IEEE North Jersey Section

Power systems face escalating risks from aging infrastructure, extreme weather, cyber and physical threats, increased electrification, and shifting energy demands. Recent failures expose these vulnerabilities. In 2021, severe winter storms in Texas froze pipelines and shut down plants: Over 4.5 million people lost power, 246 died, and damages reached $195 billion. Between 2019 and 2023, wildfires and heatwaves in California triggered rolling blackouts. In 2023, winter storms in Quebec knocked out power for over a million. Europe’s 2022-2023 energy shortages, driven by geopolitical tensions, led to blackouts and supply restrictions. These are just a few examples. Cyber and physical attacks continue to threaten power systems. In 2015 and 2016, cyberattacks in Ukraine cut power to over 230,000. Since 2022, multi-pronged attacks have destroyed generation plants, reduced capacity, and forced the grid into emergency protocols. Blackouts are common, exposing the vulnerability of centralized systems during conflict. Failures happen fast. Recovery is slow. Resilience requires decisive action. Modernizing grids with smart technologies can reduce outage durations by 20% (EPRI, 2024). Decentralizing through microgrids adds redundancy—by 2025, 15% of urban areas will rely on them (IEA, 2025). Predictive maintenance using AI has cut transformer downtime from months to less than a week (DOE, 2024). AI-driven cybersecurity has reduced threat response times by up to 70% (DHS, 2025). Energy storage systems help balance supply and demand, particularly during peak loads, while advanced demand response systems increase grid flexibility and reduce stress during surges. However, resilience is not only about technology. It requires robust supply chains for critical components like transformers, semiconductors, and storage technologies. It depends on understanding the interdependencies between power, water, transportation, and telecommunications systems, where a failure in one sector can cascade into others. Investment strategies must prioritize scalable, climate-adaptive infrastructure while ensuring equitable access for underserved communities. Public-private partnerships will be essential to fund and drive these transformations, while policy frameworks must incentivize innovation, sustainability, and resilience. Data integration and AI will be central to optimizing grid efficiency, identifying vulnerabilities, and guiding proactive interventions. Global benchmarking can also provide insights from regions advancing resilience—lessons that can be applied to diverse infrastructure contexts. For IEEE Young Professionals, the challenge is to design, implement, and advocate for these solutions. It means advancing technical expertise, engaging with policymakers, and promoting investments that ensure sector resilience. This session will present real-world examples, data-driven strategies, and practical frameworks for strengthening power infrastructure resilience. It will outline steps to build robust, adaptive systems across interdependent sectors, regions, nations, and global networks. Speaker(s): Dr. Massoud Amin Agenda: - Introduction (5 minutes) - Key Note by Dr. Masood Amin - (45 minutes) - Q&A (10 minutes) Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/478409

Distributed Machine Learning for FPGAs in the Cloud Machine Learning (ML) is a growing area in both research and applications. Trends include larger and larger ML models and the interest in getting results from ML with low latency and high throughput. To address these trends, researchers are increasingly looking at accelerators (such as Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), especially those that are directly connected to the network to achieve low latency access to data. In this talk, I will introduce the Open Cloud Testbed (OCT): https://octestbed.org/ OCT is available to researchers who are interested in conducting cloud research with accelerators. We provide GPUS, FPGAs, and AI engines from AMD. The FPGAs and AI engines are directly connected to the network. I will discuss experiments on using OCT for distributed ML using multiple network connected FPGAs. Specifically I will present results for running Resnet50 inference on the imagenet dataset. No hardware knowledge is assumed for this webinar. Speaker(s): Miriam Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/473027

This lecture will provide an introduction to electronic warfare (EW) concepts and principles. The intent is familiarize the audience with EW concepts and achieve an understanding of how EW is used to interrupt radar processing chains. This will include a general discussion on the EW field, including applications outside radar specific uses and terminology widely used within the field. A historical development of the EW field will be presented to motivate importance and historical use. Basic EW techniques (e.g. noise, range/velocity techniques, etc.) with associated effects on nominal radars will be presented/discussed to ensure an understanding of the technical underpinnings of EW. Building on the basic techniques, a brief discussion on concepts in advanced EW systems and current research will be presented. The discussion will conclude by briefly presenting the revolutionary impact of cognitive and AI/ML processes on EW, which will serve as a lead in to Karen Haigh's discussion on Cognitive EW. Co-sponsored by: IEEE North Jersey Section Speaker(s): David Brown, Agenda: Please RSVP to (mailto:nicole.zaretski@l3harris.com?subject=RSVP%20AOC%2024%20Jan%20L+L) (President, AOC Garden State Chapter), and indicate if you plan to attend in person or virtually, by COB Friday, 18 April to secure your place. The online presentation will begin promptly at 12:00 noon, but virtual attendees should sign in early to ensure they are able to connect to the web event. Bldg: Auditorium, L3 Harris Technologies, 77, River Road, Clifton, New Jersey, United States

We’ll look at decisions made under uncertainty and review tools such as health indices, Monte Carlo simulations, risk matrices, forecasting models, and similar. And we’ll look at some of the pitfalls of communications between tech folks (who make suggestions) and financial folks (who make decisions). Speaker(s): Tony Agenda: The seminar fee includes lunch, refreshments and handouts. Non-members joining IEEE within 30 days of the seminar will be rebated 50% of the IEEE registration charge. Four hours of instruction will be provided. If desired, IEEE Continuing Education Units (0.4 CEUs) will be offered for this course - a small fee of $55 will be required for processing. Please pay attention to the “Registration Fee” and choose the appropriate choice either with or without CEUs. CEU Evaluation Form can be found at: (https://innovationatwork.ieee.org/ieee-pes-northjersey-certificates/) Room: Auditorium, Bldg: PSE&G - Hadley Road Facility, 4000 Hadley Road, South Plainfield, New Jersey, United States, 07080