Advancing Technology for Humanity

October 2011, Vol. 59, No. 10

Steve Jobs

Feb 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011

Tinkerer, inventor, entrepreneur and visionary

Raised the perception of engineering and design

to an unprecedented level

Steve Jobs delivering the commencement speech at Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, 2005

On jobs:

“You have got to find what you love, keep looking, don’t settle”

On life:

(paraphrasing Steward Brandt of Whole Earth Catalog):

”Stay hungry, stay foolish”

IEEE New York Monitor

October, 2011

Editor: Amitava Dutta-Roy, PhD, Life Fellow

CONTENTS

Cover page: Steve Jobs: in memoriam

Calendar of technical events in and around the NY Section (posted separately, please see the

anchor page)

A few words from the Editor

Section activities

Message from the Chair, NY Section

Nomination slate for the annual general election of the Section officers. The election will be held on November Read more

PES/IAS Joint Chapter Award Dinner was held on Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at Pete’s Tavern . . . Read more

PES/IAS/LMAG presentation, September 27, 2011: Con Edison’s 345 kV Feeder M29 Project Tunnel Design and Fit-Out . . . Read more

A new chapter formed at the New York Section: Computer Intelligence Read more

Senior members The Monitor congratulates two Senior Members of the New York Section . . . . Read more

News from the Metropolitan Engineering Societies Council (MESC), New York . . . E-week (2012) . . . Read more

News from the IEEE-USA (1) you could have missed . . . Education in Science and Technology . . . im-migration policies . . . visas . . . Read more

News from the IEEE-USA (2) you could have missed . . . Global reach of science and technology . . .UNESCO Read more

Feature articles

Simulation of three-phase distribution networks in the time-domain by Reynaldo Salcedo (Student paper). . . presented at 2011 PES/IAS Award Din-ner . . . Read more

New superconductors: proposed applications . . . keynote speech at PES/IAS Awards Dinner . . . by Dr. Swarn Kalsi . . .

Read more

A novel noninvasive optical imaging for biomedi-cine (with ultrasound and laser technologies) by Dr. Sankar Sengupta Read more

Growing with the information age (Part IV) . . . John LeGates (Harvard University) Read more

Nostalgia

Who does not remember the legendary dog listening to His Master’s Voice? Read more

A few words from the editor

The autumn is upon us once again reminding that the summer frolics are all over and it is time that we

start preparing for the cold weather. But I like the winter. Like most of the inhabitants of this city I suffer

but I don’t have the temptation to go out all that much. It means that I have more time for my work!!!

This month we lost a great tinkerer, inventor, entrepreneur and visionary, Steve Jobs. You must have

read the tributes that came out in almost every publication, big and small, erudite and tabloid, and in

many languages and all over the world. What should impress the electrical engineers is the genius of

Jobs that he applied to make personal computing really personal. He showed how good design can

blend with good engineering. Though Jobs did not have any formal training in engineering he perceived

the need for good engineers in this world of ours. He raised the perception of engineering and design to

an unprecedented level. We, the electrical and electronics engineers should be ever grateful to him.

As in the editions past the reports on the affairs of the IEEE New York Section during September and Oc-

tober follow next. You will notice that we have changed the format of the contents. We thought that the

new format is more attractive and easier to read. However, we are very much open to your criticisms,

good or bad. Through the new format the reader can skip the parts he or she may not be interested and

go the sections of personal interest.

We have also listed the feature articles in a likewise matrix format. Please let us know if it works better

for you. We, at the Monitor, will make every effort to make the publication easily downloadable and

readable. Help us with your opinions.

CONTRIBUTORS

The Monitor thanks all who have contributed to this edition namely, Reynaldo Salcedo, Swarn Kalsi,

Sankar Sengupta and John Legates. We hope that many others will follow their examples and make our

publication worthy of its name and the tradition it carries.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The photograph of Steve Jobs on the cover page was taken during a CNN broadcast. The second picture

of jobs appeared on the YouTube under “2005 commencement program at Stanford University.” The

URL of this YouTube archive is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc. The permission to

publish the scanned images of the trade mark for gramophones obtained by Emile Berliner were given

by Louis Manno, director, Audio History Library, New York whom the editor met at the recent Audio En-

gineering Society’s conference in this great city. Thank you all.

News from the New York Section, recent activities and news from the IEEE

Message from Darlene Rivera, Chair, NY Section

Since my last Chair’s message, we have added several new officers to the Executive Committee. I would

like to take the liberty to introduce some of these new volunteers. You will be getting to know them

more during the coming months (and years). Please welcome these new volunteers:

Dr. Ravishankar Rao, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center Computational Intelligence Society Chair

Matthew R. Irwin, theVisualMD.com

Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Chair

Steven Giavasis Instrumentation & Measurements Society Chair

Jean M. Redmond, Johnston Controls Inc.

Women in Engineering Affinity Group Chair

Contact information for the entire Executive Committee can be found online on the New York Section website at http://ewh.ieee.org/r1/new_york/. During the last few months many awards and honors have been bestowed to the New York Section, its members and supporting companies. In May 2011 the New York Section awarded a Milestone to Con Edison for two notable accomplishments: the establishment of Thomas Edison’s Pearl Street Station in Lower Manhattan in 1882, and the refurbishment of the original Edison Dynamo # 16 which for many years had operated at another Pearl Street Station at the junction of Pearl and Adams Streets, Brooklyn. Also, the following six New York Section members have received Region 1 awards and we congratulate them and thank them for their contributions:

Support for the Mission Of IEEE William Montgomery

For leadership and promotion of Section and Chapter activities in the New York Section

Sukumar Alampur For leadership and program development for the New York Section

Arnold Wong For leadership and program development for the New York Section

Thomas Li

For leadership and development of educational programming for the New York Section

Technical Innovation Alexandre Eichenberger

For contributions to compiler exploitation of fine-grain parallelism in microprocessors

Vijayalakshmi Srinivasan For contributions to memory hierarchy power and performance optimization

The NY Section has recently formed a pre-university committee to encourage high school-age students to pursue their interests in engineering. At the same time our efforts in this endeavor will also promote the goals of the IEEE. This NY Section committee will work with one high school in each of the five bo-roughs of the New York City welcoming and assisting students to submit essays that will compete for the High School Potential Award. The winner of the competition will be invited to attend the New York Sec-tion Annual Awards Dinner Dance in February 2012 and will receive a cash award. The New York Section continues to look into the possibility of starting an Employment Network through our PACE (Professional Activities) group in an effort to assist unemployed members with their job search. As we get closer to the end of the year our plans for this will be announced. I would also like to highlight two events that will certainly be worth attending during the next two

months. The first of them will be the Humanitarian Workshop at Con Edison on November 22nd. This

event is the first of its kind to be held in the New York Section and will primarily focus on engineering

opportunities available to NY professionals by engaging in community-driven programs through the de-

sign and implementation of sustainable engineering projects. Iana Aranda president, NYC Chapter of

Engineers without Borders will give a presentation on this interesting topic.

The second event is the Region1/NYU-POLY and CCNY Joint Conference on Signal Processing in Medi-

cine and Biology to be held at NYU-POLY on December 10th. This one-day symposium will provide a fo-

rum for a discussion of ongoing research in the development and application of signal processing me-

thods in medicine and biology.

Finally, I would like to request you to cast your vote at the annual general election of the officers of the

IEEE New York Section the details of which are given below.

