Ukrainian Engineers Society of America News

2019 New York City Yalynka

Sat, 14 Dec 2019 15:58:39 GMT

As in years past, the New York City Chapter of the Ukrainian Engineers' Society of America, together with the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America and the Ukrainian Institute of America, held the annual New York City "Yalynka." The event took place on Saturday December 14th in the elegant home of the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York City.

The evening began with warm greetings provided by UESA New York City Board member Ivan Durbak. It was followed by a musical program provided by vocal group Promin. The Promin Vocal Ensemble was founded in 1972 by conductor, vocalist, musician and arranger Bohdanna Wolansky and has performed at such prominent venues as Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the United Nations in New York, and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The ensemble has a passion for good music and Ukrainian song.

After about an hour long performance of traditional Ukrainian Christmas Carols, the first act was concluded. This was followed words from Ms.Natalie Trojan, the current treasurer of the Ukrainian Institute of America, who thanked everyone for coming and highlighted the many years of mutual support between the sponsoring organizations.

The first portion of the night concluded with greetings from the president of the New York City Chapter of the Ukrainian Engineers Society of America, Marco Shmerykowsky. Mr. Shmerykowsky thanked both the evening’s guests and sponsoring organizations. He also took the opportunity to note events such as the New York Yalynka are dependent on the volunteer efforts of our community members. The continued viability of such events is dependent on people joining the sponsoring organizations and contributing their time. Happily, several people inquired about membership throughout the evening. After the closing remarks were concluded, the evening’s guests were invited to enjoy the hors d'ouevres and refreshments.

The food was once again catered by Mrs. Lisa Krawec of the Yonkers Miasarnia. The Krawec has been preparing theirs excellent and varied menu for various New York City UESA Chapter events for many years. As always, their feast was greatly enjoyed by all in attendance.

After a short intermission period, the members of Promin returned to provided additional entertainment.

As the night continued, the Ukrainian Institute's hall continued to fill up as professionals, young and old, arrived together with their family and friends. New friendships and connections were made and old ones were reinvigorated.

As always, the die-hard Yalynka attendees had such a good time that it was nearly impossible to convince them that this year's event had to come to an end. On the bright side, however, the next UESA event is never too far away.

Ukraine's President Zelensky Meets with Ukrainian Diaspora in NYC

Mon, 23 Sep 2019 23:00:00 GMT

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/politics/10695981-zelensky-grateful-to-ukrainian-community-in-u-s-for-supporting-ukraine-photo.html

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the Ukrainian Institute of America on Monday, September 23, 2019 to meet with representative of the Ukrainian-American Community. President is on a working visit to the United States as he participates in the 74th United Nations General Assembly in NYC. The Ukrainian Engineers Society of America is honored to have been invited to attend the event with the President.

Engineers’ Society 2019 Philadelphia Debutante Ball

Wed, 17 Apr 2019 00:21:14 GMT

by Peter Hewka

The 65-th Annual Engineers’ Banquet and Ball, with presentation of Debutantes, sponsored by the Philadelphia Chapter of the Ukrainian Engineers’ Society of America, took place on Saturday, February 2, 2019, in the classically elegant and completely renovated Grand Ballroom of the Bellevue Hotel. This is without question the finest ballroom in the Philadelphia area.

Photo Caption: Debutantes and escorts at the 2019 Philadelphia Ball.
Photo credit: Marko Lonkevych

This gala event was by all measures a tremendous success!

There were over 350 guests at the Banquet, and a total of over 650 attended the Ball. The Bellevue Grand Ballroom was full to overflowing, and a second ballroom was opened to accommodate all the guests.

The Reverend Taras Lonchyna, pastor of St. Josaphat’s Ukrainian Catholic Church in Trenton, NJ, opened the Gala with a prayer for Ukraine and with a blessing.

Eleven (11) lovely and talented young ladies were presented as debutantes: Natalia Buck, escorted by Pavlo Pencak; Maria Heren, escort Nicholas Santone; Ksenia Hulayev, escorted by Roman Zharovsky; Marianna Klingensmith, escort Yuri Yakymiv; Marianna Lechman, escorted by Thoma Holovatskyy; Roma Lonkevych, escort Zen Kochanowsky; Juliette Louer, escorted by Lucas Chuma; Anette Luba, escort Andrew Popadiuk; Cadence McStowe, escorted by Darius Kulchyckyj; Anastasiya Stolyarchuk, escort Roman Nagirniak; and Ksenia Tymchenko, escorted by Anton Pereklita

The debutantes and escorts were exceptionally well prepared by Halia Wirstiuk and Ania Bohachevsky Lonkevych to perform their presentation dances. Original choreography for the dances was prepared by them to the music of Richard Strauss.

Masters of Ceremonies for the Banquet and Ball were Natalia Tarasiuk and Andriy Royik.

An additional highlight of the evening was a special performance by world class concert pianist Roman Rudnytsky, of Ohio, whose granddaughter was one of the debutantes.

The outstanding success of this Gala event was made possible by the preparation and hard work of the Ball Committee, chaired by Orysia Hewka.

Music was provided by the Hrim Orchestra, from New York and Connecticut

For weeks after the Ball, social media were praising the Philadelphia Ball as the place to debut!

Next year’s Philadelphia Engineers’ Ball is scheduled for Saturday, February 1, 2020, at the same venue, the Bellevue Hotel.

2018 New York City Yalynka

Sun, 16 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMT

As in years past, the New York City Chapter of the Ukrainian Engineers' Society of America, together with the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America and the Ukrainian Institute of America, held the annual New York City "Yalynka." The event took place on Saturday December 15th in the elegant home of the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York City.

The evening began with warm greetings provided by UESA New York City Board member Ivan Durbak. It was followed by a musical program provided by Ukrainian Village Voices. Ukrainian Village Voices is a culturally diverse group of folk singers based in New York City, uniting members of the Ukrainian and larger folk music communities. The group sings in the polyphonic village style and its repertoire is constantly evolving, frequently focusing on seasonal celebrations, ritual songs, as well as lyrical music.

After about an hour long performance of traditional Ukrainian Christmas Carols and authentic yuletide songs from the villages of Ukrainian, the first act was concluded. This was followed words from the president of the New York City Chapter of the Ukrainian Engineers Society of America, Marco Shmerykowsky. Mr. Shmerykowsky thanked to both the evening’s guests and sponsoring organizations. He also took the opportunity to note that UESA was embarking on a concentrated effort to update its membership lists and create a new online presence which will allow and foster communication between its members, the various UESA Chapters and the National Board. The new web site is now online at uesa.wildapricot.org. After the closing remarks were concluded, the evening’s guests were invited to enjoy the hors d'ouevres and refreshments.

The food was once again catered by Mrs. Lisa Krawec of the Yonkers Miasarnia. The Krawec has been preparing theirs excellent and varied menu for various New York City UESA Chapter events for many years. As always, their feast was greatly enjoyed by all in attendance.

After a short intermission period, the members of UVV returned to provided additional entertainment.

NYC Lecture on “Engineering Inventions, New Technologies, and Intellectual Property”

Thu, 16 Mar 2006 04:17:24 GMT

By Ivan Durbak

On March 15th, 2006, the Ukrainian Engineers’ Society of NYC presented a lecture by Walter Hanchuk, Patent Attorney for Chadbourne & Parke LLP on “Engineering Inventions, New Technologies, and Intellectual Property ", at the Ukrainian Institute, 2 East 79th Street, NYC. John Kheit, a senior associate in the intellectual property group at Chadbourne & Parke, assisted in the presentation Mr. Hanchuk began with a general overview of the Intellectual Property (IP) landscape of Patents, Copyrights, Trademarks, and Trade-Secrets: an exciting arena where, with substantial Private Equity funding available and where it has never been easier to market and expand a business, IP has never been more valued. Mr. Hanchuk also explained, however, legal minefields including Trademark Clearance problems, the birth of the Patent Troll, copyright cloudiness, and regulatory red-tape at an all-time high.

Mr. Hanchuk then described a number of noteworthy IP litigation cases, including: A. Patents: in the recent Blackberry case the whole country was on the verge of a Blackberry stoppage, with $612 million paid to a patent troll. Other interesting lawsuits mentioned: Priceline.com v. Microsoft & Expedia.com, Amazon.com vs. Barnesandnoble.com, and Yahoo v. Google. B. Copyrights: the wildly popular peer-to-peer (p2p) phenomena causing music and videos to be copied at record levels, and the MGM v. Grokster lawsuit. C. Trademarks: Lexis v Lexus. D. Trade Secrets: theft of trade secrets by a former exec (GM v. Volkswagon). E. Mr. Hanchuk also discussed other significant and related issues, including Open-Source, Domain-Name, and Sarbanes-Oxley issues.

To preserve worldwide rights, file for patent protection before any form of offer for sale or public disclosure; at a minimum, file within one year of offer for sale or public disclosure to preserve US rights (although foreign rights lost). A second goal is to defer costs: Foreign file within one year of US filing – the Patent Cooperation Treaty allows preservation of rights for 30 months from original filing date.

