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PART A - SECTION SUMMARY – Western Australia
A.1 Executive Summary
The Western Australia Section of the IEEE has 885 active members as at 15 th February 2011. The
Section, together with its six Chapters, one National Joint Chapter, one Affinity Group and three
Student Branches continues to serve local members. The Section has continued to improve our
relationship with industry, academia and other societies. This report summarises the activities,
technical and professional seminars and workshops organized to the members and non-members in
2010.
The Section Executive Committee for 2010 was:
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Chair
Ms Valerie Maxville
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Vice Chair
A/Prof Lance Fung
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Secretary
Dr Douglas Chai
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Treasurer
A/Prof Kevin Wong (1st half), Dr Cesar Ortega-Sanchez (2nd half)
Additional office bearers were:
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Past Chair
Awards & Recognition
Industry Liaison
JEEP
Membership Dev.
Webmaster
E-notice
A/P Kevin Wong
Dr Hong Xie
A/P Tele Tan
Dr Ali Mansour
Mr Siong Khai ONG
Dr Alex Chong
Mr Wigrai Thanadechteemapat
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CIS Chapter Chair
ComSoc Chapter Chair
CS Chapter Chair
ELS Chapter Chair
PES/PELS Chapter Chair
SPS Chapter Chair
GOLD Group Chair
Dr Cesar Ortega-Sanchez
A/P Lance Fung
A/P Tele Tan
A/P Adam Osseiran
Mr Harry McDonald
Prof Sven Nordholm
Mr Timothy Wong
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Curtin SB Chair
Murdoch SB Chair
UWA SB Chair
Ms Ewa Lachowicz
Mr Suwannit Chareen Chit
Ms Aislinn van der Walt
Each Chapter and Group has held the required number of activities throughout the year.
Highlights include the Workshop of ICT in Biomedical Rehabilitation, where three excellent
presentations took place in a joint event with iVEC and DEBII. The ESP Chapter held nine
technical events in 2011, with all presenters coming from interstate and overseas. ESP also coorganized WIMNACT with the equivalent Singapore Chapter, which included DL presentations
and was also held in the ACT. Many joint events took place, including the JEEP series of seminars.
We encourage our committees to build bridges between associations, industry and academia and
the results have been excellent.
The Section and the joint PES/PELS Chapter have sponsored four separate undergraduate student
prizes in the four local universities and the best poster prize award for the Postgraduate Electrical
Engineering and Computer Sciences Symposium (PEECS).
A.2 Financial Report
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The WA Section remains in good financial health
According to the L50 for 2010, the opening balance for the Section was $67,961.85 and the
closing balance $70,640.16.
PART B - ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES
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B.1 Membership Development Activities
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The membership for the Section as at 15th February 2011 is:
Affiliate
Associate Member
Fellow
Graduate Student Member
Life Fellow
Life Member
Member
Senior Member
Student Member
Total members
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25
27
3
92
1
3
563
64
107
885
At 21st November 2008 it was 790 members, and at 9 th December 2009 the total members
were 829.
Our key means for bringing value to members is through the local events and activities, such
as seminars. Symposia and conferences. We believe the value of conferences and publications
is clear at an international level, and that our Section should focus on local events. Most
events are free and open to the general public. We promote membership at each of these
events.
B.2 Chapter Activities
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Western Australia has six local Chapters and participates in one national Chapter
No new chapters were formed in 2010, however two new Chapters are in the process of being
formed.
All six Chapters have been active in 2010
Communications Society (2 technical)
24th May
3rd November
A Distributed Proxy to Provide Reliability in Wireless
Networks
David Murray, Murdoch University
How to Communicate your Research Effectively in a Few
Minutes
Associate Professor Lance C.C. Fung, Murdoch University
Computational Intelligence Society (2 tech, 1 educational, 1 admin)
February
May
September
Talk by Prof Achim Karduck on Digital Ecosystems and
Collaboration - Application Domains for Long Term
Evolution. (Technical)
Talk by Cesar Ortega on Intelligent Robots to primary
school kids. (Educational)
Talk by Dr Cuntai Guan on Brain-Computer Interface and
its applications in rehabilitation. (Technical)
Computer Society (2 tech, 2 admin)
29th
September
Workshop of ICT in Biomedical Rehabilitation.
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Joint Event with iVEC, IEEE CIS and DEBII
24th
November
Talk on Stereoscopic 3D technology: history, principles, and limitations.
A/Prof Paul Bourke, UWA
Joint event with iVEC and SSIT
24th March
Novel Probabilistic Hardware: A New Design Paradigm
Dr Vincent J. Mooney III
Visiting Associate Professor, School of EEE, NTU, Singapore
Deputy Director, Institute for Sustainable Nano-Electronics (ISNE), NTU,
Singapore
Associate Professor, School of ECE, Georgia Tech, USA
Fabrication Strategies for Diamond Based Quantum Devices
Professor Steven Prawer
Melbourne Materials Institute, School of Physics, University of Melbourne
Novel silicon-on-insulator (SOI) structures and characterization issues for
future nanoelectronics
Professor Sorin Cristoloveanu
IMEP-LAHC, Minatec INPG – Grenoble, France
The Wonderful World of Microelectronics Interconnects
Professor Krishnamachar Prasad
Electrical and Electronic Engineering - Auckland University of Technology,
New Zealand
Semiconductor Nanowires for Future Optoelectronics
Dr Hannah Joyce
Australian National University
Enhancing the Efficiency of CdTe Solar Cells via a Tandem-Cell Approach
Prof. David L Pulfrey
Gledden Senior Research Fellow, UWA - On leave from the University of
British Columbia, Canada
Optical and electrical properties of defects in Si and Ge formed by ion
implantation
Dr Brett Johnson
School of Physics - University of Melbourne
A one-day Masterclass
The Infrared Retina: Bio-inspired Sensing for Biomedical Applications
Professor Sanjay Krishna
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering - University of New
Mexico, Albuquerque NM, USA
25th WIMNACT
The 25th Workshop and IEEE EDS Mini-colloquium (MQ) on NAnometer
CMOS Technology (MQ-1) in Perth has been successfully held on July 28.