The annual election of the Section officers

In accordance with its By-Laws, the IEEE New York (NY) Section is advising all IEEE NY Section members that an election for officers and certain working activity committee chair positions for calendar year 2012 is scheduled to be held on November 15, 2011 beginning at 5:30 pm in the Edison Room of the Con Edison Co. of New York, 4 Irving Place, New York, NY 10003. The Executive Committee (EXECOM) of the IEEE NY Section is pleased to announce its slate of candi-dates for the elected positions to the NY Section’s EXECOM for calendar year 2012. The list of candi-dates for the various positions (see below) was approved by the EXECOM on September 13, 2011, and, since there were no valid petitions submitted by October 8, 2011, for any of the positions, the list of candidates is the same as that approved on September 13, 2011, by the EXECOM.

Slate of Candidates as Approved by the NY Section EXECOM Section Chair: Balvinder Blah Section Vice Chair – Chapter Operations: Shu-Ping Chang Section Vice Chair – Section Activities: Kai Chen Section Treasurer: Michael Haroutunian Section Secretary (Select only one): Wilson Milian Konal Kumar Chapter Organization Committee Chair (Select only one): Darlene Rivera Jean Redmond Historian Committee Chair: Melvin Olken

Long Range Planning Committee Chair: William Perlman Special Events Committee Chair: Ralph Tapino By-Laws Committee Chair: William Coyne Publications Committee Chair (Select only one): Kai Chen Darlene Rivera Webmaster Committee Chair: Harold Ruchelman

All members in “good standing” (good standing refers to active members who have paid their IEEE dues for calendar year 2011) who are Graduate Student member grade or higher are eligible to cast a vote for the candidates for office. Student members of the NY Section are not eligible to cast a vote for the can-didates for office. In addition, IEEE Society Affiliates are not IEEE members and therefore not eligible to vote.

For security reasons, IEEE New York Section members who want to cast a vote at the election meeting must register to vote no later than Friday, November 11, 2011. To register to vote please send your full name and IEEE # to Mr. David Horn, Chair – NY Section Nominating Committee, via e-mail (pastieeechairny@gmail.com) or by telephone (212.878.4781).

IEEE Life Members Affinity Group (LMAG)

Annual election of the office bearers for 2012

Immediately following the annual general election of the 2012 officers the New YORK Section the LMAG

will hold its annual election of the 2012 office bearers. The following candidates have been nominated

by the LMAG executive committee for this election.

Ralph Mazzatto - Chair Amitava Dutta-Roy – Vice-Chair Roland Plottel – Member at Large Ralph Tapino, PE - Treasurer Michael A. Miller - Secretary Lewis Terman - Program Chair

The IEEE is yours

It is important to let your voice be heard

Come and vote in the elections

Make the IEEE yours

by voting in the elections

Upgrade of membership

The Monitor congratulates Eren Kursun and Xuan Liu of our Section for being upgraded

to Senior Members.

Power Engineering Society and Industrial Applications Society (PES/IAS)

Joint Chapter Annual Awards

The 39th awards ceremony of the PES/IAS Chapters (founded in 1929) was held at the ceremony’s tradi-

tional venue, Pete’s Tavern, “The oldest surviving bar in New York” on October 5, 2011. The victuals

helped to make the ambiance relaxing and congenial. The veterans of the IEEE exchanged personal and

professional news and views, and chatted with the younger set. The award committee’s Chair Ajoy Das

welcomed everybody and later gave a short talk on the tradition of the award ceremony. Then he an-

nounced each award, why it was given and its recipient for 2011.

The following traditional awards were given and the awardees congratulated:

PES Outstanding Engineer: Amitava Dutta-Roy, PhD

PES Outstanding Chapter Engineer: Ralph Mazzatto, PE

Forty years of volunteer service to the IEEE (publicity): William Montgomery

Forty years of volunteer service to the IEEE (membership development): Robert Pellegrino, PE

Twenty years of volunteer service to the IEEE (IAS): Hazem Huss, PE

Ten years of volunteer service to the IEEE (program): Aditi Sardar, PE

The NYPES/IAS Joint Chapter Student Scholarship ($1,000) was awarded to Reynaldo Salcedo, a student

member of the IEEE who is pursuing his PhD degree at NYU Poly. Salcedo’s research adviser Prof. Fran-

cisco de León was also invited to the awards ceremony.

On behalf of all recipients of the awards the Monitor thanks the PES/IAS awards committee for organiz-

ing such a memorable event.

The tradition is that the PES/IAS Joint Chapter invites a well-known specialist in power engineering to

give a keynote speech. This year the Joint Chapter invited Dr. Swarn Kalsi, who is also a member of the

IEEE and the NY Section, to give the keynote presentation. Dr. Kalsi is a specialist in superconductors.

Wiley/IEEE have published his book, Applications of High Temperature Superconductors to Electric Power

Equipment (ISBN 978-0-470-16768-7). Ajoy Das called upon Dr.Kalsi to give his speech on superconduc-

tors. Dr. Kalsi has agreed to share his slide presentation with our readers. Please find the slide presenta-

tion by clicking on the appropriate link on the anchor page.

The other speaker at the dinner was Reynaldo Salcedo, the recipient of the annual scholarship. The

Monitor requested Salcedo if he could put the contents of his speech in a succinct manner in the form of

paper. We are happy to comment that this is the first time during this year that we have received such a

complete paper from a student member. Salcedo’s paper can be found under the section for articles.

An album of the photographs taken at the PES/IAS Joint Chapter Annual Dinner can be seen on the anc-

hor page of this issue of the Monitor.

PES/IAS/LMAG

The PES/IAS/LMAG on September 27, 2011 sponsored the month’s presentation. James P. Mooney, Jr.

and Gregory F. Forsyth talked about their experience with Con Edison’s recent

345kV Feeder M29 project that involved the construction of a tunnel beneath the

Harlem River. The speakers elaborated on the many geological and manmade

obstacles the project faced and how they managed to overcome them. What

made this project unique is the design challenges associated with constructing a

drill and blast tunnel in Manhattan and the requirements for fitting-out a utility tunnel. A vigorous Q&A

followed the presentation. Eighty people attended the presentation and 44 of them were members of

the IEEE.

A new IEEE Chapter at the New York Section of the IEEE:

Computational Intelligence

Ravishankar Rao*

The New York Chapter of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society was formed

in 2011. Broadly, the goal of our chapter is to explore the creation of intelligent

computer systems, and also understand the very basis of intelligence including

how it arises in biological systems. We held two exciting meetings during the

year, both at Fordham University, Lincoln Center Campus. Due to this convenient

location, we are able to attract an audience of professionals and students from a

diverse array of backgrounds. Indeed, the mandate of our chapter requires a

healthy interaction amongst multiple disciplines such as computer science, elec-

trical engineering, biology and neuroscience.

In September we hosted Prof. James Glazier, from the Biocomplexity Institute at the University of Indi-

ana. An interesting development in recent years is the application of computer-based modeling and si-

mulation to understand complex biological systems, ranging from cellular level interactions to multi-cell,

tissue-level and even whole organs.

Specifying the architecture of such a simulation engine is a challenging task, and once it is done, the

hope is that it can be reused by other researchers for multiple problem domains. Prof. Glazier in his talk

gave an overview of a simulation engine that he has developed over several years, called CompuCell.

This is an open-source environment, and the Biocomplexity Institute provides support and training for

current and prospective modelers. The New York Chapter members were introduced to applications of

this simulation environment to models of tumor growth, which have significant implications for the

treatment of cancer.

