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• CNET Meeting: Consultants Series Part 4 - Consultants Panel on General Consulting Practice

  • When
    07 Jan 2025
  •  
    6:00 PM - 8:15 PM
  • Location
    Hotel Meeting Room and Zoom

  Topic:  Consultants Series Part 4

  Consultants Panel Discussion - Covers the entire consulting 3 part series

  Consultant:  Mark Fitzgerald, Larry Nelson Sr, and David Connor

  Location: Hotel Meeting Room and Zoom

  
  

  Registration is currently disabled until we set a firm date for this event.

  
  

  Meeting starts at 7:00 PM.

  
  

  Open to the public. CNET Members and MDG (Medical Device Group Boston) Board Members Free. Non members $10 either on-site or Zoom. Networking and food from 6:00PM - 7 PM.

  Food And Drink Provided: Pizza, Salad, Beverages, Snacks.

  Your registration confirmation email contains the zoom link - Please read the email confirmation completely.

  Event Description:

  Mark, Larry, and David will give presentations summarizing the consultants series parts 1 to 3 from beginning consulting, to advanced consulting to the FDA medical device regulatory process.  Each consultant will give feedback from their own perspective on all topics covered, making this a highly interactive presentation getting the prospective of each consultant on all aspects of consulting.

  
  

  We also welcome your questions.
  

  
  

  This talk covers information that engineers will find useful in a career choice of whether to become a consultant and run a consulting business or if you are already consulting giving you more information to help run your consulting business.

  
  

  Note: None of the consultants in this series is a lawyer or accountant. Please consult with professions before using any information provided. 

  
  

  
  

  Speaker Biographies:

  Mark Fitzgerald

  
  

  Mark Fitzgerald has been a consultant since 1993. Mark established Silver Bullet Engineering, Inc. providing electronics design in both hardware and software, and project management / Agile ScrumMaster, specializing in medical devices (IEC-62304), safety standard designs (IEC-61508).  Networking and Control Systems (PLCs) are also a specialty. Mark has several patents and has published several technical publications. He is an IEEE senior member and CNET board member as Treasurer and Webmaster.

  Website: https://www.silverbulletengineeringinc.com/

  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-a-fitzgerald/

  Larry Nelson Sr

  
  

  Larry has had his own consulting company (Nelson Research) which he had operated since 1980.  Larry has published technical articles and created technical training programs for universities as well as Industry. He has been granted several Patents and is a licensed PE in the state of Massachusetts. He has served as an Expert Witness in several litigations and has advised insurance companies on several cases to determine root cause of failure. He is a Diplomat of Forensic Engineering (DFE) with NAFE. He is a Platinum level consultant with Microchip Corporation and has a broad technical background across many industries.
  He is also listed with Parallax and Digikey as a consultant. He has been a long standing member of the Boston CNET and of AICN as well as a founder of the Worcester County Section Consultant Network. He currently serves as a Director on the board of the Massachusetts Society of Professional Engineers.

  http://www.Mchipguru.com
  http://www.linkedin.com/in/larry-nelson-sr-p-e-dfe-71ab81

  
  

  David Connor

  
  

  David Connor is a seasoned IEEE product consultant with over three decades experience in product development for domestic and international markets. As president of Striper Solutions LLC, he specializes in product regulatory compliance, guiding businesses through the complexities of regulatory standards and providing solutions for critical EMC and safety product issues.

  https://www.striperllc.com/
  

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• New CNET Website Member Training

  • When
    14 Jan 2025
  •  
    6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom

  Topic:  CNET New Website Member Training

  
  

  This training is for members only.

  
  

  Date is sometime in January 2025, but the specific date is not yet set.

  
  

  Event Description:

  CNET has developed a new website on a different web platform.

  
  

  This training is for members to get familiar with the new website capabilities.

