Meet Your Director of Alumni Relations For Questions, please contact: Josey Simpson '84 Director of Alumni Relations (301) 405-2150 josey@umd.edu   View Our photo gallery for May Commencement 2013 with Golden Terps

At the May 20, 2013 commencement, the Clark School celebrated Golden Terp Engineers from the classes of 1963, 1958, 1953, and so on. Read about their accomplishments, and view event photos.

Bios

Walter Beam, BS ’47, MS ’50, PhD ’53 Electrical Engineering
Dr. Beam earned his B.S. in 1947, an M.S. in 1950, and Ph.D. in 1953 majoring in Electrical Engineering. He was the first student who earned a Ph.D. from the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Maryland. While on campus, he was a member of the Clef and Key Club, served as President and produced the show “Pardon Me, Senator.” He was also a member of the Omicron Delta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi Honor Societies. Dr. Beam worked at RCA Laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey from 1952-1959, first as a Research Engineer, then appointed to Manager, Microwave Advanced Development. From 1959-1964 he served as Professor of Electrical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He was with IBM from 1964-1969 as Manager of Exploratory Memory and Director of Engineering Technology. He was self-employed as a Consultant in Computer Systems from 1969-1974, then became Deputy Assistant Secretary, Advanced Technology at the Pentagon, for the U.S. Air Force until 1981. Dr. Beam joined Sperry Corporation in Great Neck, New York as Vice President of R&D from 1981-1983, was a full time Visiting Professor of Systems Engineering at George Mason University from 1985-1989, and was a Consultant in Manufacturing Data Systems until he retired in 1997. Dr. Beam published the textbook “Electronics of Solids” in 1965, two systems engineering textbooks in 1988 and 1989, and has published more than 30 refereed papers. He resides in Chester, Virginia and was accompanied by Marian Beam.

Robert Adams, BS ’53 Electrical Engineering
Mr. Abrams earned his B.S. in 1953 majoring in Electrical Engineering. He worked as a structural engineer in the aircraft industry for three years, then seized an opportunity to attend Navy Officer Candidate School (OCS) and served on active duty for three and a half years, and another 20 years in the reserves retiring as a Commander. As a civilian he worked for the Navy Department for 30 years primarily in the management of the Navy laboratory system in various functions including facilities management, recruitment and selection of Technical Directors of laboratories, and providing guidance for the supervision of engineers and scientists. He took numerous graduate courses in Engineering Administration at George Washington University for professional development. Since retirement in 1989, he elected to take on community activism as a way to repay society for what it has given him, and has focused on urban planning. Mr. Abrams enjoys senior softball leagues in the county, reading, visiting his sons and grandchildren in Chicago and Kansas City, and hosting family and friends in the D.C. area. Mr. Abrams resides in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Charles Adams, Jr., BS ’53 Mechanical Engineering
Mr. Adams earned his B.S. in 1953 majoring in Mechanical Engineering. While on campus, he resided in Calvert Hall, Room D403, and was a member of Tau Beta Pi, the Engineering Honor Society. After graduation, he returned home to be involved in his family’s farming and canning business. He later enlisted in the Army before being drafted by the Local Draft Board and was sent to Army Teletypewriter Repair School in Camp Gordon, Georgia, and then to the Crypto Equipment Repair School in Fort Devans, Massachusetts. Before being shipped to Frankfurt, Germany, he married one of his high school classmates, Wilma Diamond, and both managed to travel all over Europe while he served in the Army. They returned to Trappe, Maryland and was again part of the family and canning business, Defender Packaging Company, Inc. In 1982, he opened his own business, the Char-Wil Canning Company, and canned tomatoes which were marketed by the A.W. Sisk Food Brokers of Preston, Maryland. Mr. Adams obtained a Real Estate Agents License in 1991 and has been active as an agent with Powell Realtors of Cambridge, Maryland ever since. In 1995, Wilma passed away, and shortly thereafter, Charles married another classmate, Mary Rae Russ. They are both involved with the Trappe United Methodist Church and the Rural Museum. Mr. Adams resides in Trappe, Maryland and was accompanied by Mary Rae Adams and Newton Williams.

Ray Cole, BS ’53 Electrical Engineering
Mr. Cole earned his BS in 1953 majoring in Electrical Engineering. He participated in ROTC and spent his first two years after graduation with the U.S. Air Force in North Dakota leading a group of radar maintenance technicians. He then joined Bendix Radio in Towson, Maryland and worked on radar design for five years, followed by a 34-year career with Westinghouse Electric. Mr. Cole worked on various radar programs, went to Iran to start an electronics industry, and worked as Systems Engineering Manager and in-country Manager for an air defense system in the Kingdom of Morocco. Since retirement in 1994, he has worked on various volunteer projects and is taking courses at a community college in non-technical areas. Mr. Cole resides in Columbia, Maryland.

John Charles Laberge, BS ’53 Chemical Engineering
Mr. LaBerge earned his B.S. in 1953 majoring in Chemical Engineering. He joined E.I. Dupont in Niagra Falls, New York immediately after graduation, and was called into service as an Air Force 2nd Lieutenant to school at the Lowestry AFB in Denver, Colorado, and received training in Munitions and as a Chemical Biological Radiological (CBR) Officer. He was assigned as CBR Officer on the 4th Fighter-Bomber Wing staff reporting to the Chitose AFB in Hokkaido, Japan. He returned to Niagara Falls in 1956 as a Process Engineer and was soon transferred to the Dupont Plant in Perth Amboy, New Jersey as the Formaldehyde Process Supervisor. In 1958, Mr. LaBerge joined RCA in Somerville, New Jersey as a Process Engineer in their Semiconductor Division. During his 30 years with RCA, he held Engineering Management positions at their plants in Mountaintop, Pennsylvania, Liege, Belgium and Findlay, Ohio. He worked with silicon based semiconductor products including power rectifiers, controlled rectifiers, bipolar and MOS transistors and integrated circuits. Mr. LaBerge retired from GE / RCA in 1989 as Manager, Quality Control and Reliability Assurance for Commercial and High Reliability Products. Mr. Laberge resides in Findlay, Ohio with his wife of 62 years, Caroline. They have three children, six grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. He was accompanied by his oldest son, Dr. E.F. Charles LaBerge.

Walter McKee, BS ’58 Electrical Engineering
Mr. McKee earned his B.S. in 1958 majoring in Electrical Engineering. While attending school he worked part time for Harry Diamond Labs, now part of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, on test programs.  From 1959-1964, Mr. McKee worked as a Field Engineer for the Hughes Aircraft Company, working on air defense command and the MA-1/F-106 program.  From 1965-2000 he was with Comcast Corporation as Senior Director of Satellite Operations where he worked on the Intelsat/Comsat satellite programs. Walter married Mary McKee in 1958. Together they had 5 sons, who in turn gave them 16 grandchildren.  He lives in Potomac, Maryland and was accompanied by his granddaughter, Caroline McKee.

Gail Diane Salzman, BS ’58 Aeronautical Engineering
Mrs. Salzman earned her B.S. in 1958 majoring in Aeronautical Engineering. She was the first woman to graduate with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Maryland. She started her career as a Structural Engineer on the Aerial Jeep Program at Chrysler Corporation. Mrs. Salzman then worked at PRC as a Test & Evaluation Engineer on Naval Intelligence Process Systems (NIPS), then at GE Aerospace and Lockheed Martin as a System Engineer on Landsat (Earth-observing satellite) and Manager of Development Engineering on Classified Programs. She currently resides in Marion Station, Pennsylvania and was accompanied by Sheldon Salzman. They have four children and two have Doctors degrees.

