Electrical Engineering Student Wins First Place at Regional
Competition
Boise State engineering student Julie Morgan won
first place at the IEEE Region 6 Student Paper Contest of the WESCON
Conference in San Jose, CA, on October 18, 2001. Julie's paper, "Silicon
on Insulator Versus Bulk Technology for the Design of an Inverter, a
Digital to Analog Converter, and a Sigma Delta Modulator" started
as a senior design project in Professor Joe Hartman’s EE 480 class.
Co-authors of this paper are Barbara Cobb and James Spencer, both of
whom graduated with Julie from the electrical engineering program in
May this year.
This paper compared the conventional
process used to build memory devices to a new and innovative process,
called Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI). The final results showed that the
SOI process is faster, can drive a bigger load, and reduces power
dissipation.
Although the experience of presenting a
paper at an important conference can be a daunting challenge, Julie
said she was not very nervous. She had already presented this and
other papers during her career as an engineering student. "I felt
prepared because there had been a strong focus on communication and
presentation skills in the courses I had taken at Boise State."
She feels that the communication and learning skills she acquired at
BSU are helping her in her current job. The best thing about winning
first place? She chuckles, "Well, I beat U of I, didn't I? That's
one extra point for BSU." (A paper presented by a University of
Idaho student received second place at the same competition.)
Region 6 of IEEE is comprised of 12
Western states grouped into five areas. Previously, Julie had
presented her paper at the Northeast Area conference of IEEE's Region
6 in April. Despite the fact that Boise State competed then for the
first time in this conference, Julie managed to bring home a first
prize and advance into the regional competition, where she tied for
first place with a student from University of Nevada, Reno. |
College
of Engineering