TC News

The technical and standards activities of the respective technical committees in the last six months and their plans for the next six months are presented:

TC-1 Measurement Precision, Sensitivity, and Noise

• Seeking a new chair to lead the committee.

TC-3 Frequency and Time by Eva Ferre-Pikal
Activities:

• As part of SCC 27, we worked jointly with the UFFC to revise IEEE 1139, Standard Definitions of Physical Quantities for Fundamental Frequency and Time Metrology – Random Instabilities. The IEEE 1139 was approved by the IEEE-SA Standards Board on September 2008 and went through editorial review earlier this year.

TC-4 High Frequency Measurement by Yeou-Song (Brian) Lee
Activities:

• Keeping close reports with the MTT-11, NCSLI, MSC, and ARFTG
• IEEE 378 was approved in June 2008 and a working group was formed and members solicited. The working group meetings are to be held in conjunction with the MTT and ARFTG Symposiums in June 2009.

Planned activities:

• Continue recruiting members to join this committee.
• Liaison with other professional societies in high-frequency measurement.
• Form working groups for the IEEE microwave and RF power measurement standards by end of 2009.

TC-5 Connectors in Measurements by Yeou-Song (Brian) Lee
Activities:

• Keeping close reports with the MTT-11 and ARFTG
• Will participate in the P1785 Working Group.  The working group meetings are to be held in conjunction with the MTT and ARFTG Symposiums in June 2009.

Planned activities:

• Form working group to revise the IEEE 287 connector standards. Nick Ridler of National Physical Lab/UK volunteers to be the lead.

TC- 6 Emerging Technologies by Vincenzo Piuri
The committee searches for promising technological areas in which measurement technologies and applications are relevant and beneficial. In particular, attention has been focused on
biometrics, bioinformatics, molecular structures, organic structures, and quantum technologies. The activities concerned the analysis of the field and the identification of potentials for our technologies and knowledge.

Activities:

• The committee organized a special issue on "Biometrics Instrumentation and Measurement" in the IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.

Planned activities:

• The committee is planning to organize a special session on biometrics at I2MTC 2010.

TC-7 Signals and Systems in Measurement by Laszo Sujbert
Activities:

• Continued working on a testbed for testing signal processing algorithms in sensor networks. 
• Prepared papers for I2MTC in Singapore.

TC-8 Automated Test Systems and Instrumentation by Michael J. Stora

The objectives of the Committee are to:

• Reestablish a staff to support TC-8, under a formal organization, membership, purpose, goals and policies (IEEE policies and unique issues guiding TC-8).
• Complete IEEE-P1155 Revision for VXI based upon the current VXI Specification Revision efforts, which will include Serial Bus Upgrade under VITA-41.X backplane implementation, and adoption of the IEEE-1149.1/4 within specification.  This will be supported by the VXI Consortium Technology Working Group.
• Complete IEEE-P1693 Standard for Modular Interconnect Packaging for Scaleable System (MIPSS) Working Group involving seven companies and 15 personnel and is enlisting more.
• Enhance and develop working group committees that will conduct the development work necessary to complete projects timely.
• Establish collaboration meetings of the groups two times a year, working with IEEE chapters and IEEE/I&M events such as AUTOTESTCON to provide space for meetings.

Activities:

• Reaffirmed the IEEE 1174-2000 (2009), IEEE Standard Serial Interface for Programmable Instrumentation Standard.
• Reaffirmed the IEEE 488.1-2003 (2009), IEEE Standard for Higher Performance Protocol for the Standard Digital Interface for Programmable Instrumentation.
• Initiated reaffirmation process for the IEEE 488.2-1992 (R2004), IEEE Standard Codes, Formats, Protocols, and Common Commands for use with IEEE Std 488.1-2009, IEEE Standard Digital Interface for Programmable Instrumentation.
• Working group meetings were conducted in July and November (at the AUTOTESTCON 2009).

Planned activities:

• Reestablish a staff to support TC-8, under a formal organization, membership, purpose, goals and policies (IEEE policies and unique issues guiding TC-8).
• Complete IEEE P1155, Revision for VXI based upon the current VXI Specification Revision efforts, which will include Serial Bus Upgrade under VITA-41.X backplane implementation, and adoption of the IEEE-1149.1/4 within specification.  This will be supported by the VXI Consortium Technology Working Group.
•    Complete IEEE-P1693 Standard for Modular Interconnect Packaging for Scalable System (MIPSS) Working Group involving 7 companies and 15 personnel, and is enlisting more.
• Enhance and develop working groups to complete various projects on a timely manner.
•    Establish collaboration meetings of the groups two times a year, working with IEEE chapters and IEEE/I&M events, such as AUTOTESTCON to provide space for the meetings.

