pittsburgh section bulletin - ieee · event at panera bread in wilkins township (official address:...

IEEE Pittsburgh Section Bulletin October 2019, Volume 68 No. 10 of 11

Pittsburgh Section

Bulletin October 2019 Volume 68, No. 10

Included in this issue:

Chair’s Corner ............................................................................................................................................ 2

Towards Blockchain-Based Collaborative Enterprise ....................................................................... 3

Development of an Ultra-wide Band Feed Receiver for the Green Bank Telescope ................ 4

Call for Section Officer Volunteers .................................................................................................... 4

“Become a Senior Member” Advancement Event - October 24 .................................................... 5

Mining Real Utility Data for Enhancing Distribution Grid Observability and Resilience ........ 6

Tour of Touchstone Research Laboratory and associated facilities ........................................... 7

ECRIME 2019 – SYMPOSIUM ON ELECTRONIC CRIME RESEARCH ........................................ 8

Calling all IEEE Education Society (EdSoc) members in the Pittsburgh Section ..................... 9

Tour of Port Authority Light Rail Operations Control and Maintenance Center .................... 10

Editor: Philip Cox, [email protected]; Contributors: Gianfranco Doretto, Mark Lee, Steve Mozelewski,

Kal Sen, Sarika Solanki, Dave Vaglia and Dan Wilson

All announcements for publication in a particular month’s bulletin are due to the Editor by the 20th of the

previous month. The accuracy of the published material is not guaranteed. If there is any error, please bring it to

the Editor’s attention. The Section’s web site, http://sites.ieee.org/pittsburgh, has recent issues of the bulletin

and lots of other useful information.

mailto:[email protected]

http://sites.ieee.org/pittsburgh/


Chair’s Corner Summer is over according to the calendar, but nature is

keeping the heat on us. In addition to the heat outside, our

Pittsburgh IEEE Section is heating up. Thanks to the

foresight and energy of Mark Lee

([email protected]) the Pittsburgh Section is

looking to expand by establishing a local chapter of the

IEEE Education Society (EdSoc). Mark has petitioned the

Pittsburgh Section to start this chapter and is in the process

of gathering the 12 local members signatures needed to

support the startup chapter.

Did you ever consider volunteering some of your time to

support your Local Pittsburgh IEEE Section? Our Pittsburgh

Section is in need of volunteers to help manage and

coordinate our section’s activities. Officer elections occur in

the late fall timeframe. We are over 30 volunteers, some of

which have been in their positions for years. With new

volunteer leaders come new ideas and additional insights

into how the IEEE can better serve its members. Attend one

of our Executive Committee meetings, as our members are

welcome to do so, and get involved.

The next Executive Committee meeting is scheduled for

October 17, 2019. It is being held in Morgantown WV.

There will be a seminar (Technical presentation pertaining to

the giant Greenbank Radio Telescope held at WVU)

followed by the dinner/business meeting at a nearby

restaurant. See notice inside this Bulletin for details. This

is a great time to drive to Morgantown as the fall foliage is

usually in its peak color.

.

For those interested in cybercrime, there is a November

conference here in Pittsburgh at CMU, sponsored by the

APWG (anti-phishing working group) an industry

association focused on unifying the global response to

cybercrime. We will need volunteers to support this

conference. See inside for conference details. Contact me if

you want to volunteer.

Lastly, as our Section’s History and Awards Dinner was

cancelled last May, we will be scheduling an early

Holiday/Year End Dinner party for our Section’s members

and their spouses.

Hope to see you at our upcoming activities.

Dave Vaglia

Section

Chair - Dave Vaglia, [email protected]

Vice Chair -- Ted Zyra, [email protected]

Treasurer – Evan Watson, [email protected]

Asst. Treasurer –Joe Schaad

Secretary - Haifeng Wang, [email protected]

Immediate Past Chair – Dan Wilson, [email protected]

Special Events Chair – Dr. Kal Sen, [email protected]

Webmaster – Gerry Kumnik, [email protected]

UpperMon Subsection

Chair: Dr. Gianfranco Doretto, [email protected]

Chapters

Communications Society – Chair: Dr. Balaji Palanisamy, [email protected]; Sec: Phil Cox, [email protected]

Computer Society – Chair: Dr. Ralph Sprang, [email protected]

Electronics Packaging/Electron Devices Societies – Chair: John Mazurowski - [email protected]

Engineering In Medicine & Biology Society Chair: Steve Mozelewski, [email protected]

