ECE Industrial Advisory Council
July 31, 2013
The Electrical and Computer Engineering Department's Industrial Advisory Council include the following members:
Andrew Sugg, Ameren, MO
Claudeliah Roze, Department of Defense, Naval Air Weapons Station, CA
Dean Hooks, Boeing, MO
Eric Rossi, EMAC, IL
Gary Sommer, Exegy, MO
Howard Wilson, Intel, OR
Karl Kiefer, INVOCON, TX
Manish Shah, Qualcomm, CA
Marcy Rugland, Boeing, WA
Matt Wilding, Rockwell Collins, IA
Mike Krenz, United Technologies Aerospace Systems, IL
Naveed Sherwani, Open-Silicon, CA
Paul Reynolds, General Dynamics, IL
Rathish Jayabharathi, Intel, CA
Rod Blake, Seagate Technology, MN
Sandeep Kumar, Silicon Laboratories, TX
Saravanan Padmanaban, Intel, OR
Scott Zogg, Rockwell Collins, IA
Stephen Phelps, Caterpillar, IL
William Liao, Wildlife Materials and Care Trak, IL
Rod Blake was born in Los Angeles, CA and spent most of his childhood years in Portland, OR. He received is B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. degrees from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Upon graduation, Rod accepted a VLSI design engineering position at Seagate Technology in Bloomington, MN. He quickly moved up through the engineering ranks and was promoted to Director of ES VLSI engineering. His responsibilities included all aspects of VLSI development from requirements to end of life concerns. His team was responsible for HDL Design, HDL Verification and Physical Design Synthesis and Static Timing Analysis. He managed VLSI projects with strategic suppliers as well. Rod has been part of and has led many Seagate wide initiatives as technology continues to progress and VLSI input is needed to solve complex trade-off analyses. Rod has developed a real interest in the complexities of achieving full verification of multi-million gate VLSI designs. Verification technology continues to advance maintain pace with design size, however, defining and allocating engineering resources to develop advanced tools is a key focus for Rod in his role at Seagate. Rod's current management responsibilities are now more focused on verification for Enterprise Hard Disk Drive (HDD) and Solid State Disk Drive (SSD) SOCs as well as leading verification architecture discussions for the entire VLSI organization. He also participates on an internal advanced technology core team that establishes product roadmaps and the requisite technology to enable the execution on the roadmap.
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. During his 18 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).
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.
Mike Krenz is an aerospace engineer with 24 years of experience ranging from advanced cockpit design to aircraft electrical systems. Mike has a BSEE from the Milwaukee School of Engineering and a dual Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Iowa. During his career, he has written safety critical software, designed digital computing hardware, co-designed a mixed mode ASIC, lead the development of Engine Information and Crew Alerting Systems (EICAS), designed new avionics architectures for cockpits, served as a Product Line Manager for advanced products, a Systems Engineering Department Manager, and the Manager of Advanced Products with a career spread across two aerospace companies, Rockwell Collins and United Technologies Aerospace Systems. Mike holds 16 patents with Rockwell Collins, and has several more in the application process with United Technologies. In addition, Mike holds an FAA Commercial Pilot’s License with Type Ratings in the CE-500 and CE-510 as well as instrument ratings for both single and multi-engine aircraft, and Mike has held an Amateur Radio License for over 20 years.
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.
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 currently employed as a Systems Engineer with the Department of Defense, China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) in Ridgecrest, CA. NAWS-China Lake is the center for weapons development for the Department of the Navy. As a Systems Engineer, she works with a team of Navy aircrew, civilian engineers, and defense contractors to develop local and national integrated test plans to verify the operation of algorithms, weapons, and other systems on naval aircraft. This testing is performed in a lab environment as well as in flight. She has been employed with the Department of Defense for 3.5 years. Prior to this position, she worked at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, CA as a Senior Avionics Engineer for Flight Control Systems Research. Her career began with The Boeing Company as a coop student in 2000, and I held various test and evaluation positions during her 8 years with the company.
