Vali Ali is VP, HP Fellow, and the Chief Technologist for Security for Personal Systems group in HP Inc. He drives vision, architecture, technology, and evangelization for all security, privacy, and platform enabling hardware, software, and firmware. Vali has a 26+ years solid track record at HP Inc, of seeding ideas and driving them to commercialization. Vali is the visionary behind the industry leading firmware protection and resiliency solutions in HP’s Commercial PC Solutions such as HP Sure Start, Sure Recover, Sure Run, Sure Admin, etc. In his previous role, Vali was the chief architect of HP ProtectTools® suite of security offerings for business PC.

He works closely with HP Labs’ Security Labs, HP’s renowned Security Research Facility to guide and integrate research into Personal Systems products. He also collaborates with various product and functional groups on legal, privacy, and regulatory implications of client centric solutions. Vali serves as Personal System’s security liaison for fortune 50 and security sensitive customers; frequently speaks to customers about their security needs, and outlines the details of HP's platform strategy, technology, and long-term vision. Collaborating with senior executives, business leaders, technologists, partners and customers, Vali’s primary focuses remains making HP’s client security offerings best in the industry.

In addition to security and privacy, Vali’s areas of responsibility and influence span creation of technology, strategy, and architecture for Platform Firmware (BIOS), Enterprise Manageability, and HP’s vision for Office of the future, in order to create a brand preference for HP’s line of commercial PC offerings.

Vali is a graduate of the University of Houston, where he earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, with specialization in Computer Engineering. Vali has 85 unique US (224 Worldwide) Patents granted, with 34+ more pending in the pipeline.

Mr. Alvarado is a Mechanical Engineer (Kansas State University, 1984) and currently works with National Instruments (NI) as the Business Development Manager for Academic Research. He has been with NI since 1999, and has more than 30 years practical experience in the design, development and deployment of real-time, measurement and control systems that involve high-performance numerical methods in C, C++, FORTRAN and NI LabVIEW using PC-based and embedded technologies for a wide spectrum of academic research projects and industries including system-level solutions for the energy sector. Mr. Alvarado led the development and implementation of some of the first power sub-station monitoring and control systems using LabVIEW and NI data acquisition hardware on industrial computers in Latin America. He has also been involved in several research centers at leading universities in Texas and Oklahoma. On the STEM teaching/education side, Mr. Alvarado has been involved in the design and implementation of novel approaches for teaching/learning and scientific research in science/engineering with a special emphasis on hands-on learning and undergraduate research projects. He is an active member of several professional societies, including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), the International Society of Automation (ISA), the American Physical Society (APS) and the Ibero-American Science and Technology Education Consortium (ISTEC). Mr. Alvarado has published papers in technical publications and has taught courses to engineers and scientists involved in instrumentation, control and automation applications in industry and academia. He has also been an invited speaker at numerous leading universities in the U.S. and Latin America, as well as national/international meetings. Over the past 28 years, he has served as a consultant or advisory board member for several institutes, colleges, universities, corporations and research laboratories and currently advises two international innovation institutes, and several colleges and universities in the U.S.

Jeff Anderson is the Electrical Engineering Authority (EA) at the Battleground Manufacturing Complex for INEOS Olefins and Polymers (O&P) in La Porte, TX, an industrial site that produces high density polyethylene and polypropylene plastic and has a state-of-the-art technical center which integrates research and development, technical services and quality assurance. Jeff has over eight years of experience in the power distribution field where he was quickly promoted to his current position which he has held since 2013.

As the Electrical EA, he manages a team of power, instrumentation, and safety instrumented systems engineers, designers, electrical specialists, high voltage electricians, and summer interns.  Under his tenure, the INEOS O&P BMC site has set new production and reliability goals by implementing new KPI’s, expanding the preventative maintenance (PM) program by developing in-house expertise, transitioning his team to a predictive maintenance (PdM) organization, and developing new project design standards.  His team on a day to day basis supports continued reliability improvement through Root Cause Failure Analysis, performing and analyzing PM’s, troubleshooting, identifying obsolete equipment, initiating projects, and providing subject matter experts for project development.

