IEEE S.F. Bay Area Council e-GRID's
BayAreaTech

TUESDAY May 26, 2009
SF Industry Applications Chapter
Speaker: Ed Rossi, President, Industrial Electric Manufacturing (IEM)
Time: Buffet and networking at 5:30 PM, Presentation at 6:00 PM, Tour at 7:00 PM
Cost: none (food compliments of IEM)
Place: Industrial Electric Manufacturing (IEM), 48205 Warm Springs Blvd., Fremont
RSVP: limited seating; reserve by email with frank.sylvester@sfdpw.org
Web: www.e-grid.net/docs/0905-sf-ias.pdf

Electrical power distribution equipment is built to design standards that are specific but not always well understood by those applying the equipment for a specific project.  System designers need to understand how (more…)

THURSDAY April 2, 2009
SCV Technology Management Council
Speaker: Peter Hartzman, PhD, Consultant, Web-based Health Care Management
Time: Guided Networking at 6:30 PM; Dinner at 7:15 PM; Presentation at 7:45 PM
Cost: $25 for IEEE members; $30 for non-members ($5 more after 3/31)
Place: (to be determined)
RSVP: see web link (specify meat or vegetarian)
Web: www.ieee-scv-ems.org

This month’s presentation is on issues that occur in Health Care IT projects that put them in extreme danger of failure.  The speaker, Peter Hartzman, has been involved in many large and complex IT Health (more…)

THURSDAY April 23, 2009
IEEE SPECTRUM Magazine
Speakers: Alex Silbey, Director of Professional Services, Numetrics, and Shannon Johnston, Sr. Director of Professional Services & Support, Numetrics
Time: Presentation 11:00 AM - Noon
Cost: none
Place: On the Web (also available on a delayed basis)
RSVP: from SPECTRUM website
Web: www.spectrum.ieee.org/webcasts

This free webinar introduces you to the best practices in use during this economic downturn at six of the top ten IC development organizations. Actual case studies from Texas Instruments, ST-Microelectronics (more…)

THURSDAY April 16, 2009
IEEE SPECTRUM Magazine
Speaker: Anu Saha, Academic Product Manager, National Instruments
Time: Presentation 11:00 AM - Noon (others in series on June 16, Sept 17, Nov 12)
Cost: none
Place: On the Web (also available on a delayed basis)
RSVP: from SPECTRUM website
Web: www.spectrum.ieee.org/webcasts

Since the first industrial robotic arm became operational in 1961 at General Motors, the International Federation of Robotics reports that the robot population has grown to 6.5 million. Of these, 5.5 million (more…)

Santa Clara University Graduate School of Engineering:
Emerging Topics in Engineering One-Day Program - April 27
The Advanced World of Photovoltaics (PV) 
The solar cell is the heart of photovoltaic systems – the device that converts sunlight to electricity. First demonstrated in the early 1950’s, solar cells have undergone substantial evolution, with the best providing over 40% efficiency in the laboratory and over 20% in mass production. The objective is to provide an overview of recent trends in photovoltaics. This session covers advanced topics including improvements in solar cell design and manufacturing processes that lead to higher efficiency and lower cost, various thin film approaches, and concentrator cells and optics. Topics included:   • Efficiency limits of solar cells   • High efficiency silicon solar cell designs   • Thin film approaches (Module design and manufacturing, Amorphous and micro-crystal silicon, CIGS, CdTe)   • Concentrator cells and optics   • Future approaches, including third generation and organic.
Register on the SCU Engineering website,  or contact Olivia Jenq, ojenq@scu.edu.

Embedded Systems Conference - Learn Today. Design Tomorrow.
    — Mar 30 - Apr 3, 2009     — San Jose Convention Center
– Exhibits   — 130 Sessions   — Workshops   — Tear-downs
ESC Silicon Valley is the must-attend event for embedded systems engineers — the largest gathering of 250+ exhibitors showcasing the latest embedded technologies available today.
Keynotes:   - Adm. T.K. Mattingly, Apollo 13 astronaut   - Steve Sanghi, CEO, Microchip Technology   - Lisa Su, Senior V. P. and GM, CTO, Freescale
Features:   - EE Times ACE Awards   - Access to Live Product Teardowns   - Executive Summit   - Exhibits (Tues, Wed, Thurs)   - Netrino Educational Sessions   - Dev kits   - Complimentary Exhibits Pass
Tracks:   - Build Your Own Embedded System   - Green Engineering   - Datacom/Telecom   - Real-Time Kernels   - Consumer Electronics   - Debug Techniques/Tools   - Linux, Android, and Open-Source Software   (and many more)
Register on our website: www.embedded.com/esc/sv   - Use code PEGRID

SATURDAY May 9, 2009
SCV Grads of the Last Decade (GOLD), with Women in Engineering (WIE) Chapters
Instructor: Steven Cerri, Career Coach/Consultant
Time: Registration and breakfast at 8:30 AM; Seminar from 9:00 AM - 3:30 PM
Cost: Early registration: $35 for IEEE Members, $40 for Nonmembers, $15 for Unemployed IEEE Member, $20 for other Unemployed. $60 at the door
Place: Qualcomm, 3165 Kifer Rd, Santa Clara
RSVP: by April 28 for best rates (higher fee after), using EventBrite from our website
Preview: YouTube, “Influencing Without Authority,” www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEQptFV9WTc
Web: www.ieee.org/scv/gold

As engineers, our process of influencing in technical organizations often revolves around data and information, not around our skill as communicators and persuaders.  But the short answer to this career challenge is (more…)

WEDNESDAY May 13, 2009
SCV Components, Packaging & Manufacturing Technology Chapter, with Electron Devices and Circuits & Systems
Speaker: Sergey Savastiouk, ALLVIA, Inc.
Time: Optional dinner at 6:30 PM; Presentation at 7:30 PM
Cost: $25 if reserved by April 6; $30 at door (no cost for presentation)
Place: Biltmore Hotel, 2151 Laurelwood Rd (Fwy 101 at Montague Expressway), Santa Clara
RSVP: via the DoubleKnot registration page, from website
Web: www.cpmt.org/scv

Thinned wafers with through-silicon isolated metal vias (TSVs) open a valuable new design opportunity for both IC and package engineers.  Through-silicon metal connectivity enables (more…)

THURSDAY April 30, 2009
OEB Computer Chapter
Speaker: Dr. Mark Seager, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Time: Presentation at 6:30 PM
Cost: none
Place: Chevron (Bldg Bishop Ranch 1-X, Conference room #1220-1240 auditorium), 6101 Bollinger Canyon Road, San Ramon
RSVP: by 4/27 by email to Bill DeHope, dehope1@llnl.gov,
Web: www.e-grid.net/docs/0904-oeb-cs.pdf

Building, integrating and using petascale systems have many challenges including system power and cooling, system stability, scalablity, simulation environment and the development of petascale (more…)

TUESDAY April 21, 2009
SF Communications Chapter
Speaker: Lennart Frantzell, Sr. Consultant, Autonomic Computing, IBM
Time: Presentation at 6:30 PM
Cost: none
Place: California Public Utilities Commission, 505 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco (free on-street parking after 6 PM)
RSVP: by email to Tim Ryan, timryan@ieee.org
Web: www.ewh.ieee.org/r6/san_francisco/comsoc

As the world becomes more and more global, integrated and “flat”, it is also facing an array of problems: a financial crisis, climate disruption, energy geopolitics, food supply hazards etc.  This is coinciding (more…)