Electromagnetic Compatibility Society - Chair: Michael J. Oliver, [email protected] (814) 763-3211 Magnetics Society – Chair: Vincent Sokalsky, [email protected]

Nanotechnology Society: Guangyong Li - [email protected]

Power Electronics Society – Chair Sid Pant - [email protected]

Power & Energy & Industry Applications Societies Chair: Steve Dobos, [email protected]; Vice-Chair: Julie

Clark; Treas.: Dave Vaglia, [email protected]

Robotics Society – Chair: Joseph Giampapa, [email protected]

Signal Processing Society – Chair: Frank Plavec, [email protected]

Society on Social Implications of Technology Chair: Dr. Kal Sen, [email protected]; Vice Chair: Joe Kalasky, P.E., [email protected] 724-244-1609

Council of Electronic Design Automation Chair: Baris Taskin, [email protected]

Affinity Groups

Young Professionals (formerly GOLD) – Chair: Brent Baade, [email protected]

Women In Engineering – Chair: Mey Sen, [email protected]

Life Members: Joe Kalasky, P.E., [email protected]

Committees

Consultant network: George Crawford - [email protected]

Professional/Career Activities (PACE) Chair: Joe Cioletti, P.E. [email protected]

Student Activities – Drew Lowery, [email protected]; student reps: Chair:, Sam Talkington, [email protected]; Regional Student Rep: Will Howard, [email protected];

Membership Development – Steve Mozelewski, [email protected]

Publicity – Chair: Thomas Dionise, P.E. [email protected] (724) 779-5864





































Towards Blockchain-Based Collaborative Enterprise

Speaker: Layth Silman

Date: Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Time: 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Place: AERB135 Advanced Engineering Research Building

West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV

Abstract: Nowadays, we witness the emergence of new collaborative business models such as virtual

market places, sharing economy, Remote Fabrication and distributed supply chain. This has been

geared by the rise of new IT technologies, namely Internet of Things technologies and cloud

computing. Despite the advantages of these scenarios, managing security and trust are major obstacles

that should be studied to spread the collaboration intensive business.

One of the most promising technologies that can overcome these obstacles is distributed ledger

technology. Distributed ledger technology e.g. Blockchain is a technology that provides a decentralized

“database” on a network that is scalable, secure, tamper-proof, and accessible by each peer on the

network. However, distributed ledger technologies are basically designed for financial

application. Consequently, these technologies are, so far, not adapted to the development and the

execution of collaborative business process necessary to meet business needs. In this talk, I will try to

answer the questions: how to enable distributed ledger based infrastructures so that they can meet

collaborative business needs? What are the fundamental obstacles in the current distributed ledger

technologies state that hinder the support of the business collaboration? At what levels in distributed

ledger architecture the changes are needed?

Biography: Completed his Diploma in Computer Engineering. Then he obtained his masters in

Computer Science (Information systems) in INSA Lyon- France and then his Phd from INSA Lyon, in

collaboration with the University of the Ryukyus, Japan. In 2003, he underwent training in Development

and Implementation program in Computer Software Applications in CMC-TATA, New Delhi, India. In

the same year, he also underwent another training in Information and Communication Technologies in

MEIO University and Okinawa International Center, Japan. In 2008, 2009 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014

he did many research stays on Digital Rights Management and image processing in the University of the

Ryukyus and Ritsumeikan University - Japan. During the period 2000-2010, he worked as lecturer and

assistant professor, did his research and taught Computer Engineering and Information Systems in many

universities including INSA, Lyon, the University of the Ryukyus in Japan, Beijing University of

Technology, South China University of Technology China, and the Insitute of Visual Informatics in

Malaysia. Since September 2010 he is associate professor in EFREI, a French engineering school

located in Paris. His is a research fellow in many international institutes. His main topic is Collaborative

Information Systems. This involves many topics including Web 2.0, IS Architecture, IoT Security,

Cloud Computing, SaaS, Semantic Web and semantic SOA. He delivered many talks and seminars on

the subject of Blockchain in France, Italy, Japan, and Spain. He has chaired and or organized more than

10 international conferences. This include 27th IEEE WETICE, 25th IEEE WETICE, SOCPAR2017

(LNCS), IAS2017 (LNCS), 13th IAS (LNCS), IBICA2017(LNCS), 10th IFIP NTMS2019, 9th

NTMS18, 6th NTMS15, 14th ISDA(IEEE), and 10th IAS(IEEE).


