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From www.blackengineer.com Awards & Lists
Q.: How do you spell globe-trotter? Abbott's Dallas Delaney is a globetrotter who is both exemplar of the value of experience in disparate arenas and an illustrator of how to parlay such savvy into serious career mobility. Beginning as an INROADS intern, Delaney first learned manufacturing process control at Hallmark Cards, moved to semiconductor manufacturing at AT&T, bounced back to Hallmark, and left for good to follow the footsteps of historic physicist and chemist Samuel Elmer Imes and the great Percy Julian in the remaking of chemical processes. At Abbott, he followed still another early 20th century black scientist, Edward M.A. Chandler, who signed up in 1921. Delaney took his University of Kansas E.E. degree to AT&T Technologies in 1985, supervising the making of computer memory chips and learning the basics of test engineering. Hallmark kept calling, and two years later he was designing state-of-the-art packaging line control systems. He became a "can do" project leader, whose managerial acumen matched his technical skills, a canny organizer who finished projects on time, within budget. He moved to the Windy City six years later, joining Abbott as a chemical and agricultural products controls engineer. There, he transformed a mostly manual, operator-driven production system into a rules-based, software-controlled chemical processing and production system, increasing yields and pumping up the quality. That success brought new demands on his time and skills, from more than one top manager. Pharmaceutical Products needed him to install and validate multiple machines for solid-dosage products. He also updated the system for producing cut labels with a computerized, print-on-demand system to cut costs and boost ready availability of appropriate, regulator-approved labels to eliminate the waste of storing big inventories of language- and culture-specific labels for different countries. It won him a coveted Abbott Chairman's Award, one of a handful. Delaney became a quick study on the myriad cultures, regulatory environments, and selling regimes of a company doing business in 130 countries, and his progress sparked still more demands. A stint with the TAP Pharmaceuticals joint venture with Takeda Chemical had Delaney managing two key product launches, acting as ringmaster steering the development, sales, and marketing teams and multiple third-party manufacturing suppliers to meet tough deadlines. It brought an Abbott President's Award, and his next job, helping lead the startup of an International Operations Division technology management group, handled the launch of new pharmaceuticals and hospital products. Among them was HUMIRA, a blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug, winning still another President's citation. The late Dr. Julian, whose advances helped make cortisone available for so many arthritis sufferers, would have approved heartily. Barnstorming through Germany, France, Italy, Great Britain, Spain, Switzerland, Holland, Argentina, and Brazil for the last two years, Delaney's team launched eight new pharmaceutical and hospital products, teaching several acquired manufacturers the Abbott way of working. He's a Jayhawk who never stops moving, looking for his next target of opportunity.
Emmanuel A. Cephas Jr. Student Frostburg State University Emmanuel Cephas is a Ronald McNair Scholar at Frostburg State University, a senior with a double major in computer science and physics and a double minor in math and graphic design. His grade point average is 3.5, and he is a member of the National Math Honor Society, Kappa Mu Epsilon. If that isn't enough, note that he interned two summers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Last summer, he also completed an internship at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, working on his special interest, the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project. That academic record is no fluke, as Frostburg Assistant Provost Mary J. Gartner can attest. Here's how Cephas approached internships: "Initially, we thought Emmanuel might have to choose between participating in the McNair Program (a research-oriented program involving seminars and workshops and summers at the University of Maryland at College Park) and the NASA internship, but Emmanuel negotiated with the two programs so he could do both." Cephas' energy mirrors J. Ernest Wilkins', an African American who completed his bachelor's in math in 1941 at age 17 and earned a master's degree the same year. Wilkins, later a Manhattan Project scientist, finished his doctorate at the University of Chicago, at age 19, in 1943, after taking a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering at New York University the year before. Was it something in the water? Cephas, this year's Wilkins, likes to speak to other students about careers in science. Recommendation letters came from his high school, Lansdowne High in Baltimore's suburbs, stressing that he is a consummate go-getter, searching the Internet for NASA folks to participate in mock interviews for students headed for college, completing special work on the MCB (molecular and cellular biology) Freezer program at the University of Maryland at Baltimore, and earning A's in every direction. Let's let Cephas tell you his goals: "I designed my academic program to give me the combined problem-solving skills of the computer scientist and physicist and the imagination and creativity of the artist and engineer...." Exactly. Need we say more?
Brig. Gen. Robert Crear Commanding General and Division Engineer U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Southwestern Division Time Magazine named American G.I.s "Person of the Year" after their 21-day sweep through Operation Iraqi Freedom and their steadfast performance in facing down suicide bombers and ambush attacks to bring order and restore services to the people afterward, and that is a good move. Look at the backdrop, however, and it's clear none of that would have been possible without great logistical and engineering support: Remember the World War II Red Ball Express? Those black troopers' spirits are looking down on Brig. Gen. Robert Crear, the Corps of Engineers' main driver of support for Central Command, which ran the Iraq war and is running the occupation. Crear, the second African American to be senior engineer for the Corps' Southwest Region, leads programs spending $1.5 billion a year on military and civil works engineering and construction in seven states and the Middle East. His 3,200-person division not only supports 29 U.S. Army and Air Force installations but also works with civilian municipalities and Kuwaiti and Iraqi leaders to improve water resources infrastructure such as harbors, commercial ports, shoreline protection, and flood-control projects. Then there are the oil-well and pipeline fires. Let's use the words of the Corps' commander, Lt. Gen. Robert B. Flowers: "Brigadier General Crear is making a very strong and positive impact in an area of responsibility that today encompasses a large part of world oil production. In addition to his regular duties (in the U.S.), Bob is in-theater in charge of implementing plans to extinguish oil well fires and assess the damage to oil facilities during Operation Iraqi Freedom. [His work] encompasses the full range of activities...necessary to restore or continue the operation of the Iraqi oil infrastructure, which is vital to the future health of Iraq's economy." There's more: The Jackson State University grad also is the Corps' national account executive for the Army Medical Command, Army and Air Force Exchange Service, and Immigration and Nationalization Service, all from his Dallas headquarters. That's a big Hoo-ahh, Boss.
