Summary newsletter of Cleveland IEEE 2023

Happy new year to members of Cleveland IEEE! 2023 has been a good and full year for our section. 2024 promises to be just as full.

1.Cleveland Section Executive Committee (ExComm) officers: old and new.

The Executive Committee for the Cleveland section consists of four elected officers, officers for the technical societies, and various assigned positions (e.g. Life Members, Membership Development, Young Professionals, Student Branch Representative).

Thanks to those officers who have done a great job these past few years but are now moving to other responsibilities:

· Rick Beyerle as vice-chair for two years. Rick will continue contributing on our executive committee as part of the STEM activities committee.

· Chris Hrivnak as secretary for the past six years. Chris will continue as part of the executive committee as our chair of our Life Member affinity group. As well as keeping track of our ExComm meetings, Chris has organized many social, professional and technical events during his tenure as secretary. Most memorable are the TopGolf outings as well as the dinner/presentation by IEEE-USA Washington DC lobbyist Russell Harrison in 2022.

· Max Scardelletti as treasurer for 8? 10? 12 years? And chair of the joint technical society encompassing Antennas and Propagation, Microwave Theory and Techniques, Electron Devices, Aeronautical Electronics, and Communications. Max has been a member of Cleveland’s ExComm for many years and has organized many technical presentations and local technical conferences. Max’s experience provided insight into how IEEE corporate operated, which was very useful to the new officers several years back. He also was very good at tracking our section’s money!

And congratulations to the members who are stepping forward (and elected by the section members) to take their place: Chris Weber as vice chair, Ryan Briggs as secretary, and Wenbing Zhao as treasurer.

2. Summary of 2023 events

Cleveland IEEE, its technical societies, and student branches hosted 18 different events this past year. Many events were streamed or hybrid, so members did not have to travel to participate. Most of the executive committee meetings were hybrid, but we did have a couple of in-person only meetings that were more social than planning (July brunch meeting at Pin Stripes, December dinner meeting at Wasabi). Executive committee meetings are normally held on the first Thursday of the month, but there are exceptions so checking the calendar at ieeecleveland.org is important. And members are always invited to attend an executive committee meeting.

2023 presentations and events are listed below. The Cleveland section works closely with the student branches from Case Western and Cleveland State, and members are encouraged to attend events offered by the student branches. (Non-members are also invited to attend most of the events.) These events were organized by a variety of different volunteers, the section thanks you for your help.

· Digital Substations and the IEC 61850 Standard (21 Nov 2023)

· Application of Bluetooth in a Medical Setting (11 Nov 2023)

· The Secret of Success – By Jim Watson, IEEE National Speaker (11 Nov 2023)

· Observations on the practical application of education within Enterprise Systems (02 Nov 2023)

· Senior Member Recruitment Dinner Event (04 Oct 2023) (Six local members were promoted to Senior Member in 2023! Contact me [email protected] if you need assistance in getting senior membership)

· CWRU IEEE Fall 2023 Seminar (22 Sep 2023)

· Cleveland US Coast Guard family tour (13 May 2023) (Mike Patena‘s follow-up to organizing the USS Cod tour)

· Accidental Consultant: A Journey (18 Apr 2023)

· SEL Protective Relay Workshop (14 Apr 2023)

· 2023 Dr. Charles Alexander NorthEast Ohio Science and Engineering Fair Awards Dinner (11 Apr 2023) (Four Cleveland IEEE volunteers judged the various projects in March, and the students, with their families present, were presented their awards in April)

· Electric Vehicles SparkTalk (07 Apr 2023 )

· PCB Design Virtual Workshop (09 Mar 2023)

· Members Social Event at TopGolf (07 Mar 2023)

· IEEE – PES Movie Night – The Current War (11 Feb 2023)

· Insurance Concepts and Products: How to Secure Your Assets and Income (08 Feb 2023)

I tried a new networking approach this fall: combining pre-recorded IEEE webinars that focused on career growth with the opportunity to discuss the webinar afterwards. This approach did not go over well, and feedback would be appreciated (i.e. approach wasn’t interesting, preferred topics would be xxxx): [email protected]

3. Other activities of 2023

The official website is now www.ieeecleveland.org. The old website address (www.clevelandieee.org) will be redirected to the new address. This change was done to comply with IEEE standard website naming practices, and occurred when we transferred the site hosting responsibility to IEEE corporate.

During these website naming transitions, our email addresses went off-line. Specifically, email to [email protected] were bounced. So please accept my apologies for any missed communications.

By the way, Cleveland hosted at least three IEEE conferences or workshops this past year:

· 2023 IEEE International Symposium on Applications of Ferroelectrics

· 2023 IEEE Cognitive Communications For Aerospace Applications Workshop

· 2023 IEEE Rural Electric Power Conference

And we again were a sponsor of Cleveland GiveCamp 2023

4. Plans for next year

ExComm training and 2024 planning meeting will be Saturday, Jan 13. Anyone interested in contributing to our planning (suggested topics for presentations; volunteering a presentation about your company, technology or career; ideas for family events; comments regarding Cleveland IEEE; etc.) can join us around 11am (in person or virtually). More details will follow.

Again, it has been a great year for Cleveland IEEE and an honor and privilege to serve as your chair.

Steven Galecki
Chair, Cleveland IEEE