October 2006
- Announcement Summary -

[1]  Monthly Luncheon - Wed. October 18, 2006
       Anchorage - Fairbanks - Juneau
       "Electric Vehicle Technology" - by Mike Willmon
[2]  Status of the Bachelor Degree Plus 30 Credit (B+30) Issue
[3]  IEEE-USA Elections

[1]  October 2006 Luncheon

The Alaska Section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. will hold its monthly luncheon 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM, Wednesday, October 18th , at the Sourdough Mining Co. Restaurant, 5200 Juneau Street.  A presentation on Electric Vehicle Technology will be given.  This is a first that we will be Webcasting this lecture to our Sub-Section in Fairbanks as well as members in Juneau.
 

Our Guest speaker for the month of October is Michael Willmon, P.E. Mr. Willmon is an RF Network Engineer for GCI Communications and the IEEE Alaska Section Treasurer for 2006. He received is B.S.E.E from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in 1992 and was active in engineering VHF, Radar, CCTV, Microwave, Differential GPS and LORAN monitoring projects for the Coast Guard until 1997.  Mr. Willmon designed and built hybrid powered remote microwave repeater and cellular sites for Bristol Bay Telephone Co-op for 4 years until coming to work for GCI. He has been following the state of Electric Vehicles (EV’s) in his own time for several years and in February of this year began converting his first vehicle to operate solely on electricity.
 

Mr. Willmon is among thousands who have converted all sorts of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles to electric and has since started an Alaska Chapter of the Electric Auto Association. The Alaska Electric Vehicle Association (AlaskaEVA) holds monthly meetings and was organized to help others who would like to complete a conversion project of their own. The organization also has as a goal to bring about public awareness of the beneficial environmental impacts of electric transportation as well as entice engineering students to seriously consider the benefits further research into this field could bring to the world. Mr. Willmon will give an overview of the state of EV technology and then will discuss the process he went through in converting his 1988 Mitsubishi MightyMax Pickup.
 

The meeting is free and open to the public. The cost for a buffet style lunch is $15 per person for IEEE members or $17 for nonmembers. Please RSVP by Tuesday, October 17th to Harry Turtschanow, 729-4057 or e-mail hturtsch "àt" anthc.org.  Click here for more details on our website.
 

Fairbanks location: will be meeting at Design Alaska, Inc. 601 College Rd., Fairbanks RSVP to GLDonofrio "àt" gvea.com  Juneau Location: Alaska Electric Light & Power (Large Conference Room) Meeting Address: 5601 Tonsgard Court, Juneau RSVP to eric.eriksen "àt" aelp.com
 

Harry Turtschanow Jr. - Section Vice Chair
 

[3]  IEEE-USA Elections

Dear Members,
 

It’s IEEE-USA election time.

It’s easy to vote on-line. The electronic voting site listed below is correct and is secure. It is an alternative way to vote that is quick and secure. It requires that you have a web account with IEEE.
 

Go to:
 

http://www.ieeeusa.org/communications/notable/090706-ballots.asp
 

which takes you to:
 

https://www.directvote.net/ieee/loginOptions.aspx.
 

Now, just log in.
 

You must have an IEEE Web Account to log in. ... How do I register for an IEEE Web Account? ... To register for an IEEE Web Account, please go to:
 

http://www.ieee.org/web/web/accounts/index.html
 

If you prefer, you can still vote by mailing in your ballot. Your hard copy ballot must be received by 12 o’clock noon Eastern Standard Time (18:00 GMT) on November 1, 2006. Mail early to allow for delivery. Return your ballot to: Survey & Balloting Systems, Inc., P.O. Box 46430, Eden Prairie, MN 5534-9751, USA.
 

However, there is a problem with the first ballot you received. To find out about it: http://www.ieeeusa.org/
 

Click on the IEEE Elections Update icon to read about the problem with the hard-copy mail-in ballot. You should have gotten two ballots. The second ballot only has the corrections. You need to send in both ballots.
 

Jo Neumaier - Section Chair
 

[2]  Status of the Bachelor Degree

Plus 30 Credit (B+30) Issue

I attended the NCEES Annual Meeting as a non-voting, interested party September 14 & 15.   On October 15, the NCEES voted (39 to 27) to require 150 undergraduate or graduate hours before an applicant can take the PE exam.  This requirement will take affect in 2015 and will affect all students entering college in 2007.

The only arguments for this measure were:

- ABET was not checking course content at many universities.

- The number of required credits has decreased from 150 many years ago to 120 credits.

- The quality of course content has decreased.

- The number of humanities courses required has increased usurping the engineering courses. 

The arguments against this measure were:

- ABET is checking course content.

- Technology (calculators VS slide rules and AutoCAD VS drafting) has decreased the number of hours needed to complete basic work.

- Many of the required courses when 150 credits were required are now obsolete (How to use the slide rule-3 credits, drafting 9 credits).

- The extra 30 credits of college studies does not prepare the EE or ME student for professional or ethical issues required to do their job.

- Universities do not offer application training that the industry (i.e. TVA) can provide for substation design, relay protection, and similar types of training necessary for project design. It is in this type of training that emphasizes the public safety issues.  Nor do the universities train on NEC or NESC codes and state regulations.  It should not be the job of universities to do application and code training.  Universities should be teaching a solid foundation in electronic and electrical theory.

- A minimum of two years of OJT will still be the only source of the type of training lacking in students who will graduate with 150 credits.

- Most of the legal actions that have taken place have been as a result of the misuse of PE stamps or the continued use of the stamp without getting it reissued.

- The real training for most construction jobs happens in employer paid training courses.

- The universities can not offer these types of training (How to design a substation or a transmission line).

- Requiring 150 credits to take the PE exam will complicate the comity between states.

- Requiring 150 credits to take the PE exam will further decrease the number of students choosing engineering as a major since it will require 5 years to complete for the average student.

- Requiring 150 credits to take the PE exam will severely decrease the number of PE’s in 10 years.

The Alaska AELS Board voted against B+30 and has written a letter to other states about their stand and their concerns. Gregg Vaughn, an IEEE-USA Board member 2003-06 and IEEE-USA Representative to NCEES Participating Organizations Liaison Council 2003-05, was present and lead the voting members to believe that IEEE-USA supported the measure.  This is not exactly true. (By the way, Gregg Vaughn is on the IEEE-USA ballot in the election on page 58 of the “Candidate Biographies Statements”. Be certain to vote.)

Dee Fultz is the IEEE Alaska Section Government Affairs Chair.  He will write a letter to the IEEE Educational  Activities  Board stating the Alaska Section position and urging them to oppose this.  We are looking for anyone interested to help him do some on-line research on the subject.  He would like to gather as much data as possible on how it will affect Alaska and Alaskan electrical engineers. 

Please consider volunteering some of your time to help Dee gather information for the letter.

Jo Neumaier - Section Chair