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2014 IEEE EnCON

November 7 - 8, 2014
8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Indianapolis Marriot North
(Keystone/Fashion Mall area)
3645 River Crossing Parkway
Indianapolis, IN 46240
 
Ilya Pollak
Associate Professor
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana
"What is Quantitative Finance and Why Does
Everybody Need to Know Something about It"
 
Abstract:
Financial markets have always been plentifully covered in the news media, books, and aggressive marketing materials, but especially so during the last few years. Most of the coverage is unreliable or plain wrong (sometimes intentionally so!), as we will see based on several examples. It is therefore exceedingly important to be well informed and to have the tools that enable one to make intelligent financial decisions in a variety of situations like buying a house, deciding what university to study at, or constructing a retirement portfolio. As we demonstrate through several examples, simple analysis of readily available data is often very effective at identifying incorrect statements and avoiding bad decisions.
 
Ilya Pollak received the B.S. and M.Eng. degrees in 1995 and Ph.D. in 1999, all from MIT, all in electrical engineering. In 1999-2000, he was a post-doctoral researcher at the Division of Applied Mathematics, Brown University. Since 2000, he has been with Purdue University where he is currently Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research interests are in machine learning and statistical models applied to financial time series analysis, networks, and image processing. He has collaborated with financial companies on quantitative models for US equities and trade execution algorithms.
 
Prof. Pollak received an NSF CAREER award in 2001. He was Lead Guest Editor of the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine Special Issue on Signal Processing for Financial Applications in September 2011. He was the general chair of the IEEE Symposium on Signal and Information Processing in Finance and Economics at GlobalSIP in December 2013.
 
 

 
Mireille (Mimi) Boutin
Associate Professor
School of ECE and
(by courtesy) Department of Mathematics
Purdue University
Content Highlighting for Large Text Corpora
 
Abstract:
Mireille Boutin will present a low-complexity method to summarize the content of a large body of text documents, such as books, emails, or even code files. The method automatically extracts large groups of similar documents and, in a few words, summarizes the content of each group. We call this process "content highlighting", as the large group extracted can be viewed as the "highlights" of the corpus. The method is based on projecting each document onto a few words called "tags". The projection onto these tags is local and corpus dependent.
 
Mireille Boutin was born in Canada in the province of Quebec. She received the B.Sc. degree in Physics-Mathematics from the University de Montreal, and the Ph.D. degree in Mathematics from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis under the direction of Peter Olver. After a post-doctorate with David Mumford and David Cooper at Brown University, followed by a post-doctorate with Stefan Muller at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences (Leipzig, Germany), she joined Purdue’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. She is now an Associate Professor with tenure, and holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Mathematics. She is an editor of the journal "Applicable Algebra in Engineering, Communication and Computing", published by Springer. She is the instigator of "Project Rhea" an online learning project based on the principle that there is no better way to learn than to teach. She is the recipient of the Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding Faculty Award (Fall 2007) and the Wilfred "Duke" Hesselberth Award for Teaching Excellence (2008). Her current research interests include image and video processing, object recognition, automatic text translation, portable device applications and computational mathematics.
 

 
Umama Tasnia
Controls Engineer
LHP Software
Women Engineers & Different Engineering Career Paths
 
Abstract:
Have you ever wondered what path you would follow to become a corporate CEO (Chief Executive Officer) or a Professor of Engineering? How about a Project Engineer or a Project Manager for a large Industry or a Consulting Firm? This presentation illustrates 4 major careers paths open to you as a engineer out of the dozens of paths possible in the broad and expanding field of engineering:
These career paths were developed by engineers in these fields and represent their knowledge of a logical career progression which will help you to seek out the career path that best fits your goals and will be most satisfying to you.
 
Umama Tasnia received the Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM in 2013. She also holds a minor in Computer Engineering Umama has held many leadership roles including
 

 
Darlene Tolbert Phillips
Sr. Director, External Affairs
Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (MISO)
Carmel, Indiana
Young Professionals Career Success in the Energy Industry
 
In the course of a diverse and remarkable 20-year career in the energy industry, Darlene Tolbert Phillips has proven to be a skilled leader; exceptional thought partner, ardent problem solver and technical expert. Currently, Darlene is a member of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (MISO) External Relations and Government Affairs senior leadership team which engages with the regions' regulatory and stakeholder community; and, leads a talented team which handles Corporate Communications, Issues Management and External Training. Ms. Phillips serves as a key advisor to members of MISOs leadership team on a wide array of issues that impact internal and external communication and policy. Ms. Phillips utilizes her technical and market operations expertise to synthesize complex business functions into easily understandable documents to assist external parties in better understanding MISO's market and transmission operations. During her ten-year MISO career, Darlene has thrived in leadership roles in Operations, Information Technology and Business Services - affording her the opportunity to leverage her technical and business background to design business principles and planning techniques that mitigate risk to MISOs technical infrastructure as well as working to provide seamless operations planning for the companys largest divisions.
 
