Silicon Valley Engineering Council

Translational Multimodal Bioelectronics: From Biosymbiotic Devices to Clinically Integrated Digital Health
2025-11-19 18:50 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/515108
Abstract: Advances in soft materials, low-power circuits, and wireless energy harvesting now allow imperceptible, long-lived bioelectronic systems that are practical beyond the lab bench. This talk presents translational pathways for multimodal bioelectronics that bridge engineering innovation with clinical impact. We highlight epidermal and implantable platforms that acquire high-fidelity biosignals—EEG/IMU for neonatal seizure risk and sleep, ECG–SCG–PCG for cardiopulmonary coordination, and oral ISFET-based pH sensors for chemo- physiological context—and describe the materials, packaging, and system architectures that enable stable, week-scale wear. Beyond device physics, we emphasize translation: firmware that guarantees sub-10 ms synchronization across channels, analytics pipelines that integrate signal quality indices with explainable ML models, and HIPAA-compliant clinician dashboards that transform continuous raw streams into actionable insights. Case studies from NICU deployments and adult cohorts illustrate how biosymbiotic devices can support seizure detection, brain–heart dysregulation screening, and personalized therapy planning. By uniting materials, systems, and AI with real clinical use, these efforts outline a roadmap for multimodal digital healthcare that is both technically rigorous and translatable to patient care.
References: PNAS June 2025 122 (23) e2501220122; Nature Medicine (under review); Nature BME (under submission)
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Speaker(s): Assist. Prof. Yayun Du
Agenda:
6:50 – 7 PM: Registration
7-8 PM: Talk and Q&A
Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/515108

IEEE Symposium on Reliability for Electronics and Photonics Packaging
2025-11-20 07:30 - 2025-11-21 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Milpitas, California, United States, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/495693
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This symposium will focus on quantified reliability, accelerated testing and probabilistic assessments of the useful lifetime of electronic, photonic, MEMS and MOEMS materials, assemblies, packages and systems in electronics and photonics packaging. This includes failure modes, mechanisms, testing schemes, accelerated testing, stress levels, and environmental stresses.
Visit our website for details, for our Advance Program, and to register. https://attend.ieee.org/repp.
Milpitas, California, United States, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/495693

Modernizing Power System Design with IEC 61850: Breaking Free from Hardware Constraints
2025-11-20 17:30 - 20:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zio Fraedo’s, 611 Gregory Lane, Pleasant Hill, California, United States, 94523
The power industry is under pressure to rapidly expand infrastructure to meet growing demands from both consumers and producers. But sticking to traditional design and construction methods may no longer be enough. One of the biggest bottlenecks? Hardware dependencies—like waiting on control wiring or specific components—that delay commissioning and inflate project timelines.
This presentation explores how embracing IEC 61850, a globally recognized standard for power system communication and configuration, can unlock new efficiencies. By shifting more functionality into software and adopting a standardized, vendor-neutral approach, engineers can accelerate deployment, improve system quality, and simplify integration.
We will demystify the IEC 61850 data model and show how it builds intuitive, scalable protection and control systems. You will learn how it reduces vendor lock-in, streamlines troubleshooting, and supports a more agile design process. Real-world case studies will highlight successful implementations, and we will share a practical roadmap to help you begin your journey toward a fully digitized power system.
Speaker(s): Darren De Ronde,
Agenda:
No-host social at 5:30pm
Presentation at 6:00pm
Dinner at 7:00pm
Presentation continues at 7:45pm
Adjourn by 8:30pm
Zio Fraedo’s, 611 Gregory Lane, Pleasant Hill, California, United States, 94523

High Performance Inferencing for LLMs
2025-12-02 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/516797
Inferencing has become ubiquitous across cloud, regional, edge, and device environments, powering a wide spectrum of AI use cases spanning vision, language, and traditional machine learning applications. In recent years, Large Language Models (LLMs), initially developed for natural language tasks, have expanded to multimodal applications including vision speech, reasoning and planning each demanding distinct service-level objectives (SLOs). Achieving high-performance inferencing for such diverse workloads requires both model-level and system-level optimizations.
This talk focuses on system-level optimization techniques that maximize token throughput , achieve user experience metrics and inference service-provider efficiency. We review several recent innovations including KV caching, Paged/Flash/Radix Attention, Speculative Decoding, P/D Disaggregation, KV Routing and Parallelism, and explain how these mechanisms enhance performance by reducing latency, memory footprint, and compute overhead. These techniques are implemented in leading open-source inference frameworks such as vLLM, SGLang, Hugging Face TGI, and NVIDIA’s TensorRT-llm, which form the backbone of large-scale public and private LLM serving platforms.
Attendees will gain a practical understanding of the challenges in delivering scalable, low-latency LLM inference, and of the architectural and algorithmic innovations driving next-generation high-performance inference systems.
Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/516797

