Providing inspiration to college chapters and their members is very rewarding.

Take a look at the ways you can “Make An Impact,” by visiting the HKN website.

Should you have any questions about volunteering with HKN, please contact our Director, Nancy Ostin, at n.ostin@ieee.org. Additional information is available on our Alumni page.

Also, the Alumni Committee could use some help with defining needs and researching solutions for the Alumni Volunteer Network. If you are interested in this activity and would like to become a corresponding member of the Alumni Committee, please contact Dennis Leitterman at dennis.leitterman@yahoo.com.

This alumni project is planned to be accomplished via 1-hour-long teleconference collaboration meetings held on the same day and time for eight consecutive weeks.  IEEE-HKN Treasurer and longtime IEEE member and volunteer Ron Jensen will lead the project team as chair of the Journey Mapping Ad-Hoc Committee. If you are interested in participating or have questions, please send an email to Dennis Leitterman at dennis.leitterman@yahoo.com.

They went through initiation together and became board members the very next semester. The following year, they decided to step up their game and run for President and Vice President. Both distinctly remember having to abstain from voting for each other citing conflict of interest! As new leaders of Alpha 

Chapter, Li made it his mission to make for more effective board meetings, while Liana worked to improve the chapter’s relations with the department.

Five years later, Li and Liana are happily married living in Austin, Texas, both working in the semiconductor industry at Arm, Inc. They still look back fondly on the time they spent with their fellow board members making HKN Alpha Chapter better than ever!

Read more about the award and Dr. Madni  (pictured with his son, Jamal), by clicking here.  

You may also donate a gift to honor Dr. Madni by clicking here.

The list of established IEEE-HKN Awards and Recognitions can be viewed on the HKN website.  

That initiation was such that, even today, I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat thinking about it. There was a lot more to that initiation than I have seen at local student chapters in the last few decades. Those were different times.

It started with my receiving a letter telling me that, being in the top 15% of my Junior Class or top 25% of the Senior EE Class had made me eligible for membership in this national EE honor society. We were invited to a meeting where we were told that the initiation would consist of two parts: an Informal Initiation and a Formal Initiation.

At that meeting we were told that the Informal Initiation would be held on a coming Saturday in a lower lab in the main engineering building. It would require us to pass a written test and also an oral one. We were told we could bring any reference books we desired to use in the written test. We were also told we would be required to make an HKN “Key” that evening and to bring three feet of AWG 6 gauge solid copper wire and a soldering iron.

All of us potential members showed up that day carrying one or two large boxes of various engineering and math books. The two-hour written test started at 4:00 that afternoon. You had to work on your own and could not ask help from other potential members. We were tacitly led to understand that becoming an HKN Member would depend on how well we did on the tests that evening. Choke!

The written test would have brought tears to the eyes of Nikolai Tesla and Gustav Kirchhoff. I did my best but saw my chance of becoming a member of HKN fading fast.

After the test, we were given a plan for the “Key.” The work was to be done in a neat and professional manner. No cold solder joints would be accepted. With solder irons in hand, we all started making our key, which consisted of a diamond shape with the letters HKN on the inside, a loop at the top and a straight wire sticking out the bottom

While making our keys, we were taken one at a time to another room in which we saw most of our professors looking quite sober. On the surrounding black boards were six problems. We were each asked to solve one of the problems while our professors watched. These would have finally made Tesla have a nervous breakdown. With a lot of help from our professors, we finally solved the problem we were assigned and allowed to return to work on our keys.

We finally finished our keys and, with a few cold solder joints corrected, had them pass the visual inspection. We were done. “But Wait,” as the man on TV would say while he sells his Smokeless ashtrays and Salad Shooters. “There is more.” We were now told our keys had to pass a couple of “Integrity” tests.

