7th Lecture of IEEE CS San Diego's 2026 Invited Seminar Series (Virtual)

Please Join us

October 20th  6 pm by  Mona Garg 

The Invariant Assurance Framework: Preserving Trust in AI-Assisted Systems

(sponsored by  IEEE Seattle TEM Chapter) 

Abstract : 

The Invariant Assurance Framework: Preserving Trust in AI-Assisted Systems

Generative AI is changing how software and technology systems are built. It can now help write code, review designs, identify problems and make recommendations that once depended heavily on human experts. This creates a new challenge: as AI works faster and takes on more decision-making, how do we make sure critical security rules are still being followed?

This talk introduces the Invariant Assurance Framework (IAF), a practical approach for keeping humans in control of the most important risk decisions. The framework follows three steps: first, define the security rules that must never be broken; second, automatically check important changes against those rules before they go live; and third, continuously monitor the system to make sure those rules remain true over time.

Using examples from high-risk systems such as payments and AI agents, the session will show how organizations can use AI to improve speed and productivity without losing security, accountability or human judgment.

Speaker

Mona Garg is a Principal Security Engineer specializing in the security of large-scale payment systems that power global commerce. She brings deep expertise in application and platform security, threat modeling, and secure system design, combining technical depth with a pragmatic, risk-based approach.

Her work focuses on advancing payment security and addressing emerging security challenges in AI-assisted and agentic systems. Earlier in her career, Mona helped strengthen the security of critical financial platforms at Visa.

She holds a master’s degree in Information Security Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University and writes and speaks on emerging challenges at the intersection of security, AI, and risk.

Seattle Section EXCOM imediatly follow the speech  on October 20th 7PM 

Dear Colleagues,

We are excited to invite you to IEEE iGET 2026 – Global Emerging Technology Conference, hosted in Southern California for the first time, taking place October 21–25, 2026, in Irvine, Orange County, California.

Expert-Led Workshops
Hands-on and practical sessions covering Agentic AI, LLMs, domain-specific AI, responsible innovation, production AI systems, AI-agent evaluation, autonomous-agent controls, and more.

IEEE iGET 2026 is connected with two global innovation initiatives:

• OneAquaHealth Global Hackathon
• Climate Chain Global Hackathon

Together, these programs have engaged 1,700+ participants worldwide, bringing together students, researchers, developers, healthcare professionals, technologists, and innovators to develop solutions to real-world challenges.

OneAquaHealth focuses on the intersection of human health, aquatic ecosystems, environmental sustainability, digital health, data, and community engagement. Participants have explored solutions spanning environmental monitoring, health technologies, data visualization, sustainability, and digital-health standards.

The OneAquaHealth program also included multiple learning sessions with international experts, helping participants move from challenge identification to solution development.

A major highlight of IEEE iGET 2026 will be the recognition of the OneAquaHealth Global Hackathon Winner during the Award Ceremony on Friday, October 23.

The conference will also recognize:

• Best Student Poster Award
• Best Paper Award

The Climate Chain Global Hackathon complements this effort by encouraging solutions around climate resilience, sustainability, AI, blockchain, and emerging technologies.

Together, these initiatives showcase how global collaboration can translate emerging technologies into solutions with meaningful societal impact.

Industry Keynote Speakers
Hear from experienced industry leaders and experts sharing insights on AI, healthcare innovation, emerging technologies, enterprise transformation, and responsible innovation.

50+ Scientific Paper Presentations
Explore cutting-edge research and technical advances across AI, engineering, healthcare, and emerging technologies.

Student Poster Competition – 25+ Submissions
Discover innovative student research and connect with the next generation of researchers and engineers.

Student Entrepreneur & Pitch Program
An opportunity for students and aspiring founders to present ideas, receive feedback, build connections, and explore entrepreneurship.

We'll be touring the tunnels that run beneath campus. These tunnels transport power, water, heat, and electricity to all the buildings on the premises.

 SDIEEE EXCOM Meeting

Executive Committee meeting to discuss all San Diego IEEE activities.  All IEEE members welcome to attend. Please RSVP. 

