Semiconductor technologies exhibited explosive growth in complexity and speed over the last two decades. Since the early 1980s, the device sizes have scaled down from few micrometers to tens of Nano-meters and the operating frequencies have increased from a few megahertz to several gigahertz. Also, the spacing between devices and interconnect have dramatically decreased due to the continuous scaling down of the technology feature size. These trends have led to issues and challenges in the design and analysis of high performance integrated circuits that previous generations did not exhibit. Most of these issues are at the circuit and interconnect (physical) levels. Also, these issues are expected only to increase in importance in future generations of integrated circuits. This talk will overview the most important challenges for electronics design in the nano-scale.

Abstract: Sacling as we know it is taking a different direction from the last three decades. Chips with tens of billions of transistors and hundreds of cores are expected to be the future of scaling. These chips will achieve performance through parallelism and application specific optimized cores. This trend will use superior technologies to integrate more cores on a chip rather than to push the frequency envelope as in the past. It is expected that every aspect of design and analysis will need to be modified to accommodate this new platform and trend. There is a clear need for new CAD tools and design methodologies that are very different from existing tools in both their focus and scope. This talk will delve into the specific challenges with respect to both design and CAD that is required for these many core chips. The talk will also provide an overview into the market and technology factors guiding and driving this trend. Attendees will be provided with insight into both present and future research vectors to support this nascent exponential.

On behalf of the IEEE, the IEEE R7 and the IEEE Ottawa Section, I wish
you all a Happy and prosperous New Year.

The past year has been extremely productive. The Section did very well by
meeting the goals set out for 2011. We met our goals for promoting senior
members and had the highest number of senior member elevations in R7. We
had 3 out of 9 Fellow elevations from the Section. We managed our
finances prudently and supported our student activities. Our student
branches and clubs did extremely well, got several commendable
recognition. Some of our chapters got recognition world wide and our
Section was recognized as the Best Large Section in IEEE. Our members
were recognized through awards and nominations to positions outside of
the Section and also the Region. We hope to have a repeat performance
this year.

This year, with your support, the Section has set the following vision:
Connect, Communicate and Collaborate. The Section plans to Connect with
every member to increase its VISIBILITY; Communicate through various
means including programs for public and IEEE members to bring IMPACT;
Collaborate with industries, academia, school and the city to bring
GROWTH in economy and membership.

This vision of the section is aligned with the vision of the incoming
director, Dr. Keith Brown: “Visibility + impact = Growth”

The Section plans to achieve the vision in the following manner through
its programs:

Connect with People: Advancing Technology for Humanity through
Humanitarian Activities; Connect with Schools, School board and
Universities through Teachers-in-Service Program, Ottawa Robotics
Competition (partnership with other related Robotics competitions). Use
STEP-UP initiative to educate school students to embrace technology
streams at Universities and Colleges

Connect with Industries: Developing a closer relationship with OCRI;
Working closely with Government Research Labs; Improving ties with PEO
and EIC; Engaging industries in Technical Conferences; Helping in
Recruitment Events. In order to achieve all this, the Section may develop
relationships through memoranda of understanding, if possible.

Connect with City: Continue to foster closer ties with OCC, Ottawa
Tourism and grow our relationship with Science and Tech Museum

Communicate Through Programs With public, using Humanitarian Initiatives
use technology to solve world problems, deliver implementable and
sustainable solutions through creation of Open source research/licensing .

Communicate Through Programs with educators: by making their lives easy
by providing useful web tools; aid in sustaining student-research-money
cycle through scholarships, student-exchange programs with sister
sections; help connecting with peers through technical activities

Communicate Through Programs with Industry by providing relevant
Technical conferences (such as ICC 2012) with forums, support Tech
Exhibitions/Expo; Help elevating accomplished members as seniors and
fellows; help employees to be relevant and current with the technology
through seminars.

Communicate Through Programs with Members by delivering quality programs
that are meaningful; providing networking opportunities; providing
Help/Benefits whenever and wherever needed

Communicate Through Programs with Students by exposing them to
advancements in science and technology; providing hands on experience,
One-One networking, Recruitment and placement

Communicate Through Programs with City by providing economic benefits
through conferences, symposia and workshops

Collaborate for success With Academia, Industry, Government Labs, and the
City: Section will connect with them and discuss their needs

To accomplish our vision, we need to:

  Increase Membership
  Increase Visibility
  Increase Engagement
  Increase Outreach

and last but not the least, we need more volunteers. Please consider
joining the existing team of volunteers and gaining leadership roles as
part of your professional development. I am looking forward to working
with you to have another successful year.

