Section Report

1. Section Report Los Alamos/Northern New Mexico Section ChairDavid Izraelevitz Presentation Hanna Makaruk Oct.18, 2008 Albuquerque, NM Southwest Area Fall Meeting

2. LANNM 2008 Section Leadership Teri Roberts, Region 6  SouthWest  Area Outstanding Leadership Award. Executive • David Izraelevitz, Chair • John Zoltai, Vice-Chair • Robert Owczarek, Secretary • Teri Roberts, Treasurer Committees • John Zoltai, Electronic Communications • Hanna Makaruk, Student Activities • Teri Roberts, Membership Development • Tom Tierney, Awards and Recognition Active Chapters • Hanna Makaruk, Chair, Computer Society, CS Chapter, 153 members • Stephen Gilbert, Chair, Lasers & Electro-Optics Society, LEOS Chapter, 27 members • Tom Tierney, Chair, Nuclear & Plasma Sciences Society NPSS Chapter, 89 members

3. Membership Status 493 } 7 Fellows • 298 Active Members • 3 Life Fellows • 4 Fellows • 12 Life Senior Members • 36 Senior Members • 25 Life Members • 172 Members • 20 Associate Members • 22 Affiliate Members • 4 Student Members • 126 Inactive members • 11 Applicants • 58 Arrears Members }48 Senior Members

4. Specifics of LANM Section • Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is the largest local employer and home of the Road Runner Supercomputer with petaflop capabilities • No major technical campus • No IEEE Students’ Branch • LANNM Section is hosting students associated with other Sections

5. 2008 Activities • Membership Development • Continued Senior grade upgrade program • Review possible local member nomination to Fellow grade • Active Promotion of IEEE certification program: CSDP (3 new certifications ‘08) • Collaboration with LANL • Hold technical talks accessible to LANL employees • Co-sponsorship of colloquium speakers with LANL • Technical talk series • Lunchtime technical talks on roughly monthly schedule • Spring dinner meetings, with an invited speaker • Continued collaboration with local ASME chapter on topics of joint interest • Community Activities • Funding a scholarship for high school students interested in engineering • Collaboration with LANL Bradbury Science Museum on preparation of Computers’ History Exposition • Spring talk on cybercrime and identity theft • Science fair judging, demonstrations • Summer Members’ family fun picnic

6. Students Activities in 2008 • IEEE held information table at LANL Students’ picnic July 2008 • Plan to continue to promote IEEE at Los Alamos Students Annual picnic • One of the Section technical speakers was a UNM student • Nikita Sakhanenko, presenting his PhD thesis “COSMOS: A Context-Sensitive Probabilistic Modeling System” • March 25, 2008 

7. Students-Related Opportunities • IEEE Section can serve as a matchmaker between university professors sending students for an internship or graduate research to LANL and local members who want to mentor students at LANL • Successful student’s internship requires: • Well defined project, relevant to both academia research, and to LANL work • Well prepared, highly motivated student (internships are challenging) • Funding • Types of funding for LANL student internship • LANL project funding - the most popular pathway • Project is usually disconnected from student’s thesis and advisor’s research • Competitive candidate selection (programming skills are important) • NSF-funded Los Alamos Summer School for undergraduate students • Two-three months summer program ½ lectures ½ mini-project • Collaborative grant between LANL and a University • Multiple funding pathways possible • Project typically becomes student’s thesis • Possibly a starting point for more extensive collaboration • Student’s visit funded by advisor’s project • Mentors rarely have adequate time for supervision of a project disconnected from their own work

8. Summary • Main LANNM section’s activities in 2008: technical talks, high school scholarship, and promotion of CSDP certification • Students activities tailored to the specifics of the LANNM Section • We are seeking collaboration with other sections in coordination of student internships.