Sanford Sternstein, BS ’58 Chemical Engineering
Dr. Sternstein earned his B.S. in 1958 majoring in Chemical Engineering. After graduation, Sandy entered graduate school at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) where he earned a Ph.D. in 1961 also in Chemical Engineering. He joined the faculty at RPI as an assistant professor in chemical engineering with research and teaching interests in fibers and polymers. He was appointed as an associate professor in 1965, became a full professor in 1969 and transferred to the Materials Science and Engineering Department because of his interests in polymeric materials and composites. In 1974 he was appointed to an endowed chair named the William Weightman Walker Professor of Polymer Engineering. The High Polymer Physics Division of the American Physical Society elected him a Fellow in 1976. In 1986 Professor Sternstein became the Director of the newly formed Center for Composite Materials and Structures at RPI, which he directed for 10 years. He has served on a variety of committees including several from NSF, AFOSR, AROD and the National Materials Advisory Board of the NAE. He is a past chairman of the Gordon Conference on Composites and was one of the founders of this conference over 35 years ago. He has served as the thesis advisor to over 50 M.S. and Ph.D. students. He became Professor Emeritus in 2006 and continues to publish research articles and lectures on the subject of the mechanism of nanofiller reinforcement in polymers. Dr. Sternstein resides in Schenectady, New York and was accompanied by Gail Sternstein.

Michael Jones, BS ’63, MS ’75 Civil Engineering
Mr. Jones earned his BS in 1963 and MS in 1975 majoring in Civil Engineering. He devoted almost his entire engineering career with the U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Command where he served at their headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. Mr. Jones was the specialist in the airfield pavements for many years with the Navy. In 1979, he was promoted to the position of Consultant in Geotechnical Engineering and Paving and later served as the Deputy Chief of Engineering. Mr. Jones is a registered Professional Engineer in the District of Columbia and Virginia and is a Life Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He currently resides in Springfield, Virginia.

Robert Madey, PhD ’63 Nuclear Engineering
Dr. Madey earned his PhD in 1963 majoring in Nuclear Engineering. He earned his BS from MIT majoring in Electrical Engineering. He joined Grumman Corporation as Director of Nuclear & Space Programs and was responsible for the planning and technical direction in the area of high energy physics, astronomy payloads, space environmental studies, radio astronomy investigations and nuclear systems applications. Dr. Madey later served as Vice President for Grumman’s Energy Systems division and was responsible for the planning, management and direction of energy related technology programs, government and commercial projects as well as domestic and foreign business development operations. After retiring from Grumman, he joined the DASI Corporation as Vice President for R&D with responsibility for product development. Since then Dr. Madey has been working with several academic institutions, including the Middle East Libraries Association to preserve and document literary material. He has been an invited speaker, lecturer and panelist for numerous industry, government and community sponsored conferences, and has authored and co-authored numerous papers, reports and public speeches in the field of renewable energy, radiation effects, space borne hi-energy physics/ astronomy, energy conservation and uranium enrichment. He is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Society of Sigma Xi and American Nuclear Society. Dr. Madey lives in Melville, New York and was accompanied by Gloria Madey, Frieda Shama and Michelle Kildun.

Young Alumni Learn the Power of Mentoring

The Clark School of Engineering Alumni Chapter is spearheading an initiative to help young alumni advance in their career paths with the advice and counsel of more experienced Clark School graduates. The Young Alumni Mentoring Program will pair alumni who are seasoned engineering professionals with Clark School graduates with less than 10 years experience in the workplace.

Through the program, mentors commit at least three hours each month to work with their protégés, offering advice, sharing personal experiences and acting as sounding boards. The goal is to provide the tools and advice young alumni need to succeed in their careers in an open platform for them to ask questions and receive honest answers.

Both mentors and protégés will sign an agreement that outlines the specifics of the relationship, expectations and logistics as well as individual roles and responsibilities.

If you are interested in becoming a mentor or protégé in the Young Alumni Mentoring program, please complete the form below or send an email to clark-mentoring@umd.edu.

Meet Your Director of Alumni Relations For Questions, please contact: Josey Simpson '84 Director of Alumni Relations (301) 405-2150 josey@umd.edu

At the May 2012 commencement, the Clark School celebrated Golden Terp Engineers from the classes of 1962, 1957, 1952, and so on, including an alum from the Class of 1942. Read about their accomplishments, and view event photos below.

 

Mouse over thumbnail images to enlarge. All photos by Al Santos.

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Bios

Ernest Peterson, B.S. ’42, Chemical Engineering Mr. Peterson joined Standard Oil Company of New Jersey at their Baltimore refinery in 1943, and was drafted in 1945. Engineers were given their choice of service and he joined an Air Transport Command. After his tour of duty, he returned to Standard Oil Company, where he worked until 1982. He held various supervisory and management positions and was stationed in Maryland, New Jersey, Texas, Ascension Island and Antwerp, Belgium. One of his projects involved hydroponics—growing plants in nutrient solution. He is one of seven alumni who majored in chemical engineering in ’42. Mr. Peterson resides in Weehawken, N.J., and was accompanied by his daughter, Julia Peterson.

Randall Cronin, B.S. ’47, Civil Engineering Mr. Cronin left the university in 1942 to serve in the U.S. Army Combat Engineers in France and Germany, rising to the rank of Lt. Colonel by the end of the war. He retired from the Army Reserve as a Colonel. He returned to Maryland in 1946 to complete his studies, and married his college sweetheart, Adeline Mosberg. His career from 1947-1960 included work with the American Bridge Company and the J.E. Greiner Company, designing and supervising construction of roads and bridges, including the Ohio Turnpike. During this period he earned his M.S. in civil engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He worked on the Gemini space program with the Martin Company before joining the Portland Cement Association (PCA) in 1963 as a structural engineer. He was promoted to District Engineer for Pennsylvania and New Jersey and then to senior regional structural engineer for the Northeast. During this period he served as secretary/treasurer and as president of the Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware Chapter of the American Concrete Institute (ACI), and as general chairman of the ACI National Convention in Philadelphia in 1976. He is a Fellow in American Society of Civil Engineers and ACI and is a member of the National Society of Professional Engineers. After retiring from PCA in 1986, he was a concrete consultant until full retirement in 1999. He resides in Lansdale, Penn., and was accompanied by his grandson, Randy Cronin.

Jack Kay, B.S. ’47, Civil Engineering Jack Kay went into the construction business, developing land and building thousands of houses and apartment projects in Montgomery, Prince George’s and Fairfax counties. His success led him to found the Kay Management Company, Inc., to manage the projects he built and acquired throughout the region. As his company’s chairman of the board, he manages approximately 12,000 units throughout the region. A former president of the Suburban Maryland Home Builders Association and board member at three national banks, Mr. Kay has been a tireless supporter of local, national and international organizations and charities, including building a hospice at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. He has served on the boards of more than 20 organizations, including the Y.M.C.A., the Jewish Council for the Aging and the University of Maryland College Park Foundation and has been honored by many of them for his philanthropic and leadership support. He supports the Banneker Key Scholarship, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center with the Ina and Jack Kay Theatre, and the Abraham S. and Jack Kay Chair in Israel Studies. He resides in Chevy Chase, Md., and was accompanied by his wife, Barbara.

Merrick “Bud” Stewart, B.S. ’47, Mechanical Engineering Mr. Stewart continued his education in night school and obtained a degree as an electronic engineer from George Washington University in 1957. He continued his education in Advanced Control Systems at Florida University and finally at UCLA. Mr. Stewart spent 25 years in the aerospace industry as an electromechanical engineer and analyst in the advanced system departments of many aerospace companies that included John Hopkins Applied Physic Laboratory, the Martin Company and Douglas Aircraft Company. He spent another 20 years in the government before his retirement in 1991. He resides in Gaithersburg, Md., and was accompanied by his son, Gregory Stewart, who earned his B.S. in 1988 in civil engineering.

John Stuntz, B.S. ’47 and M.S. ’50, Electrical Engineering Mr. Stuntz earned his degrees after returning from Navy submarine service in WWII. During his 31-year career with the Westinghouse Electronic Systems Center near BWI Airport, he served as development engineer, manager of systems development and as a senior executive. He had lead roles in the creation of the first side-looking ground mapping radar, the TV camera that broadcast the Apollo moon landings, and the AWACS track-while-scan radar that commands the skies in the world’s trouble spots. He was the first chairman Clark School’s Board of Visitors, which helped then Dean George Dieter start the school on its dramatic growth in excellence. His honors included Tau Beta Pi and ODK as an undergrad and, in 1974, he was selected for the Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award. Mr. Stuntz was also an outstanding thespian at UMD, receiving the Hale Award at graduation. But most important, he met his wife-to-be, the lovely Sandy Johnson, back-stage in his first play after returning from the Navy. Together, they sailed the Chesapeake and many thousands of blue water miles during his retirement years. Sandy passed away last year, but John still lives in their 50-year home by the bay in Annapolis.

