy Engmann

Deborah Estrin

Tuvi Etzion

Djalma Mosqueira Falcao

James Farmer

Aly E. Fathy

Arie Feuer

Julie Elizabeth Fouquet

Alexander Lvovich

Fradkov

Li-Chen Fu

Minyue Fu

Thomas Edward Fuja

Hiromu Fujioka

Vincent Francis Fusco

Vijay K. Garg

Richard L. Garwin

Stephen D. Gedney

Ronald Barry Goldfarb

Evan Lee Goldstein

Forouzan Golshani

Turan Gonen

Stephen Marshall

Goodnick

William Eric Leifur

Grimson

Grant Theodore Gullberg

Rajesh K. Gupta

Robert Alexander Hanna

Donald W. Hanson

Lajos Hanzo

Bin He

Erik H.M. Heijne

Graham Reginald

Hellestrand

John William Helton

Charles F. Henville

Stephen D. Hersee

William Evan Higgins

Robert T. Hill

Ralph Leroy Hollis

Christopher Hollot

Xianlong Hong

Chaohuan Hou

Jerry Hudgins

Kenji Iba

Nathan Ida

Masao Ikeda

Shuji Ikeda

Adrian Ionovici

George W. Irwin

Masaru Ishii

Hajime Ishikawa

Masayuki Izutsu

Robert W. Jackson

Bahram Jalali

Pankaj Jalote

Mrdjan J. Jankovic

Augustus J.E.M. Janssen

Ya-Qiu Jin

R. Wayne Johnson

Dilip Dinkar Kandlur

Kenneth James Kerpez

Beomsup Kim

Harold Kirkham

Daniel Koditschek

Yasuo Kuga

Sanjeev R. Kulkarni

Spencer P. Kuo

Kenneth Meade Lakin

Amos Lapidoth

Richard Michael Leahy

Jean-Yves LeBoudec

J.J. Lee

Russell Jean Lefevre

Jean-Luc Bernard Leray

Xiao-Rong Li

Jack N. Little

Yilu Liu

Jerry D. Lloyd

Hans-Andrea Loeliger

Michael Rung-Tsong Lyu

Stefano Maci

Shoji Makino

Giuliano Manara

Michael Jay Marcus

Colin Craig McAndrew

James Dickey McCalley

Michael Joseph

McLaughlin

Meyya Meyyappan

Yukou Mochida

Alberto Moreira

Koso Murakami

Edmond Murphy

Richard M. Murray

Yukihiro Nakamura

Vishvjit Singh Nalwa

Seiichi Namba

Robert Mark Nelms

Steven A. Newton

Jurgen Nitsch

Alexander Nosich

Hiroshi Nozawa

Bruce Mitchell Nyman

Takashi Ohira

Patrick Gerard O’Shea

Mikael Ostling

Bjorn Erik Ottersten

Edward La Verne Owen

Bradley Paden

Surendra Pal

Krishna Palem

Vladimir Parizhsky

Yong Kwan Park

Stuart Parkin

Bradford Parkinson

Kevin Passino

Raymond Paul

Sanjoy Paul

Ron H. Perrott

William A. Peterson

Friedrich Pfeiffer

Giancarlo Prati

Jerry L. Prince

S. Ramadorai

Robert Cornelius Rassa

Giorgio Rizzoni

Gordon Roberts

Jerzy Ruzyllo

Victor Ryzhii

Nobuhiko Sawaki

Mohamad A.H. Sawan

Peter Irvin Scheuermann

George Thomas Schmidt

Martin Schmidt

Justin Schwartz

David Barry Scott

M. Ibrahim Sezan

Ghavam G. Shahidi

Asrar Sheikh

Yakov Shirman

Dariush Shirmohammadi

Tarlochan Singh Sidhu

Melvin W. Siegel

Michael Bernard Silevitch

Gurindar Singh Sohi

Alfred Spector

Jaideep Srivastava

Daniel Dean Stancil

Paul Gregory Steffes

Allan Otto Steinhardt

Ninoslav Stojadinovic

Leon Stok

Douglas Strain

Michael G. Strintzis

Roger W. Sudbury

Toshio Sudo

Norobu Sugamura

Jing Sun

Christer M. Svensson

Wim Sweldens

Arnold Lee Swindlehurst

Wojciech M. Szpankowski

Toshi Takamori

Tieniu Tan

Yuan Yan Tang

Kazuo Tanie

David L. Tennenhouse

Stuart K. Tewksbury

Osamu Tomisawa

Josep Torrellas

Frederick Nicholas

Trofimenkoff

Ismail Burhan Turksen

Ifeanyi Charles Ume

Vadim I. Utkin

Yozo Utsumi

Douglas Peter Verret

Randall H. Victora

Michael Waidner

Joel Forbes Walker

H. Bruce Wallace

Steven J. Wallach

DeLiang Wang

Fei-Yue Wang

Yao Wang

Daniel Ward

Mark Wegman

Wu-Tsung Weng

Jay Martin Wiesenfeld

Thomas Turner Wilheit

Jay Williams

Alan Willner

Moe Z. Win

Andrew K.C. Wong

David Wood

Dwight L. Woolard

Gregory Wornell

Cheng-Wen Wu

Shin-Tson Wu

Longya Xu

Seiichi Yamamoto

Binboga Siddik Yarman

Daniel So Yeung

Katsumi Yoshino

Ken-ichi Yukimatsu

Hong-Jiang Zhang