Clarence Ogletree Chief Information Officer, North American Manufacturing General Motors Corporation Decades ago, when American manufacturing was nearly KO'd by burgeoning world-wide competition, engineers realized that use of automated production tools meant that control of information was the Holy Grail of efficiency. Clarence Ogletree, manufacturing chief information officer for GM North America, is one of the professionals who reshaped the scene on the plant floor. Numerically controlled metalworking tools, robotic welders and painters, flexible manufacturing cells, and automated materials-handling demanded real-time control of information flow, if just-in-time manufacturing would work. The 1997 Black Engineer of the Year Award-winner for Professional Achievement in Industry, Dixie Garr, and her colleagues at Texas Instruments Incorporated developed an early software set allowing plant engineers to manage the entire range of digital systems -- microprocessor-based controllers, desktop computers, embedded systems, minicomputers and mainframes -- within a single control environment, and the manufacturing teams were off and running. It took pros such as Ogletree, now chief information officer for 66 North American car and truck plants, to bring U.S. manufacturing back into the game. Ogletree, a math major from Atlanta's Morris Brown College, began at Argonne National Labs during the late 1960s and worked at Northern Illinois University and the City of Savannah, Ga., before joining industry. At Tenneco Oil in the mid-1970s, he led development of a pioneering automated system to let card-wielding tank truck drivers load gas and diesel oil from bulk terminals. He also cut retail convenience-store pilferage with a retail merchandising system. At Whirlpool, Ogletree developed a planning system to align information technology projects with business priorities, and corporations lined up to benchmark it. He was a charter member of AT&T's Global Advisory Council, defining customer requirements on a project to end cross-border chaos in telecommunications services for U.S. firms overseas. Joining GM after the auto giant spun off EDS, Ogletree chaired the Information Systems Management Council of the Manufacturing Alliance Productivity Institute for two years, leading efforts to share information and benchmark improvements in business technology. Next, he developed a quality index supplier metric for IT services. He has eliminated some 250 servers, and plants he helped open are some of America's best performers in quality and efficiency.
Frederick E. Cross Program Capture Manager, Engineering and Production Support Raytheon Company Frederick Cross began his career working in what military officers call industrial "preparedness," managing a $30-million program to provide strategic planning, forecasting, and evaluation for the Army's production of devastating weapons of mass destruction. He moved to the Navy as a manufacturing manager, first working on a P-3 Orion project, the $15-million Airborne Integrated Electronics Suite, then bumping up to run logistics for the $230-million AN/ARC-182 communications program. It may sound arcane, but those background activities are what keeps the U.S. military on top of its game. Two four-star generals now retired, the Army's Johnnie Wilson and the Air Force's Lester Lyles, each a former commander of his service's Materiel Command and each honored by Black Engineer of the Year Selection Panels for overall direction of such work, know exactly how critical that kind of performance is. Cross, a civilian, left the military chain of command, but he didn't go far away. Joining Raytheon in 1997, he used his strategic planning, his logistical skills, and his Six Sigma quality engineering acumen to help a TRW/Raytheon team win a major contract to build the $4.5-billion National Polar Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System. That got him promoted to be program capture manager for the Tactical Operation Business area, directly responsible for overseeing booking, sales, and earnings for more than $40 million in business. He's a University of Arkansas industrial engineer with an M.B.A. from Indiana Wesleyan, and his executive studies at Northwestern and his wide exposure to the multitude of requirements of doing a complex project gave him serious business acumen. He's also a man who pays attention to the situation of other minorities in the workplace. A side job is leading the Raytheon Minority Network, an organization he and a handful of friends launched to help strengthen diversity programs and make his division comfortable, supportive, and rewarding for minorities. And as the Council of HBCU Engineering Deans knows, Cross is a key member of Raytheon's Campus Management Team for Tennessee State University. 'Nuff said?
Gary A. Cummings Director, Vehicle Systems Engineers for the Exterior and Body Systems General Motors North American Product Development Gary Cummings is an engineer with a lot on his mind. Beginning as a GM intern while still in high school in Dayton, Ohio, Cummings worked his way through 13 Wright State University credit hours before signing on full time at Purdue in math and industrial engineering. Joining the band and the National College Band Honorary Fraternity, Cummings traveled to appearances throughout Europe, South America, and the U.S. during the school year, then did summer engineering internships at GM. The great turn-of-the-20th century bandleader James Reese Europe, a decorated hero who survived no-man's land before returning to the bandstand to entertain troops in the First World War, would have been proud of him. Upon graduation, Cummings stayed connected via co-op work in the GM Tech Center in Warren, Mich. He finished his master's degree in industrial and operations engineering in 1979 and joined GM full time, highly impressed by what he saw on campus. Cummings moved through various engineering jobs, arriving at his present post leading 75 engineers after working in manufacturing, advanced product development, and reliability engineering assignments for several car lines. Cummings never forgot that it takes extra effort to open academic and career doors for minorities, however. He joined GM's Purdue recruiting team in 1981, and 18 years later was lead coordinator. Cummings' team instituted an engineer-in-residence program, under which GM sends a minority engineer for a year to teach, do research, and do community service. Cummings also was instrumental in the award of 1,205 computer-aided design, manufacturing, and engineering software packages, worth $116 million, to Purdue's Engineering and Technology schools. This largest-ever corporate grant gives students the same tools GM uses. Cummings also signed onto GM's Howard University engineering team in 1999, and is executive champion for the Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Project, which gives Howard students real-world design experience. He's also an adjunct at Walsh College in Troy, Mich., teaching statistics and business reengineering. Cummings, an executive coach and steering committee member in the GM African Ancestry Engineering Network since its inception, also is on the steering committee for Pathfinders, a Wayne State University Medical School support organization. He and his wife Lynn promote charity events to raise money for minority scholarships. One recent event raised $100,000.
