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Spring Merit Badge Day - Volunteers and scouts
Greetings everyone! It is now the spring quarter of this amazing year. IEEE-UCR has been given the opportunity to do some awesome things this
year, from professional development to just bonding with one another.
For some, our graduating seniors, it’s the last quarter of our college lives. The end of a chapter. But if we have learned from
being in IEEE, it’s that we never stop learning. I’m going to miss this great bunch I call my IEEE family, because that is what
we are a family. We are all going in separate directions after June. Some to enter industry and start our careers while others
to continue their education. But I know we are leaving some awesome leaders behind to
continue opening doors for the org and welcoming new members each day. We all hope
to leave something for everyone to remember us by and here it is, this newsletter. Not
all of our memories are in this newsletter but these are some of the greatest moments
that have been spent with the IEEE family.
So let’s look back at what we have done since our first newsletter because so much has
happened since then. And let’s also meet those great leaders that are to continue grow-
ing this IEEE family and lead the next generation of members.
Enjoy!
- Rosalba Anzora, 2014-2015 Public Relations
P.S. Congratulations Class of 2015! Great job on all the hard work you have done.
In This Issue
Project Updates
Merit Badge Day
Talks and Tours
New Board Bios
Upcoming Events
HIGHLIGHTS IEEE-UCR Quarterly Newsletter Vol. 2 - SPRING 2015
Created by: 2014 - 2015 IEEE Board
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Project Updates
UAV The UAV is currently in its final phase of its de-
velopment. By the end of the April all of our sub-
systems will be fully implemented and tested.
Starting in May we will be conducting systems
integration testing, as well as writing the tech-
nical journal and preparing for the safety briefing.
In early March we passed the major milestone of
conducting the successful test flight of our first
full sized airframe prototype (Bison 1). Construc-
tion on Bison 2 is nearing completion and we
should be conducting the first test flight on April
12th. Once that is completed we will take the
lessons learned and begin production of the final competition
airframe which is scheduled to be completed on May 3rd.
The successful flight of the competition airframe (The Flying
Bison) will mark the beginning of system integration testing
phase. We will start the testing by tuning the autopilot to the
Flying Bison airframe and using Bison 2 for flight tests of the
payload and communication systems. By June 1st we expect
our Unmanned Aerial System to be fully tested and the team
to be ready for flight operations.
Also, we need help funding the transportation of the equip-
ment and the team to Maryland for the competition. If you
would like more information or would like to contribute
please go to the following link to see our campaign: http://
bit.ly/1ykGGlh.
- Andrew Olguin, 2014-2015 UAV Coordinator
Micromouse The Micromouse Robotics project is for students to design,
build, and program a mobile robot from scratch and have the
robot autonomously navigate, search, and solve an unknown
16x16 cell maze in the fastest time possible. UCR held an
internal Micromouse Robotics competition on April 5th,
which 7 teams competed in. The success of organizing and
hosting this competition has brought considerable positive
attention to the UC Riverside campus. As a result, IEEE at
UCR was nominated to host the IEEE Region 6 Southern
Meeting Micromouse and Student Design Competition,
which was previously held at UCLA.
Currently, the UCR Micromouse Robotics teams are finish-
ing up hardware designing/building and have moved on to
software development. The software implementation is cru-
cial to getting the robot to traverse and search through the
maze. To do so, sensor feedback, motor control,
as well as searching and mapping algorithms must
be executed simultaneously.
The IEEE UCR teams will be competing with ex-
ternal universities at three competitions during this
spring quarter: UCR Region 6 on May 2nd, UCLA
AAMC on May 10th, and UCSD CAMM on May
17th. Best wishes to all the teams!
- Rex Lu, 2014-2015 Robotics Coordinatior
Display Board The IEEE Display Board is an interactive
slideshow that users can control with a Kinect. It
gives
UAV Team
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people information about BCOE news, information about
club meetings and events and even weather all updated in
real-time. The project will become a permanent addition in
the on campus cafe, Bytes, for anyone to use once com-
pleted.
