General Chair: Alen Fejzuli, Florida RF Labs & EMC Technology
Alen Fejzuli holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of South Florida in Tampa. His experience includes RF/Microwave design and product engineering at both Harris and JDS Uniphase corporations. Currently, he is Vice President of Engineering at Florida RF Labs & EMC Technology in Stuart, Florida.
Alen serves the engineering community by volunteering as a member of the 2014 MTT steering committee and as an active member of the Industry Advisory Council at the Center for Wireless and Microwave Information Systems (WAMI) at USF in Tampa. In addition, Alen has authored and co-authored a number of technical papers, holds several patents, and is an adjunct professor at the Indian River State College in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Vice Chair: Dr. Xun Gong, University of Central Florida
Xun Gong received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from FuDan University in 1997 and 2000, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2004. He is currently with the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at University of Central Florida. He was with Birck Nanotechnology Center at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, as a post-doctoral research associate. His current research is focused on integrated high-Q resonators and filters, integrated RF front-end, metamaterial, vertical circuit integration and packaging.
Technical Program Co-Chair: Dr. Jing Wang, University of South Florida
Jing Wang received two M.S. degrees from the University of Michigan, one in electrical engineering (2000), the other in mechanical engineering (2002), and a Ph.D. degree from University of Michigan in 2006. He is currently an assistant professor in Electrical Engineering Department at the University of South Florida. He was the recipient of the Third Best Student Paper Award at the IEEE 2003 Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Conference and 2006 ASEE Outstanding Student Instructor Award. His research interests include nano-/micro-fabrication technologies, microfluidics, new materials for MEMS applications, and integrated RF/Microwave circuit technology. His recent research endeavor has been funded by National Science Foundation.
Tutorials Co-Chair and Technical Program Committee Member:
Ray Pengelly, Cree Inc.
Ray Pengelly gained his BSc. and MSc. degrees from Southampton University, England in 1969 and 1973 respectively. Ray worked for the Plessey Company from 1969 to 1986 in a variety of engineering roles with increasing seniority. From 1978 to 1986 he managed the world-renowned GaAs MMIC department at Plessey Research, Caswell. During this time, after several years of development, the department produced one of the world’s first phased array radar transmit/receive modules to be put into a demonstration system.
In 1986 Tachonics Corporation in Princeton, New Jersey employed Ray where he was Executive Director of Design for analog and microwave GaAs MMICs. He joined Compact Software, Paterson, New Jersey in 1989 as Vice President of Marketing and Sales, where he was responsible for the development of state-of-the-art computer-aided design tools to the RF, microwave and lightwave industries.
Starting in 1993 Raytheon Commercial Electronics, Andover, Massachusetts, employed Ray in a number of positions including MMIC Design and Product Development Manager and Director of Advanced Products and New Techniques. Under these capacities he managed a growing team to develop new products for emerging markets including power amplifiers for Wireless Local Loop applications using pHEMT technology, Si-Ge mixed signal products, flip chip and chip scale packaging as well as new subsystem techniques such as I/Q pre-distortion.
Since August 1999, Ray has been employed by Cree Inc. in Durham, North Carolina. Initially he was the General Manager for Cree Microwave responsible for bringing Cree’s wide bandgap transistor technology to the commercial market-place. On the acquisition of UltraRF, Sunnyvale in 2001 he became Chief Technical Officer enabling his skills in microwave semiconductor technology, based on 30 years of experience, to be utilized. From September 2005 he became responsible for new business development of wide bandgap technologies for RF and microwave applications for Cree in Durham, NC and most recently has been involved with the release of GaN HEMT transistors and ICs for general purpose and telecommunications applications.
Ray has written over 95 technical papers, 4 technical books, holds 12 patents and is a Fellow of the IET and Senior Member of the IEEE.