Angela Barbee-Hatter Engineering Group Manager General Motors Corporation American girls are not expected to play with tools and figure out mechanical problems, even in the 21st century. But Angela Barbee-Hatter, as Midwestern American as they come, is a living exemplar of how public expectations can be so badly wrong. Barbee-Hatter fell in love with engineering through a middle school INROADS pre-college program. The first African-American female graduate of Milwaukee Trade & Tech High's pre-engineering program, she found college a financial challenge. She worked while studying mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin, serving as a City of Milwaukee engineering drafting technician. She also was a volunteer tutor/mentor, and she rechartered her local National Society of Black Engineers chapter. That determination mirrored another Midwesterner, Bessie Coleman, a Chicago manicurist who yearned to learn the technology of flight. Coleman, turned away by flight schools in the discriminatory 1920s, went to Paris, and came home the first black American female licensed pilot and a determined campaigner for better minority access to technology. Barbee-Hatter turned a co-op opportunity into a career that brought benefits to her, fellow students, colleagues, and Purdue University. Ford Motor Company moved her to Wayne State University, and she finished in 1993 while moving up to the National Society of Black Engineers' regional and national boards and participating in Pi Tau Sigma Mechanical Engineering Honor Society. Barbee-Hatter joined Nissan Motors Company, but GM quickly snapped her up. She continued campus links, becoming functional recruiting leader for GM's NSBE Corporate Recruiting Team, and joined the Georgia Tech recruiting team. She won a Distinguished Service Award for her work with the GM Salaried Congress and an Outstanding Alumni Award for service on the Corporate Advisory Board for the Association of Black Engineers and Applied Scientists at Wayne State University. Next, one of eight Truck Division staffers to win competitive Distinguished Fellowship Awards, Barbee-Hatter went to Purdue University and was the first African-American female graduate of the Herrick Laboratories M.Sc. program. She also tutored undergrads and, as at Wisconsin, was a volunteer Minority Engineering Program mentor. She returned as GM engineer-in-residence, and gained wide notice as a teacher and role model for women and minorities. She joined Purdue's Industrial Advisory Board and, with colleague Gary Cummings, another of this year's Black Engineers of the Year, played a critical role in arranging the PACE partnership's gift of $116 million worth of engineering design packages.
Byron M. Green Vice President, Truck and Activity Vehicle Assembly Operations DaimlerChrysler Manufacturing Byron Green joined DaimlerChrysler in 1998, and in five years rose from senior manager of paint operations in St. Louis to head of Truck and Activity Vehicle Assembly, responsible for five assembly plants, more than 16,000 employees, and a budget of $1.8 billion. Can you say "Fast Track"? No such climb could be easy, even if it seemed swift. Green, a graduate of GM Institute, now Kettering University, with a master's in engineering management from the University of Detroit, started two decades ago as a GM engineering co-op. He hopped to Ford to be a manufacturing development engineer, then back to GM as a senior manufacturing project engineer. Five years after that, Green was GM's production superintendent - final. Can you say "Trailblazer"? At DaimlerChrysler, he held plant manager titles at the Toledo Assembly Plant, then the Jefferson North Assembly Plant, and in 2002 became top dog at Engine and Foundry, two critical divisions. Safety was and is his passion: At Jefferson North, lost work days incidents improved 82.5 percent, and the safety incident rate improved 65.8 percent. At Engine and Foundry, he made a 28-percent cut in an already low record of lost days incidents -- from .76 in 2002 to .55 last year. He also cut by 7.8 percent the amount of time needed to make an engine, with a unionized work force. At Truck and Activity Vehicles, Green posted a 27-percent improvement in the safety incident rate, with his patented formula: Zero tolerance for unsafe behavior, greater attention to workplace ergonomics, and efforts to boost employee morale while cutting incidents. Green is on the board of the DaimlerChrysler African American Network, an affinity group. He works with the network's mentoring program and with the Chrysler Institute of Engineering, a two-year rotational program under which former college interns are invited to join DaimlerChrysler. The two-year program allows student-employees to complete master's studies while rotating through assignments in Stamping, Assembly, Vehicle Engineering, Powertrain, Supervision, and an assignment of choice. Can you say "Never Rest"? He probably doesn't.
Keith W. Jones, Ph.D. Lead Engineer - Distributed Mission Operations & Integration Standards U.S. Air Force Eugene Bullard would have liked Dr. Keith Jones. Bullard, the first black fighter pilot, had to go to France to take up aviation in 1916, as World War I raged, and managed to down two enemies in mano à mano duels, becoming a hero to France and a legend in black America. Had radar been available for the Great War, with Dr. Jones in the hangars, Bullard could have flown knowing enemy threats would be visible before they struck. Radar, "ASPIC" to the British during World War II, today is critical to air combat. Dr. Jones is a key technologist helping U.S. pilots survive today's intense electronic surveillance, targeting, and countermeasures. Among other exploits, he was lead engineer on radar warning receivers used on the F-16 Fighting Falcon, as well as the F-22 Raptor fighter's electronic support measures (ESM) receiver and a Fiber Optic Towed Decoy for the F-15 Eagle. His warning receiver is used on the F-16, B1-B bomber, and gunships such as the AC-130. Electronic warfare is a big reason foreign forces have such difficulty hitting U.S. planes. One testament to Dr. Jones' skills is his team's 1989 Best Electronic Warfare Unit Award from the Old Crows' Association for a competitive radar flyoff. Another is that his ESM receiver was one of the F-22's first avionics systems to pass its preliminary design review. That came in 1992, the year the first black woman commissioned Civil Air Patrol pilot died. Lt. Willa Brown joined the air auxiliary in 1942, too early for combat like today's female warplane pilots, but with her Northwestern University master's degree, mechanic's license, and commercial flying skills, she readily could have appreciated Dr. Jones' contributions. Dr. Jones breathes Air Force blue. After an enlisted tour, he gained an associate's degree in electronics to support his family as a technician while completing Wright State University. He became a civilian Air Force recruit with B.Sc. in hand, then completed the master's program in management and engineering at the University of Dayton before Ph.D. studies at Cincinnati's Union Institute & University, along the way authoring technical papers on how biomimetics relate to electronics. For the uninitiated, he deciphers how animal senses mimic technical devices such as transducers to pick up ultrasound and even, as sharks do, detect microelectrical pulses. Dr. Jones also is a historian; he links African and African-American science and technical contributions to "mainstream" history. He is a pioneer who never stops seeking new approaches.
