Current Happenings in the Wireless Space

On the Cutting Edge of Everything Wireless

   October 2019     Volume 11 Issue 5

In This Issue

• From the Chair
• From the Editor
• Smart Cities 2020
• MTTS Updates and Opportunities
• Women in Engineering
• IMS 2001 Paper Submission
• IEEE Happenings
• 5G World Forum
• 2021 GreenTech & R5
• IEEE Denver Social Media
• Upcoming Events

Section Officers◊ Chair:  Jason Rupe ◊ Vice-Chair:               ◊ Treasurer:  James Sipes ◊ Secretary:  Santosh Veda

Excom Meetings

Currently, of course, due to the pandemic these meetings are virtual. Notices will be sent when the will be held.

Recent Excom Actions

• 2019 Budget approved
• 2018 Elections completed
• 2018 New Officers Training Seminar

Open Positions

Some of the Standing Committees where we could use some great volunteers include:

• Awards and Recognition
• Finance & Audit
• Government Relations
• Industry Relations
• Professional Activities (PACE)
• Programs & Events
• Public Relations and Publicity
• Strategic Planning
• Consultants Network
• Young Professionals

Actually just about anything you can think of, we’re interested in talking to you!If you are interested in volunteering, please send email to  chair@ieee-denver.org. Positions will be open until filled.

IEEE Denver

IEEE

 Try Something New!Whether you are active in IEEE ExCom, are a chair of a technical society, or just a paying member, we thank you for being a part of something that we think is pretty great. If you want to get more involved, you know where to find us! And if you just want to enjoy the hard (and not-so-hard) work of our volunteers by attending our events we would love that even more! Take advantage of the monthly volunteering efforts we have put together for you. Try something new, meet some new people, and learn something new by listening to a distinguished lecturer. Oh, and thank you for being a reader of our newsletter! 

Editors:Ernest Worthman

Choose your own adventure at the IEEE

The IEEE is developing a new, flexible model that supports local activities, beyond what we have done in the past. If IEEE members and even nonmembers want to start an activity or group that is in line with the mission of the IEEE, even when there is no clear society or other group in scope, there may soon be a model to follow for making it happen. If the IEEE Denver Section is a common point, then we can be the sponsor for it. While we have limited this to member so far, one of changes we have implemented is the ability for non-members to participate. So, if you, our members, know of someone that would like to approach us with an idea for an activity, we encourage them to let us know.

For now, we call these “local groups” because they are locally focused. They can be focused on a technology or a goal, likely specific to a section or group of chapters in a section. But in some cases such a group can expand beyond the section too. While technology may be universal, there are often specific areas of focus that are of local interest.

An example of a local group already exists in the Denver Section is the Denver Blockchain Local Group. That group holds events of local interest relating to blockchain and distributed ledger technologies. Distributed ledger technologies are not just a local concern. There are local aspects to it including transactive energy, and the strong standing that these technologies have in Colorado, but it certainly has a much larger appeal.  This group was the first of its kind in Denver, and the first group to be formed following the draft model being proposed.

The IEEE is working on the guidance for the formation and nurturing of these groups and their activities as we speak. The Blockchain Initiative at the IEEE, working with MGA and TAB, is also developing tools to support these groups and the existing organizations in the IEEE who will support them.

You should hear more about this in 2021 or soon later if the current plan continues. What is it you have been wanting to do through the IEEE to better humanity?

From the Editor, Ernest Worthman

Breaking up is hard to do

Recently NPR did a drill-down on what has been simmering on the back burners of several government agencies for a while now – how to manage the tech giants.

In the center of the radar screen are Facebook, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Apple, and Amazon. Usually known as FAAAN (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, and Netflix).

There has been much noise, for a couple of years on the supposed negative impact of these Silicon Valley giants. Recently the House Judiciary Committee finished up a report that found the members of FAAAN are monopolies. The report is 450 pages and the result of a 16-month investigation (which is one of the things politicians do best, generate reports).

