On 10 July, IEEE-USA co-sponsored a congressional briefing on Capitol Hill to discuss the emerging technology of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and the role they can play in reducing our nation's gasoline usage and dependence on foreign oil.  Dr. Paul Werbos of the National Science Foundation, spoke on "Towards Independence from Imported Oil," and Dr. Thomas Schneider, energy consultant and member of IEEE-USA's Energy Policy Committee, addressed "Transportation Efficiency Through Electric Drive and the Power Grid."

IEEE-USA joined with the American Electronics Association and the RFID Business Association in presenting an 11 July briefing for the U.S. Senate RFID Caucus on RFID technology and its uses in port security.

In July, IEEE-USA released an ebook entitled the “RFID 2007 Survey Report”, with results of a survey on RFID trends and issues.
 

On August 2, both the House and the Senate passed the America COMPETES Act (H.R. 2272), landmark innovation legislation supported by IEEE-USA.  The bill also incorporates amendments to the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991 (Section 7024) also championed by IEEE-USA.  The bill was signed into law by President Bush on 9 August.

On August 2, IEEE's Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD) were provided access to download a complimentary IEEE-USA Ebook on "The Best of IEEE-USA Today's Engineer: On Career Transitions."

On 10 August, IEEE-USA released an ebook on "Personal Positioning for Engineers"

The IEEE-USA Annual Meeting was held on Aug. 31 - Sept. 3 in Scottsdale, Arizona on the theme "Capitalizing on Global Opportunities."
 

IEEE-USA arranged for Walt Trybula, Director of the Nanomaterials Application Center (NAC) at Texas State University-San Marcos. to provide a briefing on nanotechnology applications in the fields of electronics and photos for the congressional Nanotechnology Caucus on Sept. 10th.

On Sept. 18, IEEE-USA President John Meredith and President-Elect Russell Lefevre participated in the inaugural National Summit on American Competitiveness, organized by the Department of Commerce to bring together leading industry executives, high-ranking government officials and renowned academics and opinion leaders to focus on strategies that are needed to keep the U.S. competitive.

IEEE-USA, in partnership with the IEEE New Technology Directions Committee and the IEEE Power Engineering Society, held a conference on "Plug-In Hybrids: Accelerating Progress" on 19 September 2007 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC.  Keynote speakers included Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), FERC Commissioner Jon Wellinghoff, and ex-CIA Director James Woolsey.

IEEE-USA joined with 20 other organizations on September 20 to sponsor a celebratory event on Capitol hill to thank Members of Congress, their staff, and supporters in the Executive Branch for their successful bipartisan efforts in passing the landmark America Competes Act (H.R. 2272), authorizing legislation for federal science research, education, and innovation.  The event featured remarks by U.S. Representatives Vern Ehlers of Michigan and David Wu of Oregon, both members of the House Science and Technology Committee.

On 24-25 September, IEEE-USA joined with the IEEE-chaired Biotechnology Council and the National Institute of Standards and Technology in supporting a conference on "Economic Strategy for Health Care through Bio and Information Standards and Technologies," held at NIST's Gaithersburg, Maryland conference facility.

On 25 September, IEEE-USA released an ebook on "Educating Engineers in the 21st Century."
 

In October, IEEE-USA unveiled the “How Engineers Make A World of Difference” Film Contest.  IEEE-USA will be awarding $10,000 in scholarships and other prizes in a competition for engineering.  Students will be asked to choose an aspect of engineering that they consider to be socially constructive, appealing and "fun"; and to translate it into a 90-second digital video clip -- aimed at an 11-to-13-year-old student audience.

IEEE-USA presented a professional activities workshop for the IEEE Santa Clara Valley Section on 19 Oct. in conjunction with the IEEE-USA OpCom meeting.

IEEE-USA co-sponsored the Atlanta Conference on Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, je;d for 19-20 October in Atlanta,

On Oct. 23, IEEE-USA offered a webinar on how to "Enhance Your Career With Online Networking," presented by Ellen Sautter and Diane Crompton of Right Management, Inc. Georgia.

The IEEE-USA-sponsored 2007 RFID Conference Highlights program premiered on IEEEtv on Oct. 24.

During Oct., IEEE-USA sponsored a student professional awareness conference at California State University, Northridge (6 Oct.), the University of Rhode Island (26 Oct.) and the University of Colorado at Boulder (26 Oct.).    IEEE-USA also sponsored an extended student professional awareness event (SPAVe) at the University of California, Berkeley (Oct-Nov.)
 

