IEEE Activities 1996-1997

by Carolyn Tousignant, Outgoing President

This year started out with a fall picnic in October which was held in Kingsbury room 105 due to bad weather. However, the bad weather didn't dampen anyone's party spirits with over 50 faculty, staff, and students attending. On the IEEE seminar homefront, there were 6 IEEE seminars this year on topics ranging from sustainability to Dr. Miller's TV appearance on Scientific American Frontiers. Can I get your autograph Dr. Miller? We also had a great lecture by Charles King on electric cars and I even got to drive the car. Dr. Kraft talked about vibration control and Dr. Chamberlin gave a talk on rust and radiation while DR. Bob Eckert, UNH Dept of Natural Resources, gave a talk on sustainability at UNH. Finally, we had a discussion at the end of the year about the new curriculum for the Department.

The annual Christmas party was held at the Tin Palace again and over 50 people showed up to enjoy the holiday fun. The students gave out gifts to some of their favorite faculty. Chief (aka Allen Drake) has been seen on the warpath with his headdress, bow and arrows. Dr. Bernhard has been seen using her chair in the lab so she can write on the entire board. We hope Dr. Clark has used those envelopes on some big project, and Frank has put his superman in a very prominent place on his computer.

The biggest event of the year by far was the Student Professional Awareness Conference (S-PAC) held at the New England Center in April. S-PAC is an opportunity for students to learn more about the non-technical aspects of working as an electrical engineer. There were two speakers and a panel. The speakers were John J. Paserba and Dr. John LaCourse. John Paserba gave an energetic talk on career path progression. He stressed setting goals and writing them down. Dr. LaCourse gave a talk on Ethics in the Workplace. The panel consisted of Dr. Gordon Kraft, Dave Strohschein, Mary Ann Fusi, and Stoney Worster. Mary Ann Fusi is a recent graduate of UNH and is now working at Teradyne. She's on her way to Japan for a year and we wish her the best of luck. Stoney Worster works for PSNH. Dave is a doctoral student here at UNH and Dr. Kraft is a professor at UNH. The panel fielded questions from the audience about what to expect when we get in the "real world". I would like to thank all the speakers and panel members. Following a remarkable combination of accidents, illnesses, and work crises we had to replace almost everyone within the last week, so I would especially like to thank John Paserba, Stoney Worster and Dr. LaCourse for filling in on such short notice. They did a fantastic job. I'd also like to thank all the people who attended for their support. The conference was a huge success and couldn't have been pulled off without your support.

The last event was the spring picnic in the beginning of May. About 50 people attended again in Kingsbury room 105 because of inclement weather. A good time was had by all. All in all, the year was a success. I'd like to thank all the officers for their enthusiasm and hard work this year. You made this year a great success.