The newly formed chapter is served by Prof. Frank Hsu, SM (Chapter vice chair) and Prof. Christina

Schweikert, M (Chapter secretary), both from Fordham Univeristy and Dr. Marisa Evelyn, M (Chapter

treasurer) from Rockefeller University.

Check out our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=141095872654179

We invite you to contact us at ieeecisny@gmail.com, come to our next meeting, and join our chapter!

_____________________________________________

*Ravishankar Rao, Ph.D., IEEE Fellow is an IBM Fellow and a member of research staff at IBM Watson

Research Lab in Yorktown Heights, NY. Dr. Rao is the 2011 Chair of the Computer Intelligence Society, NY

Chapter.

Metropolitan Engineering Societies Council (MESC), New York Chapter

E-Week Celebration, Sunday, February 19 through Saturday, 25, 2012

Information provided by Michael Miller (New York Section’s representative at MESC)

Did you know that America’s engineers contribute more than one million hours annually to public ser-

vice? National Engineers Week Foundation coalition members, with the support of many engineering

firms and agencies, represent a significant segment of this volunteer force for the public good. In 1911

the Foundation celebrated the 60th anniversary of Engineers Week to honor the engineer volunteers!

The IEEE’s motto “advancing technology for humanity” seamlessly blends with the objectives of the Na-

tional Engineers Week Foundation.

The tentative plans for Engineers Week in 2012 are as elaborated below. Naturally, we would like to get

as many individuals, organizations and firms as possible in New York tri-state area to participate and

show solidarity with engineer volunteers. Let us show that NY engineers not only have brains they have

souls as well. Please contact Michael Miller for details. Thank you.

We want to plan a commemoration for George Golovchenko in our E-Week program in 2012.

We will invite members of George’s family and present them with an appropriate gift honoring

his contribution to the MESC. Your suggestions for this event are most welcome.

It has been proposed that we invite Brigadier General Peter A. (Duke) DeLuka, U.S. Army Corp of

Engineers North Atlantic Division Commander and Division Engineer to offer us a 45-minute

presentation on February 16, 2012. The presentation should be of a technical and educational

nature and be based on one project interesting to the public in order to qualify for the PDH.

The Future City Competition Day will be held this year at NYU Poly. We are in the process of fi-

nalizing the list of Special Award Judges. Special Awards are evaluated by judges representing

the sponsoring companies. Please send email to back to Kim Tran k.kimtran@gmail.com

with the name(s) of the persons(s)at your firm (name and email) that will represent your

firm to judge the special category.

For more details of all interesting activities during the E-week please visit:

http://www.eweek.org/Home.aspx

News from IEEE-USA

NEWS from IEEE-USA

2001 L Street, N.W., Suite 700

Washington, DC 20036-4928

IEEE-USA Commends Introduction of High-Skill Immigration Reform Legislation

WASHINGTON (14 October 2011) -- IEEE-USA endorses the "American Innovation and Education Act"

introduced by Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), legislation that would make it easier for foreign-born stu-

dents with advanced STEM degrees from U.S. institutions to fully participate in our nation's economy.

Labrador's bill, H.R. 3146, would make such students immediately eligible for a green card after earning

their degrees if they have a job offer from a U.S. employer in their chosen field. Fees from these visas

would fund improvements in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education and

training for Americans.

"By giving foreign STEM graduates certainty in their pursuit of legal permanent residency, this bill will

encourage the creation of new technology companies, create jobs and contribute to our country's long-

term competitiveness," IEEE-USA President Ron Jensen said.

The legislation would also eliminate employment-based per-country limits for EB-2 visas (advance de-

gree and professionals).

Research by AAES found that 55.3 percent of master's and 63.3 percent of Ph.D. graduates from U.S.

universities in electrical and electronics engineering are foreign nationals. Because of difficulties and

long waits for permanent residency, many are returning to their home countries and establishing job-

creating companies there rather than in the United States. This bill sends a clear signal to international

students earning advanced degrees from American universities that America welcomes them.

"Unable to navigate the immigration process in a timely fashion, many of these graduates return to their

countries of birth, where their talents and the knowledge and skills acquired in the U.S. are put to work

for our foreign competitors," Labrador said in a news release. "Our American universities are training

the next generation of innovators and creators -- and it is up to us to decide where they will create

jobs."

The Labrador bill contains provisions similar to those in the IDEA Act (Immigration Driving Entrepreneur-

ship in America) introduced by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) in June. IEEE-USA has long supported her ef-

forts to advance high-skill visa reform.

More . . .

Engineering Can Help Developing Nations Solve Critical Problems, IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology

Conference Keynote Speaker Says

WASHINGTON (21 October 2011) -- Engineering can help developing nations solve critical problems, but

a worldwide shortage of engineers is hampering the effort, according to former UNESCO official Dr. Tony

Marjoram.

To that end, he said, engineering education must become more exciting and better convey the key role

engineers can play in improving people's lives. Marjoram will address these issues during the inaugural

IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, 30 October -- 1 November 2011, in Seattle.

Marjoram, former head of engineering, Division of Basic and Engineering Sciences, United Nations Edu-

cational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, will deliver the opening keynote address on Monday morn-

ing 31 October. He gave a preview of his talk on "The Promise of Tomorrow" radio show with Colonel

Mason earlier this month.

"Engineering is extremely important in promoting humanitarian development," Marjoram said. "When

young people can see that engineering is vitally important in this area ... [they] are more attracted to-

wards a career in engineering."

You can listen to the interview at http://www.promiseoftomorrow.biz/bizradio/100311/100311.htm.

(Go to the second half hour.)

The IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference will showcase the role technology can play in im-

proving lives and creating business opportunities for people in emerging nations. See

http://www.ieeeghtc.org/ to register. The program is available at

http://www.ieeeghtc.org/pdf/GHTC%20Program%20100711.

Marjoram said more engineers are needed to help solve problems plaguing people the world over. For

example, he said 2.6 billion people don't have access to safe drinking water.

"Engineering is vital in terms of human, economic and social development," he said. "... Engineering is

sort of the basic driver of development in providing services, infrastructure and facilities, and needs to

be more effectively applied."

The global competition for engineers doesn't help developing countries.

"They also face the problems of brain drain and migration of their engineers to the richer countries,"

Marjoram said. "So, [developed] countries can tackle the challenges of having not enough engineers by

allowing migration, but in reality this is not really a proper engineering solution because it just causes

problems in other countries, particularly in poorer countries that are already short of engineers."

IEEE-USA advances the public good and promotes the careers and public policy interests of 210,000 en-

gineering, computing and technology professionals who are U.S. members of IEEE.

http://www.ieeeusa.org

Simulation of three-phase time-domain distribution networks

(Presented at the PES/IAS Annual Awards Dinner, October 5, 2011

Reynaldo Salcedo*

It has been known for long to the power engineering community that urban distribution networks can

be extremely large and complex systems. Such networks may contain thousands of nodes and branches

on both primary feeders and in the highly-meshed secondary grid. Such complexity poses a difficult

modeling challenge. The basic arrangement of the network under study is presented in Fig. 1. The flow

of power starts from an area substation, which includes several parallel connected transformers to step-

down the voltage from transmission to distribution level. Then, primary feeders bring the medium vol-

tage to hundreds of network transformers. Those transformers further reduce the voltage to delivery

level feeding power to the secondary network and subsequently to the loads. The medium voltage net-

work is protected from faults by feeder breakers equipped with over-current relays and from back-feed

by network protectors installed at the low-voltage side of the network transformers. Based on this ar-

rangement, some utilities attempt to offer the highest possible reliability and continuity of service.