TC-9 Sensor Technology by Kang Lee
Activities:

• IEEE 1451.7 – Sensor and RFID Integration Working Group

IEEE 1451.7 draft was balloted. The result of the ballot is 98% affirmative vote with comments. The working group reconvened to resolve the comments. 

• IEEE 1588 - Precise Networked Clock Synchronization Working Group

A subcommittee was formed and meetings were held to address questions from industry on the interpretation of the IEEE 1588-2008 standard.

• Introduced the IEEE 1451.5 Wireless Sensor Interface Standard in a NASA meeting on Wireless Connections in Space held at the NASA Langley facility in Hampton Virginia. The NASA group was interested in exploring wireless technology for applications in space.

• Collaborated with other organizations to demonstrate ocean sensor interoperability based on IEEE 1451, OGC, and other standards.  The demonstration showed the integration of IEEE 1451 with ocean sensors and instruments for ocean condition monitoring.  The demonstration was presented at the Ocean Innovation Workshop held on October 22, 2008 in St. Johns, Canada. The partners involved were the Monterrey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), the European Seafloor Observatory Network (ESONET) community including the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel in Germany, University of Bremen in Germany, and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain.  Sensors and instruments located in America and Europe were accessed via the Web using Smart Transducer Web Services (STWS). Others are invited participate in future integration of standards-based global ocean condition monitoring demonstration.

Planned activities:

• The IEEE 1451.7 Working Group will conduct resolution ballot and submit the balloted draft to the IEEE-SA Standards Board for approval as a standard.
• Works with ISO/IEC JTC 1 /SC 31/WG 6 to form a joint committee to work on the IEEE 1451.7 for ISO adoption.
• Works with IEEE to fast track IEEE 1451 standards to JTC 1/SC 31 via the PSDO agreement between IEEE and ISO.
• Continue planning of 2009 ISPCS to be held in Italy.  See activities above for more detail.
• Works with the Interoperability Laboratory of the University of New Hampshire to organize ISPCS 2010 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Subcommittee on Capacitive Sensors by Georg Brasseur
The aims of the Subcommittee are to:

• develop, promote and support capacitive sensor-related technologies, user applications;
• develop new methods to meet industry's need for cost efficient, robust, reliable and accurate sensors;
• review capacitive sensors and their applications in the user community, government and industry;
• provide forums such as workshops and symposia where such technologies can be discussed;
• maintain liaison with other societies and organizations working in the same or related areas.

Activities:

• In co-operation with TC-20, established a "technical co-sponsorship" for the 6th International Conference for Conveying and Handling of Particulate Solids (CHoPS) between IEEE I&M and the Conference organizer. The Conference will be held in Brisbane, Australia on the 3rd - 7th August 2009 (http://www.chops2009.org.au/index.html).
• Supported the work of the Special Session Chairs Anton Fuchs (Graz University of Technology) and Gourab Sen Gupta (Massey University) of the IEEE Sensors 2009 Conference (http://www.ieee-sensors2009.org/special.html).

• Supported the set-up process of the IEEE Austria Subsection on Instrumentation and Measurement.

TC-10 Waveform Generation, Measurement, and Analysis by Thomas Linnenbrink
Activities:

Actively developing and/or promoting five major standards: The revision of IEEE Std 181-2003 (Standard on Transitions, Pulses, and Related Waveforms); the promotion of IEEE Std 1057-2007 (Standard for Digitizing Waveform Recorders); the revision of IEEE Std 1241-2000 (Standard for Terminology and Test Methods for Analog-to-Digital Converters); the development of  IEEE Std  P1658  (Standard for Terminology and Test Methods for Digital-to-Analog Converter Devices); and the development of IEEE Std P1696 (Standard for Terminology and Test Methods for Electronic Probes). The committee members reviewed work in progress on IEEE 1241, 1658, and 1696 at our February 2009 meeting in Tucson, AZ sponsored by Texas Instruments.  Plans were made to start revising 181 and to coordinate it with the IEC.  Ways to promote the new IEEE 1057 were considered.  A potential new standard addressing jitter was also considered.  The spring meeting will be held on at LTX in the Boston area during the first week of June 2009.