Characterization and Application of a New Chip-Level Air Pump
2025-12-04 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/500418
[]Trends in consumer goods are leaning towards thinner, more compact products with higher performance than their predecessors. Today’s consumer wants lightweight, portable, battery-operated gear that is powerful enough to satisfy their needs for speed and ease of use. One of the biggest challenges facing product design is thermal management. Case temperature limits for products that come in contact with user’s skin place constraints on internal power dissipation and increase the need for improved thermal management. With the introduction of locally processed AI and higher compact portable device processing loads thermal issues are critical for avoiding throttling.
µCooling: A new device has been invented that changes the way thermal engineers are approaching system cooling design. µCooling is a new concept in air movers. It is small, and thin and is a complete departure from rotating mass fans. This MEMS-based invention can move air through very small spaces, used directly on a chip or package, placed remotely through tiny ducts, or mounted outside of a product. In fact, the versatility of µCooling changes the way we can manage heat at the package, SoC, or bare-chip level. This talk will introduce µCooling, a MEMS-based, all-silicon, micro-sized air pump. The device will be described in terms of how it works, performance characteristics, and application examples.
Speaker(s): Tom Tarter,
Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/500418

Navigating your Career: Lessons Learned and Success Strategies
2025-12-04 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Room: 1308, Bldg: SCDI, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California, United States, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/513222
Careers don’t always follow a straight line — and that’s a good thing! In this talk, I’ll share lessons learned from my own journey and from others who’ve navigated career twists, pauses, and pivots. You’ll hear practical strategies for building confidence, staying current, and navigating transitions at every career stage. We’ll look at how to recognize, build, and communicate your value, how to adapt to emerging technologies and new work cultures, and how to re-enter the workforce after time away. Whether you’re early in your career, returning after a pause, or seeking your next chapter, you’ll leave with practical strategies and encouragement to move forward with clarity and confidence.
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Parking info:
(1) There are some 2-hour and some 4-hour parking spaces on Benton / Sherman and Franklin streets.
(2) There are a number of 2-hour parking spaces next to Bank of America / Starbucks and they are usually not crowded on weeknights. You have to walk across El-Camino traffic light pedestrian crossing. If you get there at 6:20 PM you can park until 8:20PM.
(3) Enter at the door of the Sobrato building colored in YELLOW.
Speaker(s): , Jill Gostin
Room: 1308, Bldg: SCDI, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California, United States, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/513222

Size Really Does Matter: Biological Nanoparticles Are Changing Biomedicine
2025-12-09 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | 925 Thompson Place, Sunnyvale, California, United States, 94085, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/514921
This is a hybrid in-person and online event. Pre-registration is required for either.
The holy grail of medical diagnostics is a test that is accurate, sensitive, non-invasive, and inexpensive. For solid tumors such as pancreatic cancer and for many neurological diseases, current diagnostics come too little, too late.
An exciting direction of research in this field relates to exosomes, tiny biological nanoparticles around 100 nm in size. There are trillions of them in our body, carrying a massive amount of valuable information about the health—or disorder—of our organs. They are, however, so small that they had eluded detection until quite recently.
In this talk, Dr. Giacomo Vacca will discuss the challenges, and the promise, of exosomes in biomedical diagnostics. He will show how their abundance is a fantastic opportunity to use them as biomarkers—if you can detect them. As the attention of both technologists and researchers has focused on them, new tools have emerged, enabling new scientific findings—and the tantalizing possibility of much more powerful biomedical diagnostics.
Speaker(s): Giacomo Vacca
925 Thompson Place, Sunnyvale, California, United States, 94085, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/514921

AI for Thermal Management of Electronic Systems: A Pathway to Digital Twins
2025-12-11 09:00 - 10:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/504510
[]The rapid rise in power density and complexity of electronic systems has made thermal management a critical challenge for ensuring reliability, performance, and sustainability. Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers transformative opportunities to address this challenge by enabling data-driven modeling, optimization, and predictive control of cooling systems. By integrating AI with experimental and physics-based approaches, adaptive models can be developed to capture transient thermal behaviors, and optimize system-level energy efficiency. This forms the foundation for digital twins, virtual replicas that continuously interact with their physical counterparts to provide system specific real-time monitoring, and data driven decision support. In this talk, I will present recent and ongoing research activities at ES2 Binghamton on AI-enabled thermal management design, with emphasis on cooling solutions for high-power chips in data centers. I will further highlight how these developments serve as a pathway towards creating digital twins, dynamic virtual replicas that integrate real-time data, physics, and AI to enable system-level monitoring, prediction, and optimization. Together, these advancements pave the way for reliable, energy-efficient, and sustainable electronic systems.
Speaker(s): Srikanth Rangarajan,
Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/504510