Capt. Mickey V. Ross Commanding Officer, Supervisor of Shipbuilding Conversion and Repair, Puget Sound NAVAIR Navy Captain Mickey Ross is one of a highly select group: engineering duty officers, a tight cadre of less than 1,000. These are the supra-professionals who make things go in Navy technology, and Capt. Ross is the highest-ranking minority group member of the crew. That by itself would merit attention, but the specifics of what Capt. Ross makes go -- and how he does it -- are worthy of closer examination. He just finished a stint at Space and Naval Warfare Systems, where he handled a half-billion-dollar budget designing and installing high-tech electronics suites. Now he leads the Supervisor of Shipbuilding agency, Puget Sound, responsible for giving the fleet "optimal warfighting capability" through partnerships with private shipbuilding and repair firms. Earlier duties included rebuilding the Navy's shattered Pentagon Command Center after 9/11, and supporting Homeland Security activities. His work is mostly classified, but the clear-traffic report says Capt. Ross built a duplicate command communications center while he rebuilt the first one, in two months instead of the normal 10 to 12 months. His team rushed gear up to New York so then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani could use teleconferencing, data communications, and secure phone lines aboard the hospital ship Comfort, bypassing the city's damaged phone system. It seems Capt. Ross always does things in compressed time. Citations from the Sea Systems Command, where he once worked, show he created standardized software that shortened training and cut costs for amphibious assault ship combat systems, saving millions of dollars. He did a similar job designing and integrating combat data systems for aircraft carriers and was cited for "exceptional leadership and unparalleled resourcefulness." Capt. Ross also led a Space and Naval Warfare Systems team that won the right to design and install a new Command, Control, Communications, Computer, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) suite for the headquarters of the U.S. forces in Korea, as an Air Force colonel's letter testifies. Ross has commendations from the chiefs of the Naval Air Force, Space and Naval Warfare, and Sea Systems commands, and the commander in chief of the Pacific, the world's largest military command, for moving mountains to get Navy ships ready to go to sea with enhanced C4ISR abilities. As his mentor, retired Rear Admiral Osie Combs, says, the old saying, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" is inappropriate with Capt. Ross: "He is the torpedo."
Joseph C. Mills, Ph.D. Vice President and Program Manager, Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) - NASA Systems The Boeing Company Not every engineer working in aerospace draws the eye of Aviation Week, the industry bible. But Boeing's Dr. Joseph C. Mills, Av Week's 2002 Laureate of the Year for Space, is not your average aerospace guy. Dr. Mills grew up in one of the world's engineering hotbeds, Southern California. Car buffs have long known about the hot rods, customized cars, and "low rider" vehicles spawned by L.A.'s freeway culture, and makers of automobiles, consumer electronics, and home appliances still go there for the hottest designers. The U.S. aerospace industry is centered there, so it might seem natural for a young man from South Central to find his future in aerospace. Believers in that theory go straight to the toll booth and buy a bridge, please. L.A. youths, as with others in the inner city, have not rushed to be aerospace engineers. They could do worse, to be sure, than to follow the steps of Dr. Mills and earlier history-makers such as Waymon Whiting, a Boeing engineer who grew up under segregation and still wound up a major aerospace innovator. For the uninitiated, Whiting invented the airlines' emergency escape hatch and slide. Dr. Mills' mother told him the key to success was education, and he got it. He went to UCLA in 1963, and stayed to complete a bachelor's degree in engineering and master's and Ph.D. degrees in nuclear engineering. Joining Rockwell after that, Dr. Mills became an internationally recognized expert in reactor safety and, from 1987 to 1994, he was program manager for space nuclear power systems in President Reagan's Star Wars program. Boeing's 1994 takeover of Rockwell space projects switched Dr. Mills to solar power for the International Space Station, and he rose to vice president and program manager, with subordinates in Texas, Alabama, Florida, and California. Now he's back in California, designing nuclear systems for Jet Propulsion Laboratory deep-space projects. Boeing is betting he'll win a big share of the business on NASA's Project Prometheus to explore Jupiter's icy moons. It wouldn't be too smart to bet against him.
George D. Peterson, Ph.D., P.E. Executive Director Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. (ABET) Dr. George Peterson is an educator's educator, and his citation recognizes decades of service preparing technical professionals. Holder of a 1999 Black Engineer of the Year Award for Promotion of Higher Education and a 1990 Meritorious Achievement Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Dr. Peterson is known across the U.S. as the face and voice of ABET, the standard-setter for technology education in America. Dr. Peterson's career includes time as chair of electrical engineering at the U.S. Naval Academy, professor and assistant vice president for academic affairs at Morgan State University, and head of undergraduate faculty and teacher development for the National Science Foundation. He also was a tenured faculty member at the Air Force Academy. His work is very much in the tradition of the late Dr. Herman Branson, a Naval Research Laboratory and Howard University physicist who headed Lincoln University (Pa.) during the 1970s, and Dr. Edward Alexander Bouchet, who led the Institute for Colored Youth (Cheyney University) after taking his Ph.D. at Yale in 1876. Dr. Peterson, a North Carolina A&T State University grad and former Air Force officer (1966-1988), studied at the Air War College before taking a master's degree in electrical engineering amid the windstorm of research swirling around Ohio's Wright Patterson Air Force Base. He did his doctoral work at the University of Illinois. His list of professional memberships and activities is long, including the American Society of Engineering Education, the IEEE, the American Society of Association Executives, Tau Beta Pi, the Council of Engineering and Scientific Society Executives, and the U.S. Council for International Engineering Practice. A member of the American Association of Engineering Society's Engineering Workforce Commission since 1994, he chaired a session of the Symposium on Engineering Education Reform at Grenoble, France, in 1997. He chairs the Specialized and Professional Advisory Panel of the Council of Education and sits on other Council committees, as well as many other committees and panels setting standards for technology education. And he never stops teaching educators how to educate.