PARTICIPATE IN THE IEEE MEETINGS MINGLE WITH YOUR COLLEAGUES

LEARN AND SHARE YOUR IDEAS WITH OTHER ENGINEERS FOR A BETTER WORLD

Fig. 1 Schematic of a low-voltage secondary network having loads and network transformers interconnected through a highly-meshed low-voltage network

The simulation project aims to present a detailed three-phase analysis of very large real-life distribution

networks using the Electro-Magnetic Transient Program (EMTP) and at the same time emphasizes the

theoretical and practical importance of time domain analysis on electric power systems. Fig. 2 provides a

chart of the necessary data flow to achieve network modeling for time-domain simulations. All main

network elements including relay protection devices are accurately modeled considering the corres-

ponding control sequences. Model validation is achieved with steady-state and transient simulations.

Time domain results are compared with field-validated load-flow simulations for several loading condi-

tions including first and second contingencies. Simulations of fault conditions are also compared against

known results at different locations around the network. Fig. 3 presents a summary of results for these

validations, where the maximum relative difference in voltage profile is found to be much less than 1

percent compared to database values. Moreover, time domain simulations of recorded transient events

show very good agreement as presented in Fig. 4. The network model can be used for assessment of

symmetrical as well as non-symmetrical faults, studies of different switching scenarios, penetration of

distributed generation and smart grid technologies.

Fig. 2 Data flow for network modeling

Fig. 3 Currents on primary and secondary sections for model validation during steady state

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011121314151617181920

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011121314151617181920

0

10

20

30

40

50

Absolute difference, [A]

Comparison of the secondary currents

Relative difference, [%]

Perc

en

tag

e o

f th

e s

eco

nd

ary

secti

on

s, [%

]

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

0.10.2

0.30.4

0.50.6

0.70.8

0.91

1.21.3

1.41.5

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Absolute difference, [A]

Comparison of the primary currents

Relative difference, [%]

Perc

en

tag

e o

f th

e p

rim

ary

secti

on

s, [%

]

Fig. 4 Reconstruction of on-site recorded transient events

Studies performed on the presented developments include simulation and analysis of over-voltages and

feeder voltage profiles during symmetrical and non-symmetrical short circuits. Figs. 5 and 6 show cur-

rent and voltage waveforms resulting from the simulation of a single line to ground fault at the high vol-

tage side of a network transformer. The figures also show the occurrence of transient conditions such as

over-voltages, breaker operation due to fault current, feeder disconnections, and the logical operation

of protection devices. In this case, the asymmetrical first peak exceeds the instantaneous over-current

settings of the feeder breaker causing it to trip at approximately 5-cycles. The voltage waveform of Fig. 6

clearly shows the behavior of the transient voltage during pre-fault, fault, and post-fault periods. For

evaluation and analysis of the feeder voltage profile, measurements are performed prior to the breaker

operation considering every node from the fault location to the head of the feeder in order to produce

trends of voltage performance. This facilitates the investigation of over-voltages induced in the un-

faulted phases due to the occurrence of unbalanced short-circuits. Some cases present voltage reduc-

tion of 0.5 per unit at the head of the feeder and over-voltages of approximately 1.70 per unit at the

fault location.

0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2-2

-1.5

-1

-0.5

0

0.5

1

1.5

2x 10

4

Time[sec]

Vo

ltag

e [V

]

SLG Fault at TM3445 -- Voltage Phase B

PQViewer

EMTP-RVBreaker 20M01:SW12 tripsFault at 34.5ms

Fig. 5 Fault current for single line to ground fault on the transformer high voltage side

Fig. 6 Fault location over-voltages due to single line to ground fault

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9

-1

-0.5

0

0.5

1

x 104 Current at fault point -- 20M02V8758

Time[sec]

Cu

rre

nt [A

]

Ia

Ib

Ic

Feeder breakertrips at 159.2 ms

Pre-fault current of 10.63 A rms

Fault Current = 9.91 kA

9.91 kA > 9.6 kA (Inst. Over-Current)

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9

-2.5

-2

-1.5

-1

-0.5

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

x 104

Voltage at fault point -- 20M02V8758

Time[sec]

Vo

lta

ge

[V

]

Va

Vb

Vc

Fault appliedat 52.9 ms

Feeder breaker trips at 159.2 ms Ratio: 1.70.

1.73 p.u

All NP of faultedfeeder operated

Furthermore, the study has included a comprehensive analysis of possible impacts on voltage profile

due to the penetration of distributed generation (DG) in low-voltage secondary distribution networks.

Also, it allowed drawing conclusions on the maximum permissible percentage penetration before ser-

vice degradation starts to occur. The DGs for the investigation are allocated in a probabilistic fashion to

account for uncertainties of future installations. The results show that depending on location, type, and

size of the installed DGs, very small or very large amounts of DG may cause under- or over-voltage prob-

lems.

_________________________________________

*Reynaldo Salcedo, a student member of the IEEE received his B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from NYU Polytechnic Institute, Brooklyn, NY in 2010. Currently, he is pursuing the MSc and PhD.degrees in electrical engineering at the same institution under the guidance of Prof. Francisco De Leon. His cur-rent research area is power system modeling and analysis. Salcedo won the 2011 NY PES/IAS Joint Chap-ter Student Scholarship (its monetary value is $1,000). The Monitor congratulates him for the award and the lucidity of his writing, and encourages other young members to write on their own projects. We will publish all well written articles. Start to practice writing from now!

New superconductors – proposed applications

(Keynote address at PES/IAS Award Dinner, Wednesday, October 5, 2011)

Swarn Kalsi

Dr. Sawrn Kalsi’s presentation of slides with accompanying notes may be viewed by clicking on the ap-

propriate link provided on the anchor page.

A novel noninvasive optical imaging for biomedicine

Application of ultrasound and laser beams

Sankar Sengupta*

Abstract

Optical imaging technology makes use of the vibrations that ultrasonic waves induce in any material

placed in the focal region of the waves. If the material happens to be a biological specimen and a laser

beam is then made to pass through the sample that beam is amplitude-modulated by the ultrasound

impinging on the sample. The physical and optical properties of the target material determine the extent

of the modulation. The degree of the modulation of the laser beam is detectable by demodulating the

optical signals and converting them to electrical signals, and then observing the latter on an oscillos-

cope. The oscilloscope traces reveals the amplitude of the modulation and consequently the information

on the state of the sample under scrutiny. The measured amplitudes may also be mapped in two dimen-

sions as the sample is moved stepwise in horizontal and vertical directions (for scanning the entire sam-

ple). From these mappings it is possible to detect any abnormality inside samples, and also to differen-

tiate between hard and soft tissues within them. It is expected that further R&D will lead not only to

better resolution of images but also to advanced automation of the system so that it will be possible to

detect small variations in the composition of the sample tissues. The optical imaging technology thus

promises to be a useful tool in early detection cancerous and precancerous cells in human body at a very

little cost and this can be a boon in the not-so-rich communities. A simple experimental investigation on

optical imaging in an academic environment was carried out at the prestigious Riverdale Country School,

Bronx, NY. A number of senior students took part in the project under the guidance of this author. The

purchase of research equipment and availability of the laboratory space were funded by Mr. and Mrs.

Jerome K. Falk who regularly contribute to research in science and technology at the school. The objec-

tive of the project was to demonstrate the technical feasibility of optical imaging. Since the entire

project was realized in a school, it also showed that with proper guidance the future generation can be

encouraged to study science and work for the betterment of our society.