Gordon Ward, B.S. ’52, Civil Engineering Mr. Ward was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. He served as an aircraft controller and later as the assistant base engineer in the construction of a new airbase in Niagara Falls. He remained in the Air Force Reserves, ultimately serving as a liaison officer for the U.S. Air Force Academy. He worked as a senior design engineer at the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission then worked with the U.S. Weather Bureau as a hydraulic engineer developing flood forecasting procedures. He went into private practice as a registered professional engineer doing work for builders, developers, WSSC, county and state governments. He resides in Silver Spring, Md., and was accompanied by his wife, Anita Wilson Ward, who earned her B.S. in ’56 in education. They have four children, two of whom graduated from UMD. The Wards also have three granddaughters.

Louis Weckesser, B.S. ’52 and M.S. ’56, Mechanical Engineering At 18, Mr. Weckesser graduated from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard, where he served for two years. After earning his B.S., he went to work at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, where he worked for 40 years. He resides in Ellicott City and was accompanied by his wife, Alphia, and their daughter, Carol Messerly, who earned her B.S. in 1981 in recreation. Mr. and Mrs. Weckesser have been married for more than 60 years. They have three daughters, three granddaughters and a great-grandson.

William Bowles, B.S. ’57, Civil Engineering Mr. Bowles’s first professional position was with Thieblot Aircraft as a stress engineer. Afterwards, he began a long career in the federal government designing earth dams, spillways, flood control structures, concrete and steel buildings and building components, roads, bridges and other appurtenances. He also worked as a project manager for Planning Medical Facilities for two years, followed by 11 years in building code enforcement. Finally, he was a senior structural engineer for 17 years at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He did some post graduate study at the University of Maryland and at Catholic University and earned two P.E. licenses, which he used in the last 16 years in private practice as a self-employed civil/structural professional Engineer. He resides in Rockville, Md., with his wife, Mary. They have two daughters and four grandchildren.

Thomas Li, B.S. ’57, Electrical Engineering Mr. Li worked at Bendix Corporation and Vitro Electronics for several years, and made a tour into the Army fulfilling his draft requirement. In 1963, he co-founded Astro Communications Laboratories in Gaithersburg with four other engineers, designing VHF and UHF receiving equipment for the U.S. Armed Forces. He left the company in 1973 as general manager and co-founded Biotech Research Laboratories, Inc., with a virologist friend, producing eight different types of viral diagnostic kits. He retired as CEO of the company in 1992 and currently resides in Silver Spring, Md. He has three children, all of whom graduated from UMD.

Joseph Reyes, B.S. ’57, Electrical Engineering Mr. Reyes served as an aviator in the U.S. Navy for 10 years. He also was R&D program manager for General Precision, Inc., directing engineering activities for the space field, and senior engineer at Westinghouse Corporation. In 1989, he founded Orion Enterprises and serves as its president. Mr. Reyes has served as a board member of several organizations including the National Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Boy Scouts of America, Wolf Trap Foundation, National Capital Revitalization Corporation, Arion Transportation Systems, Inc., and Hemisphere National Bank, and is a member of the Clark School Board of Visitors. He was twice named Hispanic Businessman of the Year and received the Hector Barreto, Sr. Award from the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Reyes and his wife, Frances, reside in Potomac, Md., and have eight children and more than 20 grandchildren.

Oliver Clemons, B.S. ’62, Civil Engineering Mr. Clemons first achieved registration as a Professional Engineer in Maryland in 1969 and is also registered in eight other states. He received his MBA degree from Loyola College in Baltimore in 1973. He is a Fellow and life member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and a life member of both the Society of American Military Engineers and the Maryland Association of Engineers. Since graduating from UMD, Mr. Clemons has designed numerous transportation-related projects in 16 states, as well as in Germany and Pakistan. He resides in Timonium, Md., and was accompanied by his wife, Dee, and their son, Oliver Clemons III.

Gerard “Jerry” Dunnigan, B.S. ’62 and M.S. ’69, Electrical Engineering Mr. Dunnigan earned his degrees after serving in the U.S. Air Force. In 1962 he joined the Westinghouse Electric Defense Center in Baltimore as a design engineer. He designed and then managed, from 1962-1987, the engineering development of analog and digital signal processors for airborne and ground based radars for the U.S. Air Force and Navy and Sonar Torpedo Tracking Systems. In 1969, he achieved the highest professional technical position at Westinghouse, "Fellow Engineer." He also was an instructor of digital signal processing from 1970-1980 at the Westinghouse School for Applied Engineering Science. From 1987-1995 he was program manager for the B1-B Bomber Terrain Following and Mapping Radar and the F-16C/D Airborne Fire Control Radar System. In 1996, Northrop Grumman bought the Westinghouse Defense Center and named it Northrop Grumman Electronics Systems. He retired in 2005 as a director level executive for the development and production of the F/A-22 Agile Beam Fire Control Radar Systems with profit and loss responsibility for $250 million of annual sales. He was also a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Maryland from 1968-2009. Mr. Dunnigan resides in Elkridge, Md., and has been married to his wife, Gerry, for 50 years. They have three children and eight grandchildren.

Gary Guardia, B.S. ’62 and M.S. ’64, Civil Engineering In 1961, IBM provided a computer to the College of Engineering and Dean Looney offered a senior elective course to apply computer power to engineering problems. This course captured Gary’s interest and set the arc of his future professional activities. Computer science as a degree program did not exist at the time, so he went on to earn his M.S., minoring in math, and spent many hours in the computer lab. In 1965, he started a 23-year career with Control Data Corporation. He leveraged his ability to speak “engineering” and “computer” to advance the application of computer technology to science and engineering problems. As vice president of professional services he was responsible for the applications and technical resources supporting a wide spectrum of modern high-performance computation. In 1988, he became president and COO of a startup company that created software to optimize computer programs for the emerging multiprocessor computer market. The company prospered and assembled a world-class team of computer scientists. In 2001, Intel Corporation bought the company to complement their major advances in high-performance computational engines. Now retired, Mr. Guardia is a mentor to startup companies and enjoys gardening and traveling with his wife, Deb. They reside in Champaign, Ill.

Helmut Guenschel, B.S. ’62, Civil Engineering Mr. Guenschel refers to his life in America as his “Great American Adventure.” He arrived by boat after a 10-day trip across the Atlantic bringing with him the skills of a woodworker and cabinetmaker, but no high school diploma. It took night school “English for Foreigners” along with math and chemistry in order for him to qualify for engineering studies at UMD at age 26. He graduated just before his 30th birthday, was already married and a father of a one-year-old daughter. In a few weeks Helmut will be 80. He looks back at his golden wedding anniversary, the families of his two daughters and six grandchildren, his work for a Baltimore company as an engineer in under water excavation for water ways and harbors in America, Europe and Africa, and the founding of his own company more than 40 years ago specializing in the design and manufacturing of conservation level exhibit and storage cases backed by his U.S. patent, including the case that houses the bust of Glenn. L. Martin in Martin Hall. He resides in Baltimore, Md. with his wife, Leni, and was accompanied by their granddaughter, Julia Younkins.

Robert Lubbert, B.S. ’62. Civil Engineering Mr. Lubbert earned his MBA from Frostburg University in 1975. For 10 years, he was employed as a civil engineer with the U.S. Forest Service at various locations including Washington, D.C., California, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. He retired in 2007 after 36 years with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a civil, environmental and structural engineer. At retirement in Washington, D.C., he was the national program manager for the Formerly Used Defense Sites, which is a major $260 million Environmental Restoration Program. He was employed through October 2011 as a P.E. advisor engineering consultant with Concurrent Technologies Corporation in Johnstown, Penn. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the states of Maryland and West Virginia, a life member of ASCE and U.S. Sail & Power Squadrons. He resides in Crownsville, Md., and was accompanied by his wife, Charlotte Creamer Lubbert, who earned her B.A. in 1964 in education. They celebrated their 50th anniversary in February, and both of their children graduated from UMD.