The students on the team are working with web based lan-
guages to make both the slides and to program the Kinect.
The majority of students on the project are learning these
languages from scratch. So far, we have finished half of
the slides and are able to keep them updated in real-time
using a database, various APIs, and a web crawler we also
built.
The end goal of this project is to have students learn new,
useful programming languages and learn about fields such
as web-design and computer vision. They also learn to work
as part of a team to design and create a product from the
ground up, and to make something to leave for people on
campus to use years after they graduate.
- Kashyap Krishna, 2015-2016 Display Board Coordinator
Electric Car Electric Car is a brand new project that started this quarter.
Our goal is to build a car to compete in the Formula SAE
Electric competition next year in Lincoln, Nebraska. We
started recruiting to form a multidisciplinary team to design
the electrical powertrain.
As of now, we are undergoing the initial research stage. By
the end of the quarter we aim to draw a proposal, which will
include specs, simulation results, and a cost-benefit analy-
sis. Using this proposal, we aim to raise funds and collabo-
rate with SAE.
- Sonya Ragothaman, 2015-2016 Electric Car Coordinator
Talks and Tours
3D Printer Talk On February 2nd 2015, IEEE@UCR and the IEEE
Computer Society cohosted a talk by Steve Wygant &
John Olafson from SeeMeCNC about the current filed
of 3-D printing and where the field is heading. We had
over 70 professionals and students attend the event.
It was a great opportunity to learn about how the craze
of 3-D printing started, who the major players are now,
and what the field of 3-D printing will look like in a few
years. We also learned about what technical skills it
takes to design and build a 3-D printer.
After the presentation, Steven and John took us to see their
17-foot tall 3-D printer they brought all the way from Illinois.
We had a great time learning about 3-D printers, seeing
them in action and networking with some of the top dogs in
the 3-D printing field.
- Russell Perry, 2014-2015 Chair
Alumni Panel On February 3rd, 2015, we hosted our first Alumni Panel.
We welcomed back alumni that had previously been on the
IEEE board. The following attended: Eu-Jin Ooi (Class of
2014), Josh Morales (Class of 2014), Roben Van Dusen
(Class of 2014), Rosemblim Lugo (Class of 2014), and
Sean Chen (Class of 2013). All are electrical engineers
working in the industry, except Josh who is attending Gradu-
ate School here at UCR.
During the panel, each alum shared their experiences as
undergrad. As well as, how they went about starting post
grad life. While some applied for grad school others were
applying for jobs and internships. Our members took this
opportunity also to ask questions about how they chose to
3D Printer Talk
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work in industry or go to grad school. The night ended well .
Can’t wait for next year’s.
- Rosalba Anzora, 2014-2015 Public Relations
Western Digital Tour Friday the 17th of April, saw students from IEEE@UCR visit-
ing the headquarters of Western Digital in Irvine, Ca. Stu-
dents from IEEE mingled with peers from Pomona, Long
Beach and other universities from around the area. The
Western Digital tour started with a panel of current employ-
ees of the company with various backgrounds. Panelists an-
swered student questions on different aspects of working
with Western Digital and their journey to get there. Following
the panel, a tear down of a WD hard drive began along with a
presentation and explanation of all the ways engineers and
computer scientists come together to create such an intricate
and essential device. The large group of students from a
plethora of universities was then split up into groups of
whichever form of production they were more interested in
such as circuit board prototyping and manufacturing. Overall,
it was an informative tour featuring enlightening views of the
lives of current employees and a glimpse into the future for
those who would now like to be.
- Daniel Garcia, 2015-2016 Program Chair
Silicon Valley Trip This year we got to make the most epic trip IEEE has ever
coordinated to Silicon Valley. Even though it was only for two
days, it was two days filled with exciting and adventurous fun!
The trip started on April 24th, 2015 at 3am. Most of the mem-
bers met up Friday morning to begin their 7 hour drive to the
bay area, while some who left the day before eagerly awaited
their arrival.