Jeff is responsible for the electrical safety program at BMC and is a recognized expert within INEOS on NFPA 70E — Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace.  He is active member of the technical subcommittees for the IEEE IAS Electrical Safety Workshop and the Petroleum and Chemical Industry Committee and a Process Control function team member for Process Industry Practices.

Previously, Jeff worked in mission control at NASA’s Johnson Space center as a Communications Controller, developed a light-weight man-pack neutron and gamma detector for DARPA utilizing a proportional counter, designed single-board computers with a Compaq PCI backplane for use in voice-over-IP applications, and worked in the defense industry on classified high altitude surveillance systems and on the unmanned (UAV) Global Hawk surveillance plane’s sensor payload that uses high-resolution synthetic aperture radar and long-range electro-optical/infrared sensors.

As a decorated veteran of the United State Marine Corps, Jeff used the Montgomery GI Bill to complete his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Houston.

Industrial IoT has come of age, with digital transformation already making notable impact in many industries. We are witnessing Industry 4.0 indulging us into the future. This phenomena is inter-disciplinary in nature. Sitting amidst this technological shift, Sagar is enthusiastic about encouraging community participation in order to further positive digital impact.

Vidya 'Sagar' Asalapuram is a Solution Architect at Kalypso LP, an innovation consulting company. He is focused on advising clients on the implementation of smart connected operations in their business models, underpinned by Machine Learning and AI. He is passionate about finding ways to make innovative digital solutions more affordable and available, to a larger section of the Industry as well as reducing technological barriers for faster adoption of IoT, Machine Learning, Predictive Analytics in real world applications. Prior this this, he worked at Infodat International, Inc, where he orchestrated the creation of Infodat Digital in 2016, by bringing diverse teams from Industrial Systems Automation, Instrumentation, Computer and Software Engineering backgrounds together.

His expertise is on applying artificial intelligence in engineering systems. His areas of interest lie in mathematical models for engineering systems; their understanding via simulations as well as by using real time sensor data and finally integrating all sub-systems via automation, potentially resulting in comprehensive and sustainable solutions for real-world problems.

He is currently involved in Deep Learning applications for Vision and Condition based Predictive Solutions that drive Operational efficiencies and reduce downtime in various industries.

Sagar has a Master's degree in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station and a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from Sri Venkateswara University, A.P., India. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Texas. Prior to working with Infodat, he spent almost a decade with TechnipFMC, and gained expertise in Subsea Electro-Hydraulic Control Umbilical's, Low Voltage Power Cables, Fiber Optic Cables, Corrosion Resistant Stainless Steels and other Offshore equipment. He has held roles ranging from Engineer to Project Manager.

He actively encourages knowledge transfer and learning through mentorship in STEM fields. He is a drone enthusiast, avid cyclist, a marathon runner and enjoys shuttle badminton.

Abu Baker is a new Technology Enablement Architect for Commercial Notebooks at Hewlett-Packard. Abu Baker currently leads key programs involving multiple Firmware functions in Biometric devices and contextual Artificial Intelligence technology. 

Abu Baker has patented his ideas on Palm Rejection Algorithms for Human Interface Devices and has other patents for Biometric devices (i.e. Fingerprint Sensor).

Before joining HP, Abu Baker worked for Microsoft Corporation as a Software Development Architect for the Surface Tablet.  He implemented appropriate debug and troubleshooting procedures to quickly determine the best course for problem ownership and resolution. 

Abu Baker currently serves as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Houston. His research interest is to build a cognitive strategy to bring data sources together and empower computers with their own means of gathering information.  

Abu Baker received a PhD in Electrical Engineering and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering. He has served as an IEEE technical paper reviewer and he has several publications in the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society.

Robb Black is the President, CEO & COO at Omron Automation Americas headquartered in Hoffman Estates, IL. As part of the global Omron Corporation, Omron Automation is a worldwide company and leading manufacturer of technologically advanced industrial automation products and application expertise.