Zhen Zhang

Yilin Zhao

Marvin Carl Ziskin

Albert Y. Zomaya

AWARDS

Congratulations toThe Class of 2004

FOR NOTEWORTHY CONTRIBUTIONS to the advancement or application of engi-neering, science, or technology, 260 new IEEE Fellows were named by the IEEE Boardof Directors. They were cited for everything from developing three-dimensional med-ical imaging and processing to building intelligent robots. Each January, the IEEEBoard of Directors awards the designation of Fellow to no more than 0.1 percent of thevoting membership as of 31 December of the preceding year. Today, there are more than5400 IEEE Fellows. •

Life Line Screening for IEEE Members

Early detection reduces your risk of stroke,

osteoporosis and other diseases. Now, U.S.

IEEE members can receive inexpensive,

painless screenings for several common

vascular diseases. Brought to you by the

IEEE Financial Advantage Program and

Life Line Screening.

Schedule Your Tests Today!Call +1 800 324 4618www.ieee.org/fap

Take aLook Inside

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .



BY CAROL GOODALE

CREATING AN INFORMATIVE IEEEnewsletter that’s of value to members iseasier said than done. You have to focus onyour readers’ needs, get them involved insubmitting news items and articles, andpublish in a timely fashion. And it can’t hurtto use a bit of humor wherever possible.

Harry McDonald is the editor of theIEEE Region 10 newsletter, postedonline for the 60 000 members who livein Asia and the Pacific Rim. The newslet-ter is a mix of articles written by McDon-ald and other members, and McDonaldworks hard at casting a wide net to get asmany contributions from across theregion as possible.

“We issue calls to Region 10 executivecommittee members and to section chairsfor news items,” he says. “This approachrequires an extra step in their efforts butbeing one of our authors is a good way forsection chairs to strengthen their contactswith members.” To be assured of a supplyof articles, McDonald is developing a net-work of contributing editors throughoutthe region.

“When encouraging submissionsfrom guest writers, you can ask for arti-cles to be short and snappy,” he says.“But editors will learn that they have to beflexible in their expectations.”

Be prepared to accept whatever articlesare sent. Then “use whatever editorial styleyou have to get the items shorter and moreinteresting,” he says.

FOCUS ON READERS’ NEEDS Region 7newsletter editor Abhigyan Gupta con-siders the technology needs of many ofhis 14 000 Canadian members. “I keepthe length of the newsletter reasonable sodial-up users don’t have to wait too longto download,” he says.

In the past year, Gupta began distrib-uting his newsletter [shown above] usingthe IEEE Regional Activities e-Notice serv-ice. This electronic newsletter subscrip-

tion service, piloted in 2003, helps IEEEorganizational units to distribute theirnewsletters and meeting notices by e-mail.

Interest by members in contributing tothe newsletter has been growing, saysGupta. “It took a while to get members tosubmit content about local activities, butthen we hit a positive feedback loop wheremore regional content brought more inter-est in having local content, too,” he says.

An active IEEE volunteer since hisfirst days as a student member, Guptawas surprised when he was asked to editthe newsletter.

“Many of us don’t think we have theskills in communication,” he says. Hisrole as editor piqued his interest in learn-ing to write more effectively. “It is moreand more important to be able to com-municate what you are thinking and topersuade others of your ideas.”