• 5:30 pm - 6:00 pm,    Networking and food!
• 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm,    meeting (in person and/or remote)
• Meeting Adjourned 

To add to the agenda, please email upalmahbub@yahoo.com.   

October ExCom

The growing use of converter-interfaced generation, energy storage, and large electric loads is creating new challenges for power-system stability, resilience, and expansion. Although solid-state transformers (SSTs) and medium-voltage DC technologies have advanced substantially, most research continues to treat them as individual devices rather than coordinated building blocks of future grid architecture.

This lecture traces a control-centered progression from grid-forming SSTs, through grid-forming control of multi-terminal MVDC networks, to SST-enabled multi-terminal MVDC systems. It first introduces Dual-Measurement Frequency Droop (DMFD), which enables grid-forming operation at both AC terminals of an SST. This allows multiple SST-connected systems to establish interconnected microgrids during upstream outages, regulate voltage and frequency, coordinate photovoltaic and battery resources, and maintain connected renewable generation without high-speed communications.

The same control principle is then extended to multi-terminal MVDC networks to coordinate grid-forming behavior across AC and DC terminals, improve disturbance sharing, and reduce dependence on fixed master-slave roles. The lecture concludes by introducing an emerging architecture in which the internal converters and DC buses of SSTs form meshed MVDC interconnections without additional converter stations.

Together, these developments could reposition SSTs from advanced transformer replacements to strategic grid infrastructure, enabling multi-path power delivery, graceful degradation and recovery, and a phased transition from legacy AC systems to resilient hybrid AC/DC networks. Data centers and other critical large loads provide a compelling application, particularly when strengthening the surrounding sub-transmission system is as important as protecting the load itself.

Dr. Hisham Mahmood is a Senior Research Engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where he leads research on medium- and high-voltage DC grid architectures, solid-state transformers, and the control of converter-dominated power systems. His research has progressed from autonomous power management and coordination of islanded microgrids to grid-forming SSTs, SST-enabled hybrid AC/DC systems, and multi-terminal MVDC and HVDC networks. His current work includes advanced control and architecture development for MVDC grids, offshore-wind integration through multi-terminal HVDC systems, and system-level modeling of power-electronic interfaces.

Before joining PNNL, Dr. Mahmood was an Assistant Professor at Florida Polytechnic University and held research and engineering positions at Western University, the University of Exeter, and Hit Power Ltd. He received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Western University and the M.Sc. degree in control engineering from Lakehead University. Over more than 15 years across national laboratories, academia, and industry, he has led and contributed to multiple U.S. Department of Energy-funded research projects and published extensively on microgrid power management, distributed energy storage, and power-electronic converter control. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and has been listed among the world’s top 2% scientists in Stanford University’s science-wide citation database.

Many Hands Make Light Work!

Join IEEE Young Professionals at the Utah Food Bank for a hands‑on volunteer shift focused on supporting our local community. During this 90‑minute warehouse session, volunteers will help sort donated food, assemble food boxes, and prepare meal kits that go directly to individuals and families in need.

Warehouse Volunteer Activities (Ages 12+) Volunteering in the warehouse includes:

• Sorting and organizing incoming food donations

• Filling boxes with food that will be distributed throughout the community

• Assembling food kits for home‑delivery programs

• Supporting general warehouse needs as directed by Food Bank staff

This shift is fast‑paced, collaborative, and a great way to make a meaningful impact in a short amount of time.

We also encourage all volunteers who are able to bring non‑perishable food items to donate. Every contribution helps strengthen the Food Bank’s ability to serve our community.

Thank you for your time and willingness to serve — we look forward to seeing you soon!

Attendance is limited to 15 volunteers. Please RSVP to reserve your spot.

TAE STEM OUTREACH GROUP

Inspiring the Next Generation of STEM Professionals

Connecting students with STEM professionals, career opportunities, and real-world applications.

ABOUT THE GROUP

The TAE STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) Outreach Group is an employee-led initiative dedicated to engaging students and communities in STEM.  We partner with schools, educators, and organizations to introduce students to STEM careers, demonstrate real-world applications, and encourage future exploration. 

