Membership Contacts:

Hunter J Boudreaux – East Area Chair

Maciej J Zawodniok– North Area Chair

Christopher B Sanderson– South Area Chair

Faye Kann– West Area Chair

R5 EXCOM Roster can be viewed here: https://rosters.ieee.org/home.html

R5 EXCOM Meetings

Major Developments

1. Treasurer: Paul Cassingham.
2. Audit Committee Chair, 4th Year: William Wylie (North) Billwylie@ieee.org
3. Audit Committee, 3rd Year: Silke Spiesshoefer (East) Silke_Spiesshoefer@ieee.org
4. Audit Committee, 2nd Year: Ernest X Njouondo (South) njouondo@ieee.org
5. Audit Committee, 1st Year: Patterson, Tristan Hunter (West) tristanpatterson10@hotmail.com

POC: Director Bob Becnel bob.becnel@ieee.org

2023 IEEE Region 5 Awards Last Call for Nominations
The deadline for nominations is March 18, 2023.
IEEE Region 5 is accepting nominations for the following awards:

• Outstanding Large Section (1501 or more members)
• Outstanding Medium Section (501 to 1500 members)
• Outstanding Small Section (500 or fewer members)
• Jim Leonard R5 Outstanding Member Award
• Outstanding Educator • Outstanding Large Student Branch (>50 members)
• Outstanding Small Student Branch (≤50 members)
• Outstanding Student • Outstanding Student Branch Counselor
• Outstanding Large Company (>500 engineering employees) • Outstanding Small Company (≤500 engineering employees)
• John Meredith Region 5 Lifetime Achievement
• Outstanding Young Professional Member
• Outstanding Individual Achievement Award (up to 5 awards)

A short description of each award and nomination forms are posted on the Region 5 Website (ieeer5.org/awards).
The same award can only be received once in three years.
Use your IEEE login to enter nominations at
https://ieee.secure-platform.com/a/page/major_board_awards/mga-awards/region5_awards

• Nominations and endorsements are to be submitted online
• The nomination platform allows you to collaborate on nominations
• Self-nomination is not allowed.
• Endorsers should be someone other than the nominator. Endorsers are expected to provide supporting information to the nomination. Short descriptions are good.

Send questions to Leslie Martinich at lmartinich@ieee.org

Spotlight

New IEEE R5 Women in Engineering (WIE) Coordinator Appointed
The IEEE Region 5 has appointed Yuanrui Sang, Ph.D., as the new Women in Engineering (WIE) Coordinator for 2023.

Above: : Yuanrui Sang

Sang is an assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), the chair for the IEEE El Paso Section WIE Affinity Group, faculty advisor for the Student WIE Affinity Group at UTEP, and a senior member of IEEE. Sang is a strong advocate for women in engineering. While serving as the WIE Affinity Group Chair, she revitalized the Student WIE Affinity Group and organized a series of events benefiting local professionals and engineering students.

“It is a great honor to be able to serve IEEE Region 5 and WIE members in the region,” Sang said. “IEEE Region 5 has a great number of WIE members. We will continue providing networking opportunities and resources for WIE members in our region to grow professionally and personally and encourage the next generation of women engineers to get involved.”

If you have any questions about WIE or would like to get involved with WIE,
please feel free to contact Dr. Sang at yuanruisang@ieee.org

What is Valuability? (Contribution from Sarah Beckman)
Sarah Beckman has been active in IEEE since 2018 and is a Senior Member in the Denver Section. Sarah has volunteered for a number of activities to strengthen IEEE in the Rocky Mountain state. In 2023, Sarah was nominated and elected to Vice Chair of the Denver Section. She was previously the Secretary. In 2018, Sarah was a founding member and Chair of the Women in Engineering chapter in the Denver Section and has remained active in sponsoring activities for students. Her current passion is Women in Power, and she has been active in recruiting opportunities for more women to join the wonderful job opportunities in power. 

Picture Above: Sarah Beckman

Sarah graduated from University of Missouri-Columbia in 2005 and has enjoyed several positions. Sarah obtained the PE certification in 2011. In her 11 years at Ulteig, Sarah Beckman has used her collaborative leadership style to Sarah graduated from University of Missouri-Columbia in 2005 and has enjoyed several positions. Sarah obtained the PE certification in 2011. In her 11 years at Ulteig, Sarah Beckman has used her collaborative leadership style to help achieve her vision of a sustainable future while inspiring all she leads, including other women in STEM fields

Her current position is Vice President, Power Market at Ulteig. Sarah is a growth minded and high energy business professional, focused on building strong, trusted relationships in the power market. She has a strong background in utility and renewable sectors, focused on power delivery: transmission, distribution and substation engineering and leadership.

