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Silver Lining for Cloud Computing in Poor Economy
A weakened economy will lead some enterprises to move from on-premise computing to accessing services over the Internet cloud, according to Microsoft’s Doug Hauser, general manager of business strategy, cloud infrastructure services. Hauser said that less sensitive chores such as back-up and restore, disaster recovery and computational functions would be moved more quickly into the cloud, adding "core line-of-business financial services applications won't be going into the cloud relatively soon, unless it's a private cloud." Microsoft helps with private clouds that require more security; it either acts as a primary service provider with its Azure cloud computing platform or works with partners which have security clearances to provide cloud services. Read more
Learn more about cloud computing in the IEEE Xplore® digital library
Call for Proposals: Real-World Engineering Projects
In its third successful year, IEEE continues its program to develop curricula in IEEE fields of interest for use with first-year students studying electrical engineering, computer engineering, computer science and electrical engineering technology. New for 2009, IEEE has added biomedical engineering to the program. The program continues to seek high quality, hands-on, team-based projects that focus on real-world problems whose solutions benefit society. The projects are expected to make the related IEEE fields of interest more relevant to first-year students, and to illustrate how the work of engineers and computer scientists directly impacts society. The ideal projects will allow students to discover the importance of a contemporary problem, and excite their interest in creative solutions. It will demonstrate how and why technical methods work, rather than simply providing a recipe for a solution. It will allow the students to discover underlying complex engineering and science principles, and provide motivation for further study and engagement.
Completed projects will be disseminated by IEEE for use by faculty in the development of first-year courses. Projects should be stand-alone modules requiring a combined 10-30 hours of lecture and laboratory instruction, and should be easily replicated at institutions worldwide with reasonable cost and effort. Submissions are open to all faculty members who teach Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Biomedical Engineering and/or Electrical Engineering Technology at a university that grants degrees in EE, CE, CS, BE and/or EET programs. Initial abstracts are due by 31 March 2009. Complete details regarding the call for proposals are available on the Real World Engineering Web site or contact us at realworldengineering@ieee.org
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Aggregation Next Step to Better Performance, Cost, Complexity for High Performance Computing
Since Seymour Cray introduced the first production supercomputers in the 1960s and 1970s, high performance in computing has come from parallelism and faster, denser circuitry. With the advent of the modern microprocessor, clusters of microprocessors challenged the dominance of vector supercomputers. Today more than 70 percent of the newly installed High Performance Computing (HPC) systems utilize commodity x86 clusters, which are significantly cheaper and offer better performance than the large shared-memory processor systems that typically run on proprietary Unix platforms. The disadvantage of cluster computing is the complexity and expense of installation and ongoing management of the infrastructure, as well as the restrictions put on end users because of the programming model. A new, high-end type of computing virtualization called aggregation is emerging, in which multiple physical systems appear to function as a single logical system. The building blocks of this approach are the same x86 industry standard servers used in clustering, preserving the low cost. But aggregation creates fewer larger nodes, meaning less cluster complexity and better infrastructure utilization. By running a single logical system, customers manage a single operating system and take advantage of large contiguous memory and unified I/O architecture. A greener computing approach, aggregation works well for such compute-intensive applications as engineering simulations, and for very large modeling and business intelligence applications, which are memory-intensive. Read more
Learn more about virtualization in the IEEE Xplore® digital library
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IEEE 125th Anniversary Media Roundtable Webcast to Address Emerging Technologies Enhancing Human/Technology Interactions
On 10 March, in conjunction with IEEE’s 125th Anniversary, a live Web broadcast will give viewers an exclusive look at how IEEE members are engineering the future. A panel of top minds in emerging technologies including biomedical engineering, biometrics, computing, robotics, telecommunications and wireless power will discuss the global impact their work will have on the way humans interact with each other and with technology.
The event, being held at the New Yorker Hotel in New York, New York, USA, will include the following speakers:
o Miguel Nicolelis, co-director, Center for Neuroengineering, Duke University Medical Center
o Roy Want, senior principal engineer, Intel Corporation
o Krishna Palem, professor, George Brown School of Engineering, Rice University
o Katie Hall, chief technology officer, WiTricity
o Rangachar Kasturi, professor, University of South Florida
o Dharmendra Modha, manager, cognitive computing, IBM Almaden Research Center
o K.J. Ray Liu, professor, University of Maryland, College Park
The IEEE 125th Anniversary Media Event media roundtable will take place on 10 March from 10:30 a.m. to noon EST. Pre-register for the Webcast
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First Conference on Cloud Computing Held in Canada
Attendees at the first Canadian Cloud Computing Conference heard from experts that data portability and privacy issues are just some of the barriers to wider enterprise adoption of virtually hosted hardware and software. One of the bigger challenges might lie with technology professionals themselves, according to Reuven Cohen, founder of Toronto-based Enomoly. He cited wariness about putting mission-critical data in a service provider’s hands, as well as concerns about the difficulty in extricating from a cloud provider and in moving data from one provider to another since there are no real standards in this area yet. The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario’s office has published a booklet on cloud computing and is meeting with working groups on security and standards. Read more
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IEEE Celebrates 125 Years in 2009
IEEE is commemorating its 125th Anniversary this year with a variety of activities surrounding the theme of "Celebrating 125 Years of Engineering the Future." Major anniversary events include the first IEEE Presidents' Change the World Competition for college and university students worldwide; a global media roundtable and web cast addressing emerging, world changing technologies; a series of celebrations in major world cities throughout the year; and IEEE Engineering the Future Day on 13 May 2009. Learn more about these events, and ways you can participate in the celebration, on the IEEE 125th Anniversary Web site
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New Plug-in from Enkata: First Call Resolution (FCR) Cloud Computing Service
Enkata, provider of analytics-powered performance management software, has launched its first offering in a series of cloud computing services. The new First Call Resolution (FCR) Metric Plug-in provides call centers access to Enkata’s proven FCR algorithm and delivers it to existing call center scorecards and dashboards using a cloud-based subscription service. It is designed to provide an accurate and actionable FCR metric at the agent level for 100 percent of calls, allowing companies to manage this otherwise difficult-to-calculate metric while leveraging their existing reporting. "FCR is a unique and highly valuable key performance indicator because it measures the effectiveness, efficiency and customer satisfaction level of a call center," said Donna Fluss, president of DMG Consulting LLC. "Organizations that are able to accurately track and measure FCR have been able to use it to help them reduce operating expenses while improving the customer experience,” she added. Ronald Hildebrandt, Enkata’s founder and senior vice president of marketing, said, "Organizations can easily implement Enkata's new FCR Metric Plug-in to quickly measure individual agents' FCR rates and take immediate action to reduce repeat calls and improve customer service, translating to significant cost savings for call centers within a short amount of time." Read more
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New Video Addressing "Smart" Power Grid Features Highlights from IEEE Conferences
IEEE has released an eight-minute video which explains the smart grid and its importance for reducing the carbon footprint. Featuring highlights from several IEEE conferences including Energy 2030 held in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, in November 2008, “A Smart Grid for Intelligent Energy Use” includes interviews with several power and energy experts from around the world.
