IEEE Student Branch

by Kevin McMullen, President

The IEEE Student Branch found itself at the end of another successful year. As usual, the annual Christmas Party was a hit, as well as the fall picnic. A very popular event was a talk "Wiz-Bang Communications Technologies of the Future," a talk on present and upcoming developments in networking given by Bob Noseworthy of the InterOperability Lab.

The biggest accomplishment this year was the introduction and sponsorship of two IEEE Projects. First was the Micromouse. This was a competition-based project taken on by Mark Sinclair, Darren Keller, and Matt Blake. It involved creating a robotic "mouse" that traversed a maze, remembered the maze, and finally retraced the labyrinth with ease! The project was a success and even won its engineers an award at Senior Projects Day!

The second IEEE project was part of the Computer Society International Design Competition (CSIDC.) The idea was to engineer a personal health care appliance that is portable like a PDA, but has network capabilities. The design worked, but unfortunately did not win a prize. Involved in the design process were: Nathan Bourgoine, Richard Lynch, Kevin Meyer, and Mark Sinclair.

Also, a changing of the guard occurred this year when a new board was elected upon retirement of our veterans. Newly elected to office were: Secretary: Karen Tuttle, Treasurer: Sean Prindle, Vice President: Jonathan Newcomb, and President: Kevin McMullen.