Electronics Firms Anticipate Galileo-GPS Navigation
Anticipating customer demand after the launch of the European Union’s Galileo global positioning satellite, consumer electronics manufacturers are already designing products with hardware and software to exploit complementary global positioning systems. Galileo, which is being developed to work with the U.S. Department of Defense’s GPS rather than competing with it, according to experts, will transmit signals in a number of bands, one of which - the L1 band - uses the same frequency as GPS. The L1 band will be spaced between GPS satellites with complementary orbits, increasing the number of signals that can be acquired from any particular location, which will improve accuracy in urban settings and even allow pedestrian navigation device users to pinpoint which side of the street they are on. Industry analysts say that while many advanced GPS services are under development, locating users relative to a map is more than enough to propel GPS into mainstream devices if it can be delivered without significantly adding to the processor load and overall cost of such devices. Read more
2007 Medal of Honor Recipient Named
Dr. Thomas Kailath, an IEEE Life Fellow and leader in digital signal processing and systems theory, was named the 2007 Medal of Honor recipient at the annual IEEE Honors Ceremony, held on 16 June in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The Medal of Honor, IEEE’s highest award, was presented to Dr. Kailath for the “exceptional development of powerful algorithms in the fields of communications, computing, control and signal processing.” In addition to his many contributions to the theoretical advancement of the field, Dr. Kailath has also greatly influenced the education of future researchers, mentoring over 100 doctoral and postdoctoral students. Read more
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A Quartet of Website Updates
Four IEEE websites: IEEE Xplore, the IEEE Job Site, IEEE.tv, and myIEEE, have been updated with helpful additions over the last few months. The IEEE Xplore website now provides IEEE Expert Now educational products as well as IEEE Standards Online subscription packages, making the digital library even more valuable. The IEEE Job Site, redesigned in April, features a new look along with even more helpful content geared towards both job seekers and companies looking for talented new employees. IEEE.tv, IEEE’s Internet-based video service that covers advanced technology and other topics, introduced two new features examining the technologies behind wind power and careers in biomedical engineering. Finally, myIEEE, the online membership portal recently updated its career-development and networking features, providing even more valuable information for IEEE members. Learn more
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Innovations 2007 Conference Scheduled for November
Innovations ’07, the 4th Annual International Conference on Innovations in Information Technology, is being held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates from 18-20 November 2007. The conference, co-sponsored by IEEE Communications Society, will bring together leading engineers, scientists, and researchers in IT from around the world to discuss the latest research in fields ranging from traditional Computer Science to evolving Web technologies and applications. For more information, please visit the conference website.
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Satellites Vulnerable To Rogue Attacks
Shooting down a satellite is a “piece of cake” for any rogue state or terrorist group with access to an intermediate-range ballistic missile, according to a study by two specialists in infrastructure vulnerability. A satellite-tracking program called Orbitron, available on the Internet, is paired with a flight-control simulator and a university-level knowledge of physics. Using this, Adrian Gheorghe, a systems engineer at Old Dominion University in Virginia, and Dan Vamanu, of the Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, in Bucharest, Romania, were able to simulate the Chinese shoot-down of their weather satellite, Fengyun-1C, in January, 2007. The pair calculated that their simulated warhead would reach its target 15 minutes and 7 seconds after lift-off, impacting the satellite at 3,120 meters per second. Read more
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NASA May Open Up Space Station to Other Groups
The international space station will host research experiments from other agencies and outside organizations upon its completion, according to NASA officials, who said the plan depends on private companies building spaceships that could travel to the station when the agency grounds its shuttles in 2010. The agency is in talks with several other government entities, including the National Institutes of Health, as well as private businesses that want to conduct research in the microgravity laboratory orbiting 220 miles above Earth. NASA and its 15 partner nations plan to finish construction of the space station in 2010, when the agency refocuses its manned spaceflight program on returning to the moon - a project that has driven much of the science at the space station for the last two years. The station was originally designed to be used until at least 2015, but NASA now believes it might operate until 2022. Read more
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IEEE Member Writes Engineering Ethics Blog
IEEE member Karl Stephan, a college professor at Texas State University, has created a blog that highlights “current events with an engineering ethics angle”. The blog, which has archived posts dating back to March of 2006, is updated weekly and talks about anything from lie detecting with fMRI machines and engineering “designer” babies to an engineer’s responsibility to educate the public about new technology. Stephan’s writing is witty and entertaining as he uses relevant, timely events to discuss important ethical issues facing the engineering field. Read more
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Thought-Controlled Toy Train Tested
