Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (archive)

Alumni Updates

Alum Honored with ISU Distinguished Alumni Award

A. J. Van Dierendonck

A. J. Van Dierendonck (MSEE ’65; PhDEE ’68) will receive the ISU Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumni Award in April 2011. This award is the highest honor given to alumni by Iowa State University through the ISU Alumni Association. This award honors ISU alumni who are nationally and/or internationally recognized for preeminent contributions to their professions or life’s work. Van Dierendonck made major contributions to Global Positioning Systems (GPS) technology spanning 37 years. In particular, he is the co-inventor of the use of narrow correlator technology, which is now an industry standard for GPS receivers for multipath mitigation. He has received awards from U.S. Institute of Navigation (ION) including the Burka Award (which he received twice), the Kepler Award, and the Thurlow Award. He also is an ION Fellow, IEEE Fellow, and is in the U.S. Air Force’s GPS Hall of Fame. He is currently the owner of AJ Systems and a partner of GPS Silicon Valley in Los Altos, California.

Alum Receives Prestigious J. J. Ebers Award

Mark Law

Mark Law (BSCpE ’81) received the highest award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) Electron Device Society—the 2010 J. J. Ebers Award—for his “contributions to widely used silicon integrated circuit process modeling.” The award is presented annually to honor an individual who has made either a single or a series of contributions of recognized scientific, economic, or social significance in the broad field of electron devices. Law co-authored SUPREM-IV, which became the most widely used 2-D process modeling tool. He also was part of the research group that developed FLOOPS and FLOODS object-oriented multidimensional tools for process and device modeling. The tools won the 1993 Semiconductor Research Corporation’s Technical Excellence Award and have been commercialized as Sentaurus-Process. Law was an honors program student when he attended Iowa State. He is now the associate dean for the University of Florida’s College of Engineering. He also is an IEEE Fellow

Alum Named 2010 Battelle Inventor of the Year

Chad Bouton (BSEE ’93; MSAerE ’96) was recently recognized in Congress for his technical contributions to the medical device industry and for receiving Battelle’s Inventor of the Year Award in April 2010. Battelle is the largest independent R&D firm in the world, and is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Bouton developed neural decoding algorithms that allowed the first human to control a wheelchair with a brain implant. He also has developed medical device technologies used in cancer detection systems and noninvasive sensors for medical applications. Bouton has filed more than 47 patents in the United States and abroad. More information

Alum Wins Cyber Security Award

Bill Sears (BSCpE ’99; MSCpE and MSInfAs ’05), who works at the Ames Laboratory, won the 2010 U.S. Department of Energy Cyber Security Award.

Alum Wins Highest Award in Engineering Profession

Gerald J. Posakony

Gerald J. Posakony (BSEE ’49) won the American Association of Engineering Societies’ 2009 John Fritz Medal, the highest award in the engineering profession, for his pioneering contributions to the fields of ultrasonics, medical diagnostic ultrasound, and nondestructive evaluation technologies.

2009 ECpE Alumni Award Winners Announced

The following alumni and friends of the department received awards from the ECpE department in April 2009:

  • William Childs (MSEE ’65; PhDEE ’70) won the ECpE Engineering Impact Award for his outstanding and distinctive accomplishments in the field of electrical engineering, specifically in regards to scholarly contributions, technical contributions, and professional leadership in the microwave CAD industry.
  • Andrew Jenkins (BSEE ’95) received the ECpE Early Career Impact Award for significant early career accomplishments in software and electronics for machinery used in agricultural research.
  • Edwin C. Jones, Jr., an emeritus faculty member of the ECpE department, received the ECpE Exemplary Service Award for his service to the department in ABET accreditation preparation, service on the ECpE Honors and Awards Committee, and as expressed by alumni, the career success of students he advised.
  • Srinivasan Ramasubramanian (PhDCpE ’02) received the ECpE Early Career Impact Award for significant early career accomplishments in the field of optical network research for curriculum development in computer science.
  • Aaron Striegel (BSCpE ’98; PhDCpE ’02) received the ECpE Early Career Impact Award for significant early career accomplishments in the field of network security and quality of service, and for associated curriculum and laboratory development.

Two EE Alumni Receive Distinguished Alumni Award

Robert K. Brayton (BSEE ’56) and Sehat Sutardja (BSEE ’83) are receiving the ISU Alumni Association’s (ISUAA) Distinguished Alumni Award on April 16. The award is the highest honor given to alumni by Iowa State University through the ISUAA. This award honors Iowa State alumn iwho are nationally and/or internationally recognized for preeminent contributions to their professions or life’s work. Brayton currently is the Cadence Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Sutardja is the co-founder of Marvell Technology Group, a leading worldwide provider of semiconductor chips, and currently serves the company's president and CEO.

