Tag Archives: IEEE

IEEE & Rutgers

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IEEE, the largest professional engineering society in the world with more than 400,000 members, is headquartered in Piscataway, New Jersey. So at times, when we have IEEE-related meetings, in order for as many staff to help us, we stay in New Brunswick, New Jersey several miles away. Here, is the home of Rutgers University within walking distance from the Hyatt Hotel we have our meetings at. It’s a pretty campus with old classic buildings.

Well, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights may have just secured their first tourney appearance since 1991 guaranteeing that every year of our pool has seen at least one new team. Rutgers’ overtime road win over fellow bubble team Purdue gave them a key 2nd road victory (yes, just 2), a better than .500 Big Ten record (11-9), and their first 20-win season since 1983 to go along with their top 35 NET. Their at-large bid moved from probable First In/Out to just “In”.

Meanwhile, a pair of late 3s provided drama as Utah St secured a berth by beating #5 San Diego St. and USC stunned UCLA by two in their rivalry game. SDSU won their first 26 games before ending the season 4-2. Utah St was likely out but are now in the tourney, meaning one less at-large berth available (since SDSU will get one). UCLA had a chance for the share of the Pac-12 title but fell short, and with their 70s NET and some really bad losses, will need a good showing in the conf tourney to solidify their spot in the First Four In rather than First Four Out. USC is likely in with the win.

Our 26th HWCI NCAA Pool begins next Sunday (yikes, just lost an hour right now… it’s 3 am)!

Beginner Patron Paid!

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Earlier this year, the IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC) was selected as the beneficiary of our HWCI First Four for Charity contest.  This conference is a global humanitarian technology conference focused on bringing together people to address the critical issues for the benefit of the resource-constrained and vulnerable populations in the world and starts in two weeks, October 19-22 in San Jose, California.

Thanks to additional generous donations by Charles D, Bob S, and Jeff2 H the final total was $85.10 (including my contribution) and I just donated that amount to the IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference as a Beginner Patron.  In total, the 7 years has raised $593.98 $649.08.  The receipt is here:  GHTC_BeginnerPatron_171004_$85.10.  With the recent natural disasters in recent weeks in the southern U.S. and Caribbean (including complete loss of power for Puerto Rico), this will be a hot topic at GHTC and money raised will help provide an interactive forum to bring graduate students, professors, business people, and innovators together for a common cause.

7th HWCI NCAA First Four for Charity (Due: 3:40 pm PDT Tuesday)

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While you decide who will win the tourney, for the 7th year I’m doing the HWCI NCAA First Four for Charity, where I will donate $2 per entry to a charity, this year to IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, which is the flagship IEEE Conference focusing on innovation, deployment and adaptation of Technology for Humanitarian Goals and Sustainable Development.  This First Four for Charity is free and you just have to submit (you can comment on this post to enter, email, post to Facebook, tweet @HWCI_Pools) who the four First Four winners will be and by what point margin. For example: Wake Forest by 8, New Orleans by 3, UC Davis by 1, and Providence by 4.   The four games are Kansas St vs Wake Forest, Mt. St. Mary’s vs New Orleans, NC Central vs UC Davis, and Providence vs Southern Cal.  Get your entry by 3:40 pm PDT Tuesday.  As a bonus, in the end, if we top our record of 161 entries this year, I’ll donate an additional $25.  Also, invite your friends and people can enter this charity contest but not our main pool.

Our Generosity

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A few new things this year in the tournament in general — the NCAA released an early projection of the top 16 teams back on February 11 for the first-time ever and the Ivy League now has a conference tournament (though just 4 teams qualify).  It’s interesting that much has changed in the top 4 seeds but hopefully UCLA improves on their four seed and hoping USC sneaks in as a First Four team, as they have done well from that position.  Now, instead of the Ivy League regular season champion being the first automatic bid in the tournament (if there’s no extra game tiebreaker) to one of the last, as the final is on Sunday (though next year it will move up in the week).

This is an early heads-up as after the brackets are released, we will have our 7th HWCI First Four for Charity contest.  This is where we took the headache of having 68 teams (instead of 65) and made it into a fundraiser.  More than $556 has been donated to six various charities or efforts.  There is no fee to enter and you just pick the four First Four winners and margin of victory of each.  I will donate $2 per entry (remember, the entry is free and you don’t have to play in our normal $10 pool so friends and family are welcome!) and usually by the end of the tournament, my fellow players will donate a matching set or more!  Luckily, no major disasters this season so I’m open to suggestions for charity options.

My fallback will be a donation to the IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference — the flagship IEEE Conference focusing on innovation, deployment and adaptation of Technology for Humanitarian Goals and Sustainable Development.  For nearly all technical conferences, you have to pay to access papers, sometimes even your own!  At this conference, it’s Open Access — that means the papers are free to anyone so that the ideas can be shared with the most people because the goal is IMPLEMENTING the technology to those in need in the fastest way possible (boots on the ground).

Until then, Sunday is coming up fast!