Advisory Board
The ECE Department’s Advisory Board is a collection of highly-accomplished and respected individuals that serve the Department in a variety of ways by providing strategic analysis and expert insight for the Department Head and faculty on existing and proposed educational, collaboration, outreach, and research activities.
The objective of the board is to assist the Department in achieving its vision of being recognized as the national model for combining cutting-edge research, revolutionary educational approaches, and external partnerships in the advancement of electrical and computer engineering.
CURRENT ADVISORY BOARD
Thomas Drayer (Chair)
Technical Director, Processing and Analytic Capabilities
U.S. Department of Defense
A long history of scaling innovative ideas and projects to enterprise-wide capabilites with enduring results. Most recently he served as the Technical Director for the NSA organization that is responsible for all of its back-end mission data processing, compliance, dataflow, decryption, analytics, storage, and analyst toolsets.
Duane Blackburn
Science & Technology Policy Analyst/Strategist
The MITRE Corporation
More than 20 years of experience leading interagency and public-private teams in the development of federal policies and strategies that are objective, nonpartisan, data-driven, actionable, and measurable.
Dave Bostedo
Space Systems Engineering Director
BAE Systems
25 years of experience in all facets of Space Electronics development, currently responsible for staffing and executing programs across the Space Systems portfolio. David currently oversees a group of 180+ engineers, across three sites in Virginia and New Hampshire. David has worked for the company since 1998, holding a variety of engineering positions, with a focus in electronics and micro-electronics development. His primary technical expertise in ASIC and FPGA development, and he has worked on board, box, software, and system development as well. David has a B.S. in Computer Engineering and an M.S. in Computer Engineering, both from Virginia Tech, with concentrations in micro-electronics, and communications.
Anil Chinthakindi
Director, FE Automotive Quality
Micron Technology
Over 20 years of experience in semiconductor manufacturing, product development and leadership experience. Currently responsible for automotive quality of global front end manufacturing sites at Micron technology. Sponsor of Asia American Pacific Islander Employee Resource Group at Micron Manassas, VA. Parent volunteer at local boy scout troop.
Alante Dancy
Communications Engineer
MITRE
Alante Dancy is a highly skilled communications engineer with a broad background in technical program management and electrical engineering. With over six years of experience across diverse industries, Alante has contributed to advancing communication networks and managing complex engineering projects. Their expertise spans RF systems, cloud computing, and emerging technologies in the tech and defense sectors. Currently at MITRE, Alante is dedicated to addressing critical national security challenges in the field of communications. He earned a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech, where his studies focused on integrated circuit design.
Curtis Einnsmann
Software Development Engineer II
Amazon
With six years of experience at Amazon Web Services, Curtis leads a software engineering team focused on increasing velocity for AWS revenue operations at a global scale.
Pedro Espina
Director of Collection Research
Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA)
Dr. Pedro Espina joined IARPA in September 2020 as the Office Director for the Office of Collection. Prior to joining IARPA, he led the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s geophysics research efforts and supported the National Reconnaissance Office’s basic research portfolio. From 2015-2016, Dr. Espina served as the National Institute of Science and Technology’s (NIST) international science and standards advisor. From 2013-2015, he supported the Federal Bureau of Investigation as the senior science and technology advisor and was the executive director of the White House National Science and Technology Council from 2010-2013. From 2005-2010, Dr. Espina served at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Paris and served as a flow measurement scientist for the Department of Commerce from 1987-2005. Dr. Espina was also part of NIST’s response to the Deepwater Horizon incident, where he served on the team that calculated the size of the oil spill. His efforts earned him accolades, including the Department of Commerce’s silver medal, which is granted by the secretary of commerce for exceptional contributions that have a direct and lasting impact. Dr. Espina earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Puerto Rico and a master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Maryland.
Jeremy Ferrell
Director of Engineering
VPT
20 years of experience in high reliability and space power electronics industry. Currently leading a team specializing in designing next generation power supplies for future space exploration, military and commercial aviation applications.