Richard Meininger, B.S. ’62 and M.S. ’64, Civil Engineering Mr. Meininger is a founding member of the Chi Epsilon Chapter at UMD and a member of Tau Beta Pi. He is a research civil engineer at the Federal Highway Administration, Turner-Fairbank-Highway Research Center in McLean, Va. From late nighters as a “Lab Rat” at UMD in the 1960s, to engineering for national concrete and aggregates associations, and the Arizona DOT, and on to consulting and research at the Federal Highway Administration, he built on his education at Maryland and the enthusiasm for construction materials instilled by civil engineering professors Wedding, Barber and Lepper. He enjoys researching concrete and asphalt pavements and influencing innovation and quality in concrete structures, and has organized numerous “Short Courses” over the years for industry and government at universities around the country, including many at Stamp Union and University College. He is a Fellow of the American Concrete Institute and the American Society of Testing and Materials. Mr. Meininger resides in Columbia, Md., and was accompanied by his wife, Cynthia Heisler Meininger, who earned her B.A. in 1962 in English. They have three children and 10 grandchildren.

Ralph Welsh, B.S. ’62 and M.S. ’82, Mechanical Engineering Mr. Welsh joined NASA in 1962 and retired from the agency after a career of 43 years. He designed, tested and launched sounding rocket payloads for earth and space science research and worked on the design and development of the International Space Station. He also worked as an instrument manager developing state-of-the-art satellite instruments used for weather and climate forecasting. He resides in Bowie, Md. with his wife, Carolyn.

 

Let Us Know How to Reach You Update My Information Contact Information For Questions, please contact: Josey Simpson '84 Director of Alumni Relations Room 3216 Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building (301) 405-2150 josey@umd.edu Join the University of Maryland Online Alumni Community! Connect online with friends (and friends-of-friends-of-friends) based on shared interests, common acquaintances, professions, locations and more. The Online Alumni Community is free and exclusive to Maryland graduates (former Terp Alumni Network members will need to re-register) and is a social and career tool brought to you by the Maryland Alumni Association. Register now and watch your Terp connections grow! Clark School Alumni: Extraordinary Engineers Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award Recipients Innovation Hall of Fame* Significant Accomplishments Board of Directors Clark School Alumni e-Newsletter Archives Not A Member? Join the Engineering Chapter of the University of Maryland Alumni Association

Help Our Students! Become a Clark School Alumni Advocate

The Clark School Alumni Advocates are a group of alumni from various engineering majors and organizations who want to share their professional experience and resources with the next generation of Terp Engineers. If you are interested in returning to campus to share your professional experience, hosting on-site tours at your company, serving as a mentor, or joining the engineering alumni chapter board, then we want to hear from you.
 
As an In-Class Speaker or Presenter, alumni will strengthen ties between future students, current students and recent graduates. Our alumni provide a better understanding of the field of engineering by sharing their professional experience when visiting high schools, participating in career day events, providing an overview to students in their field of study, and serving as keynote speakers at banquets or other special events.   
 
On-Site Tours coordinated by our Alumni Advocates will provide a better understanding of the field of engineering by sharing their professional experience within their current workplace environment.
 
The Engineering Alumni Chapter Board has launched a mentor program to partner seasoned engineering alumni with alumni new to the private sector, public sector, and academia (0-10 years after graduation). Mentoring offers a way to connect with potential employers and it is the Board’s strong belief that this engineering alumni association sponsored mentoring program will not only foster development for recent graduates, but will also increase the awareness of the engineering alumni chapter and result in increased alumni membership.

For additional information, please contact Josey Simpson '84, director of alumni relations, at (301) 405-2150 or josey@umd.edu.

Spring 2007

Thank you, Dean Farvardin, and welcome friends, guests and — of course, the reason we are all here today — the graduates of the class of 2007. I am very honored to be a part of today’s events, which mark such an important milestone for each of you. When the Dean invited me to speak to you, I thought to myself, “what could I share that will inspire a group of 700 engineers who are graduating from college?”

Not long ago I sat where you are with my classmates and just like you I was excited about beginning a career in technology. I knew that with an engineering background, I could do more than just get a job – I had an opportunity to drive change. And later, earning an MBA at the University of Maryland provided me with additional perspective on business and innovation.

But it was the Internet revolution – when technology literally transformed the global marketplace – that led me to entrepreneurship. I wanted to make some money, have some fun and win.

I had been with GE for more than a decade and was at an executive level when I was asked to run an Internet-based new venture for GE. Despite the fact that everyone told me I was crazy to leave my senior position to run a start-up, I was inspired by the opportunity to innovate, and I took it.

I am not here today to tell you to follow the path that I took. I am here to tell you to take a chance – do what other people AREN’T doing. I am not here to tell you about traditional examples of successful engineers. But I AM here to tell you about the new world that expects engineers to drive innovation and entrepreneurship.

The next time you listen to your iPod, remember the names of three entrepreneurs – two of them engineers – who started a small computer company in 1977. Those names are Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, the founders of Apple Computer.

Another example is Richard Barton, an engineer who was working in product management for Microsoft. While working on a travel CD-ROM, he convinced Bill Gates that online travel was the wave of the future.  There marked the birth of Expedia.com.

And right in our own backyard, there’s Dr. Robert Fischell, a University of Maryland graduate who has spent his life inventing life-saving medical devices including the first implantable insulin pump. These are examples of engineers who didn’t follow the traditional path.

Now I know you’ve spent the last four or more years of your life listening to your parents, your professors and countless mentors impart words of worldly wisdom upon you. But I’d like to give you a slightly different perspective of engineering, one that’s based on entrepreneurship. To help you learn that you don’t need to take the path that everybody else took in the past, and that it’s OK – in fact, better – to make your own way.

So, what do you need to know to become a successful engineer and entrepreneur?

FIRST, “it can’t be done” is music to the ears of an engineer AND an entrepreneur. Naysayers who can’t see your vision and don’t recognize that innovation is all about vision will always tell you it can’t be done.

Charles Duell, US Patent Commissioner, said in 1899, “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, said in 1943, “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment, said in 1977 that “there is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” And to look at “it can’t be done” from a slightly different perspective, because I am an ice hockey fan, Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky said, “I was told I wasn’t big enough, maybe not fast enough, and not strong enough.”

Some of my MOST rewarding experiences happened after I was told “it can’t be done.” I was told that starting a specialty surfacing company with my brother in our home town of Syracuse, New York, was a bad idea. Today, that business, Nagle Athletic Surfaces, is one of the largest specialty surfacing companies in the northeast.

I was told that abandoning my career at GE to get into technology – into the “Internet craze,” as it was called – was foolish and short-sighted. After 24 months, we were offered $450 million for the company.

And later in my career, I was asked to take over a struggling software company that was losing 50 cents on the dollar. In 48 months, we sold the company for $190 million.

Don’t let anyone tell you “it can’t be done.”

The SECOND thing you need to know to become a successful engineer is that innovation is absolutely essential in a competitive world. Even if you’re an outstanding engineer, it’s likely there’s someone halfway around the globe who can do the job for a quarter of the cost.

I currently hire engineers in India, across Europe, and in the US to develop Quark software. It’s been said, in a country with more than a billion people, “If you are a one in a million type of guy/gal, there are 1,000 others just like you.” You need to differentiate yourself through innovation and entrepreneurship in order to stand out. And, keep in mind, innovation doesn’t always have to mean invention.

Consider a story I came across about a man who opened the first department store in his town. Business was great, until someone opened another department store in the building next to him with a sign over the door that said, “Lowest prices in town.” Another man opened a department store on the other side of his building, with a sign over the door that said, “Best quality in town.” So the first store owner put a sign over his own door that said, “Main entrance.” Apply this simple philosophy to the complex challenges you’ll face.

The FINAL thing you need to know to become a successful engineer and entrepreneur is, TAKE RISKS. It’s NEVER too early to take risks and follow your dreams. In fact, the earlier, the better, because you have less to lose.

Let me take you back to the founders of Apple Computers. You’re familiar with how the risk paid off for Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in launching an entirely new industry. But what about the third founder, Ronald Wayne? What happened to him?

He sold his share in Apple back to Wozniak and Jobs for $800 just two weeks after they began. Why? He was concerned about the risk involved in a start-up and didn’t want to take on any debts if they failed. So for the risk of $800, what did he pass up?

