IEEE Section Meeting

The Workings of Congress From an Engineer's Point of View

Speaker: George Hanover, P.E.: George Hanover recently completed a Congressional fellowship sponsored by the IEEE and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Working closely with a Congressman on a daily provided a rare opportunity to look at -- and even participate in -- the policy, process, and politics of Congress especially from the perspective of a career professional engineer.

He served as legislative assistant to Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (46th, CA), as well as the technical policy advisor for the Congressman's activities on the House Science Committee and the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee.

For example, Hanover developed policy and wrote legislation which directs NASA to initiate a readiness program for the mitigation of Earth collisions with potentially hazardous near earth objects. He also aided in setting up a Congressional hearing on the subject. He drafted several other bills including one which creates incentives for space based solar power. His work included researching global warning and penning several speeches for the Congressman.

Previously Hanover was V.P of Technology and Standards for the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and currently does consulting to the electronics industry. During his tenure as vice president, he worked with industry to develop policies related to issues including competitiveness, intellectual property rights, and consumer education as well as technical standards for closed captioning, V-chip, DTV, home networks, cable compatibility, and product safety. He has served in numerous committee positions such as member of the Executive Committee of the Advanced Television Systems Committee, co-chair of the FCC's Cable/Consumer Electronics Compatibility Advisory Group and as chairman of the strategy committee of the International Electrotechnical Commission, Committee TC-100.

He has made presentations including cable compatibility (Western Cable Show); home electronic systems (IEC Conference on Consumer Information Technology and Telecommunications Workshop, The Hague); standards development (National Association of Broadcasters Conference); state of digital TV development (Wharton School of Business and the Army War College).

Hanover is a Registered Professional Engineer with a BSEE from Illinois Institute of Technology and has served in various managerial positions for over 35 years. He has represented his country and his company in international conferences, and in liaison with other countries including Japan, France, UK, Singapore and Germany. Prior to serving at CEA, he managed leading edge projects from design to production in the electronics industry.

Event Date: Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

Meeting Location: Johnny's Cafe, 4702 South 27th Street, Omaha, NE

Sign in & Happy Hour: 5:00 P.M.

Dinner Served: 5:40 P.M.

Presentation & Questions: 6:15 P.M.

Meal Price and Selections:

• $20 - Top Sirloin (10 oz)
• $20 - Ginger Chicken
• $20 - Salmon Filet
• $10 - Student Top Sirloin (10 oz)
• $10 - Student Ginger Chicken
• $10 - Student Salmon Filet

All meals include baked potato, salad, rolls, coffee, and tea.

IEEE Student meals are half-price ($10).

This presentation is worth (1.5) Professional Development Hours. Indicate your need for a PDH certificate during sign in at the meeting or on the sign up form below.

Sponsor: Open

Topic Overview: Did you ever wonder what really happens on Capitol Hill? Or why nothing seems to happen on Capital Hill? Through the IEEE-USA Fellowship Program, George Hanover had the unique opportunity to find out about the workings of the 'Hill' first hand.

• how policy, process and (of course) politics are the drivers of Congress,
• the day to day activities of a Congressman's office,
• technology-based bills and projects and what legislators think of them,
• his own perspective of how Congress works,
• just what is the IEEE-USA Fellowship Program and
• how to become a Congressional Fellow.