Michael Garris
Senior Principal Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems Technical Advisor
MITRE
Computer scientist and Senior Principal Technical Policy Analyst at MITRE Lab’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Autonomous Systems Innovation Center. At MITRE he has led and supported numerous projects for organizations including the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Special Competitive Studies Project. He retired from NIST having devoted 34 years to federal service. His career at NIST focused on the areas of AI, image processing, pattern recognition, and biometrics. He was honored to serve from 2019-2021 as the Chief Technical Advisor to the congressionally chartered National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence.
Mr. Garris was a founding co-chair of the President’s National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Subcommittee on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence as well as a founding member of the NSTC Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Subcommittee’s AI R&D Interagency Working Group. He served as a founding member on the US national body supporting international AI standards development in ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42. For 7 years in his career, Mr. Garris was privileged to manage the world-class biometric research, standards, test, and evaluation Image Group in NIST’s Information Technology Laboratory.
Monther Hammoudeh
Vice President - Transport Engineering and Operations
Windstream
A technical leader with 21 years of experience in planning, engineering and deploying Long Haul, Metro and Access Communications Networks. A charismatic leader with strong people skills and the ability to direct cross functional groups toward successful results.
Benjamin Harvey
Director of Data Science
Maxar Technologies
Holds a position at Maxar as their Director of Data Science. Dr. Harvey is also a Faculty Researcher at The Johns Hopkins University in the Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Biostatistics Department.
Jamie Helmer
Manager
Norfolk Southern
A leader with 25+ years of transportation operations with expertise of data-driven process improvements and sustaining results through developing people, strategy, and vision.
Ray Hensberger
Global Head of Artifical Intelligence & Machine Learning
Amazon Web Services
Engineering and product executive, advising global organizations on adopting artificial intelligence and machine learning to strategically power their missions. Ray has built his career inventing, leading, and deploying high-impact data products and solutions across commercial and government industries.
Lawrence Hornak
Associate Vice President for Research, Integrative Team Initiatives
Office of Research, University of Georgia
Professor and Distinguished Faculty Scholar
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Georgia
Larry Hornak is Professor and Distinguished Faculty Scholar in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and serves as the Associate Vice President for Research, Integrative Team Initiatives at the University of Georgia (UGA). Hornak received his B.S. in Physics from Binghamton University (SUNY) in 1982 after which he joined AT&T Bell Laboratories, in Holmdel, NJ where he completed his M.E. at Stevens Institute of Technology, and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Rutgers University in 1991. Hornak was a founding partner in NexID Biometrics, a start-up company spun out of CITeR and acquired in 2017, and founding co-director for the state’s Nanoscience Initiative. In his current Associate Vice President for Research position begun in 2020, Hornak supports faculty building interdisciplinary, integrative research teams, including co-directing the new UGA Research Institute to help grow mission agency partnerships. Hornak has over 150 refereed publications spanning integrated electronic and photonic sensors and devices, and biometric sensors and systems. He is a senior member of the IEEE and member of the SPIE, OSA and ASEE as well as Sigma Pi Sigma, Sigma Xi, and Eta Kappa Nu.
Mark McVey
Electrical Transmission Equipment & Technology Sr. Strategic Advisor
Dominion Energy
Stephanie Palermo
Vice President, Head of Executive Compensation and Talent Management
Capital One
Banking executive with > 25 years using data science and quantitative analytics to develop and implement team vision and strategy. Fungible leader with a passion and strength in communicating and influencing game-changing business results.
Raymond Sharp
Director of Programs
Northrop Grumman
Strategic, Innovative, Systems-Thinking Executive with 17+ years of defense and engineering experience. Passionate and skilled at Strategic Thinking, Design Thinking, RF/Digital Systems, Hardware/Software engineering development lifecycles. Product delivery and development experience in Space, Air & ground based systems. Experienced in both domestic DOD, Commercial and international business capture and execution.