If you’ve got an idea, pursue it with enthusiasm.

So, in closing, let me leave you with these three bits of advice.

1. First, whether you want to get rich, change the world or simply be happy, the only way to do any of this is to do what
   you love to do – all the rest will come.
2. Second, don’t let anyone tell you “it can’t be done,” if you know in your heart that it can.
3. And lastly, look into the future, not the past.  In the words of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, “…skate to where the
   puck is going, not where it has been.”

Thank you.

Spring 2010

Dr. Wanda Austin, president and CEO of The Aerospace Corporation, delivered the commencement address to the University of Maryland’s Clark School of Engineering on May 21, 2010. Dr. Austin is an internationally recognized expert in satellite and payload acquisition, systems engineering, and system simulation. She holds a B.A. in mathematics from Franklin and Marshall College, acquired an M.S. in environmental systems engineering and an M.S. in mathematics, from the University of Pittsburgh, as well as a Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering from the University of Southern California.

Dr. Austin opened her speech with a warm congratulations to the 2010 graduating class on their accomplishment of culminating from a leading engineering institution, and also praised the family and friends of each of the graduates for their support of the students. She continued on to thank the faculty as well as the teachers being honored, on their training and leadership of the students.

Dr. Austin then gave a list of the top ten most important tips that she believed would help the graduates on the next phase of their lives. First on the list was her advisement to take a path that would lead them to getting a job. She advised them to listen and to take in the knowledge others give them for there is still much to learn outside of the outside world. The line between work and life can be a thin one, which prompted Dr. Austin to suggest that the students maintain a healthy balance between the two. She emphasized the need for the voice of society’s young people to be heard by voting, as well as the need to choose future battles wisely to avoid conflicts that could possibly impede their growth. Also, the students were told that no matter what they do, they should always make sure they are passionate about it because it is that same fervor that will drive them to excel when the road gets tough. Dr. Austin pointed out that gratitude toward the family and friends that made sacrifices for the graduates to pursue their dreams is also necessary. She cautioned the graduates that their actions can have effects on a global scale so to think and make choices wisely and suggested that the act of giving back more than one receives is a life lesson that the graduates should implement wherever they go. Last on the list to make a persuasive point, Dr. Austin reiterated to them that they must, must get a job.

Dr. Austin moved on to discuss the challenges and opportunities of space explorations as they both correlate with life. In 1960, when The Aerospace Corporation, a nonprofit federally funded research and development center, was founded, President John F. Kennedy had promised to take America to new frontiers, one of which was space. Americans began to build rockets and satellites to make America preeminent in space. Now, a half a century later, The Aerospace Corporation boasts over 4,000 employees who collectively provide technical guidance and advice on all aspects of space missions to military, civil, and commercial customers to assure space mission success for the United States.

Dr. Austin then acknowledged the tragic events of the world in the past year, such as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the financial meltdowns, as some of the defining moments of the graduates’ lifetime. However, she proceeded to explain that not the events but the students’ response to them would define their lives, and while those events might bring on pessimism and cynicism, they actually called for more positive action.

Dr. Austin continued on to explain that preparing a satellite for launch is very similar to the students starting their career. Both actions require accountability, hard work, dedication, and integrity. Also, a commitment to “Getting It Right,” is necessary, which means having the determination to work hard and smart, and in due time with discipline and proven techniques, achieve desired results. The study of space can potentially protect Earth and Dr. Austin gave the examples of space-based solar power, developments in detecting tornados and hurricanes, and developments in telemedicine and bioengineering. She stated confidently that she believed that Clark Class of 2010 would get it right and continue to learn and value diversity so than an educated society would be able to pursue developments in space technology that was in their hands.

In closing, Dr. Austin told the students she hoped that whatever missions life takes them on, that they will help the students that follow them to aid in the repairing of some of society’s tribulations. She explained that there is a dire need for solid, smart, sensitive, and dedicated people to advance the interests of society and that she believed that the Clark School of Engineering Class of 2010 would be successful in making that difference. Dr. Austin then commended and applauded the graduates and thanked them for giving her the honor of being their keynote speaker for the 2010 commencement.

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Spring 2006

Engineering and Technology in the Service of Freedom: Becoming the Next “Greatest Generation”

Good Afternoon, and welcome, Class of 2006 to your future.

It is a great privilege to speak to you on such an important day in your lives.  When Dean Farvardin first asked me to speak with you this morning, I began thinking about you, the coming years, and what the future might look like.  A recent book, Tom Brokaw’s “The Greatest Generation”, caught my eye.  In this best selling work,  the former NBC anchor recounts the many heroic actions of the World War II generation in a series of vignettes, stories about so-called “ordinary Americans” to whom the country turned in a time of crisis.  Those ordinary people –my parents and your grandparents—saved Democracy as we know it and made it possible for us to sit here even today.  We can never thank the 16 Million Americans who served, and the half million who died, in that war enough for their selflessness.  I suspect there are still a few of them in the audience here today, and they deserve our gratitude and our applause.

But it is not my intention today to talk about the past, but rather to challenge you – the Maryland Engineers of 2006 – to become the backbone of the next “Great Generation” in our country.  If you succeed, future generations will hail you as Engineers in the Service of Freedom.

What makes a Great Generation?   To be great, according to Brokaw, requires opportunity, service, sacrifice, and selflessness, and I want to talk briefly about each of these factors in the few minutes I have with you today.

Who can doubt the opportunity?  I believe that we are living in an age of extraordinary circumstances, and you are - by virtue of your talent, education and aspiration - about to be part of the greatest technological transformation the world has ever seen.

Sixty years after World War II, we are totally dependent upon technology.  My generation gave birth to the age of information, made possible through remarkable breakthroughs.  We were pretty successful, maybe too successful, as the world now has an expectation that technology can solve just about every problem.  And when one looks at the record of just the recent past, it is easy to understand why this expectation exists:

• We have sequenced the human genome, opening up the opportunity to cure disease, recreate limbs and organs, and make extraordinary break-throughs in medical science.  Indeed, the convergence of information technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology is the hope for the future in medicine.  Reinventing medicine --- it’s all in the code.
• We navigate by GPS and no longer need paper maps or directions.  Cars are being programmed to be able to detect unsafe driving behaviors and automatically adjust on behalf of the drivers.  Commercial airplanes take off, fly, and land safely with minimal interaction from pilots.  Voice recognition systems no longer need to be trained and can detect voices and accents with near perfect accuracy.
• We communicate across continents as quickly and easily as we speak across the room to one another.  The world is globally connected and much of the world’s body of knowledge has been digitized and is as close as the browser on your PDA or cell phone.
• We will support our national defense in the future with fighter aircraft that will be more than jets – they will be highly integrated air systems that will have superb situational awareness, and reduced vulnerability that will make them harder to find, harder to hit and even harder to kill.

We have come to the point where we look to technology for news and entertainment, for educating our children, and managing our finances.  We expect to find technology solutions that will protect us from our enemies, that will eradicate hunger and suffering, save the environment, make us more competitive, more energy independent and … someday… help us bring peace to our world.  Instead of standing in awe of technology, we now demand and depend upon it for everything we do.

Oh, by the way, everyone will expect YOU to find solutions to these problems more quickly in the future than in the past.  In the world of IT that I inhabit, we have come to expect technology to become outdated every six months.  Moore’s law continues to hold true and the speed of computers is doubling at an astonishing rate.  Time may be your greatest challenge as you attempt to grasp the massive opportunity that presents itself.

In fact, I envision a future:

• Where new technology development involves work in a nano-scale environment.  Electronic circuits will be built from a number of individual molecular components and nanometer-scale wires.  The circuits will, of course, be self-assembling and far more powerful than silicon circuits and will cost practically nothing.
• Where computers operate by light waves rather than electricity.  This will permit thousands of channels of information instead of the hundreds today.  You will, therefore, have an unlimited amount of data at your fingertips, delivered at the speed of light.
• Where machines will provide intelligent conversation.  Talking to the wall won’t seem strange at all.  With microphones embedded in structures – in walls or on your wrist, you will find the answers to your questions.

So, ladies and gentlemen, the opportunity for greatness, in the form of great problems to be solved and great technology with which to solve them will not be lacking.  Indeed, the opportunity will be overwhelming.