The event was co-organized by the Rel/CPMP/ED Singapore Chapter and
the Western Australia (WA) Section ED/SSC/Photonics Chapter. Five
Distinguished Lecturers (DLs) participated in the workshops: Prof. Juin Liou
of the University of Central Florida (UCF), Prof. Kin-Leong Pey of the
Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), Prof. Ramgopal
Rao of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B), Prof. Xing Zhou
of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Prof. Lorenzo Faraone
of UWA. The joint WIMNACT was financially sponsored by the EDS with
co-sponsorships from the four Chapters as well as the WA and ACT
Sections. Prof. Adam Osseiran of Edith Cowan University, the chapter chair,
and Prof. Faraone co-hosted a dinner sponsored by the IEEE WA Section.
ESP
1st December
8th December
22nd January
23rd April
23rd April
1st September
25th
November
28th July
Signal Processing Society (4 technical)
10th February
12th May
“Advanced Signal Processing Tools: Independent Analysis Components
from Origin to Applications:, Ali Mansour, Curtin University (joint with
Jeep)
“Microphone Arrays for speech enhancement: Theory and Practice”, Sven
Nordholm, Curtin University (joint with JEEP)
26th May
27th
September
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“Random Finite Set Approach to Multi-Object Estimation and Tracking in
Computer Vision”, Reza Hoseinnezhad, University of Melbourne
“Timing Synchronisation and Power Allocation issues for Co-operative
Communications”, Md Tofazzal Hossain, ANU, Canberra
Society for the Social Implications of Technology
One local event, all national events reported under SSIT national via Victoria Section.
24th
November
Talk on Stereoscopic 3D technology: history, principles, and limitations.
A/Prof Paul Bourke, UWA
Joint event with iVEC and SSIT
B.3 Professional and Continuing Education Activities
Many of these have been listed in the Chapter activities, additional Section activities include:
JEEP
14th April
22nd July
23rd
September
28th October
What is a Structurally Separated Carrier and how the NBN
is likely to Operate
Andrea Conte and Dr Walter Green
The Internet of Things
Martin Cebis, ETCorp Pty Ltd
Vividwireless: Australia's first 4G wireless network.
A practical perspective
David Havyatt, Vividwireless
How to Keep your Voice and Data Services when Disaster
Strikes
Rob Jones, Amcom Telecommunications
B.4 Students Activities
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We have three Student Branches
No new Branches were formed this year
The Section provided financial support for students to attend the Australia New Zealand
Student Congress in Melbourne.
The University of Western Australia SB has been particularly active. The Murdoch and Curtin
SB have had less activity and will be the focus of our attention in 2011
Student activities are reported directly to HQ
B.5 Affinity Group Activities
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In 2010, GOLD held 5 administrative meetings and two events: IEEE GOLD WA/UWA IEEE
Student Branch/ IET WA Young Professional Sundowner and The First STEP. GOLD is also
very supportive of the Student Branches.
The WIE Group has been dormant for a number of years and is expected to dissolve.
B.6 Awards & Recognition Activities
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The Section and the joint PES/PELS Chapter have continued to sponsor four separate
undergraduate student prizes in the four local universities:
 Curtin University of Technology
 Edith Cowan University
 Murdoch University
 University of Western Australia
The Section also continued to sponsor the best poster prize award for the Postgraduate
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Symposium (PEECS).
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The Industry Bridge Award began in 2009 and supports students working with industry on
projects. In 2011 we will be running the second instance of the Industry Bridge Award. This
will be promoted in early 2011.
B.7 Communication Activities (Newsletter, Home Page, E-mail etc.)
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Home Page of the Section is: http://ewh.ieee.org/r10/w_australia/
The website is regularly update with events for the Section, Chapters and GOLD.
The main form of communication with members is via e-notice
B.8 Community Activities
B.9 Other Organizational Activities
PART C - OTHERS
C.1 Relationship with National Societies
In Western Australia, it has been agreed that the three professional engineering Institutions (Engineers
Australia [Electrical & ITEE Colleges], IEE, and IEEE) shall present a joint annual program for the
presentation of electrical engineering papers. The JEEP program comprises 10 papers, which includes
time for networking at the Division offices and an occasional site visit.
The local Computer Society Chapter is strongly involved in local ICT industry development and is in
regular contact with the Australian Computer Society (WA) and other local branches of industry and
professional associations.
C.2 Special Events
C.3 Problems to be Anticipated
We have had a complete changeover of committee on all three Student Branches. We will be working
with them to rebuild their knowledge of the IEEE and assist with activities.
C.4 Best Practices of your section
We hold regular Section meetings that include the chairs of all Chapters, Branches and Groups. The
Section has a mailing list, including all of the Chairs and open to other committee members to enhance
communication.
Each year we hold a Planning Workshop, bringing new and old committee members together to help
share knowledge and plan for the year ahead.
PART D - GOALS AND PLANS
D.1 Continuation of Project/Activity in Progress and Their Implementation
Plans
We will be running the second instance of the Industry Bridge Award for students working with
industry on projects. This began in late 2009 and will be promoted in early 2011.
D.2 Goals and Future Plans
Our Section has some very successful event organizers at a local and international level. We will focus
our planning workshop for 2011 on sharing their knowledge and enhancing event management across
the Section, Chapters, Groups and Branches.