Digital Lithography: Addressing Scaling Challenges in Advanced Packaging
2025-12-11 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/502777
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Requirements on the high-performance compute (HPC) systems from AI workloads necessitates transition to larger package sizes with 2.5D to 3.5D integration and density scaling at every level in the stack. Several competing packaging architectures are emerging to solve the compute and power efficiency challenge presented by AI workloads. Each presents unique lithography challenges such as >100×100 field size, large chip placement deviations, fine lines and tight overlay warped substrates. The conventional lithography tools are incapable of meeting all the requirements to achieve scaling.
The talk will preview Applied Materials’ Digital Lithography Technology (DLT) which enables highest resolution at production throughputs while ensuring CD uniformity and overlay accuracy across the entire panel.
Speaker(s): Niranjan Khasgiwale,
Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/502777

Computer History Museum
2025-12-13 10:00 - 14:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Computer History Museum, 1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, California, United States, 94043
Student Branch Event for members of the CSU East Bay Branch only.
If you want to carpool to the venue, meet at Campus parking lot F at 9:00 am.
Otherwise drive yourself to the CHM.
Free only for student members at CSUEB.
You must register to attend.
Computer History Museum, 1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, California, United States, 94043

Product Safety and Compliance Meetup
2025-12-16 12:00 - 12:45 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/518446
The Product Safety Engineering Society Bay Area Joint Section Chapter (SCV/SF/OEB) invites you to a virtual meetup of professionals interested in product safety and compliance. We will discuss the future of the chapter and plan future events.
Agenda:
– Business Meeting
– Plan future activity of the chapter
– New Officer Elections
Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/518446

Inertia, Stability, and Nonlinear Dynamics in a Grid with Inverter-Based Resources
2025-12-16 12:30 - 13:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/521292
The dynamic behavior of the electric grid is changing rapidly as inverter-based resources (IBRs) replace traditional synchronous generators in delivering critical system services. This rapid shift—driven by the growth of distributed generation and energy storage—requires a fundamental re-evaluation of how we define and assess grid stability. In particular, the traditional concept of grid “inertia” must be reconsidered to ensure that stability metrics accurately reflect modern system behavior.
In this presentation, I will discuss the nonlinear dynamic nature of the power grid, the influence of increasing IBR penetration on stability, and our recent work on transient stability assessment. I will highlight examples involving grid-forming inverter models and our efforts to incorporate improved stability metrics into simulation frameworks. By combining physical intuition with practical modeling, this ongoing work aims to inform new approaches to stability assessment for the future power grid.
Speaker(s): John Zhang
Agenda:
12:30pm – Event Starts
1:30pm – Adjourn
Times are in PST.
Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/521292

Accelerate Development with Gemini - AI Agent at your Terminal
2025-12-18 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/521828
This workshop moves beyond web-based interfaces to demonstrate how Gemini API, accessed directly via the CLI can function as a powerful AI development agent, right inside your terminal. It eliminates context-switching and helps you go friction-free.
Attendees will engage in hands-on exercises to leverage Gemini for real-time, terminal-based tasks.
Speaker(s): Ramesh Rajini
Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/521828

AI in Blockchain: Architecting Intelligent Systems and Building AI Careers in the Web3 Ecosystem
2025-12-18 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/520440
[]Join us for this virtual meeting!
This event brings together two focused talks that connect the architecture of AI in Blockchain/Web3 with practical career guidance for professionals entering this fast-growing space. The first talk explores how intelligent systems are designed, evaluated, and governed in blockchain and fintech environments. The second outlines the skills, roles, and pathways for building a successful AI career in the Blockchain ecosystem. Together, they provide a clear view of where the industry is heading and how to prepare for it.
Speaker(s): Raj Karan Gunukula , Revanth Reddy Airre
Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/520440

What Needs to Be in Place Before AI: Lessons from Large-Scale Insurance Platforms
2025-12-20 10:00 - 11:00 (America/New_York) | Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/522134
Artificial intelligence can only create real value when the underlying data, architecture, and governance are ready for it. In this talk, as a system architect I will share practical lessons from experience of designing and leading large-scale insurance platforms at three startup insurance companies, including quoting engines, carrier integrations, and cloud-native lead acquisition systems. Drawing on two decades of experience in insurance technology, I will outline four key prerequisites for successful AI adoption in regulated industries: solid data foundations, modular and API-driven architectures, strong security and compliance practices, and cross-functional teams and processes. The session is aimed at students, engineers, AI practitioners, and business leaders who want a clear, real-world view of how to prepare complex systems for AI at scale.
Speaker(s): Malar Kondappan
Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/522134