In April 2022, Sarah’s innovation and leadership led to Ulteig securing its largest-ever master service agreement with a key client in the energy industry. She developed the strategic direction and pulled together the right teams to execute a successful proposal and interview. Securing this contract greatly increased Ulteig’s growth and revenue potential.

Sarah’s commitment to her clients led her to create a new term to define how to create and measure value for clients. At Ulteig, a new term was created to define our ability to create and measure value for our clients in their business and that concept is called valuability. For the Ulteig team, value creation is a mindset.

Our focus on understanding your goals, what drives your work, and improving our project delivery creates value for our customers across the entire project lifecycle, from project development to materials and construction to ongoing operations and maintenance. The added value we bring to a project through optimizing designs, building efficiencies, automating process, and enabling technologies is the true definition of valuability and sets Ulteig apart.

Sarah is the type of leader who inspires others to do their best, considers her team’s success as fundamental to her own, and drives results with optimism and enthusiasm. She loves to make connections, bringing people together whose paths may not otherwise cross—all with the end goal of a sustainable future.

Sarah has a strong strategic focus and business mindset, with a drive for achieving goals and taking action. She thrives in a fast-paced environment and finding ways to add value. These traits make her highly successful in IEEE and networking with members.

She was named a finalist for both the 2023 NREL Foundation Outstanding Woman in STEM Award of the year by National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado and a Top 50 Women Leaders in Colorado by Women We Admire.

Membership Development

R5 Conferences, Webinars and Professional Activities

 

IEEE Ozark Computer Society Chapter Selected for $35k for Cybersecurity-themed Hackathon Event
The IEEE Ozark Section (Northwest Arkansas, AR) and the newly formed IEEE Computer Society Chapter teamed up with the University of Arkansas (UA)  CyberHogs to propose a Capture-The-Flag (CTF) Cybersecurity-themed Hackathon event to the IEEE Computer Society for funding.

Out of over 180 proposals submitted worldwide to the IEEE Computer Society, the Ozark Computer  Chapter proposal  was selected as 1 of 10 selected for a 5 minute pitch competition.

Evan Glover (evanglover@ieee.org), the Ozark Computer Chapter Chair, gave the pitch and, In the end, the group was awarded $35k for the proposed 2 day cybersecurity hackathon event (one of only 5 awards selected). The successful proposal was a partnership with several organizations and individuals to ensure success.  While writing the proposal the team worked with Chris Wright (UA Alumni and JOLT Coordinator/Gamemaster – https://www.venturecenter.co/entrepreneurs/programs/jolt/) and Eli McRae (Shell on the Border Coordinator/Gamemaster – https://shellontheborder.com) to discuss the typical budgets for their events which are hosted in Little Rock and Fort Smith, respectively.

Capture the Flag is an exercise in which “flags” are secretly hidden in vulnerable programs or websites. Teams steal flags either from other competitors or from the organizers. The new event will be held in Northwest Arkansas (NWA), the first event of its kind in the area in many years and will involve students, professionals as well as STEM activities.  The team is excited to host the 1st Annual IEEE/CyberHogs Cyber Challenge in NWA.   The team is tentatively planning to hold the event in late October/early November.

Picture Above:

Katie Kettler, Mitchell Bylak, Karsen Beck, Henry Schmidt & Gideon Sutterfield (UA Cyberhogs),
Evan Glover (Ozark Computer Chapter Chair),
Tim Gilmour (Ozark Section Vice Chair),
Matt Francis (Ozark Computer Chapter Secretary, Region 5 Director Elect),
Chris Farnell (Ozark Section Chair)

IEEE Ozark Section, Computer Society Volunteers and UA CyberHogs Student Group Organizing the 1st annual NWA IEEE/Cyberhogs Cyber Challenge with a $35k award from the IEEE Computer Society

DRHS FIRST Robotics Team 1799 Update
On the road to the 2023 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), Dakota Ridge High School of Littleton, Colorado has been learning the Engineering Design Process as they develop their robot design, olving the problem of picking up and placing game pieces in nodes of the grid, ending each round by balancing with two other robots on a tilting platform.  This Denver IEEE sponsored robotics team, has made a difference for the individual students and the visibility of IEEE and engineering in the high school. In preparation for game day, Dakota Ridge Team 1799 has chosen to participate in a scrimmage at Coronado High School, in Colorado Springs on February 25th to make sure the major functions of the robot are viable.  Ultimately, this team of approximately 12 students and 6 mentors is preparing for the big game at University of Denver (DU) on March 23-25th.  The 2023 FRC season started with the kick-off on January 6th, the beginning of the six-week build season, followed by six weeks of regional competitions.  The winning teams from each regional, advance to the Championship in April.  The DRHS robot has progressed from idea, through several practice models, to scrimmage ready prototype.  They will take what they learn at the scrimmage to tweak their design and program, so it is in top shape for the actual competition three weeks later.  The competition is free and open to the public. If you are in town that week, come out and support the students.  The competition is also live streamed, with videos of each match posted afterwards. To watch the competition LIVE in March, go to: frc-events.
firstinspires.org/watch  |  To volunteer/mentor please contact Chris Gray at cagray@jeffcoschools.us