Floyd D. Simpson, Ph.D. Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff, iDEN Subscriber Group Motorola, Inc. Dr. Floyd Simpson is a young Granville T. Woods. Simpson, a Jamaican emigrant at 13, learned about microcomputers in New Jersey and picked engineering so he could "learn what makes these things tick." Woods, a blacksmith, machinist, and railroad and steamship stoker, studied engineering in college from 1876 to 1878, and brought innovations online when electronic communications were still a new idea. Telegraphy was 40 years old, the telephone had "talked" at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition when Woods was in college, and steam engines were the high-technology of the day. Woods improved on the telephone transmitter during the mid-1880s and sold it to Bell's phone company. In 1887, he invented an induction telegraph, the first device to let dispatchers communicate with crews as a train raced along the tracks, revolutionizing traffic management and permitting passengers to conduct business while they rode. Dr. Simpson, recognized in his 11-year career with a Motorola distinguished innovator award and identified as a business leader to be groomed, has 12 patents and is a key contributor on three more pending. Woods, with 60-plus patented devices, including an air brake, a galvanic battery, electrical brakes for trains, and the third-rail and trolley wheel rail power systems, has a few miles on Dr. Simpson, but the Motorolan is coming on strong. Dr. Simpson focused on computers and wireless telephony while completing bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. degrees at Rutgers, and graduated into Motorola's pager business. He invented a protocol for two-way voice paging, pushing the envelope in an industry already taking off. Developing countries' populations used wireless services as an affordable alternative to wired phones, inventing the now-ubiquitous message codes, and teenagers everywhere snapped them up when manufacturers grasped the implications of color and style. Eleven of Dr. Simpson's innovations boost voice quality in the narrow-bandwidth pager channels, with new applications in digital cell telephony. The 12th can speed up mobile communications by simultaneously transmitting different messages to different individual units, greatly boosting channel capacity. Simpson now is working to help IEEE 802.11 wireless Ethernet networks communicate with cell telephones, and he's also, like Woods, finding ways to extend battery life. And, just like Woods, when Dr. Simpson learns a new technology, he rushes to the leading edge.
Llewellyn D. Means Jr. Polo Hat Assessment Director Defense Information Systems Agency Not many civilians like to think about scary issues like nuclear warfare, and even fewer have much idea how the weapons systems that guard our nation's security work. But Illinois Institute of Technology grad and former Naval Reserve officer Llewellyn Means Jr. puts extensive training to work at the sharp edge of military defense every day. Means works for the agency that manages military, White House, and emergency response communications for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As lead assessments director for the JCS chairman's nuclear command, control, and communications systems, his expertise crosses many disciplines. In addition to knowing the workings of the most powerful weapons in existence, Means must know how a nuclear submarine works, how an aircraft carrier's or a guided missile ship's equipment and people work, or how a land air base functions and what jet aircrafts' operating parameters are. He also must know detectability and engagement thresholds for enemies at sea, in the air, or on land, how the weapons delivery systems work, and how communications and computer assets work aboard a nuclear-armed platform. Means was on a short list of candidates for his job. He spent years on naval nuclear command and control planes, and it paid off. Here's one example: In the Pacific Theater -- the world's biggest military command -- he orchestrated a grueling operational test involving hundreds of participants in national command centers, bomber and jet-tanker cockpits, and aboard submarines. Defense Department superiors say Means thoroughly evaluated the ability of "non-strategic nuclear forces" to carry out their missions and identified several procedural and operational deficiencies on the spot. Earlier, Means had led a planners' conference to discuss "contentious but critical issues" facing the command and control of nuclear forces. As the chief of the Strategic Communications Office put it, Means' "leadership style and organizational prowess during these heated debates demonstrated a model for others to follow -- impressively keeping the large group focused." JCS officers used Means' report to score the ability of combat commands to fulfill their nuclear missions and provide guidance on how to correct any deficiencies. Means, an Illinois Institute of Technology electrical engineer, worked for Raytheon Company before joining DISA. Means' customers are the U.S. president and secretary of defense, the Joint Chiefs, and the commanders-in-chief of the largest military commands. He does systems analysis, operational assessments as outlined above, and develops plans and procedures. He also determines the required performance of the nuclear command, control, and communications systems under a variety of threat conditions and develops alternative architectures, making recommendations for retirement or acquisition of component systems. It's a tall order, and there is very little margin for error.
Jananda I. Hill Senior Member of the Technical Staff Northrop Grumman Corporation In Jananda Hill, Northrop Grumman found a beginner who could blast off, from a standing start, to the stratosphere. Actually, outer space. Hill, class valedictorian at Atlanta's elite Benjamin E. Mays Academy of Science and Math, finished with the school's highest-ever grade-point average, even after taking college-level advanced placement classes in calculus and computer science. Hill, who chose MIT for her engineering and computer science studies, had ample precedent in grandfather Oliver I. Hill Sr., who trailed only the late Thurgood Marshall at Howard Law School and went on to file one of the five lawsuits heard in the Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education desegregation decision. At MIT, Hill, a Bell Labs Scholar, was the only black female in her major. She interned at Bell Labs and worked there after graduation, coming online immediately with advances in optical network switching software and becoming a key player in moving a major project to a center in the Netherlands. Hill continued studies while working full time, taking distance learning classes at Stanford before moving to California for full-time classes. She completed a computer science master's degree in 2002 and moved to Northrop Grumman Space Technology in Redondo Beach, Calif. Quick on the uptake is a catch-phrase for Hill, who grew up hearing tales about the steady denials of education and opportunity Blacks endured in Prince Edward County, Va., before her grandfather's legal attack helped end segregation. At Northrop Grumman, Hill had to master the cutting-edge LabVIEW software tools to write code for the Unit and Module Assembly Test Set, which tests and validates a critical spacecraft Integrated Avionics subsystem, the Input-Output Module. Superiors say Hill quickly uncovered and resolved significant design issues with MIL-STD 1553B software routines. One, Robert Auten, deputy Integrated Avionics Program manager, was "particularly impressed with her desire and inquiries into learning our spacecraft and payload systems and processes and, in general, wanting to understand the big picture of NGST's challenging products." As a beginner, she's clearly a go-getter.