We all were given the opportunity to tour Facebook, arranged
by Brian Crites, which was AWESOME! We got to see how
Facebook employees eat, play, and work. We had all heard
of the great amenities Facebook employees have, but it is
much different once you get to experience it. The have an on
campus arcade with many different games. The one that got
the most attention from most of us was FIFA. The also have
a variety of restaurants where they get to eat for free. We got
to stop at their Sweet Shop, where there is a wide selection
of pastries, ice cream, and frozen yogurt. We ended our time
at the Facebook HQ taking a selfie in front of there big like
sign they have at the front of campus.
We also got to tour Google right after Facebook. Some of us
got lost at Google using Google Maps, which was pretty fun-
ny. We got to tour their visitor center, guided by UCR Alum
Chris Manghane. We were able to ask him all kinds of ques-
tions, like did he always think he would work for Google, how
did he start his career at Google, and etc. He gladly an-
swered all of our questions and told us so much about what it
was like on a day to day basis at work.
We ended our Friday having dinner in downtown Mountain
View with UCR Alum, and former board member, Andrew
Ong. He told us about his job at Raytheon and his post Grad
life. And we caught him up with all we have been doing here
at IEEE-UCR. Some of our new board was with us so they
had the great opportunity to connect with a former board
member and ask for advice for the year to come.
On Saturday, April 25th, 2015, some of us got to attend the
IEEE - Women in Engineering Career Fair in San Jose. It
was a great opportunity to network and a chance to leave our
resumes with some of the top companies in the industry. We
also learned about some of the great benefits IEEE has to
offer its national members.
We ended our trip visiting the Computer History Museum in
Mountain View. That was one place that everyone should
visit when given the chance. It was amazing to see how
much society has advanced, continues to advance, and soon
we will be apart of that advancement as well.
Apart from the great time everyone had on the tours, I think
the best part was being able to bond with one another. I got
to meet members that I hadn’t met before and got to know a
few I had seen before a bit better. So thank you to everyone
who was able to attend the trip and making it memorable.
- Rosalba Anzora, 2014-2015 Public Relations
Outreach
Merit Badge Day (Jan. 31 & Apr. 11) IEEE hosted our second Merit Badge Day of the school year
on January 31st, 2015. Over a hundred boy scouts visited
UCR and the Bourns College of Engineering to earn some
merit badges and learn about STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics) in the process. January’s
event involved topics regarding Electricity, Electronics, and
Digital Technology.
Likewise, over a hundred boy scouts also attended our third
Merit Badge Day, which was held on April 11th 2015, many
of whom had attended the previous merit badge day. April
saw scouts earning merit badges on Energy, Engineering,
and Robotics.
The events have been a great success with volunteers and
scouts alike enjoying their time. Our Merit Badge Days have
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successfully engaged boy scouts and retained their interest throughout. Our success can be attributed to our amazing and
creative volunteers.
- Daniel Garcia, 2015-2016 Program Chair
2015-2016 Board
UAV Coordinator
Brandon Lu
Chair
Alberto Tam Yong
"I'm very excited for the upcoming
school year and working with the
newly elected board. We have sever-
al IEEE projects, so I can't wait to see
how much these teams grow; and I
hope to see our IEEE family grow as
well."
Vice Chair
Jasmine Moreno
“Becoming Vice Chair is very exciting.
I cannot wait to contribute more to
IEEE, and grow closer to the board. It
is going to be a difficult position, but I
know it will be a great learning experi-
ence.”
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Got Questions/
Comments?
For General Information:
For Project Information:
Brandon Lu
2014-2015
Project Coordinator
Kevin Yang
2015-2016
Project Coordinator
Interested in Guest Speaking, Giving a Tech-nical Talk, Providing a Tour, or Donating to the UCR Student Branch
Contact our
Public Relations Officer:
Rosalba Anzora
Professional Development Officer:
Cody Simons
Thank you all for your time.
Upcoming Events
IEEE Region 6 Southern Area Meeting
And
Micromouse Competition
Saturday, May 2, 2015
DARPA Robotics
Challenge June 5-6, 2015