ECE Industrial Advisory Council 2016 | ECE | SIU

ECE Industrial Advisory Council 2016

March 28, 2016

The Electrical and Computer Engineering Department's Industrial Advisory Council include the following members:

Mike Abba is the Director, Smart Grid, Integration and Improvement at Ameren, IL.  He is a graduate of SIUC with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.

Tim Doiron is Principal Analyst, Intelligent Networking practice, at ACG Research.  Doiron’s work is focused on network innovations and transformations in the areas of packet optical transport, data center inter-connect (DCI), transport/multi-layer SDN, and network function virtualization (NFV). Prior to joining ACG Research, Doiron was Vice President, Product Management at Coriant.  Doiron has more than 25 years of telecommunications industry experience.  In addition to previous General Manager, product planning and product management posts at Tellabs, Doiron has held a variety of leadership positions in software development, product management, business development and marketing at ARRIS, Cadant, Ericsson and Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems. Doiron began his career working on fighter jets as an engineer in the avionics labs at McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing). He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Southern Illinois University, a Master of Science in electrical engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and a Master of Business Administration from Webster University. Doiron also holds seven U.S. patents and is a long-time member of both the IEEE and the Business Marketing Association (BMA).

Dean Hooks is an Advanced Product Support Program Manager working Proprietary Programs for the Boeing Company. He also serves as Chair of the Aerospace Industries Association Product Support Committee/Product Support Executive Board. Dean has been employed at Boeing for over 29 years where he has held a wide range of technical and leadership positions. His previous assignment was as Senior Manager of Advanced Product Support developing new lines of business associated with Boeing Energy. Prior to that he was Senior Manager of Maintenance Information Systems where he and his teams in Mesa, Philadelphia, and St. Louis were responsible for the development, fielding, and support of stand-alone and first-generation Network Centric integrated maintenance information systems. Dean holds a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a graduate certificate in Artificial Intelligence from Washington University in St. Louis.

Rathish Jayabharathi is a Senior Staff/Technical Lead at Intel Corporation.  He has a Ph.D. in computer engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. During his 20 year career at Intel, he has been involved in all aspects of EDA and silicon development.  He currently manages a team that designs and tests Smartphone System-on-a-Chips (SoCs).

Mohammed Moiz Khan joined Synopsys Inc in 2006 and is currently a senior member of R&D staff and manager in Test Automation group. Synopsys is the world leader in electronic design automation (EDA), supplying the global electronics market with software, intellectual property (IP), systems and services used in semiconductor design and manufacturing. In Test Automation group he works on TetraMAX and DFTMAX, industry leading ATPG and test compression solutions. He manages a team of engineers working primarily on ATPG power and diagnosis. He received a M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale in 2006. He has published and is active reviewer of several conferences and journals. He has served on the technical program committee of ISQED (2007-12) and ASQED (2009-12). He is also a senior member of the IEEE.

Karl Kiefer is the President and CEO of INVOCON, Inc. He received his B.S. from Southern Illinois University and his M.S. from the University of Colorado. He served in Viet Nam as an Army Infantry Commanding Officer for a Long Range Reconnaissance Platoon. He has held Research and Development management positions with Litton, Data Systems Division; TRW, REDA Pump Division; and FMC. He founded INVOCON, Inc. in 1985. IVC is a high technology system engineering firm specializing in remote sensing and wireless data gathering networks. IVC has a wide revenue base consisting of commercial, government, and military customers. The company has provided NASA, DOD, and commercial customers with many wireless data acquisition and communications networks. IVC developed and delivered the impact detection and location system for the wing leading edge on the Shuttle for “return to flight” operations as well as MMOD detection and evaluation systems for the ISS. IVC is currently delivering wireless micro-gravity data acquisition and processing systems that will service the outboard trusses of the ISS and the JEM Module. IVC is in a concept formulation phase of a wireless vibration analysis system for launch to orbit verification of payload stress on the JAXA HTV launch vehicle. IVC has also developed and is currently delivering production impact detection systems for “smart targets” used in the verification of the MDA national missile defense system.

Michael Krenz  Michael Krenz is the Manager of Emerging Technologies at United Technologies Aerospace Systems (UTAS) in Rockford, IL.  His responsibilities include monitoring competitive technologies and working with companies in adjacent markets on new technologies.  Prior responsibilities at UTAS include Advanced Technology Department Head, Systems Engineering Department Head and Software Engineering Manager.  Prior to UTAS, Mike spent almost 20 years working for Rockwell Collins (RC) in Cedar Rapids, IA where he managed the Advanced Products product line, and held various technical and managerial roles in software, electrical hardware, sub-systems and systems engineering.  Mike currently holds 28 US Patents, 19 issued in association with his work at RC, and 9 more with UTAS.  His formal educational background consists of a BSEE from the Milwaukee School of Engineering and an MSECE (Electrical and Computer Engineering) from the University of Iowa.

Sandeep Kumar joined Silicon Laboratories in 2006 and is responsible for worldwide CAD organization, process engineering and package engineering, product and test engineering, quality assurance, failure analysis, manufacturing engineering, as well as the prototype production and reliability test labs. Dr. Kumar’s group drives the company technology strategy and supplier choices. Prior to joining Silicon Labs, Dr. Kumar managed global test engineering teams and was responsible for worldwide product and test engineering for the storage business at Agere Systems, Lucent technologies and AT&T Bell Labs. As a member of the Bell Labs technical staff, Dr. Kumar also was a member of the group that designed ISDN U-interface chips, Speaker Phone Codec and Sigma-Delta A/D converters. Dr. Kumar has a Bachelor in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Evansville in Indiana and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Lehigh University.

William Liao is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Export/Import manager for Wildlife Materials, Inc. and Care Trak International, Inc. From 1988 to 1996 I was in the capacity of Export/Import manager for Wildlife Materials, Inc. and Care Trak International, Inc. From 1997 to 2000 I became Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for both companies.

Michael Moritz is the Vice President of Business development, Lemko Corporation, Itasca, IL, and the General Manager of Great Lakes Investment Corporation, Lake Forrest, IL.

Saravanan Padmanaban received a B.E. degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India, in 1997, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer engineering from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2000 and 2003 respectively.  He was a visiting assistant professor with the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore between 2003-2004.  Saravanan joined Intel Corporation in 2004 as a senior CAD engineer, working on projects in the area of layout processing, layout synthesis and process shifting.  He currently leads a team, developing tools for layout processing.

Stephen Phelps has been with Caterpillar for the past 17 years, assuming engineering and team leader roles in research, control systems, and applied engineering. He has worked with SIUC as an Industrial Advisor for the I/UCRC Center for Embedded Systems for the past two years, sponsoring research via Caterpillar. Prior to joining Caterpillar, he was also a researcher at United Technologies Corporation for 11 years, in East Hartford, CT. Both his BSEE and MSEE degrees are from the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana, specializing in
control systems. He is also interested in education, and has served as an adjunct instructor for both the University of Hartford, and Illinois Central College.

Paul Reynolds has worked in research and development engineering for sixteen years ranging in products from solid propellant gas generators, appliances, to medium caliber ammunition. Currently Paul is a Research and Development Engineering Manager at General Dynamics OTS Marion’s facility. He holds a Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and an Associate Degree in Computer Integrated Manufacturing from John A. Logan College.

Eric Rossi is the founder and President of EMAC, Inc. where has been employed for the last 22 years. Along with his business acumen, Eric has a wealth of knowledge in embedded systems development using a variety of hardware platforms and operating systems. During his tenure at EMAC, he led the development of EMAC's proprietary hardware and software products and has determined the strategic direction of the company. Prior to working at EMAC, Eric was employed at Southern Illinois University (SIU) at Carbondale. As an Assistant Professor, he taught classes in electronics and computer programming. Before being employed at SIU Eric was employed as an Engineering Manager for Advanced Energy Technology Inc. (AETI). Projects he managed include an Energy Management System, a Parabolic Solar Tracking System, and an Ethanol Plant Monitor and Control System. Eric worked for several electronic companies where he performed various engineering and programming tasks before working at AETI. Eric attended college at SIU where he received a Master’s Degree in Computer Science, a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, a Bachelor’s Degree in Electronic Technology, an Associate’s Degree in Electronic Technology, and a Minor in Math.

Claudeliah Roze is a Senior Systems Engineer with the Raytheon Corporation.  She has worked with several teams to develop, test, and validate software solutions for military intelligence agencies.  Claudeliah is currently providing test and acceptance expertise to capture new business with international customers.  She received a BSEE from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in 2002.  Since then, Claudeliah has held various test and evaluation positions with the Department of Defense, NASA, and the Boeing Company.

Marcy Rugland is Kaney Aerospace’s Vice President of Business Development, joining the company in 2015. Marcy’s passion for aviation led her to join the US Air Force, where she served as an F-15 avionics technician. She joined The Boeing Company as a systems engineer on the Space Shuttle program, supporting the post-Columbia Return to Flight effort. In 2005, Marcy joined the Boeing Lab Test organization, as an electromagnetic compatibility engineer. As a manager, she led the development of the 787-9 Systems Integration Test Labs, was the Boeing South Carolina Lab Operations Leader, and was the Value Stream Leader responsible for all 737/747/767/777 lab testing. Following her support of the 787 Lithium-Ion battery effort, Marcy assumed leadership the 737 Avionics organization. Joining Kaney Aerospace in January 2015, Marcy is thrilled to be a part of such a nimble, innovative, high-energy team passionate about delivering value and delighting our customers. Marcy holds BSEE and BS Aviation Technology degrees from Southern Illinois University and an MBA from Webster University. A native of Rockford, IL, Marcy currently lives in Seattle with her husband, Paul, and two children, Jessica and Jakob. She enjoys boating, running, skiing, and playing guitar and drums.

Jeffery Schmidt is a Software Design Fellow at the UTC Aerospace Systems, Rockford Illinois. He received his BSEE from University Milwaukee and his MSCE from Walden University. As an Avionic Software Engineer, Jeffery Schmidt is responsible for developing and certifying software to be used on commercial aircraft.  He has been working in software reuse, platforms and real-time Operating Systems.  He has developed a real-time partitioned Operating System that allows different safety level applications to run on the same microprocessor.

John Schofield is currently employed with Naval Surface Warfare Systems Crane Division as the Radar Technologies Division Chief Engineer. He graduated from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science, Electrical Engineering degree. In 2010, he obtained a Master of Science, Systems Engineering degree from Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA.  John has held numerous leadership positions within the organization ranging from Lead Test Engineer; Engineering Supervisor; Project Chief Engineer; Radar Technologies Solid State Technologies Lead; and Division Chief Engineer.  The majority of his work is focused on the support of DoD Electronic Warfare; Radar; and Communication systems

Gary Sommer brings 25 years of experience in Management and Engineering in a diverse range of fields including Financial, Medical, Networking, Gaming, and Communications.  Gary currently serves as Vice President of Engineering for Exegy driving programmable hardware, software, testing, and performance teams delivering top-performing market data appliances for high-frequency and enterprise trading customers.  He has worked in engineering and management roles for BioMérieux, Celox Networks, 3Com, WMS Gaming, and U.S. Robotics.  Gary received his Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

James Stewart After graduating with a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering (EE) and Master's of Science in EE from Southern Illinois University, James Stewart began his professional career at the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) in Crane, Indiana as an electronics engineer for DARPA's Highly Integrated Photonics (HIP) headed by Dr. Preston Marshall.  He has been active in Airborne Electronic Attack (AEA) systems for 11 years supporting both the EA-6B Prowler and EA-18G Growler jamming platforms as the project site lead for Jamming Techniques Optimization (JATO).   Among other duties, James is currently a lead engineer for Next Generation Jammer's (NGJ) funded Advanced Technique Group (ATG) where he is charged with developing modulations and techniques for manipulating communications and RADAR systems.  He's also a naval lead engineer for DARPA's Adaptive Radar Countermeasures (ARC) program as well as DARPA's Communications through Extreme RF (CommEx) program.  James holds three patents in UAS technologies with the Navy and one pending with Purdue University where he is pursuing a PhD in Electrical Engineering.  His PhD research involves optical obscurants due to Kerker scattering suppression of silica nanospheres with metallic fractal structures and the characterization of such spheres with a novel flow cell as well as pure dielectric metasurface focusing lens using a post structure array to achieve greater than 2pi phase manipulation.

Howard Wilson received a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, in 1979. Prior to joining Intel, he was with Rockwell-Collins in Cedar Rapids, IA for 5 years designing electronic flight display systems and National Semiconductor in Santa Clara, CA for 7 years designing telecommunications components. With Intel since 1992, he is currently a member of the Extreme Scale Computing team located in Hillsboro, OR, engaged in a variety of advanced silicon prototype design activities.