Leslie Horton Senior Multi-Disciplined Most Engineer I, Advanced Products Center Raytheon Company You can never tell how many waves a scientific discovery will make. James Watt, a Glasgow University technician, discovered thermodynamics during the mid-1700s while inventing an efficient steam engine. Then Norbert Rillieux, son of a slave, took Watt's heat-transfer science many steps further with his evaporative sugar-refining process and created the underpinning for modern chemical manufacturing. Leslie Horton, a University of Delaware mechanical engineer with a master's degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, learned heat-transfer intricacies in lab work at Illinois and in summer work at Praxair Industrial Gases in Tonawanda, N.Y., Abbott Laboratories, and Commonwealth Edison. And as a teaching assistant, she taught thermodynamics to undergraduates. Now Horton uses that expertise to build consistent quality into Raytheon's Microwave Automated Factory. A Six-Sigma specialist, she is responsible for the soldering, engraving, and X-ray processes supporting production of microwave transmit/receive modules critical to the function of advanced military radars. She has developed a fluxless, fully automated, precious-metal solder attachment technology to speed assembly and packaging of these devices, and her computer algorithms enable real-time X-ray parts image analysis. Horton moved major radar products into the automated facility, learning to control complex technologies such as thick-film fabrication, high-speed ribbon interconnect, and a high-voltage coating process. Like Rillieux, Horton began at the bottom, but was further challenged by debilitating illness. Horton grew up poor in Baltimore, expecting her three-letter athletic prowess to pay her way through college. But a torn knee quashed that dream, and she had to depend on superior scholarship. Surgery let her compete in racquetball, but the knee tore again, an auto crash shattered her world and, in her twenties, she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. None of that stopped her. In Dallas, Horton took up painting and entered the Emerging Artist Showcase. A donated piece provided a logo and theme for the prestigious Jabberwock Scholarship campaign, and Horton, active on the Delta Academy Committee, works to boost underprivileged young women's math and science skills, social development, and college chances. In that, she comes full circle.
Darnell E. Diggs, Ph.D. Research Physicist U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory Dr. Darnell Diggs works for the Air Force Research Laboratory, developing "nonlinear optical polymers for electro-optical waveguide devices." That is, he develops state-of-the-art conductive cladding (sheathing) materials. Precursors of that technology go all the way back to another Black Engineer of the Year, Arnold Stancell, Ph.D., the top award-winner in 1992, whose polymer discoveries yielded cladding materials at the beginning of the revolution that produced the Information Highway, although no one could have predicted then how far the state of those arts would advance. It is not well understood outside scientific circles that light beams dancing along "fat pipes" would leak out at cable bends without cladding to keep beams on the correct paths. Dr. Diggs optimizes the polymers' optical properties, and his work is critical to development of new Air Force optoelectronic devices. "Specifically," the Air Force says, Dr. Diggs is working to overcome a primary limitation of such devices, an optimum cladding layer, which must be "physically and chemically robust" in addition to its "optimal electrical and optical performance." Since joining the lab two years ago, Dr. Diggs has shown big expertise with "optical characterization methods for measuring refractive index, propagation loss, electrical conductivity, optical non-linearity, low- and high-frequency dialectric constant measurement, and materials compatibility on core and cladding materials." Think that's a mouthful? He also collaborates with Tyndall Air Force Base and Alabama A&M University researchers to use a DNA host for "biologically sensitive aptamers" in a scheme for optical detection of biological agents. Take that, bin Laden! He is working to develop optical routers, data links, and advanced computing schemes, and he has begun collaborative optoelectronics research with IBM's Thomas Watson Research Center. Dr. Diggs, an Alabama A&M B.Sc., master's, and Ph.D. degree-holder in physics, exemplifies the excellence of predecessors such as Alabama-born Moddie Daniel Taylor, a Lincoln University (Mo.) physicist who completed master's and doctoral studies at the University of Chicago and helped the Manhattan Project achieve nuclear "critical mass." Dr. Taylor helped end World War II. Dr. Diggs helps prevent new ones.
Alessandra B. Ennett Ph.D. Candidate University of Michigan Biotechnology, one of today's most exciting engineering areas, requires as thorough a familiarity with medical research as with the principles of engineering, an arduous learning curve Alessandra Ennett clearly has mastered. Ennett, a Spelman grad, is a Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering working on a major advance in the fight against heart disease. One of her professors calls her a "born leader" who, "unlike most graduate students in the field of biotechnology," has both the chemistry and engineering backgrounds for the work. Ennett cofounded B-SURE, a minority student biomedical engineering group, and has been an officer and major spokeswoman. Michigan's College of Engineering recognized her academic and leadership accomplishments with a 2001 Martin Luther King Jr. Spirit Award, and recently picked her for a Distinguished Achievement Award. Thesis advisor David Mooney cites Ennett's "drive, dedication to both her research and the community, and intellect," and expects her to have a tremendous impact in the engineering field and through her leadership in community activities. Dr. Charles Drew and the great Daniel Hale Williams would heartily approve of this engineer's work in the fight against the United States' No. 1 killer. Medicine has an array of new drugs to fight heart disease by promoting blood-vessel growth to bypass blockages, but many don't work well. Ennett believes the drugs' ability to restore patient blood flow is related to the delivery mechanism and timing for multiple-drug sequences. She is developing polymeric devices that allow localized and sustained delivery of single drugs or combinations to test her hypothesis, work that requires expertise in polymer science and mass transport, cell biology, and medical concepts developed from animal studies. Ennett cowrote a Nature Biotechnology paper on this research, and published a medical overview on the topic. She is writing still another paper on development of her experimental system. A colleague who works at the University of Chicago said he could recall discussing basic chemistry and materials science with her, and moments later hearing her go head-to-head with a biochemist on protein biochemistry. "This sort of unbounded intellectual curiosity is one of Alessandra's defining characteristics," he wrote, "and it creates an enthusiastic environment that enhances the educational process for everyone involved." As Dr. Drew might say, Amen to that.