Sreeraman Rajan

Date: 23 February 2012 (Thursday)

Time: Two presentations fomr 11:00 am – 12:30 pm, then the questions/discussion/refreshments/networking
form 12:30 pm till 1:00 pm.

Location: Boardroom on the 2nd Floor in Building 94 at Communications Research Centre Canada (CRC),
3701 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario K2H 8S2, Canada

Parking: Free

Registration: Free but required. To ensure a seat, please register by e-mail contacting
Qingsheng Zeng (qingsheng.zeng@crc.gc.ca) or Kexing Liu (kexing.liu@ieee.org)

Organizers: Dr. Qingsheng Zeng and Dr. Kexing Liu

Organizer Email Addresses: qingsheng.zeng@crc.gc.ca, kexing.liu@ieee.org

Organized by: IEEE Ottawa AP/MTT (Antennas and Propagation/Microwave Theory and Techniques)
Joint Chapter, IEEE Ottawa Photonics Society (LEOS)

Abstract: Radio-over-fiber (ROF) technology is receiving large attention
due to its ability to provide simple antenna front ends, increased
capacity and increased wireless access Coverage. Coherently detected ROF
systems would enable the information to be carried in both the amplitude
and phase or in different states of the polarization of the optical
field. Additionally, the selectivity of coherent receiver is very well
suited for access networks. Low-cost is essential to widespread
deployment in access networks and the key is photonic integration. In
coherent optical applications, the phase relationships between the ports
of components are vital to correct operation. As an illustrative example,
I shall consider a 90 degree optical hybrid used to provide in-phase (I)
and quadrature-phase (Q) channels in a digital coherent receiver. Built
on small size silicon-on-insulator (SOI) planar lightwave circuit (PLC),
the hybrid has been designed, fabricated at the Canada Photonics
Fabrication Centre (CPFC) with the support of CMC Microsystems, and
tested at our Ptlab. The optical hybrid includes passive optical
components, and shows polarization independence. Further examples of PLC
in which phase relationships are critical include external optical I-Q
modulators for coherent optical transmitters; and optical phased array
switches. The presentation will report on recent work to integrate these
passive phase elements with active components such as electro-optic
modulators and detectors. We are currently finalizing our SOI based
nanophotonic designs, which will proceed to fabrication via the OpSiS -
IME process, with the support of CMC.

Important dates

February 3, 2012: Submission of proposals

February 13 , 2012: Notification of acceptance/rejection

March 30, 2012: Submission of final presentations and workshop registration

April 11-13, 2012: CTFG 2012 Workshop

Submissions

Please submit a 300 to 400 word abstract of your 20 minute presentation to Garfield Mellema at garfield.mellema@drdc-rddc.gc.ca. Proposals for presentations on research, development, software demonstrations, experiments, benchmark problems, research collaborations and ideas on emerging problems are actively solicited. Proposals for extended panel discussions, tutorials, or software demonstrations are also encouraged. Participation without presentation is also strongly welcomed.

Location

DRDC Ottawa is at 3701 Carling Avenue in Ottawa . As this is a secure facility you will require a passport or equivalent ID when you arrive. If you are not a Canadian citizen, please let us know when you register.

Registration

There is no fee for this workshop, but the number of participants is limited.
Register by sending your name, phone number, email and postal addresses to Garfield Mellema at garfield.mellema@drdc-rddc.gc.ca. Please include your government, corporate or university affiliation. For more information, contact any of the organizers.

·         David Boertjes, Phd, Technical Advisor at Ciena,

·         Harley Finkelstein, CPO (Chief Platform Officer) of Shopify.

Date/Time: March 15th  (Thursday)

Location: Westin Ottawa (Downtown, next to Rideau Mall)

Parking: $5 After 6pm and before 11 pm at Westin. This is for SELF-PARKING ONLY.

Registration: Tickets are available online at www.ieeespac.ca OR can be purchased at IEEE office (ME 4238). <<<Discounts apply to IEEE members, LIMTED AMOUNT OF TICKETS>>>

Organizer e-mail: organizers@ieeespac.ca

Organized by:   IEEE Carleton University, IEEE University of Ottawa and IEEE Algonquin College Student Branches

Url:  http://www.ieeespac.ca/

Abstract: IEEE Student Professional Awareness Conference (SPAC) is a formal dinner event that aims to bridge the gap between students and their career goals. SPAC offers students and employers a unique opportunity to network with each other in a professional environment along with professionals and academics representing the field of Engineering.

