Join IEEE Huntsville to celebrate National Engineers Week, honor Section members, and network with IEEE members and IEEE members and other area technical peers.

E-Week Banquet – 23 February, 6:P.M. – 9:30 P.M.
Huntsville Marriott – 5 Tranquility Base
Speaker: Dr. Michael Griffin, “What Does It Mean to be an Ethical Engineer?”

IEEE-USA and IEEE Huntsville Section encourage you to support and join in the mission of the National Engineers Week Foundation and its activities—to celebrate, sustain, and grow the engineering profession for years to come—by participating in National Engineers Week 2012 (EWEEK) and the local EWeek Awards Banquet at the Huntsville Marriott.

ASME North Alabama Section is the lead engineering society sponsor for EWeek 2012, visit their website article at http://sections.asme.org/NorthAlabama/ for additional details.

2012 Engineers Week Awards

UAHuntsville Student Chapter Outstanding Student – Wes Bartholomae

Wes Bartholomae is a University of Alabama Huntsville undergraduate majoring in computer engineering. He serves as the current Director of Communications for the IEEE student branch at UAHuntsville, where he’s doing an excellent job of keeping the organization’s communications up to date and running, such as the branch’s website, file server and online forums.

Wes enjoys working on multiple projects in the organization’s lab with a focus on software programming. He is the software team lead for an upcoming robotics competition, in which he developed and implemented a communications protocol that enables the team’s master microcontroller to perform complex tasks by slave microcontrollers, reserving the master microcontroller CPU cycles for more important computations.

Many students are passionate about hobbies and potential future career pursuits they enjoy most. Wes loves programming and goes the extra mile to mentor and help others when they have programming problems. His understanding of designing programs as well as successful experience excites other students about the potentials of robotics programming and embedded software design.

AAMU Student Chapter Outstanding Student – Corey Solomon

Corey Solomon is an Alabama A&M University (AAMU)senior majoring in Electrical Engineering. Corey serves in the AAMU Tutorial Assistance Network (TAN), where he mentors and tutors other students in mathematics and engineering. He worked as an intern at Brookhaven National Laboratory where he developed software applications for nuclear imaging on a field programmable gate array. Corey has a passion for research in the area of materials characterization. He was doing laboratory work characterizing Cadmium Zinc Telluride when he applied for and won the competitive Brookhaven internship.

Corey’s senior design project explores the characterization and fabrication of complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) devices. This project fits well with his future graduate school plans where he will explore the potential of nanotechnology for fabricating semiconductor devices at the atomic level. He is currently the AAMU IEEE Student Chapter President and he helped organize IEEE events that include resume writing classes, career & scholarship fairs, and Meets & Greets student to working professional networking events with several companies. The skills and connections that Cory has made through his IEEE service have helped him tremendously in his coursework and in determining the career and academic path choices he will make in the future.

Outstanding Educator – Dr. Michael Griffin

Michael Griffin is the King-McDonald Eminent Scholar and Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and the Director of the Center for System Studies at The University of Alabama in Huntsville. From 2005-09 he was the Administrator of NASA. Prior to rejoining NASA he was Space Department Head at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Applied Physics Laboratory. He has also held numerous executive positions with industry, including President and Chief Operating Officer of In-Q-Tel, Chief Executive Officer of Magellan Systems, General Manager of Orbital Science Corporation’s Space Systems Group, and Executive Vice President and Chief Technical Officer at Orbital.

Mike’s earlier career includes government service as both Chief Engineer and Associate Administrator for Exploration at NASA, and as the Deputy for Technology at the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization. Prior to joining SDIO in an executive capacity, he played a key role in conceiving and directing several “first of a kind” space tests in support of strategic defense research, development, and flight testing. These included the first space to-space intercept of a ballistic missile in powered flight, the first broad-spectrum space borne reconnaissance of targets and decoys in midcourse flight, and the first space-to ground reconnaissance of ballistic missiles during the boost phase. He also played a leading role in other space missions in earlier work at the JHU Applied Physics Laboratory, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Computer Science Corporation.