Robust Multimodal Cough Detection with Optimized Out-of-Distribution Detection for Wearables
2025-12-22 11:50 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/523030
Longitudinal and continuous monitoring of cough is crucial for early and accurate diagnosis of respiratory diseases. Recent developments in wearables provides at-home remote symptom monitoring with respect to more accurate and less frequent assessment in the clinics, but face practical challenges such as speech privacy, poor audio quality and background noise in uncontrolled real-world settings. Our work addresses these challenges by developing and optimizing a multimodal cough detection system, enhanced with an Out-of-Distribution (OOD) detection algorithm. The cough sensing modalities include audio and Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) signals. The system is optimized through training with an enhanced dataset and a weighted multi-loss approach for in-distribution classification, while OOD detection is improved by reconstructing training data components. Experiments demonstrate robustness across window sizes from 1–5 seconds and effectiveness at low audio sampling rates, where privacy is preserved. The optimized system achieves 90.1% accuracy at 16 kHz and 87.3% at 750 Hz, even with half the inference data being OOD. Most misclassifications arise from nonverbal sounds (e.g., sneezes, groans). Overall, the proposed Audio-IMU multimodal model with OOD detection significantly improves cough detection performance and offers a practical solution for real-world wearable applications. Wearable devices with on-board neural acceleration capabilities have been developed to enable fusion of air and bone microphones, and inertial measurements together with real-time processing.
Speaker(s): Prof. Dr. Edgar J Lobaton
Agenda:
11:50 am to 12:00 pm: Social
12:00 pm to 12:45 pm: Talk
12:45 pm to 1:00 pm: Q/A
Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/523030

Digital Money and Payments 2025: Stablecoins, CBDCs, Tokenized Deposits After the GENIUS Act, and IEEE Blockchain Volunteering
2025-12-29 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/521039
[]In 2025, the landscape of digital money is shifting rapidly as the GENIUS Act establishes a federal framework for payment stablecoins while U.S. CBDC efforts pause and other regions move ahead with their own digital currency projects. This event will provide a clear overview of how stablecoins, CBDCs, tokenized deposits, and new payment rails are evolving in the U.S. and globally, and what that means for technology and finance professionals. It will conclude with a session on how volunteering within the IEEE Blockchain Technical Community creates opportunities to build leadership, grow networks across industry and academia, and contribute to impactful work in the blockchain ecosystem.
Speaker(s): Marc Lijour, Revanth Airre,
Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/521039