For a century, the grid's stability came for free from the heavy spinning mass of conventional generators. As solar, wind, and battery storage take over, that built-in inertia is disappearing, and the grid has to find new ways to stay steady.

Join Stanford IEEE's Power & Energy Society for an interactive session on grid inertia in an inverter-based world. We'll cover why inertia matters, what inverter-based resources can and can't do to replace it, and how reactive power support fits in. Along the way, we'll walk through real-world case studies of events on the grid and see what they can teach us. Expect live demos, open discussion, and plenty of questions. Open to all majors. No power systems background required.

Details and RSVP: https://luma.com/izp8abza

The Stanford IEEE and its internal sub-chapter the Power and Energy Society will be hosting an informative presentation on Palo Alto Utility's Grid Modernization efforts.

Specific location on campus TBA. Details and RSVP: https://luma.com/v5gz9zz9

Meeting Announcement: San Diego IEEE Life Members Affinity Group – Tuesday, October 27, 6 pm

Join us for our upcoming gathering!

We are pleased to announce the next meeting of the San Diego IEEE Life Members Affinity Group. All members are warmly invited to join us for an evening of camaraderie, conversation, and connection.  This will be an in person meeting.

·       Date: Tuesday, October 27, 2026

·       Time: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

·       Location: Crust Pizzeria

·       124 Solana Hills Dr.

·       Solana Beach, CA 92075

·       Phone: 858.356.9925

Speaker: Vidya Rangaswamy

Topic for Discussion: Application of Power Converters

We encourage all San Diego IEEE Life Members to attend and to bring along any colleagues or friends who may be interested. This is a great opportunity to network, share ideas, and enjoy delicious food in a friendly setting.

Virtual meeting access will also be provided, below is a Webex link:

Webex Meeting Information:

San Diego IEEE Life Member Affinity Group Monthly Meeting

https://ieeemeetings.webex.com/ieeemeetings/j.php?MTID=m3e3423d669b45cd0b8ab0914c703ee35

Meeting number:

2537 838 3419

Meeting password:

ETxFyJ4A4K3

Abstract:

A recent report by the US Department of Energy defines the area of scientific machine learning as

“a core component of artificial intelligence (AI) and a computational technology that can be trained, with

scientific data, to augment or automate human skills”, which has “the potential to transform science and

energy research”. In this presentation, we discuss the potential of scientific machine learning methods to

problems in computational electromagnetics starting from standard electromagnetic structure analysis

and multi-physics modeling in the time-domain, employing unsupervised, supervised and reinforcement

learning.

An unsupervised learning strategy is based on a modified Physics-Informed Neural Network (PINN). PINNs

directly integrate physical laws into their loss function, so that the training process does not rely on the

generation of training ground truth data from simulations. We introduce a physics-informed deep-

operator-network (PI-DON) for Maxwell’s equations. We show applications of the PI-DON to the analysis,

design and uncertainty quantification study of finite and defect periodic structures, including frequency

selective surfaces and metasurfaces.

Moreover, we demonstrate the impact of machine learning on the computational modeling of radiowave

propagation scenarios and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, using supervised learning. We build

convolutional neural network models that can process the geometry of indoor environments, along with

physics-inspired parameters, to rapidly estimate received signal strength (RSS) maps. Emphasis is placed

on the generalizability of these models, which is their ability to "learn" the physics of radiowave

propagation and produce accurate modeling predictions in new geometries well beyond those included in

their training set.

Finally, the use of reinforcement learning for the optimization of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces will be

discussed.

Join the IEEE Seattle Joint Communications Chapter for a social and networking evening at Topgolf! Take some time to unwind, connect with fellow members, and enjoy a relaxed evening together. Members considering IEEE Senior Member elevation will have the opportunity to ask questions and receive guidance. To help us plan, please register by October 20 once you’ve confirmed that you can attend.

Date: Thursday, October 29 from 6 to 8 PM

Location: Topgolf, 780 Logan Ave N, Renton, WA 98057

CLASTECH will be at the Eravant Facility this year.  We will have a 4 speakers on Microwave and Antenna topics.  There will be a box lunch from Panera Bread.