Subcommittee on Pulse Techniques (SCOPT) (P181) by Nick Paulter
The IEEE-SA Standards Board approved a PAR to revise IEEE 181-2003 on May 19, 2008.  Work is to be completed by December 31, 2012.  Revisions will include correcting errors, adding information on impulse-like waveforms and, developing reference waveforms for comparison and evaluation of algorithm performance. The chairman is hoping to coordinate this revision process with that of similar IEC documents, namely, the IEC 60469-1 and -2.  Nick Paulter, the SCOPT chairman, is also the convener of IEC MT 18 of its TC-85 which is responsible for these two IEC standards. 

Waveform Measurement Subcommittee (P1057) by Bill Boyer
IEEE Std 1057-2007 was published April 18, 2008.  The subcommittee will focus its attention on promoting awareness of the new standard.  Since this standard contains the latest TC-10 definitions and test techniques, it will influence ongoing work on related standards.

ADC Subcommittee (P1241) by Steve Tilden
The committee continued aggressive editing and re-writing the maintenance draft update at its February 2009 meeting in Tucson, Arizona. In Florence last September, several of our European colleagues were recently recruited and joined the subcommittee. The subcommittee also participates in I2MTC quite widely and ADC Forum conferences. Further promotion is planned by preparing papers and presentations for future conferences and publications as well as for the next ADC Forum to spread the word about the standard and solicit inputs. The deadline for ballot completion and approval for this maintenance cycle is December 31, 2009. One major accomplishment, which was a major reason for this maintenance cycle, was to add an annex on ADC architectures, which has now been drafted & reviewed. To meet the PAR deadline, further additions can no longer be accepted. With restrictive travel policies, we intend to take more advantage of WebEx meetings.

DAC Subcommittee (P1658) by Steve Tilden
The subcommittee made significant progress on the initial draft at its February 2009 meeting in Tucson, Arizona. It will continue that work toward creating an initial draft for ballot before the PAR deadline. This subcommittee has now stopped recruiting new working members due to the impact new members usually have on committee work. In Florence last September, several of our European colleagues were recruited and joined the subcommittee. On 27 March 2008 the IEEE NESCom approved our request for a PAR extension from December 31, 2008 to December 31, 2010 which will allow us to complete the draft and ballot the standard without compromising its depth of coverage or details. With restrictive travel policies, we intend to take more advantage of WebEx meetings.

Subcommittee on Probe Standards (SCOPS) (P1696) by Tom Linnenbrink
The subcommittee met mostly by teleconference in Tucson, AZ, on February 17, 2009. Tom Linnenbrink assumed the position of acting chairman until a new subcommittee chairman can be recruited.  Efforts to date to recruit a new subcommittee chairman were discussed as were potential candidates. All members were encouraged to recommend membership in SCOPS to any interested parties.

TC-11 Liaison Report by Joe Stanco SCC20 (ATLAS) Coordinator

• This liaison report will cover the Test and Diagnosis for Electronic Systems SCC20 organization / committee’s balloting / standards status from the last report up to the 2009-1 meeting held in Bournemouth, UK. on April 20th to the 23rd. The status will be presented by subcommittees.
• The Diagnostic and Maintenance Control (DMC) subcommittee’s Standard for Software Interface for Maintenance Information Collection and Analysis IEEE 1636 (SIMICA) as well as its companion dot standard IEEE 1636.1 Test Results and Session Information are now trial use standards. The other dot standard IEEE P1636.2 Maintenance Action Information completed initial ballot and is currently in ballot review.  IEEE-1232 AI-ESTATE standard is being updated and is in ballot.
• The Test Information and Integration (TII) subcommittee currently has IEEE standard 1671 ATML overview and Architecture as well as four companion trial use dot standards. These standards are as follows: IEEE 1671.3 UUT Description and IEEE 1671.4 Test Configuration. IEEE 1671.5 Test Adapter standard and IEEE 1671.6 Test Station standard completed recirculation ballot and were published in December 2008.
• The Test and ATS Description (TAD) have the following active standards. IEEE 1641 which is undergoing an update. The IEEE 1671 dot standards; IEEE P 1671.1 Test Description completed initial ballot and is in ballot resolution and IEEE 1671.2 Instrument Description completed recirculation ballot and was published in December 2008.
• The Hardware Interface (HI) subcommittee standard IEEE 1505.1 completed recirculation ballot and the standard was published in November 2008.