Sundiata K. Jangha GEM Ph.D. Fellow Georgia Institute of Technology A Harold Marteena Scholar at North Carolina A&T State University, Sundiata K. Jangha completed an M.Sc. in mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech in 2001 and pursued Ph.D. studies as an Office of Naval Research Fellow and a Ford Motor Company-sponsored Graduate Engineering for Minorities Fellow, minoring in management. Completing research in Georgia Tech's Systems Realization Laboratory and its Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing Institute, he focuses on prototyping, product and process development, engineering design, computer-aided design, engineering entrepreneurship, and pedagogy. Jangha has one journal article, an October 2002 Journal of Engineering Education piece with him as first author, and five conference presentations before the American Society of Mechanical Engineers DETC 2003 Conference, the American Society for Engineering Education 2003 Conference, the 1999 Solid Fabrication Symposium, and the Seventh AIAA/Air Force/NASA/ISSMO Symposium on Multidisciplinary Analysis. He has nine invited presentations on how to boost minority access to graduate education. That alone would be pretty heavy, but this is a young man described by one recommender as a "force of nature." Tulane professor Calvin Mackie, who has known Jangha six years, says his research and internship evaluations are consistently excellent, that he was a physics teaching fellow at Atlanta's Cedar Grove high school and the driving organizer and chair of Georgia Tech's nationally recognized FOCUS program to raise the number of black grad students. "It is no accident that Sunji has developed a seminar titled 'O.A.S.I.S.,' to encourage and motivate students to pursue graduate education in engineering and success in life," Dr. Mackie wrote. "He has perfected the presentation and received outstanding reviews at numerous national conferences like the National Society of Black Engineers and the EMERGE conference. This country and the technical community will hear more from Sundiata Jangha, as LEADERSHIP is part and parcel of his makeup as a person." Similar kudos come from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County's associate dean of grad studies, for whom Jangha was "invaluable" in helping clone the FOCUS program. The list goes on: Sandia National Laboratories, where he interned. Cedar Grove High. The University of Michigan Minority Engineering Program director, who, as head of the National Association of Minority Program Administrators, watched Jangha mentor students from many institutions.
Manuel A.W. Natal, Ph.D. Research Specialist/Engineer The Dow Chemical Company In the search for colleges producing minority technical talent, Puerto Rican institutions too often are overlooked by those focused on mainland U.S. institutions. The Universidad de Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, one of several that should not go ignored, each year produces an outsize share of the Hispanic engineers joining America's industrial enterprise. Dr. Manuel Natal joined that stream when he graduated in 1993 with a near-4.0 grade-point average (3.95) and left for grad studies at the University of Wisconsin. He continued his winning ways there, compiling a 3.94 on the 4.0 G.P.A. scale and completing a dissertation on the catalytic reduction of esters and carboxylic acids to alcohol over silica-supported copper. Elmo St. Brady, the first black chemistry Ph.D. (University of Illinois, 1916), would have been an eager supporter. He and Illinois research colleague Edward Marion Augustus Chandler (Ph.D., 1917), emerged to challenge the early-20th century's illusions about minorities' intellectual potential just as the Selective Service System was testing all eligible males' intellectual potential on the eve of World War I, beginning a long trend toward objective talent measurements, supplanting the subjective ones extant. Today, by any objective measure, Dr. Natal is a superior performer. Not only did the former GEM Fellow finish with sky-high grades, in four years at Union Carbide and Dow he has produced 24 proprietary reports and nine publications in peer-reviewed journals, and has been asked to critique 13 studies by other researchers for three respected publications: the Journal of Catalysis, Applied Catalysis, and Catalysis Letters. His own work produced high-precision, microkinetic models for commercial ethylene oxide catalysis, to advance the automation and optimization of Dow plants. He also discovered a new class of promoters, enhancing the efficiency of ethylene oxide catalysts, cutting carbon dioxide generation, and improving the productivity of Dow's chemical reactors and processes. Dr. Natal also has kept a keen eye out for other developments, recommending purchase of new technology to leverage Dow's existing platforms and point the way to new product growth. Finally, he has advanced the understanding of direct, one-step oxidation of propylene, a technical problem not yet solved but a Holy Grail for chemical manufacturers. He's on his way, and Elmo St. Brady would definitely approve.
Johnny N. Blackman Jr. Electronics Engineer Senior Staff Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company The Deans' Award traditionally goes to a candidate who is: 1. A graduate of an HBCU. 2. A prime exemplar of excellence, thus a representative of the extreme excellence marching out from the nation's main repository of African-American technical talent. 3. Frequently, that candidate also exemplifies the dramatic uplift an HBCU education provides for underprivileged youths. Extreme excellence in a dramatic rise neatly fits Blackman. So poor that Tennessee playmates taunted him for living "in the alley," Blackman entered school as the anti-segregation battle reached a climax. Brown v. Board of Education was decided while he was in elementary school and profound changes reshaping American society were just beginning. Martin Luther King made his "I Have a Dream" speech when Blackman was in high school. But Blackman's dreams could not be realized, during those days of restricted minority access to higher education, without the scholarship that took him to Tennessee State University, one of the 10 Council of Deans schools that graduate nearly a third of all black engineers. He took his B.Sc. in civil engineering with a minor in electrical engineering in 1966 and, with 10 good job offers in hand, joined General Dynamics. Blackman, an ROTC cadet, was quickly called up. A. Philip Randolph's agitation had broken segregation in the armed forces just two decades earlier, and some of the Tuskegee Airmen who made it possible still were in uniform. Blackman continued their legacy with wings of his own, and took to Southeast Asia's skies in an F-4 fighter. Twenty years later, Blackman had an M.B.A. from Golden Gate University and a Bowling Green education specialist degree. He retired as chief of Electronic Warfare/Command, Control and Communication, Headquarters 12th Air Force, in Texas, and rejoined General Dynamics/Lockheed Martin, leveraging his extensive tactical cockpit experience. Superiors say Blackman's career "spans both electro-optical and electronic warfare subsystem development and integration for the Advanced Tactical Fighter, F/A-22 AX and multiple F-16 configurations.... The majority of the more than 4,000 F-16s delivered have had systems that Johnny was directly involved in." Blackman also spends generous time tutoring math and mentoring students in the Fort Worth Independent School District and is a frequently requested Career Day speaker. At Lockheed Martin, he supports the Core Mentor program, mentoring less-experienced engineers, helping them rise. As a role model, he is at the top of his class.