Progression of Design (Below)

R5 Represented well at the AESS R1 – R7 Chapter Summit in Princeton, NJ
Yvonne Gray, Chapter Chair of the joint chapter AESS/SPS of Denver & High Plains and Garrett Hall, Chapter Chair of AESS Lone Star, presented at this year’s AESS Summit and attended the evening’s 50th Anniversary celebration of the IEEE Aerospace and Electronics Systems Society (AESS).

Region 1 – 7 AESS Chapter Chairs at the summit

They both represented Region 5 and were two of three presentations that focused on “Best Practices”.  Participants from Region 1 – 7, spanning the United States and Canada came together with leaders from itsinternational society and chapter officers to recognize that “volunteer leaders play a key role in engaging and serving our local members and advancing our technical interests in the complex systems of air, space, ocean and ground environments,” as mentioned in the invitation to chapter leaders across the regions.

Yvonne B. Gray, Chair AESS/SPS of Denver & High Plains ybgray@ieee.org

The El Paso Section “Hack the ACM/IEEE/AAAI CS2023”
El Paso Section attended the February 2nd, 2023, pitch session during the IEEE Computer Society Board of Governors meeting. El Paso section was one of the nine finalists with the project “Hack the ACM/IEEE/AAAI CS2023”, proposed by the section chair, Dr. Christian Servin, for the 2022 IEEE Computer Society Emerging Technologies Call for Proposals for 2023 Projects. There were 192 projects submitted for the competition, and only nine were selected for the final round, the El Paso section being in this stage.

The Board awarded the section with $1,000 to the affiliated IEEE Computer Society Chapter to help fund activities towards the project’s goals.

Dr. Christian Servin submitted a paper for Greentech 2023 in Denver and it has been approved for presentation and publishing in IEEE Explorer.

Education Week April 2-8
The R5 education department will help sections within the region conducted professional technical education classes for your professional engineers. This help will be through funding and providing speakers for the classes. The classes can be both in-person and virtual, the section is expected to provide half of any funding requirements. If you are interested in holding one of these
courses within your section contact Donald G. Dunn at Donald.dunn@ieee.org

2023 NESC Changes, plus ARC Flash calculation for small services workshop
Workshop Details: This one-day workshop has four parts under two major divisions:
Parts 1 – 3 will explore the changes in the 2023 version of the National ElectricalSafety Code Handbook (NESC, IEEE STD C2-2023), a print copy of which will be provided each registered participant as Workshop material. New for 2023, the IEEE Handbook contains the full 2023 NESC plus the commentary in a single text.

Part 4 will cover arc flash including two effective methods to calculate arc flash for small electrical services, especially single-phase 100-amp services, and the strengths of each method.

Location Details: The historic Austin Scottish Rite Theater is located at 207 W. 18th Street,
Austin, TX 78701.

Registration: Registration and payment for this workshop must be completed
at https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/341023.

Wednesday, 5/03/2023 is the final day for online registration. 
Walk-ins will be accepted but must have a check for the full amount made out to IEEE-CTS. 

Contact Information: If you have any questions or need any additional information about the
workshop, please contact James Mercier at jmercier@ieee.org

Celebrating Engineering Week!
Student Computing Research Festival (SCRF) at The University of Texas at Arlington (Computer Science and Engineering.)
Students in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex attended the annual Student Computing Research Festival (SCRF) on February 20, 2023.
The all-day event allowed students of any major to showcase their computing-related work in and out of classrooms, learn from professional role models, and engage with leaders of industry and society. High School students, undergraduate and graduate students form the core of each research project team.

Above picture, the Students Speed Mentoring session with industry professionals. Ademola Peter Adejokun represented the IEEE Fort Worth section at the event

Student Competitions April 22: For more information about the competitions, visit the Student Activities webpage https://r5conferences.org/student-activities/ Student Teams interested in competing will also need to complete the Intent to Compete forms from the competition of their choice. Forms should be submitted as soon as possible to properly accommodate everyone.