As CEO, Robb is dedicated to delivering the company’s strategy to bring innovation to manufacturing through automation to enrich lives of people all over the world. Under his leadership, Omron Automation develops future manufacturing together with our customers which we call “Innovative-Automation”. Innovative Automation ensures all of our products, solutions and services are fully Integrated, Intelligent and Interactive.

Robb has held a variety of sales and marketing leadership positions over the past 32 years in industrial automation. His background in the industrial market includes extensive experience in various sensor technologies, industrial device level networks and RFID for both the factory and process automation markets. Robb has a proven track record in marketing and selling innovative high-technology products, building high-performance teams and strategic planning. Previous leadership positions for major industrial automation companies include Rockwell Automation, Honeywell and Turck. Robb holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Marquette University, and a Master of Science degree in Management from Cardinal Stritch University, and brings a wealth of industry experience working on both regional and global programs.

Roger Dale Brown is the Director of Engineering and Technology for National Oilwell Varco’s Advanced Analytics, Control and Digital Group. NOV is a leading worldwide provider of equipment and components used in oil and gas drilling and production operations, oilfield services, and supply chain integration services to the upstream oil and gas industry. The company conducts operations in more than 1,200 locations across six continents.

In his role Roger Dale is responsible for applying digital technology and analytical solutions to drive efficiencies and reduce risk in completion related activities including helping NOV customers reduce their carbon footprint. His team is focused on adding condition-based monitoring data acquisition systems to NOV’s products in the field, as well as using data science to direct advanced automation algorithms to optimize production. Roger Dale’s interest in condition based monitoring and predictive analytics began while serving in the United States Navy onboard nuclear-powered submarines. While serving, he earned a degree in Nuclear Engineering from Thomas Edison University. His career in the oilfield began in 2008 working for an electromagnetic survey equipment manufacturer.

With more than 30 years as an engineer, manager, and director, Roger Dale has worked with in various engineering disciplines to determine the strategy and processes necessary to complete thousands of projects. He is passionate about learning and must stay on the ever-changing edge of emerging technologies in diverse fields so that NOV stays in the lead in the innovation of equipment in the oil and gas manufacturing industry. Roger Dale has lived long with the desire to serve others and ensure safety and readiness having served as Reactor Control Leading Senior Chief Petty Officer aboard several Nuclear-Powered Submarines in the US NAVY.

Over the past 10 years he has represented NOV working with the University of Houston Engineering Departments to sponsor Engineering Students’ Capstone Design projects. He enjoys working with young engineers to expand their abilities and broaden their understanding of how the world works and their place in that world.

Roger Dale is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, IEEE, and International Society of Automation. He holds patents in various industrial segments.

I started my career studying protein folding, trafficking, and protein engagement with membranes largely using biochemical and imaging methodologies. This introduction to imaging has had me captivated since. Through my graduate and post-graduate research I learned extensive problem-solving skills that allowed me to determine where technical errors were made in our research efforts. I found that I enjoyed this type of technical problem solving. After my postdoctoral work, I sought employment in a shared resource facility that specialized in imaging so I could merge these problem-solving skills with my enjoyment of imaging. I secured a position with the Flow Cytometry and Cellular Imaging Core Facility at MD Anderson Cancer Center where I have flourished. I am a Professor and Co-Director of the facility currently. I have brought multiple high plex imaging equipment and methodologies to MDACC and introduced and established mass cytometry, CyTOF, (imaging and suspension).  My goal is to better understand the functional cellular interactions that occur in unique spatial niche. My strengths have always been, and continue to be, that I am technically trained to identify, adapt, and utilize emerging technologies to answer critical questions in cutting-edge research here at MD Anderson Cancer Center and elsewhere in the scientific community. We tackle these problems every day at the Flow Cytometry and Cellular Imaging Core Facility at MD Anderson, and we jointly develop solutions with our research collaborators to produce outstanding scientific discoveries.

Jeff Busby is the Vice President of New Energy at Weatherford where he is responsible to identify opportunities in new emerging markets outside of Weatherford’s traditional customer portfolio. He provides guidance and connectivity between his organization and current/future customers while working collaboratively with Weatherford’s business and technology teams. He will also be responsible to advise Weatherford on investment areas to support the development and positions in new markets.

