Co-sponsored by: CB Sanderson   Machine ethics is the study of how autonomous systems can be imbued with ethical values. Ethical autonomous systems are needed because, inevitably, near future systems are moral agents; consider driverless cars, or medical diagnosis AIs, both of which will need to make choices with ethical consequences. Although machine ethics has been the subject of theoretical and philosophical study for about twenty years, it is only in the past five years that proof-of-concept ethical machines have been demonstrated in the laboratory. This webinar aims to open a discussion of the interesting and difficult technical challenges of engineering ethical machines, alongside wider societal and regulatory questions of how such machines should be governed, if and when they find real-world application.Panelists:- Alan Winfield (University of the West of England)- Katina Michael (Arizona State University)- Sarah Spiekermann (Vienna University of Economics and Business)- Louise Dennis (University of Liverpool)- Jean-François Bonnefon (Université Toulouse-1 Capitole)   Location: Houston, Texas

Co-sponsored by: Ryan Hobbs Stuck in a rut?    Set NEW Sparks for Your Next Phase of LIFE!!! Finish with a focus! Spark your semester finish to a successful new career or a successful summer break. The IEEE Student Branch at Lamar University will be hosting a Motivational Seminar facilitated by Mr. Taylor Troutman. He will help you transition from your current steady state of final exams and academic life and help you jump-start to a successful new career or how to find productive work or purpose during the summer break. This seminar is focused around sharing challenges/success and motivation moments in overcoming preparation for Spring Semester Exams, Spring Graduation, and Summer Break. Speaker(s): Taylor Troutman, Location: Room: 1103 Bldg: Cheery Engineering Building Lamar University Beaumont, Texas 77705

Co-sponsored by: NSF IUCRC BRAIN Center The BRAIN Student Group and IEEE EMBS Houston Section will round off the semester with a couple more events. These events are being hosted in order to increase awareness of the ongoing research of the faculty and students affiliated with the BRAIN Center. The final events will be lab tours. All that can attend are encouraged to come. Free coffee and snacks will be provided. The first tour will be of Prof. Cunjiang Yu's lab, which specializes in the development of flexible and stretchable electronics for biomedical applications. The attendees will first meet in the conference room for coffee/snacks, and then the tour will begin around 10:45-1:00 pm. Faheem Ershad will be hosting the lab tour, which should take approximately 30-45 minutes.  Agenda: 11:30 AM: Meet for coffee and doghnuts 11:45 AM: Lab tour starts 12:30 PM: Second lab tour session starts 1:00 PM: End Location: Room: 316 Bldg: Multidisciplinary Research and Engineering Building University of Houston Houston, Texas 77004

Congratulations Class of 2019! IEEE Houston Section Young Professional would like to celebrate your accomplishments by inviting you to the annual IEEE STEP (Student Transition and Elevation Partnership) Event! Join us for a tour of Houston’s very own hidden engineering marvel, the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern. Immediately following the tour, we’ll head over to La Grange for the Networking Celebration! Here you’ll have the opportunity to casually network with professionals and learn about the benefits of being an IEEE professional member after graduation. There will also be a surprise IEEE gift for IEEE members (Students & Professionals) that attend the tour and networking event. As this is an IEEE ticketed event, a fee is required – however if you attend the tour & networking event the fee is refunded! The Cistern tour has a max of 28 persons and tickets are first come first serve! Make sure to register your attendance as soon as possible as to not miss out! Interested in learning a bit more about the Cistern before the tour? Visit: https://buffalobayou.org/visit/destination/the-cistern/ *An assortment of appetizers will be provided *Drinks are NOT included Agenda: Agenda: 4:00 - 4:30 pm Arrival & Distribution of Tour Tickets 4:30 – 5:15 pm Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern Tour                         Address: 105 Sabine St, Houston, TX 77007 5:15 – 5:30 pm Group Picture & Travel to next location 5:30 – 7:00 pm Networking Celebration                         Address: La Grange, 2517 Ralph St, Houston, TX 77006 7:00 – 7:15 pm Close out of event Location: Houston, Texas 77007

