About The IEEE Green Your World Challenge

In celebration of the 2011 World Environment Day (WED), and the positive impact global sustainability technologies have made on the environment, IEEE, the world's largest technical professional association, is asking citizens of the world to accept the IEEE Green Your World Challenge and commit to making simple, yet powerful changes in daily life to benefit humanity and the environment. The IEEE Green Your World Challenge is registered with the United Nations Environmental Programme – WED 2011, which aims to be the most widely celebrated, global day for positive, environmental action. By celebrating WED, IEEE is linking individuals around the globe in support of environmental issues.

 

IEEE Technical Experts Supporting the Green Your World Challenge

Venkappa Gani is a senior life member of IEEE and a member of the Central Texas IEEE Section in addition to being a member of the Travis County Master Gardeners Association (TCMGA), a life member of The Garden Club of Austin (TGCA), past president of the Austin Organic Gardeners Club, past president of Austin Kannada Sangh, and Member of UT LAMP (Learning Activity for Matured People).

For nearly 30 years, Mr. Gani was a design engineer for IBM in the Components Division, Systems Division and Microelectronics Division. Throughout his career, he held various engineering and management positions. He received an MS in Project Management from George Washington University while working at IBM. Mr. Gani retired from IBM in 1997, and has since moved to other endeavors utilizing his skills as an electrical engineer. As a volunteer, he designed and built a rain water collection system for the city of Austin, TX for education and demonstration purposes. The system is open to the public year around.

Mr. Gani created his own home as a sustainable living space by adding an edible garden in the backyard, a rain water harvesting system for gardening, and solar panels on his roof. His model sustainable house is open to the public. He has received the GREEN GARDEN award from the City of Austin, was awarded "The Texas State Master Gardener of the Year" in 2005, and received the "2007 Water Conservation by a District End-User Groundwater Stewardship Award" from Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District. Mr. Gani now specializes in the education and implementation of water conservation, rain water harvesting and various efforts needed to achieve total sustainability.

• top of page

 

Willie Cade is an IEEE member, the Founder and CEO of PC Builders & Recyclers, and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Mr. Cade founded PC Builders & Recyclers in 2000 to address the ongoing need for students and underprivileged youths to have access to technology. The company solicits old PC's, refurbishes them, and places them in schools, non-profit organizations and need-based homes. To date, the program has placed over 40,000 computers in various locations, proving that limited funding does not preclude access to technology. As a supplement to PC Builders & Recyclers, Mr. Cade also launched the first member-based graphic calendar for listings of e-waste collection events in the United States, www.eWasteCalendar.com.

Mr. Cade also co-created The Sustainable Electronic Initiative (SEI), the United States' first university-based research center that specifically focuses on the reuse and material recovery of electronics. SEI designs and implements programs for research, education, data management and technical assistance for electronics recycling.

• top of page

 

Yoelit Hiebert is an IEEE member and the lead reliability and test engineer for the lightingprogramat Ingersoll Rand Climate Solutions in the United States. Working in the LED industry, Ms. Hiebert's work focuses on the evaluation of LED products specifically designed for refrigerated supermarket and convenience store food and beverage merchandisers. She works across both government and commercial agencies.

In addition to being a member of IEEE, Ms. Hiebert is an associate member of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America.

• top of page

 

Dr. Thomas F. Wiener is a Life Senior Member of IEEE and an aerospace engineer with more than 40 years of experience in conducting and directing high technology research and development efforts. As a U.S. Navy Veteran, Dr. Wiener was an asset to the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as the program manager, a position he held for ten years.

Dr. Wiener is also a Senior Member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a member of The International Society for Optical Engineering, USNSL and SPEBSQSA. In addition, he was the past president of the IEEE Oceanographic Engineering Society, past president of the IEEE Sensors Council, member of the IEEE Technical Activities Board, Chair to the IEEE TAB Society Review Committee and is currently the co-chair of the IEEE Water for the World Committee and Chair of IEEE Committee on Earth Observation. He received his bachelor's degree in engineering from Brown University and his doctorate in instrumentation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

• top of page

 

Professor Ryuichi Yokoyama, an IEEE Fellow, is one of the most significant leaders of deregulation in power markets. His foresight and advanced view on the power industry has promoted the introduction of competition and deregulation to power markets. His promotion from an IEEE Senior Member to an IEEE Fellow in 2009 was in recognition of his leadership in electrical power system management.

Professor Yokoyama's most recent major contributions have been designing and operating power systems , smart grids and markets, including the following:

• the development of highly efficient power supplies using lean-burn gas engines and power storage devices; the creation of an efficient operation scheme that utilizes quadratic programming in complex fuel cell housing;
• the employment of the branch and bound method to identify obsolete equipment in aged substations and to optimize the order of maintenances of substations and equipment;
• suitable photovoltaic (PV) panels positioning and angling to maximize PV outputs; and,
• the proposal of cluster-oriented expandable smart grids and control schemes for developing areas, islands and non-electrified urban regions.

• top of page