Space is limited - no onsite registration

List of Speakers:

1- Prof. Nick Miller, Michigan State., "Large-Signal Characterization and Modeling of GaN HEMTs to 100 GHz"

2- Dr. Hasan Sharifi, HRL Director, "Next-Generation Millimeter Wave Phased Array Technology Enabled By 3D Heterogeneous Integration"

3-  Mahmoud Wagih, Ph. D., University of Glasgow, "Making Microwaves Green: From Life Cycle Assessments to Chipless Sensing Solutions"

4- Prof. Satish Sharma, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering San Diego State University, "Multifunctional Antennas and Arrays for Wireless Communications", 

Here is a link about Eravant https://www.eravant.com/ 

Join the IEEE Club at CWI for a behind-the-scenes tour of Micron Technology in Boise, Idaho.

This tour offers an opportunity to explore the intersection of electrical engineering, materials science, manufacturing, and technological innovation. Attendees will gain insight into Micron’s role in the semiconductor industry and the engineering challenges involved in developing and producing advanced memory solutions.  Participants will learn about semiconductor manufacturing, memory technology, and the engineering processes behind the advanced chips that power modern electronics, computing, and artificial intelligence.

Who should attend: CWI students, IEEE members, faculty, and people interested in semiconductors, electronics, computer engineering, and industrial manufacturing.

Come learn how semiconductor technology moves from engineering concepts to the devices that shape our connected world.

Register with vtools here.  Then, you need to register with Micron with this Envoy link.  Registration ends on the 23rd so Micron can plan accordingly.  We'll be meeting at the Micron visitor parking area by building B36.  See map or map link for visuals.  After your Micron registration, you will receive an email with your pass.  You can print it or download the envoy app.

An IEEE SPS San Diego workshop in association with Live AI Dream

Go beyond chatting with AI. Learn how to build an AI helper that follows a task, uses tools, checks its work, and tries again when something goes wrong.

This standalone workshop is part of the IEEE SPS San Diego AI Systems and Practitioner Engagement program. Attend this session on its own—no commitment to future sessions is required.

5:00–6:00 PM

Join Chhavi Jain, an AI systems architect, founder of Live AI Dream, and IEEE SPS Vice Chair, for a guided introduction to building AI agents.

Learn how to:

• Give your agent a clear task.
• Help it choose what to do next.
• Let it check a result and try again.
• Use it to find and fix code mistakes.
• Keep a person in control when approval or help is needed.

We’ll focus on a starter agent and explain what it takes to make it more reliable—not promise a production-ready system in one hour.

6:00–6:30 PM

Explore Mehmet’s computer-vision project and see how AI finds and follows people or objects in video. Learn how it studies movement and turns what it sees into useful information.

This project demonstration shows how different AI tools can work together as one system.

6:30–7:30 PM

See student projects, hear what they built, and ask questions. Enjoy pizza, meet fellow attendees, and share ideas with students and people working with AI.

• General admission:
• UC San Diego students:
• IEEE Signal Processing Society members: Free

All admission levels include the workshop, student showcase, pizza, and networking. Registration is required for everyone, including free attendees. Student and SPS member rates require eligibility verification.

An IEEE certificate of participation is planned for participants who successfully complete the workshop, subject to chapter confirmation of issuance and completion requirements. This is participation recognition, not an accredited qualification.

Date: October 25, 2026 — planned
Time: 5:00–7:30 PM
Location: To be confirmed
Contact: Chhavi Jain — chhavi.jain@ieee.org

We are organizing part8 of the IEEE San Diego Electronics Packaging Society (EPS) chapter meeting.

IEEE Orange County PES/IAS Chapter's ExCom meeting

All IEEE OC PES/IAS Chapter members are requested to attend this meeting. 

To AVOID unauthorized attendance you MUST REGISTER for this event so that you can be sent the meeting link.

Stanford IEEE is hosting "The Power of Service," an evening on the many different paths of service through IEEE. It is open to all Stanford students and geared toward undergraduate and graduate students in electrical engineering, computer science, and related fields.

