The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers student branch at the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering received high honors this weekend at the 3rd Annual IEEE Green Technologies Conference in Baton Rough, La.
For the fourth time in nine years, the UH IEEE student chapter received the 2011 Outstanding Large Student Branch Award for Region 5—a region home to 90 IEEE student chapters across 13 states.
"We have received a lot of recognition in this region," said electrical engineering senior Jared Brayton, chairman of the UH Cullen College of Engineering student chapter of IEEE. "It's nice that people throughout our region know about UH electrical and computer engineering."
The award is based on overall branch activity, including social events, fundraising, service projects, academic performance and participation in IEEE initiatives. In addition to competing and winning the 2010 IEEE Region 5 Robotics Competition and Texas VEX Competition, the UH IEEE student branch in the Cullen College participated in the Xtreme 3.0 Programming Competition and placed within the top 20 percent of teams worldwide (out of 700 teams). The group is also active in providing local competitions for its members, in outreach activities with area middle and high schools as well as non-profit organizations such as the Houston Food Bank, and hosts an annual Chili Cook-Off to raise money for the branch, an effort that brings many students, companies and UH alumni together to socialize and network.
The UH IEEE student branch at the Cullen College has long been advised by Professor Ovidiu Crisan, who was honored as the IEEE Region 5 Outstanding Student Branch Counselor for the 5th time in 10 years. In fact, he was honored with this award for the second consecutive year.
"We're doing a great job," Crisan said. "The formation of our branch was good and we've had good student leadership. I hope to carry this forward."
In addition to voluntarily providing guidance to the IEEE students, being an advocate for organizational support and actively growing the branch, Crisan is an active professor and researcher. He teaches electromechanical energy conversion, circuit analysis, power electronics and electric drives, advanced power system analysis, and power transmission and distribution. His research focus is in the areas of power systems components modeling, power systems operation and control with a concentration in voltage stability and voltage collapse research as it applies to to the electric utilities.