Our next Section Meeting will be on September 28, 2006 at 6:00PM at the HESS Club. The speaker for the September Section Meeting will be Rakesh Verma and he will be presenting on the topic “Large-scale Electrical SCADA System Using Microsoft .NET”.  Mr. Verma is presently employed by Parijat Controlware.  Mr. Verma graduated with a BSEE in 1977 and has been helping companies worldwide with their control systems, communications, HMI, SCADA applications.

The Houston Section 2006-2007 CED Seminar Schedule is posted online and will start up again in October with several courses that cover excellent topics. All seminars will be at Jacobs Engineering located at 5995 Rogerdale Road, Houston, Texas, 77072.  For more details, are on our website.

Our 5th Annual IEEE-Houston Scholarship Golf Tournament will be held on Friday, October 6th and will be held at Southwyck Golf Club with an 8:00am shotgun start. We hope to see you in attendance and we need your support!  Remember, proceeds from this event will go to providing $1,000 scholarships to Section member’s children and/or relatives. 

The Power Engineering Society and Computer Society Chapters within the Houston Section have meetings scheduled for early October.  The PES has John McDonald the current IEEE PES President speaking on October 10 on the topic “Substation Automation and Technology Trend” at the HESS club (7pm).  The Computer Society has one of its Distinguished Lecturers speaking, Kathy S. Land of Northrop Grumman Information Technology/TASC on the topic “IEEE Software Engineering Standards to Support America's Army Gaming Development” on October 9, room 232 PGH at the University of Houston (11am).    

In addition, it is election time within the IEEE, each year a small percentage of the voting membership elects the officers of our professional organization.  After serving on various regional and Institute level committees over the past few years, I have had the opportunity to meet and work with several of the individuals who are on this year’s ballot.  Specifically, for the position of IEEE-USA President we have two individuals who I both know personally and either would do a fantastic job, but Joseph Lillie hails from Region 5 of which Houston resides within.  Joe Lillie has been an active volunteer within our region including a two year term as the Region 5 Director.  In addition, Joe has numerous long standing connections to many volunteers among others within the Houston area.  Knowing Joe for many years, I would encourage you to support his efforts to become the IEEE-USA President.  For more information on the candidates you can visit the following website: http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/corporate/elections/index.html

Remember the Executive Committee and I look forward to your feedback. If you are interested in getting involved in the local IEEE section, please let us know, as we are always in need of additional volunteers.  We have many opportunities that in many cases would align with your interests.  I encourage you to become more active within the IEEE and see the rewards and benefits your membership will yield.  Networking with professionals within our technical community will be of great personal benefit. Take the time, join us at one of the upcoming meetings; we look forward to meeting you.