CHANNEL ISLANDS SECTION
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1999 NEWSLETTER
Inside this issue:
Hello ASME friends,
I hope you all had a wonderful summer.
On August 19 your Channel Islands Executive Committee had its first meeting to plan activities for the 1999-2000 ASME year. On behalf of the committee and as the new chair, I welcome any of you to drop-by or participate in our committee meetings. We will meet regularly on the second Thursday of every month.
The committee will continue to plan and promote activities to enrich the professional and personal lives of our members as much as possible. I am pleased to announce my associates on this year’s committee:
Vice Chair Dale Lemon
Treasurer Tarzen Kwok
Industry Relations Richard Ramsey
Newsletter Editor Kevin Manning
Newsletter Editor Shawn Singleterry
Website Administrator John Fishpaw
Technical Activities Rohit Gupta
Member Activities Marna Kagele
We are still working on this year’s plan. We expect to
develop an interesting year for our ASME section.
For those of you whom I have not yet met, let me provide a few words of introduction: I am currently working as a Mechanical Commodity Engineer for Teradyne, Inc. in Agoura Hills. I hope you share my belief that life is full of fun. Besides working, I enjoy practicing Kung Fu and running on a regular basis. These activities help me both to manage stress, and to develop physical strength. I believe we should have a balance in life among work, family, friendship, and community.
In my new position as Chair, I look forward to continuous support from senior executive members, and I graciously welcome newcomers. Of course I appreciate your continued interest in participating as an ASME member.
Thank you,
Eric Kong
| PROGRAM: | Tour of a local advanced applied engineering facility. |
| DATE | Thursday evening, October 28, 1999 |
| TIME | Assemble in front lobby 5:50pm
Program begins 6:00, approx 1.5 hr. |
| COST | FREE |
| LOCATION | Oceaneering International, Inc.
2055 N. Ventura Ave, Ventura,CA, 93001 805.656.3224 |
Founded in 1964, Oceaneering has grown from an air and mixed gas diving business in the Gulf of Mexico to a diversified, advanced applied technology organization operating around the world.
Oceaneering’s operations are structured into three major business segments:
Oceaneering’s main objective is to provide services and hardware to an international ring of customers who operate in marine, space and other harsh environments.
Among their list of achievements, Oceaneering designed and built a functioning robotic great white shark model used in the movie "Jaws 2".
Plan to attend the upcoming tour at Oceaneering. Shawn Dirken, the on-site Marketing Manager, will be our guide. He will provide us with an informative overview and show us the many projects that have originated from their office. If available, deep sea diver Dan Smith will present a synopsis of his duties and the hazards of his trade.
For more information on Oceaneering, check out their website:
http://www.asme.org/sections/channel_is/newsletters/99_10/www.oceaneering.com
NORTH- OR SOUTH-BOUND 101
Exit CA-33 North towards OJAI.
Exit and Merge onto W. Stanley Ave.
Left onto N. Ventura Ave.
Address is: 2055 N. Ventura Ave.
On Tuesday, June 8, 27 members and guests of the Channel
Islands section toured Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation in Camarillo. Calvin
Savage, Strategic Account Manager for Vitesse, conducted the tour.
Mr. Savage began the evening by leading the group into a conference room and introducing Vitesse through a series of overhead projections and product samples. Vitesse was founded in 1984 and went public in 1991. Revenues last year were $175 million. Vitesse employs over 750 worldwide, with headquarters in Camarillo.
Unlike typical integrated circuits (ICs), which are built on silicon wafers, Vitesse builds devices on wafers made of gallium arsenide (GaAs). GaAs enables chips to operate with less power and switch at higher speeds.
The speed advantage provided by GaAs is particularly
well-suited to Vitesse’s product line, dominated by ICs developed for high-speed
communications. The recent boom in telecommunications and networking has fueled
substantial business growth. Vitesse has achieved numerous high-speed firsts in
the continuing evolution of their products, and currently offers an IC that
operates at a speed of 5 GHz (5 billion cycles per second).
After the introduction, Mr. Savage led the group on a tour of the facility. While the actual fabrication areas were off-limits due to cleanliness and proprietary concerns, the group was able to view those areas through windows. Inside, workers in special cleanroom suits operate the machines that gradually transform blank wafers into intricate circuitry – a single Vitesse IC could contain as many as 1.5 million transistors. The circuitry for a single chip is repeated in a grid pattern across the wafer. Each wafer will yield many IC’s, limited by the size of the wafer and the geometry of the single-chip circuitry.
