CHAPTER NEWS
Mexico CAS Chapter Organized the First School of Microelectronics
The First School of Microelectronics 2007 (Primera Escuela de Microelectronica 2007) was held during November 12-13, 2007, organized by the CAS Chapter of the Mexico Section, at the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering of the National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico City (ESIME IPN). Three workshops were developed in this event. The first one was an "Introduction to Robotics and their Applications" given by Dr. Jose Vazquez-Gonzalez from the Las Americas University of Puebla (UDLA); the second one consisted on "VLSI Design for Neuro-Fuzzy Systems” performed by Dr. Alejandro Diaz-Mendez from the National Institute of Astrophysics Optics And Electronics, (INAOE) of Puebla; and the third workshop was dedicated to "Digital System Design with VHDL”, guided by Dr. Gonzalo Duchen-Sanchez from ESIME IPN.
This event was sponsored by the IEEE Circuit and Systems Society (CASS R9). The event was attended by over 60 academics and students who received a scholarship in addition of didactic material and proceedings. Together with the First School of Microelectronics 2007, ESIME Culhuacan hosted the 5th Week of Electronics Engineering (SIEEC) which was also co-sponsored by the CAS Chapter of Mexico Section. Over 800 students with 250 prototypes participated on the SIEEC on different categories such as Draft Racing, Wrestling Robots, Water polo, Amateur and Open Category. From these categories three winner teams were accredited to be sponsored for the IEEE National Contest of Robotics that will be held on March in Queretaro, Mexico.
Juan Carlos Sanchez, Chair, Mexico DF Chapter Chair, IEEE Mexico Section
Establishment of the Rio Grande do Sul CAS Chapter
In April 2007 a new CAS Chapter was established in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the southern state in Brazil. This is the second CAS chapter connected to the IEEE Brazil South Section. It also has members of IEEE CAS Chapter from the State of Santa Catarina. The circuits and systems community in the region is with Sao Paulo region the two biggest ones in Brazil. Porto Alegre is the capital of the Rio Grande do Sul State and, the Porto Alegre and vicinities has 2.5 millions inhabitants. It is the location of the first Silicon Foundry in South America, the CEITEC. In 1983 the first edition of SBCCI conference series was launched in Porto Alegre, which is nowadays a conference with full sponsoring of IEEE CAS, receiving papers from all around the world. It is also organized in the region the EMICRO, a one week microelectronics school that is reaching its tenth edition next year and it is sponsored by the Rio Grande do Sul CAS Chapter together with the Brazilian Computer Society and Brazilian Microelectronics Society. In conjunction with EMicro it also organized the SIM – South Symposium on Microelectronics, dedicated to the presentation of papers by the students in microelectronics (the papers are published in a formal proceedings). In the EMicro 2007 an IEEE CAS Panel was organized, where the audience was informed about CAS activities and advantages to become an IEEE CAS member. This panel has initiated the actions to set up an IEEE Student Branch and IEEE CAS Student Chapter. The next edition of EMicro and SIM will be held in the city of Bento Gonçalves (the main Brazilian wine region), from May 5 to 9, 2008 (http://www.inf.ufrgs.br/emciro). The sponsoring of CAS to EMicro, SIM and SBCCI has increased the visibility of CAS in the region and it was fundamental to the set up of the Rio Grande do Sul CAS Chapter.