The evening opens with a short talk on what service through IEEE can look like over a career, from student member to local volunteer to leadership. That is followed by a small panel of IEEE volunteers and Stanford IEEE industry advisors, who will share their own paths through service in industry, their local IEEE section, and IEEE societies, and take audience questions. Officers of the IEEE Santa Clara Valley Section will then give a brief introduction to the local section and how students can get involved. The event ends with informal networking.

Admission is free and no ticketing is required. Room TBD, check back closer to the date.

Details: https://luma.com/1yqa8y4f

The IEEE ASU ComSoc Student Branch Chapter is dedicated to fostering an active community of students and researchers passionate about communications, networking, and emerging wireless technologies. Our mission is to create a dynamic environment for professional development, mentorship, and technical exchange. As a core part of this mission, we host a Keynote Speech Series featuring distinguished leaders whose work informs and inspires our members. These sessions are designed to bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and industry practice, providing our student community with direct access to the visionaries shaping the future of connectivity.

IEEE Sacramento Valley Industry Evening

📅 November 6, 2026
🕔 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Join us for an evening of industry insights, career development, networking, and meaningful connections with professionals from the Sacramento Valley engineering community.

🗓️ Event Schedule

Coffee and snacks

5:00 PM — Speaker 1 Presentation
5:30 PM — Speaker 2 Presentation
6:00 PM — Speaker 3 Presentation
6:30 PM — Panel Discussion & Q&A
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM — Networking • 1:1 Resume Review

Dinner

Whether you’re an experienced engineer, a young professional, a student, or simply interested in learning from industry leaders, this is a great opportunity to gain insights, ask questions, strengthen your resume, and build your professional network.

Come ready to learn, connect, and grow with the IEEE Sacramento Valley community!

Meet our industry speaker panel featuring:

• Apple Senior Hardware Design Engineer
• President of Arroyo Instruments
• CEO of Applied Energetic
• Cal Poly Faculty
• Senior Manager of Photonics Company 

Students and young engineers are invited to participate in the Student and Young Engineer Design Competition (SYDC). The competition features up to four distinct tracks, including the Active, Passive, and WPT tracks organized by the APMC 2026 Committee, and the Oscillator track organized in collaboration with IEEE MTT-S TC-3. In each track, registered participants will go through the following three stages:

Oscillator Design Competition is organized by the Foothill Section vice-chair Dr. Osman Ceylan.

Event Link: https://apmc2026.org/student-and-young-engineer-design-competitions.html

Click Here for the Rules

Speaker: Prof. Jianping Pan
University of Victoria, BC, Canada

Second-generation low-earth-orbit satellite networks, such as SpaceX's Starlink and Eutelsat's OneWeb, as well as upcoming ones such as Amazon's Leo and Telesat's Lightspeed, have attracted a lot attention in recent years, however, most academic and industry researchers still lack direct access to such systems, impeding their research progress and further improvement on space, air and ground integrated networks envisioned by sixth-generation mobile communication systems. In this talk, we will highlight a coast-to-coast-to-coast low-earth-orbit satellite network testbed with at least one node in each of the ten provinces and three territories in Canada, extended to all six major continents, with tools and datasets publicly available for the research community. The testbed has been augmented by outside-in approaches that can reach over 7 million Starlink user routers and over one thousand aircraft, being the largest around the world of its kind.

Dr Jianping Pan is a professor of computer science at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He received his Bachelor's and PhD degrees in computer science from Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, and he did his postdoctoral research at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He also worked at Fujitsu Labs and NTT Labs. His area of specialization is computer networks and distributed systems, and his current research interests include protocols for advanced networking, performance analysis of networked systems, and applied network security. He received IEICE Best Paper Award in 2009, Telecommunications Advancement Foundation's Telesys Award in 2010, WCSP 2011 Best Paper Award, IEEE Globecom 2011 Best Paper Award, JSPS Invitation Fellowship in 2012, IEEE ICC 2013 Best Paper Award, NSERC DAS Award in 2016, IEEE ICDCS 2021 Best Poster Award and DND/NSERC DGS Award in 2021, and has been serving on the technical program committees of major computer communications and networking conferences including IEEE INFOCOM, ICC, Globecom, WCNC and CCNC. He was the Ad Hoc and Sensor Networking Symposium Co-Chair of IEEE Globecom 2012 and an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. He is a senior member of the ACM and a Fellow of the IEEE.