Mr. Hanchuk then detailed changing nature of computer systems and software that are “Patent-Eligible” today in the United States, illustrating cases now covered under patent law (a) New Accounting Techniques (b) New financial instruments (Traveler’s checks, Credit Cards) and (c) Internet Purchasing Techniques. Specific examples included Merrill Lynch’s Securities Brokerage-Cash Management System, CitiBank’s Trusted Agents For Open Electronic Commerce, Priceline.com’s Method and Apparatus for a Cryptographically Assisted Commercial Network System, and Amazon.com’s Internet-based Customer Referral System

Mr. Hanchuk next examined US Copyright Law and particularly how it affects the Internet technology industry. He explained how the law not only covers Direct Infringement (Copying) but also Indirect Infringement; the latter includes (a) Contributory infringement: Knowledge of infringing activity and material contribution, (b) Vicarious infringement: Profit off of the infringement and Ability to supervise the direct infringer, and (c) Inducing infringement: Intent to cause infringement and Purposeful act to encourage infringement.

Mr. Hanchuk debunked many common myths regarding OSS, including (1) You can do whatever you want with it, (2) You cannot charge for OSS (in fact - under certain conditions you can), (3) OSS is always free, and (4) You are forced to give up all of your Intellectual Property rights. He then described how many prominent companies, such as IBM, Apple, Tivo, and SONY, are effectively utilizing OSS today.

Mr. Hanchuk then moved on to US Trademark Law and explained the key topics: Genericness, concept of “Merely Descriptive” and “Likelihood of Confusion” analysis, Primarily Merely a Surname, Authors’ Names, Res Judicata and Collateral Estoppel, and Dilution. Complexity enters when the connotations and commercial impressions must be balanced against and may outweigh the visual and phonetic similarity. He illustrated with an interesting case: DC Comics v. Pan American Grain Mfg. Co. where KRYPTONITE (for T-Shirts, toys, and sporting goods, etc.) was confused with KRIPTONITA (for prepared alcoholic fruit cocktail). Mr. Hanchuk concluded with general legal advice: in all intellectual property issues with consultants and business associates and dealings:

(1) insure that all employees & consultants sign confidentiality & ip ownership agreements, (2) include patent and copyright ownership clauses (3) have employees execute exit agreements (4) take note of open source issues, (5) maintain trade secrets: limit disclosure, (6) police the brand, and (7) clear new marks and consider clearing new products of ip issues.

Throughout the presentation Mr. Hanchuk used vivid imagery and slides to keep the audience engaged and involved with a balance of technical/legal material and practical real-world problems.

After the formal presentation, the audience participated in a spirited question-and-answer session and collegial debate. The evening finished with informal and convivial discussions over food and drinks.

Walter Hanchuk is a partner in the intellectual property group at Chadbourne & Parke, a 100 year old international firm with 450 lawyers. The Firm has a major presence in Eastern Europe and the former CIS, including substantial offices in Kyiv, Warsaw, Moscow, St Petersburg and Kazakhstan.

Walter Hanchuk received his Engineering degree from the Cooper Union and his law degree from the George Washington University. His career spans over 17 years in intellectual property law, and in developing new and emerging technologies, including employment at the US Patent & Trademark Office as a US Patent Examiner and as a partner of Morgan & Finnegan, a patent law firm in New York. He has served on Advisory Boards of various emerging technology companies, and Editorial Boards of various publications of the New York Law Journal and the E-Commerce Law Journal. He has prosecuted many pioneering patents for various internet, information technology and financial service companies, and has litigated patent, unfair competition and trade secret cases against companies such as Microsoft and Texas Instruments. He was recently named one of New York's "Super Lawyers", a rating given to a small percentage of lawyers in an upcoming supplement to the NY Times.

Mr. Hanchuk next reviewed the changing Patent Protection process, tracing the patentability evolution of Software in 1990 through E-commerce in 1995 and into Business Methods in the early 2000’s. He explained how the major Strategic Goal is to preserve rights:

To preserve worldwide rights, file for patent protection before any form of offer for sale or public disclosure; at a minimum, file within one year of offer for sale or public disclosure to preserve US rights (although foreign rights lost). A second goal is to defer costs: Foreign file within one year of US filing – the Patent Cooperation Treaty allows preservation of rights for 30 months from original filing date.

Mr. Hanchuk then detailed changing nature of computer systems and software that are “Patent-Eligible” today in the United States, illustrating cases now covered under patent law (a) New Accounting Techniques (b) New financial instruments (Traveler’s checks, Credit Cards) and (c) Internet Purchasing Techniques. Specific examples included Merrill Lynch’s Securities Brokerage-Cash Management System, CitiBank’s Trusted Agents For Open Electronic Commerce, Priceline.com’s Method and Apparatus for a Cryptographically Assisted Commercial Network System, and Amazon.com’s Internet-based Customer Referral System

Mr. Hanchuk next examined US Copyright Law and particularly how it affects the Internet technology industry. He explained how the law not only covers Direct Infringement (Copying) but also Indirect Infringement; the latter includes (a) Contributory infringement: Knowledge of infringing activity and material contribution, (b) Vicarious infringement: Profit off of the infringement and Ability to supervise the direct infringer, and (c) Inducing infringement: Intent to cause infringement and Purposeful act to encourage infringement.

Mr. Hanchuk described the pivotal lawsuits against Napster and Grokster, described briefly new and developing technologies such as 1. Slingbox (Box that retransmits television broadcasts to any PC worldwide), 2. Darknets (private P2P networks) and 3. Traditional P2P – Illegal File Sharing (now with over 9 million P2P users and over one billion songs, often hosted outside the United States) and concluded that there was “No practical alternative to controlling massive copyright infringement”. Mr. Hanchuk moved on to examining Open Source Software (OSS) - Freely licensed software including source code, in the public domain, which the Licensee has the right to use, modify and distribute at no charge. He explained the interesting legal concept of Copyleft, which is a general method for making a program or other work free, and requiring all modified and extended versions of the program to be free as well. Another important legal concept is that if a program contains open source, then potentially that entire program must be redistributed for free with source code.

Mr. Hanchuk debunked many common myths regarding OSS, including (1) You can do whatever you want with it, (2) You cannot charge for OSS (in fact - under certain conditions you can), (3) OSS is always free, and (4) You are forced to give up all of your Intellectual Property rights. He then described how many prominent companies, such as IBM, Apple, Tivo, and SONY, are effectively utilizing OSS today.

Mr. Hanchuk then moved on to US Trademark Law and explained the key topics: Genericness, concept of “Merely Descriptive” and “Likelihood of Confusion” analysis, Primarily Merely a Surname, Authors’ Names, Res Judicata and Collateral Estoppel, and Dilution. Complexity enters when the connotations and commercial impressions must be balanced against and may outweigh the visual and phonetic similarity. He illustrated with an interesting case: DC Comics v. Pan American Grain Mfg. Co. where KRYPTONITE (for T-Shirts, toys, and sporting goods, etc.) was confused with KRIPTONITA (for prepared alcoholic fruit cocktail). Mr. Hanchuk concluded with general legal advice: in all intellectual property issues with consultants and business associates and dealings:

(1) insure that all employees & consultants sign confidentiality & ip ownership agreements, (2) include patent and copyright ownership clauses (3) have employees execute exit agreements (4) take note of open source issues, (5) maintain trade secrets: limit disclosure, (6) police the brand, and (7) clear new marks and consider clearing new products of ip issues.

Throughout the presentation Mr. Hanchuk used vivid imagery and slides to keep the audience engaged and involved with a balance of technical/legal material and practical real-world problems.

After the formal presentation, the audience participated in a spirited question-and-answer session and collegial debate. The evening finished with informal and convivial discussions over food and drinks.

Walter Hanchuk is a partner in the intellectual property group at Chadbourne & Parke, a 100 year old international firm with 450 lawyers. The Firm has a major presence in Eastern Europe and the former CIS, including substantial offices in Kyiv, Warsaw, Moscow, St Petersburg and Kazakhstan.

2005 New York City Yalynka

Fri, 16 Dec 2005 01:03:41 GMT

As in years past, the New York City Chapter of the Ukrainian Engineers’ Society of America, together with the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America and the Ukrainian Institute of America, held the annual New York City “Yalynka.” The event took place on Saturday December 15th in the Ukrainian Institute of America.

The entertainment for the 2005 Yalynka was provided the girls choir of the Ukrainian American Youth Association, “Prolisok.” The choir, whose members range in ages from 13 to 20 years, has been in existence in the New York City area since 1994.

The soloist for “Malvy” by Ivasiuk and the “Little Drummer Boy” was Ms Marianka Zajac. The greeting was given by Ms. Andrea Popovich.

The food was once again catered by Mr. Wasyl Krawec of the Yonkers Miasarnia. Mr. Krawec has been preparing his excellent and varied menu for various New York City UESA Chapter events for many years. As always, his feast was greatly enjoyed by all in attendance.

As the night continued, the Ukrainian Institute’s hall continued to fill up as professionals, young and old, arrived together with their family and friends. New friendships and connections were made and old ones were reinvigorated.

Half way thru the evening the Yalynka guests were entertained by the unexpected arrival of Ukrainian carolers. The group, "Koliada Kaos," is an ongoing project started by Roxy Toporowych together with the Brooklyn Ukrainian Group (BUG). The carolers wear vertep costumes, play instruments, including latin percussion and guitar, and sing their hearts out.

The initial “Koliada Kaos” was held in 2003. It originally began as a fundraiser for the documentary "Folk!" and has continued to raise money each year for the film. The documentary “Folk!” follows the unique world of Ukrainian folk dancing in present day New York City. It takes a look at what it is like to grow up in a Ukrainian-American community while keeping your ties to your heritage and culture in an increasingly modern world.