Development of an Ultra-wide Band Feed Receiver for the Green

Bank Telescope

Speaker: Steven White

Date: Thursday, October 17, 2019

Time: 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Place: 120 Advanced Engineering Research Building (AER)


Abstract: An ultra-wide band feed receiver is being developed for prime

focus of the Green Bank Telescope, one of the premier instruments in the

pulsar timing array used for long wavelength gravitational wave

detection. Detection requires estimating timing parameters of many

different pulsars spread over the galaxy, each having unique timing errors

associated with the observed bandwidth (0.7-4.2 GHz). The feed design

presents many challenges in the pursuit of low noise and high efficiency

operation over the band. Steven will describe the fundamentals of the GBT optics, give design details of

the dielectrically loaded quad ridge feed and cryogenic receiver, and explain pulsar timing properties

driving the design.

Biography: Steven White currently serves as the Electronics Division Head for the Green Bank

Observatory. His contributions to the observatory include development of a seven-pixel K-band

cryogenic receiver, a dual beam 4 mm cryogenic receiver, an L-band phase array feed receiver and a

gain stabilized analog fiber optic link. Recent projects include research into ultra-wide band feeds, a

fiber optic based laser range finder patent, and a high mass flow cryogenic compressor design. Steven

obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University

and a Master of Science Degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Call for Section Officer Volunteers

The IEEE Pittsburgh Section is seeking volunteers for the positions of Vice Chair, Treasurer, Assistant

Treasurer, and Secretary.

To apply, you must be an active IEEE member in good standing, a willingness to learn. The time

commitment is not large, along the lines of a few hours per week. Previous volunteer experience is a

plus but not strictly necessary.

All interested respondents will be vetted by the nomination committee, and the nomination committee

will select one or more qualified candidates to include on the ballot in our upcoming election. Ideally,

we are seeking candidates that are willing to take on this challenge, and then use the knowledge they've

gained to take on other volunteer roles.


If this sounds like something that interests you, or if you have questions about it, please contact me:

[email protected].

Dan Wilson, IEEE Pittsburgh Section Nomination Committee Chair, 2019.

“Become a Senior Member” Advancement Event - October 24

Interested in becoming a Senior Member, but not quite sure how to pull it off? Come to an advancement

event at Panera Bread in Wilkins Township (official address: 400 Penn Center Boulevard, Pittsburgh,

PA 15235) on Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 6:30 PM.

Advancement to Senior Member is free and the benefits are numerous. The main reason for elevation is

to achieve recognition among your peers for technical and professional excellence. It looks great on

your resume or CV! However, you will also receive a very nice wood plaque engraved in bronze, a

letter of commendation sent to your employer, and an acknowledgement in this newsletter for all to see!

A coupon for $25 off membership in a new technical society is an added bonus.

The IEEE web site grade elevation page says, “For admission or transfer to the grade of Senior Member,

a candidate shall be an engineer, scientist, educator, technical executive, or originator in IEEE-

designated fields for a total of 10 years and have demonstrated 5 years of significant performance.”

Retired and Life Members are also eligible for advancement based on their previous employment

history.

Additional detailed requirements should be reviewed to assure that you are comfortable that you qualify

at: http://www.ieee.org/membership_services/membership/senior/senior_requirements.html. Although

>90% of those who feel that they qualify and take the time to apply are approved for Senior

Membership, some of our members feel that the most challenging part of the application process is

identifying 3 Senior IEEE members who are familiar with their work who will act as references. If you

have determined that you fulfill the requirements of IEEE Senior Membership and you have this

concern, come to this meeting where Senior Members will be present.

The goal of this meeting will be for you to have a casual dinner, meet some Senior Members, learn

about the application process, and come away with the online application form filled out and ready to

submit. So, bring your laptop and assure that your IEEE account is active before the meeting.

Please send your resume in advance to Steve Mozelewski ([email protected]), Membership

Development Chair and also register for the meeting online at: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/203899

Only about 7% of all IEEE members advance to Senior Membership, but we are continuing to increase

our numbers in the Pittsburgh section.

mailto:[email protected].

http://www.ieee.org/membership_services/membership/senior/senior_requirements.html


https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/203899


Mining Real Utility Data for Enhancing Distribution Grid

Observability and Resilience

Speaker: Zhaoyu Wang

Date: Monday, November 4, 2019

Time: 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Place: G102 Engineering Sciences Building (ESB)


Abstract: This talk will present our research on enhancing power distribution grid observability and

resilience using real utility data and machine learning techniques. We have archived a large amount of

smart meter, microPMU and SCADA data and associated grid circuit models from collaborating

utilities. We will begin the talk by introducing our data and one real utility dataset that we share with the

research community. By leveraging the smart meter data, we have proposed a multi-timescale learning

model that enables utilities to infer hourly consumption patterns of unobservable customers using only

their monthly billing information, thus significantly enhancing the grid observability. Further, the smart

meter data has been used to develop a model free framework to estimate cold load pick-up in service

restoration. In addition, we have used multi-year data from outage management systems to model

distribution grid resilience curves and characterize resilience features.