Planned activities:

• Continue liaison and report salient SCC 20 activities and meetings.
• SCC 20 plans to meet prior to AUTOTESTCON 2009
• A number of these TII, TAD and DMC standards are planned to be demonstrated at AUTOTESTCON 2009.

TC-15 Virtual Systems in Measurements by Emil Petriu
Activities:

• Organization, in collaboration with TC-27 Human-Computer Interfaces and Interaction, TC-28 Instrumentation and Measurement for Robotics and Automation, and TC-37 Measurements and Networking of the HAVE'2008 - IEEE International Workshop on Haptic Audio Visual Environments and Games,  Ottawa, ON, Canada, 18-19 October 2008.
• Organization, in collaboration with  TC-22 Intelligent Measurement Systems,  TC-27 Human-Computer Interfaces and Interaction, TC-28 Instrumentation and Measurement for Robotics and Automation, and TC-30 Security and Contraband Detection of the  ROSE 2008 - IEEE International Workshop on Robotic and Sensors Environments, Ottawa, ON, Canada, 17-18 October 2008. 17-18

Planned activities:

• Organization, in collaboration with TC-27 Human-Computer Interfaces and Interaction and TC-28 Instrumentation and Measurement for Robotics and Automation of the VECIMS 2009, IEEE Int. Conf. on Virtual Environments, Human-Computer Interfaces and Measurement Systems, 11-13 May 2009, Hong Kong.
• Organization, in collaboration with TC-27 Human-Computer Interfaces and Interaction, TC-28 Instrumentation and Measurement for Robotics and Automation, and TC-37 Measurements and Networking of the HAVE'2009 – 8th IEEE International Workshop on Haptic Audio Visual Environments and Games,  7- 8 Nov.  2009, Politecnico di Milano, – Lecco Campus, Italy
• Organization, in collaboration with  TC-22 Intelligent Measurement Systems,  TC-27 Human-Computer Interfaces and Interaction, TC-28 Instrumentation and Measurement for Robotics and Automation, and TC-30 Security and Contraband Detection of the ROSE 2009 - IEEE International Workshop on Robotic and Sensors Environments, 6-7 Nov.  2009, Politecnico di Milano, – Lecco Campus, Italy

TC-16 Laser and Optical Systems in Measurements by Thierry Bosch
Planned activities:

• Organization of a conference (CMOI) on optical measurements for industrial applications each year in November in France (Reims in 2009, Toulouse in 2010).

TC-17 Materials in Measurements by Jacob Scharcanski
Planned activities:

• No relevant activity to report.  We have been planning to organize an international event in Rio de Janeiro, next October, but we have experienced very low member engagement so far.

TC-19 Technical Committee on Imaging Systems by George Giakos
Activities:

• In collaboration with TC-15 on Virtual Systems In Measurements, TC-28 Instrumentation and Measurement for Robotics and Automation, TC-30 Security and Contraband Detection, drafted a proposal on the creation of an IEEE International School on Imaging. The objectives of this proposal are to promote the creation of an International School of Imaging, within the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technical society, towards the exploration of novel physical and engineering imaging principles, advancement and generation of new knowledge related to the design, development, and applications of imaging technologies, systems and techniques. The International School on Imaging would target participants from Industry, Government and Academia.
• Actively involved in collaboration with the dedicated efforts of the Tsinghua University with the organization of the IST 2009 International Workshop in Shenzhen, China, May 11-12, 2009.
• Involved with the review of a number of Transactions and I2MTC Proceeding papers.

Planned activities:

• Plans to continue its efforts towards the organizational aspects of the IEEE International School on Imaging in coordination with the collaborating TC Committees.
• Continues its efforts together with the local organizing committee of the Tsinghua University towards the organization of the IST 2009 event in Shenzhen, China.