November Executive Committee Meeting

Bi-Monthly ExCom Meeting held on the third Wednesday of every odd month. (Moved to November 11th to avoid conflicts with holiday travel.)

Key Takeaways from this talk:

  - The 4 Types of People You Need In Your Corner for a Successful Career
  - What is Mentorship? And why do you need it?
  - How to be a good Mentor
  - How to be a good Mentee
  - How you can get started
  - Build your own personal Board of Directors for your Career today

This 2-day symposium focuses on quantified reliability, accelerated testing and probabilistic assessments of the useful lifetime of electronic, photonic, MEMS and MOEMS materials, assemblies, packages and systems in electronics and photonics packaging.  This includes failure modes, stress levels, mechanisms, testing schemes, accelerated testing, and environmental stresses.  The intent is to bring together electrical, reliability, materials, mechanical, and computer engineers and applied scientists to address the state-of-the-art in all the interconnected fields of electronic and photonic packaging, with an emphasis on various reliabilit-yrelated aspects: design-for-reliability, manufacturing, reliability modeling and accelerated testing.

Location: In person at UCLA, and over IEEE WebEx
Dates: November 12-13, 2026
Cost: ( for IEEE members, for WebEx) through Oct. 16

Inventing the Future

SRI has spent 80 years developing the technology that fuels the world we live in today: the internet, robotics, weather satellites, early human-machine AI, medicine, diagnostics and treatments, education programs, mapping, personal computing, and more. Celebrate with us and hear from some of the people who continue to deliver the future.

• David Pogue, Moderator
• David Parekh, SRI CEO
• Adam Cheyer, Siri founder
• Gary Guthart, Intuitive Surgical founder
• Todd Grindal, SRI Education President
• Celia Merzbacher, Executive Director of QED-C
• Karen Myers, VP, Information and Computing Sciences and Lab Director, AI Center

More special guests to be announced soon!

SRI will be honored with two new IEEE Milestones — designations that recognize technical achievements of lasting historical significance. The room will be filled with some of the people who made these innovations real. 

What to expect: 

• Doors open at 9:30 am; coffee and light fare will be served 
• Welcome and opening remarks from David Parekh, CEO of SRI 
• The unveiling of two new IEEE Milestones
  • Invention of SRI’s Computer Mouse, 1961-1968
  • First Robotic Telepresence Surgery System, 1987-1995
• Remarks from 2024 IEEE President, Tom Coughlin
• A history of IEEE Milestone’s from Brian Berg, IEEE Region 6 Milestone Chair 
• A moderated panel led by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author John Markoff 

This is a rare chance to hear directly from the people who shaped these breakthroughs — and to be there when their contributions are formally written into the historical record. 

The IEEE Computer Society Sacramento Valley Chapter and California State University, Sacramento invite you to a workshop on Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence, an in-person event. This event brings together leaders from industry, government, and academia to share their expertise Cyber-AI integration. Industry experts will share what they are seeing on the front lines, from emerging attacks to the tools companies use to stop them. State agency leaders will present how the public sector is putting AI to work in cybersecurity, sharing real use cases from protecting government systems and services. University faculty will connect these real-world challenges to the latest research. 

AI now shapes decisions in government, industry, and daily life. For people to rely on it, AI must be secure, reliable, and resilient against attack. This workshop explores what it takes to build AI systems we can trust. Trust in AI can break down at any stage of a model's life. The program traces these risks from start to finish. It begins with supply chain attacks, where poisoned data can corrupt a model before it is ever deployed. It then turns to runtime, where threats like prompt injection and the OWASP risks for AI systems can manipulate a model's behavior. Finally, it examines autonomous AI agents, which face new dangers such as goal drift, memory tampering, and failures that spread across multiple agents.

Knowing the threats is only half the story. Speakers will share proven defense strategies, including threat modeling, risk frameworks, and lessons learned from securing AI in real-world deployments.

Trustworthy AI can also make us safer. Speakers will show how AI strengthens cyber defense and digital forensics through automated threat hunting, faster incident response, and smarter forensic investigation.