Christine Whiteside
Microprocessor Yield Engineering & Characterization
IBM
Four years experience in the semiconductor industry as a yield and characterization development engineer working on data analysis, modeling, and forecasting. Currently supports products ranging from ASICs to large IBM mainframe server microprocessors.
Sam Yakulis
President
Yakulis Labs
30 years of professional engineering, defense, and leadership experience. Skilled in Strategic Leadership, Program Execution, Engineering and Program Management, System Integration, and full life cycle Software and Hardware Engineering Development across many different platforms and applications.
Adedoyin "Doyin" Adewodu
Founder/Principal
Infrastructure Solutions International (INFRASI)
Experienced technology professional with over 15+ years delivering technical solutions in the most complex environments. Expertise in enterprise mobility, technology strategy and security architecture.
R.J. Balanga
Government Employee
Highly experienced and accomplished Engineering Team Lead and Organizational Strategist, who possesses dynamic, proactive, and results-oriented attributes.
Michael Bear
Technical Director I – Systems Engineering (Space Systems)
BAE Systems
Systems Engineering lead on multiple space programs and emerging technologies, with experience in trusted and assured electronics and electronic systems.
Andrew Consiglio
Fellow, Advanced Measurements
Pratt & Whitney
More than 35 years of experience in applied research and product development in Biomedical Instrumentation, Telecommunication equipment design, and Aerospace Test and Measurements. In 2017 he was appointed to the position of Engineering Technical Fellow for Advanced Measurements where he focuses on the development of advanced measurement systems and methods.
Charles Dublin
Vice President Of Product Management
Acquia
Results oriented and versatile technology executive with 20+ years of experience in the US, Europe, and Asia. Developed strong organizations in Professional Services, Engineering, Operations, Data Science, and Product Development, with outstanding execution against objectives in each area.
Lynne Hamilton-Jones
Senior Program Manager
Criterion Systems, Inc.
A corporate executive in the defense industry performing roles in program management, corporate operations, cybersecurity management, and business development. Lynne served as Chair, Virginia Tech Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Industrial Advisory Board 2018-2020 and Vice Chair, 2016-2018. She has a BSEE from Virginia Tech and MSEE from Northeastern University. Prior to entering the corporate world, Lynne retired as a Colonel after serving 25 years in the USAF.
Brian Huber
Engineering Manager
MICRON Technology
20 years experience in thin films and process integration as an engineer and manager.
Paige Kassalen
Analytics Solutions Associate
JP Morgan Chase
With a degree in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech (2015) and a Master of Information Systems Management from Carnegie Mellon University (2020). Kassalen was an electrical engineer on the ground crew for Solar Impulse 2, the first solar-powered airplane to circumnavigate the globe. After Solar Impulse, Kassalen helped, material science company, Covestro develop its strategy for materials for autonomous, electric and shared vehicles, and now uses her problem solving skills on teams at JPMorgan Chase to develop big data strategies and implement innovative technologies.
Ting-Pui (Ivan) Lai
Consulting Engineer
Ciena Corporation
19+ years of extensive experience in R&D, support operation, and customer relationship. A proven record in creating organization efficiency, improving product quality for customer, and driving growth in revenue.
Jeff McWhirt
Senior Manager - Reliability
Digital Realty
A seasoned critical infrastructure manager (and former electric utility engineer) with strengths in reliability, root-cause analysis, energy management, project management, critical space build-out, and commissioning.
Lt. Col. Michael Pochet
Chief, Microelectronics & Embedded Systems Assurance - (MESA) Branch, Air Force Research Laboratory
United States Air Force
Electrical Engineer with over 19 years of experience as an Air Force Developmental Engineering Officer, where he has held various levels of engineering and program management positions. Currently, Lt Col Pochet serves as the Chief of the Microelectronics & Embedded Systems Assurance Branch within the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Sensors Directorate at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH. Mike completed his BS in EE at Virginia Tech in 2001, and was a member of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets.