Agenda
Maker Faire (Jenny Kniss)
Review election results and officer transition details
Review non-elected officer positions
End-of-year reporting requirements
Engineer Week Banquet Planning
Status on action items from last meeting
IEEE Explorer Speaker – Elisa
Organize Meeting to watch IEEE recorded sessions from Sections Congress – Elisa & Jaydip
Chapter chair, affinity chair roundtable
2012 Budget Planning Preparation

Here’s the November section newsletter. As always, I hope you find it informative and useful. Here are a few of the topics in this issue:
• Boise Section 2012 Officer Elections. Deadline for voting is Nov 30th — don’t forget to vote.
• PEIA technical event on Dec 8th
• Future City Competition — call for judges

You should have received your 2012 membership renewal mailing already. Renew today!

Best regards,

Chris Gunning
Chair, IEEE Boise Section

It is time to vote for your 2012 IEEE Boise section officers. Eligible voting members are members within
the Boise section with a membership grade of Graduate Student Member (GSM) or higher as of Nov 1st.
The voting site is at https://voting.vtools.ieee.org/ . Please visit this site to vote.

We are using the IEEE vtools voting system for our election. This tool helps us ensure that your voting
rights are protected and that you can be confident that your vote is accurately cast and tabulated.

The section OpComm elected positions are Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer. The candidate
biographies are on the voting site. Please select one candidate for each position or specify a write-in
candidate. The deadline to vote is midnight MST on Nov 30th.

Contact me at cgunning@ieee.org if you have a question, comment, or complaint regarding your voting
experience.

A quick note on other positions in the OpComm:

We’ve been fortunate to have several members volunteer recently to fill non-elected positions next
year, but we still have some key positions we’re trying to fill. The time commitment for most of these
positions is just a couple hours per month. You can also volunteer to be an “at large” member of the
OpComm. Volunteering is a great way to network with other engineers, get positive visibility and
leadership experience, and make a contribution to the community. Please contact me if you are willing
to volunteer.

Thank you,

Chris Gunning
IEEE Boise Section Chair

The Boise IEEE PEIS Chapter is pleased to announce our last technical event of 2011. Please see the
attached announcement and share this event with others who may be interested. We look forward to
seeing you there!

Please note that elections are also coming up soon (all elected positions are available). Please contact
me, if you’re interested in serving as Chair (or other officer position) within the Chapter. I will be
sending out election notices soon, unless there is only one candidate interested in any position.

IEEE Boise Section: Joint Chapter of Power and Energy & Industrial Applications Societies Presents:

Thursday, December 8th, 2011 at 12:00 PM

Location: Idaho Power Company CHQ Auditorium East

Drinks and light snacks provided

Data, Power and Control: Some thoughts as the Smart Grid Takes Shape

Presented by: Dr. John Gardner

It’s been a long time coming, but the form of the Smart Grid is starting to emerge
from behind all the smoke and mirrors. From Idaho Power’s Advanced Metering
Infrastructure project to the sweeping Smart Grid Demonstration project being
managed by the Pacific Northwest National Lab throughout the Northwest, some
interesting trends are visible. In this talk, we examine a few examples of the new
potential of the smart grid as well as some of the research project currently underway
at the CAES Energy Efficiency Research Institute (CEERI).

Dr. Gardner is a professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering at Boise State University and
Director of the Energy Efficiency Research Institute, a multi-institutional program that is part of
the Center for Advanced Energy Studies at the Idaho National Laboratory. John chairs the Campus
Sustainability Advisory Board (CSAB), a campus-wide body that coordinates and promotes sustainability
practice, education and research at Boise State. He served as chair of the Boise State Mechanical
& Biomedical Engineering Dept from 2001 through 2007 and has published more than 40 refereed
research papers and 2 textbooks. John is a registered professional engineer in Idaho. Prior to his
appointment at Boise State, Dr. Gardner spent 13 years on the faculty at the Pennsylvania State
University in University Park where his research in dynamic systems and controls led to publications in
diverse fields from railroad freight car dynamics to adaptive control of artificial hearts.

