May Hawaii Section Newsletter

Aloha and welcome to the March issue of the IEEE Hawaii Section Newsletter!  We have many opportunities for individuals to make a difference in their communities and profession through the IEEE. Please note the many  opportunities to serve as volunteers at our activities.  Furthermore, any IEEE member who might be willing to serve as an officer in the  Hawaii Section is urged to contact our nominations chair.  This is an election year and we must come up with a slate of candidates! 

Nominations POC: johnoborland@aol.com

In this issue:

1.              New Members Welcome!

2.              Awards

3.              Calendar of Activities

4.              Additional News and Links

1. New Members in the Hawaii Section

We extend a hearty welcome to the new members of the Hawaii Section of the IEEE. The following members have recently moved to Hawaii: Sergio Jaramillo, Tyler Thornbrue, Ramezan Paravi Torghabeh and Ian Anderson.  The following members recently joined the IEEE: Jimmy Cheng, Joanne Hayashi, Yu Xian He, Jordan Yamada, and Tuan Nguyen.

2 Awards by the Hawaii Section

Science Fair IEEE Competition

Here are the IEEE award winners for the junior and senior research division.

Sr. Division:

Students: BaoXin Liang and Anna S. Chen

Title: Microwave Leakage from Cellphones

School: McKinley High School

Teacher: Kari Yoo

Jr. Division:

Students: Jacob R.I. Oshita and Eric S. Schlitzkus

Title: The Robotics Cane or Not?

School: Highlands Intermediate School

Teacher: Kathy Lin

Congratulations to the winners, and our thanks to our Vice Chair Chris Russell for managing the judging this year. 

3. Calendar of Activities in the Hawaii Section

May 2-3 Meetings on immigration reform as it affects our members (please see Chair's message below):

Sen. Hirono is available to meet with a delegation of IEEE members this coming Friday at 3:15 in her Honolulu office.  We plan to have a preliminary get together on Thursday to discuss the issue. Contact John Camery, john.camery@ieee.org if you would like to participate.

We need to get the names, addresses and titles (if they have leadership roles in IEEE, as well as their professional title) to Sen. Hirono's staff by Tuesday. So, respond quickly.

May 3-4 Activities Sponsored by the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Chapter :

May 3:  Safety Check for Contestants

May 4:  IEEE members are needed as judges that day

It’s that time of year again – the Hawaii Underwater Robot Challenge will be next Saturday, May 4th, from 9am at Kahanamoku Pool at UH Manoa lower campus.  This is a wonderful event that encourages middle and high school students STEM creativity!

We need volunteers to help as judges, divers/snorkel, and general support!  Please contact Mark Rognstad <mrognsta@hawaii.edu> for more information.

There’s a lot of information about this year’s competition on the MATE web site:

http://www.marinetech.org/rov-competition/

May 6: Our monthly EXCOM meeting followed by a tech talk:

The meeting starts at 5:30 pm at Zippy's on Vineyard. It is our monthly EXCOM meeting together with a technical talk.  It's an open meeting for all IEEE members and guests. Come out and help plan activities for the upcoming season and join in the discussion. The address is 59 North Vineyard Boulevard , Honolulu, HI 96817.

More info at: http://hawaii-ieee.blogspot.com/2013/04/excom-meeting-announcemment.html

4.  Additional News and Links

Internship Opportunities for Students

At the annual Business Card Exchange hosted by the UH-Manoa chapter, many students expressed their interest in gaining experience via internships with Hawaii businesses.  If you are aware of opportunities, please feel free to forward your recommendation/openings to:

David Morse, PACE Chair, Hawaii Section david.morse@ieee.org

H1B Visa Issue - A Message from the Chair, Hawaii Section

Aloha,

At the Region 6 meeting last February, members expressed their concern with the corporate abuses of the H1-B visa program that are taking jobs away from Americans.

