October 21, 2004
Electrical, computer engineering present annual awards
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue's College of Engineering today (Thursday, Oct. 21) will honor eight graduates with the 13th annual Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineering Awards.
The awards, which were created to recognize the school's alumni for significant professional contributions to the field, were presented during a ceremony at the Holiday Inn Select in Lafayette.
"The recipients of this year's awards are pioneers, explorers, entrepreneurs and leaders whose stellar achievements have led us across the boundary of the 20th century and into the 21st," said Mark J.T. Smith, head of the school and Michael J. and Katherine R. Birck Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "We are proud to recognize the extraordinary achievements of those alumni."
The honorees are Billy W. Beyers Jr., JoMei Chang, R. Lee Hamilton Jr., Jong Woo Park, Theodore S. Rappaport, Peter W. Sauer, Brian R. Smith and Ji Zhang.
• Beyers received a master's degree from Purdue in 1968. After a career of working with video compression and digital television, the Carmel, Ind., resident retired earlier this year. During his career, Beyers was awarded 45 U.S. patents and two Emmy awards.
• After earning her master's and doctoral degrees in database management systems in 1975 and 1978, respectively, Chang became the first woman researcher in computer science at the AT&T Bell Laboratories. Chang, of Menlo Park, Calif., has founded two technology integration companies – Vitria and QilinSoft – and currently serves as chairman and CEO of QilinSoft.
• Hamilton is president and CEO of Freedom Scientific, which produces assistive technology products for the blind and visually impaired. Hamilton joined the company in 2002 and led the integration of the four companies that were merged to form Freedom Scientific. A resident of Tampa, Fla., he earned his doctoral degree from Purdue in 1986 and hold six patents.
• Park earned his doctoral degree from Purdue in 1988. He worked for four years in product development for IBM before he began similar research at Samsung Electronics Co. Currently living in Seoul, South Korea, he serves as executive vice president and general manager for the digital printing division in Samsung's Digital Media Business.
• Rappaport received his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in electrical and computer engineering in 1982, 1984 and 1987, respectively. He currently is the William and Bettye Nowlin Chair in Engineering in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas-Austin. He also is the founding director of the campus' Wireless Networking and Communications Group.
• Sauer earned his master's and doctoral degrees from Purdue in 1974 and 1977, respectively. Since 1977 he has been a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he teaches courses and directs research on power systems and electric machines. He serves as the Grainger Chair Professor in the university's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
• Smith, of Round Rock, Texas, is a managing partner for Techxas Ventures, an early-stage technology venture capital firm that is one of the most active seed and early-stage investors in Texas. He also is a managing partner for Convergent Investors VI, with which he has been involved since 1999. Smith earned a master's degree in electrical engineering from Purdue in 1984.
• Zhang, of Monte Sereno, Calif., is co-founder and chief technology officer of Exavio, a digital media networking startup company founded in 2002, with operations in both the United States and China. He received his doctoral degree from Purdue in 1989 and holds eight patents in digital video compression, media storage and networking.
Writer: Matt Holsapple, (765) 494-2073, mholsapple@purdue.edu
Sources: Margarita Contreni, director of development, School Electrical and Computer Engineering, (765) 496-6453, mcontreni@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
Note to Journalists: More biographical information on the award winners is available online.
Related Web site:
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
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