IEEE

by Carolyn Tousignant, New President

Hello everyone, I'm Carolyn Tousignant, the new IEEE President. Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I joined the Air Force right out of high school. They sent me to such far flung places as Biloxi, Mississippi, Augsburg Germany, Bedfordshire England, and Baltimore Maryland. All told, I was on active duty for nine years. When I got out I joined the Air National Guard as an Avionics technician, which allows me to go to school full time.

On behalf of the incoming IEEE officers, I would like to thank Kim Roy, Student Chapter President, and the other officers for the awesome year we had last year, and hope that we can do half the job they did. Last year we had several successful events. The fall picnic, Christmas party, Student/ Faculty basketball game and the spring barbecue were some of the biggest events. For the first time, the students beat the faculty in the basketball.

Juniors Micheal Shannon , Jonathan Frain , Scott Pfeiffer, Christine Graham, Gerard   Nadeau and Carolyn Tousignant enjoy the fine NH weather.

To start the year off we'd like to invite alumni who are in industry (not necessarily as engineers) to talk to us about their experiences. If you would be willing to come give a talk, or know someone who would, please contact me at your earliest convenience. The lecturers don't have to be EE related. Last year my cousin John and Jennifer Tousignant talked about a medical mission they went on in Haiti. Also, the IEEE state branch gives evening lectures at places like Lockheed/Sanders.

We would also like to do something for Engineers week in February and Women in Engineering week in March. We have the Student Professional Awareness Conference (S-PAC) to plan for in the spring. S-PAC is a professional conference that introduces students to what we can expect when we graduate. Topics from the last conference included Tales from an Experienced Engineer, Ethics, Graduate Schools, etc. Last year the IEEE paid for almost all of the fee if you were a member, which included a great dinner at the New England Center.

We'd also like to set up some trips to the Boston Museum of Science and some companies in the area. Some of the suggested social activities are a Student/ Faculty paintball war or getting everyone together to do a ropes course to build teamwork. If you have any more suggestions about what you would like to see from your IEEE Student Chapter, please drop me an E-mail at carolynt@hopper.unh.edu.