Winter Holiday Youth STEM Workshop
2025-12-30 09:00 - 15:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | 27709 Tyrrell Ave, Hayward, California, United States, 94544
Come join our STEM Winter Holiday Youth where you'll get hands-on experience with cool science, tech, engineering, and math activities!
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Looking for something meaningful and and stimulating for your children to do in between the holidays? We invite you and your family to join us for an inspiring Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs –Glad Tidings/IEEE Youth Winter STEM Workshop, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) educational experience designed specifically for students from underrepresented communities. This in-person event will be held at 27709 Tyrrell Ave, where you can meet other curious minds and learn from experienced instructors. Don't miss out on this opportunity to explore the wonders of STEM in a supportive and engaging environment. Register now to secure your spot!
Scholarships available, please email: benita.mclarin@gladtidingscogic.org
Event Details
Where: Glad Tidings Family Life Complex
When: 12/30, 9am to 3:00pm.
Who: Students aged 8–17 (parents encouraged to attend)
Why STEM Education Matters for Your Child
STEM education is more than just learning about technology or engineering—it’s about developing critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills that are essential in today’s world. By exposing your child to STEM:
– Help them discover new interests and talents.
– Prepare them for high-paying and rewarding careers.
– Show them that they can be creators, innovators, and leaders.
Schedule:
8:15 – 9:00 AM | Breakfast Available· Light Breakfast including cereals, fruit and juice for children· Coffee and pastries for volunteers· Meals Catered by Divine Purpose Catering
9:00 – 9:20 AM | Welcome & Kickoff
– Welcome
– Overview of the workshop theme: “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs”
– Review of safety rules
– Introduction of volunteers, experiment leads, and technology demonstrators
– Brief explanation of how technology connects to cooking (Instant Pot sensors, microwaves & magnetrons)
9:20 – 9:45 AM | Opening Technology Demonstration (Large Group)Tech Demo #1: How Microwaves Cook Food
Led by IEEE-USA President Tim Lee
Sample Questions for Consideration:
– What is a magnetron?
– How microwaves heat water molecules
– Demonstration: Heating different foods & observing heat distribution
– Safety discussion: microwave-safe containers
9:45 – 10:10 AM | Technology Demonstration #2 (Large Group)Tech Demo #2: The Science & Engineering Behind an Instant Pot
Led by engineering guest (or enriched by Nirupama’s consulted mechanical engineer)
– Pressure, temperature regulation, sensors
– How smart cooking devices automate heat control
– Demonstration using safe, simple food item
– Discussion: Technology innovations in home cooking
10:10 – 10:20 AM | Transition & Break
10:20 AM – 12:00 PM | Hands-On Experiment Rotations
Participants rotate through 3 stations (25 minutes each) Stations may include:
Experiment Station
– Make Your Own Cheese – Simple paneer or ricotta – Concepts: curdling, heat, protein structure
– Pizza Dough Science – Yeast growth & temperature effects – Kneading and gluten formation
– Microwave Mini-Experiments – Safe items – Observing heating patterns
12:00 – 12:40 PM | Lunch & Informal STEM Challenge
– Pizza or sandwiches and salads
– STEM trivia led by teen volunteers
– “Guess the Technology” game with simple household cooking tools
12:40 – 1:00 PM | Group Activity: The Science of Meatballs
A fun, theme-based demonstration:
– Why meatballs hold together (protein chemistry + binders)
– Heat transfer demo using safe props
– Link back to the workshop’s title
1:00 – 2:45 PM | Hands-On Experiment Rotations (continued)Participants rotate through 4 stations (25 minutes each) Stations may include:
– Candy Chemistry (Holiday-Themed) – Sugar crystallization, supersaturation – Candy cane or lollipop demo
– Cookie Engineering – How ingredient ratios change texture – Technology comparison: electric oven vs. Easy Bake
– Hot Chocolate Lab – Emulsions, heat transfer – Taste-testing temperature differences
– Grow Sugar or Salt Crystals – Kids take home the starter jars
2:45 – 3:00 PM | Closing, Photos & Thank You
Our Program’s Commitment
Through our partnership with the IEEE Oakland-East Bay Section, TryEngineering, and Glad Tidings, we are dedicated to fostering a supportive and inclusive environment. Here’s why this program is unique:
Mentors Who Care: STEM professionals from your community will guide your child every step of the way.
– Hands-On Learning: Engaging activities like designing bridges, building robots, and creating LED circuits make learning exciting.
Equity in Education: Our goal is to provide access and opportunity to all children, particularly those in underrepresented communities.
Parent Involvement
We understand the vital role parents play in their child’s success. During the event, you’ll:
– See firsthand how STEM activities boost confidence and teamwork.
– Learn about free and affordable resources to continue your child’s STEM journey.
– Meet other parents who share the same goal of empowering their children.
Don’t Miss Out!
This is a chance to show your child that their dreams matter and that they belong in STEM fields. Secure your spot today!
Register by Dec. 26th
To ensure we have the proper supplies and resources, please RSVP by end of day Dec. 26, so we can better plan the workshop.
Together, let’s inspire a generation of problem solvers, innovators, and dreamers. We look forward to seeing you there!
Warm regards,
Aaron Lin, IEEE
Benita McLarin, Glad Tidings
Co-sponsored by: Glad Tiding International
27709 Tyrrell Ave, Hayward, California, United States, 94544

2026 Impact of AI on Consumer Technology Products
2026-01-08 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/522339
We are live hosting an IEEE CTSoc (Consumer Technology Society) event at the Advanced Engineering Building at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Please register to attend the event on-line.
Abstract: This event is an interactive panel examining the impact and challenges of AI on consumer technology products, especially smart health devices and their ecosystems. The panel will feature corporate executives, as follows:
– (https://www.linkedin.com/in/praveenraja9/), VP Digital Health, Samsung
– (https://www.linkedin.com/in/migueladao/), CEO of Volersystems
– (https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-drobot-43a1412a/), Chairman of the Board, OpenTechWorks, Inc.
– (https://www.linkedin.com/in/paolo-bonato-582890/), Director, Motion Analysis Lab, Spaulding Rehabilitation
– (https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-condry-79931a/), Former CTO, Intel Corporation (retired)
– (https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-lipoff-173288/) (Moderator), President, IP Action Partners
Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/522339

