CHATTANOOGA ENGINEERS
CLUB
Next Meeting
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Monday, February 12, 12:00 noon Cellar
Restaurant at Union Square Downtown, Chattanooga
Topic: Non-Invasive Medical Diagnostics using Positron
Emission Tomography
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is an imaging technique
that assists in the diagnosis of many diseases. It allows physicians to examine
the whole patient at once, by producing pictures of many functions of the human
body unobtainable by other imaging techniques. Most importantly, it can
determine, in a non-invasive manner, whether a tumor is malignant, and if so,
the metabolic rate of the cancer. It can test for myocardial viability (heart
blood flow); it can also be used in neurological studies to determine, for
example, the oxygen distribution in the brain.
A key component of this process is the Radiological Delivery
System (RDS) which produces the radiopharmaceutical marker that is injected into
the patient before being processed through an imaging system. Our program
speaker, Eli Witter, will provide us an overview of the technology used in the
RDS.
Mr. Witter is manager of software engineering for the RDS
division of CTI Cyclotron Systems, Inc., a company that designs and manufactures
PET imaging systems. He holds a BS degree in Nuclear Engineering from Georgia
Tech, and has more than 25 years of experience in design of software based
systems for control of a variety of industrial, laboratory and clinical
applications.
You can find more information about PET and related
technologies at: www.cti-pet.com
Last Meeting
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Our own Chuck Chamberlin stepped up to the plate last Monday
when, at the 11th hour, our planned speaker, Dr. Rekha S. Pillai, had to cancel
her speaking engagement due to illness. In typical Boy Scout fashion, Chuck
pulled a rabbit out of his hat and provided us with a fantastic and interesting
presentation: "A Case Study of Wireless Data Networking". Here is some of what
he had to say.
The Chattanooga State Community College (CSCC) has opted to
make available computer laptops to its students. But these are no ordinary
laptops. They come equipped with transmitters and receivers that allow them to
communicate with the school's Intranet. Through that Intranet, the students have
access to their instructor's notes, homework assignments, the library resources
and even to the Internet. Furthermore, the students submit their homework and
other assignments via this network. Since the communications are wireless, the
students can be connected from almost anywhere on campus (inside and out). There
are currently some 400 laptops available for students to check out through the
school's library. Their availability depends on the type of class the student is
taking and whether the department is geared to use the new technology. The
school eventually hopes to make laptops available to all students. CSCC had
experimented with two transmission media: Infrared and Radio Frequency (RF)
before settling for RF. To permit the network to handle a large number of
laptops that may be connected to it at once, the school chose to use the
"frequency-hopping spectrum" technique. This is one of two methods that can be
used to operate in an unlicensed but regulated RF band.
Future
Meetings_______________________________________________
Monday, February 19: Engineers Week Luncheon,
12:00 noon, UTC Student Center, Chattanooga Room. People to People
award will be announced. Reservation required by Feb. 14. Please call Iris
Sesko, 877-8464, tnesesko@vol.com
Monday, February 26: The Impact of
Deregulation in the Electric Utility Industry - By Greg Vincent, Sr. VP of
TVA's Power Resources & Operations Planning.
Miscellaneous
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Please bring a friend to our meetings.