Those interested in learning more about the “Folk!” documentary film project can refer to the KinoRox web site at www.kinorox.com or you can contact Natalia Labenskyj at natalia@kinorox.com

As always, the die-hard Yalynka attendees had such a good time that it was nearly impossible to convince them that this year’s event had to come to an end. On the bright side, however, the next UESA event is never too far away.

Adam Hapij Lectures on "Blast Effects on Buildings"

Thu, 26 May 2005 23:44:38 GMT

On May 26th, 2005, the Ukrainian Engineers' Society of NYC presented a lecture by Adam W. Hapij, P.E., civil engineer at Weidlinger Associates, Inc., NYC, on "Blast Effects on Buildings".

Mr. Hapij began with a broad overview of terrorist attacks in recent history, categorizing the 2,667 explosive incidents in the U.S between 2000 and 2003. He then described the blast threats from explosive weapons (mortars, hand grenades, improvised explosive devices, vehicle bombs, bulk high explosives) as well as non-explosive blast threats (from aircraft impact, car impact, and gas explosions).

Mr. Hapij next detailed the general features of explosion phenomena: detonation, afterburning, flash, and fragmentation. He explained the mathematical models and empirical relationships that are used to approximate these explosion phenomena, in particular the Friedlander Decay Equation that characterizes the temporal variation of pressure, using Kingery Bulmash Relationships to determine peak incident pressure and decay parameters. Graphical techniques were used to illustrate attenuation of blast effects with distance, reflected pressure, effects of burst position, and air blast damage criteria.

Mr. Hapij reviewed various construction materials - steel, concrete, timber, and unreinforced masonry - comparing their strengths and weaknesses in withstanding blast effects. He examined the consequences of blasts on structural and architectural building components, highlighting the propensity for loss of structural integrity, propagation of failure front, and response of conventional glass to blast.

Mr. Hapij then explored in detail design issues in mitigating blast effects, including hardening, perimeter protection, and protective design with curtain walls. He explained that, while the U.S. does not have Building Code requirements for blast resistance, there are many federal design guidelines and manuals that provide important design recommendations; one such recent example is FEMA 452 " Risk Assessment: a How-To Guide to Mitigate Potential Terrorist Attacks Against Buildings" (2005).

Mr. Hapij outlined various blast response simulation methodologies used to study blast phenomena and their effects on buildings, especially the Single Degree of Freedom (SDOF) analysis used by the majority of structural design industry. Other more involved simulation techniques include: (1) nonlinear dynamic finite element analysis, including large deformations and inelastic constitutive models; (2) decoupled simulation of air-structure interaction, and (3) more sophisticated fully-coupled approach using the computationally demanding ALE (Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian) or Standard Coupler Interface (SCI) methods.

Finally, Mr. Hapij offered a design philosophy based on a balanced, practical approach to protect against specific threat locations, to protect against ill-defined loads, to utilize increased redundancy to redistribute extreme loads, to allow for load reversals, and to eliminate threats both within and adjacent to a building.

Throughout the presentation Mr. Hapij used vivid imagery and animations to demonstrate, with startling clarity and in slow motion, blast phenomena and effects. He kept the audience engMr. Hapij began with a broad overview of terrorist attacks in recent history, categorizing the 2,667 explosive incidents in the U.S between 2000 and 2003. He then described the blast threats from explosive weapons (mortars, hand grenades, improvised explosive devices, vehicle bombs, bulk high explosives) as well as non-explosive blast threats (from aircraft impact, car impact, and gas explosions).

After the formal presentation, the audience participated in a spirited collegial debate over questions such as "could the WTC structural building collapse on 9/11 been anticipated and prevented?"

The evening finished with informal and convivial discussions over food and drinks.

The lecture counted towards NYS continuing education credit for licensed professional engineers.

NYC Resume & Job Hunting Workshop

Thu, 07 Apr 2005 23:05:59 GMT

On April 7, 2005, the New York City Chapter of the UESA held a "Resume and Job Hunting" workshop. The workshop was targeted to those that are entering the workforce in the United States for the first time or are looking to switch careers.

The workshop consisted of four short presentations by speakers with a range of experience, followed by a group question and answer session.

The first presentation was prepared by Ms. Maya Lew. Ms. Lew's professional experience includes being a Senior Staffing Coordinator for a downtown Manhattan staffing firm which specializes in sourcing candidates for the financial and medical sectors. Ms. Lew's lecture highlighted items which potential job candidates should consider both when preparing to conduct an interview with a prospective and when preparing a resume.

With respect to the basic "do's" which a job candidate should follow, Ms. Lew stressed the importance of being prompt and portraying a confident and interested image. The candidate should be well dressed and groomed as it is a reflection of their personal habits and life. Additionally, a candidate should be prepared with a researched understanding of the company which is offering the job and they should be prepared to answers the questions about themselves and their experience. These questions include "what are your strengths" and "tell me about yourself." Ms. Lew also noted that it is important to be able to account for gaps in your resume.

Ms. Lew also discussed items which a job candidate should consider when writing a resume. Among her observations was that a resume should be kept compact since employers tend to read resumes for an average of about 5 to 10 seconds. If they see something that grabs their attention in that span of time, then they will read on. Candidates should also show consistency in their work experience and/or a progression of experience and skills. Finally, candidates should try to use similar language, when applicable, to the advertisement for an open position. Sometimes a job can have several descriptions, but an employer will focus on resumes that mirror the language of the advertisement.

The next speaker was Mr. Wasyl Kinach, PE. Mr. Kinach is the Director of Classifications at the New York City Comptrollers Office. Mr. Kinach also spoke on the topics of writing a resume and conducting an interview.

One item Mr. Kinach mentioned with respect to resumes was that it is important to understand that the purpose of a resume is to create interest and to whet the reader's appetite for more information. The resume itself will not secure a potential position. Rather, it serves to create interest, generate questions which will allow the job seeker to elaborate on their strengths, and to serve as a "reminder" about the job seeker's qualifications.

On the topic of interviews, Mr. Kinach reaffirmed the central themes which were often repeated throughout the night. He noted that one's appearance, punctuality, and communication skills have a significant impact on the first impression the prospective employer will develop. You have one chance at a first impression, and you want to make the best effort to make this a positive one. Mr. Kinach continued to discuss how interviewers watch for possible disqualifications which include contradictions, grandiose claims, anger, and evidence of indecisions on inflexibility. He also noted that it is not advisable to criticize previous employers or bosses.

Mr. Kinach concluded by reviewing a number of "core" interview questions to which a person should have thoughtful and relevant answers. These core questions include "Tell us about yourself," "what is your biggest strength," "what is your biggest weakness," "what kind of decisions are most difficult for you," and "how could you make a contribution to this company."

The next speaker was Mr. Roman Kostiuk who is an associate at Societe Generale, a corporate investment banking firm. Mr. Kostiuk shared observations on the current recruiting market.

Mr. Kostiuk began by noting that a job seeker needs to have a clear idea of what they want to do and what a prospective position entails. A person should understand whether the two aspects coincide. He also noted a person should not be discouraged if your skills do not match the advertised position exactly. Often, similar skills can be applied to new tasks.

This concept extends to the philosophy that it's advisable for an person to be an innovator and one to take action. One should be eager to learn. Learning translates to the experience which is needed in various complex environments is for most advanced and senior positions. An employee is there to add value to a company, and one's experience and skills provide that value.

Finally, Mr. Kostiuk touched on how different professions can take advantage of modern tools. For example, various internet job search tools, such as Dice.com, Career builder, and Monster.com, allow a job seeker to obtain a great deal of exposure quickly. Such tools can also help a job seeker develop an extensive network of contacts in their field and to find a mentor.

The next speaker was Mr. Adrian Berezowsky. Mr. Berezowsky is currently completing his studies in the field of construction law. Mr. Berezowsky shared observations from the perspective of a recent entrant into the job market.

Among the items Mr. Berezowsky mentioned was that it is important to account for gaps in your resume's timelines in an honest fashion. He reiterated the fact that it is important the job seeker be completely honest with respect to their employment history and other items listed on their resume. The job seeker should assume that the information can and will be verified by the prospective employer. If the reality conflicts with what is presented as the "truth" the it will impact very negatively on the job seeker.

Mr. Berezowsky also noted that as a student just entering the job market, it is important to call attention to extracurricular activities. These activities reflect on the job seeker's abilities, responsibilities and dedication. It is also important for the job seeker to be properly prepared for an interview. .Enough research should be done so that the job seeker can speak knowledgeably about what the prospective company does and what it has to offer. Furthermore, the research should allow the job seeker to ask intelligent questions. Mr. Berezowsky noted that often the toughest question which will be posted to a job seeker is "do you have any questions." Those seeking employment should be prepared with intelligent and relevant questions.

Mr. Berezowsky noted that it is valuable to be observant with respect to the surroundings at an interview location and the interviewer's reactions to various items. Often, an item of common interest, such as a favorite baseball team, can be the key to establishing a unique connection which other job seekers may not obtain. Finally, Mr. Berezowsky noted that is often a good idea to send a thank you note to the person who conducted the interview. Not only is it a professional courtesy but it also provides an additional opportunity for the job seeker to remind the prospective employer about them.