2026 VTS Tech Talk: Driving Confidence at Scale: The Strategic Role of Simulation in Autonomous Systems
2026-01-09 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/524500
As vehicles become increasingly software-defined, advanced driver-assistance and autonomous systems must perform reliably across diverse environments and interact safely with a dynamic real world. Traditional validation methods, such as road testing and closed-course evaluations are often too slow, costly, and limited in coverage to keep pace with modern development demands. To validate today’s highly complex, machine learning–driven software architectures, simulation has evolved from a testing tool into a core development platform.
In this talk, the invited speaker Mr. Shuhan Yang will explore how simulation can be architected and applied to accelerate the design, validation, and deployment of advanced driver-assistance and autonomous technologies. Drawing from experience across multiple AV platforms, he’ll walk through key types of simulation—from perception sensor modeling to behavioral and decision-making validation—and offer practical guidance on integrating simulation into the product development lifecycle. He will also highlight current limitations and challenges that engineers should be aware of.
Finally, the talk will cover how simulation boosts confidence across development stages, improves system performance, and reduces both time and cost to deployment. As global competition in software-defined mobility intensifies, these capabilities underscore the growing importance of scalable and rigorous validation frameworks. Attendees will leave with a practical approach for selecting and applying simulation methods that align with their technical and organizational needs.
Speaker(s): Shuhan Yang
Agenda:
6:00-6:45pm Tech Talk
6:45-7:00pm Q&A
Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/524500

Energy and Thermal Management of IT Systems
2026-01-13 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | 925 Thompson Place, Sunnyvale, California, United States, 94085, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/518438
This is a hybrid in-person and online event. Pre-registration is required for either.
The latter part of 20th century witnessed the rise of the compute utility made up of large-scale data centers housing densely-packed compute, storage and networking equipment. In the cyber age, data centers became modern day factories requiring megawatts of power for the information technology (IT) equipment, much like the process equipment in a factory of the machine age. Electrical energy supplied to the chips and systems in the data centers turned into multi-megawatts of heat energy which in turn required heat removal means. The active heat removal means also required power.
While many innovative measures have been used for heat removal and energy management in data centers, there is a substantial gap in application of the fundamentals of engineering when compared to the approaches taken by the contributors of the 19th and early 20th century machine age. As an example, machine age contributors performed exergy (2nd law of thermodynamics) analysis and deemed it necessary to build a hydro-electric plant as part of the design of an Aluminum factory. Indeed, the majority of data centers today rely on the power infrastructure built by our predecessors.
Given the inexorable trajectory of data centers strongly driven by AI, and associated demands on available energy, it is time we returned to such fundamentals, particularly given the environmental challenges. This talk will present a holistic approach that traces the energy flow from a power plant to a chip, and from the chip core to the cooling tower.
Speaker(s): Chandrakant D. Patel, PE
925 Thompson Place, Sunnyvale, California, United States, 94085, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/518438

Short-Circuit Current Ratings, Interrupting Ratings, and the Intersection of UL 508A and the NEC
2026-01-15 17:30 - 20:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zio Fraedo's, 611 Gregory Lane, Pleasant Hill, California, United States, 94523
Short-circuit current ratings (SCCR) and interrupting ratings form the backbone of electrical safety, coordination, and compliance in modern power systems. This presentation explores how UL 508A Supplement SB intersects with the National Electrical Code (NEC) to define the limits of what electrical equipment can safely withstand and interrupt under fault conditions.
The presentation examines how UL product listings and component ratings interact with NEC Articles 409, 110.9, and 110.10, clarifying how available fault current, protective device selection, and equipment labeling all converge in practice. Real-world examples will illustrate how engineers can properly determine SCCR, verify interrupting ratings, and ensure that the overall system meets both code and product standard intent.
Key Topics
– Fundamentals of SCCR and interrupting ratings
– Relationship between UL 508A Supplement SB and NEC Articles 409, 110.9, and 110.10
– Evaluating equipment for compliance and labeling accuracy
– Case studies from industrial and institutional systems
Speaker(s): Tyler Shewbert,
Agenda:
No-host social at 5:30pm
Presentation at 6:00pm
Dinner at 7:00pm
Presentation continues at 7:45pm
Adjourn by 8:30pm
Zio Fraedo's, 611 Gregory Lane, Pleasant Hill, California, United States, 94523