The day closes with student research presentations and an expert panel on the future of trustworthy and secure AI. This is a free event for IEEE members. IEEE basic membership is free. 

Please check the website for event updates. 

Although you may have toured Hill Air Force Base Museum before, the purpose of this tour is to gain information around the World War II era activities at Wendover Airfield, now essentially a ghost town.

Our submission for an AIAA Historic Aerospace Nomination (similar to the already dedicated IEEE Milestone for Computer Graphics and the currently submitted IEEE Milestone Proposal on Cosmic Rays now in adjudication) is in preparation. Historical records are sparse, and the hope is to learn more from museum docents and each other. 

We know 20,000 people were stationed at Wendover Airfield in 1945.  They trained P47 fighter pilots and developed tactics for heavy bombers  (including nuclear bomb equipped B29 crews). The recent film "Oppenheimer" provided just a glimpse of the monumental effort of the Manhattan Project and did not touch the even bigger effort to design the B29 bomber that could cross immense distances flying above defending fighters. Wendover also tested the first US cruise missiles, the first air-to-air missiles , and the first glide bombs. Performance shortcomings of these programs urged rapid development of modern electronics guidance systems.

Students and young engineers will likely be shocked at the speed at which complex systems were developed and fielded under no excuses wartime pressure and without popular management theories embraced today. These past successful response to technical challenges and life hardships should provide incentive for us today.

RSVP required.

This year's symposium places a special emphasis on AI challenges in Power Electronics and Packaging. We will be featuring distinguished plenary speakers: Kaladhar Radhakrishnan (Intel), Yi Zheng (Applied Materials), Cian Ó Mathúna (Tyndall National Institute), Madhavan Swaminathan (Penn State), Stephen Coates (Yuxuan Semi), and Rinkle Jain (NVIDIA), who will discuss topics including:

· Power delivery architectures for next-generation AI accelerators

· Vertical power delivery for AI computing and data centers

· Heterogeneous integration of Vertical power for AI

· AI-driven design, modeling, and optimization of power electronics

· Advanced packaging technologies for AI high-density power delivery

· Materials, thermal management, and reliability challenges for AI hardware

Whether your AI power challenges are for compute, power delivery networks, chiplet integration, advanced semiconductor packaging, thermal management, or next-generation power conversion, 3D-PEIM 2026 provides a unique forum to engage with the latest research and connect with leaders from academia and industry who are shaping the future of AI power solutions.

The electric power industry is undergoing substantial expansion across generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure. This development is being driven by projected load growth, particularly from large-scale electricity consumers such as artificial-intelligence data centers and electric-vehicle charging facilities.

A substantial number of high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) systems and power-electronics-based Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) controllers are expected to be deployed across transmission and distribution networks. These technologies will be essential to serving the requirements of large new loads while facilitating the integration of renewable energy resources. 

According to Pike Research, HVDC transmission is emerging as one of the fastest-growing segments of the utility sector. Cleantech Market Intelligence reports that cumulative global investment in HVDC systems reached approximately US 0 billion between 2012 and 2020, with expenditures continuing to increase rapidly throughout the 2020s. Although a substantial share of this growth is concentrated in China and India, HVDC deployment is also accelerating across Europe, North America, Australia, and other regions as utilities address rising electricity demand and renewable energy integration requirements.

This presentation highlights the state-of-the-art in HVDC and FACTS technologies and explores new applications, including AC line conversion to DC and advances in converter designs such as modular multilevel voltage-source converters (VSCs)

Dr. Ram Adapa  is a Technical Executive in the Energy Delivery and Customer Solutions at EPRI. His research activities focus on High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission, Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS), Custom Power, Fault Current Limiters, and Substation Seismic Studies.

Dr. Adapa joined EPRI in 1989 as a Project Manager in the Power System Planning and Operations program. Later he became Product Line Leader for Transmission, Substations, and Grid Operations where he developed the research portfolio and business execution plans for the Grid Operations and Planning areas. Some of the tools in this portfolio included market restructuring, transmission pricing, ancillary services, and security tools to maintain the reliability of the grid.