Note that this was a House report. I doubt the Senate, its Republicans to be precise, share the same viewpoint because, in fact, none of the Senators have endorsed it. Nevertheless, it is worth taking a deeper dive into the conclusions of the committee.

The report claims FAAAN are the dominant players in their respective segments and they control the market. And, while the report finds some antitrust possibilities, I did not find that the report made really strong arguments on the control issue.

OK, but it is not like they were handed this. The leaders of these companies are shrewd, edge-of-the-envelope, forward-thinking individuals that saw opportunity and seized upon it.

So, now they have gone from darling, a few years ago, to monsters that gobble up everything in their path to achieve dominance.

The report is titled “Investigation of Competition in Digital Markets.” It has been recapped by any number of media outlets but there are some interesting points nestled between the usual legal pontifications.

The first assessment is that they are too big and need to be broken up into separate units – shades of the original AT&T. However, these “monopolies” have a different model. The investigation claims they are controlling the market by stifling competition. I found that much of what the investigations claimed was marginal.

Take Facebook, for example. The rub here is that they absorbed their immediate competition – Instagram and WhatsApp. That certainly puts the kibosh on their major competition. However, it does have a competitor, of sorts, in LinkedIn, although not a major one.

However, truth be told, who cares if Facebook is a monopoly? Nobody is being forced to use it or advertise on it. It does not cost the user and if advertisers want to be visible on it, you either pay the going rate or do not advertise.

This is not like having a monopoly in PPE where people on Amazon were charging big bucks for masks and it was a critical product or service.  It is Facebook, a novelty, even if it is a global app.

There is really no harm in it being the only app of its kind. This is a fair game. If advertisers want to connect with users, then pay the price. Nobody is going to die if a vendor does not connect with users or users do not have another choice other than Facebook.

What about Amazon? It grew to where it is now because it filled a need nobody else offered. There is plenty of competition to it, particularly Walmart.

There might be some question if Amazon is selling its own brand in competition to its members and prevents them from selling the same product. However, I have not seen that. For the most part, Amazon is, technically, a marketplace that offers sales opportunities to anyone who wants it. You do not have to buy an Amazon product – there are plenty of choices.

The same goes for Google, which has the largest search engine. But again, there are a ton of others; Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, Ask, as the major ones but there are also smaller ones such as DuckDuckGo, AOL, Dogpile, and more (who, in their right mind would name anything dogpile anyway). Perhaps Google could, simply, be forbidden to buy competitive search apps.

But again, who cares if Google has the search engine field sewn up as long as there are others that can be used, and Google does not stop the user from using other choices.

Aside from some of the absurdities the report makes, there are a couple of arguments worth discussing. One is how to even the playing field where there is legitimate concern about monopolies that actually restricts competition. An example of that is by restricting what other companies Facebook can acquire or and open app field.

For Google, there could be restrictions on their search engine and keep them from interfering with competing ones. For Apple, it could be that they have to have open-source code for their apps requiring equal space for competitive apps that are not Apple certified.

There is also the question of the ramifications of reigning them in – the law of unintended circumstances. For example, if you, say, break up Apple into sub-companies, it can have a negative effect on their ability to maintain ubiquitous service and technical excellence.

Antitrust is a slippery slope in high tech. There are no real precedents for digital monopolies, which makes current laws dated. While some of the antitrust elements certainly apply, digital economies have different models than those that sell goods, questioning the applicability of existing laws to digital models. So, following these dated “analog-era” laws can have a slew of unintended consequences.

I believe a better approach is to see exactly what verifiable damage is being caused by these mega-corporations before we run off reeling them in because they capitalized on new opportunities and became the dominant players.

Personally, I do not use Facebook or Instagram. WhatsApp is useful if I am out of my mobile carrier’s network (internationally). I use Bing as my search engine and as far as Amazon goes, I use it because it is convenient and, much of the time, I cannot find what I need locally at a decent price.  I do not use Whole Paycheck simply because they are too expensive (although Amazon is working on that).