Henry R. Grooms, Ph.D. Senior Manager-Strength, Structural Analysis and Design The Boeing Company - Integrated Defense Systems Dr. Henry R. Grooms grew up wanting to be an architect but wound up building space vehicles. How he got there is interesting: "I realized that my strong points (math and science) were more in line with engineering, so I chose the engineering that seemed closest to architecture -- civil engineering." He went to Howard University, then to Carnegie Mellon, earning bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. degrees, before joining Rockwell to work on the Apollo and Skylab programs. He was not only one of the pioneers developing the Space Shuttle, according to Howard classmate and professor Taft Broome, he was "the team leader who solved NASA's shuttle tile problems," an achievement without which manned space exploration could not have continued at all. Speaking of the Shuttle, Dr. Grooms' mid-1970s work analyzing Orbiter thermal and mechanical stresses is still the standard reference. Today, Dr. Grooms supervises 80 specialists and sits on teams working to ensure spacecrafts' structural integrity. In light of the current state of the Space Shuttle program, that work now is even more critical. Dr. Grooms is a steady producer of technical papers -- 19 to date -- and a frequent presenter before technical symposia, conferences, and engineering organizations. Like the historic Archibald Alexander, he's active in the American Society of Civil Engineers, although the structures and architecture with which he's most familiar are in aerospace rather than bridges and roads. Then again, maybe not so different: Alexander designed and built the airfield from which the Tuskegee Airmen showed America the technological potential locked away in its communities of color. But Dr. Grooms is a bridge-builder of another sort. The father of 12 children with his wife, Tonie, Dr. Grooms became a father figure for many others through participation as a sports coach, school mentor, and Project Reach, a group he, Tonie, and friends organized to provide scholarships, counseling, tutoring, and exposure to disadvantaged L.A. youth and get them through college. About 200 youngsters have gone through the program, with up to 35 enrolled at any one time. He's a builder who works with people as much as with physical structures, and his success demonstrates a lifetime of commitment
Cyril A. Price Director, zSeries Hardware Development, Program Management IBM Corporation Cyril Price is a living example of two propositions: 1. That education opens all doors to career and personal success. 2. That keeping ahead of the curve in technology and business requires "Lifelong Learning." Price, a 1969 Pratt Institute E.E. grad, joined IBM Corporation and the Army, pretty much simultaneously. An honors grad with memberships in the Society of American Military Engineers, Pi Mu Epsilon math honor society, Eta Kappa Nu electrical engineering honor society, and Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society, Price plunged into semiconductor circuit design before going to war in Southeast Asia. He returned when large computer systems dominated technology, and he excelled with IBM, the dominant large-system maker. Bipolar circuits were the backbone, and Price grew as technology changed, heading to class at Syracuse University for his master's degree, then on to IBM's product team to lead the transition to complementary metal-oxide (CMOS) chips. Microcomputers debuted during the 1970s, and analysts thought large systems were dinosaurs. Overlooked, after Price's IBM colleagues introduced the pioneering "PC" and Lotus 1-2-3 revolutionized business, were needs that could only be served by heavy iron. It took client-server networks to show off mainframes' true advantages: huge memory and storage, massive throughput, and the ability to connect to hundreds of ports, simultaneously -- providing seamless, reliable access to thousands of users through desktop workstations. Price was at the center of everything, brewing enterprise server system products, building very large scale integration chips, researching the feasibility of speeding up CMOS chipsets, and doing network analysis on optical fiber systems. Price returned to Syracuse for a doctorate. He had leading roles birthing the zSeries products, repositioning the z900 for e-business, changing every major subsystem function. IBM's big servers take over the functions of the server appliances proliferating in other vendors' product lines, and Price was a key player, making IBM's server sales go up while others' fell. Keeping up with trends meant returning to the classroom, for a master's certificate in project management at George Washington University. Price's work, handling human resources issues as well as technological ones, kept him sensitive to the needs of the next generation. He is executive champion for an IBM technology initiative for underrepresented boys in a Poughkeepsie, N.Y., middle school, and also is executive sponsor for the Mid-Hudson Valley Spectrum Black Diversity Network Group. Garland L. Thompson can be reached at GThompson@ccgmag.com.
Coolidge Hamlett Jr. Director, Flight Information Systems Division Naval Air Depot Coolidge Hamlett Jr. is a busy man at the Cherry Point, N.C., Naval Air Depot. As director of the Flight Information Systems Division, he is a highly respected engineer and supervisor who works tirelessly to help ensure the readiness of America's Navy and Marine Corps aircraft. Despite the heavy demands of his official duties, however, he still makes time to reach out to others and give back to his community. In his church, in his community, and in professional organizations, Hamlett provides leadership and inspires others by freely sharing his knowledge, his time, his energy, and his devotion to a higher purpose. He has been an active member of the Greater Brandon Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Alton, Va., since 1967, where he chairs the scholarship committee and serves as a trustee. He has been president of the Sunnyside Missionary Baptist Association Division of Men and was elected secretary of the Baptist General Convention of Virginia Division of Men in 2003. Hamlett also serves as an officer in other church activities across his community. His professional and personal accomplishments have won him wide recognition and a number of official honors. He received the Naval Air Depot Cherry Point Non-Supervisory Equal Opportunity Award in 1995. In 2001, he received the base's first annual EEO Man of the Year Runner-Up Award. He has been recognized by the Carteret County Board of Education for his participation as a tutor and is valued as an annual speaker about engineering and science for the Halifax County Middle School. In 2003, he received the Black Engineer of the Year Special Recognition Award. Hamlett began his career with the Naval Air Depot, Cherry Point, almost immediately after graduation from the University of Virginia in 1985 with a B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering. He went on to earn an M.Sc. degree in business administration from Boston University in 1991. -- Bruce E. Phillips To read more about Black Engineer of the Year Award Winners, 2004 see Black Engineer of the Year Award Winners, 2004 in the USBE News archive. © Copyright by Career Communications Group, Inc. 729 East Pratt Street, Baltimore, Maryland, 21202 410.244.7101 |