TC-20 Transportation Systems by Georg Brasseur and Frans Groen
Activities:

• The establishment of a "technical co-sponsorship" for the 6th International Conference for Conveying and Handling of Particulate Solids (CHoPS) between IEEE I&M and the Conference organizer. The Conference will be held in Brisbane, Australia on the 3rd - 7th August 2009 (http://www.chops2009.org.au/index.html).
• Established technical co-sponsorship between IEEE I&MS and the K2 Competence Center “Virtual Vehicle” relating to the Graz Symposium Virtual Vehicle (GSVF) to be held in Graz, Austria on the 27th –28th April 2009 (http://www.gsvf.at/cms/).
• Supporting the program Co-Chairs SH Choi, Abdulmotaleb El Saddik, and Stefano Ferrari as a member of the Technical Program Committee of VECIMS 2009 -International Conference on Virtual Environments, Human-Computer Interfaces, and Measurement Systems). VECIMS will be held in Hong Kong on May 11-13.

Planned activities:

• Plans to organize a special track at CHoPS for sensors usable for the materials the conference is focused at.
• Sets up a large database of automotive stereo video sequences in urban environments (1-5 km) with ground truth. This is done in collaboration with TNO (Dutch National Research institute for Applied Research) in Hague.

TC-21 Self Test and Built-in Test by Robert Gao
Activities:

• Served on the Technical Program Committee and reviewed papers submitted to the 2009

I2MTC Conference.

• Served on the Scientific Committee of the North American Manufacturing Research

Institution of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and reviewed papers submitted to the 2009 NAMRC conference.

• Collaborating with a manufacturing company in initiating research on digital telemetry and structural health monitoring through vibration signal analysis.

• Gave a seminar at NASA Stennis on embedded sensing and signal processing for structural health monitoring and visited a drilling equipment manufacturer to discuss research issues on real-time, in-process drilling rig condition monitoring, failure diagnosis, and remaining service life prognosis.

• Participated in conferences of the IEEE and ASME and presented papers on self-powered sensing and signal coding for energy efficient data transmission in wireless sensor networks.
  Plan for the next six months:

• Actively seeks collaboration with the aerospace industry to expand research in built-in sensing to engine operation efficiency and vibration monitoring.

• Promotes the concept and techniques of energy-efficient and wearable sensing for human physical activity monitoring.

TC-22 Intelligent Measurement Systems by Cesare Alippi

The Committee promotes:

• basic research on computational intelligence (soft computing and composite technologies) in instrumentation and measurement systems and their applications;
• research on intelligent distributed sensing networks based on soft-computing components;
• research on computational intelligence methodologies and techniques for adapting processing systems;
• use of computational intelligence technologies in instrumentation and measurement for intelligent manufacturing applications, homeland protection and personal safety.

Activities:

• Coordinated IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society and the IEEE Neural Networks Society to cosponsor 2009 IEEE International Conference on Computational Intelligence For Measurement Systems And Applications on May 11-13, 2009, Hong Kong, China.
• Collaborated to the organization of the co-located IEEE International Conference on Virtual Environments, Human-Computer Interfaces, and Measurement Systems (VECIMS) on May 11-13, 2009.
• Organized the 2009 IEEE International Workshop on Robotic and Sensors Environments (ROSE) on November 6-7,  2009 in Lecco, Italy.  It is sponsored by the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society.

TC-23 Education for Instrumentation and Measurement by Theodore Laopoulos
Activities:

• Actively engaged in the organization of the 5th International Workshop on "Intelligent Data Acquisition and Advanced Computing Systems" – IDAACS’09, to be held in Italy in September 2009.  Members Prof. A. Sachenko and Prof. D. Grimaldi are co-chairing this event (www.idaacs.net), and Prof. Th. Laopoulos is chairing the International Advisory Board. A special session is planned devoted to the educational use of software tools for practicing on electronic instruments (remote laboratories).
• A working group on "Web-Laboratories and E-learning Tools" is currently active and open to interested persons. The group examines the experience of the e-learning in the education on Instrumentation and Measurement (I&M) at different levels. Those interested please contact Prof. D. Grimaldi, email: grimaldi@deis.unical.it

TC-24 Measurement Microsystems by Andrzej Barwicz

• No report submitted.

TC-25 Medical Measurement by Marco Parvis
Planned activities:

• Continues to support the Medical Measurement and Application workshop which is gaining audience and popularity. The fourth edition of MEMEA (MEMEA-2009 May 29-30, 2009 Grand Hotel San Michele, Cetraro, Cosenza, Italy) is showing an increasing attendance with more than 50% increase of the number of submitted papers. More than 50% of the papers are from people not belonging to the IEEE, thus confirming the workshop is gaining popularity outside the society.
• The Subcommittee on Blood Pressure Measurement (Dr. Voicu Groza) is working hard organizing events (e.g.  WARM 2008 - Workshop on Adverse Response to Medication - http://ottawa.ieee.ca/ims/warm2008/ ) and cooperates with the IEEE Standards Association that in these days has introduced new policies and procedures on the blood pressure measurement.