The report notes that Amazon is the “dominant online marketplace” and that evidence “demonstrates that Amazon functions as a gatekeeper for eCommerce.” Well, ok. That results in a standardized interface with a single point of interface to eCommerce. I happen to like that. And is Walmart that much different?

Another conclusion was that Fortune 500 companies, in dealing with the tech giants, feel dependent on their whims. Well, cry me a river and call the waaambulance! I am pretty sure they did not become a top Fortune company by being the nicest guys on the block.

This report may be timely to, shall we say, cap the unrest Washington has been feeling about big tech. However, I do not believe antitrust legislation should be wielded with a sledgehammer, if at all in these cases.

Let us start with some precision microsurgery and see how the patient’s fare if the government feels it has to do this to make it look like they are actually accomplishing something.

Of course, FAAAN players all dispute the findings. While there may be some validity to them, to me, as our illustrious leader likes to say, it looks a bit like a witch hunt.

In essence, their mega-status does not affect me, or most of the people I know. In spite of what the politicians in the House have determined, I still have plenty of choices.

2020 International Smart Cities Conference

About IEEE Smart Cities

MTTS Updates, Webinars, and Announcements

I.   IEEE MTT-S Undergraduate/Pre-Graduate Scholarships deadline extended to 5 November 2020

Up to 10 scholarships in the amount of $1500 may be granted semi-annually to assist BS, MS, or combined BS/MS students in electrical engineering. The student must be an IEEE student member to receive the award (not needed at time of application) and their faculty mentor should be an IEEE MTT-S Member. A completed submission includes 1) application form, 2) one-page resume, 3) proposed research topic, 4) official academic transcript and 5) one letter of recommendation. A description of the scholarship program and eligibility requirements can be examined in the attached Undergraduate/Pre-Graduate Scholarships form. For more information, please visit https://mtt.org/students/

II.   Free APMC attendance for non-presenters

The 2020 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC 2020) will be held virtually from 8-11 December 2020. It is organized by the IEEE AP/MTT Hong Kong Chapter, and MTT-S is one of the technical co-sponsors. APMC is recognized as one of the premier international conferences of the microwave community, with a broad forum for academia and industry to exchange research results and collaborate in the fields of microwaves, millimeter waves, terahertz waves, and infrared and optical waves. Visit https://www.apmc2020.org/ for further information, and please post the attached flyer for your community’s benefit.III.   Free GHTC plenary session access

The Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC) Organizing Committee is pleased to offer free access to the 2020 Plenary Sessions; see the full announcement at https://ieeeghtc.org/2020/access-to-ghtc-2020-plenary-sessions/ IEEE GHTC 2020 is an international flagship conference sharing practical technology enabled solutions addressing the needs of under-served populations and resource constrained environments around the world. MTT-S is one of the technical co-sponsors of this event.IV.   MTT-S Branding Manual now available

IV.   MTT-S Branding Manual now available

Would you like to include the MTT-S logo on flyers & presentations for your chapter events? The newly released, all-encompassing manual will teach you where to obtain the logo files, how to use them within IEEE guidelines, and whom to contact with questions. Please see the attached guide.

V.   2021 Webinar Schedule

Visit https://mtt.org/mtt-s-webinars-2020/ to register for upcoming webinars by Distinguished Microwave Lecturers and other invited speakers.

The full webinar library can also be found in the MTT-S Resource Center at https://resourcecenter.mtt.ieee.org/

IEEE Women in Engineering

2020 Award Winners

The IEEE Women in Engineering awards program recognizes WIE members and WIE Affinity Groups who have made an outstanding contribution to IEEE WIE, their community, and the engineering profession, through their dedication and involvement in projects or activities directed toward fulfilling the IEEE WIE goals and objectives.  Women engineers are among some of the most distinguished contributors to the engineering profession. Here are the 2020 award winners.

