San Francisco, CA
IEEE Trips To Singapore, Japan, New Jersey, San Francisco, Bologna And Milan
World map.
This is the last month of my IEEE Presidency and still a few things to do. I estimate I have been away from home over 250 days this year, flown on 17 different airlines and given over 100 talks either in person, remotely or via recordings at various IEEE and other events. It has been quite a year!
We had a virtual board of directors meeting this month to approve the winner of the 2025 IEEE Medal of Honor, who will be awarded a $2M prize in April of 2025 in Tokyo. This month I visited and spoke at IEEE Tencon, a Region 10 conference in Singapore, attended and spoke at a YP/student-oriented event and visited a milestone in Kyoto, Japan as well as the Nintendo Museum with other IEEE volunteers and staff. I then flew to San Francisco, CA to give out some IEEE field awards at the IEDM and then to Italy to give some talks in Bologna and another IEEE field award in Milan, Italy.
At Tencon, I spoke about IEEE AI Ethics activities in a keynote talk as well as giving a talk on recent IEEE board activities and encouraging our younger members to stay with us and make IEEE their professional home. I also visited the local Schneider Electronics Office, a startup called Black Sesame, the IEEE Singapore office and A-Star, a Singapore government funded research organization. The image below is me during my keynote talk. The shirt was a gift from the Singapore IEEE office, a batik print shirt, which are common wear in this part of the world.
Speaking at IEEE Region 10 Tencon
Below is an image of me at the Schneider Electric visitors center in Singapore. We were shown their various electric power and facilities management products and services and spoke with them about stronger engagement between industry and the IEEE. We had a similar conversation with Black Sesame, who have offices in the same building as the Singapore IEEE office and make chips for electric vehicles. At A-star we talked about various IEEE activities include those related to sustainability efforts, including port electrification for ships to connect to the electric grid when in port and for charging electric boats.
Visit to Schneider Electric in Singapore
In Kyoto, Japan I gave a talk at a virtual and physical event for students and young professionals about recent activities approved at the IEEE November board of directors meeting, about stronger engagement with industry and how IEEE can the professional home for our younger members and support their careers. I also visited two milestones in Kyoto.
The first was to Shimadzu Corporation, a biomedical company in Kyoto. There I joined Nobel laureate Koichi Tanaka, shown with me below next to the milestone plaque at Shimadzu, who invented the matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization technique, which allowed ionization of large organic molecules so they could be detected by a mass spectrometer. This allows detection of useful large organic molecules for various medical and biological research applications. This milestone was installed in November 2024.
With Nobel Prize winner Koichi Tanaka at Shimadzu in Kyoto
The image below is from my visit to the Keage Hydro Power Station in Kyoto, which used water from the lake Biwa Canal to create electricity for the city starting in 1897. The first power plant was DC powered and later converted to AC. In 1936 a new facility near to the original building was completed which used water from a second canal to increase the AC power output. This facility is still working to provide low-carbon power to Kyoto. The image below shows me next to one of three copies of the milestone plaque near the hydro-power generators.
Visit to Keage Hydro Power Station IEEE milestone in Kyoto
Nintendo recently opened a museum near Kyoto. I visited it with 2020 IEEE President Toshio Fukuda, IEEE Council Office’s Makiko Koto and my Kyoto host, Tomohiro Hase-sensei, from left to right, shown below with some animated Nintendo Toads, Toadstools, at the museum. Nintendo started in the 19th century making card games, expanded into board and other games in the mid-20th century and offered its first electronic game devices in the 1970’s.
Left to right: 2020 IEEE President Toshio Fukuda, IEEE Council Office’s Makiko Koto, me and my … [+]
I flew from Kyoto to New Jersey to give out the Charles Proteus Steinmetz award to Gary Hoffman at the IEEE Standards award event and then flew back to San Francisco to attend the IEEE IEDM, International Electron Devices Meeting, to give out three more technical field awards and attend some sessions at the IEDM and the MRAM Forum following the IEDM on Thursday. I also attended an IEEE Magnetics Society standards meeting on Wednesday night.
After half a day at home in San Jose I then headed to Bologna and Milan Italy to give some talks in Bologna, including at the Italian Academy of Science and give out the IEEE Control Systems Society award at the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, CDC, in Milan Italy before heading home for some time with my family.
The picture below shows me with my gracious hosts Cecilia Metra, left, and Carlo Alberto Nucci, right, at the amazing meeting room where I spoke at the Italian Academy of Science about the IEEE and things that our IEEE board has been working on in 2024. Those are hand painted drawings on the ceiling of this room and there were busts of famous Italian scientists on the walls.