  
  

  - Overview of each page

  - The new easy to use search features

  - The difference between your private profile and your public profile

  - How to make your profile available to specific type of searches based on your specific consulting area and specialties

  - How to edit your public profile

  - Events

  - Forums

  - Groups

  - How to request changes or add to the search categories

  - Billing cycle

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• CNET Silicon Valley: Ethics in AI and Humanity’s Sustainability: IEEE’s Drive for a Better World

  • When
    14 Jan 2025
  •  
    10:00 PM - 11:59 PM
  • Location
    Zoom

  Topic: 

  CNET Silicon valley:

  Ethics in AI and Humanity’s Sustainability: IEEE’s Drive for a Better World

  Dr. Tom Coughlin of Coughlin Associates, Inc. / IEEE

  Tue, Jan 14 2025, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm PST        

  Location: SEMI, Milpitas, CA 

  

  This event is free!  All attendees MUST register on the CNET Silicon Valley website using the link provided →

  https://californiaconsultants.org/event/ethics-in-ai-and-humanitys-sustainability-ieees-drive-for-a-better-world/#tempHybridBtns
  

  
  

  Event Description:

  As the world’s largest technical professional organization, IEEE has been actively developing initiatives that support ethics in AI, a broader semiconductor supply chain, mitigating climate change, and ensuring sustainability. IEEE’s efforts include initiatives in its Standards Association (SA), Future Directions Committee (FDC), Technical Societies (TS), Educational Activities Board (EAB), and Members and Geographic Activities (MGA).

  In this talk, Dr. Tom Coughlin will discuss his work as 2024 IEEE President, and how these IEEE activities have included work on the Ethical Design of Intelligent and Autonomous Systems, Global CHIPS Act activities, sustainability efforts such as e-Liability for certifiable determination of the carbon content in a supply chain, and the 2883-2022 standard for data sanitization. Further, he will discuss how climate change efforts have included the recent formation of a Matrix organization in IEEE to address this issue. Attendees will learn how they can find out more about these efforts, as well as how to get involved.

  
  About the speaker,  Dr. Tom Coughlin of Coughlin Associates, Inc. / IEEE

  Tom Coughlin is President of Coughlin Associates, Inc. where he is a digital storage analyst and business/ technology consultant. He has over 40 years of experience in the data storage industry, and has held engineering and senior management positions at industry companies. Tom consults, publishes books and market and technology reports, and organizes digital storage and memory-oriented events. He is a regular contributor to forbes.com and M&E organization websites.

  Dr. Coughlin is an IEEE Fellow, IEEE Immediate Past President, IEEE-USA Past President, IEEE Region 6 Past Director, and IEEE Santa Clara Valley Section Past Chair. He is a CNSV At-Large Director and its past Chair, and he is also active with SNIA and SMPTE.

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• CNET Meeting: Consultants Series Part 5: Open Forum On Consulting

  • When
    04 Feb 2025
  •  
    6:30 PM - 8:15 PM
  • Location
    TBD - and Zoom

  Topic:  Open Forum Discussion

  OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

  Each member presenter gets to present or discuss a topic for up to 6 minutes. The topic is up to the presenter. No slides needed, just pick a topic to present or discuss. If you want to use slides, that is your option.  Slides are due 1 day prior to the meeting via email.

  Presenters: CNET Members only are allowed to present at this meeting.  But everyone that attends gets to participate in the discussion and ask questions.

  
  

  Topics can be fun, but they also must be clean.

  
  

  Non-members are allowed to participate in the discussion and ask questions.

  
  

  Consultant/Member presenter should entertain all the other people at the meeting.  Please enjoy yourself.  These discussions may be informal.

  
  

  The Format: 

  Think fun and interactive...    Zoom Whiteboard will be used. Topics will be put on the whiteboard at the start of the meeting.  Members then vote on each topic (selection is done quickly at the start of the meeting).  The topics with the most votes get priority for discussion. Everyone gets to participate in the discussion or ask questions. Given a 60 minute meeting, that means maybe 9 topics will get discussed.  At the end of 6 minutes we vote if the topic should be given one or two more minutes more discussion.  And that's part of the fun, because the topics with less votes may never get discussed.

  Date: November TBD, 2023
  

  
  

  Minimum Quorum Requirements: 6 members registered 1 week prior to meeting (not including Board of Directors or Consultants Panel Speakers)

  
  

  Location: Hybrid - Onsite TBD and Zoom

  
  

  Light snacks and refreshments provided
  

  
  

  Meeting starts at 7:00 PM.

  
  

  Open to the public.  Networking from 6:30PM - 7 PM. 

  Your registration confirmation email contains the zoom link - Please read the email confirmation completely.

  
  

  This talk may cover information that engineers find useful in a career choice of whether to become a consultant and how to run a consulting business,. You will have fun.

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