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IEEE Region 6 Central Area Spring Meeting & MicroMouse Contest 2009

Saturday, March 28, 2009 from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM (PT)

Santa Cruz, CA
IEEE Region 6 Central Area Spring Meeting & MicroMouse...

Ticket Information

Type End     Quantity
Registration Ended Free  

Event Details

Agenda

7:30 AM      Breakfirst

8:00 AM      Registration
8:30 AM      Introduction
8:45 AM      Region 6 News
9:15 AM      Section and Student Branch Reports
10:15 AM    Break
10:30 AM    Student Paper and Design Contests
                  Micromouse teams preparation for afternoon race

                  Section Officer Breakout

12:00 PM    Lunch
1:00 PM      Keynote Talk "SmartGrid Evolution and the roll standards will play"

                  by Chris Knudsen, Director of the Technology Innovation Center at PG&E

1:30 PM     MicroMouse Races and Awards
4:30 PM     Closing Remarks

 

Keynote Abstract:

The Obama administration is intending to invest close to 45 billion dollars to address renewal energy and a future "Smart Energy Grid" that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil.  Chris will be discussing the "Smart Energy Grid" and what PG&E and the Technology Innovation Center are doing about it.   He will provide insight as to how to think about the future of this project and what has been accomplished so far.  He will also provide a road map related to the industry standards and technology that is required to address the challenges and gaps related to the future success of this project.

Bio of Keynote Speaker:

Chris Knudsen is currently the Director of the Technology Innovation Center at Pacific Gas & Electric Company where he is responsible for developing new technologies to drive energy efficiency and SmartGrid evolution.  Chris also chairs the Open SmartGrid committee under UCA.  Prior to PG&E Chris held the position of  Chief Technical Officer for Wireless Wide Area Networking Standards & Mobile Performance Labs within Intel’s Mobile Wireless Group.  In his role at Intel Chris, was responsible for: IEEE WWAN standards, WiMax technical direction, systems engineering and simulations, network architecture, mobile WiMax labs, over-the-air test and trial networks, and technical business analysis for WWAN.  Previously, Chris spent three years at Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital focusing on early stage wireless investments including 802.11, 802.15, 802.16 technology, spectrum acquisition, as well as other proprietary systems and technologies.    Prior to Vulcan, Chris led Metricom’s Ricochet development as Vice President of Hardware Engineering.  Ricochet was the first of its kind wireless wide area meshed data network delivering data rates in excess of 200kbps/user.  Metricom was also the company that developed the Utilinet AMI system is which Chris developed some of the later devices.   He earlier founded a start-up developing energy efficient home automation system.  Chris started his career designing and developing radio systems for defense electronic applications.

Chris has over 20 years of communications technology development, networking, start-up, and senior management experience.  Chris is an exceptionally strong technical leader with broad experience managing diverse, multi-disciplined technical teams.  Chris has both interacted and held seats on corporate Boards.   He has designed, developed, and operated wireless hardware and systems ranging from a few MHz to 40 GHz.  Areas of experience include wireless data networks, AMI systems, internet data, radar processing, telecommunications, wireless consumer products, and electronic intelligence systems for military applications.

Chris holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Davis and has completed work towards a Master of Technology Management at Santa Clara University.