Introduction

For many years several non-invasive imaging techniques have extensively been used as medical diagnos-

tic tools to complement traditional x-ray photography and ultrasonography. The members of this family

of advanced imaging tools are x-ray tomography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emis-

sion tomography (PET). The first, X-ray tomography or computer axial tomography scan, popularly

known as CAT-Scan, has the disadvantage that repeated application of x-rays could be harmful to human

bodies. The second, the MRI tool cannot be used in patients who have any metal part (e.g., a stent, a

pacemaker or an artificial hip) embedded inside their bodies. The third tool, the PET requires the super-

vision of a radiologist (rather than a technician) rendering it expensive. The PET may not also be suitable

for many patients because of the problems associated with ionization from radio isotopes used in the

procedures. The scientists have been searching for an imaging technique in this genre that would be

non-invasive, inexpensive and, at the same time, devoid of the disadvantages we have just mentioned.

Recently, a new technology known as optical imagine or optical tomography has emerged as a fit mem-

ber of the diagnostic family that would meet most the criteria the scientists have been looking for. Be-

cause of its safe and inexpensive building blocks, the optical imaging technique is considered suitable for

applications in biomedicine. Furthermore, optical imaging is not only non-invasive and non-magnetic but

is also non-ionizing. Since there is no contact between the ultrasonic transducer and the sample, the

technique is also safe from the point of view of contamination. In recent years, several studies have

been undertaken for exploring the capabilities of optical tomography. Below we describe in plain lan-

guage the fundamental principles of optical imaging. (Readers interested in more in-depth scientific dis-

cussions may look up the references given at the bottom of this paper.)

Principles of optical imaging

Optical imaging with pulsed-ultrasonic technology begins with pelting the target say a human body part

with short bursts of ultrasonic energy. After each burst the electronics looks for a return signal within a

small window of time corresponding to twice the time taken by the packet of energy to reach the target.

Only signals received during this window qualifies for additional signal processing. Any spurious signal

received outside this window is ignored.

Two different technologies — those of ultrasound and laser— interact to make optical imagine possible.

A property of laser beams is that they can be modulated by ultrasonic waves. For the purposes of imag-

ing short bursts of ultrasound, rather than continuous waves, are used. Pulsers to generate such short

bursts of ultrasound are already commercially available. Consider a situation in which a laser beam is

made pass through an experimental sample as shown in Fig. 1. If bursts of ultrasound waves are now

focused on the sample they will modulate the laser beam. It is found that the thus modulated optical

signal exiting from the sample happens to be a function of not only of its density but also of its other

characteristic properties that cause scattering, diffraction, refraction and absorption of laser rays. Any

deviation from the characteristic properties of laser beams helps in the detection of any abnormality

that may be present in the sample, or in comparing and differentiating between the properties of differ-

ent samples.

Experimental set-up

The experimental arrangement is shown in Fig. 1. A electrical function generator triggers an ultrasonic

pulser-receiver. The latter is set in the transmission mode so that it sends 1MHz 20v (peak-to-peak)

waves to drive an ultrasonic transducer. The driving electrical signal is monitored on an oscilloscope (1).

A Helium-Neon (He-Ne) laser beam having a wavelength of 632.8 nm, is sent through the target sample

suspended in a 10 percent buffer solution contained in a 9.5 x 9.5 x11.5 test vessel. The target rests at

the focal point of the ultrasound waves about 3 to 5 cm below the bottom of the ultrasound transducer.

A piece of foam at the bottom of the vessel containing the sample prevents the ultrasound waves from

reflecting off. The reason for using the buffer solution is that it helps to provide a good “contact” be-

tween the ultrasound waves and the sample. (Use of a liquid buffer solution is naturally not practicable

in scanning human body parts. Fortunately, a commercially available gel can also provide good contacts

required for work with ultrasound waves for optical imaging. Anybody who has gone through sonogram

diagnosis should be familiar with this gel.) In most experimental cases, the sample is suspended from

the top of the holding vessel by a U-shaped copper wire. The lower end of the ultrasonic transducer is

kept at 0.20 cm below the surface of the buffer solution so that the sample is free to vibrate.

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Fig. 1: Schematic diagram of the experimental arrangement

The optical signal is passed through a filter and made incident on a photo multiplier tube (PMT) that

converts optical signals into electrical signal. The purpose of inserting the filter in the path of the laser

beam is to reduce the intensity of the beam. Measurements of intensities are more discernible when

they are low. The PMT is powered by a supply that is set to output 12v dc. The electrical signals from

the PMT are sent to a preamplifier that separates the ac signals from the accompanying the dc compo-

nent of the signal. The preamplifier amplifies the signals that are read by a second oscilloscope (2) that

averages the signals over 256 sweeps and displays the averaged traces.

To create a two-dimensional image, this process repeated several times after shifting the test tank is in

discrete steps of 0.5mm along the x-axis. At the end of the travel along the x-axis the tank is moved back

to the initial position and then moved up along a z-axis also in steps of 0.5mm. Thus, the sample is

scanned so that the intersection of the x- and z-axes is always at the focal point of the ultrasonic waves.

It is found that the signal exiting the sample is strong if it is away from this focal point and its intensity

falls as the sample approaches that point.

The readings of the intensity of signals are plotted using Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to produce a two-

dimensional surface graph. We can also use Excel color features to show signal intensity in different col-

ors. The color mappings thus created helps the investigator to study the strength of the optical signals

from various parts of the sample that eventually reveal its characteristics.

Several samples that can simulate the human body have been investigated all using this simple set-up.

The image in Fig. 2 shows the image of a freely suspended sample of a chicken breast with an implanted

piece of chicken liver intentionally hidden within it. The goal is to locate the implanted organ which has

different physical and optical properties than those surrounding it. The maroon colored section

represents the implanted liver. The chicken liver is a softer organ compared to the breast tissue and the

light absorption coefficient of the liver is significantly higher. As ultrasound waves hit the sample the

laser beam going through it is modulated. The light colored strip is caused by fat as a background behind

the breast tissue. Our data show that an organ with different characteristics can be detected as 30 per-

cent difference in contrast with resolution of 0.2mm.

Fig. 2 Scan of chicken breast with an implanted organ within it

Figure 3 (below) is a scan of a freely suspended chicken wing. The goal here is to obtain images from

scanning a specific area of the wing and differentiate between bone, the muscle and also the layer of

the tissue that divides the bone and the muscle. In the scanned image the darker color correspond to

the least light emanating from the sample in the y-direction. In other words, the image reveals a bird’s

eye view of the interior of the sample. The bone is approximately 4mm wide in an 11mm thick chicken

wing. The darker shades of green represent the muscle around the bone whereas the lightest shade of

green represent the outline of the bone. The shades of green represent effective (RMS) voltage values of

-600mV to -500mV. The shades of blue correspond to the voltage values of -700mV to -600mV. It is thus

possible to see layers of tissue distinguishing bone from muscle. The tissues are either a tendon or a

connective tissue known as fascia. In this case the discernible resolution is 0.2mm. The bone and the

membrane within the sample can be differentiated by the observable variation of 20 percent in the con-

trast of their images.

Fig. 3 Scan of a chicken wing containing bone and muscle

Our results have confirmed that ultrasound modulation is an efficient way to image an object as well as

to determine the characteristics of a particular tissue based on its mechanical and optical properties.

From our study it is evident that the system can differentiate between adipose and normal tissues.