WIE Inspiring Member of the Year Award:
Winner: Lee Yoot Khuan (R10)
Honorable Mention: Divya M G (R10)
Honorable Mention: Simay Akar (R8)

WIE Inspiring Student Member of the Year Award:
Winner: Indhumathi Gunasekaran (R10)
Honorable Mention: Ana Hellen Carvalho dos Santos (R9)
Honorable Mention: Rossana Gauto Moran (R9)

WIE Affinity Group of the Year Award:
Winner: WIE Ottawa AG (R7)
Honorable Mention: WIE Argentina AG (R9)
Honorable Mention: WIE Malaysia AG (R10)

WIE Student Branch Affinity Group of the Year Award:
Winner: WIE Universidade Federal de Campina Grande UFCG SBAG (R9)
Honorable Mention: WIE Unidad Profesional Interdisciplinaria en Ingeniería y Tecnologías Avanzadas UPIITA SBAG (R9)
Honorable Mention: WIE Universidad Don Bosco SBAG (R9)

Click here to be taken to the site for more details.

IMS 2021 Paper Submission

International Microwave Symposium  6 – 11 June 2021, Atlanta, GA

You are cordially invited to join us in Atlanta at the intersection of communications, aerospace, automotive, IoT and other emerging technologies to learn the latest developments in MHz-to-THz theories, techniques, devices, systems and applications. Please consider submitting your paper to the premier RF and Microwave event!

Please see links below to various materials helpful in completing your paper submission.

• Download the IMS2021 Call for Papers
• Double Blind Instructions
• Word Template
• LaTeX Template

Click here to submit your paper to IMS2021

New this year:
For the initial submission deadline, the paper length is three pages maximum. Papers longer than three pages will not be considered. For accepted papers, a fourth page can be added, but may be used ONLY for references (inclusion of any material except for references will not be accepted for publication).

IMS will be a hybrid conference — both face-to-face and virtual. We are 100% committed to our authors to give them the opportunity and forum to publish and present their work in a manner they feel most comfortable. Authors of the papers selected for presentation at IMS2021 may elect to present either live or virtually upon final submission of the manuscripts.

NEW MWCL Special Issue of “Top IMS 2021 Papers”! IMS2021 TPRC will select a number of high quality papers (estimated 50 papers) for MWCL editorial review. The corresponding authors will receive email invitations to publish their IMS papers at the MWCL special issue on “Top IMS 2021 Papers”.

Click here for more information.

IEEE Happenings

4^th IEEE Internet of Things (IoT) Vertical and Topical Summit

The 4^th IEEE Internet of Things (IoT) Vertical and Topical Summit will be held as a Virtual Event January 11 – 16, 2021 in conjunction with IEEE Radio and Wireless Week. The Summit is sponsored by IEEE MTT, RWW2021, and the IEEE Multi-Society IoT Initiative. You can access details about the Summit at: https://rww2021.iot.ieee.org/. The Summit consists of six two-hour sessions described below and a concluding two-hour panel roundtable to summarize the dialog and conclusions from the Summit.  The topics to be covered include but are not limited to the description below:

• 01/11/2021 Day 1: Overviews of IoT and the role that wireless sensor networks play, wireless sensor technologies ranging from MHz to THz, high bandwidth wireless technologies, advances in sensor network architectures, and experiences from trials, demonstrations, and deployments.
• 01/12/2021 Day 2: Applications in Automotive and Transportation, addressing business, technical, and operational requirements, and specific sensor and communication technologies (including radar, lidar, ground-penetrating radar for navigation, non-coherent wireless sensing, low latency control networks, and novel applications such as teleoperated vehicles)
• 01/13/2021 Day 3: Applications in Agriculture and Rural based Industries, addressing the use of satellite-based observations, ground sensors, use of wireless sensors for agricultural equipment, underground networks, autonomous vehicles in mining operations, and use of sensors and sensor networks in renewable energy production.
• 01/14/2021 Day 4: Industrial Applications, including manufacturing, man-machine interactions, reconfigurable industrial systems, in plant robotics, warehousing, control functions, and safety.
• 01/15/2021 Day 5: Platform Based Sensing for IoT, addressing the use of drones, vehicle based wireless sensors, LEO Satellites, mapping, spectrum mapping, sounding, and geospatial observations.
• 01/16/2021 Day 6-1: Wireless Sensor Networks across Diverse Applications, including Archeology, Healthcare, and Construction
• 01/17/2021 Day 6-2: Co-operative Wireless Sensor Networks using Swarms, Drone Swarm Communications, Swarm Motion Controls, and Swarm-to-base data and communication architectures.
• 01/17/2021 Day 6-3: Virtual Panel and Round Table Discussion and Summary

