Professions of a Silicon Valley Double-E
Friday, March 09, 2007
  Shouting in the Wind?
IEEE-SCV-PACE: April 3, 2007
Shouting in the Wind?
How to get our Elected Officials to LISTEN to us.

Eventful Calendar Entry

Speakers:
Dr. Russell Lefevre
President IEEE-USA 2008
Chair, TAB New Technology Directions Committee

Lee Colby
President SierraRF, Past-Chair Santa Clara Valley Section

Networking Activity: Alan J Weissberger

Tuesday April 3, 2007 7:00 pm
Agenda:
PACE Committee Meeting 6:00-7:00pm
Doors Open (Dinner) 6:30pm
Welcome & Networking activity 7:00pm
Presentation 7:30pm
Fly-In Review
Open discussion and networking 8:30-Closing

Location:
India Grand Buffet
1214 Apollo Way, Sunnyvale, 94085

Cost: Dinner (optional) $10 + beverages

The Engineer is distinguished by his/her Practical innovations, based on scientific principles, which seems like it should be the Order of the Day in the halls of Government. Sadly, most of us can see that there is significant room for improvement in the decisions that are getting made. While we carefully consider, and often control the environment in which our electronic inventions work, we are frustrated by the environment in which we, and the companies we start or work for, must survive. It is supposed to be our government. How can we close the feedback loop, amplify our signal and improve the signal to noise ratio so that the decisions are better for us, our friends, family and Everyone?

Following Dinner and a directed networking activity lead by Alan Weissberger, Dr. Lefevre will discuss the IEEE-USA legislative activities taking place at the Federal and California State levels to promote bills that will have an impact on member's lives. He will also describe the IEEE-USA organization of the policy activities and discuss ways members can participate.

Following Russ's presentation, Lee Colby will give a brief report of his recent visit to DC as a part of the IEEE Fly-In.

About the Speakers:

Russell J. Lefevre is a Life Fellow of the IEEE, and has been elected as IEEE-USA President for 2008. He received the B.S. and M.S. in Physics from the University of North Dakota. He received the Ph.D.EE from UC Santa Barbara. He has over 30 years experience as a radar engineer. His activities include identifying advanced technologies, performing R&D, developing business strategies, and organizing proposal activities. He was responsible for over 80 Small Business Innovations Research awards. During 2001, Dr. Lefevre was an IEEE-USA Congressional Fellow serving as Science Advisor to Senator Jay Rockefeller. He was the Senate Staff person responsible for the activity leading to the NSF Math and Science Partnership program to improve K-12 education. Dr. Lefevre was personally responsible for inclusion of the Noyce Scholarships that provide scholarships for college students who major in a technical field and commit to teaching in a K-12 school. He continues these policy and Congressional liaison activities for IEEE-USA.

Lee Colby is a Senior Member of IEEE and worked for Dave and Bill in HP's RF and Microwave space for many years, before working as a consultant and at a few startups. Since "retirement", Lee devotes his time to his consulting customers, and making sure that the IEEE stays on the "straight and narrow!" He has served as a Chair of the SCV-Solid State Circuits chapter, Four years as a Section officer, including one as the Section Chair. He has since served as the 2005 Chair of the IEEE San Francisco Bay Area Council which oversees the IEEE-Grid for the 3 Bay-Area Sections. In addition, he enjoys encouraging students as a Science Fair judge, and as a Classroom volunteer in the local schools thru RESEED (Retirees Enhancing Science Education through Experiments and Demonstrations).

About Alan Weissberger:
As the founder and Technical Director of Data Communications Technology (DCT), a technical consulting firm started in March 1983, Alan J Weissberger specializes in telecommunications standards and their implementation. His clients have included network providers (all over the world), equipment and semiconductor manufacturers (many), and large end users (most notably the European Commission). Alan has represented clients in various standards committees, including: IEEE 802, ITU-T, OASIS, Global Grid Forum, and Optical Internetworking Forum.

Alan's current focus areas are: 3G broadband technologies, fixed & mobile WiMAX, broadband wireless applications, municipal wireless networks, IEEE 802.11n, Web Services standards and specifications, Grid Computer networking and architecture, technology assessment of Next Generation optical and wireless broadband networks.

He currently maintains a set of technology articles on Wireless communications at:
http://www.viodi.com/weissberger/. Alan is a Senior Member of the IEEE (1980) and has been a member for 39 years. He was an Adjunct Professor at Santa Clara University from 1975-1988, where he developed the Telecom curriculum for the Graduate EE Department.

About PACE (the local arm of the IEEE-USA):
PACE promotes the professional interests of IEEE's U.S. members and provides a mechanism for communication of members' views on their professional needs. Section and Chapter activities include workshops on career issues (networking, career planning, career transitions, personal financial planning); skill training workshops (entrepreneurship, effective speaking, technical writing), and Government Policy as it affects Engineering and Technology.
More information on local activities is available at
http://ieee-jbdavid.blogspot.com or http://www.ieee.org/scv/PACE.
More information on IEEE-USA is available at http://www.ieeeusa.org

There will be a brief Volunteers Planning Meeting prior to the event starting at 6:00pm - those interested are invited to arrive a little early for this.
 
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
  Give me your Bright, your Ambitious
Bill Gates is quoted in today's Wall Street Journal: "We face a critical shortage of scientific talent," further, adding that such shortages are hurting Microsoft and other companies.

Lou Dobbs posted the question: "Do you agree with Bill Gates that the U.S.
should allow an unlimited number of cheap, foreign tech workers into this
country?" Results: 7601 no (96%), yes 225 (4%). You can participate by going
to web site www.loudobbs.com.

If it were really true that there was NOT enough scientific Talent available, We'd have engineers gladly coming out of (forced early) retirement to go back to work.

Maybe the problem is that to get them to do that you have to offer actual training in the latest tools, and a decent pay check.

Doing that would also encourage the next generation to study the Math and science.. and get the engineering degree's.

YES we need to improve Education and make the right investments in Research and Development, but Flooding the market with extra technical talent and lowing salaries for employees is Not necessarily the best thing for ALL of us in the economy, and IEEE's position is that H1-B's particularly are a problem. (see http://www.ieeeusa.org/policy/positions/h1b.html for the IEEE's position on this)

Are the folks in DC hearing YOUR voice? Save the Date for our next meeting: April 3.

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Ruminations about the Electrical Engineering profession as practiced in Silicon Valley by an IEEE Senior Member. Disclaimer: All Posts here are official IEEE business in that they are messages about IEEE activities from an IEEE volunteer. These messages do not constitute official records of R6-PACE activities, nor official IEEE or IEEE-USA policy statements. Website: http://www.ieee.org/scv/pace

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Location: San Jose, California, United States

When he is not working on IEEE stuff, Jonathan does Mixed Signal Design Verification at Qualcomm. Senior Member IEEE. Founder IEEE-SCV-SSC (the first Solid State Circuits chapter). Past Section Chair, Santa Clara Valley Section - the Largest Section. Co-founder IEEE-SCV-CAS. IEEE-SSCS Membership chair 2001-2003. IEEE SSCS chapters Committee member. IEEE-SCV-PACE committee member 2001- IEEE-SCV-PACE Chair 2006-2007. IEEE R6 PACE coordinator.

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