Co-sponsored by: Moriah Hargrove Anders Houston Section Secretary invites all current and incoming student branch officers to sign up and attend this Student Branch Officer Training Class.  We will cover IEEE resources, navigating vTools, leveraging your Section, funding opportunities, and everything in-between! Refreshments will be provided to those in attendance.  You will not want to miss this first annual officer training meeting! A webinar link will be emailed to those who are unavailable to attend in person but who are still interested in the demonstrations and conversations. Speaker(s): Moriah Hargrove Anders, Agenda: 12:45PM - 1:00PM Arrival 1:00PM - Meeting will start on-time 3:00PM - Meeting conclusion & in-person meeting mingling   Location: Room: 108 Bldg: John B. Coleman Library University Dr. Prairie View, Texas 77445

Co-sponsored by: CB Sanderson New technologies, products and application techniques are now available that greatly enhance the safety of switchgear and unit substations. We cordially invite you to spend ½ day learning how to utilize these techniques and technologies to make systems safer by design. Suggested Invite: Consulting Engineers, Plant Engineers, Facility Engineers and Electrical Contracting Engineers   Coffee, Snacks, and Lunch provided by Eaton Corporation. A PDH certificate for 4 hours will be provided at course completion. Speaker(s): Bob Burke, Agenda: Safety by design as it relates to: VFI pad-mounted switchgear VisoVac pad-mounted switchgear Liquid versus dry transformers Transformer fusing Dead-front vs live-front Addressing substation arc flash safety Critical load applications Location: Bldg: Courtyard & Towneplace Suites 2995 L'Auberge Blvd Lake Charles, Louisiana 70601

Co-sponsored by: Michael C Romer Abstract: Many of the world’s most challenging technological problems in motion control are being solved right now.  We will explore several advanced innovations and technology applications in the electro-mechanical and electro-hydraulic actuation arena including; How do we explore hard to reach oil reserves more efficiently?    How do we effectively utilize electro-hydraulic closed loop position control to make sailboats “fly”? Can we use additive manufacturing and blockchain to reduce parts inventory?  How do we make complex autonomous construction equipment easier to control? Join us for a lively discussion of some real-life engineering case studies changing the future of motion control. Speaker(s): David Grabau, Agenda: 6-6:30 Networking 6:30-7:15 Dinner 7:15-8 Presentation and Q&A Location: Bldg: HESS Club 5430 Westheimer Ct Houston , Texas 77056

Co-sponsored by: NSF IUCRC BRAIN Center The BRAIN Student Group and IEEE EMBS Houston Section will round off the semester with a couple more events. These events are being hosted in order to increase awareness of the ongoing research of the faculty and students affiliated with the BRAIN Center. The final events will be lab tours. All that can attend are encouraged to come. Free coffee and snacks will be provided. This is the second lab tour in our series. The tour is hosted in Prof. Contreras-Vidal's lab, which specializes in noninvasive brain-machine interface systems. The attendees will first meet in the conference room for coffee/snacks, and then the tour will begin around 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM. Jesus G. Cruz-Garza will be hosting the lab tour, which should take approximately 30-45 minutes.   Visitor parking available here: https://goo.gl/maps/xQJKtw34aLL3XCaN6 Agenda: 1:00 PM: Introduction Social 1:30 PM: Lab tour starts 2:30 PM: Lab tour ends Location: Room: E413 Bldg: Engineering Building II University of Houston Houston, Texas 77004

Co-sponsored by: Rice University, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Abstract: Low-power wireless communication has been identified as one of the key enabling technologies for the Internet of Things (IoT). The performance of the contemporary IoT connectivity solutions is mainly limited by congestion, interference, and limited operation time with the battery. These limitations hamper the scaling of the IoT deployments. In this talk, we envision a new solution to the IoT connectivity combining existing and emerging wireless communication systems (hereafter legacy systems) with a new layer of ultra-low-power or passive ambient backscatter communication (AmBC). It can operate under very low signal-to-noise ratio conditions, share the spectrum with legacy systems without causing harmful interference to them, and scale to support a large number of devices. We will also discuss how the emerging microwave quantum technology can be utilized to enhance the performance of backscatter communications beyond the limits of classical solutions. Speaker(s): Riku Jäntti, Agenda: Technical talk at 4:00pm held at Rice University, Duncan Hall, room 1046 Location: Room: 1046 Bldg: Duncan Hall Rice University 6100 Main St. Houston, Texas 77005