SETI Signal Processing: Searching for Technosignatures
2026-01-21 11:00 - 14:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Bldg, Livermore, CA, United States
SETI, or the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, attempts to answer one of humanity’s oldest questions: Are we alone in the universe? While astronomers have devoted significant effort to finding exoplanets and trying to observe evidence of remote astro-biology, a parallel exploration involves observation of “technosignatures”, or radio signals that originate outside the solar system with characteristics suggesting an intelligent source.
In many ways radio SETI is a special class of communications problem in the realm of electrical engineering, with aspects of game theory in the mix. Consider the challenges: the signal is unknown, and may be intentional (a beacon) or unintentional (involving navigation or communications). The transmit frequency is unknown. If a limited message is sent, the modulation will be unknown, and even if bits are produced, the message must be decoded. Energy or geometry may limit persistence, so only a small fraction of observations in any pointing direction will have a chance at detection. Without knowledge of the signal, matched filtering is not possible. Link budgets may force limits on the signal bandwidth (narrowband tones) or time duration (pulse trains).
This talk will introduce the SETI problem and describe the scope of efforts underway in the radio SETI community. Search strategies to maximize detection rate will be described, and narrowband SETI algorithms will be introduced. In recent years, SETI search capabilities have vastly improved with the use of interferometric arrays covering GHz-class bandwidths, commensal observing, and the use of racks of GPU-enhanced servers, significantly raising the potential for new discoveries.
Speaker(s): Kenneth, Ken
Agenda:
Presentation and lunch. Buffet or order from menu (included) depending upon the number of registrants. Fee for IEEE members is subsidized.
Bldg: Golf course restaurant, not the pro shop, Beeb's Sports Bar and Grill, 915 Club House Drive, Livermore, California, United States

Taming Tech Debt for Platform Reliability
Valley Research Park, 319 N Bernardo Ave, Mountain View, CA, 94043, United States
LOCATION ADDRESS (Hybrid, in person or by zoom, you choose)
Valley Research Park
319 North Bernardo Avenue
Mountain View, CA CA 93043
Don’t use the front door. When facing the front door, turn right along the front of the building. Turn left around the building corner. The 2nd door should be open and have a banner and event registration.
If you want to join remotely, you can submit questions via Zoom Q&A. The zoom link:
[https://acm-org.zoom.us/j](https://acm-org.zoom.us/j/94270873151?pwd=[REDACTED]
Join via YouTube:
https://youtube.com/live/
AGENDA
6:30 Door opens, food and networking (we invite honor system contributions)
**7:00** SFBayACM upcoming events, introduce the speaker
7:15 speaker presentation starts
8:15 – 8:30 finish, depending on Q&A
Join SF Bay ACM Chapter for an insightful discussion on:
**Talk Description**:
Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) at Google is a job function, mindset, and set of engineering practices focused on ensuring the reliability, scalability, and efficiency of production systems. The term is created in the early 2000s.
This talk aims to reframe the conversation around technical debt. Rather than viewing it as a mere backlog of chores, I will present a methodical framework for identifying and prioritizing it as a strategic opportunity. Drawing from my experiences at various companies, including Google, I will share practical insights on how to transform tech debt from an impedance to a catalyst for organizational velocity. I will also discuss how to apply SRE principles to measure the reliability of infrastructure as we tackle technical debt and will be sharing a few anecdotes and practical methods to address this interesting problem with engineering and automation.
**Speaker Bio**:
Saurabh Phaltane is a Senior Site Reliability Engineer at Google, where he focuses on designing and optimizing web-scale infrastructures for resilience and high performance. With over a decade of experience in SRE and distributed systems, Saurabh specializes in building reliable systems through robust infrastructure automation, comprehensive observability, and scalable automation. Prior to his work at Google, Saurabh gained valuable experience as an SRE at Okta. He is also a thought leader in SRE and cloud technologies, a mentor for startup entrepreneurs through the Google for Startups program, and a frequent speaker on the topic of foundational thinking for scalable and reliable system infrastructure.
[https://www.linkedin.com/in/karanluniya](https://www.linkedin.com/in/karanluniya)
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Valley Research Park is a coworking research campus of 104,000 square feet hosting 60+ life science and technology companies. VRP has over 100 dry labs, wet labs, and high power labs sized from 125-15,000 square feet. VRP manages all of the traditional office elements: break rooms, conference rooms, outdoor dining spaces, and recreational spaces.
As a plug-and-play lab space, once companies have secured their next milestone and are ready to expand, VRP has 100+ labs ready to expand into.
https://www.valleyresearchpark.com/

IEEE/EPS Hybrid Bonding Symposium
2026-01-22 08:00 - 2026-01-23 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | SEMI World Headquarters, 673 South Milpitas Blvd, Milpitas, California, United States, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/495346
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Hybrid Bonding has emerged as the technology of choice in the semiconductor industry for ultra-fine-pitch interconnection. With significant benefits for interconnect density and device performance, it will become widely adopted for a broad range of high-performance semiconductor devices in the years to come. The success of Hybrid Bonding technology for high-volume manufacturing depends critically on the process technology as well as materials and equipment. Design, performance characterization, thermal management and reliability are also important considerations to enable applications in various areas.
Join us to learn about this expanding field, and discover how it will affect heterogeneous integration and system design.
SEMI World Headquarters, 673 South Milpitas Blvd, Milpitas, California, United States, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/495346