TC-27 Human Computer Interface and Interaction by Mel Siegel

• See TC-15 report

TC-28 I & M for Robotics and Automation by Mel Siegel and Emil Petriu
Activities:

• Organization, in collaboration with TC-15 Virtual Systems, TC-27 Human-Computer Interfaces and Interaction, and TC-37 Measurements and Networking of the HAVE'2008 - IEEE International Workshop on Haptic Audio Visual Environments and Games,  Ottawa, ON, Canada on October 18-19, 2008.
• Organization, in collaboration with  TC-15 Virtual Systems, TC-22 Intelligent Measurement Systems,  TC-27 Human-Computer Interfaces and Interaction, and TC-30 Security and Contraband Detection of the  ROSE 2008 - IEEE International Workshop on Robotic and Sensors Environments, Ottawa, ON, Canada on October 17-18, 2008. 17-18

Planned activities:

• Organization, in collaboration with TC-15 "Virtual Systems in Measurements" Technical Committee and TC-27 Human-Computer Interfaces and Interaction of the VECIMS 2009, IEEE Int. Conf. on Virtual Environments, Human-Computer Interfaces and Measurement Systems, May 11-13, 2009, Hong Kong.
• Organization, in collaboration with TC6 - Emerging Technologies, TC22 -Intelligent Measurement Systems, and the TC on Industrial Systems Applications - Task Force on Intelligent Measurement Systems of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, of the CIMSA 2009, IEEE Int. Conf. on Computational Intelligence for Measurement Systems and Applications, May 11-13, 2009, Hong Kong.
• Organization, in collaboration with TC-15 Virtual Systems, TC-27 Human-Computer Interfaces and Interaction, and TC-37 Measurements and Networking of the HAVE'2009 – 8th IEEE International Workshop on Haptic Audio Visual Environments and Games,  Nov 7-8, 2009, Politecnico di Milano, – Lecco Campus, Italy
• Organization, in collaboration with  TC-15 Virtual Systems, TC-22 Intelligent Measurement Systems,  TC-27 Human-Computer Interfaces and Interaction, and TC-30 Security and Contraband Detection of the  ROSE 2009 - IEEE International Workshop on Robotic and Sensors Environments, Nov 6-7, 2009, Politecnico di Milano, – Lecco Campus, Italy

TC-30 Security and Contraband Detection by Vincenzo Piuri, Mel Siegel and Emil Petriu
Activities:

• Organization, in collaboration with TC-15 Virtual Systems, TC-22 Intelligent Measurement Systems,  TC-27 Human-Computer Interfaces and Interaction, and TC-28 Instrumentation and Measurement for Robotics and Automation of the  ROSE 2008 - IEEE International Workshop on Robotic and Sensors Environments, Ottawa, ON, Canada, October 17-18, 2008. 17-18 October 20

Planned activities:

• Organization, in collaboration with  TC-15 Virtual Systems, TC-22 Intelligent Measurement Systems,  TC-27 Human-Computer Interfaces and Interaction, and TC-28 Instrumentation and Measurement for Robotics and Automation of the  ROSE 2009 - IEEE International Workshop on Robotic and Sensors Environments, Nov 6-7, 2009, Politecnico di Milano, – Lecco Campus, Italy.

TC-31 I&M for Homeland Security by Brian Wadell and Kang Lee
Activities:

• Organized two Sensor Standards Harmonization Working Group meetings on Dec 16, 2008 and April 7, 2009, respectively.  More than thirty participants representing DHS, DoD, industry, and academia attended the meetings to discuss ways of harmonizing sensor-related standards and sensor network and application integration and participating in collaborative demonstration. 

Planned activities:

• The next Sensor Standards Harmonization meetings are planned to be held in July and November, 2009, respectively. Party interested to participate in the meeting should contact Kang Lee at kang.lee@nist.gov.

TC-32 Fault Tolerant Measurement Systems by Serge Demidenko
Activities:

• Organized a special session - SS-4 Fault-tolerant measurements and related fields in I2MTC 2009.  