Vitesse fabricates the ICs on-site only up to the finished wafer form. At overseas facilities, the wafers are sawed into separate individual chips, which are then encapsulated in the familiar plastic, leaded packages. The packaged ICs return to Vitesse for final testing before shipment to customers.
The Channel Islands Section thanks Calvin Savage and Vitesse for their generosity in hosting this tour. Also thanks to Saidur Rahman of Vitesse, who assisted in the coordination of the ASME visit.
On Saturday November 13, the Channel Islands ASME Section will hold an event for the San Fernando Girl Scout Troop. At this all-day activity volunteers from our section will introduce the scouts to engineering and enable them to attain their Engineering Patch.
Event details remain to be finalized and will be announced in the next newsletter. Currently, the location for the event is expected to be either Chesebro Canyon or Paramount Ranch in Agoura. The tentative agenda is:
|
9:30 – 10:00 |
Arrival and Welcome: Review activities for the day and introduce ASME |
|
10:30 – 11:00 |
Discuss various careers in engineering fields and explain training requirements |
|
11:00 – 11:30 |
Discuss engineering drawings and study 2 types of blueprints |
|
11:30 – 12:30 |
Design Activity |
|
12:30 – 1:30 |
Lunch |
|
1:30 – 4:00 |
Outdoor Service Project |
|
4:00 – 4:30 |
Wrap-up and Conclusion |
The success of the event and its value to the scouts will depend on the participation of members like you. Please consider volunteering some of your time that Saturday to introduce Girl Scouts to the rewarding field of engineering. Although the event is planned from 9:30 – 4:30, volunteers can work in shifts as necessary.
If you are considering volunteering, or have any questions or suggestions, please contact the coordinator for this program, Marna Kagele. Call her at 818.586.0835 or send e-mail to marna.m.kagele@boeing.com.
The Channel Islands Section maintains a website within the ASME International site. Start at:
http://www.asme.org/sections/channel_is/newsletters/99_10/www.asme.org
Then select "ASME LINKS" from the list of choices across the top of the page just under the "Welcome to ASMENET" banner. At the next screen, elect "Sections (Worldwide)" from the list along the left margin. Finally, choose "Channel Islands Section" to enter the section home page.
At the Channel Islands page you have access to online versions of current and past newsletters, a description of ASME and Region objectives, and a current listing of your local officers.
We encourage you to provide feedback so that we can tailor the site to your preferences. E-mail comments to John Fishpaw at:
New York & Dearborn, Mich., Sept. 16, 1999 -- The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME International) and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) have mutually ended their six-month exploration of a possible merger.
ASME International President Robert E. Nickell and SME President Cecil W. Schneider, in jointly making this announcement, observed that the investigation phase was conducted in an extremely positive and professional manner and involved many volunteer and staff members from both organizations.
These two large and successful engineering societies will continue as separate organizations and, where possible, continue to conduct joint activities and look for additional opportunities in which to work together in the future.
ASME, established in 1880, has as its mission to promote and enhance the technical competency and professional well being of its members, and through quality programs and activities in mechanical engineering, better enable its practitioners to contribute to the well being of mankind. Headquartered in New York City, ASME has some 125,000 members.
SME, established in 1932, has as its mission to serve its members and the international manufacturing community through the advancement of professionalism, knowledge and learning. Headquartered in Dearborn, Mich., SME has some 65,000 members.
Press Release
The 1999 International Mechanical Engineering Conference and Exposition, November 14-19 in Nashville, TN, will include:
For more information or to register call 1-800-THE-ASME.
After two years at the position, Kevin Manning is stepping aside as Newsletter Editor. Shawn Singleterry will assume responsibility for the newsletter beginning with the next issue.
Thanks to Kevin for his years of service, and welcome Shawn – we look forward to your newsletters!
THE ASME PROXY FORM
Each year at the IMECE, ASME meets to elect new officers and to vote on other business matters. All members are invited to vote in person at the meeting, scheduled this year for 5:00 P.M., November 15, at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee.
If you are unable to vote in person, please submit the proxy form shown above instead. The form, along with an addressed envelope (see below), was included with the September edition of Mechanical Engineering magazine. The central four pages of the September ASME NEWS (the newspaper included with the magazine) contain complete proxy instructions and biographical information for all the nominees listed on the form.
Only proxies received by 10:00am November 4, 1999 will be counted. Please show your enthusiastic support for our ASME President, Board of Governors, and Vice President nominees by submitting your vote.
THE ASME-PROVIDED ENVELOPE
Last updated: 13-October-1999