Companies that have been sponsoring SPAC in previous years include Ross Video, RIM, Canadian Forces, Alcatel Lucent, Ericsson, Microsoft, Espial, IBM, Code factory, Neptec, Ciena, Agilent and Department of National Defense.

optional pub supper, RA Centre, 5.30pm – Fieldhouse Restaurant

Mobile connectivity through wireless communications is poised to change transportation not only for drivers, fleet managers, emergency responders, transit riders, road operators but also for cyclists and pedestrians. Advances in Connected Vehicle (CV) technologies utilizing dedicated short-range communications at 5.9 GHz will improve road safety and enhance road usage. Bob will present his views in two sessions: The first will identify CV stakeholders, and the objective of present CV programs. Using G4 App’s own work, he will explore the nature and scale of efforts required for developing safety applications. The second session focuses on CV mobility, convenience and environmental applications.

Abstract: IEEE will be launching Special Interest Groups in 2012 for members wanting to organize
humanitarian initiatives. IEEE-Canada’s Humanitarian Initiatives Committee (www.ieee.ca/hic/)
seeks to encourage members to get involved by sponsoring this event where professor David Wright
will be presenting different aspects of the IEEE HTC Data Connectivity project in remote areas
in the Alto Amazonas region of Peru including: A business model for this deployment in Peru;
Experiences in volunteer dynamics; Interorganizational collaboration and leadership; Deploying
telemedicine solutions in remote areas in developing nations.

This project was presented as part of the recent IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology
Conference (www.ieeeghtc.org) and the IEEE Sections Congress (www.ieee.org/sc2011).
We are planning to present this project during ICC2012 in Ottawa (www.ieee-icc.org),
along with a demo and tour of the reference design currently connecting Algonquin College,
the university of Ottawa and the General Hospital.

                  (http://uwf.edu/computerscience/fac_staff/bezdek.cfm).

Title: Anomaly Detection in Wireless Sensor Networks: Visual Assessment and Clustering in Environmental Monitoring Systems

Date: Wednesday November 23, 2011

Time: 9:30-11:30 (EDT)

Location:  Building M-50, NRC Auditorium, 1200 Montreal Road, Ottawa, Canada

Parking is free, and refreshments will be served.

Abstract: 

A. General information about wireless sensor networks (WSNs). There are four categories of network anomalies: isolated and epoch anomalies are aberrant behavior internal to a single node; second order anomalies are atypical behavior of an entire node; and higher order anomalies are one or more subtrees of nodes in the network that exhibit anomalous behavior. We discuss two types of models to detect anomalies; DCAD models that use data capture by level sets of elliptical summaries; and ESAD models that rely on visual assessment of elliptical summaries, with detection based on single linkage clustering.

B. We define and illustrate three (DCAD) models that use data capture by level sets of ellipsoids having effective radii chosen with differing assumptions (viz., % of points captured, % of points within k standard deviations from the mean, and % of points captured based on the chi-squared distribution. Examples are given using real WSN data from the Intel Berkeley Research Lab (IBRL).

C. The ESAD models use visual assessment of elliptical summaries for anomaly detection. These models begin with four measures of similarity on sets of ellipsoids, namely compound normalized, transformation energy, Bhattacharya distance and focal dissimilarity. We define the four measures and compare them with some simple two-dimensional examples that reveal some surprising differences between human and mathematical assessment of elliptical similarities.

D. The similarities in C easily become dissimilarities, so we can apply visual assessment techniques (the recursive iVAT method of talk R1.C) to images of the (dis)similarity data. These images enable us to assess cluster tendency amongst the set of ellipsoids, and estimate the number of clusters (of elliptical summaries) in the data.
E. We show that these images are capable of detecting each of the anomalous behaviors defined in A with numerical examples using both real WSN and artificial data. The real data include the IBRL network, the Great Barrier Reef Ocean Observation System, and the Grand St. Bernard network for wind monitoring in a mountain pass on the border between France and Switzerland. Our model reliable detects first and second order anomalies in each of the three real data sets that are caused by Cyclone Hamish and node drift. These examples illustrate the real effectiveness of the ESAD model for detecting unusual events in environmental monitoring network