Me with Cecilia Metra, left and Carlo Alberto Nucci, right
Cecilia is an IEEE Fellow and a professor in Electrical Engineering at the University of Bologna, the world’s oldest university, founded in 1088. She has been very involved in fault-tolerant design of digital circuits and systems and is a past President of the IEEE Computer Society and will be an IEEE director again in 2025. Carlo Alberto is a member of the Italian Academy of Science and is a professor of Electrical Power Systems at the University of Bologna and the Editor and Chief of the Electric Power Systems Research Journal.
I also gave a talk at the University of Bologna to students and faculty about IEEE and other sustainability efforts for data centers, particularly involving digital storage and memory technologies. I visited the Marconi estate, Sasso Marconi, near Bologna where I had a chance to see where Guglielmo Marconi did his pioneering radio work. The image below shows me with the IEEE Engineering milestones outside of the house in front of the hill where he and his associates were able to demonstrate radio communication beyond line of sight, using a spark gap transmitter.
Next to Marconi IEEE milestones at Sasso Marconi near Bologna, Italy
The next day I traveled to Milan to participate in an awards ceremony to present an IEEE Technical Field Award, TFA, at the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, CDC, put on by the Control Systems Society. We had social events at the Alfa Romeo Museum and at the National Museum of Science and Technology near and in Milan. On December 19 I flew home to be with my family for the holidays.
This trip was my last as IEEE President. I have been honored to have been part of the 2024 IEEE board and I am very proud of the things we have been able to accomplish this year. I look forward to working with the 2025 IEEE President, Kathleen Kramer, as IEEE Past President in 2025.
The 4,140-sq-km bay is the largest estuary on the west coast of the US. Before 2018, this species of whales wasn’t known to stop seasonally or consistently in the bay, bypassing it on their migration route down to Baja California and back up the Arctic, said Josephine Slaathaug, who led a recent study on gray whale mortality in the bay.
One of San Francisco’s busiest freeways remained shut down Saturday, creating major traffic delays and dampening business for some local restaurants and shops.
All eastbound lanes of Interstate 80 just before the Bay Bridge are closed as crews work around the clock to rehabilitate the roadway. The 55-hour shutdown, which began on Friday night, is scheduled to last until Monday morning in time for the commute.
The closure has forced drivers onto detour routes, leading to heavy congestion for those trying to reach the East Bay, including Oakland and Berkeley.
The impact is being felt beyond the roadways.
At MoMo’s, a restaurant across from Oracle Park, staff found business noticeably slower.
“A little bit more mellow than usual. We usually see a little bit more foot traffic, a little bit more people on Saturdays,” said Daniel Bermudez, executive chef at MoMo’s.
Bermudez believes the freeway closure may be discouraging visitors from coming into the city this weekend, despite favorable weather.
“The weather is beautiful today. It’s nice and sunny. So we have plenty of tables outside,” he said.
With the San Francisco Giants playing an away game, the restaurant had hoped fans would still gather to watch, but turnout during game time remained light.
“This is kind of like our off-season Saturday. A lot slower than our baseball weekend,” said Casandra Alarcon, general manager at MoMo’s.
Other small businesses in the Mission Bay and South of Market neighborhoods reported similar trends, saying most of their customers are regulars who live nearby rather than visitors.
“A little bit slower for sure. Before, we had tourists come and walk to the baseball park,” said Ajaree Safron, manager at Brickhouse Cafe & Bar.
Caltrans has shut down eastbound lanes between 17th and 4th streets to repave the 71-year-old roadway. The goal is to extend the life of the Bayshore Freeway by another decade.
City and transportation officials said the timing of the closure was intentional, noting fewer major events scheduled in San Francisco this weekend, aside from the Cherry Blossom Festival.
Westbound lanes remain open, and officials said traffic heading into San Francisco from the East Bay has not been significantly affected.
“Getting into the city, it wasn’t too bad. Regular [traffic], what we expect on a Saturday morning,” said visitor Andrea Inouye.
While the closure has posed challenges for businesses, some workers said they are taking it in stride.
“Hopefully, it’s not for too long and we get past it, and get back to our normal routine,” Bermudez said.
Despite early concerns about widespread gridlock, transportation officials said the region has avoided the worst-case scenario. Traffic remains heavy in areas near detours, but the anticipated “carmageddon” has not materialized, in part because many drivers chose to avoid the area or take public transit.
Bay Area High School baseball fans are treated to a rare opportunity Saturday (April 18) with three games at Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, including the famed Bruce-Mahoney clash between West Catholic Athletic League rivals St. Ignatius and Sacred Heart Cathedral.
