SAIEE Centenary Year Bernard Price Lecture:
New technologies of intelligent systems for a global world

On behalf of the SAIEE and the University of the Witwatersrand, you, your colleagues, friends, family and all interested persons are invited to the 2009 SAIEE Centenary Year Bernard Price Memorial Lecture, entitled:

There is a significant convergence of cost-effective products based on high performance computer chips and hardware systems, high speed wireless networking products and standards, and platform independent software. Personal robots with the ability to communicate by engaging multiple senses assist people in their daily tasks. Machine learning and pattern recognition algorithms automatically learn to recognize complex patterns from data and recommend decisions. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems provide improved services for supply chain and healthcare management. Brain-machine interfaces are beginning to transform thought into action and sensation into perception. Finally, systems previously depending on client-server networks are being integrated using new server-less architectures of distributed intelligent systems that provide improved robustness, scalability, and flexibility.

This lecture presents an overview of technologies of intelligent systems with emphasis on recent applications of systems science and engineering, human-machine systems, and cybernetics. Applications will be drawn from a variety of fields including robotics, manufacturing automation, healthcare, intelligent transportation, distributed energy management, and integrated digital services.

Dr. William A. Gruver is president of Intelligent Robotics Corporation and Professor Emeritus of Engineering Science at Simon Fraser University. He received the BScEng, MScEng and PhD degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, and DIC in automatic control systems from Imperial College of Science and Technology.
 
His industrial experience includes management and technical leadership positions at GE Factory Automation Products in Charlottesville; GE Industrial Automation Centre in Frankfurt; IRT Corporation in San Diego; Centre for Robotics and Manufacturing Systems at the University of Kentucky; and LTI Robotic Systems, a California based start-up that he co-founded. He has also held engineering and faculty positions at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Centre; DFVLR German Space Research Centre, Technical University Darmstadt; US Naval Academy; University of Kentucky; and North Carolina State University. He has published 215 technical papers and 3 books on robotics, automation, control, and optimisation. His current research emphasises the development of distributed intelligence technologies and their application to manufacturing automation, robotic systems, digital services, and energy systems management.
 
RSVP

There is no need to RSVP, you may simply register at the Wits Great Hall. Entrance is free-of-charge, and all are most welcome to attend.

  

"Lighting Design and Application - A practical guide for lighting practitioners"

Brian Rowell is an independent lighting consultant, a former chairman of ILESA and SANCI, a former chairman of the Joint Education Committee of ILESA, SANCI and SALA, and the first president of IESSA, the consolidated Illumination Engineering Society of Southern Africa, which, in 2004, merged the former lighting societies, ILESA, SANCI and SALA, into a single unified body.

The book combines technical accuracy and practicality with an impressive breadth of detail, in a portable, compact and lightweight package.

The new book updates the reader on significant new technology developments that have occurred since the publishing of the first two books, and gives special attention to new energy efficiency enhancements in light sources, electronic control-gear and automation systems, as well as to the latest energy efficient lighting design and application techniques.

The book has a forward Gustav Kritzinger, the IESSA president for 2008/9, in which he states: "The Illumination Engineering Society of South Africa (IESSA) supports the publication of all educational handbooks on the topic of lighting, especially since the country has an acute skills shortage. Whether the reader uses this publication as a handbook, a guide, or as a source of reference, it is sure to satisfy the requirements of each and all interested in or or actively involved in the science or art of lighting".

With 272 full-colour pages and 39 chapters, each one an insightful treatise on its topic, with over 400 colour figures and 37 tables, the book contains a wealth of down-to-earth, practical information vital to lighting practitioners; electrical contractors, installers and wholesalers; commerce, industry, mines and municipalities; designers, consulting engineers and architects; electrical and lighting technicians, technologists and engineers; students and staff at universities and technikons; and many others.

This book is an ideal textbook for technical colleges, universities of technology and academic universities for courses in lighting design and application.