The evening concluded as it began with informal chats among the workshop's attendees.

2005 UESA Detroit Branch Winter Ball and Presentation of the Debutantes

Sat, 29 Jan 2005 23:44:58 GMT

By Zina Kozak-Zachary

On Saturday, January 29, 2005, UESA Detroit Branch hosted the 42nd Winter Ball and Presentation of the Debutantes, a tradition which was first initiated by the Society in 1960.

This year the event took place at the newly renovated Ukrainian Cultural Center in Warren, Michigan where nearly 250 guests gathered to welcome two additional young ladies to the Ukrainian-American community in South Eastern Michigan. To date, the UESA has presented 406 young ladies through this socially rich ceremony including its latest debutantes: Miss Natalie Christina Lawrin (daughter of Dr. Oleh and Barbara Lawrin, and grand-daughter of fellow UESA member Mykola Lawrin) escorted by Jordan Fylonenko, and Elizabeth Marie Pateryn (daughter of George and Jenny Pateryn) escorted by Patrick Nordstrom.

The presiding president of the USEA Detroit Branch, Natalie Lewyckyj, opened the evening's festivities by welcoming the debutantes, their families, members of the UESA and guests. After a few short words, she introduced the Mistress of Ceremonies and fellow colleague, Zina Kozak-Zachary, who began her address by calling attention to the evening's orange theme. The significance of this color, to Ukrainian-Americans as a whole, was two-fold: it was deeply symbolic of the evening's ceremony as well as of the recent events in Ukraine.

Firstly, orange is the nationally recognized color of the school of engineering and as such it has a meaning to the Detroit Chapter members of the Ukrainian Engineers' Society.

Secondly, orange has become representative of the determination of Ukrainians to see their country a free democracy. Inspired by this monumental historic event, the Detroit Branch of the UESA chose to adopt this symbolic color in the sprit of the peaceful revolution which took place in Ukraine.

In response, we decorated ourselves and our community with orange scarves, orange ribbons, and that evening the display of orange was extended to the debutantes' bouquets, the escorts' boutonnières and even a few bow ties and pocket squares!

After completing her opening remarks, Mrs. Kozak-Zachary proceeded to the main attraction of the evening's program. As their names were announced, the debutantes entered the ballroom wearing white formal gowns and long white gloves, and carrying nosegays of brilliant orange roses.

They were escorted to the center of the dance floor where they greeted family and guests with a curtsy as they were introduced. The young ladies were then invited to the first dance of the evening with their escorts, followed by the traditional second dance with their fathers.

Finally, the escorts led the debutantes' mothers to the dance floor where they each received a long-stemmed rose from their daughters. The debutantes, their escorts and the debutantes' parents enjoyed the last ceremonial waltz before taking a final bow. Winding up the presentation ceremony the MC and guests toasted the debutantes and sang the traditional "Mnohaja Lita."

Following the dinner, dancing and socializing lasted well past midnight to contemporary music provided by Toronto's "Kari Ochi."

Special credits are due the Ball Committee for their efforts in organizing yet another successful Winter Ball: Dianna Korduba Sawicky (committee chair), Natalie Lawyckyj (UESA Detroit Branch President), Laryssa Kozak and Zina Kozak-Zachary (debutante presentation and advertisement), Greg and Oksana Woloszczuk (reservations), and Kornel and Irene Senyk (photographs and flowers).

To see a photo gallery of the event, click here.

2005 UESA Plenary Board Meeting Focuses on "Roadmap for Future"

Sun, 16 Jan 2005 00:00:41 GMT

by Andrij Wowk

UESA members from across the country took part in this year's Plenary Board Meeting, held on Saturday, January 15, 2005 in East Hanover, New Jersey, with the theme "Creating a Roadmap for the UESA's Future.

The meeting opened with the presentation of reports from National Board Executive Officers for the period of September 2003 to December 2004, followed by reports (via teleconference) from the UESA chapters in Detroit, Minneapolis, New Jersey, New York City, and Washington, D.C.

Plenary Meeting attendees in East Hanover, NJ A discussion then took place on how best to increase membership in the UESA. Key ideas which came out of this and other meeting discussions included:

b UESA publications need to focus on the needs of our younger members, include topics which relate to professionals in Ukraine, and include profiles of individual members.
UESA should consider membership in the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences (UVAN), and/or the World Federation of Engineering Organizations.
We need to increase efforts to educate the community about the networking benefits of UESA, and the range of membership levels we support. Networking was noted to be a key benefit for young professional and student UESA members.
We should identify UESA members who are willing to mentor younger members, and/or help with career-related activities.
The scholarship program being pursued through creation of the UESA Foundation will be an opportunity to attract younger members and gain publicity for UESA benefits.
An adjusted UESA budget for the year 2005 was reviewed and approved by meeting attendees.

Based on the success of teleconferencing with the chapters for the Plenary Meeting, it was decided that future Natioanl Board meetings will also be opened up to chapter Board participation via conference call.

Overall, the Plenary Meeting provided an opportunity for UESA chapters and the National Board to engage in an exciting and creative dialogue about the future of the organization. We look forward to acting on the ideas which were discussed!

(Any members wishing to receive copies of the National Board and Chapter Board reports presented at the meetig should send e-mail to national@uesa.org, or regular mail to the address on the letterhead).

New York Metro Area "Malanka" Returns!

Sat, 15 Jan 2005 15:56:12 GMT

Once upon a time the New York City Chapter used to hold a grand black tie ball in mid-winter. Debutantes were presented. Crowds of revelers were large. It was quite simply one of the cornerstones of the New York Metro Ukrainian community's social calendar.

Over time as the community changed, different debutante balls entered the picture. Today we have the Chervona Kalyna Ball, the Plast Newark Debutante Ball and the SUM Debutante Ball.

As the NYC Board surveyed the calendar, we began to wonder if there was room for the revival of UESA's event. After careful consideration, the Board decided that it would pursue the re-establishment of the Engineers' Malanka event to celebrate the New Year.

The first "renewed" Malanka took place at the Ramada Inn in East Hanover, New Jersey on January 15th, 2005. The evening began with a short cocktail hour where guests could mingle and exchanged greeting and best wishes for the coming New Year. Guests were also able to view a video tape, made by Damian Kolodij, of the demonstrations and events at the Kyiv Maidan. The video showed Yulia Timoshenko and others galvanizing and encouraging the thousands of protestors that had gathered on the Maidan.

After the cocktail hour, New York City Board member Ivan Durbak opened the evening program and welcomed all the guests on behalf of the organizing UESA chapters (New York City and New Jersey).

This was followed by an invocation by former UESA president, Fr. George Bazylevsky. Upon conclusion of the invocation, Fr. Bazylevsky provided some kind words about the direction of UESA's revitalization and the revival of an event such as the Malanka.

National UESA president Andrij Wowk was the next to speak. He also provided encouraging words and thanks for the revival of the Malanka.

Upon the conclusion of remarks, the organizers decided to take some time to honor the historic events in Ukraine. First, a poem was recited by Anna Anorichin. This poem was dedicated to the Orange Revolution and the blossoming of Ukrainian Democracy.

Finally, Dr. Jurij Savyckyj showed a video of the recent dramatic events. Dr. Savyckyj had recently visited Kyiv and served as an international election monitor in Dontesk. He described the election process, the measures taken to reduce the abuses and falsifications which occurred in the earlier rounds of voting, and also provided a psychological perspective of the Ukrainian people persevering through these difficult and challenging times.

Once all of the remarks were concluded, the New Year’s festivities began in earnest. The music was provided by the orchestra "Chornozem." As some of you may note, Chornozem has provided music for other past UESA events such as the Post Labor-Day / Fall Zabava and the ‘tovaryska zustrich held at Soyuzivka this past Labor Day weekend.

The music and dancing continued to early in the morning. Along the way, the guests were also entertained by a short "kolomjyka" provided by some of the members of the Syzokryli Dance Ensemble.

In general, it appears that everyone was very satisfied with the overall event. Several people had commented on positive reflection which the revival of this event had on both the organizing chapters and UESA as whole.

The New York City Chapter is fully committed to ensuring the success and long term viability of this event. In the future, once the National Board has formally incorporated the UESA Charitable Fund, the chapter hopes to use this event to raise funds for projects such as the scholarship program. Additionally, we are always eager to hear comments and suggestion from our members and their guests which will aid us in continually improving this event.

To see a photo gallery from the Malanka, click here.

2004 New York City Yalynka

Sun, 19 Dec 2004 00:00:00 GMT

As in years past, the New York City Chapter of the Ukrainian Engineers' Society of America, together with the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America and the Ukrainian Institute of America, held the annual New York City "Yalynka." The event took place on Saturday December 15th in the Ukrainian Institute of America.

The evening began with warm greetings provided by UESA New York City Board member Ivan Durbak. This was followed by a short description of the traditional Ukrainian Yalynka and poetry recitals by Orest, Maria and Olenka Kebalo. Upon conclusion of the recital, the children in the audience were invited to come up to the Yalynka to place ornaments on the tree.

The main portion of the program then followed with music and signing performed by the duet of Alla Kutsevych and Sergei Dushankivsky. Both Ms. Kutsevych and Mr. Dushankivsky had performed and the previous New York City Yalynka to rave reviews.