But you will not become a great generation by opportunity and technology alone.  The greatness will come in how well you meet the challenges implied by the other three factors – the three S’s – service, sacrifice and selflessness.

In my business, the IT business, all major companies have access to the same technology.  What distinguishes the great companies, and I modestly think Lockheed Martin is one, is how well people understand the needs of their customers and can provide solutions to problems, not just gadgets or systems.  We never tell a customer NO when he or she asks for a solution to a problem.  In the future, a solutions orientation for engineers will be even more important as resources become scarcer and the problems harder.

It will also be critical that these solutions be “citizen-centric”.  By this I mean simply that technology must enable our people to be both served better by our government, and for our people to be better citizens.  Advances in health care technology, for example, should not simply enable the extension of life, but also improve the quality of that life.  Advances in communications should not simply enable people to know more, but also to participate more, in the decisions that affect them.  Engineers and technologists cannot force people to be better citizens, but we can enable them if they desire.

With regard to sacrifice, none of us hopes to repeat the experience of World War II, but we all know that this world is still a dangerous place for freedom and democracy.  The Manhattan Project of World War II was probably the preeminent example of science in the service of freedom, and its lessons will serve all of you well.  Some of you will be called to devote your professional lives in public service to the cause of freedom.  You will do it without regard to personal wealth or fame, but because it is the right thing to do.  You will also do it with a devotion to honesty and ethics that will make your families and your nation proud.  And, occasionally, you will, if you are honest and ethical, question the authority that gives you the orders, if you are to develop technology that is truly in the service of humanity.

For most of you, however, the call to sacrifice and greatness will not be directly in the public service.  For you, sacrifice will be in the form of deferred gratification and hard work.  Much has been made in the popular press of the lack of a work ethic in young people today.  I don’t believe it.  Rather, I believe it is our generation’s responsibility to lead you toward a practical and idealistic vision for technology in our society that enables cynicism to be left behind.  You will work hard if the ends are justified, not just because someone tells you to do it.

And that leads me to the final criteria for greatness – selflessness.  Your grandparents fought for the nation, but, if the accounts are true, they fought the hardest for their “brothers in battle”.  They had a strong sense that they were all in the fight together, both with those in the trenches, and for their families at home.  As engineers, as citizens, your quest to develop and implement technology must also have a strong sense of this selflessness.  Technology must be seen to benefit all people, to make our society more just, and more free.  Technology must be seen as enhancing our sense of community, and not driving us farther apart.  All our work in homeland security technology, for example, must reinforce the sense of togetherness we felt right after September 11, not drive us into our own separate foxholes.

If you can marry the technological opportunities with these “softer” values of service, sacrifice, and selflessness, you will not only be the next “Great Generation, you will accomplish one further purpose as well.  You will become an example to others and you will attract even more young people to your profession.  The scarcity of scientists and engineers in our society is becoming increasingly well known.  My company, Lockheed Martin, will hire over 14,000 engineers this year.  In three years, we will need nearly 44,000 new hires as our people increasingly retire.  US colleges and universities are only producing 62,000 new engineers every year – so there is a gigantic looming shortfall in the United States, a shortfall that cannot continue if we are to compete with the rest of the world, and especially Asia and the Pacific, over the coming decades.  There are things that public policy can do to address this shortfall, like providing the right kinds of financial incentives for smart people to pursue engineering.  But I believe that the strongest force for encouraging more engineers will be your generation’s demonstrated performance in modeling how engineering can be pursued in the service of freedom.

So, what will we see in 2056, what will the United States have grown to become?  In your careers, each of you will encounter greater diversity, greater technology and even greater and more rapid change than in the past.  You will have marvelous opportunities to serve, to sacrifice, to be selfless as you use your skills in the most ethical fashion to better the world in which you live.  The future is bright, and you represent the best and the brightest.  It is my hope, as I look on the faces of the proud men and women here today, that you will stand up to the challenges our country presents, and when we look back in 50 years, you will indeed be viewed as an even “Greater Generation.”

Thank you, and congratulations to the Class of 2006.

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At the spring 2011 commencement the Clark School started a new tradition—celebrating Golden Terp Engineers.

Golden Terp Engineers are Clark School alumni who are celebrating their 50th, 55th, 60th, 65th (and so on) reunions in a given year. At the spring commencement ceremony for that year, the Golden Terps, wearing their gold medallions and gold robes, lead the procession and are introduced by name to the Clark School family. It is an occasion that is highly satisfying for the Golden Terp Engineers and inspiring to our graduating students.

We ask all Clark School alumni who are approaching their Golden Terp Engineer reunions to alert their friends and classmates and encourage them to participate. For more information, please contact Josey Simpson, Director of Clark School Alumni Relations.

View photos and information about Golden Terp Engineers by reunion year:

2013

2012

2011

 

Also see Clark School Commencement Photo Gallery

Spring 2005

What a wonderful day this is!  The graduating class ready to conquer the world, meet the challenges of the new century, solve the problems of the world!

Well, let me add a little bit of reality from my own experience.

Almost forty years ago (long before any of you were born!), I was sitting down there, where you are, ready to take on the world!

Of course it was easier to pick out the engineers in those days, we were the ones carrying the slide rules, and the pocket protectors. [Anyone who doesn’t know what I am talking about, see me afterwards.] But this isn’t going to be about how tough things were for my generation. You know the stuff – walking miles to school every day.
…In the snow.
…Uphill.
…Both ways.

But the fact is, it was a very different world, and not just because of the slide rules, etc.  On the one hand, of course, it was the height of both the Cold War with the Soviet Union and the hot war in Viet Nam, a time of  political and cultural turmoil. That’s the down side.

But from the point of view of a graduating engineer, there was a lot that was positive.

Beyond any question, the U.S. was the largest and most robust economy in the world!

Beyond any question, we had the best science and technology infrastructure in the world. Federal R&D spending as a percentage of the gross domestic product was at its peak of nearly two percent.

Our higher education system was the envy of the world, generating the largest number of S&T degrees. The earliest year for which I have comparative figures is 1975, when the trends were down, but even then we handed out about 75,000 more first degrees in natural science and engineering then the closest competitor, which was Japan. Doctoral degrees weren’t even close – we awarded three times as many as the closest competitor, which was Germany.

This system attracted the best and the brightest from all corners of the world.  And, many of these people stayed on in the U.S. which offered many opportunities and contributed to the technology advances in the U.S.

As a result, U.S. products and services were sought out in every corner of the globe.

We had the largest and most profitable auto companies of the world (The Big Three!).
American cars were seen in every corner of the world.

We had no competition in the air transport business; Boeing, McDonnell Douglass, Lockheed were unequaled.  Pratt and Whitney and GE produced all the commercial jet engines in the world.
 
The electronics industry was created in the U.S. after the development of the transistor. These high tech marvels could only be made in the U.S., by companies like Texas Instruments, Intel, and IBM. The first integrated circuit had been demonstrated seven years before – at Texas Instruments, although the practical applications were still quite limited by our standards.

Large computers were finding their way into all kinds of applications,  although I’m not sure that anyone other than Isaac Asimov would have suggested that in forty years I would be writing this speech on my laptop computer, on board an airplane carrying 400 people.

DuPont and Dow were the world’s leading chemical companies with very little competition.

The U.S. had many high powered private sector R&D labs, like Bell Labs, IBM and Xerox Labs, DuPont Experimental Station.

And, after a little kick in the pants from Sputnik, we had taken a “large step for mankind” on the moon!

We were literally on top of the world!

In that kind of technology environment, engineering meant designing new systems, based on “established principles” – you looked up information in Kent’s Handbook, or other well-worn books. Our product cycles were much longer, the pace of knowledge creation was a lot more leisurely. At Pratt, where I worked, we were very proud of the fact that we could develop a new engine in ten years!

Well, a lot has changed since then.

Take the branding of “apple” for example. In 1965, it was a fruit. A couple of years later it was a music recording company. Then it was a manufacturer of a strange new appliance that came to be called a “personal computer.” Now it’s still a computer maker, but it’s probably best known in connection with a little pocket gadget that you can use to hold the entire catalog of a music recording company. Symmetry.

More importantly, their little pocket gadgets that sell like hotcakes are assembled by companies headquartered in Taiwan.

