IEEE Collabratec

IEEE

IEEE, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, is the largest professional engineering body in the world and has a world wide focus. I am a Senior Member and have always found it worthwhile. In the days before the Internet was as useful as it is now, they were the best source of regular and up to date news about technology advances and what was happening in the world of technology.

 

IEEE - Advancing Technology for Humanity

IEEE – Advancing Technology for Humanity

IEEE Collabratec

IEEE Collabratec

IEEE Collabratec

A great example of this is the IEEE Collabratec platform. This fosters Collaboration over a very wide range of topics including ethics. I’m a regular contributor and was very pleased to see the figures for the its use in 2017. Check out the graphic below. Click on it to get a larger version that will be easier to read.

 

IEEE Collabratec 2017

IEEE Collabratec 2017

So a very good year for Collaboration.

 

Successful Endeavours specialise in Electronics Design and Embedded Software Development, focusing on products that are intended to be Made In AustraliaRay Keefe has developed market leading electronics products in Australia for more than 30 years. This post is Copyright © 2018 Successful Endeavours Pty Ltd.

IoT Interoperability

IoT Interoperability

There are several big issues with IoT. The primary two are Security and Interoperability. We have tackled IoT Security and so this post looks at how different devices and systems can work together. This is Interoperability.

 

The first thing to understand, is that middle ware providers like IBM do not want you to be able to exchange data independently of them. They want you captive to their ecosystem. They make money from you having to pay them for continued access to your own data. This inherently works against one aspect of interoperability.

 

IoT Interoperability

IoT InteroperabilityIoT

The IoT vision is for a highly connected and interoperable system but most systems do not interoperate well. And standards development is still ongoing which means there is no agreement in sight.

 

To explore further, there are some excellent resources at:

 

 

As usual, Europe seems to be doing more to foster unity and collaboration and has many excellent projects to help this. The Unify IoT project has published results which are freely available. They conclude that there are 300 IoT frameworks in use and 20 of them are quite popular. But no standards are expected any time soon and the lack of standardisation is a big impediment to getting the full benefit from the technology.

 

 

Successful Endeavours specialise in Electronics Design and Embedded Software Development, focusing on products that are intended to be Made In Australia. Ray Keefe has developed market leading electronics products in Australia for more than 30 years. This post is Copyright © 2017 Successful Endeavours Pty Ltd.

Ray Keefe IEEE Senior Engineer

I recently went through the process of applying for Senior Engineer status with IEEE. It is something I should have done years ago and I was prompted by the Victorian section of the IEEE.

 

It turned out to be much harder than I had anticipated and I wasn’t surprised when the letter announcing I had been successful stated that less than 8% of IEEE members achieve this level of professional recognition. They did send me a very nice plaque which is now hanging on the wall in our office.

Ray Keefe IEEE Senior Engineer Plaque

Ray Keefe IEEE Senior Engineer Plaque

The process required me to get 3 sponsors who would put me forward for nomination. They all had to be at or above the level of IEEE Senior Engineer. I also had to apply online to IEEE and post a wide range of details about my education, career and achievements.

 

I am very grateful to the support of Paul Kubik of the IEEE Victorian Section and my 3 sponsors.

 

Ray Keefe has been developing high quality and market leading electronics products in Australia for nearly 30 years. For more information go to his LinkedIn profile at Ray Keefe. This post is Copyright © 2011 Successful Endeavours Pty Ltd.

Low Power Electronics

Low Power Electronics is a Green Strategy

There are 2 ways to reduce your Carbon Footprint. The first is to get the same power from a Green Power Source that reduces the Carbon Footprint at the power generation phase. This is where Wind Power, PV PhotoVoltaics, Wave Power, Geothermal Power and other such technologies come in.

 

Wind Power Generator

Wind Power Generator

The second way is to use less power from the same source, which is a Power Reduction Strategy. This is a bit different to the concept outlined in Unlimited Wealth by Paul Zane Pilzer where he shows that we keep finding ways to meet the expansion needs of the future. That is also happening. The ‘use less power’ approach is about getting more from the existing. The great thing about this is that you can effect a reduction in you Carbon Footprint independent of the Power Generators and so this strategy can run ahead of large scale system changes.

 

First you have to have a baseline to measure from. This will become critical for businesses that must show Carbon Footprint reductions once legislation in this area is brought in around the world. The issue isn’t if, but when this happens, and what the specific details are. Carbon Trading is an interim measure that allows money to be made off the problem while not actually ensuring there is real progress. Eventually significant net reductions must happen.

 

Carbon Footprint Reduction

So reducing the Electronic Power Requirements for Electronic Devices is a primary Green Strategy for reducing your Carbon Footprint. For a complete system the calculation is of course much more complicated. The survey above is aimed at households but the principle is the same. A true Carbon Reduction Strategy requires you to consider not only your own operation but upstream and downstream operations as well.

 

This is of course only one strategy and we will look at others in the near future. But for my next post I’ll concentrate on design techniques for Reducing Power Consumption in Electronic Appliances so that they become Low Power Electronics Appliances and help to reduce the overall Carbon Footprint.

 

Ray Keefe has been developing high quality and market leading electronics products in Australia for nearly 30 years. For more information go to his LinkedIn profile. This post is Copyright © Successful Endeavours Pty Ltd.