A "brain-machine interface" that senses activity in the brain via slight changes in blood flow and translates that activity into electric signals used to control a toy train is being tested by the Japanese firm Hitachi. A cap that sends infrared pulses into the surface of the brain is connected by optical fibers to a mapping device, the firm says, which uses a control computer and motor to operate the train. The test subjects perform simple mental calculations which the device can detect as activity in the brain's frontal cortex, sending a signal to start the train set. Brain-machine interface technology has previously focused on medical uses, but companies like Hitachi and the Japanese automaker Honda Motor have been refining the technology for commercial applications. Honda’s interface monitors the brain with a magnetic resonance imager (MRI) like those used in hospitals to develop technology for intelligent, next-generation automobiles. Since 2005, Hitachi has sold a device that monitors brain activity in paralyzed patients so they can answer simple questions, indicating "yes" with simple calculations or “no” by thinking of nothing in particular. Read more
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New Titles Available from Wiley-IEEE Press Series
Read about the culmination of a half century's work from the most distinguished researchers in the communications and networking field in "The Best of the Best: Fifty Years of Communications and Networking Research", a new title available from Wiley Books. IEEE members receive 15% off all titles. Buy today
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IEEE GLOBECOM 2007 Registration Opens
Register today to attend the 50th Anniversary of IEEE GLOBECOM 2007 in Washington, D.C., USA from 26-30 November. Learn the latest developments in telecommunications as you network with industry leaders during this comprehensive 5-day conference. Scheduled program includes a general symposium; nine technical symposia with over 900 technical papers; tutorials and workshops; keynote speaker, Dr. Jeong Kim (President, Bell Labs at Alcatel-Lucent); and plenary speakers, Mark A. Wegleitner (Senior VP, Technology & CTO, Verizone Communications) and Matt Bross (CTO, BT Group). In addition to IEEE GLOBECOM's acclaimed technical program, registrants will have access to the 2nd Annual IEEE COMMUNICATIONS EXPO, which includes ACCESS '07 Executive Business Forum, Design & Developers Forum, and an industry exhibit; as well as IEEE EntNet's keynote and panel sessions. For detailed conference information, visit
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Cluster Performance, Speed Boosted
A new class of optical cables, along with a system specification for computer clusters allowing for faster communication in larger clusters and easier cooling, has been debuted by Intel Corportation. Hoping to accelerate use of its x86 processors among manufacturers, Intel Connects Cables can replace 24-gauge copper cables with an optical alternative that support 20 gigabytes per second communication in the firm’s Infiniband-based clusters. According to Intel, the new cables have a reach of 100 meters compared to about 10 meters for similar copper cables. While current clusters are typically limited to 1,000 CPUs due to the short range of the copper cables, these new optical cables will allow clusters of tens of thousands of CPUs across multiple floors of a building. Intel says its cables integrate optical transceivers directly into their connectors, are 84 percent lighter, 83 percent smaller and have lower bit-error rates and conversion latencies than copper alternatives. Read more
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"Design Squad" TV Show Seeks New Projects
The IEEE funded television series, “Design Squad”, in which two teams of high-school students, with the help of mentoring engineers, compete to design and build a functioning machine is seeking new ideas for engineering projects. Producers of the PBS TV series are interested in projects that are visually interesting, allow for a number of solutions, and would appeal to the show’s audience of 9- to 12-year-olds. E-mail your ideas to the show's executive producer, Marisa Wolsky, at marisa_wolsky@wgbh.org
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Half The Globe Will Be Mobile In 2007
By the end of 2007 more than half the world’s population, over 3.25 billion people, will be mobile phone users, according to a British consulting firm. The group, The Mobile World, says 135 million people have subscribed to mobile service since December 2006, a growth rate of more than 1,000 new customers every minute. Mobile service subscriptions now exceed 100 percent in Europe, with 666 million connections. The analysts note that it took more than 20 years to reach a billion subscribers but only 40 months to connect the second billion; the third billion mark is expected to be reached later this month. Read more
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IEEE UCE/SPAM Filtering Service to Change from “OPT-IN” to “OPT-OUT”
To help reduce the increasingly large volume of unsolicited commercial email messages – commonly known as spam – being sent to ieee.org email addresses from outside sources, the IEEE UCE/spam filtering service will be changing from the current “opt-in” policy to an “op-out” policy.”
On 20 August 2007, a default spam filtering level, expected to reduce the volume of email sent to ieee.org addresses by 30 percent, will be applied to all IEEE email aliases. It is designed to filter out email that is extremely likely to be UCE/spam. In the past, this filtering service had to be individually activated by each user.
Those who do not wish to have the default spam filtering level applied to their IEEE email alias can select to “opt-out” at https://uce.ieee.org and choose the “No UCE/Spam filtering” option, or select a more aggressive filter level. After choosing this option, click on “Set UCE/Spam Filtering Level” button to save the changes. If no action is taken by 20 August, the default spam filtering level will be activated. Subscribers can opt-out of the filtering service at any time.
For more details on why the new policy was implemented, how the policy will improve email delivery through internet service providers and the aggressiveness of the service, visit https://uce.ieee.org/opt-out-info.html. Questions can be directed to member-services@ieee.org.
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