Frankly, the landscape that you face today as graduates is not nearly as comfortable as the one I faced. Today, the rest of the world is catching up with us. And to be fair, it’s not so much because we as a nation have been slacking off, as that they’ve finally gotten their feet under them.

Yes, we still have the leading GDP, but do the math. The four largest emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India and China – collectively account for about 25 percent of the world’s population, compare to four percent for the United States. According to an estimate by Goldman Sachs, in about 30 years the combined GDP of  those four counties will exceed that of the hallowed G-6 – the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States.

Moreover, such a projection may not fully take into account the second major problem facing industrialized nations, namely the rapidly growing ability of those four and other Asian and European economies to compete in technology-based markets. Japan set the model in the 1970s and 80s for how to force feed a domestic industrial structure with the tools to develop and use technology. Others, such as Taiwan, Korea and now China, learned the lesson.

The educational systems offered in China, Japan, Korea, and elsewhere are becoming quite competitive with the U.S. In 2000, according to National Science Foundation figures, Asian universities accounted for almost 1.2 million of the world’s natural science and engineering degrees, European universities for another 850,000, and North American universities only about 500,000. Something similar is happening with doctoral degrees.

And it’s not just a question of relative sizes. The ratio of first university degrees in science and engineering to the college-age population in the U.S. is about 5.7 per 100. The number of our EE graduates is going down, while degrees in park service and leisure are going up! Meanwhile across the various ponds the ratio in the major European nations is between 8 and 13 out of 100, in Japan it’s 8 out of  100, in Taiwan and South Korea it’s about 11 out of 100.

And the jobs and the opportunities are there to keep many of the best and the brightest at home. Most of the high tech products are being manufactured in the Asia Pacific. As a result, U.S. companies (if there is such a thing left!) are spending more time on outsourcing and off shoring. …And they are setting up R&D labs in all corners of the world.

Boeing is the only commercial airline manufacturer left in the U.S., and Airbus is giving them a run for their money!

Two of the U.S. car companies are loosing money, and the third is bought out by Daimler Benz.

Dow and DuPont have many powerful competitors.

It will be very challenging – and it will be your challenge – for the United States with its small fraction of the world’s population and its relatively tiny high-tech sector (7-10 percent of GDP, depending on how you define "hi-tech") to slow the descent from its current dominant technology leadership position.

How do we compete in this global market?  How do we maintain our standard of living?
The only way we know how, the “old fashioned way”.  We “innovate”!

That’s how we became the technology leader of the world, and that’s how we’ll do it again!  And everyone agrees on that!

President Bush said last year, “… we live in a competitive world ... We shouldn't take our preeminence as the world's greatest economy for granted. We've constantly got to make sure the economic environment here is strong. We've got to make sure that we're innovative.”

The Council of Competitiveness, in their recent report “Innovate America”, said flatly, “Innovation will be the single most important factor in determining America’s success through the 21st century.”

The less upbeat Task Force on the Future of American Innovation put it, “We conclude that although the United States still leads the world in research and discovery, our advantage is eroding rapidly as other countries commit significant resources to enhance their own innovative capabilities.”

And the even less bouncy Craig R. Barrett, CEO of Intel, wrote “The balance of innovation has begun to tilt eastward, as China and India start taking their own products to market. For the first time, other nations are about to produce more U.S. patents per year than the United States.”

As an official of one of the government’s oldest science and technology research laboratories, this is not the sort of thing that helps me sleep well at night. And yet, coming here today makes me feel a lot better.

The Yankee ingenuity has always been there, and still is here.  I see it right in front of me. We need to focus the country back on science and technology!

And we need to get our youngsters interested in science and technology in an early age! Thomas Friedman, the professionally quotable foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times had a great line recently in an interview for Wired magazine: “When I was growing up, my parents told me, ‘Finish your dinner. People in China and India are starving.’ I tell my daughters ‘Finish your homework. People in India and China are starving for your job.’" Here at least I have an audience of people that got the message.

We need to value our teachers at all levels who teach science and technology.

And we need to value our scientists and engineers, and appreciate what they mean for our economy!  And, I am sure, everyone who is here appreciates them.

And we need to appreciate the fact that today technology is much more interdisciplinary, and we need to work as a team.  And we need to be able to manage and exploit all the knowledge that is being created at an astronomical pace.

Today, you are graduating with all the tools to be creative, innovative, and entrepreneurial to drive the U.S. economy.

We are counting on you to go out there and conquer the world -- the world of science and technology that is --  and restore American prowess in technology and world leadership.

Stan Williams, a Senior Fellow at HP, and director of their Quantum Science Research, said recently, “The wealth of the United States was created through engineering. All of the benefits that flow from that wealth, our security, health and freedom, depend on our ability to lead the world in engineering.”

He is certainly not going to get any argument from me!

Good luck to you all!

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Winter 2007

Thank you.

I am honored to be here and I congratulate you for obtaining a degree from one of the top engineering schools in the world.

Yes, the world.

Not everyone out there knows that yet, but it’s true and it needs to be said. When you go into the work force, people will recognize it.

I hope you’ll continue to remain connected to the University of Maryland throughout your ensuing career.

There's a Romanian poet, Nina Cassian, who says, according to James Waller in Poets and Writers magazine, that she "loves a good joke, especially the kind of joke that expresses a pessimistic delight in the vanity of human enterprise."
She tells this joke.

“A foreign tourist visiting Bucharest approaches two policemen on the street. Addressing himself to one of the officers, the tourist asks, in English, ‘Pardon me, sir, but do you know the way to the Art Museum?’ The officer - obviously uncomprehending - shrugs his shoulders.

“The tourist asks again, this time in French: ‘Pardonnez-moi, mais ou est le Musee des Arts?’ Again, the officer indicates that he hasn't understood.

“Undaunted, the tourist tries a third time – ‘Entschuldigen Sie, bitte, wo ist die Kunsthalle?’ - again, the policeman makes his gesture of incomprehension. Frustrated, the tourist walks away.

“Once he's out of earshot, the second policeman says to the first, ‘That guy sure knew a lot of languages!’
“And the first responds, ‘Yeah - fat lot of good it did him.’”

Armed with your Engineering Degree, in effect, you now know “a lot of languages,” and “what good will those do you?”
Today, based on my own experience, I want to talk about how you can leverage “those languages.”

By my definition, an engineering career is an opportunity to combine an extensive body of theoretical and practical knowledge with a passion for creativity to solve difficult problems to make people’s lives better, while at the same time contributing to your own sense of self-worth and satisfaction.

I want to talk about getting a mentor, learning about finance, and thinking big.

Getting a Mentor

Many papers have been written in IEEE journals, the Harvard Business Review and the like on the importance of mentors. A mentor is a career coach, so to speak.

According to one article, “mentoring relationships have been shown to enhance organizational success, individual career development and individual career satisfaction.”

I’ve told my two sons, William and Tommy, that, in life, many things you cannot choose, but you CAN choose your friends and your mentors.

I have been blessed in my career with a wide variety of mentors. In my view, mentors can not only help you more effectively apply your skills, but also solidify important human values, including working hard for what you believe in, being accountable to results and ultimately being generous with regard to sharing your prosperity and knowledge as a mentor yourself.

After many years on the job, when I now meet an engineer I’m convinced I can tell the difference between those who have had a mentor and those who have not.

Early in my career, I accepted a position as one of the first software engineers at a predominantly hardware engineering company - basically, I was a 60’s hippie with long hair and sandals who was about to go to work every day with a bunch of stuffy slide-rule types.

While I was currently earning $18,000 per year, at the end of my first interview the president of my new employer offered me $23,000 on the spot –   a 28% increase.

After telling my boss (who incidentally was a year younger than I) what happened with the president, I asked how my salary compared to his. “I’m making $20,000,” he said with no hesitation.

“Then I’m making $3,000 more than you?” I exclaimed.

“That’s no problem,” he said, “since you work for me, eventually I’ll get a raise!”

I learned that hiring the best people, even if they make more than you do, can amplify your career in the long run.
When I was 27 in 1975, I was sent to Italy by this same company to convince a customer that a large telephone central office switch could be built all digitally, instead of in the analog fashion at the time.