Ms. Kutsevych and Mr. Dushankivsky were also joined by the young duet of Lida and Gabriella Oros who have been seen entertaining the Ukrainian community at such events as the annual New York City 7th Street Festival.

After about an hours, the first act was concluded and the guests were invited to enjoy the hors d'ouevres and refreshments.

The food was once again catered by Mr. Wasyl Krawec of the Yonkers Miasarnia. Mr. Krawec has been preparing his excellent and varied menu for various New York City UESA Chapter events for many years. As always, his feast was greatly enjoyed by all in attendance.

After a short intermission period, the musical duets returned to provided additional entertainment. This was preceded by welcoming remarks by UESA's National President, Mr. Andrij Wowk. In addition to his welcoming remarks, Mr. Wowk outlined some of the future events and plans which UESA is making as it continues its push to revitalize and grow.

2004 Detroit Chapter Christmas Party

Thu, 09 Dec 2004 17:52:55 GMT

The Annual Christmas Party of the chapter took place on December 9, 2004. The event was well attended by over 60 members, family and friends.

Chapter President Natalia Lewyckyj wished everyone "Veselykh Sviat" and thanked the Board for all of their hard work during the year. Member Bohdan Andrushkiw entertained the group by playing his guitar and leading them in singing Ukrainian Christmas carols well into the evening. Everyone enjoyed a good time.

A special thank you to Greg and Oksana Woloszczuk for organizing the event.

UESA Participates at Soyuzivka's Labor Day Festivities

Mon, 06 Sep 2004 22:04:47 GMT

This year, the Ukrainian Engineers' Society of America attempted to add a bit of additional color to the already festive atmosphere which exists in upstate New York during Soyuzivka's traditional Labor Day weekend.

On Saturday, September 4th, the New Jersey, Philadelphia, New York City Chapters, together with the National Board of Directors sponsored a band to entertain the guests at Soyuzivka's expanded "Tiki Bar", For those that haven't visited Soyuzivka recently, the Tiki Bar is a two year old addition to the grounds. It is situated on the patch of land between the Volley Ball Court and the Swimming Pool. It has become such a popular spot amongst guests that the deck space was enlarged between the 2003 and 2004 seasons.

The music was provided by the musician's from "Chornozem." This young band has performed previously at UESA events such as the Fall Zabava in New York City and is scheduled to perform at UESA's New York Metro Area Malanka in January of 2005.

The music provided by Chornozem definitely added to the energy amongst the guests at Soyuzivka and allowed for a small group of New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia Chapter members to gather and share some stories.

All in all, everyone that was in attendance, UESA members and Soyuzivka guests had a good time. UESA itself was able to benefit from added visibility which the distribution of event flyers, our banner, and the sale of UESA polo shirts provided.

Annual Detroit Engineers' Picnin

Sat, 26 Jun 2004 22:01:57 GMT

By Dianna Korduba Sawicky

The annual Engineers' Picnic was held at the Dibrova Estate in Brighton, Michigan, on Saturday, June 26th. Over 50 members, family and friends enjoyed the beautiful day. It was wonderful to see such a large turnout from chapter members. A special thank you to Detroit chapter board members John and Janet Dicky for organizing the event. Everyone had a relaxing day among colleagues and friends.

The Detroit Chapter Board of Directors met in June and has selected officers as follows:

Natalia Lewyckyj - President
Dianna Korduba Sawicky - Vice-President & Winter Ball chair
Nestor Rychtyckyj - Treasurer
Jerry Didoszak - Secretary
Ihor Senyk - Organizational Coordinator
Alexander Cherviovskiy - Membership Coordinator
John Dicky - Member-at-large (picnic/ internal activities)
Greg Woloszczuk - Member-at-large (external activities)

The Board wishes all members, family and friends a pleasant summer!

UESA Participates in The Washington Group's 20th Leadership Conference

Fri, 11 Jun 2004 21:59:01 GMT

By Andrij Wowk

ARLINGTON, VA - A broad range of individuals from the Ukrainian and Ukrainian-American communities - including academics, diplomats, and professionals -- gathered in the Key Bridge Marriott Hotel on the bank of the Potomac River between June 11 and June 13, to take part in The Washington Group's 2004 Leadership Conference.

Titled TWG at 20: Reflection, Renewal and Celebration, the conference marked the 20th anniversary of TWG, a leading association of Ukrainian-American professionals.

As part of the conference, National President Andrij Wowk represented the UESA on a panel titled Improving Our Professionals' Organizations, which provided an opportunity for thought-provoking discussions by panelists and audience members alike.

The Diplomatic View

The TWG conference was preceded by a reception at the Embassy of Ukraine on Friday night, June 11.

The conference opened on Saturday, June 12 with introductory remarks by TWG Conference Chairman George Masiuk and current TWG President Ihor Kotlarchuk. The morning session consisted of an "Ambassador's Forum", featuring Oleh Bilorus, Ukraine's first ambassador to the US, William Miller, the first US ambassador to Ukraine, and Steven Pifer, the US ambassador to Ukraine between 1998 and 2000.

The keynote speaker during the luncheon which followed was the Hon. Mykhailo Reznik, the current Ukrainian ambassador to the US.

Amb. Reznik noted that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Ukraine has grown by 11.5% between 2002 and 2004, while industrial output in this time period has grown by 17.7%. Foreign direct investment in Ukraine in 2003, according to an accompanying report, was some $1.2 billion USD, still quite low by international standards. (Note: Readers interested in a copy of the economic report presented by Amb. Reznik are asked to send an e-mail to: awowk@uesa.org).

Election Unease

Saturdays' luncheon was followed by an engaging and lively panel, Ukraine on the Eve of Elections.

The panel included such experts on Ukrainian politics as Dr. Nadia Duk (National Endowment for Democracy), Eugene Fishel (U.S. Department of State), Dr. Taras Kuzio (University of Toronto), and former U.S. Ambassador Nelson Ledsky (National Democratic Institute), with Orest Deychakiwsky of TWG as the moderator.

In contrast to the rosy economic picture painted by Amb. Reznik, the panelists concluded that Ukraine's upcoming elections (despite international observers) are unlikely to be free of at least some level of ethical violations, corruption, and/or scandal.

They also noted that the October elections, which will decide the next president of Ukraine, will be a critical event in the history of independent Ukraine.

Saturday's conference activities concluded with a gala reception and banquet honoring the 20th anniversary of TWG. The banquet included a photographic retrospective of TWG's inspiring and successful 20-year history of sponsoring lectures, events, and workshops on a wide range of topics relating to Ukraine, which included some of the most prominent Ukrainian and Ukrainian-American political, cultural, and other figures of this time period.

Of special note to UESA members was mention of the UESA's Washington chapter-organized panel on the future of the Ukrainian aeronautical industry, held as part of the TWG-sponsored "Synergy" Leadership Conference in 1999.

Challenges and Improvements

Sunday's activities were opened by the panel Improving Our Professionals' Organizations, which included UESA National President Andrij Wowk, Dr. George Hrycelak of the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America (UMANA), Nancy Medwid of the Ukrainian American Bar Association (UABA), and Oksana Xenos of the Ukrainian National Women's League of America (UNWLA), which was moderated by George Masiuk of TWG. Each panelist was allotted time to describe steps that have been taken improve their organizations, which was followed by questions from the audience.

Speaking first, Dr. Hrycelak outlined a number of recent administrative improvements within UMANA, which have included the appointment of a salaried executive director, a move toward quarterly dues payments, the election of national board members from around the US (not just within the area of UMANA's headquarters), and a focus on overall fiscal transparency to members. His main suggestions to other organizations were to engage the young, not to underestimate the 4th Wave and not to neglect administrative continuity, and to recognize and take advantage of geographic dispersal of members.

Ms. Xenos followed Dr. Hrycelak, and provided an outline of the UNWLA's history and its role in global women's issues which also affect Ukraine, such as the trafficking of women. She noted that the UNWLA is a member of the Federation of Women's Organizations. A potential future improvement being considered by the UNWLA is encouraging "de-facto" membership in the organization by all Ukrainian female youths and young women, with "activation" of this membership once these individuals reach professional age.

Mr. Wowk followed Ms. Xenos to the podium, and provided a brief outline of the UESA's history, its mission, some recent challenges, and current steps being taken by the National Board to improve the organization.

Among these Mr. Wowk noted administrative improvements such as dues centralization, better internal and external communication within the organization, sponsorship of a number of local and national events, and other improved member benefits.

He concluded his presentation with a description of UESA projects for the near future, such as the UESA Foundation and scholarship program and a renewed focus on advertising/marketing and "branding" of the UESA, to better define it to members of the Ukrainian-American community who may be prospective members.

Ms. Medwid, a recently elected member of the UABA national board, was the final panelist of the day. She described a number of improvements being undertaken by the UABA such as providing Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits at association functions, allowing advertising opportunities on the UABA Web site, and providing mentoring opportunities at local law schools.

Questions to the panelists from the audience included the topics of 4th Wave recruitment efforts by the organizations (especially of students), and steps to increase the visibility of our organizations in the American community and press.

Conference events wrapped up on Sunday with brunch, at which the keynote speaker was Konstantyn Morozov, the former Ukrainian Minister of Defense, and with a concert of traditional East European folk music.