The National Engineers Week Future City Competition is a program for 6th, 7th and 8th graders, where
teams of students design and present their vision of what a city of the future should look like. Teams
work with teachers and engineering mentors to create their city using SimCity software. They take
into account factors such as energy needs, traffic density, pollution levels, and other real-life design
considerations. They also build a model of their city, write an essay on a designated topic, and present the whole package to a panel of judges.
If you are able to help us with this worthwhile competition, in your response please include what area(s)
you would be willing to judge as well as your company name and job title. We only ask that you do not
have a child entered in the competition and are not currently mentoring a team. If you would like more
information please visit either website listed below and feel free to contact me with and questions or
comments that you may have.

Thanks,

Erika Bowen
Idaho Regional Judging Coordinator
National Engineers Week Future City Competition
http://www.futurecity.org/idaho
http://www.futurecity.org

Phone: 208.334.8552 | Fax: 208.334.4432

Email: Erika.Bowen@itd.idaho.gov

H.R. 3146 would exempt certain students from the EB visa cap. This would allow these students to get
an EB visa, a type of green card, shortly after earning their degree. To qualify, students would have to:

• Earn a Masters or Ph.D.,
• In a STEM (science, technology, engineer or math) field,
• From an American university, and
• Have a job offer from an American company related to their field.

Rep. Labrador’s bill eliminates country cap restrictions from the EB program, ensuring that all
international students are treated the same regardless of which country they are from. The bill also
imposes a fee on companies hiring students through this program. Funds generated from this fee
will be channeled towards STEM education programs in the United States from elementary school up
through college.

The bill, the American Innovation and Education Act (H.R. 3146), was introduced by Congressman
Labrador in early October. It has attracted five cosponsors, including four additional freshmen
Republicans. Rep. James Sensenbrenner has also signed onto the bill. Sensenbrenner is a former Chair
of the House Immigration Subcommittee and a senior member of the Republican caucus.

Congressman Labrador explained his reasons for introducing this bill by sating:

“I looked at the different ways that have been proposed to fix this problem and have introduced
a specific, targeted bill to help people who have offers of employment but face a processing
backlog that can stretch for a decade or more. When foreign STEM students leave after
graduating, their innovations are lost to our economy, leaving Idaho’s high tech industry at a
disadvantage compared to the rest of the world. This bill will also pave the way to encourage
more interest in the STEM fields from our domestic students, who make up a decreasing
proportion of current graduate students. It ends the brain-drain, helps American students and
helps domestic companies maintain their edge in the global economy.” –Congressman Labrador

As the Congressman suggested, graduate STEM students with degrees from American universities are
in high demand globally. Most will find good jobs, even in this difficult economy. It is in America’s
best interest for them to find jobs here, rather than in another country. People with advanced STEM
degrees are among the most innovative, productive and entrepreneurial people in the world. Inviting
more of them to become Americans will create jobs and economic growth in our country, helping all
Americans.

Moreover, by giving these students green cards shortly after they earn their degrees, rather than making
them wait several years, Rep. Labrador’s bill will keep them off of the H-1B visa. Unlike the EB visa, H-
1B visas are not green cards and do not give workers using them residency rights. Without these rights,
workers depend upon their employers for their legal right to stay in this country. This allows some
employers to exploit H-1B workers by paying them less than American, withholding benefits, and forcing
them to work longer hours than their American colleagues.

Once workers get their green cards, however, they become permanent legal residents of the United
States. Since their legal status is permanent, green card holders can simply quit if they are not treated
fairly by their employer. This levels the playing field with American workers, protecting both.

H.R. 3146 bill is based on a similar, but broader, piece of legislation introduced by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-
CA) called the IDEA Act (H.R. 2161) that is backed by prominent Democrats. While the STEM provisions
are identical in the two bills, the IDEA Act includes provisions to expand low-skill immigration that
Republicans wouldn’t support.

IEEE-USA and IEEE members have been working for over a decade to convince Congress to reform our
nation’s high-skill immigration system. While we have prevented Congress from making things worse,
there has been little appetite on Capitol Hill for actually improving the system. In fact, despite lots of
noise and effort, Congress didn’t even draft a real immigration reform bill in the last Congress.

Reps. Labrador and Lofgren have broken this impasse. While compromises still have to be made
before a final bill can become law, high-skill immigration reform is much more likely to pass during this

Congress than at any point in the past several years.

IEEE members who have questions about high-skill immigration reform should contact IEEE-USA staffer
Russ Harrison at r.t.harrison for more information.

September Newsletter (PDF)