The U.S. Senate is now close to introducing a major Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill (CIR). IEEE-USA has learned that the bill will include a significant expansion of the EB green card system. The senate will also propose a huge increase in the H-1B temporary work visa program

Here is link is to a recent article from the Boston Globe which does a good job articulating the problems with the H-1B program.  http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2013/03/30/visa-program-has-been-hijacked-outsourcers/VAg6o9KgS2tuoZ3WbmaqeK/story.html

 Russell Harrison, IEEE-USA, wrote an article describing the proposal in the Senate, which can be found here: http://www.todaysengineer.org/2013/Feb/immigration.asp

 The position of IEEE-USA is that any increase should be made in the EB green card system, not in the H-1B program.  IEEE-USA favors increases in STEM fields, but not increases for companies that are trying to outsource American jobs. IEEE-USA wants our help in contacting our representatives, esp., Sen. Hirono, who they feel is disposed to being helpful.

Please consider what you can do.

Links for further information about IEEE Hawaii:

The Chair's blog: http://hawaii-ieee.blogspot.com/

Hawaii Section's Website: http://ieee-hawaii.org

Hawaii Computer Chapter's Website: http://computer-hawaii.org

Hawaii Communications/Signal Processing Chapter's Website:
https://webinabox.vtools.ieee.org/wibp_home/index/CH06255

Hawaii Oceanic Engineering Chapter’s Website https://webinabox.vtools.ieee.org/wibp_home/index/CH06147

Hawaii Microwave Theory and Techniques Chapter’s Website https://webinabox.vtools.ieee.org/wibp_home/index/CH06253

Hawaii Section on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4790391

Computer Chapter on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4821808


Send your newsletter suggestions and questions to  david.morse@ieee.org

Update on Immigration Reform

The long-awaited Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill, S. 744, was introduced late last week.  It is a massive bill that includes changes to most of America’s visa programs, everything from boarder security to tourism and religious worker visas.

Overall, IEEE-USA was pleasantly surprised by the bill.  While it does include an unnecessary and significant H-1B increase, this problem is at least partially off-set by some good reforms to the H-1B and L visa programs, in addition to a needed expansion of the EB green card program.  These reforms should improve our immigration system while making it harder, although not impossible, for companies to use the H-1b to replace American workers with under-paid foreign workers.

Within the immigration system, S. 744 exempts anyone who has earned a Masters or PhD from an accredited American university in a STEM field from the EB visa cap.  Immigrants would still need to have a job offer and be sponsored by their employer, but would not need to go through the labor certification process, which will allow their EB applications to be approved more quickly.  This section of the bill will allow most international STEM graduate students to move directly from their student visa to a green card, without having to first get an H-1B.  The number of EB visas available to undergraduates will increase as graduate students are taken out of the line, and the EB country caps are eliminated, resulting in much shorter waits for all international students.  All EB categories should be current within five years.

Additionally, a new $500 fee has been attached to companies using the labor certification process.  This would be paid by any company trying to sponsor a non-STEM worker for a green card (STEM workers are exempt from labor certification).  Funds raised by this fee would be channeled into programs to improve American STEM education.

That’s the good news.  The bad news is that the H-1b visa cap is increased immediately from 65,000 to 110,000 annually, with an additional 25,000 H-1Bs for graduate students (up from 20,000).  The bill contains an escalator which will increase the base cap to 185,000 over time.  This is 125,000 more H-1bs than were available in 2012.  When you add in the existing exemption for non-profit research institutions (universities and hospitals, mostly) and new exemptions for graduate students and spouses of H-1B workers, the grand total of H-1bs available each year will be approximately 300,000, more than double the 2012 total (134,780).

S. 744 contains a number of reforms to the H-1B program, including:

·         H-1B workers have 60 days to find a new visas sponsor should they need or want to change jobs

·         The prevailing wage requirement is tightened to ensure H-1B workers are paid wages closer to American wages

·         Companies must post all jobs they wish to fill with an H-1B worker on-line with the Department of Labor for 30 days and hire any American with comparable qualifications to the proposed H-1b worker.

·         Companies must not displace American workers 90 days before or after hiring an H-1B worker.  H-1B dependent companies must not displace workers for 180 days before or after hiring an H-1B worker.