We plan to continue improving the system by adding a lock-in amplifier that increases the ability to

detect signals even in an electrically noise-prone environment. Furthermore, for the purpose of auto-

mating the scanning process a computer will control two linear actuators (Edmund Industrial Optics) so

that a sample can be moved through a tiny distance of 1micron. Also, instead of feeding the signal from

the preamplifier directly to the oscilloscope a lock-in amplifier will be inserted between the two. The

final and most important component of the completely automating a system would be to program a

computer to create an image with the data obtained from the scanning. Automating the system will in-

crease the resolution and precision of the image with an appreciable reduction of the time required to

perform a scan. In real-life cases, a combined system of laser beam generator, ultrasound pulser and the

signal detector will be rotated around a body as the body is translated along its length to get a complete

three-dimensional image. This report suggests that with the advancement of electronics for rapid data

collection and enhancement of signal to noise ratio optical imaging may prove to be a valuable tool for

identifying and detecting abnormal tissues and to image cancerous cells.

For further reading:

[1] S. K. GAYEN and R. R. ALFANO, "Emerging Optical Biomedical Imaging Techniques," Optics & Photon-

ics News 7(3), 16- (1996)

*2+ Jun Li and Lihong V. Wang, “Methods for parallel-detection-based ultrasound modulated optical to-

mography,” Appl. Optics 41, 10, pp. 2079 – 2084 (2002).

*3+ A Lev, Z. Kolter and B.G. Sfez, “Ultrasound tagged light imaging in turbid media in a reflective geome-

try,” Optical Letters, 25, pp. 378 – 380 (2000).

__________________________________

*Sankar Sengupta earned his M.Sc. in Radio Physics and Electronics and his PhD from the Saha Institute

of Nuclear Physics, both at the University of Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta). In 1974 he joined the

University of Geneva as a researcher-in-charge and was associated with CERN (the European Center for

Nuclear Research) where he worked with nuclear magnetic resonance and imaging. Dr. Sengupta moved

to the USA 1980 and joined the faculty of Hunter College (CUNY). Presently, he is an adjunct professor at

the Department of Science and Electrical Engineering at the Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, NJ.

IEEE is the largest professional association in the world

Growing up with the Information Age John LeGates [In the following we publish Part IV of the article by Harvard University PIRP’s John LeGates. (The copy of the article reproduced here is as it appears at PIRP and is unedited by us.) It is fascinating to read his en-counters with the legendary figures’ of the Internet and his involvement in the process. The URL of Har-vard University is www.harvard.edu and that of the Program for Information Resources Policy: www.pirp.harvard.edu – Editor]

FOUR

The technological events were embedded in larger social events. In the late seventies some sociologists

and economists discovered that half the workforce and half the GNP was dedicated to information. To

conclude this, they had to count all employees of information companies as information workers, even if

they drove trucks, and also all information employees of non-information companies, such as the mail

room in a hammer factory. The details were challengeable, but information was suddenly recognized as

big, big, big. Thus was born “The information age”, “The Third Wave”, the “information is strategic”

management fad, etc.

It was at this time that governments – from local to national – started using the term “information age”

as part of their vision for the economic future. We had a steady parade of parliamentarians, congress-

men, secretaries of commerce, governors and mayors meeting with us. They feared being left behind if

their information infrastructures weren’t among the best. Or they wanted to get the jump on the com-

petition by becoming the information hub for their region or the world. Most were from major devel-

oped countries, but a few were from other places looking to leapfrog the developed countries. These

visits were earnest, but produced some curious moments:

- A representative from the Caribbean region wanted Harvard to fund its infrastructure develop-ment. I had to sadly tell him that Harvard extracted money from everyone else, it didn’t dispense it.

- Meeting with a group from the Japanese Diet (parliament), Tony’s fondness for images got us into trouble. “… you could become a prisoner of the past.” The translator (a Japanese) simply stopped and sat there motionless and expressionless, like a clock whose spring had run down.

- The mayor of Hammerfest, Norway, which claims to be the northernmost city in the world, has a population of 9,000, and is nowhere near another settlement, spent a day with me. She was work-ing on a strategy to make it a global communications hub. Perhaps most oddly, due to the plunging cost of communications, this idea was not unimaginable. “Perhaps with the right tax structure….”

- Nobody is better positioned to be a true believer in the information age than ourselves, but again we

don’t see it quite that way. We think information won’t feed us or keep the rain off. The agrarian and

industrial ages haven’t ended, but have been given a big efficiency boost by information.

Business economists see the universe as made up of two fundamental resources, capital and labor (mat-

ter and energy to the physicists). If the price of one drops relative to the other, it is displaced by the

other - you fire workers and add machines for example. In our view there was always a third resource:

information (“structure” to the physicists), which went unnoticed because its relative cost never

changed. With SFCB running rampant, both capital and labor are being dramatically displaced or aug-

mented by information.

To see why this displacement is largely invisible, look at the computer business. With the cost of a unit

dropping in half every year, you might expect that the price of a computer would converge on zero. In-

stead the price remains roughly constant, but the power doubles every year. Users prefer to pay the

same price and keep getting more for it.

A handier image for the information age, therefore, is that the injection of information is making both

capital and labor more productive. Neither is being displaced, but with a small injection of information,

much more gets accomplished. Try to imagine running a modern bank or airline without a computer.

The military language for the same phenomenon is “force multiplier”. It’s not so much the “information

age” as the “age when adding information makes capital and labor deliver more”.

Once the technology was loose on the town, a thousand flowers bloomed (ouch, what a metaphor!). By

the early 1970's, new information technology had not yet reached the home, but it was starting to look

like a free-for-all inside organizations. New specialized services and prices became legion. There were a

handful of telephone competitors offering communications services over their own plant, and hundreds

of resellers. Most major corporations had built their own networks carrying voice and data. Computer-

to-terminal and computer-to-computer communications were everywhere. An outfit wanting to up-

grade its information handling had a huge array or make-or-buy options. One of the new carriers, DA-

TRAN, planned the largest public offering in history; polishing the image of the “information age”.

All the while, however, the incumbent telephone industry provided rural residential connection at sub-

stantially lower prices than it provided comparable service in cities and to businesses. Did those socially-

desirable cost distortions provide an economic advantage to the competition? The debate remains cen-

tral to decisions being taken today (1998): Is competition providing more choices, lower prices and the

organizational engine of the information age? Or is it merely a bunch of hucksters taking advantage of

an artificial price umbrella? While neither extreme is the sole answer, the underlying principal is still un-

certain.

FIVE

The incumbents did not take competition lying down. They fought back with technology, new services,

prices, regulatory manipulation and lawsuits. There were some amusing incidents along the way:

DATRAN opened the first part of its network - a data service between Chicago and Saint Louis. Within a

few weeks, AT&T - then carrying 99.999% of the traffic, sued them for attempting to monopolize the

business.

Some time later, MCI (sometimes called the law firm with the antenna on the roof) sued AT&T for pro-

viding discriminatorily poor access connections to its network. It won $600 million with treble damages.

The rumor became prevalent, including within AT&T, that they preferred to pay $1.8 billion rather than

admit nondiscrimination - namely that all their connections were that bad.

Regardless of who won each battle, the war clearly went to the new players - they got to play and the

monopoly was broken - except in domestic local service, more about which later. (Note that in 2011 it’s

gone as well.)

There are many behavioral models of regulatory bodies, most of which describe some kind of “capture”

by the regulated industry (the Averch-Johnson effect is an example). The behavior of the telco regula-

tors, and especially the FCC, stand as a living demonstration that it doesn’t always work that way. They

were on the cutting edge of breaking, rather than preserving the monopoly.