Battery Technologies & Advanced Characterization Methods
2026-01-22 11:30 - 13:15 (America/Los_Angeles) | Bldg: ==> Use corner entrance: Kifer Road / San Lucar Court ==> Do not enter at main entrance on Kifer Road, EAG Labs, 810 Kifer Road, Sunnyvale, California, California, United States, 95051
Battery Technologies & Advanced Characterization Methods
Abstract:
This event will showcase advancements in Battery Technologies & Advanced Characterization methods
Speaker:
Dr. Ahamed Irshad
Associate Scientist
SLAC-Stanford Battery Center
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
AGENDA:
Thursday January 22, 2026
11:30 AM: Networking, Pizza & Drinks
Noon — 1 pm: Seminar
Please register on Eventbrite before 9:30 AM on Thursday January 22, 2026
$4 IEEE members $6 non IEEE members
(discounts for unemployed and students )
See examplesAdd
Co-sponsored by: 636940-Santa Clara Valley Section Chapter,EMB18
Bldg: ==> Use corner entrance: Kifer Road / San Lucar Court ==> Do not enter at main entrance on Kifer Road, EAG Labs, 810 Kifer Road, Sunnyvale, California, California, United States, 95051

2026 VTS Tech Talk: Scalable Data Exchange Between Autonomous Vehicle Fleets and Cloud Infrastructure
2026-02-05 18:00 - 2026-02-06 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/522635
Autonomous vehicle fleets generate massive volumes of sensor and operational data that must be reliably transferred to cloud infrastructure to support development, validation, and production operations. Designing scalable data exchange mechanisms is challenging due to the large number of vehicles involved, changing network conditions, and different requirements on data volume, latency, and reliability.
This talk presents a system-level view of data exchange between autonomous vehicle fleets and cloud infrastructure. It explains how different data transfer approaches such as physical media, high-speed wired connections, and cellular networks are used together to support large-scale fleet operations. The talk also describes how data handling can be adapted per vehicle based on its role and operating mode, enabling large-volume data uploads, timely reporting of safety-critical events, and continuous fleet health monitoring within a unified system. Key challenges related to reliability, security, and scaling are discussed, along with practical lessons learned from operating real-world autonomous driving systems.
Speaker(s): Zhaohan
Agenda:
6:00-6:50pm Lecture
6:50-7:00pm Q&A
Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/522635

Developments in Magnetic Digital Storage and Memory
2026-02-10 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | 1120 Ringwood Ct., San Jose, California, United States, 95131, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/531748
Tom Coughlin, President, (http://www.tomcoughlin.com/) will talk about the history and developments of hard disk drives and magnetic tape with comments on competitive technologies and what we can expect in the future for these technologies. I will also talk about the growing use of non-volatile memories, particularly magnetic random access memory, MRAM, and how this technology could become a dominant memory technology for embedded and standalone applications, enabling lower power applications in many industries.
Speaker(s): , Tom
Agenda:
6:30 – 7:00 Socializing and Networking at Quadrant
6:55 Zoom session will be online with Waiting Room
7:00 – 7:45 Lecture begins, online and in person
7:45 – 8:00 Questions and Answers
1120 Ringwood Ct., San Jose, California, United States, 95131, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/531748

Designing an Artificial Heart: A Systems Approach to Building the Impossible
2026-02-10 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | 925 Thompson Place, Sunnyvale, California, United States, 94085, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/518440
This is a hybrid in-person and online event. Pre-registration is required for either.
What does it take to engineer a system that must run nonstop for years, without failure, inside the most hostile environment imaginable—the human body? In this talk, Ian Coll McEachern shares lessons from two decades designing Class III medical devices, surgical robotics, and most notably, contributing to the architecture and development of an artificial heart. Instead of focusing on any single invention, this talk reveals the methodology behind navigating extreme technical risk when dozens of tightly coupled subsystems must evolve simultaneously.
Ian will walk through a practical framework for managing complexity: identifying unknowns early, building parallel test beds, using simulation to reduce risk before fabrication, and validating assumptions through rapid physical prototyping. Attendees will see how constraints—size, power, fluids, mechanics, biocompatibility, and reliability—become a forcing function for innovation rather than a barrier, and how disciplined iteration beats brute force engineering every single time.
While rooted in life-critical medical devices, these principles apply far beyond healthcare. Whether designing robotics, storage hardware, automation systems, or high-reliability consumer products, this presentation will present a field-tested roadmap for tackling daunting engineering challenges, orchestrating cross-domain complexity, and building systems that must not fail.
Speaker(s): Ian Coll McEachern
925 Thompson Place, Sunnyvale, California, United States, 94085, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/518440