Mike previously taught for thirteen years as an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, the Johns Hopkins University, and George Washington University, offering courses in spacecraft design, applied mathematics, guidance and navigation, compressible flow, computational fluid dynamics, spacecraft attitude control, astrodynamics, and introductory aerospace engineering. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in Maryland and California, and is the lead author of over two dozen technical papers and the textbook Space Vehicle Design.

Outstanding Engineer – Dr. William (Bill) Seidler

Dr. Bill Seidler is a Senior Technical Fellow of the Boeing Company with over 40 years of experience in nuclear weapons effects and homeland security. Bill received a Bachelor of Science in Physics, summa cum laude, from the Ohio University in 1967, Master of Science and Doctorate in Nuclear Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969 and 1972. He is an IEEE Fellow “for contribution to research in electromagnetic pulse effects” and has over 50 papers in referred journals and 80 technical reports.

Bill is currently the Deputy for Technical Excellence for the Boeing Defense Space and Security business and technical lead for Boeing Research and Technology initiatives within Alabama. He has been successful in developing a fusion propulsion research facility jointly with the University of Alabama in Huntsville that will on line in 2012 and served as technical lead for the Boeing Enterprise Systems Engineering and Analysis Domain identifying technologies that improve Boeing’s system engineering tools and processes.

He served as Chief Scientist for the Secure Borders Initiative Network (SBInet), developed the strategy for securing the borders of our country using reliable commercial capabilities, and advanced sensors, and is one of our country’s leading experts in nuclear weapons identification, effects, test, and evaluation. Supporting international space exploration, Dr. Seidler is working with UAHuntsville and NASA on nuclear fusion rocket propulsion for deep space missions.

Dr. Seidler served on the STEDTRAIN Committee for many years and inspired/guided others to contribute to this invaluable program benefiting area teachers with seed grants. His pioneering work among the Boeing engineering community has been legendary, serving as a model for both technology advancement and corporate philanthropy.

As senior Huntsville Boeing technologist, his leading edge technical work on nuclear effects and homeland security has helped secure the nation from terrorists and other adversaries. Among ongoing projects, he collaborates with UAHuntsville, Alabama A&M, Auburn and other universities to identify possible collaboration areas and potential R&D/technology transfers for defense, homeland security, and space exploration.

Outstanding Service – James (Jim) Covington

Jim Covington is currently a Science Applications International Corporation Chief System Engineer. He has over thirty four years of experience in system analysis, system design, software design, development and testing in a variety of business, scientific, real-time and real-time embedded computer applications. His leadership and technical expertise includes extensive experience in integrating and testing multiple CPU computer systems from various manufacturers.

As a system programmer, Jim works with several operating systems, porting and rehosting applications programs and system software from one processor framework to others. He also demonstrates subject matter expertise in hardware interfacing and maintenance. He has worked with computers, mainframes, mini-computers and microcomputers of varied capabilities and application environment over the years, and he has demonstrated proficiency in numerous software languages. As lead system analyst on projects of varying magnitude and purpose, Jim repeatedly demonstrates the expertise and process discipline that successfully delivers critical projects on time and within budget.

Jim has volunteered with the Huntsville Section in various educational activities supported by the Huntsville Section, including serving as a judge for the Alabama Council on Technology in Education (ACTE) Team Programming Challenge, as well as various other ACTE events for the last 25 years. Jim has served as a key member of the Technical Team for the Tennessee Valley Boosting Engineering Science and Technology (BEST) hub for the past five years, serving as IEEE Huntsville Section’s subject matter expert on providing robotic control and actuation components for area K-12 roboticists, as well as serving as technology mentor for the IEEE “A-Team” maintenance crew.

Willie Fitzpatrick, PhD
February 15, 2012
Awards Committee Chair
IEEE Huntsville Section