March 7, 2005
Electrical and Computer Engineering school invites public to speakers' series
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering kicks off a new "TechMakers" lecture series this week with a talk by the president of a company that leads the nation in producing display systems and electronic scoreboards, including the unit recently installed in Purdue's Mackey Arena.
Aelred J. Kurtenbach, chairman and president of Daktronics Inc., will deliver a talk entitled "Engineers as Entrepreneurs,"12:30-1:30 p.m. Thursday (March 10) in Stewart Center's Fowler Hall. The talk is free and open to students and the public. A reception in the Stewart Center Gallery will follow immediately after the talk.
"The TechMakers lecture series will feature prominent Purdue engineering alumni and corporate executives addressing major technology and career topics," said Linda Katehi, the John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering at Purdue. "These technology and business leaders will share their experiences, providing insights on the value of a Purdue engineering degree."
Kurtenbach received his doctoral degree from Purdue in 1968. He is co-founder of Daktronics, a company that began as a manufacturer of electronic voting systems for state legislatures. The company is a major supplier of electronic scoreboards, large-screen video boards and computer-programmable displays.
Tens of thousands of Daktronics scoreboards and display systems are in operation in more than 70 countries on six continents. The scoreboards are used in sporting events, including the winter and summer Olympics, professional and college football, basketball, baseball, hockey and professional golf tournaments. The electronic displays also are used in commercial applications for business, such as banks and shopping centers.
Since its beginnings in 1968, Daktronics has grown from a small company operating out of a garage to a world leader in the display industry. The company, based in Brookings, S.D., employs more than 1,200 people in its facilities, which total 368,000 square feet of space.
Kurtenbach is a former professor and interim dean of the engineering school at South Dakota State University and a past member of its Board of Regents. He was twice named South Dakota's Small Businessman of the Year. In 2001 he was named an Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineering by Purdue.
All lectures will be held at the same time in Fowler Hall.
Other Thursday talks scheduled for the Spring 2005 TechMakers lecture series are:
• March 24, James S. Kahan, senior executive vice president of SBC Communications, will deliver a talk, "Welcome to the Brave New World of Telecommunications." Kahan earned a Distinguished Engineering Alumni award from Purdue last year. He received a bachelor's degree in 1969 in electrical engineering and has served as SBC Communications senior executive vice president of corporate development since 1996. In that role, he has helped spearhead some of the largest corporate mergers in American history, including the acquisitions of Cingular and AT&T Wireless. He also orchestrated joint ventures with Yahoo! and Echostar to solidify SBC's position in the broadband and video entertainment markets.
• March 31, Robert Chau, director of Transistor Research and Nanotechnology for Intel Corp., will deliver a talk entitled, "Si and Non-Si Nanotechnologies and Their Benchmarking for High-Performance, Low-Power Logic Applications." Chau joined Intel in 1989 and has developed seven generations of Intel "gate oxides" in addition to other transistor innovations used in various Intel manufacturing processes and products. He also holds 52 U.S. patents in device and process technologies. Chau earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from Ohio State University and has received six Intel Achievement Awards and 13 Intel Logic Technology Development Division Recognition Awards for outstanding technical achievements. In 2000 he was promoted to the rank of Intel Fellow, the company's highest and most prestigious technical position. He has received the 2003 Alumni Professional Achievement Award from the Ohio State University Alumni Association. He also was recognized by IndustryWeek magazine in December 2003 as one of the 16 "R&D Stars" in the United States who "continue to push the boundaries of technical and scientific achievement." He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
• April 21, Gen Fukunaga, president of FUNimation Productions Inc., will deliver a talk, "What They Don't Teach You in School About Succeeding in the Real World." Fukunaga was named an Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineer by Purdue in 2003. He received bachelor's and master's degrees from Purdue in 1982 and 1984, respectively, and an MBA from Columbia University in 1989. He founded FUNimation, located in Ft. Worth, Texas, a global company involved in producing entertainment animations. The company is well known in the field for "Dragon Ball Z," which TV Guide has called one of the Cartoon Network's most popular programs.
Writer: Emil Venere, (765) 494-4709, evenere@purdue.edu
Sources: Linda Katehi, (765) 494-5346, katehi@purdue.edu
Magarita Contreni, (765) 496-6453, mcontreni@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
Note to Journalists: Margarita Contreni, (765) 496-6453, mcontreni@purdue.edu, in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, can help connect reporters with speakers
Related Web sites:
Purdue University Home Page
To the News Service home page