Marcy Rugland's lifelong love of aviation led her to join the U.S. Air Force, where she served as an F-15 Avionics Technician. She then attended SIU-C, where she earned a BSEE and BS Aviation Maintenance Technology degrees. Upon graduation, Ms. Rugland joined the Boeing Company as a Space Shuttle systems engineer at Kennedy Space Center. After supporting the post-Columbia Return to Flight mission, she moved to Seattle to work as a test engineer. As a manager, Ms. Rugland has been program manager of the 787-9 Simulation and Systems Integration Test Labs. As Boeing South Carolina Lab Test Operations Leader, she led the strategic planning for delivering all Lab Test Support to South Carolina 787 Final Assembly & Delivery. She is currently the 747/767/777 Lab Test Value Stream Leader, responsible for technical, cost, and schedule performance for total 747, 767, and 777 lab test value stream. This includes Systems Integration, Aero, Noise, Propulsion, Structures, and Electromagnetic Effects testing. A native of Rockford, IL, Marcy currently resides in Seattle with her husband (and fellow SIU-C engineering alumni) Paul Rugland and their daughter, Jessica. They enjoy boating, skiing, and playing guitar and drums.
Manish Shah earned his Master degree from SIUC ECE in 2001. For 11+ Years he has been working at Qualcomm Inc. in the field of semiconductor post-silicon Testing for leading edge wireless communication chipsets. Manish has hands-on test development expertise on digital, mixed signal, power management, RF and memory devices fabricated in latest 2x nanometer technology. With his global team, he manages test aspects of product life-cycles from introduction, to design DFT, to prototype qualification to production release for high volume manufacturing through fabrication, assembly and test. In his latest endeavor Manish provides technical leadership and direction for DFT feature development, Test cost optimization and ATE-to-Systems correlation of DDR Memory Subsystem of the Multi-Core SnapDragon Mobile processor chipsets designed for Smart-Phones and tablets.
Naveed Sherwani is currently the President and CEO of Open-Silicon. An ASIC chip design and manufacturing company that founded about ten years ago. Prior to Open-Silicon, Dr. Sherwani worked in various technical and management roles at Intel Corporation for ten years. His last role there was GM of Intel Microelectronics. Dr. Sherwani started his career at Western Michigan University, where his research and teaching centered around Chip design, algorithms, Graph theory and combinatorics. Dr. Sherwani has written four books, including a seminal text book on chip design, and about 125 refereed conference and journal papers. He regularly speaks in major conferences around the world on topics related to chip design and semiconductors. He received his Ph.D. from University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Gary Sommer brings 23 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.
Andrew Sugg is a 1993 Cum Laude graduate of SIUC with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. Mr. Sugg has worked for 20 years in various capacities of power system engineering at Ameren Missouri. Mr. Sugg is currently a Senior Engineer, responsible for smart grid implementation and substation operations. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Illinois and Missouri and holds one US Patent.
Matt Wilding is a Principal Engineering Manager in the Rockwell Collins Advanced Technology Center. He received a Ph.D. in computer sciences from The University of Texas at Austin and joined Rockwell Collins in 1996. He led the machine-checked formal analysis of the AAMP7 microprocessor’s partition separation mechanism, work that culminated in a unique security certification in 2005 and has enabled development of highly trusted Rockwell Collins information assurance products. Dr. Wilding managed Rockwell Collins’ Automated Analysis group from 2004 – 2010. This research group develops and applies automated analysis to systems with safety and security critical functionality. In 2010, Dr. Wilding was appointed to manage a new Digital Vision Systems group, which works with Rockwell Collins product groups and government researchers to develop, demonstrate, and transition to products a diverse assortment of technologies including very low-power processing, novel weather radar applications, and image processing methods.
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.
Scott Zogg is the Senior Director of the Embedded Information Systems department in the Rockwell Collins Advanced Technology Center. His organization is responsible for research and advanced technology development in the areas of digital vision systems, cyber security, cross domain solutions, live virtual constructive simulation and training, and next generation flight decks. Prior to assuming his current role, Mr. Zogg served for 3 years as the Director of Advanced Radio Systems in the Rockwell Collins Advanced Technology Center and 3 years as the Principal Engineering Manager for Communication Systems in the Rockwell Collins Advanced Technology Center. As a communication systems engineer, Mr. Zogg’s spent 18 years with Rockwell Collins developing next generation communication systems including system designs for, low probability of detection, anti-jam, weapons applications, airborne tactical communications, HF data, SATCOM, VHF data and ad hoc networking. His innovations have led to 20 US patents.