Planned activities:

• Organize a special session on fault-tolerant sensing technologies at the forthcoming IEEE Sensors Conference in October 2009 in Christchurch, New Zealand.
• Organize a special track on fault-tolerant electronics design at the 5th IEEE Symposium on Electronics Design, Test and Applications - DELTA'2010, Vietnam.

TC-33 Characterization of Electrical HF and Optical Non-Linear Components by Marc Vanden Boshe
Activities:

• Tried to set up a session track at the I2MTC 2009 without success because the organizers have chosen not to organize special thematic sessions this year.
• Tried to start a cross-verification of the phase calibration, but the large standards labs are not very keen to invest in the subject right now.
• Liaison with MTT-11 is continuing, MTT-11 is trying to set up rules for the organization of joint events and we are participating in that.

TC-34 Nanotechnology in Instrumentation and Measurement by Cindy Harnett
The goals of this Committee are to establish, develop, promote and support cooperation among researchers, industry & academia involved in different fields of nanotechnology instrumentation and measurement. Topics include:

• Sensors for the measurement of nanomaterial properties. New nanomaterials are continuously developed and require characterization.
• Instrument and procedure characterisation. Sensors and other instruments, for example resistive carbon nanotube vapor sensors and atomic force microscopes (AFMs), increasingly use nanomaterials as active elements. These instruments require careful calibration for use in applications.

Ongoing activities toward these goals:

• In 2009, the committee added the goal of compiling a list of research laboratory capabilities and researcher contact information for nanomaterial and nanosensor characterization.
• New members are sought to organize a conference session on nanomaterials in instrumentation and measurement, with special emphasis on nanowire and nanoneedle atomic force microscope (AFM) probes.

TC-35 Net-centric Operations Interoperability

• New chair is needed

TC-36 Industrial Inspection by Zheng Liu, David Forsyth, and Pradeep Ramuhalli
Activities:

• Dr. Zheng Liu gave a presentation at 17th World Conference on Nondestructive Testing about the potential IEEE standards for inspection data.
• The review process of a special issue on the Journal of Machine Vision and Applications (Springer) is complete. The publication of this issue by the end of 2009 is expected.

Planned activities:

• Continues the work on IEEE standards for inspection data.
• Organizes an IEEE lecture/seminar on machine vision.

TC-37 Measurements and Networking by Abdulmotaleb El Saddik and Claudio Narduzzi
The TC encouraged participation in I2MTC 2009 by disseminating information on the conference and promoting the organization of a special session on measurement and networking at I2MTC 2008.
The Committee promotes:

• Awareness and interest in networking and to encourage I&M Society members to apply their skills and extend their knowledge of networking-related problems in I&M application field.
• Basic research on instrumentation and measurement in networking
• Mutli-sensor data processing, interpretation and fusion in haptic systems

Activities:

• The establishment of a "technical co-sponsorship" for the 7th IEEE International Workshop on Haptic Audio Visual Environments and their Applications (HAVE 2008), Ottawa ( http://www.discover.uottawa.ca/HAVE2008/)
• Supporting the program Co-Chairs SH Choi, Abdulmotaleb El Saddik, and Stefano Ferrari as a member of the Technical Program Committee of VECIMS 2009 -International Conference on Virtual Environments, Human-Computer Interfaces, and Measurement Systems). VECIMS will be held in Hong Kong May 11-13

Planned activities:

•  Sponsoring the 8th IEEE International Workshop on Haptic Audio Visual Environments and their Applications (HAVE 2009), Lecco, Italy, (http://have.ieee-ims.org/)

TC-38 Space Measurements by John Schmalzel

• Hosted the IEEE 1451 Plug-Fest at SAS-2009 in New Orleans on Feb 18.

The event was attended by a dozen interested people. Dr. Deniz Gurkan (U. of Houston) gave a demonstration of an IEEE 1451.1 analyzer that she and her students have developed. The Plug-Fest concluded with a panel discussion to develop ideas for future Plug-Fests. This planning work is continuing. TC-38 is also interested in supporting TC-9's plans for updating IEEE 1451.1 insofar as there is interest from the space community in defining additional TEDS-like data structures for other purposes.

TC-39 Measurements in Power Systems by Lorenzo Peretto

• organizes its first workshop on ‘definitions and measurements of electrical quantities under periodic and non-periodic operating conditions’; it will be characterized by the presence of a consistent part of people coming from Utilities and Industry world in order to collect all those instances considered relevant and of practical interest needed to be studied and investigated;