Prior to joining MISO, Darlene started her career as an engineer in the Control Room for Michigan Electric Power Coordination Center (MEPCC) in Ann Arbor, Michigan and worked as a senior consultant and member of Arthur Anderson and Bearing Point management team overseeing numerous projects in both organizations' National Energy Practice Groups working on key projects for MISO start-up activities; New York Independent System Operator, ERCOT and many energy related projects. During her consulting era, she managed a multi-million dollar portfolio and customer base and was recognized as a well sought consultant bringing sound technical and business solution to complex energy challenges.
 
Ms. Phillips, lives in Carmel, Indiana with her family - husband Eric Phillips; and, children Sydney and Joshua. Darlene is a licensed attorney in the State of Indiana; holding a Juris Doctorate degree from Indiana University School of Law at Indianapolis (cum laude); a Masters of Business Administration and Bachelor of Science Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
 

 
Shaoen Wu
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Ball State University
Muncie, Indiana
Embracing Internet of Things: Challenges and Opportunities
Abstract:
When you enjoy a lot of smart devices, are you ready for the next big thing —Internet of Things (IoT)? IoT is near the door. It interconnects uniquely identifiable embedded computing like devices within the existing Internet infrastructure IoT will fundamentally change the world as past IT technologies did. This talk presents the concept of IoT, its core components, the opportunities and applications it can enable, as well as the challenges to address before it can come to life.
 
Shaoen Wu received a Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2008 from Auburn University. He is presently an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Ball State University. He has held an Assistant Professor position in the School of Computing at the University of Southern Mississippi, a researcher scientist position at ADTRAN Inc. and a senior software engineer position at Bell Laboratories. His current research is in the areas of wireless and mobile networking, cyber security, cyber-physical systems and cloud computing. He is a recipient of Best Paper Award of IEEE ISCC 2008 and ANSS 2011. He has served on the chairs and the committees of several conferences and as editor for several journals.
 

 
Xukai Zou
Associate Professor
Department of Computer and Information Sciences
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Indianapolis, Indiana
Design of a Highly User-Friendly, Secure,
Privacy-Preserving, and Revocable Authentication Method
Abstract:
A large portion of system breaches are caused by authentication failure, either during the login process or in the post authentication session; these failures are themselves related to the limitations associated with existing authentication approaches.
 
Current authentication methods, whether proxy based or biometrics based, are not user-centric and/or endanger users' (biometric) security and privacy. In this talk, we present a newly designed biometrics based user-centric authentication approach. This method involves introducing a reference subject (RS), securely fusing the user’s biometrics with the RS, generating a BioCapsule (BC) from the fused biometrics, and employing BCs for authentication. Such an approach is user friendly, identity bearing yet privacy-preserving, resilient, and revocable once a BC is compromised. It also supports "one-click sign-on" across systems by fusing the user's biometrics with a distinct RS on each system. Moreover, active and non-intrusive authentication can be automatically performed during post-authentication sessions. We formally prove that the secure fusion based approach is secure against various attacks. Extensive experiments and detailed comparison with existing approaches show that its performance (i.e., authentication accuracy) is comparable to existing typical biometric approaches and the new BC based approach also possesses many desirable features such as diversity and revocability.
 
Dr. Xukai Zou is an associate professor from the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. His current research focus is Applied Cryptography, Network Security, Biometrics, Authentication and Communication Networks. He has been constantly serving as a reviewer for the primary international journals and conferences related to cryptography and information and network security and an invited reviewer for computing review. He serves as an associate editor for several international journals. He also served as an NSF panelist and an NIH grant external reviewer. His research has been supported by NSF, the Department of Veterans Affairs and Industry such as Cisco and Northrop Grumman.
 

 
Gerhard Klimeck
Director of the Network for Computational Nanotechnology
Reilly Director of the Center for Predictive Materials and Devices
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana
The Single-Atom Transistor:
How it was Created and What
it May Mean for the Future
 
Abstract:
The end of Moore's law has been falsely predicted repeatedly over the past 20 years, while Silicon technology has been driven to seemingly unlimited miniaturization. One foundational limit of size downscaling, however, will be hard to overcome - the discreteness of the underlying atomic system. Let's assume cost and manufacturability issues can be overcome: Can one reach such atomic limits? Can one make wires that are say 4 atoms wide and 1 atom tall and still provide Ohmic conductivity [1]? Can one connect such atomically thin wires to a single impurity atom embedded in Silicon [2]? If you can build such a thing, how would you know that it is single impurity atom? What modeling approaches are needed? How can such modeling software be disseminated widely? This presentation will address these questions through experimental and theoretical results of our recently demonstrated "Single Atom Transistor" and overview nanoHUB.org briefly.
 
Gerhard Klimeck is a Professor of Electrical and Commuter Engineering at Purdue University. In the past 20 years at Texas Instruments, NASA/JPL, and Purdue he has been the driving force for the Nanoelectronic Modeling Tool Suite (NEMO). He authored and co-authored over 390 peer-reviewed printed publications and over 220 invited and 410 contributed conference presentations. These publications have been cited in the literature thousands of times and result in an h-index of 47 in Google Scholar and 37 in the ISI Web-of-Science. He also leads nanoHUB.org ( http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxPurdueU-Gerhard-Klimeck-Con) as a director in the service of nanoelectronic simulation and education on the web, serving over 320,000 users. Gerhard is a fellow of the IEEE, the American Physical Society, and the Institute of Physics.
 
[1] Bent Weber, Suddhasatta Mahapatra, Hoon Ryu, Sunhee Lee, A. Fuhrer, T. Reusch, D. Thompson, W. C. T. Lee, Gerhard Klimeck, Lloyd Hollenberg, Michelle Simmons, "Ohm's Law Survives to the Atomic Scale", Science 335, 64 (2012); doi: 10.1126/science.1214319
[2] Martin Fuechsle, Jill Miwa, Suddhasatta Mahapatra, Hoon Ryu, Sunhee Lee, Oliver Warschkow, Lloyd Hollenberg, Gerhard Klimeck, Michelle Simmons, "A single-atom transistor", Nature Nanotechnology, 19 February 2012; doi: 10.1038/NNANO.2012.21
 

 
Tarik Lahdhiri
Efective Skills for Todays Practicing Engineers
Workshop Overview
This Career Workshop provides practical strategies to maximize your career talents presented in a positive and entertaining way. The workshop will discuss the following topics:
  • Today's Engineering Workspace and How can IEEE Help
    Challenges in today's workplace and understand IEEE resources and help available:
    • Compare what you want in your work life to what others say is important.
    • Learn about two truly transferable skills.
    • Identify the payoffs from work most important to you.
    • Recognize key elements of success and fulfillment.
    • Confirm your personal Career Orientation.
    • See what engineering specialties are predicted to grow most in the near future.
    • Hear how IEEE supports engineering careers.
  •  
  • Resume Development,
    How to use your resume, how to sell yourself:
    • Resumes & job search
    • Resume basics
    • Resume strategy
    • Resume guidelines & structure
    • Cover letters & References
  •  
  • Job Interview
    Understand interview process, what to expect, how to present yourself:
    • Interview types
    • Preparation for the interview
    • What really matters
    • Appearance
    • Behavior, good and bad
    • Topics to avoid & questions to ask
  •  
  • Effective Writing Skills
    How to improve your written and spoken communications:
    • Value of effective communications
    • What to avoid
    • Ways to become a better writer

Dr. Lahdhiri received the degree of MS-EE in Communication Systems in 1990 and the PhD degree in Control Systems in 1995. Dr. Lahdhiri is currently working for General Motors LLC in Warren, Michigan, where he is holding the position of Strategy Leader for Real-Time Control Systems Simulations and Technical Review Board Chair for Electrical Systems and Subsystems Validation within the Global Electrical Department.

Dr. Lahdhiri is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in the State of Michigan, licensed Project Management Professional (PMP) by the Project Management Institute (PMI), and Master Black Belt DFSS certified by General Motors LLC.

Dr. Lahdhiri is a Senior IEEE member and has been leading several activities within the IEEE organization. Currently, he is the IEEE Region 4 (Central USA) PACE Chair, Member of the IEEE-USA PACE committee, Member of the IEEE-USA Career Workforce Policy committee (CWPC), and member of the IEEE-USA Employment & Career Service (ECS) Committee.