If you are interested in suggesting or being a speaker for this event, please provide the following information to the Summit Co-Chairs: 1) The name, title, and affiliation of the speaker; (2) The topic and title of the proposed presentation; (3) A brief description of what the presentation would cover (250-300 words); and (4) please attach any relevant supporting or background material.

Contacts:
Charlie Jackson: Charles.M.Jackson@ngc.com
Adam Drobot: Adam.Drobot@gmail.com

96th ARFTG Microwave Measurement Conference RF to Millimeter-Wave Measurement Techniques for 5G and Beyond – Grand Hyatt, San Antonio, TX, USA; January 17-20, 2021 

Call for Papers

The theme for the 96th ARFTG Conference (which will be co-located with Radio and Wireless Week) is Measurement Techniques for Accelerating the Design of 5G Circuits and Systems.

We encourage the submission of original papers demonstrating innovative approaches in state-of-the-art high-frequency test and measurement. Contributions exploring all areas of RF, microwave, and mm-wave measurements are welcome. Suggested topics include but are not limited to:

⇒ Nonlinear Measurements, Modeling, and Linearization
⇒ Over-the-Air (OTA) and MIMO Characterization
⇒ On-Wafer Techniques
⇒ Modulated Waveform Measurements
⇒ Techniques for Connector-less Environments
⇒ Traceability in Calibrations and Measurement Uncertainty
⇒ Characterizing Material Properties
⇒  Applications and Advances in Vector Network Analysis

For details visit https://www.arftg.org/index.php/upcoming-conference/upcoming-conference-2

Abstracts are due September 25, 2020.

This conference, which is co-located with Radio and Wireless Week, will be a virtual event. More details will follow at www.arftg.org.

ICCAD 2019 38^th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD),  11/4/2019 – 11/7/2019, The Westin Westminster, Denver CO

ICCAD 2019 is the premier conference devoted to technical innovations in electron design automation. Presentations are highly technical in nature, and papers are published in IEEE and ACM digital libraries. View program.

Register at the best rate now through October 7. View Registration Rates and Register

ICCAD has a discounted room rate of $179 king/double for November 2 – November 7, 2019. The room rate includes complimentary Wi-Fi. Please note that to secure this rate you will need to make your reservation through The Westin Westminster. The special room rate will be available until Wednesday, October 10, 2019 by 5:00 pm Mountain Time or until the group block is sold-out, whichever comes first. Book Now!

Student Grants Available The SIGDA Diversity Advancement Grants are provided to students who are travelling to the SIGDA sponsored conferences. These awards are intended to increase the participation and inclusion of under-represented groups in SIGDA and support student success.

Call for Papers

The 2021 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium (RFIC 2021) will be held in Atlanta, GA, on 6-8 June 2021.

Continuing in 2021: RFIC has expanded its focus to include systems, applications, and interactive demonstrations, including 5G systems, radar systems, terahertz systems, biomedical systems, and optoelectronic systems.

The 2021 symposium is currently planned as a hybrid event with both in-person and virtual activities. More details to follow. In person events will be held at the Georgia World Congress Center, in Atlanta, GA. RFIC 2021 starts on Sunday, June 6, 2021 with a large selection of workshops followed by two plenary talks and a reception featuring our top industry and student papers. Monday and Tuesday, June 7-8 will consist of oral presentations, an interactive demonstration, and panel sessions.