Awards Chair and Technical Program Committee Member:
Richard Abrahams, Harris
Richard L. Abrahams is a Group Leader and Sr. Member of the RF/Microwave Engineering staff at Harris Corporation, Governmemt Communications Systems Division, Palm Bay Florida. He holds M.E.E. and B.E.E. degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY. Abrahams is a Life Member of the IEEE and is a past chairman of the WAMI External Advisory board. He was Co-Chairman of the 2008 RWS Symposium held in Orlando, FL. Abrahams holds numerous patents in the RF/Microwave field and has frequently authored technical papers in this discipline.
Sponsorship: Dr. Larry Dunleavy, Modelithics, Inc.
Lawrence P. Dunleavy co-founded Modelithics, Inc. in 2001 with Dr. Thomas Weller, to provide improved modeling solutions and high quality microwave measurement services for RF and microwave designers. He currently is serving as President of the company. Prior to this, Drs. Dunleavy and Weller led a faculty team to develop the University of South Florida’s innovative Center for Wireless and Microwave Information Systems (The WAMI Center), and he maintains a part-time position as a Professor within USF’s Department of Electrical Engineering.
Exhibits Chair: Mike Hallman, Microwave Journal
Michael Hallman joined Microwave Journal as its Eastern Regional Sales Manager in 2003. In this capacity, Michael works in partnership with his clients to provide editorial opportunities as well as support them in all their print, electronic and event media needs. Mr. Hallman has been in the RF and Microwave business since 1991, most notably as the Director of Marketing Communications for both K&L Microwave and Paratek Microwave. These roles included global marketing and advertising campaigns and numerous event and tradeshow management activities around the world.
Tutorials Co-Chair: Dr. Huseyin Arslan, University of South Florida
Dr. Arslan has received his PhD. degree in 1998 from Southern Methodist University (SMU), Dallas, Tx. From January 1998 to August 2002, he was with the research group of Ericsson Inc., NC, USA, where he was involved with several project related to 2G and 3G wireless cellular communication systems. Since August 2002, he has been with the Electrical Engineering Dept. of University of South Florida. He has also been working for Anritsu Company, Morgan Hill, CA (as a visiting professor during the summers of 2005 and 2006) as a part-time consulting since August 2005.
Dr. Arslan's research interests are related to advanced signal processing techniques at the physical layer, with cross-layer design for networking adaptivity and Quality of Service (QoS) control. He is interested in many forms of wireless technologies including cellular, wireless PAN/LAN/MANs, fixed wireless access, and specialized wireless data networks like wireless sensors networks and wireless telemetry. The current research interests are on UWB, OFDM based wireless technologies with emphasis on WIMAX and IMT-Advanced, and cognitive and software defined radio. He has served as technical program committee chair, technical program committee member, session and symposium organizer, and workshop chair in several IEEE conferences. He is a member of the editorial board for "Wireless Communication and Mobile Computing Journal" and "Research Letters in Communications". Dr. Arslan is a senior member of IEEE.
Website Chair: Dr. Charles Baylis, Baylor University
Charles Baylisis an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He received the B.S.E.E., M.S.E.E., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of South Florida in 2002, 2004, and 2007, respectively. Before moving to Baylor University, Dr. Baylis served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at USF from 2007-2008, and, prior to this, as an Adjunct Instructor at USF from 2004-2007. He has authored several technical papers related to transistor modeling and amplifier design. He is presently performing research in the areas of RF/microwave amplifier and oscillator design, microwave transistor modeling, and microwave measurements for biological applications.
Dr. Baylis is a member of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society and the Automatic RF Techniques Group (ARFTG). He has been actively involved in his technical community by serving on steering committees for the IEEE Wireless and Microwave Technology Conference (WAMICON), the IEEE Power Amplifier Symposium, and the IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium.
Bob Helsby is currently the Director of Business Development, Academic Programs for Ansoft LLC. Ansoft supplies electromagnetic EDA software for the wireless and power industries.
Bob received his BSEE in electromagnetics from Clarkson University, Potsdam NY in 1967. After 5 years as a Naval Aviator, Electronic Countermeasures he returned to private industry with Corning Glass as an Application Engineer. During 6 years at Corning Mr. Helsby attended Syracuse University and received his MBA in 1981.
