News Story

Telecommunica 2011 to Feature Broadband Satellite

The Master’s in Telecommunications Program at the Clark School will hold its fourth annual Telecommunica Symposium Thursday, April 21, from 10:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. in the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center.

The morning will begin with an alumni panel, followed by a luncheon and awards ceremony to recognize outstanding student service and instructor teaching in the telecom program. Academic scholarship winners also will be recognized.

The luncheon will conclude with a keynote address, "Broadband Satellite," by Paul Gaske, executive vice president and general manager of the North American division at Hughes Network Systems. Gaske joined Hughes in 1977 as a digital design engineer, and has held a variety of engineering, marketing, and business management positions throughout his career. He has worked extensively on digital communication networks, serving enterprises and consumers throughout the world. Gaske holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Clark School and a master's degree in computer science from Johns Hopkins University. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and is a published author on satellite networking technologies and markets. He is also the holder of numerous patents in satellite communications and broadband networking. Gaske is also a member of the Clark School Board of Visitors and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Advisory Board.

The Telecommunica agenda is as follows:

• Alumni Panel – 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
• Lunch and Awards – 12 p.m. – 1 p.m.
• Keynote Speaker – 1 p.m. – 1:20 p.m.
• Company Presentations – 1:30 p.m. – 3 p.m.

Alumni panelists attending include:

Sachin Rajgire – Senior Partner
WestWide Inc.
Rajgire is a certified senior Cisco network engineer and architect expert in complex network design , maintenance and troubleshooting. He held engineering positions with Telos, and served as a senior instructor at Infospan for 2 years prior to starting WestWide Inc., a training and consulting firm based in McLean Va.

Rasika Janartha – Senior Technical Consultant
Nokia Siemens Networks
Janartha has worked for a number of years in the telecom industry and has contributed to network rollouts of different vendors, with different cellular technologies. She has worked in Nokia Siemens Networks and served in several positions and responsibilities, from R&D to sales to network implementation.

Akash Gupta – Senior Product Manager
MicroStrategy
Gupta is a product manager at MicroStrategy and is responsible for end-to-end product life cycle and positioning of various products under MicroStrategy's Business Intelligence Platform. Prior to joining product management, he worked with eBay Inc. and Electronic Arts Inc. as a business intelligence lead.

Kaushal Bheda – Senior Program & Operations Manager
Hughes Network Systems
Bheda graduated from the M.S Program in Telecommunications in 2001 and upon graduation took a position with Hughes Network Systems. He is currently working in the business group within the Mobilsat division at Hughes with customers that include Thuraya, Globalstar, Terrestar, ICO, Iridium and SCT.

Companies attending include:

Hughes Network Systems
Verizon
Cisco Systems
T-Mobile
AT&T
CommScope

For more information about the Master's in Telecommunications Program, visit www.telecom.umd.edu.

April 20, 2011