Annual General Meeting of the Philadelphia Chapter

Sun, 06 Jun 2004 21:57:47 GMT

by Petro Hewka

The Philadelphia Chapter of the UESA held its Annual Meeting at 3 pm on Sunday, June 6, 2004 at the Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center (UECC) at 700 Cedar Road in Jenkintown, PA. The meeting was opened by Metodij Boretsky, PE, president of the chapter. After approval of the meeting program, the members present elected Dr. Yaroslav Zalipsky as Meeting Chairman, and Dr. Petro Hewka as Recording Secretary.

The reports of outgoing board members were accepted unanimously. A highlight of the reports was the great success of the 2004 Philadelphia Engineers' Debutante Ball, which was described in the previous issue of this newsletter. Attendance at the ball was more than double that of the previous year.

The new chapter officers were elected as follows:

Chapter Board:

Metodij Boretsky - President
Petro Hewka - Vice President, Corresponding Secretary
Orest Shwed - Recording Secretary
Marta Shyprykevych - Treasurer
Laryssa Zaika - Events Coordinator
Wolodymyr Horbowy - Organizational Coordinator
Alex Jarymovych - New Membership Coordinator
Oleh Ciuk - Property Manager (Hospodar)
Mychailo Komanowsky - Archivist
Myron Bilas, Ihor Kowaliw - Members

Supervisory Committee:

Ihor Chyzowych - Chairman
Myron Bilas
Daria Lissy

Judiciary Committee:

Stepan Romanko - Chairman
Lev Stadnychenko
Vasyl Kaminsky

Nominating Committee:

Borys Pawluk - Chairman
Orest Shwed
Daria Lissy

New Membership Development Committee:

Petro Hewka - Chairman
Alex Jarymovych - New Membership Coordinator
3 additional members, to be named later

A new budget was adopted for the 2004-2005 fiscal year, with provisions made for significant donations from the chapter to several Ukrainian organizations, both in the USA and in Ukraine.

During the discussion period, several major issues were raised which are a concern to our members.

* Should provision be made for liability insurance for the Chapter Board members? This issue will be further examined after the summer recess. There is some concern for liability if an accident occurs at a UESA sponsored event, such as the annual picnic.

* Chapter membership has been declining. A committee to examine this problem and propose methods for increasing membership was proposed, and was approved by the members. This committee, the New Membership Development Committee as listed above, is to prepare and present plans to the entire Board by the end of September 2004.

This is an issue affecting not only all chapters of the UESA, but also other Ukrainian organizations in the USA. The specific issues to be addressed are recruitment of new student members, as well as members from the "4th wave" of new arrivals from Ukraine. Several suggestions were made, such as helping to organize student chapters at some of the many colleges and universities in the Philadelphia area: Drexel, Penn State, Univ. of Pennsylvania, Temple, etc.

It was also suggested that reunions of Ukrainian graduates of some of these universities, and specifically Drexel University, where there are several Ukrainian professors, be organized at the UECC, with the involvement of the UESA.

The meeting was followed by a social gathering of the membership, with liquid and solid refreshments organized by the outgoing "hospodar", Myron Bilas.

The new Chapter Board officially assumed its duties at a special board meeting held on June 9, 2004.

Dr. Lubomyr T. Romankiw Lectures on "MAGNETIC HARD DISC STORAGE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE" at Ukrainian Engineers' Lecture Series

Wed, 02 Jun 2004 21:56:12 GMT

by Ivan Durbak

On June 2nd, 2004, the Ukrainian Engineers’ Society of NYC presented a lecture by Dr. Lubomyr T. Romankiw, noted research scientiest and IBM Fellow at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, N. Y., at the Ukrainian Institute on East 79th Street, New York City, on "“MAGNETIC HARD DISC STORAGE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE”.

Dr. Romankiw started with an overview of the entire computer disk technology, history and environment. He then provided a detailed description of plating through mask technology used in thin film heads in magnetic storage, which he pioneered several decades ago. Dr. Romankiw originally conceived and developed, and has since updated, the entire fabrication process, which to this day, is the basis for manufacturing of magnetic storage heads around the world. Every PC in the world today typically houses a magnetic disk based directly on the work of Dr. Romankiw: as one of the audience suggested, just as each PC typically shows a sign “Intel Inside” for the CPU chips, there should perhaps be a similar indicator on each PC showing “Dr. Romankiw Inside” for the hard disk.

Dr. Romankiw described how the original hard disk drive, RAMAC 305, introduced by IBM in 1957, had an areal density of 2,000 bits/inch square and used copper wire hand wound ferrite cores as read-write heads. Today commercial systems approach storage density of 100 Gigabits/sq. In laboratory tests heads capable of 150 Gigabits/sq. in. are being investigated, a density once thought to be unattainable. This represents eight orders of magnitude increase in areal density in 47years. Four orders of magnitude of this jump was achieved since commercial introduction by IBM, of the inductive, multi turn, batch fabricated thin film heads in 1979. Since introduction of the first thin film heads the cost of storage has dropped four orders of magnitude, the data rate has increased several orders of magnitude. This has had a significant effect on enabling the desk and lap-top computers, data mining and Internet. Data stored half way around the world are found, analyzed, and results delivered, through high speed interconnections, in fractions of seconds.

Dr. Romankiw presented the technology which was originally invented at the T. J Watson Research Center of IBM in Yorktown Height, NY and which was developed jointly with IBM San Jose, CA into a commercial process used today to manufacture thin film heads throughout the world. Since the invention of the batch fabrication process for the thin film heads, the magnetic storage has undergone two paradigm shifts. Today we stand on the verge of one more paradigm shift which, while using the fundamental processes developed some 35 years ago, promises to extend magnetic storage density another one to two orders of magnitude. This process, based on electrochemical technology created new era in hard disk storage while at the same time it resulted in a quantum jump for application of electrochemical technology in electronics and MEMS.

Dr. Lubomyr T Romankiw is an IBM Fellow at the IBM’s T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, where he has been associated since 1962. He received his early education in Ukraine, his B. Sc in Chem. Eng. from U of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada in 1957, and his M. Sc.and Ph.D. degrees in Metallurgy and Materials from MIT in 1962. He holds 57 patents, has over 120 published inventions, published more than 150 scientific papers, six book chapters and has edited ten volumes of symposia proceedings in the areas of: (1) Magnetic Materials, Processes and Devices; and (2) Electrochemistry in Electronics. His research has dealt with nearly all aspects of electroless plating, electroplating, etching, lithography and micro-fabrication used in electronics. He pioneered plating through mask technology used in thin film heads in magnetic storage, and conceived and developed the entire fabrication process, which to this day, is the basis for manufacturing of magnetic storage heads around the world. He developed an entirely new approach to use of lithography and micro-fabrication techniques, applied them to magnetic head fabrication and then extended them to X-ray lithography mask fabrication, plating of thin film chip carriers, C-4 interconnects, and to copper metallization of silicon chips.

Dr. Romankiw is very active in the Electrochemical Society and AESF. Has organized ten major scientific symposia. He is a member of ECS, ISE, AESF, IEEE, SPIE, Shevchenko Sci. Soc., Ukrainian Eng. Soc., and the Engineering Academy of Ukraine. He is ECS Fellow, IEEE Fellow, IBM Fellow, and an Honorary member of the ECS and of the Shevchenko Scientific Society .He shared ECS Research Award for his invention of laser enhanced plating. He holds many IBM, US National and International Outstanding Invention and Contribution Awards

For his seminal contributions to magnetic storage technologies Dr. Romankiw received one of the highest honors of ECS, the Vittoria de Nora Medal of the ECS in 1994, one of the highest honors of the IEEE, the Morris A. Lieberman Award and he was named an IEEE Fellow in 1996. “For his major contributions to science, technology and in particular for demonstrating manufacturing worthy processes which created a $7 billion dollar thin film head industry”, he was awarded in 1993 the highest honor of the Societies of Chemical Industries the PERKIN GOLD MEDAL.

Throughout this presentation, Dr. Romankiw kept the audience engaged and involved with a balance of highly technical material and practical real-world problem examples, and especially with his enthusiasm and excitement still evident after four decades of cutting-edge research on this topic.

The evening finished with informal and convivial discussions over food and drinks.

This was the fifth in a series of engineering & scientific lectures presented by the New York City Chapter of the Ukrainian Engineers' Society during the 2003/2004 year. Next year there are plans for another series of informative and high-caliber lectures to be presented; schedule will be posted shortly.

NYC Lecture Series: Ivan Durbak Discusses Computer Security

Tue, 20 Apr 2004 21:53:38 GMT

On April 20th, 2004, the New York City Chapter of the Ukrainian Engineers' Society of America presented a lecture by Ivan Durbak, Chief Information Officer at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, on "Computer Security: Protecting the Integrity, Availability, and Confidentiality of Computer Systems, Both at Home and at the Office".

Mr. Durbak provided a broad overview of all aspects of computer security, at various levels across organizations and on the home front. He addressed key questions such as: What is security? Can open access and privacy and security co-exist on the internet? Who polices the internet? How to deal with computer viruses and "spam-rage"?

Mr. Durbak began from a national perspective, describing the major federal legislative initiatives: Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Modernization Act (1999), Health Insurance Portability & Accountability (HIPAA) Act, USA Patriot Act (2001), Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2003), and the recent CAN-SPAM Act (2004).