Incidentally a new natural constant appeared around 1965: three years. That was the interval until data

would be half of all network traffic. This prediction remained a constant throughout the sixties, seven-

ties, eighties and nineties. One of the arguments that enabled the newcomers to get entry was that

their growth would be restricted to data traffic. Therefore the incumbents would retain the voice and

the growth in voice, and be unharmed. All the major telco competitors were originally designed to carry

data. MCI and SPRINT quickly adapted to carry voice and survived. DATRAN and SBS didn’t adapt, and

failed. The proportion of all traffic that was data finally started to grow after the invention of the web

browser in 1993.

SIX

In 1976 the telephone business struck back - a kind of Battle of the Bulge for the monopoly. The attack

was not with a new technology, a new price, better marketing, regulatory manipulation, or even legal

action. It was in Congress.

“The Consumer Communications reform act of 1976” was introduced by over two hundred congressmen

and sixty senators. It basically elevated the telephone monopoly to the status of law - something it nev-

er had before in the U.S. It rolled back open entry to before it had happened and prohibited it.

The incumbents argued that competition bestowed no advantage. They themselves remained the most

efficient suppliers. The cheaper prices that the competitors offered (including the prices that companies

offered to themselves when they built internal networks) were an artifact of the cost allocation scheme.

Its only strategic effect was to drain money away from socially desirable goals - most notably universal

service.

They made this argument at about the same time that penetration achieved 95 percent, which can be

considered “universal” in much the same way that 4 percent unemployment is “zero unemployment”.

However the “universal service” goal was so popular and the struggle for it had been so long that it re-

mained - and remains - a powerful argument.

The heart of the incumbent’s case was the word “subsidy” - now permeating the network and a Good

Thing. Were it not for subsidy, it was argued, the price of local telephone service would triple, and

people would drop off the network. Then even those - such as businesses who thought they were disad-

vantaged by paying more - would be even worse off: They wouldn’t be able to reach their customers.

To whom should Congress listen for clarity in the complexity and abstruseness of these arguments?

Answer number one for Congress is always the voting public. However the response of the public was

anything but clear. It was worse than that: there was no response. The public didn’t care about this one.

The public has never cared about telecommunications policy matters. Telephony works fine and is

cheap. The industry was able to muster over a million letters of support from among its employees. But

as a congressman told me, discussing the public outrage that led to reregulation of the cable industry in

1992, “we can tell the difference between an orchestrated public indignation and a REAL one.”

The companies’ employees and their unions were all for it, of course.

The military was vaguely for it. The DOD had always had a cozy relationship with the industry. It had

been nationalized on their behalf in 1917. As the commander of the Defense Communications Agency

stated in one of our seminars, “When we wanted something, we walked across the street and had a chat

with Bob Gradle (The AT&T-DOD contact man) and it got arranged.” The same Commander was, at one

time, unaware that most military traffic was sharing facilities with the public networks. However the

military was also pleased at the prospect of a growing number of suppliers, always a virtue to them.

They did not take a strong stance.

The big gorilla in this shoving match turned out to be the comrades of my friend in the insurance com-

pany. The corporate information officers of the Fortune 500 wanted their own control. They wanted the

diversity of tailored and less-regulated offerings that was pouring out of the new competitors. Above all

they wanted lower prices. These were people whose next raise was built on doing more next year for

less.

An interesting aside: There has always been a big gulf between corporate information officers and the

senior executives of their company. It is another manifestation of the techie/manager gap. Few CIO’s

understand the strategies of their company in its prime business, and few CEO’s have much sense of

what value information may hold for them. Information is usually 3-5 percent of the expense budget,

and every year they get more for their money from it. Why worry?

This gulf has always been a headache for our Program. We believe that information can be a strategic

resource. But we have only gotten the attention of a very few “user” CEO’s. Admittedly some of them

are potent, like Walter Wriston, Chairman of Citicorp, who claims to have brought the company from

nowhere to #1 by strategic use of information.

At the time of the Consumer Communications Reform Act we were able to get two “user” companies to

take a close look at their CIO’s built-in incentives. The CIO’s turned out to be in charge of the companies’

long-distance telephony; but not the local telephony, which was in local managers’ budgets. Both com-

panies summed up these local costs, saw that they were much larger than the long-distance totals, and

pulled their CIO out of the reform act hearings. Those testifying for the legislation may have been testi-

fying against their own companies’ best interests. But they were the exceptions.

The weight of the “user” corporate testimony carried the day and the act was defeated. Representative

Timothy Wirth, Chairman of the relevant House Committee, speaking at one of our workshops, called it

“The sweetest piece of special-interest legislation that I have ever seen”. Competition was free to run,

and the incumbents’ market share plummeted, probably much more than they knew. The total business

grew so fast that the incumbents’ revenues and profits headed for new records every year.

SEVEN

From 1976 to 1982 there were no overt structural changes in the telephone business, but plenty was

happening. The major corporate users took advantage of their freedom-to-choose with a vengeance.

“Enterprise networks” grew so much that even the FCC, which had no access to their statistics, sus-

pected that the unreported infrastructure was as large as the public one. By 1982, when the next key fit

of lobbying came around, the fortune 500 played no role. “We have no stake in what happens to them”,

I was told. The competitive carriers grew enormously in size and their clout changed from symbolic to

real. Even households started buying non-Bell handsets and hanging them on the line.

Plenty was happening in the computer communications business too. 1976 saw the development of

Ethernet, which allowed much faster data transfer in local networks, and Queen Elizabeth II of England

sent her first email. ARPANET technology became established outside ARPA and was adopted by large

numbers of network users and some suppliers. Other networking technologies appeared commercially.

The era of computer terminals connected to computers was evolving into the era of remote connections

and networked computers.

EIGHT

In late 1979 I electrified an entire industry (so to speak). In closed session before about fifteen of the

most influential men and women in the country, I opened my presentation with a tape lifted off my tel-

ephone:

...turning partly cloudy in the afternoon with a chance of showers in the early evening. Wednes-

day will be clear, but breezy and much cooler. This message is brought to you by New England

Telephone.

By the time the reverberations of this talk had died out, its audience had launched a new industry, spent

and lost hundreds of millions of dollars, and caused a law keeping telcos out of a major business sector.

The audience was the Board of Directors of the American Newspaper Publishers Association (ANPA).

Katherine Graham (Washington Post) was there, as were Punch Sulzberger (New York Times), Robert

Erburu (Los Angeles Times) and other mainstays of the industry. Here is the essence of what I told them:

At the beginning of our Program, Tony and I had a message for almost anyone. “Your business is about

to find itself competing with other businesses whom you never thought were part of your world” It’s

amazing how many free lunches in boardrooms we got with such a simple theme. But over the years we

gave this idea considerable refinement and some practical teeth.

For example: Any information transfer takes place in three dimensions: substance (roughly “content”),

process (roughly “conduit”), and format (as seen by the end user). Your particular business is defined by

your specific location on all three. If you change even only one, you may have a different business.

The planes defined by any two of the axes are also useful. For example the substance/format plane can

be thought of as the editorial plane; substance/process as managerial, and process/format as operating.

A newspaper is a bundle of different kinds of content, usually including local news, world news, edito-

rials, sports, calendars, stock quotes, cartoons, horoscopes, weather forecasts, human interest stories

etc. They mostly share a common process. They were originally collected by reporters, handed in print

to editors, assembled in a layout room, set on linotype or similar machines, printed on presses and dis-

tributed by truck and local carrier. Their format - the format seen by the end user - is print on large pa-

per sheets. That particular slice of substance, process and format is the historic newspaper business.

