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IEEE NEWS FOR APRIL 2015
Jacob Z. Schanker, P.E., Newsletter Chair
The Rochester section web site is at: http://rochester.ieee.org/
Rochester Section Meeting – Tuesday, April 7, at Noon
The next monthly Rochester Section business meeting is on Tuesday, April 7, at 12:00 PM,
at the Hibachi Sushi Buffet Restaurant in South Town Plaza on Jefferson Road (Route
252) just west of West Henrietta Rd. (Route 15). Any IEEE member is invited to attend.
Lunch is only $3 for IEEE members. No reservation or RSVP is needed, just show up.
Computer Society / Computational Intelligence Society Meeting Genetic Algorithms (part 2)
Title: Genetic Algorithms (part 2)
Speaker: Peter G. Anderson, RIT Professor of Computer Science (Emeritus)
Date: Tuesday evening, April 7, 2015.
Time: Pizza & Drinks will be at 6:30pm, with the presentation at 7:00pm.
Location: Rochester Institute of Technology, Golisano Hall (Building 70), room 703000.
Abstract: Genetic Algorithms (GAs) are among a growing body of problem solving
techniques inspired by natural systems, biological, sociological, chemical, physical, etc.
GAs are based on the evolutionary idea of survival of the fittest and are implemented as
algorithmic problem solving by selective breeding. A GA uses a population of dozens or
hundreds of proposed solutions to a problem and repeatedly creates new solutions
(children) from pieces of the relatively better individuals (parents), injecting a small
amount of error (mutation) into the new individuals. Surprisingly, this often works.
These algorithms can often be very effective to find maxima of continuous functions in
cases where calculus cannot easily be applied, and also to quickly find acceptable suboptimal solutions to difficult (i.e., NP complete) combinatorial problems such as
scheduling, bin packing, traveling salesperson, map coloring, etc.
The first of the two talks gave an introduction to the basic algorithm along with variations
and tuning parameters and surveys some applications. In this portion, solutions to
problems will be represented by bit strings, a familiar object that is easy to create
randomly, crossover (sexual reproduction) and mutate.
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The second talk covers more interesting variations and applications. We give special
attention to permutation-based problem solutions and how to perform crossovers on
permutations.
About the speaker: Peter Anderson was a member of the Computer Science faculty at
RIT for 25 years, concentrating on graduate education, CS Theory, Neural Networks,
Pattern Recognition, and GAs . He continues to actively advise Graduate CS students,
pursue research in Fibonacci Numbers, and march with the Pittsford Fire Department
Band.
Play Ball!!! With IEEE and the Red Wings on Friday, May 1
Friday evening May 1, 2015, is the date for an IEEE Rochester Section social gathering
including baseball with the Triple AAA Rochester Red Wings vs. the Norfolk Tides at
Frontier Field. Enjoy the great American pastime with colleagues and friends. The first
pitch is at 7:05pm, but come when gates open at 6pm.
We will be having picnic grill food at The 10th Inning Bar, right there at Frontier Field.
Cost is $8 per person for IEEE members (only $5 for IEEE student members). This
includes admission and also the food! Contact thomas.pian@outlook.com for further
information.
Registration: Please register by April 22 2015 at
https://meetings.vtools.ieee.org/m/32943
Free eBooks for members all the time
There are almost three hundred eBook Classics available to all IEEE members for free
online reading or for free downloading as PDFs. And, they are always available.
I spent a few hours recently browsing through this library, and downloaded a few books
of special interest to me. I also priced some of these books on Amazon. It is no
overstatement to say that this is a $eriously valuable member benefit.
Let me tell you how to get to this treasure trove, and then I'll make some suggestions for
books to consider. Use this link to get to a page that explains the program, and has a link
to IEEE Xplore, which is where the books can be found: www.bit.ly/eBookClassics
Everyone will have their own discovered treasures, depending on their particular
discipline and interests. I've had a life-long interest in the history of technology so I
found some gems in that area. Consider these: Dawn of the Electronic Age by F. Nebeker,
and Tele-Visonaries: the People Behind the Invention of TV by R. Webb. An absolute
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treasure of communications and information theory history is Claude E. Shannon:
Collected Papers by N. Sloane and A. Wyner.
If you are going to be browsing, try starting alphabetically with T for The and with U for
Understanding, and see what is there.
IEEE Free eBook for April
In April, IEEE-USA E-books will offer “Starting Your Start-up – Book 3: Competitive
Analysis” by Tanya Candia.
This e-book is for engineers or entrepreneurs who have a great product or service idea,
but no real marketing expertise. It gives advice on how to map out the competitive
landscape, discern the product’s compelling value and sell against any and all
competitors.
April Fool
When I was a young high school student, first developing my knowledge of electronics, I
avidly devoured every issue of Popular Electronics magazine. Pop Electronics is often
described, for the benefit of younger readers, as a kind of maker-magazine of its day.
Back then, if you were into electronics, you were, by definition, a maker.
This being the April issue, I'm reminded of how I was taken in by an April Fool article
published by Popular Electronics. The article was on Contra-Polar Energy which
amazingly caused soldering irons to freeze and light bulbs to absorb light. All this was
illustrated with photographs. I still have that issue of Popular Electronics, and I share this
with my students on April 1 as evidence that even professors were once (and possibly
still are) naïve. My experience with my classes shows that this old article still has the
power to fool. See for yourself. The article is posted on the RF Café website at:
http://www.rfcafe.com/references/popular-electronics/contra-polar-energy-april-1955popular-electronics.htm
A large archive of Popular Electronics and other magazines can be found online at:
www.americanradiohistory.com.
Apparently, I was only one of many who were fooled. Paul J. Nahin, in the preface to his
excellent book, "An Imaginary Tale, the Story of √−1" relates his personal experience
with contra-polar energy. This can be read on Google Books at: http://goo.gl/SzBSZe.
And, if it is any indication of the importance of this tongue-in-cheek concept, a Google
search on "contra-polar energy" yielded "About 45,000,000 results."
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Batter Up!!! Rochester Section IEEE!!
Spend an Evening with our Rochester Red Wings and your
IEEE friends!!
Friday May 1, 2015
6:00 pm until the final out!! (Play Ball! at 7:05pm)
Rochester Red Wings vs. Norfolk Tides
AAA International League
Members, Students, Family and Friends!! Join the Rochester
Red Wings and IEEE Rochester Section colleagues and friends
for baseball, community and networking for an exciting AAA
International League baseball game. Food includes picnic
grille fare at The 10th Inning Bar, Frontier Field.
Order Tickets by
April 22 2015
For further information contact thomas.pian@outlook.com
Picnic Dining: 10th Inning Bar
IEEE dining starting at 6pm
Cost: $8 Members $5 Students $16 Non-members
Registration: Please register by April 22 2015
https://meetings.vtools.ieee.org/m/32943