Biography: Dr. Zhaoyu Wang is the Harpole-Pentair Assistant Professor with Iowa State University.

He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Shanghai Jiaotong University in

2009 and 2012, respectively, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical and computer engineering

from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2012 and 2015, respectively. He was a Research Aid at

Argonne National Laboratory in 2013 and an Electrical Engineer Intern at Corning Inc. in 2014. His

research interests include power distribution systems, microgrids, renewable integration, power system

resilience, and power system modeling. He is the Principal Investigator for a multitude of projects

focused on these topics and funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy,

National Laboratories, PSERC, Iowa Energy Center, and Industry. Dr. Wang received the IEEE PES

General Meeting Best Paper Award in 2017 and 2019, and the IEEE Industrial Application Society Prize

Paper Award in 2016. Dr. Wang is the Secretary of IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) Award

Subcommittee, Co-Vice Chair of PES Distribution System Operation and Planning Subcommittee, and

Vice Chair of PES Task Force on Advances in Natural Disaster Mitigation Methods. He is an editor of

IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid and IEEE PES Letters and an

associate editor of IET Smart Grid.


Tour of Touchstone Research Laboratory and associated facilities

Date: November 9, 2019

Time: Lunch and Social - Noon; Presentation/Tour – 12:45 – 2:30 PM

Place: 1142 Middle Creek Rd, Triadelphia, WV 26059

NOTE: The tour is limited to 30 people on a first-come-first-serve basis.

RSVP: Required at https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/204113 by November 6, 2019. If you are an

IEEE member, you must enter your membership number. If you would like to receive PDH, please bring

a copy of this announcement for verification of your attendance and your membership identification

card. A non-Member who would like to receive PDH is required to pay $10 to “IEEE Pittsburgh

Section.”

Organizer: Women In Engineering (WIE) and Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT)

Travelling on Interstate 70 through the northern panhandle of West Virginia, you may have noticed

south of the highway a small complex of buildings under a sign for ‘Millenium Center’: home of

Touchstone Research Laboratory and its three affiliated companies. http://www.trl.com/

The tour will include visits to:

Touchstone Research Laboratory (TRL)– design and development of fiber-reinforced composites

and of materials based on CFOAM

Touchstone Advanced Composites (TAC) – manufacture of components for aerospace

applications

CFOAM manufacturing – production from coal of proprietary foamed-carbon formulations used

by TRL and TAC

Touchstone Test Laboratory – mechanical and thermal testing of materials and products of TRL

and TAC; contract testing of metals and other materials from producers throughout the midwest.

https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/204113

http://www.trl.com/


ECRIME 2019 – SYMPOSIUM ON ELECTRONIC CRIME RESEARCH

eCrime 2019 – Pittsburgh, PA – November 13, 14 & 15 at

Carnegie Mellon University

The APWG, established in 2003 as the anti-phishing working group, is an industry association focused on unifying the global response to cybercrime. The organization provides a forum for responders and managers of cybercrime to discuss phishing and cybercrime issues, to consider potential technology solutions, to access data logistics resources for cybersecurity applications, to cultivate the university research community dedicated to cybercrime, and to advise government, industry, law enforcement and treaty organizations on the nature of cybercrime.

This conference brings together academic researchers, security practitioners, and law enforcement to discuss all aspects of electronic crime and ways to combat it. For 2019 APWG’s members will once again come together to bridge the gaps between cybersecurity operations, research and consumer messaging with our fourteenth Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime 2019).

eCrime 2019 will look at the operational challenges and development of common resources and best practices for first responders and forensic professionals. In addition, the conference will dive into current research projects and future areas of interest for cybercrime investigations, forensic techniques and infrastructure defense. including our peer-reviewed cybercrime published paper program with the IEEE-SA.

Operational and research insights for fighting electronic crime will be complimented and augmented with discussions on citizen awareness programs to help ensure a secure computing environment. This year’s meeting will bring a focus on the shifting nature of cybercrime and the inherent challenges of managing that dynamic threatscape.

