The IEEE Huntsville Section makes seven annual awards to recognize excellence in the local electrotechnology community. Six of these were presented at the Huntsville E-Week banquet, held at the Space Center Marriott February 24, 2006 (see companion article and illustrations).
Our Outstanding Educator award went to Dr. Nagendra Singh, of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UAH. Dr. Singh received his Bachelor in EE at the Indian Institute of Technology in 1966 and his MS and PhD EE degrees from CalTech in 1967 and 1970. He has nearly 20 years of experience in numerical modeling and simulation of electromagnetic and plasma systems. His primary research contributions have been to the field of space plasma research through particle simulation of complex plasma processes such as antennas in plasma, formation of electric double layers, waves and instabilities, large-scale plasma flow and charging of spacecraft. He has authored well over 100 papers in these areas.
The Outstanding Engineer award was received by Dr. Glenn W. Cox. Although Dr. Cox is currently serving as an assistant professor of Computer Science at UAH, he has a total of 25 years of professional experience in both industry and academia, including technical and project leadership roles up to the Vice President level. Dr. Cox received his BEE (1974), MEE (1976), and PhD (1979) degrees all from Auburn University. He has published extensively in a variety of scientific and engineering areas, including test and evaluation, modeling and simulation, networking, software engineering, computer architecture, and electronics and computer design. He has also developed and led Computer Networking and Modeling and Simulation courses at UAH taught at undergraduate and graduate levels.
The Outstanding Service award went to our own Wayne Wolf. Wayne earned his BSE (Electrical Engineering) from UAH in 1983. He is employed as an electronics engineer since 1991 with the US Army Test, Measurement and Diagnostics Equipment Activity serving as a project leader within the Test Equipment Modernization Product Office. He has served the Huntsville Section as a volunteer for 18 years in such positions as the IEEE Southeastern Contest Coordinator during the 1981 SoutheastCon convention held in Huntsville, IEEE Student Activities Chairman since 1993, IEEE Huntsville Section Treasurer during 2003 and 2004, and as Member at Large for several years. This specific award, like the one for 2005, recognizes the vital importance of those who serve the local Huntsville Section over a long period of time in less visible positions. The organization simply could not operate without such dedicated volunteers, of whom Wayne is a prime example.
We recognized Dr. C.D. Johnson this year for his numerous contributions to Controls Engineering. in Huntsville for the past 40 years. Dr. Johnson has served the Huntsville Controls Engineering community for the past 40 years as a Distinguished Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UAH. Dr. Johnson received his PhD from Purdue University and his BS and MS from University of Tennessee. Dr. Johnson’s mathematical theory contributions include: Disturbance-Accommodating Control (DAC) and the three fundamental modes of DAC, Chebyshev Minimax Control, and Subspace-Stability and Subspace-Stabilization Control-Law Design. These contributions are documented in over 160 publications authored or co-authored by Dr. Johnson. Dr. Johnson has received several awards including the Section’s Outstanding Educator award twice and the first Outstanding Controls Engineer award. Dr. Johnson is an active member in the IEEE since the 1960s including bringing many nationally recognized speakers to the Huntsville Chapter of the Control Systems Society (CSS) and contributions to the 2002 IEEE SSST Conference. He is also active at the national level as a reviewer for the CSS and other professional societies relating to controls and has originated the “Key Ideas in Modern Control” project adopted by the CSS History Committee of which he is a member.
For only the second year, awards were presented for the most outstanding member of the Student branches at UAH and A&M Universities respectively. Recipients of these awards are selected by those who know them best --- their fellow student branch members. The student branches are free to choose their own criteria for the award, and, as can be seen, this year have stressed somewhat different mixes of qualities.
The Outstanding UAH Student Branch Member award went to Joshua Eliser, a sophomore in Computer Engineering. He has been very active in the UAH student branch. As Vice President of Programming, he has helped coordinate many speakers, tours, and events, strengthening the organizations ties to many companies that work in electrical and computer engineering fields. For the SouthEastCon hardware competitions of 2005 and 2006, he developed and fine-tuned a motor control board. The board is designed to be generalized enough to work with robots in future SouthEastCon competitions as well as other robotics projects. Joshua has also taken on a number of personal electronics projects, including a coil gun and a NES-based computer. He also enjoys UAH Intramurals, XB OX, rock climbing/bouldering, and guitar.
Ebonee A. Walker was named the Outstanding A&M Student Branch Member. She is a senior at A&M, and is expected to receive her BS in EE in May 2006 with a cumulative GPA of 4.0. For the last two summers, she has served as an intern in the NASA Transportation Directorate at Marshall Space Flight Center. Her academic and scholastic honors have included NASA MISE Program (2005), NASA USR Program (2004), President’s List (2002-2005), Dean’s List (2002-2005)., Boeing Scholar (2004), National Dean’s List (2004) and Honor Roll (2002-2005). She has served as the secretary of the Alabama A&M University Honors Program since 2003, has been a member of the Eta Kappa Tau Engineering and Technology Fraternity since 2003, The Alpha Kappa Mu National Honor Society since 2004, and the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge Academic Team since 2005.