Previous to Weatherford, Jeff served as the Vice President of US Sales for Industrial Automation at ABB where he drove a sales team for the Energy Industry businesses across Electrification, Telecommunications, Automation and Service Portfolios. This included engineering system design, turnkey deliveries, and start-up and commissioning for complex greenfield or brownfield projects.

Jeff has 15 years of experience working with engineering firms and end users to help develop multi-million-dollar large scale projects from inception to commissioning. His desire to help solve client challenges while creating value, accelerating project completion and reducing risk to projects is what motivates him.

Jeff earned a BS in Engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology and a MBA with an emphasis in Sales Management and Energy Value Chain from the University of Houston. Jeff also attended the Wharton School of Business ABB Emerging Leaders Program in 2017. Jeff plays recreational ice hockey and is from Houston, TX.

Brandon Cassimere, a native of Plaisance, Louisiana, graduated summa cum laude from Southern University and Agricultural & Mechanical College in May 2001 with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Minor in Mathematics. Throughout his undergraduate term, he engaged in four summer internships as a power and instrument engineer for ExxonMobil in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Brandon later received his Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University in 2003 and 2008, respectively. During his tenure at Purdue University, he produced journal and conference publications where his research focus was electrical machines, power electronics, and genetic algorithms. Brandon also received numerous awards & accomplishments.

For the past fifteen years, Brandon has been employed within the oil & gas industry. He has worked most of the above years with ExxonMobil where he has provided technical guidance to projects globally and applied research & development of new electrical technologies. Brandon is presently an Electrical Work Group Lead for KBR based in Houston, Texas.

While being a full-time employee, Brandon still found time to stay active in industry via a professional engineering organization. He is a IEEE Senior Member and Vice Chair of the PCIC Technical Conference Production Subcommittee. Additionally, in support of the annual IEEE IAS PCIC Conference, Brandon has volunteered his time over the years reviewing/authoring papers and is currently serving as an Associate Editor.

Bala Chavali earned her Bachelor's of Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Houston. She began her electrical career at Texas Instruments as an Application Engineer and advanced her career as SoC Architect and SoC Systems lead. After 8 years at Texas Instruments, she moved to Altera/Intel as an SoC Debug Architect and worked on FPGA and Security Architecture also. She held roles including System Engineer, System Integrator, and Design Engineer, all of which provided the background leading to her expertise in functional safety at both Intel and Texas Instruments. Currently she is a Principal Member of Technical Staff at AMD and is chartered with driving technical innovation across RAS (Reliability Availability and Serviceability) and Functional Safety. 

She has over 15 years of industry experience focusing on safety critical systems in automotive and industrial markets with expertise in SoCs and FPGAs. She has multiple patent awards in embedded systems and functional safety. She is an active member of multiple industry working groups such as Accellera, IEEE P2851, and IEEE P2846. She is currently Vice Chair of the Accellera FUSA working group.

Mr. Cooper is the founder in 1986 of Cooper Consulting Service (CCS) located in Friendswood, TX.  CCS is an engineering design and development company with a focus on medical devices.  He has a BSEE '74 and MSEE '81 from the University of Houston and is a registered professional engineer in Texas.  He has been the Chair of the IEEE Houston Consultants Network for 5 years.  He served for 12 years as the co-chairman of the AAMI Blood Pressure Transducer Committee that developed the ANSI-AAMI national standard for blood pressure transducers.  He has written over 16 articles for publication in professional journals and holds 22 patents in the field of medical devices.  He has designed and developed numerous products, such as, kidney dialysis machines, sleep study systems, electronic stethoscopes, disposable pressure transducers, a defibrillator-monitor, a laser based opto-acoustic patient monitor, wireless ambulatory patient monitors, an intracardiac pressure-volume monitor, teaching devices for physiological sound auscultation, automated test system and many others.  He works with medical product companies of all sizes, start-up companies, medical schools and foundations.  His focus is on new product development from concept to regulatory approval and production

Dr. De Arizon holds a Ph.D. and a MSc in EE from the University of British Columbia , Canada. She holds a B.S. in EE and an MBA from Simon Bolivar University in Venezuela, South America.