Dr. Lahdhiri is the recipient of the 2001 IEEE-USA Professional Achievement Award, the 2004 IEEE-USA Professional Leadership Award, the 2007 IEEE-USA Citation of Honor Award, and the 2012 IEEE Region 4 Jack Sherman Award.

 
 

 
Iyad Obeid
Associate Professor
Electrical & Computer Engineering
Temple University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Big Data in Biomedical Engineering
 
Iyad Obeid is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering with a secondary appointment in Bioengineering. His research focuses recording and decoding signals from neural tissue. This includes applications for brain computer interfaces, brain-in-a-dish studies, and traumatic brain injury. His lab has made extensive use of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology to make and decode massively parallel neural recordings. Dr. Obeid is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award as well as a Lindback Award for distinguished teaching.
 

 
John Kassebaum
Indiana Professional Licensing,
the Law, and Professional Ethics.
 
Abstract:
This talk will be 10 minutes on Licensure and Indiana Law followed by 30-40 minutes of presentation and discussion regarding Engineering Professional Ethics. Any balance of time left will be devoted to questions and discussion on either topic. The Ethics material John will be using was developed by Dr. Thom Edgar, Ph.D., P.E. for use with the University of Wyoming's Orientation to Engineering course and includes several case studies and the Codes of Ethics for ACM and NSPE.
 
Dr. John Kassebaum is an entrepreneur and engineering technologist broadly experienced in research, analysis, and creative synthesis of new ideas. He received his doctorate from Purdue University in Electrical and Computer Engineering and is a licensed Professional Engineer in the state of Indiana. His past experience includes many successful product deliveries for military, consumer electronics, industrial automation, computer/software engineering consulting, and biotechnology development. Recent experience with Algaeon, a company he Co-Founded in 2008, includes research and development of biotechnology intellectual property and experience with microbiological/biochemical lab activities related to micro-algae. His specialties include engineering mathematics and analysis, technical research and writing, creative development of intellectual property, system and software architectural design and development, and applications of computational intelligence. When he is not busy with truly mad science, you may be able to reach him at JAK (at) Kassebaum (dot) Net.
 

 
William Kassebaum
Start-up Tactics
 
This consultant turned entrepreneur will share his experience of going through this process. He will address how to build a start-up company, emphasizing these tasks:
  1. Financing
  2. Raising Money
  3. Bookkeeping
  4. Valuation
He will also cover issues like hiring/recruiting, dealing with employees, dealing with board members, business development, sales & marketing, and What Not to Do!
 
William R. Kassebaum, P.E. is co-founder and Vice President of Algaeon Inc. and serves on the Board of Directors. With over 28 years working in the private and government sectors, Mr. Kassebaum has extensive engineering, executive management, and entrepreneurial experience. His pioneering work at the Naval Air Warfare Center earned him and his team the prestigious National Performance Review "Heroes of Government Reinvention" award presented by the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on behalf of Vice President Al Gore. He led teams developing award winning products at private companies such as Escient, LLC. In 1997 Mr. Kassebaum co-founded Stellarwind Development, LLC, the incubator company for Algaeon, Inc. Mr. Kassebaum holds an MSEE from Purdue University and is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Indiana. He is a past Chair and Director of the Central Indiana Section of the IEEE. He currently serves on the IEEE-USA Board of Directors as Vice President Career & Member Services, is a Founder and Co-Chair of the Central Indiana Engineering Consultants’ Network, and Past Chair of the Alliance of IEEE Consultants’ Networks (AICN), a committee of the IEEE-USA.
 

 
Mike Cowper
Sr. Systems Administrator at Midwest Internet, Inc.

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Cyber Defense Force
Under the Auspices of the
Indianapolis Division of Homeland Security
 
Abstract:
Cyber terrorism is a real threat to all of us whether we know it or not. Cyber security touches all aspects of our lives. Mike Cowper will talk about some real events that have taken place around the world highlighting the issues. He will also talk about the "Deep Web" that people don't normally see, where organized crime and gangs conduct business. The talk will end with a few tips about things that you can do to help keep yourself, and everyone, safer.
 
Mike Cowper is a member of the DHS Cyber Defense Force. He first began working with computers as a student at Purdue University in 1981. In 1994 he became the first full-time employee of the first commercial Internet company in Indiana and has been managing networks of servers at Internet Service Providers and Internet Hosting Companies ever since.