The first pitch of the 20th annual Dante Benedetti Baseball Classic starts at 11 a.m. and pits two more San Francisco private schools as University (9-7), winners of four straight, taking on Riordan (5-11).
That will be followed by the Bruce-Mahoney game at 2:30 between St. Ignatius (12-5, 4-2 WCAL) and the Irish (7-10, 1-5) and finished off with a North Coast Section clash between North Bay’s Marin Catholic (9-7) against Acalanes (7-6-1).
The Benedetti Classic, founded by Dante’s Boys Foundation board member Tom Lounibos and Giants president Larry Baer, benefits the DBF which honors the spirit of Benedetti who for nearly 40 years owned San Francisco’s Mr. Baseball nickname for his kindness and generosity to baseball-playing youth in the area.
Among their philanthropic efforts are glove and baseball equipment drives, field renovations and contributions to scholarships and sponsorships.
After starting the season 0-4 — three of those losses were by one run — University, under head coach Andrew Suvunnachuen, has found its way, winning the last four, all in Bay Counties League play, by a combined 51-6 count over Lick-Wilmerding (16-1 and 11-3) and San Domenico (13-2 and 11-0).
Senior catcher and pitcher Jett Messenger leads the way with a .447 average, while getting on base at a .638 rate. He also leads the team with 20 stolen bases. Junior third baseman Tate Gebhart is hitting .419, while Leo Felder and Behbart share the RBI lead with 15 each.
Junior Matthew Foley is 3-2 on the mound with a 2.38 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 17.2 innings.
Riordan, under second-year head coach Craig Sargent, was 5-5 in nonleague games but lost six straight in the rugged WCAL, losing two tough games this week to Mitty (3-2 and 7-4). Junior third baseman and pitcher Santiono Williams leads the team in batting average (.371), on-base percentage (.488) and stolen bases (nine). He’s also been the team’s top pitcher at 4-2 with a 2.84 ERA.
The teams have split two previous games in their history, with Riordan winning 2-0 in 2023 and University prevailing 5-0 in 2021.
St. Ignatius, led by ninth-year head coach Brian Pollzzie, has already secured the Bruce-Mahoney trophy with four straight wins — one each in football, girls volleyball, boys basketball and girls basketball — but this rivalry is always spirited.
The Wildcats, who are ranked fourth in the Bay Area by the San Francisco Chronicle, are coming off a tough 3-0 home loss to No. 2 St. Francis on Friday after beating the host Lancers 10-6 on Tuesday.
The team is led by Stanford-bound Archer Horn, who is hitting .486 with four home runs and a .604 on-base percentage. The shortstop and pitcher also has not allowed an earned run in three pitching appearances while registering one save.
Pitching is a team’s strength with a 2.59 ERA, led by a brigade of strong arms including Leo Rhein (2-0, 2.38), Tycco Giometti (2-1, 2.62), Charlie Stecher 1-1, 0.72) and Chase Gordon (1-0, 2.80). The team is missing standout Finn Demuth, out of the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
Sacred Heart Cathedral, led by fourth-year head coach Gregg Franceschi, has scored 60 runs on the season and given up 61. The Irish are coming off two losses to eighth-ranked Valley Christian (5-2 and 10-1).
They are led offensively by junior outfielder Brody O’Sullivan (.381) and senior infielder Jacob Vines (.378). Johnny Nepomuceno and Max Nylander are other run-producers. Zach Stallworth (37 strikeouts, 29.2 innings) and Cooper Rogers Lewis (0.25 ERA) have been the team’s top pitchers.
The series has been remarkably close since 2005 with Sacred Heart Cathedral holding a 27-20 edge, though St. Ignatius won both games last season (5-0 and 6-3) after the Irish won 9-7 and 1-0 in 2024.
Marin Catholic hopes to get back to winning after starting the season 9-1, but have since lost six straight, four in Marin County Athletic League play, including 4-2 to Novato on Thursday. Senior outfield Luke Martin is the team’s leading hitter at .478 while senior infielder and pitcher Cooper Mitchell is at .455. Senior infielder Walker Untermann leads the team with 15 RBIs.
Acalanes is at the other end of the spectrum, winners of five of six after a 2-5-1 start. Junior infielder Tyler Winkles, also a highly recruited quarterback in football, leads the team with a .383 average and nine stolen bases. Riley Gates (2-3, 2.49 ERA, 30 strikeouts) is the team’s top pitcher.
The teams have played three times, all since 2022, with Marin Catholic owning a 2-1 lead. Acalanes won last year’s game 8-7.
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