Doorenbos Wins College of Engineering Award

Jerry Doorenbos (BSEE ’88) is receiving the College of Engineering’s Professional Progress in Engineering Award in April. The award recognizes outstanding professional progress and personal development in an engineering field. Doorenbos is a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at Texas Instruments in Tucson, Arizona, a design enter for analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits.

Alumnus Receives Honeywell Award

Edward Perkins (BSEE ’81) won the 2009 Honeywell Outstanding Engineer of the Year Award. He is a principal engineer at Honeywell.

Alumnus Named HKN Eminent Member

At the ECpE Centennial Gala and Awards Ceremony last spring, Gerald Posakony (BSEE ‘49) received the national Eta Kappa Nu (HKN) Eminent Member recognition. The award is given to select individuals whose technical attainment and contributions to society through leadership in the fields of electrical or computer engineering have resulted in significant benefits to humankind.

U.S. Navy to Name Ship After Electrical Engineering Alumnus

Howard O. Lorenzen

A U.S. Navy ship, the USNS Lorenzen, will be named after alumnus Howard O. Lorenzen (BSEE 1935). Lorenzen, nicknamed  the "Father of Electronic  Warfare," was a Naval Research Laboratory engineer. He helped develop the nation's first portable radar equipment and led the team that in 1960 created the payload of the nation's first spy satellite. He also was the superintendent of the NRL space systems from 1971 to 1973. The ship will be delivered to the U.S. Navy in 2010. Lorenzen passed away in 2000.

Alumnus Elected to National Academy of Engineering

Paul M. Anderson

Electrical engineering alumnus Paul M. Anderson (BSEE ’49; MSEE ’58; PhDEE ’61), who is also a former Iowa State University electrical engineering faculty member, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering this spring. This election, among the highest professional distinctions awarded to engineers, honors Anderson for his contributions that have advanced the analysis and control of electric power systems worldwide.

Two Alumni Named IEEE Fellows

Fredric Ham (BSEE ’76; MSEE ’79; PhDEE ’80) and James L. Knighten (PhDEE ’76) both were named fellows of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Ham was named a fellow for his leadership in neural network education, research, and applications. He currently is a professor at the Florida Institute of Tech­nology in Melbourne, Florida. Knighten was named a fellow for his contributions to understanding electromagnetic noise coupling paths for product compliance with regulatory standards. He is employed by the Teradata division of NCP Corp­oration in San Diego, California.

Linder Wins Distinguished Alumni Award

Donald Linder

Donald Linder (BSEE ’65) has been awarded the ISU Alumni Association’s (ISUAA) 2009 Distinguished Alumni Award. This award is the highest honor given to alumni by Iowa State University through the ISUAA. It honors Iowa State alumni who are nationally and/or internationally recognized for preeminent contributions to their professions or life’s work. Linder is a retired corporate vice president of technical staff at Motorola.

Whitney Named Honorary Alumna

Donna Whitney, wife of the late Thomas M. Whitney (BSEE ’61; MSEE ’62; PhDEE ’64), received the ISU Alumni Association's (ISUAA) Honorary Alumni Award. The award is the highest honor given by Iowa State through the ISUAA to individuals who are not Iowa State graduates and who have made significant contributions to Iowa State’s welfare, reputation, prestige, and pursuit of excellence. Donna established the Thomas M. Whitney Professorship in Electrical and Computer Engineering in memory of her late husband in 1999.

Sandbutte Receives Order of the Knoll Cardinal and Gold Award

Arend J. "Sandy" Sandbulte (BSEE '59) received the ISU Foundation's Order of the Knoll Cardinal and Gold Award in April 2008. Sandbutte is a retired president and chief executive officer of ALLETTE, Inc. (formerly Minnesota Power), and has devoted his career to the promotion and advancement of business ethics, philanthropy, and community leadership. He served as chair of the ISU Foundation Board of Directors from 1999 to 2001.

Doughton Receives IEEE Daniel E. Nobel Award

James M. Daughton (BSEE '50; MSEE '61; PhDEE '63) has been named a 2008 co-recipient of the prestigious IEEE Daniel E. Noble Award. The award is sponsored by the Motorola Foundation and presented by IEEE. It recognizes the individual for fundamental contributions to the development of magnetoresistance devices for non-volatile, high-density, random-access memory. Daughton is the founder of NVE Corporation, holds 40 U.S. patents, and previously worked at Honeywell and IBM.