IEEE Region 2 Mini-Sync: - Topic of the Month: IEEE-USA & Public Policy Discussion with Mr. Russ Harrison - Region Director Pass-down - Region Director-Elect Information Session - Region Vitality Coordinator (Annual Vitality Program Elements) Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/345260

Smart assistive environments adapt to the needs and preferences of disabled or elderly users who need help with the activities of daily living. However, the needs and requests of users vary greatly, both due to personal preferences and type of disability. As handcrafting an environment is prohibitively expensive, in recent years significant research was done in systems that use machine learning to create a predictive model of the user. Machine learning, however, typically requires large amounts of data. A stand-alone smart environment, however, only has access to the data collected from its user since it was deployed. A possible solution is to perform centralized, cloud-based learning by pooling the training data collected from multiple users. However, uploading data collected from the personal habits of elderly and disabled users create significant security and privacy concerns. In this talk, we investigate the type of data sharing necessary for learning user models in smart environments and propose several novel considerations. We point out that data sharing is only ethical if the user derives a benefit from it. This implies that the decision to share data must be periodically revisited, it is not a commitment extending indefinitely in the future. We study the data sharing decisions made by users under several machine learning frameworks: local, cloud, and federated learning. We show that most users only benefit from data sharing for a limited interval after the deployment of the system. We also investigate machine learning techniques that predict whether the user will benefit from sharing the data before the data is shared. Speaker(s): Damla Turget, Room: 325B, Bldg: ITE, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 21250

Please join the Columbus Section Executive Committee and meet your fellow section members and guests. Meeting discussion includes administrative business, Technical/Affinity Society current and future events status. Society and Affinity chairs, if you are unable to attend the meeting, please send your section activities updates to Helen Winfrey [email protected] Student chapters are welcome to attend and network with the section members and officers. Please review the attached minutes and provide comments to Kavitha Bangalore (mailto:[email protected]) prior to the meeting. Co-sponsored by: [email protected] Agenda: Agenda: Virtual ExCom Meeting 6:00 Welcome/Call Meeting to Order 6:15 Secretary’s Report: Approval of ExCom Minute Chair’s Report Vice Chair’s Report Treasurer Report 6:30 Professional, Society, Affinity, and Student Branch Reports 6:45 Old and New Business Discussions 7:30 Adjourn Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/373934

6 MW, MISSION CRITICAL, N+1, EPS & EPSS AT THE CORPORAL MICHAEL J. CRESCENZ VA MEDICAL CENTER (NINE YEARS LATER) The flawlessly executed project won Notable Engineering Achievement Award in the Delaware Valley in 2015. This course will review the highlights of accomplishment, upon which the Award was based, and the Innovation Design of Foundations, the System Integration for the Development of the PLC Program and Operation, Maintenance and Testing Screens of the Emergency Power Supply System (EPSS) and for the Planning and Execution of the addition of the Central Utility System to the EPSS, which included the transfer of electrical feeders to 49 automatic transfer switches throughout the facility, enabling the uninterrupted operation of the Medical Center. Speaker(s): Joseph F Maida, PE, Agenda: WEBINAR: 7:00 - 8:00 P.M. The Zoom Webinar link and password will be forwarded to all registered participants after Noon on the day of the meeting. Check your spam folder if you don't see the email. Webinar is open to all. PDH certificates are available and an evaluation form will be emailed to you after the meeting. PDH certificate are sent by IEEE USA 3-4 weeks after the meeting. Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/369269