TRY GAMES AND HUMOR Butch Shadwellalso sees honing one’s writing skills as akey to success. He is president of Shad-well Technical Services, a consultingfirm in Jacksonville, Fla., USA. For thepast 12 years, Shadwell has written amonthly column, the “Brain Teaser Chal-lenge,” for the IEEE Florida-West CoastSection newsletter.

“I started including humor to make thematerial more palatable,” he says. He alsoadvises writers and editors to work on theirvocabulary and literary style. “A little allit-eration can go a long way, and so can imag-inative word usage,” he says. “The written

word is an art form of its own.”Shadwell’s columns are now

published in a variety of interna-tional publications, and other IEEEeditors can reprint them.

A successful newsletter also de-mands strong editorial manage-ment skills, points out RobertSmrek, director of production serv-ices for IEEE Periodicals at the IEEEOperations Center in Piscataway,N.J., which provides printing andmailing services, as well as PDFpostings, for 19 society newsletters.

“It’s not an easy job to be a volunteereditor, so organization is key,” Smrek says.“You need to stay on top of contributors tomeet deadlines.”

Meeting production deadlines willresult in a consistent publication schedule,and your readers will know when to expectyour newsletter. Publish late and youcould be involved with scheduling prob-lems at your printer. And then yournewsletter could be delayed in delivery,

especially for those mailed to other coun-tries. Reaching your readers late couldeventually undermine a newsletter’s suc-cess, Smrek says.

POSTING ONLINE Many editors avoid delayscaused by the postal system by postingtheir newsletters online. Luis Remez, edi-tor of the IEEE Argentina Section’s onlinenewsletter, provides news to 4500 readers.He says that not only does he get the infor-mation out more quickly, but he also saveson printing and mailing costs.

Getting a newsletter out in a timely fash-ion brings other advantages as well. It makesit easier to coordinate events around the sec-tion. It also improves connections withmembers and makes it easier to share andretrieve information. A “Contact Us” linkthat Remez has put on his site often yieldsinformation of interest to the section’smembers he can include in his newsletter.

The newsletter also is a way to con-solidate activities among the section’s

members, and not duplicate events.“We place great importance on operat-ing in an integrated way,” he says.“Judging by the increased number ofresponses we receive to activities [wewrite about], the newsletter is succeed-ing in reaching members.” •


BEST PRACTICES

Engineering a Lively Newsletter

IEEE Personal Email AliasWith Virus Scanning and UCE Filtering

Sign up today:www.ieee.org/alias

IEEE Members: Stay connected with yourFREE IEEE Personal Email Alias

■ ■ Get an @ieee.org email address

■ ■ Identify yourself as an IEEE member

■ ■ All mail is forwarded to your real Internet address

■ ■ Virus scanning – all incoming attachments are

disinfected – a US$30 value!

■ ■ Keep the same email address when you move

or change careers

■ ■ Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE)

filter – identify unwanted spam with this

optional service

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Tips for producing a successful news-

letter are available at the online Section-

Chapter Volunteer Forum at http://www.

ieeecommunities.org/sectionchapter_vol.

Guidelines for creating and submitting

newsletter materials to IEEE Periodicals

are listed at http://www.ieee.org/

organizations/pubs/magazines/index.html.

The e-Notice is located at http://www.

ieee.org/organizations/vols/e-notice.

To contact Butch Shadwell, e-mail him at

[email protected].

Don’t worry about the hassles or the expense of moving. Let the

professionals at North American Van Linesprovide the quality and worry-free servicethat you and your family deserve.

IEEE members and their families can receive up to $2000 cash back

(based on the sale price) with the excellent home selling and home purchasing assistance provided by Weichert Relocation Company!

Affordable, convenient automobile and homeowners insurance for IEEE Members. If you insure both your car and home under this program,you may save up to 10% on premiums!

Four Easy Steps to Home Ownership

Programs available in U.S. only. May not be available in all states. Please check with carrier.

Don’t put it off another day! Call +1 800 GET IEEE (438 4333) or visit www.ieee.org/fap

Auto/HomeownersInsurance

Real Estate Service1

4

Moving Services3

Mortgage ProgramNow available to IEEE Members: Great mortgage

rates from Wachovia MortgageCorporation. Discounted rates, easy processing, professional guidance and fast approval.

2

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .



. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Let IEEE Help You Every Step of the Way

saving lives, one land mine at atime - the...

Documents