The next 25 years were spent in sales and technical marketing in the semiconductor and EDA software business. Employment over that time span was with Burr Brown (TI), Harris Corporation, Dasix, Valid Logic, Cadence and Ansoft Corporation.
Bob currently lectures extensively on college campuses to encourage students to pursue the study of electromagnetics.
Gary Breed has been an editor and publishing executive in the RF/microwave industry for nearly 25 years, and is currently Editorial Director of High Frequency Electronics magazine. His earlier career was in the broadcast industry, as a station Chief Engineer and Director of Engineering, plus several years as a technical consultant. He holds one patent and has designed numerous commercial products for radio communications. Between 1986 and 1996, he organized the educational and technical programs for the RF Expo, RF Expo East, and EMC Test & Design conferences. In addition to his support of WAMICON, he is past Publications Chair for the IEEE Radio & Wireless Conference (RAWCON).
Thomas M. Weller received the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering in 1988, 1991, and 1995, respectively, from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. From 1988-1990 he worked at Hughes Aircraft Company in El Segundo, CA. He joined the University of South Florida in 1995 where he is currently a professor in the Electrical Engineering Department. He co-founded Modelithics, Inc. in 2001. Dr. Weller was a co-recipient of the 1996 Microwave Prize from the IEEE MTT Society, a recipient of a CAREER Award from The National Science Foundation in 1999, and the recipient of the Outstanding Young Engineer Award from the IEEE MTT Society in 2005.
Simon Wood has a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the University of Bradford, UK. He started his career in electronics at Marconi Instruments, Ltd. in Stevenage, UK, where he designed front end modules for RF test equipment. In 1998, he ventured over to the States to work at Raytheon Microelectronics in Andover, Massachusetts. While there, he was involved in the design of MMIC power amplifiers for cell phone applications. Since joining Cree Inc. in 2000, he has designed amplifiers using Sic MESFET, Si LDMOS, and more recently GaN HEMT devices. He has been Manager of Product Development at Cree since January 2006.
In his professional activities, he has written numerous magazine articles and has presented papers and led workshops at international conferences. He served as secretary on the steering committee for IMS2006 in San Francisco and is currently acting on the RWS Technical Paper Committee. He holds five United States patents in amplifier design.
Dr. Culver has over 20 years of experience in microwave circuit and systems design, including experience at Texas Instruments, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and ATK. At Raytheon he has held a variety of technical lead and technical management positions. Dr. Culver was an Engineering Fellow for Northrop Grumman, developing miniature communication systems. He joined ATK in 2007, to support their millimeter wave and Electro Optics programs.
Responsibilities include IPT leader to develop quick turn radiometers for broadband spectral characterization and program manager for two programs; the HFI Capability Study with NRL and the Multi-Function Threat Detector JCTD with NAVAIR. Dr. Culver holds four patents and has authored over 25 papers on MMIC/microwave circuit design and antennas.
Craig Sapashe received his B.S in Electrical Engineering from the University of South Florida in 1985. He started his professional career at Texas Instruments as a Microwave Design Engineer developing military aerospace radar jammers and surface to air missile active decoys. His experience includes Microwave MMIC and thin-film module design and layout. Craig thereafter served as Applications Engineer for EEsof Inc. a private fast growing developer of RF design tools. He supported presale demos and applications across the Midwest US.
Upon Hewlett Packard's acquisition of EEsof in 1993, Craig moved to Orlando Florida and became an Account Manager calling on the Southeast US. The test and measurement arm spun out of Hewlett Packard in 2001 as Agilent Technologies. Craig soon after became Major Account Manager calling on strategic and global customers. He has broad knowledge and experience in RF and high-speed/frequency design and flows. Craig was instrumental in securing the instrument grant from Hewlett Packard which launched the WAMI lab in 1998. He co chaired the first USF WAMI Industry Advisory Board, assembled to align curriculum with industry needs, and has been an active member since.