He then detailed the typical computer security actions by modern organizations: risk assessment, designation of a chief security officer, physical controls, environmental controls, access controls / password management, audit logs, transmission / network controls, encryption, audit logs, disaster recovery & business continuity, incident response plan & drill, policies & procedures, and awareness, education, & training.

Mr. Durbak next described current e-mail problems, for both large organizations and the individual consumer, and described ways to deal with "spam". He then discussed computer viruses, which are small files that attach to e-mails or downloads and infect the user's computer.

Mr. Durbak reviewed in depth the "hacking" problem and described in detail hackers as "the underbelly of the internet: people who randomly scan the internet to find openings so they can go in and snoop around, and once in your machine, they have as much access to it as you do, including your online banking, personal data, family data".

Mr. Durbak, who has conducted considerable research on the world-wide hacker community, described their profiles, their habits, their culture, their hacker conferences, and described how hackers use commonly-available software in a typical hacker attack: first they reconnoiter the organization's perimeter, then scan servers & ports & services, identify vulnerabilities, plan the attack, then execute attack, secure back-door access, and finally eliminate all traces & evidence.

He identified the top 12 defense actions to take, at both the corporate and individual PC level, to protect against virus/worm attacks. Mr. Durbak also described spyware and adware, and how to deal with both.

Finally, Mr. Durbak provided tips and hands-on advice, listing the eight necessary items required to insure computer security: physical controls, access controls (passwords), anti-virus software, patch management, firewalls, IDS (intrusion detection), security awareness, and common sense,

Throughout the presentation Mr. Durbak kept the audience engaged and involved with a balance of technical material and practical real-world problems.

The evening finished with informal and convivial discussions over food and drinks.

This was the fourth in a series of engineering & scientific lectures presented by the Ukrainian Engineers' Society of NYC during the 2003/2004 year. The lecture counted towards NYS continuing education credit for licensed professional engineers.

Philadelphia Chapter Publishes Historical Book

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 22:38:56 GMT

The Philadelphia Chapter of UESA has published a short hardcover book (approximately 150 pages) titled "A Brief Outline of the History of the UESA Chapter in Philadelphia." This book outlines the history of the first 50 years of the chapter, and contains many photographs and illustrations. Many thanks for their dedicated work are due to the Editorial Board which prepared this book, sorting and organizing hundreds of photos and other materials, and collating and editing materials from multiple sources. The Editorial Board consisted of Editor in Chief Wolodymyr Jarymowycz, Dr. Alexander Bilyk, Metodij Boretsky, Borys Zacharczuk, Dr. Lev Kushnir, Osyp Nimylowycz, Stepan Romanko and the late Jaroslaw Ciuk.

The book can be purchased by contacting Ms. Martha Shyprykevych, Treasurer of the Philadelphia Chapter, at 215-663-1746, or by writing to:

Ukrainian Engineers' Society of America
Philadelphia Chapter
700 Cedar Road
Jenkintown, PA 19046

The Philadelphia Chapter will host a reception to introduce the book, at the Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center in Jenkintown, PA, on Sunday, April 25, 2004, at 5 pm. The Master of Ceremonies for the book presentation will be Prof. Oleksa Bilaniuk, a long time member of the Philadelphia chapter, and also Head of UVAN (Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences). The presentation will be followed by a reception with refreshments.

Global Technology and Ukraine's Future Business Leaders

Sat, 27 Mar 2004 22:52:18 GMT

by Andrij Wowk

Members of the UESA, the Ukrainian-American Professionals and Businesspersons Association (UAPBA) of New York and New Jersey, and the community received a glimpse of Ukraine's potential future business leaders during an informative and entertaining presentation by UESA NJ chapter member Dr. Karl Zaininger, held on March 27, 2004 at the Hanover Ramada Inn and Conference Center in East Hanover, NJ.

Titled "Lecturing in Kyiv on Global Technology Management", and co-sponsored by the UESA New Jersey Chapter and the UAPBA, the lecture drew an audience of close to 30 people.

In his presentation, Dr. Zaininger described his experiences in the fall of 2003 while teaching a short course on business management at two schools in Kyiv, Ukraine: the Kyiv Mohyla Academy Business School, and Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. The second part of his presentation dealt with the topic of global technology management itself, and its importance to ensuring the competitiveness of U.S.-based and other global businesses.

Dr. Zaininger, an expert on management strategies and the CEO of Global Technology Management Partnerships in Princeton, NJ, explained that he volunteered to present the lectures to the students in Kyiv because he wanted to "give something from his professional experience back to the young people of Ukraine". He noted that during the first few days of his lectures (which were conducted in English), the students in his classes tended to be formal and somewhat disinterested.

As he spent more time with them, however, the classes became much more energetic, and students began to take initiative and to appreciate the opportunity they were being presented.

The packed room of attendees intently follow Dr. Zaininger's presentation. Dr. Zaininger noted that there was a major difference between the atmosphere he encountered at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy Business School, which is privately operated and whose students had a generally bright outlook, and the state-funded Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, where students tended to be older and less receptive to the topics he presented.

He said has been invited to return to Kyiv to present additional lectures in the future, and plans to do so.

In the second part of his presentation Dr. Zaininger focused on the actual topic he presented to the students in Kyiv, titled "Business Process Optimization Global Competitiveness". This part of the evening's presentation highlighted the importance of managing change within any company, in response to changes in the outside world. Dr. Zaininger illustrated this point with a quote from former GE chairman Jack Welch: "When the rate of change inside the company is exceeded by the rate of change outside the company - the end is near."

Dr. Zaininger noted that for any company to be considered "world-class" today, it must have an efficient and responsive process for managing change. He explained that globalization and the onset of digital communications and technologies have fundamentally changed the playing field for U.S. businesses.

In the years after World War II, the U.S. economy did not face many, if any, challenges from foreign competitors; starting the early 1980s, however, it became apparent that U.S. businesses had to change their processes to improve quality and efficiency in response to overseas competitors, and this continues to drive many business strategies today.

P's & B's member Oles Pidwerbetsky (left) and P's and B's Prsident Levko Mazur discuss the evening's activities. The speaker ended his presentation by taking questions from the audience. Andrij Wowk, representing the UESA New Jersey Chapter and the National Board, thanked Dr. Zaininger and the attendees for their attention.

Dr. Bohdan Vitvitsky, vice-president of the UAPBA, concluded with remarks about the Friends of Columbia University Ukrainian Studies Fund II (FOCUUS II) gala banquet in New York City on May 8, 2004, whose aim is to raise money for establishment of a formal Ukrainian Studies Program at Columbia University.

Attendees concluded the evening with refreshments and an opportunity to mingle and network among each other.

NYC UESA Lecture Series: Peter Halatyn Lectures on "Optimal Estimations"

Wed, 03 Mar 2004 00:00:00 GMT

by Ivan Durbak

On March 2nd, 2004, the New York City Chapter of the Ukrainian Engineers' Society of America presented a lecture by Peter Halatyn, President of KDM Aero Inc., at the Ukrainian Institute on East 79th Street, New York City, on "OPTIMAL ESTIMATION "

Mr. Halatyn combined engineering and mathematics concepts to present an informative and comprehensive look at the complex field of estimation, which he defined as "the process of extracting information from data" or, more mathematically, as "data processing methods for dealing with random variables". After introducing the topic, Mr. Halatyn began by explaining the estimation problem, involving measurements and noise in multi-sensor systems, and noting how the different types of estimation filtering, smoothing, and predicting have widespread applicability to thousands of real-world applications. He then went on to review the basic underlying mathematical concepts such as mean, variance, co-variance, probability, normal or gaussian probability distributions, and vector matrices.

Mr. Halatyn next provided a broad historical perspective, beginning with the deterministic least-squares estimation techniques invented by Gauss (in 1809), and continuing with the work of R.A. Fisher (in 1912) with probability density functions and maximum likelihood estimation techniques. He then moved to the work of N. Wiener (in 1940), who used the frequency domain approach to design statistically optimal filters used to solve the problem of estimating signals in noise in important applications such as radar. The next and possibly most-important development was the seminal work of R.E. Kalman (in 1960) who used optimal recursive filter techniques, based on vector modeling of state-space and time-domain formulation, to develop a very efficient and robust "least-squares" estimation methodology.

Mr. Halatyn explained how the Kalman filter is now the most commonly used optimal filtering technique: for example, a recent “Google” search on the internet revealed over 15,000 applications using Kalman Filtering methods. These applications span a broad array of science and engineering areas, including flood prediction and atmospheric model forecasts, wireless networks, GPS pedestrian navigation, real-time estimation of human body postures, cellular networks, lidar and microwave radiometers, trace gas concentration measurements, probabilistic video stabilization, glottal closed-phase location & analysis, neural networks, weather models, and even stock market forecasting. The power of Kalman filtering lies in its ability to combine the dynamic process model with the measurement model to efficiently, recursively, and robustly estimate unknown random parameters and missing states based on a sequence of noisy measurements. Kalman filtering has also been extended to nonlinear models and reformulated to use functions instead of matrices.

Mr. Halatyn finished with a detailed example of the GPS (global positioning system), where a 24 satellite-based navigation system uses the linearization techniques of the extended Kalman filter to precisely locate any position on earth.

Throughout this presentation, which lasted over two hours into the night, Mr. Halatyn kept the audience engaged and involved with an artfully combined balance of highly technical material and practical real-world problem examples.

The evening finished with informal and convivial discussions over food and drinks.