The first of these tests was to throw our keys like a dagger and stick them in a cardboard box on a stand against the cement block wall of the lab. Of course, if you missed the box and hit the wall, the key would suffer some damage and require repairs before retesting. After that, the second test required you to throw the key over your shoulder and have it land in one piece in an area formed by a set of arm-chair desks arranged in a square on the cement floor. That test also often required some repairs.

We were finally told we had all passed our tests. The written tests had been graded while we made our keys. I had the best score, I am proud to say, by answering 27% of the questions successfully. For that, I received a $20 gift certificate at the local student book store. I still have the book of engineering and math tables I got with that award.

The Formal Initiation was held at the Ox Yoke Inn at the Amana Colonies west of Iowa City. We all wore suits to that initiation and managed to eat copious quantities of prime rib, schnitzel, ham and myriad delicious side dishes. We were sworn in as life-time HKN members that night. We had passed the test.

I would love to go to that Formal Initiation again. As far as the Informal Initiation, I would rather slide down a razor blade into a bucket of turpentine than go through that again.

This opportunity is available to a number of deserving students thanks to the generosity of donors, like you. For US$135 you can underwrite the cost for one student to attend this year’s conference in Boston. A US$250 donation provides a travel stipend for one chapter. Click here to make your gift.

If you are in the Boston area, HKN alumni are invited to attend the dinner on Saturday night. Tickets are US$75 per person. Click here for details and to reserve your spot.

IEEE-HKN Student Leadership Conference at ASU

Our lifetime membership roster includes three Eminent Members (Marcus Dodson, Steven Sample, and William E. Murray); three Distinguished Service Award winners (Tom Rothwell, Marcus Dodson and Alan Willson); three past National Presidents (William E. Murray, Tom Rothwell, and Marcus Dodson); numerous past members of the HKN Board of Governors, and current HKN Governor John DeGraw. Our current active members have 400 years-plus of active involvement with HKN.

Additionally, we administer The Alton B. Zerby and Carl T. Koerner Outstanding Student Award. This award was conceived in 1964 by the Los Angeles Alumni Chapter of HKN and first awarded in 1965. The members of the award committee have over 150 years of combined experience administering this award. Current members are Dick Cockrum, John DeGraw, Barbara Guerrero, Jimmie Huff, Don Stoica, Art Sutton, and Alan Willson.

Since 1965 there have been 58 recipients, representing 40 HKN Chapters and their respective Universities. Six times in the history of this award multiple recipients (1979, 1986, 1987, 2001, 2004, 2017) have been recognized.

This year’s recipient is Ramandeep Vilkhu representing the Gamma Chapter and Ohio State University.

The Gamma Theta Chapter at Missouri University of Science and Technology, formerly The University of Missouri Rolla, has nominated six recipients, and the Mu Chapter at the University of California Berkeley and the Delta Omega Chapter at the University of Hawaii at Manoa have nominated four each. We strongly encourage each chapter to honor their own student of the year and nominate that student for The Alton B. Zerby and Carl T. Koerner Outstanding Student Award.

Currently we are in the process of developing an award to be given to a local student in memory of “MR. HKN” Tom Rothwell (center in the photo below). This award will be solely funded by the Los Angeles Alumni Chapter. This is a great way to interact with local chapters.

Dr. Karen Panetta, 2019 IEEE-HKN President, kicked-off the event with welcome remarks and introductions. She then led a Graduate Program Panel Discussion. Sessions included: “Building Effective Communications and Relationships,” “What They Did Not Teach You in Engineering School and “Why Professionals Need a Professional Association.” A moderated panel discussion on “Industry Forecast: The Next Big Things” rounded out the workshop. Panelists included Doug Baney of Keysight Technologies, Doug Phillips of Texas Instruments, Dennis Leitterman, retired from Hewlitt Packard, and April Zhao of Qualcomm.

The workshop was organized by Nancy Ostin, Director, IEEE-HKN. The students asked excellent questions, and came away much better prepared to make the transition to industry. If you would like to know more about opportunities to like Pathways, please contact info@hkn.org