The video explains how communications and computing technology can improve electricity transmission and distribution, resulting in significant energy savings. This “smart grid” will also facilitate the integration of energy from remote and distributed sources.
Experts who are featured in the video include: David Gellings, Southern Company; John McDonald, GE; Clark Gellings, EPRI; Deepak Divan, Georgia Tech; Andrew Tang, PG&E; Richard deBlasio, NREL; and Senator Maria Cantwell, Washington State, who is a co-sponsor of legislation that includes incentives to accelerate smart grid development.
The video was funded by IEEE-USA and the IEEE Power & Energy Society. It is a production of IEEE Technical Activities and Sciencentral and is being released on IEEE.tv and YouTube
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Computing Industry Aware but Not Acting on Green IT
Lack of ownership of critical energy improvements is one of the issues hampering implementation in the computing industry, according to a new survey by BPM Forum. As part of its Think Ecological venture with Intel and Rackable Systems, BPM surveyed 175 IT professionals from global internet and e-commerce companies. Response surfaced a disconnect between awareness and actual application of green IT, with 82 percent reporting greater awareness of ecological concerns in their companies than a year ago but 81 percent saying the industry was not making changes to reduce energy consumption. Jason Caori, senior marketing manager for Rackable Systems, said the survey "showed a lack of leadership and a lack of people who own this agenda within companies." The situation could become dire for companies that deliver services using data centers, forecast to consume about 4 percent of the U.S. power supply by 2011. Read more
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CloudTest Global Platform Announced
SOASTA announced its CloudTest Global Platform for load and performance testing Web applications and networks, enabling companies to simulate web traffic and conditions by leveraging the elasticity and power of cloud computing. “By leveraging the Cloud, we use the web as a platform to test web applications and networks and are uniquely able to provide the most accurate representation of real world web conditions. Two years from now, we see the Cloud as the only viable platform for the load and performance testing of web systems,” said Tom Lounibos, CEO, SOASTA. Read more
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Call for 2009 IEEE Educational Activities Board (EAB) Award Nominations
The IEEE Educational Activities Board (EAB) is once again seeking nominations to recognize and honor individuals, companies and IEEE Sections for their contributions to engineering and technical education. The deadline for the 2009 nominations is 30 April 2009.
There are eight awards open for nominations.
IEEE EAB Meritorious Achievement Award in Accreditation Activities⎯for efforts that foster the maintenance and improvement of education through the accreditation process.
IEEE EAB Meritorious Achievement Award in Continuing Education⎯for contributions to the design, delivery and support of continuing education courses and programs in IEEE fields of interest.
IEEE EAB Meritorious Achievement Award in Informal Education⎯for IEEE members who volunteer their time in public educational settings such as museums, parks, zoos and aquariums and serve as librarians, docents, tour guides, curators, board members or technical advisors. This award recognizes their impact on teachers, students and the public.
IEEE EAB Major Educational Innovation Award⎯for outstanding educational innovations that have had a major impact and have been emulated by others.
IEEE EAB Pre-University Educator Award⎯for current pre-university classroom teachers who have inspired an appreciation of mathematics, science and technology and the engineering process. Pre-university teachers who have encouraged students to pursue technical careers are also recognized through this award.
IEEE EAB Meritorious Service Citation⎯for IEEE volunteers who are past members of EAB or current or past members of EAB Committees (other than currently serving on ARC) for outstanding and sustained service to the aims and objectives of the Educational Activities Board.
IEEE EAB Employer Professional Development Award⎯for organizations employing IEEE members and their contributions to their employees’ continuing education and professional development.
Society/Council Professional Development Award⎯for IEEE Societies or Councils for major contributions to the professional development of its members through the outstanding products, services and support in the areas of life-long learning, continuing education and professional development.
For complete award descriptions, honorarium details, access to nomination packets and to read about the 2008 EAB Award Recipients, visit the EAB Awards Web site
Questions? Please send an e-mail to eab-awards@ieee.org
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