The annual Engineers Week Awards Banquet was held at the UAH University Center on Friday February 21, 2003. The IEEE had an excellent turnout for the luncheon ceremony with every place at each of our three tables filled. The keynote speaker for the meeting was Mr. Rick Toliver of SRI who gave a brief high-level talk and answered questions on the subject of Homeland Defense.

The meeting concluded with awards by local engineering societies, AAMU and UAH. Some 43 awards were given by 12 organizations. The IEEE Huntsville Section recognized three of our members, described briefly below, with a handsome plaque. A group photo of these honorees, taken by our own Eric Grigorian, accompanies this article.

David A. Hardaker, a senior sensor analyst at Dynetics, Inc, received the IEEE Huntsville Section Outstanding Engineer award. A graduate of Georgia Tech where he received BEE and MSEE degrees, David has consistently demonstrated originality and imagination in a number of diverse engineering areas over the last 14 years. He is considered a leading authority in the areas of missile sensors, aircraft avionics, ground based radars, and the development of models and simulation in MATLAB/Simulink. He has performed in-depth analysis and published numerous reports on subjects such as EO/IR seekers, active and semi-active RF seekers, fire control radars, radome effects on tracking accuracy, ground clutter, and adaptive phased array antennas. Mr. Hardaker is a recipient of Dynetics' highest and most distinguished award for technical excellence, the Roy Duane Hayes Award. He is a member of the IEEE, and the Signal Processing, AES, and Computer Societies.

The Outstanding Service award for 2003 was presented to Dr. Venkata S. Atluri, who has served as our newsletter editor since January 2000 and designed our current online format for the LiveWire. He is also the IEEE Student Affairs Committee Representative for the A&M IEEE Student Branch. Dr. Atluri is currently an Assistant Professor (1998 - Present) of Computer Science at Alabama A&M University. He worked as a Software Engineer for a short while in Atlanta before the current job. For the last two years, he has been the Advisor of AAMU's Computer Science Club. He was a reviewer of AutoSoft Journal (2002), and conferences - ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, (1999, San Antonio, TX), World Automation Congress (WAC 2002). He also reviewed some textbooks. His research interest is in Artificial Neural Networks, Pattern Recognition and Soft Computing.

Dr. Mervin C. Budge, Jr. was the recipient of our Outstanding Educator award, marking the first time in recent years in which this honor has gone to a part time instructor instead of a professional educator. Dr. Budge simultaneously serves as Chief Scientist at Dynetics, Inc. and Adjunct Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Continuing Education, and Math Departments at UAH. Dr. Budge received his BSEE and MSEE at the University of SW Louisiana, and his PhD in EE from Texas A&M University. As chief scientist, Dr. Budge oversees overall technical quality within Dynetics, focusing on key programs including advanced signal and processing techniques, assessments of foreign radar systems, and optical signal processing. As a part- time faculty member at UAH, Dr. Budge has taught 12 courses in EE/CS department, five in the Math department, and four for continuing education. Within the EE/CS department he teaches graduate level courses in advanced digital, analog, and statistical signal processing and undergraduate courses in control theory, digital and analog communications, RF seekers, probability and random variables, stochastic processes, digital signal processing, Kalman filters, radar, and radar signal processing. He formulated two of these courses, assisted in formulating others, and has received consistently high student evaluations. Dr. Budge serves as the Chairman of Dynetics' Education Committee, overseeing individual education programs and developing tailored in-house technical courses for Dynetics employees. He has published widely and presented papers at national and international symposia. His previous honors include Outstanding PhD Student Texas A&M (1972), Huntsville Section IEEE Outstanding Engineer Award (1994) and the R. Duane Hays Award for Technical Excellence from Dynetics (1995).

Venkata Atluri, David Hardaker, and Mervin Budge