Upcoming Events

Accounting and Tax Concerns for Consultants (Jan. 9)

IEEE is presenting a talk by Matt Peck of Lane Gorman Trubitt L.L.P. at 6:15pm on January 9 at the Holiday Inn Select, located at 1655 North Central Expressway in Richardson. There is a $5 charge for IEEE members and a $15 charge for non-IEEE members and guest, which includes a buffet.

Discussion of some record keeping ideas for the self employed and the use of spread sheets or accounting software to track income and expenses. Matt will discuss tracking business use of an automobile. He'll also discuss tax matters applicable to the self employed including: self employed health insurance deductions, Section 179 expensing, Self Employed Pension Plans, Office in Home expense and related topics. As well as some general tax matters that relate to individuals.

For more information, contact Maura Schreier-Fleming at 972-380-0200 or info@bestatselling.com

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Dallas IEEE Consumer Electronics Society presents "Voice & Video over IP" (Jan. 10)

Steven Goodrich, Senior Architect, Grandstream Networks, will present "Voice & Video over IP" at the Dallas IEEE Consumer Electronics Society Meeting on Tuesday, January 10, 2006, 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM at the Texas Instruments Forest Lane Auditorium located at 12500 TI Boulevard in Dallas.

Voice-Over-IP technology has gained tremendous tractions in the market in recent years. Major Service providers are racing to offer commercial VoIP services to consumers in a big way. IP-PBX deployments in enterprises have also surpassed traditional PBX system deployments for the first time in history. With high profile mega deals of sky-reaching valuation announcing almost every month, are internet bubbles of the late 90’s happening again? Is VoIP a fad or major trend? Where is the market going? How is VoIP technology going to evolve in the future? Is Video-over-IP going to be the next big thing? Who will likely be the winners emerging from this major market and technology shift that will fundamentally change the way people communicate over broadband IP networks in the future?

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, see http://www.dallasces.org/

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Before the Big Bang: A Radical New Perspective (Jan. 17)

Sir Roger Penrose will give a lecture on how and why the big bang happened – at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) on Tuesday, Jan. 17.

The presentation, which will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Conference Center 1.112, is free and open to the public. The talk will be preceded by a reception beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the same location. Book signing will be available after the presentation.

There is little doubt that our universe originated from an immensely hot, immensely dense state — the big bang — some 14 billion years ago, which gave rise to the violent expansion of the universe that has been going on, in abated form, ever since.  The question of how and why the big bang happened is something like the Holy Grail of cosmological research.

Sir Roger Penrose has long been interested in the structure of the big bang NEAR the beginning, especially in the question of how it could have given rise to the law of entropy increase and the regularity of the universe.  Only within the last few weeks have these thoughts led him to an entirely new attempt to understand "the other side of the beginning."  This lecture will be one of the first occasions for him to expound his new ideas.

For more information contact Beth Keithly at 972-883-4568. Sir Penrose’s visit is sponsored by The Office of the VP for Research and Economic Development, the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, The Department of Physics and Sigma Xi.

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Technology Day: Creating Value Through Your Business (Jan. 21)

participate in it's Fourth Annual Technology Entrepreneur’s Day on January 21, 2006 at The University of Texas at Dallas in the Conference Center.  There is a business plan competition, two panel discussions and a keynote speaker to help entrepreneurs explore opportunities for growing their businesses. The program is from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Advance registration is required.  Check the TAD website for details. http://www.tadallas.org/

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VC TaskForce “The Boardroom” (Jan. 24)

VC TaskForce is launching “The Boardroom,” an innovative program on Boards of Directors, with its debut at 6:30pm on the evening of January 24, 2006 at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman located at 2475 Hanover Street in Palo Alto, California. “The Boardroom” uses a case-study approach to simulate real life boardroom scenarios. Through well-crafted cases, we can re-live actual boardroom situations in private and public, high-tech companies and learn from others’ mistakes. It’s a “Flight Simulator” for boardroom training – no seatbelts required.

Anyone who’s learned the hard lessons of business on-the-job knows that experience is actually the second-best teacher. The case method is the best. A well crafted case can pack more experience into every hour of learning than any other instructional approach – and there’s always a soft landing. Judgment and the wisdom developed from experience lie at the very core of business success. There’s no more effective way to develop these skills than through cases, such as those presented in “The Boardroom” program.

“The Boardroom” program has been developed by two high tech corporate governance advisors: Deborah Ludewig, Partner, Emerging Growth and Technology, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, and Ann Peckenpaugh, President, Board Search Partners LLC.

There is a $79 fee for VC TaskForce Members, a $99 charge for affiliate members and a general charge of $129. For more information, see http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=100258

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DFW Texchange Meeting with Philip Romano (Jan. 25)

The next meeting of the DFW Texchange meeting will be held at 6pm on Wednesday, January 25 at Maggiano’s Little Italy located at the Northpark Center Mall in Dallas. Philip Romano will be the guest speaker for the evening.

Romano is an investor, entrepreneur, artist and nationally-renowned restaurateur. Involved in the restaurant business for forty years, in the course of his career, he has created over twenty-five concepts. He is the only person in the restaurant industry that has created more than two successful national concepts….he has created six to date: Fuddruckers, Romano’s Macaroni Grill, Spageddies, Cozymel’s, Rudy’s Country Store and BBQ and eatZi’s Market & Bakery. Fuddruckers has opened units in more than 150 locations worldwide. Romano’s Macaroni Grill now operates in more than 190 locations in the United States and Canada. The restaurant concepts created by Romano produce over $1 billion in sales each year. To date, his concepts have generated more than $10 billion in revenue.

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UTA Workshop on Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting (Jan. 27)

University of Texas at Arlington College of Engineering's Automation & Robotics Research Institute is hosting a conference on January 27 on Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting on January 27 at their location at 7300 Jack Newell Blvd. S. in Fort Worth, Texas

Vast reductions in the size and power consumption of CMOS circuitry have led to focused research efforts on small and efficient power sources. Much of the current emphasis has been on developing on-site generators that transform an available mechanical energy into electrical energy.

This workshop will bring together academic and industrial researchers on one platform to review past developments, current challenges and future goals in the field of piezoelectric energy harvesting. The presence of the leading industries, both nationally and internationally, in the field of energy harvesting and piezoelectrics at one location makes this a landmark event.

The workshop will also feature displays by innovators in piezoelectric energy harvesting and demonstrations their latest technologies.

For more information, visit http://piezo.uta.edu/ or call 817-272-5900.

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3rd Taiwan/US Air Force Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Workshop (Feb. 9-11)

The National Science Council(NSC) in Taiwan and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) of the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) are hosting the 3rd Taiwan/US Air Force Nanoscience and Nanotechnology workshop to be held February 9-11, 2006 in Hualien, Taiwan.

The first and second Taiwan/US Air Force workshops were held in Maui and Honolulu, Hawaii. This series of US Air Force/Taiwan Nanoscience Initiative Workshops aim to provide a stimulating and thought-provoking forum for sharing the latest technical developments and ideas in nanoscience and nanotechnology.

Invited Speakers from the United States for the workshop include:

• Professor Ray Baughman, Robert A. Welch Professor of Chemistry and Director of NanoTech Institute of the University of Texas at Dallas
• Professor Paul C. W. Chu, President, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
• Dr. Leslie Kramer, director and engineering fellow at Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control

For more information, see http://nano-taiwan.sinica.edu.tw/nano/home.htm.