The bundle of content items in that list is surprisingly diverse, both in what they are, and in the way the

customer uses them. They came together in the newspaper largely by techno-historical chance. They all

happened to be most conveniently used in a print-on-paper format.

“Technology”, I said, “is starting to break up the bundle.” First look at your own processes. The story of

the newspaper business in the 1970's goes like this: By 1980 the same content is gathered in. The prod-

uct still goes out in the same format, as print on paper. But the processes have been revolutionized.

Most of the content now comes in over wires. It is organized on a computerized layout system. The

printing plates are designed electronically. You did this to save money. The customer doesn’t see any-

thing different, but there are some very important commercial differences.

One is that you can now produce different products. For example the archives are now electronic. One

product could be remotely-searchable archives (for a price). Another could be an electronically-

delivered newspaper. Yet another could be a tailored newspaper.

Actually the electronically-delivered newspaper was not a new idea. The first faxed newspaper product

was offered by the Miami Herald in 1904. The difference might be that now the cost could be affordable

and the customer might be acculturated.

In any case, pieces were already jumping out of the bundle. No professional stock trader got his quotes

from the newspaper - much too tardy. No airplane pilot would get his weather forecast from a newspa-

per. It’s worth the extra money to get it updated electronically. The general public was beginning to fol-

low the professionals.

And more importantly, it was now technologically and economically possible for other industries to

supply the same content to the same customers using completely different formats and processes. Wit-

ness the telephone companies, more than ten times bigger than the newspaper business, suddenly of-

fering weather forecasts.

And as if the appearance of electronic upstarts wasn’t bad enough, the long-term trends seemed to be

in their favor. The cost of everything electronic was going down. The cost of newsprint, ink, and trucks

was going up.

I pointed out that the newspaper was not in immediate danger of being supplanted. “Imagine a room

full of technicians. I come in and announce that I have a new technology. It will carry 30 million bits of

information, weigh less than 3 pounds, handle both text and graphics, be completely portable, be ac-

cessible in any order, operate 24 hours a day, cost less than 25 cents a connect hour, and be mostly paid

for by someone else. I can assure you that the room full of technicians would be amazed by this ad-

vanced capability. It is far ahead of anything currently available. The technology which I have described

is the daily newspaper.”

Where would this kind of thinking lead the newspaper magnates?

The question quickly focused in on classified advertisements. Newspapers have four sources of revenue:

national display ads, local display ads, classified ads, and “circulation” - the money readers pay to buy

the paper. Classified ads are about 30% of income nationwide - too big to lose, and possibly vulnerable

to attack.

We have done more work than anyone else on the question of how a kind of information relates to dif-

ferent processes and formats. In this case, what predisposes something that has always been distributed

in print to migrate to electronics, and when? The results, like the results of so many complicated investi-

gations, look fairly obvious. For instance, if timeliness and searchability are important, and elegance of

display isn’t, then you have a candidate for electronics. If there’s big money at stake, then the money is

there to pay for it, which is why the stock quotes and airline weather went early. By 1970, classified ads

looked like a good bet, as did local practical information like school lunch menus, school bus routes, and

meeting schedules.

If the ANPA Board had any skepticism about my story, it evaporated four months later in Hawaii. As a

result of my talk, Charles Brown, Chairman of AT&T, was invited to address the entire ANPA in open ses-

sion. In what must have been one of history’s most thoughtless disclosures, his message was “We’re

going into your business - we’re going to eat your lunch”. Good grief, Charlie Brown.

Newspapers jumped into the electronic age with a weapon in each hand. Offensively they launched the

electronic newspaper. Defensively they leapt out of the woodwork onto the lobbying scene.

In the standard government arenas, including the FCC and the state PUCs, the telco regulators were the

deans of the lobbying business. They had the best-paid people who took the commissioners and gover-

nors to the best dinners. Furthermore telco executives were expected to serve on local public interest

boards - the local hospital and the Boy Scouts, for example - and to cash in on the good will if needed.

Newspapers didn’t even show up.

But when real money was at stake, the newspapers could play as hard a ball game as anybody. They

now appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, both in public hearings and in “informal” meetings.

A congressional staffer described the encounter this way: “There are two things you can count on with

the press. One is that the official witness will be the much-beloved publisher of some small-town paper,

usually with gray hair. Citizen Kane will be nowhere in sight. The other is that you’ll hear some eloquent

version of the ‘constitution argument’. The Constitution guarantees freedom of the press. And if we lose

xxxxx (in this case the de-facto monopoly on classified ads), there won’t be any press any more. So the

Constitution requires you to yyyyy (in this case forbid the telcos from owning content). When I hear this

one coming I try real hard not to fall asleep, play my violin or throw up.”

The soundness of the logic was not the point, however. What was widely believed to be the point was

the symbiotic relationship between the front page and politician’s faces.

This story was told to me by “a reputable source”, who gave names and a date and claimed to have

been there. The chairman of a key committee was buttonholed just as he was leaving his office for a

plane to Europe. “If we don’t get this one, your picture will never appear on the front page of the paper

again.” He turned to his staff, “give them what they want.” Even if this tale is false, it clearly reflects

how most Washington people felt about the press - they were being bludgeoned. Indeed the story may

be a malicious rumor invented for revenge. “Never pick a fight with a man who buys his ink by the bar-

rel” – attributed to Mark Twain and others.

AT&T could never have gotten the same results by threatening to disconnect his phone. For the same

reason, television broadcasters can exert disproportional clout. In 1996 they got an allocation of free

spectrum for HDTV over the objections of Senate Majority Leader and presidential candidate Bob Dole.

[CONTINUED IN THE NEXT ISSUE OF THE MONITOR]

Nostalgia

Amitava Dutta-Roy

I must confess to our readers that I am a collector and hoarder of all things ranging from a circular slide

rule to a mechanical Morse Code key to an old welding gun to 1910 Waterman pen that was handed

over to me by my father that I still use. I cannot resist getting my hands on these old relics. When it

comes to a painting or a photograph more often than not I cannot afford to have the original. Then I col-

lect the reproductions. My theory: something is better than nothing. Mind you, my collections are not

always considered pleasurable in my home. My wife looks at them as dust-collecting junk than objects

to be cherished. But I am an engineer . . . still in love with tinkering with objects created by human be-

ings . . .

Last week I visited the Audio Engineering Society’s annual conference and show at the Jacob Javits Con-

vention Center, NY. There I quickly spotted the booth of the Audio History Library (AHL) and sure

enough they had something I could carry home. They were the copies of the Trade Mark No. 34,800 “His

Master’s Voice” for Gramophones (remember them?) granted to Emile Berliner by the United States Pa-

tent Office on July 10, 1900. Thinking that our readers may also be interested to see them I sought the

permission of Mr. Louis Manno, director of the AHL for reproducing the copies. After all, for many dec-

ades the legendary dog appeared on records (78, 45 and 33 1/3 rpm shellac and polyvinyl discs and later

as CD) sold by HMV. It was a household picture long before the image of a half-eaten apple conquered

the hearts of the younger generation.

Formed by engineers,

run by engineers and meant for engineers

Annual election, New York Section, 2011

Cast your vote and let your voice be heard

Election will be held on November 15

Note the time and place

THIS IS THE END OF THE OCTOBER EDITION OF THE MONITOR

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