We invite authors to submit their technical papers via the RFIC 2021 website, where both the author’s guidelines and Call for Papers can be found. Complete information on how and when to submit a paper will be posted on the RFIC 2021 website. The symposium solicits papers describing original work in RF integrated circuits, systems engineering, design methodology, RF modeling and CAD simulation, RFIC technologies, device technologies, fabrication, testing, reliability, packaging, and modules to support RF applications in areas such as Wireless Cellular and Connectivity, Low Power Transceivers, Receiver Sub-Systems and Circuits, Mixed-Signal RF and Data Converters, Reconfigurable and Tunable Front-Ends, Transmitter Sub-Systems and Power Amplifiers, Oscillators, Frequency Synthesis, Millimeter- and Sub-Millimeter Wave Systems, and High-Speed Data Transceivers. The new extended RFIC scope now includes papers on systems and applications in 5G, radar, imaging, terahertz, biomedical, connectivity, and optoelectronic areas.

As with last year, a double-blind review process will be adopted to ensure anonymity for both authors and reviewers. Detailed instructions on how to submit a paper compliant with double-blind rules are found here.

Electronic Submission Deadlines:
Technical Paper Summaries in PDF format:                        11 January 2021
Final Manuscripts for the Digest and Attendee Download:     22 March 2021

All submissions must be made at rfic-ieee.org in pdf form. Hard Copies are not accepted.

DOWNLOAD the RFIC 2021 Call for Papers

Brian Floyd
RFIC 2021 General Chair

The 3^rd IEEE 5G World Forum – Affordable, Virtual and More Accessible Than Ever!

We have extended the availability of all 2020 5G World Forum conference content, a collection totaling more than 350 technical presentations, through 2 November 2020. But please act soon if you intend to take advantage of this virtual event because registration closes tomorrow on 7 October.

A single registration starting at US$75 (US$25 for students) gives you access to every on-demand session in the virtual 5GWF, including:

• 16 Plenary Keynotes
• 115 papers from across 31 countries
• 20 Tutorials
• 10 topical/vertical tracks
• 15 virtual exhibit booths
• 15 demonstrations
• 5 workshops
• Worldwide 5G Industry Fora
• 4 more industry forums/panels

For full conference details, visit the conference program page.

Register Here!

Microwave Photonics International Conference

2020 International Topical Meeting on Microwave Photonics (MWP), FULL VIRTUAL | 24 -26 November 2020.

What’s important:

>> The Virtual MWP 2020 will take place during three full days. Book your days between 24 and 26 November 2020 as if you were on
business
trip: there is a lot to discover & information exchange!
>> Plenary sessions: We are honored to have four plenary talks by Prof. Bahram Jalali, Prof. Andreas Stöher, Dr. Nicolas Rouger, and Prof.
Robert A. Minasian, which cover recent microwave photonics technologies including optical control of power devices and physics-AI
symbiosis.
>> Tutorial session covers Terahertz metrology focusing on how to trust your free-space measurements down to microwaves.
>> Technical sessions will be presented live using a web conferencing platform from Tokyo on Japan Standard Time. We have 7 invited talks.
>> NEW!! E-Posters sessions: the sessions will be presented using a web conferencing platform poster system.
>> NEW!! No cost registration for non-presenting participants.
>> Peer reviewed papers accepted by the conference will be included in the planning for the virtual conference, allowing the papers to be
published in the conference proceedings (via MWP2020 web site), and also in IEEE Xplore.
>> The committee is preparing Young Scientist Award for young scientists and students who are less than 35 years old, with the IEEE
membership.

Submissions are closed but registration is still open.

We expect many paper contributors and participants and kindly ask for MWP Community members.
https://www.mwp2020.org/

GreenTech 2021 & R5 Annual Meeting

Denver Section will be again hosting the GreenTech & R5 Annual Meeting in 2021.  The Students Robotics Competition is an exciting part of the the R5 Annual Meeting. The Conference Organizing Committee is forming up if you’d like to be involved in making this great fun conference happen, please contact conferences@ieee-denver.org.

by Ian MacMillan