·         H-1B dependent companies may not outsource their H-1b workers to other companies.  Non-dependent companies may do so, but must pay a $500 fee per worker.

·         Companies with more than 50 employees cannot have more than half their employees using an H-1B or an L visa.  This rule is phased in over three years

·         H-1B dependent companies will pay higher fees for their visas

Reforms to the L-Visa include:

·         Tighter restrictions on outsourcing

·         Higher fees for companies using a large number of L visas

For both visas, the government will have greater investigatory and audit authority.  Fees for fraud and abuse will also be increased.

With most of these reforms, there are exceptions and limiting language in the bill, some of which greatly weakens the proposals.  But overall the reforms will make it harder to abuse the H-1B and L visas and help protect foreign and American workers.

S. 744 also authorizes dual-intent for international students.

IEEE-USA has learned that companies are lobbying Congress to weaken even these less-than-perfect reforms.  Companies also want the H-1B cap to be even higher.  We will be working with Congress over the coming weeks to improve the worker protections and make sure companies don’t further weaken the bill.  

H1B Visa Issue

Sen. Hirono is available to meet with a delegation of IEEE members this coming Friday at 3:15 in her Honolulu office.  We plan to have a preliminary get together on Thursday to discuss the issue. Contact John Camery, john.camery@ieee.org if you would like to participate.

We need to get the names, addresses and titles (if they have leadership roles in IEEE, as well as their professional title) to Sen. Hirono's staff by Tuesday. So, respond quickly.

EXCOM Meeting Announcemment

IEEE Hawaii Section-- Excom at Zippy's on Vineyard, May 6, 2013, 5:30pm - It is the first Monday of the month as usual.

This meeting, which starts at 5:30 pm (6 MAY 2013) at Zippy's on Vineyard, is our monthly EXCOM meeting together with a technical talk.  It's an open meeting for IEEE members and guests. Come out and help plan activities for the upcoming year and join in the discussion. The address is59 North Vineyard Boulevard , Honolulu, HI 96817. Map: http://zippys.com/live/locations/vineyard/.  The meeting agenda will be posted. 

Location: Building: Zippy's Restaurant 59 North Vineyard Boulevard Honolulu,  Hawaii United States 96817
Date: 06-May-2013 Time: 05:30PM to 08:30PM (3.00 hours) All times are: Pacific/Honolulu Add Meeting to Calendar
Email meeting contact... John Camery, Mobile: (808)342-7800, E-mail: john.camery@ieee.org

No Admission Charge.

Click Here to Register

Meeting Agenda:

1. Discuss immigration issue

2. Central Area Awards

3. IEEE Election Issues, esp., the need to identify candidates

4. Plan activities and make sure all chapters report the required meetings

5. Distribute MD materials

6. Tech Talk

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New IEEE Members in the Hawaii Section

     We extend a hearty welcome to the new members of the Hawaii Section of the IEEE. The following members have recently moved to Hawaii: Sergio Jaramillo, Tyler Thornbrue, Ramezan Paravi Torghabeh and Ian Anderson.  The following members recently joined the IEEE: Jimmy Cheng, Joanne Hayashi, Yu Xian He, Jordan Yamada, and Tuan Nguyen. 

Science Fair IEEE Competition

Here are the IEEE award winners for the junior and senior research division.

Sr Division:

Students: BaoXin Liang and Anna S. Chen

Title: Microwave Leakage from Cellphones

School: McKinley High School

Teacher: Kari Yoo

Jr Division:

Students: Jacob R.I. Oshita and Eric S. Schlitzkus

Title: The Robotics Cane or Not?

School: Highlands Intermediate School

Teacher: Kathy Lin

Our Vice Chair Chris Russell managed the judging this year.  Congratulations to the winners.

A Message from the Chair of the Hawaii Section

Aloha,

At the Region 6 meeting last February, members expressed their opposition to the H1-B visa program taking jobs away from Americans.

The U.S. Senate is now close to introducing a major Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill (CIR). IEEE-USA has learned that the bill will include a significant expansion of the EB green card system. The senate will also propose a huge increase in the H-1B temporary work visa program

.  