Before joining EPRI, Dr. Adapa worked at McGraw-Edison Power Systems (presently known as Eaton Cooper Power Systems) as a Staff Engineer in the Systems Engineering Department.

Dr. Adapa received a BS degree in electrical engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, India, an MS degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, and a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

Dr. Adapa is an IEEE Fellow and has been honored several times by IEEE for his outstanding contributions to the profession. He received the 2016 IEEE PES Nari Hingorani Custom Power Award and the 2023 IEEE PES Uno Lamm HVDC Award. He has authored or coauthored more than 125 technical papers and is an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer. He is an individual member of CIGRE and a Registered Professional Engineer.

Join IEEE for a demonstration of industrial robotics and automation, featuring robotic arms and industrial robot systems such as those developed by ABB. Explore how robots are programmed, controlled, and integrated into automated manufacturing and industrial processes.

The demonstration will highlight safety and industrial automation application. Participants will gain insight into how functionality, design, and software work together to enable modern robotic applications.

This event is an opportunity for IEEE members, students, faculty, and industry professionals to see and discuss industrial robotics, real-world applications, and learn more about the technologies shaping advanced manufacturing.

The unprecedented growth of artificial intelligence (AI) is fundamentally transforming data center design. Industry initiatives centered around 800VDC power distribution have emerged as a promising pathway to reduce conversion stages, improve energy efficiency, lower copper usage, and support ultra-high-density computing environments. This presentation will examine the technical and economic drivers behind the transition toward Direct Current (DC) data centers, including increasing AI workloads, growing power demands, and evolving sustainability requirements. It will provide an overview of current industry developments, emerging technologies, and architectural approaches. 

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Organizing Committee, I am delighted to invite you to participate in the IEEE International Conference on Smart Connected Systems and Emerging Technologies (IEEE SCSETech 2026), to be held December 1–3, 2026, at CPP Kellogg West, Pomona, California, USA, in a hybrid format (in-person and virtual participation available).

IEEE SCSETech 2026 will bring together researchers, engineers, industry professionals, students, and technology leaders from around the world to explore innovations and emerging trends in:

• Wireless Communication & Networking
• Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
• Cybersecurity & Privacy
• Internet of Things (IoT) & Internet of Vehicles (IoV)
• Smart Power & Sustainable Systems

The conference program will feature:

🎤 Distinguished keynote speakers
📄 Peer-reviewed technical paper presentations
🛠 Workshops and tutorials
🎓 Student paper and poster sessions
🏭 Industry presentations and demonstrations
🤝 Networking opportunities, including a Welcome Reception and Gala Dinner

Accepted and presented papers will be submitted for publication in the IEEE Xplore Digital Library, subject to IEEE quality and publication requirements.

Important Dates

• Paper Submission Deadline: July 30, 2026
• Notification of Acceptance: September 6, 2026
• Camera-Ready Submission: October 2, 2026
• Conference Dates: December 1–3, 2026

Whether you are interested in presenting your research, learning about the latest technological advances, networking with experts, or exploring collaborative opportunities, IEEE SCSETech 2026 offers an outstanding platform for professional engagement and knowledge exchange.

For conference information, registration details, and updates, please visit:

🌐 https://www.ieeescsetech.com/

We look forward to welcoming you to IEEE SCSETech 2026.

Sincerely,

Dr. Tamer Omar
Conference Chair
IEEE International Conference on Smart Connected Systems and Emerging Technologies (IEEE SCSETech 2026)

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Pomona, California, USA

📧 tromar@cpp.edu
🌐 https://www.ieeescsetech.com/

IEEE Orange County PES/IAS Chapter's ExCom meeting

All IEEE OC PES/IAS Chapter members are requested to attend this meeting. 

To AVOID unauthorized attendance you MUST REGISTER for this event so that you can be sent the meeting link.

An evening with Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull, hosted by Stanford IEEE: a live interview and Q&A with Ed, followed by a screening of the original Toy Story.

Thursday, December 3, 6-9 PM at CEMEX Auditorium. Free. Students, faculty, staff, and families are all welcome (kids with a parent or guardian).

Details are tentative. Details and RSVP: https://luma.com/zfh6spdm

December ExCom