Downeast Maine Section
Downeast Maine Section
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A MESSAGE FROM YOUR LOCAL Greetings, members. As the NMTC Student Section Advisor, I would like to inform you of our upcoming activities. Our website is up and can be found at http://www2.nmcc.edu/courses/studentisa or by clicking on the link to the Student Section Site on the Home Page. We also have a live web camera with pan/tilt/zoom control on our Process Control Trainer http://ictrainer.nmcc.edu. The students are usually working with the trainer on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. There is also a motion switch to turn on the lights when the camera is moved during the off hours. The students and I have had a great time with this project and plan to use it for demonstrations of IC technology at area high schools. Most of the time we have no idea who is on the other end so if you log on, drop us a line to let us know what you think. The senior class will be taking the Control System Technician (CST) exam again this spring. The $85 exam fees were paid for last year thanks to the support of the Downeast Section. The Student Section has been hosting seminars to raise funds for this purpose and we should be self-sufficient from this point on as far as paying for the CST exams. Vendors present the seminars and we ask for a donation from the industry professionals that are invited to attend. These events are a great opportunity for all involved. The vendors get to make new contacts -- and the industry professionals and students not only get exposure to new technology, but also get to network with each other. As we finalize our spring seminar schedule, we will inform the members of the Downeast Section. If you are a vendor and want to get involved in this effort, I can be reached at (207) 768-2860 or at the email address below. During my trip to ISA 2002 in Chicago, I checked out ISA's International Student Games. I found this to be an exciting opportunity for the students that were participating. Currently, District 1 does not have representation at this event. After sharing my experience with Student Section and the NMTC administration, we have proposed to host the District 1 competition here on campus. The competition will be open to other student groups within District 1 and winners will go on to compete at the international level. This event will take place in the March - April '03 time frame and may be coordinated around one of the Downeast Section meetings. I would like to thank the Downeast members that braved the weather to attend the November meeting at Northern Maine Technical College. The students enjoyed meeting people already involved in their chosen profession. They would also like to thank the Downeast Section for the golf outing shirts that were presented after the meeting.
Respectfully submitted: |
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Summary for Professional Development Activity The following is a summary of my fall '02 professional development activity (ISA conference in Chicago). This professional development activity was a complete success. Four objectives were set forth for the trip and the results of each are listed below. Goal #1 was to evaluate the possibility of establishing a team to represent District 1 at the 2003 ISA International Student Games. I was able to monitor the practical portion of the games and obtain copies of the exercise instructions as well as photograghs of the facilities and exercise layout. I had volunteered to help out with the All Star Bowl portion of the games and was assigned the task of updating the team names on the scoreboard. Because of this firsthand knowledge and experience with the games, I am confident that NMTC's IC-MT students can be very competitive in these events. I also learned that our team must qualify through a district competition for the International Student Games. Since District 1 does not have representation at this time I would like to propose that NMTC host the first District 1 competition in the spring of 2003. There will be a special meeting of the student section of ISA on 11/5/02 to review the details related to the student games from my trip and to develop a plan of action for hosting the District 1 competition. Goal #2 was to attend the vendor floor. There was a lot to see among the 2+ acres of exhibits. I learned much about the latest in control and measurement technology and requested a lot of print material be sent to me at the college. I also requested equipment donations from many vendors and I have a good feeling about these efforts. Goal #3 was to attend the National ISA members meeting. There was a schedule conflict with the meeting and the student games so I was not able to attend. There were other networking opportunities that I took advantage of while at the ISA convention. I was able to attend the student section advisors meeting and got to meet many of my counterparts not only from the USA, but also from Canada, Mexico, Italy and Russia. On Monday evening I had supper with the District 1 VP Dawn MacKerron, District 1 VP elect Mike McNeil, and President of the Boston Section of ISA Christine Carr. This was an excellent opportunity to discuss views such as student members being the future of ISA and increasing the presence of ISA in Northern Maine. While waiting for the vendor floor to open on Tuesday morning, I was visiting the ISA members booth where I was given gifts to bring back to the student members. At this time I was able to meet and talk with two key ISA contacts. Elizabeth Price is the person that helped establish NMTC as a testing site for the CCST program. She is also the contact for the CST exam for the students. Laura Crumpler is involved in the International Student Games as well as other student section activities. I gave both Laura and Elizabeth copies of our student section CD. While at the ISA booth I also met and got a photo with Pino Zani, the international ISA President. Goal #4 was to attend the seminar "Cyber Security for Industrial Control Systems." This was an excellent forum with a panel of 5, each with a different viewpoint and presentation on the topic. The first was a general non-biased overview and I plan to contact the presenter to get a copy of his power point slides to use in the INS222 course.
As a professional development activity, I would rank
my trip to Chicago high on the value scale. Next year the conference
is in Houston, Texas and I hope to be there with our team for the
International Student Games. |
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