Mr. Halatyn, one of many brilliant Ukrainian engineers, has conducted research, published recent papers, and worked on practical applications using leading-edge mathematical modeling techniques that span a broad array of application areas, including cybernetics, aeronautical science, electrical engineering, navigational control, and stock market forecasting. He now runs his own engineering consultant company; previously he had worked for many of the major aerospace / engineering companies, including Sikorsky, Boeing, Lockheed, and Honeywell.

This was the third in a series of engineering & scientific lectures presented by the New York City Chapter of the Ukrainian Engineers' Society of America during the 2003/2004 year. The next lecture will be presented on Tuesday April 20, 2004 by Ivan Durbak on "Computer Security".

2004 Philadelphia Chapter Engineers' Ball

Sat, 21 Feb 2004 18:04:06 GMT

The 50th Engineers' Ball of the Philadelphia Branch of the Ukrainian Engineers' Society of America (UESA) was held on Saturday, February 21, at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Philadelphia. This year's ball included a banquet, the presentation of debutantes, a performance by the Dance Ensemble "Voloshky" and a ball to the music of the Tempo orchestra.

After the cocktail hour, Metodij Boretsky, head of the UESA's Philadelphia Chapter opened the event and greeted the guests. He extended special greetings to Father John Tsurpita, Consul General of Ukraine to the United States Serhij Pohoreltsev and his wife Svitlana, the parents of the debutantes, UESA National President Andrij Wowk and his wife, and UESA National vice-president Marco Shmerykowsky. Mr. Boretsky wished all the guests an enjoyable and a pleasant evening. Finally, Mr. Boretsky introduced the evening's master of ceremonies - Mr. Nestor Kyzymyshyn.

After the formal opening, the dinner-banquet began with the invocation delivered by Father John Tsurpita. Upon the conclusion of dinner, the program continued with the presentation of ten debutantes and their escorts. The debutantes and their escorts were: Natalie Olga Antoniak with escort Erik Rizanow, Sophia Ulana Bilynsky with escort Christopher Rizanow, Aleksandra Marie Wolchasty with escort Alexander Knihnytsky, Taisa Nina Hewka with escort Oles Miecyjak, Khristina Katherine Dukh with escort Stephan Drabyk, Roxanne Zalucky with escort Dmytro Hrytsiv, Dianna Iwaskiw with escort Hryhorij Kotsko, Kateryna Maria Olchowecky with escort Nicholas Evangelist, Andrea Maria Fylypovych with escort Tymotej Andersen, and Ivanka Hovhera with escort Andrij Harasewych.

The debutantes and their escorts were formally greeted by Mr. Boretsky and introduced by master of ceremonies Nestor Kyzymyshyn and Olenka Karpinych, respectively. Mr. Boretsky congratulated each debutante personally and pinned ribbons on them with the assistance of Zirka Kyzymyshyn and Maria Cyhan. Ms. Cyhan, Nilya Pawluk, Slawa Halaway, and Chrystyna Hud prepared the debutantes for the presentation ceremony.

As part of the presentation ceremony Mr. M. Boretsky formally greeted the debutantes on behalf of the Philadelphia Chapter and Metropolitan-Archbishop Stephan Soroka. The Consul General of Ukraine to the United States Serhij Pohoreltsev delivered his own greeting and on behalf of Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States, his Excellency M.B Reznick.

At this point of the event the "Voloshky" Dance Ensemble performed several Ukrainian dances to the delight of the audience. Mr. Andrij Wowk also delivered a short speech on behalf of the Executive Board of UESA. The dance program continued until 2:00 AM. Approximately 400 people attended the dinner and more than 600 enjoyed the dance afterwards.

The committee that organized the 2004 Engineers' Ball was composed of Metodij Boretsky as chairman, Petro Hewka, Larissa Zaika, Martha Shyprykevych, Ihor Kowaliw, Alexander Jarymovych, Wolodymyr Horbowyj, Myron Bilas, Mychajlo Komanowsky and Wolodymyr Kuzyk. The Ball Committee was also assisted by N. Smolynets, M. Nestor, V. and L. Babyak, I. and O. Slotylo and M. Diak.

2003 New York City Yalynka

Sun, 14 Dec 2003 00:44:29 GMT

As in past years, the New York City Chapter of the Ukrainian Engineers Society of America together with the Ukrainian Medical Association, and the Ukrainian Institute of America, held its annual "Yalynka" . The event took place on Saturday evening, December 13, 2003 at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York City.

NYC Chapter Lecture: "Water Resource Management: Theory and Practice in the Iraqi Reconstruction Project" - Dr. Eugene Stakhiv

Wed, 29 Oct 2003 00:45:49 GMT

On October 28th, Dr. Eugene Z. Stakhiv, Chief of Planning, Policy and Special Studies Division of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Institute for Water Resources (IWR), and recent Interim Minister and Senior Advisor to Iraq’s Ministry of Irrigation, delivered a presentation on "Water Resource Management: Theory and Practice in the Iraqi Reconstruction Project" to a packed audience at the Ukrainian Engineers' Society of NYC lecture series at the Ukrainian Institute of America on East 79th Street, New York.

As interim Minister in Iraq from April through August, 2003, Dr. Stakhiv was responsible for managing 18,000 employees, 11 State-owned companies and 5 State Commissions; this included responsibility for 10 major dams, 22 large barrages, 271 pumping stations; generation of 2,500 MW of hydropower; providing irrigation water for 9 million acres, and delivering water to all the larger municipalities in Iraq.

Dr. Stakhiv, in his informative and entertaining lecture with over 200 colorful slides, began with a lively treatise on ancient hydraulic systems in Iraq going back to the Iridu civilization in 5,000 BC, followed by a comprehensive overview of the vast water resource system in Iraq. He then detailed the chronology and planning efforts leading to his arrival in Iraq on April 25, his work with Ambassador Bremer, and the strategic initiatives to repair all hydraulic and irrigation resources in Iraq, as well as reconstruction of many looted office buildings in Baghdad and over 100 district offices, and emergency security for and replacement of pumps, generators and dam safety repairs, and all warehouses.

Other highlights included the 100,000-man Irrigation Jobs program and the fascinating restoration of the huge southern marshes. In his slides and diagrams, Dr. Stakhiv focused in particular on the intricate engineering challenges of the Marsh Restoration projects, together with the political and cultural complexities in working daily with the Marsh Arabs. Dr. Stakhiv further explained in detail how much of the $87 billion recently approved by Congress had been planned out early this year, well before his arrival in Iraq. The evening finished with informal and convivial discussions over food and drinks.

In addition to Iraq Dr. Stakhiv also has extensive international experience serving as senior advisor to the water Ministries of Bangladesh, Ukraine, Armenia, and the Aral Sea Basin countries, with over 30 years' experience in regional and river basin planning, reservoir operations studies, ecosystem restoration studies, climate change and climate variability studies; he has served as study manager for several large comprehensive river basin studies and metropolitan water supply studies, including Washington, DC and New York City, and currently co-directs a five-year $20M effort of the Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence Study Board.

Dr. Stakhiv has a doctorate in water resources systems engineering from Johns Hopkins University, has authored over 100 published papers, and is a member of the Ukrainian Engineers' Society of America.

This was the first in a series of engineering & scientific lectures presented by the Ukrainian Engineers' Society of NYC during the 2003/2004 year.

2003 Philadelphia Chapter Engineers' Ball

Sun, 02 Feb 2003 00:49:08 GMT

by Mr. Meteodij Boretsky, PE

The 48th Engineers' Ball of the Philadelphia Branch of the Ukrainian Engineers' Society of America (UESA) was held here on Saturday, February 1 at the Park Hyatt Hotel. This year's ball included the presentation of debutantes, a banquet and a dance to the music of the Tempo orchestra.

After the cocktail hour, Metodij Boretsky, head of the UESA's Philadelphia Branch, opened the event and greeted the guests. especially the Vice-President of the executive board of the Ukrainian Engineers' Society of America, Marco Shmerykowsky. He also introduced the master of ceremonies, Bohdan Mizak.

After the formal opening. the following eight debutantes and their esCorts were presented: Patricia Ksenia Leskiw with Andrij Bzovjtskyj. Maria Lidia Prociuk with Marko Bohdan Chaikiwskyj, Christina Xenia Krier with Tvan Pavlo Bohak. Irvna Balytsky with Mykhas Kindrat-Prat, Jeanette Natalia Krier with Alexander Mykhajlowych, and Larissa Maria Stawnychy with Danylo Peleshchuk.

The debutantes and their escorts were formally greeted by Mr. Boretsky and introduced by the master of ceremonies. Mr. Boretsky congratulated each debutante and pinned ribbons on them with the assistance of Yaroslava Halaway. Andrea Kalyta, Maria Cyhan, Khrystyna Hud and Ms. Halaway prepared the debutantes for the presentation ceremony.

After the debutantes' presentation, the dinner began. About 200 people attended the dinner, and more than 400 enjoyed the dance held afterwards.

The committee that organized the 2003 Engineers’ Ball was composed of Mr. Boretsky (chairman), Larysa Zaika, Marta Shyprykevych, Ihor Kovaliv, Alexander Jarymowych, Wolodymyr Horhovyj, Myron Bi1as, Mychajlo Komanovskv, Olenka Chaburska and Petro Shtompil.