For more information: https://apwg.org/ecrime2019/

https://apwg.org/ecrime2019/


Calling all IEEE Education Society (EdSoc) members in the

Pittsburgh Section

Dear colleagues,

I am exploring the idea of establishing a Chapter of the IEEE Education Society (EdSoc) in the

Pittsburgh Section. I founded the New South Wales, Australia EdSoc Chapter back in 2007—that

Chapter later was recognized with a Best Chapter Award—and since relocating semi-permanently to

Pittsburgh in 2014, I have been surprised that our Section does not have an EdSoc Chapter. With

education, technology, and the intersection of the two being major pillars of our local economy, I think

such a Chapter has the potential to play an important role.

I would be very grateful for your feedback on the following:

1. Would you be willing to e-sign a petition to create an EdSoc Pittsburgh Chapter? (We need the

support of 12 members in order to form the Chapter.)

2. Would you be interested in serving the Chapter in some sort of leadership capacity, and/or

collaborating with the Chapter to organize and host events related to computer science education

/ engineering education / educational technology?

Please let me know via email at [email protected].

Many thanks in advance for your time!

Cheers,

Mark Lee

Editor-in-Chief, IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies

Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Education

Founding Chair, IEEE Education Society New South Wales Chapter

Steering Committee Chair, IEEE TALE (EdSoc conference series on Engineering, Technology, &

Education)

Chair, IEEE ICICLE XR for Learning and Performance Augmentation SIG

Email: [email protected]




Tour of Port Authority Light Rail Operations Control and

Maintenance Center

Date: Tuesday, November 12th

Place: Port Authority South Hills Village Maintenance and Operations Center

1000 Village Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15241

Time: 6:00 PM Tour Begins

Presenter: Port Authority Light Rail Operations

Sponsors: Pittsburgh Section Professional Activities Committee (PACE – Joe Cioletti)

Contact: [email protected]

The Port Authority of Allegheny County Light Rail Transit System has been an evolving Pittsburgh icon

that transports some 25,000 riders per day to and from the South Hills of Pittsburgh over two routes

(Red Line and Blue Line) to the downtown area. Monitoring the light rail system to keep passengers

safe during their daily travels involves extensive operations monitoring and control in addition to safety

signaling and interlocking systems.

Recent additions to the Light Rail System include a revamped Gateway Station featuring an under

Allegheny River tunnel connection to the North Side Station adjacent to PNC Park and an Allegheny

Station adjacent to Heinz Field, effectively providing frequent service that effectively merges downtown

and north side.

The Operations Control Center is a focal point for real-time data collection and presentation in an easily

interpreted system map with on demand video monitoring of various locations along the routes.

Maintaining and upgrading this Light Rail System provides a constant challenge for the Port Authority,

who will also provide an overview of the vehicle maintenance facility as well as the corresponding data

servers and real-time network that comprise this much used transportation infrastructure.

Overall System Control Map at the Port Authority Operations Control Center



2019 Calendar – Meetings of IEEE Pittsburgh Section Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July August Sept Oct Nov Dec

Executive

Committee

(AdCom)

17 Galleria

Mt. Lebanon

21 Panera

Robinson

21 Panera

McCandless

18 Panera

Galleria/Mt.

Lebanon

16 Panera

Robinson

20 Panera

Penn

Center

18 Panera

Galleria/Mt.

Lebanon

15 Panera

Robinson

19 Panera

Wexford

17 WVU

TBD

21 Panera

Robinson

19 TBD

Section 11 Health Care

10 History Dinner

(Cancelled)

24 Senior

Members

Communic

ations

1 Broadcast Ind.

Computer 26

Cyber Sec

EMBS 25 Linear Accel.

9 Sig. Proc. &

AI

10 Comp. Glut.

EMCS 26 Product

Design

Power

Electronics

24 BPS 25

Solar Power

14

Substation

28

Tesla

PES/IAS 24 BPS 26 Product

Design

25

Solar Power

14

Substation

28

Tesla

24

Grid Rel.

Magnetics

Robotics

Sig.

Processing

10 Comp. Glut.

CPMT/ED 27 Foam 31

Bird acoustics

Social Impl

Technology

23 Dynamics

23 Baseball

12 Russ

Harrison

9 Touchstone

Tour

Upper Mon 11 Control & Opt.

16 BlockChain

17

Telescope

4 Utility Data

Women in

Eng’ing

23 Dynamics

24 Grid Rel.

23 Baseball

9 Touchstone

Tour

Young Pros 18 Picnic

Life

Members

14

Plant Tour

PACE 14 Plant Tour

12 Russ

Harrison

Student Act

* Meeting was not announced in the Bulletin

pittsburgh section bulletin - ieee · event at panera bread in wilkins township (official address:...

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