Here is link is to a recent article from the Boston Globe which does a good job articulating the problems with the H-1B program.  http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2013/03/30/visa-program-has-been-hijacked-outsourcers/VAg6o9KgS2tuoZ3WbmaqeK/story.html

 Russell Harrison, IEEE-USA, wrote an article describing the proposal in the Senate, which can be found here: http://www.todaysengineer.org/2013/Feb/immigration.asp

 The position of IEEE-USA is that any increase should be made in the EB green card system, not in the H-1B program.  IEEE-USA favors increases in STEM fields, but not increases for companies that are trying to outsource American jobs. IEEE-USA wants our help in contacting our representatives, esp., Sen. Hirono, who they feel is disposed to being helpful.

Please consider what you can do. We can discuss what can be done when we meet next. I can write a letter to Sen. Hirono expressing the concerns of the Hawaii Section, but consider what you can do. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks.

1 April 2013 Hawaii Section EXCOM Meeting

                                   Details

Location: Zippy's Restaurant on Vineyard

Date/Time: 5:30 pm 1 April 2013

Attendees:

John Camery, Section Chair, presiding

David Morse, PACE and Computer Society Chapter Chair

John Borland, Nominations Chair

John Imperial, Computer Society Chapter Vice Chair

Matthew Inouye, Student Representative

Joshua Rivera, Student Representative

Kishore Erukuapati, Secretary

Al Toda

                                                   Official Minutes

   John Borland, our nominations chair, reported that we have a candidate for the position of secretary.  We voted to affirm Kishore Erukuapati's appointment as acting secretary until our elections in December.  He will study the requirements of the position at the Center for Leadership Excellence (CLE) on the IEEE website and assume the duties at our next EXCOM meeting.

    We discussed various administrative and procedural issues relating to financial matters, awards and the elections. We need to find candidates for the election, esp., since the current officers are approaching the new term limits enacted last fall.  We discussed the new financial tool, Netsuite, which is now required for financial reporting in order to get the rebate.  Our compliance/reporting requirements have been met for 2012, so the section will be getting its rebate.  Grant Torigoe brought up that he had not yet been reimbursed for the expense of the table at the Awards Banquet. We need our treasurer take care of this.  We nominated the UH Manoa Student Branch for the award, "Best Large Student Branch" since large is now defined as more the 25 members.  Originally, we thought it was more than 100. This means that they will be competing against Stanford which is mostly grad students.

.

     We have two members who are interested Senior Member Elevation.  We need senior members to step forward who are willing to work with them to provide the required recommendations.  We would like to schedule a Senior Elevation Event. We also discussed the need for professionals to attend our Business Card Exchange at UH-Manoa on 17 April and talk with the students.  We want to encourage members to come to the event and to invite others. The student representatives agreed to put up posters on Campus advertising the event.  Our Computer Society Chapter is holding a meeting on 15 April with a talk on mobile apps. The Oceanic Engineering Chapter is holding the MATE ROV 2013 Underwater Robotic Challange 3-4 May.

     If there are any other matters that need to be added to minutes, please let me know.

Business Card Exchange Meeting

Come join us and meet the students at our annual Business Card Exchange Meeting with the UH-Manoa Student Branch.

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Each year, the Hawaii Section sponsors a Business Card Exchange in conjunction with the Student Branch at UH-Manoa. The purpose is to allow students to interact with professional engineers and discuss the types of work done by engineers. Come out and meet the students.
Note that due to a conflict at the University this meeting has been rescheduled to 17 April, 2013.

Location: Building: UH Manoa Campus Center Room Number: Cafeteria 2500 Campus Rd Honolulu,  Hawaii United States 96822
Date: 17-April-2013 Time: 05:30PM to 08:00PM (2.50 hours) All times are: US/Hawaii Add Meeting to Calendar
Email meeting contact... POC: john.camery@ieee.org, Cell Phone: (808) 342-7800, E-mail: john.camery@ieee.org

No Admission Charge.

Click Here to Register