My role was to be a newly-minted “microprocessor  –  or, as the Italians pronounced it, mee-croprocessor expert.” In 1975 an Intel 8080 8-bit microprocessor cost about $350.00.

Every day for a month, I sat in a conference room with my boss surrounded by 30 very bright Italian engineers who asked us technical question after question for 8 hours a day.

Without knowing anything about telephone switching at the time – I didn’t even know what an Erlang was  –  I went back to my hotel room each night and read CCITT/ITU manuals to study different types of telephone signaling systems.

Although I was, for the most part, scared to death each day I confronted those Italians, my mentors, including my boss who carried the brunt of the “Italian assault,” expressed unflinching confidence in me.

From this experience I learned, as an engineer, almost any difficult learning curve could be overcome by working hard, preparing well, asking dumb questions and never giving up.

Let me mention one further example of mentoring. When that same President sold the company, he and his fellow executives made a lot of money. Although they were the only owners, they donated a pool of dollars and gave some of that to me. To this day, I don’t have the slightest idea how much money it was; all I remember was the generosity they showed me as a workaday engineer because I was part of their team.

That model of generosity held me in good stead when I started my first company. When we sold Telogy Networks, almost half our employees were millionaires, some many times over, because I wanted my success to be their success too.

Take control of your career by choosing good mentors!

Learning about Finance

When I attended Purdue University, briefly as an Honors Engineering Student and then as a Philosophy major, I’m sorry to say I looked down on my fellow students who were pursuing Business, Accounting or Finance degrees. I thought they weren’t smart enough to do engineering or philosophy.

Later, as a Vice President at M/A-Com, thanks to the encouragement of our CEO who was an MIT Ph.D. graduate, I was fortunate enough to be forced to enroll in MIT’s Sloan School Executive Management Program.

About 30 days before the first course, I received a box of books to read before class. With the prejudice I had from Purdue, I left the box unopened until just before my flight to Boston. After opening the box, I scanned the agenda of classes and threw a couple books into my briefcase. It wasn’t until I checked into the hotel, had a long dinner and a few leisurely drinks that I retired to my hotel room and finally cracked one of those books.

Within the first twenty pages, I realized I was in DEEP TROUBLE.

With page after page of financial definitions and mathematical formulae, I began to slowly understand I was encountering a body of knowledge I knew absolutely nothing about. My engineering experience to date had not prepared me for what I read in those books – other than I knew I’d better start immediately taking notes.
When I arrived at class the next day, I sat as far back in the room as I could.

Our professor wasted no time intimidating us. “I know most of you have an engineering background,” he said. “And some of you may have responsibility for running a P&L. But we’ll see shortly how smart you really are.”

Fortunately, this professor was a true teacher and he was bluffing. He said, “Some of you don’t have the slightest idea what business finance is all about and some of you are already successful running profitable divisions of M/A-Com. So today I’m going to instruct you on a single message about business finance that is everything you need to know as a starting point: ‘There is no such thing as THE cost of anything. There is only such a thing as A cost of something.’ If you don’t read any of the books we sent you and you learn nothing else during your time here at MIT, this is what I have to impart to you.”

I cannot tell you how much this simple advice has helped me in my career as an engineer – in fact, I could never have been an effective CEO otherwise.

Ironically, there seems to be almost a creed that engineers should be bad at finance, and it’s a cruel joke among CFO’s that engineers are the last people who should have any say about cost allocations, product pricing and business models.

To wit, I have frequently been involved in startup company conversations where founders have said, “Why should we hire an expensive CFO when we could hire 2 or 3 more engineers for the same amount of money?”

Let me give one more example.

After several years as CEO of my first company, Telogy Networks, in our 3rd year my board told me that our gross margins were too low. I accepted the board’s gauntlet. We needed to either raise our prices or lower our costs.
As I began to think about it, I wondered how many of our employees understood what gross margin was. That is when I established what I called our annual employee quiz and my now infamous “gross margin question.” I realized we could never achieve high gross margins if our employees didn’t know what gross margin was.

I created the following test question: “If I make a product which has a COGS (cost of goods sold) of $1.00 and I want to sell it for 75% gross margin, what is the sell price?”

The answer, of course, is $4.00, that is, a sell price which is FOUR TIMES the cost. Unfortunately, after giving this test over many years I found that most engineers failed  –  the most common answer being $1.75. Upon discovering the correct answer, one engineer, who happened to be a phase-locked loop circuit genius, told me, “Tom, to sell our products at four times cost seems like a sin.”

When Tom Watson, Jr., of IBM retired, he was asked what he was most proud of during his career. Mr. Watson was the CEO of IBM when they dominated the computer landscape with IBM’s System 360 computer, the computer I grew up on.

“My high prices,” he said.

When you can BOTH deliver cool technology AND charge a premium for its value that is engineering nirvana!
Engineers who understand finance, financial models and Wall Street can be, from a practical standpoint, more powerful than engineers who don’t.

Give it a try, it’s not easy!

Thinking Big

Besides recognizing you can choose your mentors, you also have the choice of thinking small or thinking big.
In my last year at Purdue, I took a graduate Modern Analytic Philosophy course studying Wittgenstein, Frege and Russell.

My professor had a photographic memory. It was rumored that he could tell you who the “camera grip” was for any movie by simply watching the credits as they rolled by.

In fact, he wrote out his lectures in long hand but delivered them by reading his notes from memory in the upper right-hand corner of the lecture room. This meant the only way to ask a question was to raise one’s arm in that direction to get one’s hand in his field of view.

There were 6 students in this class to begin with and that shrank down to 3 as the semester progressed. As the only undergraduate student in the class, I wanted very much to impress this professor. My paper had to do with an arcane point in Gottlieb Frege’s writings.

I felt absolutely certain of my conclusions, and at midterm I met this professor in his office to expound my thesis. He listened intently. When I finished making my case, he said, “That’s interesting. But it’s not a very important point, is it, Tom?”

I was devastated, …but I came to realize I was making a compelling argument about a nit.

Subsequently, I threw out the research on Frege and started over on Wittgenstein. While I felt my discourse was less persuasive, I put myself on the line to tackle a much more complicated problem. When I received my grades in the mail, I was amazed I earned an “A.”

Even more amazing, I later learned I was the only student who had completed the class!

My advice here is to condition yourself to think big.

At Telogy, we set out to change an industry by providing a turn-key solution for enabling Voice-over-IP products: VOIP phones, VOIP gateways, and VOIP switches.

Here are some of the comments we received regarding our strategy:

• VOIP doesn’t seem that complicated, anybody can do it
• Implementation is too expensive
• Cisco considers this a core competency and they’ll never buy from you
• It will never work. You’ll get killed with jitter, latency and echo cancelation
• The Telcos (that is, major telephone companies) will kill you
• It’s an interesting niche market
• And here’s my favorite:
  It will work, but not for 10 years

Today, SKYPE is a household piece of software. Probably only a few people who use SKYPE today even realize it’s based on VOIP technology.

Here’s the good news: oftentimes, as a practical matter, working on a small opportunity is no less difficult than working on a big opportunity – but small opportunities provide fewer degrees of freedom for making mistakes than big opportunities.

I will never forget my last day as Senior Vice President of Engineering at Hughes before starting Telogy. With about 500 engineers in my organization at the time, I merrily deleted hundreds of emails, cleaned out my office and boxed up my records. On my way out the door, one of my engineers ran up to me.

“That’s it?” he said.

“Yes,” I said, “this is my last box.”

“I hear you are going to start a company to compete with us,” he said.

“I only have 4 full-time people right now,” I said. “Hughes is a $9 Billion company. How could I compete with you?”

“Then tell me what product you are going to build,” he replied.

“I don’t know yet,” I said. “We haven’t figured it out.”

“You can tell me,” he said. “I won’t tell anybody.”

“But I can’t tell you,” I said, “because we don’t know.”

“YOU CAN’T BE THAT DUMB!” he exclaimed, and he walked away believing I hadn’t told him the truth.

As I was getting into my car, leaving a great job, many friends and valued mentors, I couldn’t help saying to myself, “My God, I AM that dumb!”

My final advice: when you begin to think big, don’t worry about being as smart as everyone thought you were.

Congratulations and Good Luck in your career!

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