We are looking forward to a great conference in 2023, and we hope to see you all there. Note that the Region 5 annual business meeting is held adjacent to the IEEE 2023 GreenTech conference; for information on attending this technical conference, please visit the GreenTech webpage at https://ieeegreentech.org.

Region 5 Annual 2023 Student Competitions
The 2023 IEEE Region 5 Annual Student Competitions will be held at the Hyatt Regency Aurora-Denver Conference Center in Aurora, Colorado on April 22, 2023. These competitions are open to all undergraduate IEEE student members who are attending a school in Region 5. Space is limited for some competitions and is given on a first come first serve basis. Interested teams should submit their ‘Intent to Submit’ forms as soon as possible. Student Competition Discord server: https://discord.gg/meG8Qku6RD More information at: https://r5conferences.org/student-activities

Please direct any questions you may have to the Region 5 student representative, jaiden or the student activities chair, Amardeep. Jaiden Strong rsr@ieeer5.org, Amardeep Kaur student_activities@ieeer5.org

For Listing of Region 5 Conferences: Please visit: https://conferences.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/search?q=*&subsequent_q=&date=all&from=&to=&region=Region05-Southwestern%20USA&country=all&pos=0&sortorder=desc&sponsor=&sponsor_type=all&state=all&field_of_interest=all&sortfield=relevance&searchmode=basic&virtualflag=Y&virtualConfReadOnly=N&eventformat=

Region 5 makes funds available for the support of professional activities in IEEE R5 Sections, Chapters, and Student Branches. The funds are managed and distributed through the Region. To obtain funding, a Section, Chapter, or Student Branch must complete a Project Plan and Financing Request form, obtain supporting signatures, and file the form with the Region 5 PACE Coordinator. For R5 PACE Form (includes program details) and project ideas, https://r5.ieee.org/member-opportunities/professional-activities-pace/.

R5 Sections and Formation Date

	Section	Date
1	Arkansas River Valley	June 20, 1994
2	Arkansas	April 23, 1947
3	Baton Rouge	February 5, 1955
4	Beaumont	June 27, 1945
5	Central Texas	May 23, 1930
6	Corpus Christi	October 25, 1951
7	Dallas	March 18, 1928
8	Denver	May 18, 1915
9	El Paso	March 7, 1940
10	Fort Worth	January 5, 1956
11	Galveston Bay	January 1, 1980
12	High Plains	February 13, 2010
13	Houston	August 7, 1928
14	Kansas City	April 4, 1916
15	Lafayette	November 11, 1970
16	Lone Star	November 23, 2019
17	New Orleans	December 8, 1933
18	Oklahoma City	February 16, 1922
19	Ozark	April 20, 1966
20	Panhandle	June 12, 1947
21	Pikes Peak	May 22, 1978
22	Saint Louis	January 14, 1903
23	Shreveport	January 14, 1903
24	South Plains	May 4, 1955
25	Southwest Missouri	February 14, 2009
26	Tulsa	October 1, 1937
27	Wichita	September 16, 1937

IEEE USA News

IEEE-USA MOVE Vehicle

Region 5 will be receiving an IEEE-USA MOVE Vehicle that would be located in the Region to help with disasters, STEM events and training for the central part of the USA.

Opportunity: Need drivers and operators – training/certifications required Red Cross volunteer certifications Disaster deployments vs STEM activities For more information, go to: http://move.ieeeusa.org/ http://radioclub.moveteams.org

MOVE Contacts: 
Gerry Ourada – R5 Coord Rep gourada@computer.org  Grayson Randall – MOVE Operations Lead g.randall@ieee.org

Congressional Visits Day (CVD) – April 4-5, 2023
Join IEEE-USA In-Person in Washington, DC

IEEE-USA Congressional Visits Day (CVD) is an opportunity to introduce yourself, your colleagues, your company,and your profession to our elected officials. It also a great opportunity to discuss legislation and issues that are uniquely important to IEEE members.
More information at: https://ieeeusa.org/public-policy/cvd/

IEEE MGA News

Frequent Links

The Full ExCom Roster can be viewed here: https://rosters.ieee.org/home.html

MGA https://www.ieee.org/communities/geographic-activities.htm

IEEE USA https://ieeeusa.org/

IEEE Region 5 https://r5.ieee.org/

IEEE OU Analytics https://mga.ieee.org/resources-operations/volunteer-tools/samieee

vTools: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/

The Newsletter is sent to all current members in Region 5

Newsletter Editor: Ademola Peter Adejokun

newsletter@ieeer5.org