Co-sponsored by: Alice Wang Volunteer needed! There will be a session of Teacher In-Service Program (TISP) session taking place at: Harris County Department of Education, 6300 Irvington Blvd, Houston, TX 77022.  The address is a high rise red brick building located near North Loop 610 and Irvington, outside the loop.  The classroom for this session is actually in a single story building across the side street from the building listed above in a parking lot.  The classroom building on the backside of that parking lot.   The session starts at 8:30 a.m. and should last for about 7 hours.  There will be teachers from many school districts around Harris County, both elementary and secondary.   If you are interested to attend, contact Freddie Wong at [email protected] .  There are limited space as we have to leave room for the teacher participants. Location: Bldg: Harris County Department of Education 6300 Irvington Blvd HOUSTON, Texas 77022

Co-sponsored by: Alice Wang Volunteer needed! There will be a session of Teacher In-Service Program (TISP) session taking place at: Harris County Department of Education, 6300 Irvington Blvd, Houston, TX 77022.  The address is a high rise red brick building located near North Loop 610 and Irvington, outside the loop.  The classroom for this session is actually in a single story building across the side street from the building listed above in a parking lot.  The classroom building on the backside of that parking lot.   The session starts at 8:30 a.m. and should last for about 7 hours.  There will be teachers from many school districts around Harris County, both elementary and secondary.   If you are interested to attend, contact Freddie Wong at [email protected] .  There are limited space as we have to leave room for the teacher participants. Location: Bldg: Harris County Department of Education 6300 Irvington Blvd HOUSTON, Texas 77022

Co-sponsored by: Alice Wang Houston Section Society and Committee Chairs are invited to attend the EXCOM meeting which is scheduled on May 23, 2019 at 5:15 pm at HESS Club. Please do your best to be there at the specified date and time. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss IEEE and Section business, we will shed the light on the below topics: 1) Secretary Report (Past Minutes) 2) Treasurer Report (Financials)  3) Technical Chapters/Affinity Groups Reports 4) Committee Reports 5) Old Business/New Business   Location: Bldg: HESS Club 5430 Westheimer Rd Houston, Texas 77056

Apollo Tech Spinoffs in Your Life “Do you know all of the technology breakthroughs, societal changes and innovations that came from NASA's Apollo program – and that impact your life today? Come join us for an enthralling discussion spanning the past and the future! There is more space in your life than you may think!” Presenter will bring actual commercial products that resulted from the Apollo Era (1968 to 1973, including Skylab) and a NASA food tray etc. as examples for the audience to interact with. Presenter will also describe how NASA JSC is preparing for the new Lunar mission and follow-on technology developments required for Mars. Location: Bldg: HESS Club 5430 Westheimer Ct Houston, Texas 77056

Co-sponsored by: Alice Wang Houston Section Society and Committee Chairs are invited to attend the EXCOM meeting which is scheduled on May 23, 2019 at 5:15 pm at HESS Club. Please do your best to be there at the specified date and time. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss IEEE and Section business, we will shed the light on the below topics: 1) Secretary Report (Past Minutes) 2) Treasurer Report (Financials)  3) Technical Chapters/Affinity Groups Reports 4) Committee Reports 5) Old Business/New Business   Location: Bldg: HESS Club 5430 Westheimer Rd Houston, Texas 77056

Co-sponsored by: Tommy Cooper IEEE Houston Consultants Network will have a general meeting from 5:30 to 7:30 on Thursday March 28th at the Clayton Library Center at 5300 Caroline St., Houston, TX  77004.  After an initial networking session with snacks provided, John Martin, PE, will provide a presentation on "Estimating Engineering Projects" Speaker(s): John Martin, Agenda: 5:30 PM – Networking and refreshments6:00 PM – Brief announcements and introduction of speaker6:15 PM – Presentation followed by Q and A7:30 PM – Adjourn and exit the building Location: Bldg: Carriage House Houston Public Library - Clayton Library Center 5300 Caroline Streeet Houston, Texas 77004