On Nov. 1, IEEE-USA President-Elect Russ Lefevre will present the IEEE-USA 2007 Distinguished Public Service Award to former high-ranking congressional staffers Bill Bonvillian and David Goldston at an IEEE-USA-hosted Capitol Hill reception.

IEEE-USA Vice President Paul Kostek addressed "Skills and the Global Market" at a national conference hosted by the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology (CPST) on November 1-2, 2007 on the subject "Can We Compete? Trends in America’s Scientific and Technical Workforce."

IEEE-USA and the IEEE San Diego Section held a Workshop on Employment and Career Satisfaction Skills on Nov. 3 in San Diego.

At a special congressional reception, IEEE-USA President-Elect Russell Lefevre presented the 2007 IEEE-USA Distinguished Public Service Award to former senior congressional staffers Bill Bonvillian and David Goldston for their efforts on behalf of science and technology while in Congressional service.

The IEEE-USA Innovation Institute held its first Innovation Forum on Nov. 6-8 in the Washington, DC area.  The day and a half program provided an interactive, case-study approach to enhancing innovation, including the roles of corporate leadership and culture, large vs. small organizational perspectives, the innovation process, and capitalizing on new technologies and processes.

In association with the Innovation Forum, IEEE-USA published two new e-books on innovation: The Best of Today's Engineer: On Innovation is a compilation of the best articles on innovation from the Today's Engineer archives. Innovation Conversations — Book 1: The Innovation Process, was developed by internationally renowned innovation expert and author, William C. Miller.

On Nov. 8, IEEE-USA co-sponsored a briefing for the congressional R&D Caucus entitled "Sputnik in the YouTube Age" organized through the Task Force on the Future of American Innovation.

The IEEE-USA Board of Directors met on 16 Nov. 2007 in Boston, Massachusetts, where it adopted new position statements on Department of Defense Science and Technology, Optimized Use of Federal Laboratories, Surface Transportation Security, and Synthetic Aperture Radar.

During Nov., IEEE-USA sponsored a student professional awareness conference at 11/3 U. of Missouri, Rolla (3 Nov.), Cornell University (10 Nov.), University of South Florida (13 Nov.), Louisiana State University (15 Nov.) and University of California - San Diego (16 Nov.).  With these events, IEEE-USA sponsored a total of 40 student professional awareness programs in 2007.
 

On Dec 12, IEEE-USA co-sponsored a congressional briefing by the Task Force on the Future of American Innovation given by Norm Augustine on the topic "America, We Have a Problem."

The Clean Energy Act of 2007 (Public Law 110-140), signed into law (Public Law 110-140) on 19 Dec. 2007, contains two items of particular interest to IEEE and IEEE-USA. The first (Section 131 of Subtitle B) authorizes $95 million in competitive grants on a cost-shared basis to state and local governments, metropolitan transportation authorities, or private or non-profit entities in order to encourage the use of plug-in electric drive vehicles or other emerging electric vehicle technologies. Also included in this section are provisions to develop a nationwide electric drive transportation technology education program, which will include an electric vehicle competition and financial assistance to colleges to create new or support existing degree programs to ensure the availability of trained electrical and mechanical engineers to work on plug-in electric or other forms of electric drive transportation vehicles. Also, Section 1301 of Title XIII, calls for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to solicit input from IEEE and other organizations in developing protocols and standards for the nascent Smart Grid technology for the nation’s electricity grid. This specific mention of IEEE was a result of technical consultation provided by representatives of IEEE's SCC21 to House Science Committee staff members on the development of Smart Grid Standards, meetings which were facilitated by IEEE-USA.

At the end of the year, IEEE-USA released two new Ebook titles.  Luis Kun and Robert Matthews authored an ebook on "Interoperability and Critical Infrastructure Protection."   R. H. Gauger, P.E. prepared the "2007 Consultants Profile."   For the year, IEEE-USA published twelve new Ebook titles.

During 2007, IEEE-USA ran three events in Washington that allowed IEEE U.S. members to meet with their legislators: Congressional Visits Day, Career Fly-In and a Fly-In arranged with IEEE LEOS.  Combined with individual member meetings coordinated by IEEE-USA, IEEE members participated in over 200 meetings with their legislators in 2007 to help advance IEEE-USA's career and innovation agendas, a new single-year record for IEEE-USA.  Representatives of IEEE-USA's Grassroots program also addressed 18 U.S. IEEE Sections in 2007, including trips to all six American regions.  That brings the grassroots outreach total to 80 local meetings over the past four years