A professional engineer with more than 32 years of experience in power system studies with an emphasis on modeling and analysis.  Experience covers a wide range of topics including generation, transmission and power system analysis, pro forma economic review, and performance evaluation. Managed a number of technical and economic feasibility studies, in domestic as well as international assignments. Expert in modeling and analysis of electric power systems, , system planning, system impact studies, dynamic evaluations, load flow and adequacy analysis, black start studies, and impact of wind generation (transient and steady state analysis).

Michael Dougherty retired from HP after 35 years in the industry.  His last position was as the VP of Quality for HP inc’s Personal Systems Group. Michael led a multinational team focused on ensuring the quality, reliability and safety of notebooks, desktops, workstations, thin clients, and retail point of sale systems.

Previously he was based in Singapore and led the Quality Team for Asia. Also, at HP He has led electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and engineering program managers focused on notebook product development. He started at HP (Compaq) as an electrical engineer on a printer development team. 

Before joining HP, he worked at Texas Instruments and developed avionics for the YF-22 tactical fighter and avionics design for an advanced concept light helicopter (LHX).

Michael has 6 patents relating to PC and printer design.

Michael received a BA in Physics and Mathematics from Luther College, and a MS in Computer Engineering from Iowa State University.

He regularly assists at the Heights Interfaith Food Panty which serves low-income and homeless members of the Houston community.

Title:  Space Operations

Mr. Gallaway is a project manager and senior electrical engineer in the electrical department of the Transmission & Distribution Division with Burns & McDonnell. His experience mainly lies in project management for projects which includes design of controls, instrumentation and physical station for high- and medium-voltage substations, grounding and lightning protection systems.

Primary responsibilities within his division include project cost estimation, scheduling project activities, project tracking, project profit and loss tracking, relay/metering and control design, SCADA design, physical design for high- and mediumvoltage substations. For two years prior to 2006, Mr. Gallaway worked for Burns & McDonnell, Houston office as an Electrical Co-op. During this time as a Co-op his responsibilities included electrical system modeling, document quality review, and providing project assistance.

Alan Goodrum retired from Hewlett Packard Enterprise in 2015, after 40 years in the computing industry. At HPE, Alan was recognized as an HPE Fellow and a leader in server design. His most recent specialization was in fiber-optic communication, where rising server data rates and falling costs for photonics devices was pushing optical communications deeper into the computing elements themselves, thereby affecting the fundamental architectures of the servers and the data center.

Previously, Alan’s primary focus was on power management and its impact on server architecture, server management, and the datacenter of the future. He was a central player in the development of the overall power management strategy for HP ProLiant servers, with contributions ranging from work on HP Dynamic Power Capping and HP Power Discovery Services, to innovations impacting the entire datacenter such as Insight Control Power Management software, the HP Performance Optimized Datacenter (POD), and EcoPOD.

Alan’s career included over 25 years in the industry-standard server industry. He was a member of the Compaq team that created the first industry-standard server in 1989. And he continued to be a key player in the architectural and technological advancements of Compaq and HP ProLiant servers and HP BladeSystem for more than two decades.

Prior to the birth of industry-standard servers, Alan spent 15 years developing desktop computers for Compaq and computer printers for Texas Instruments. He also was involved in early work on magnetic bubble memory systems and some of the earliest microprocessor development systems for Texas Instruments.

During his career, Alan has also been involved in many computer-industry groups. He chaired several workgroups for the PCI-SIG, where he contributed to the development of the PCI, PCI Hot Plug, PCI-X, and PCI Express interface standards, and was a frequent speaker at PCI-SIG conferences. Prior to that, he was a member of the team that developed the EISA interface standard, a key technical innovation that enabled the creation of the industry-standard computer market.

The author of PCI Hot Plug Application and Design, Alan was also the recipient of the 2003 Server I/O Conference Lifetime Achievement Award. He holds 41 issued US patents, with several more filed. Alan received both his BSEE and MSEE from the University of Houston, where he has been a guest instructor. Alan has been a member of the Industry Advisory Board for the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department since 1998, including six years as its chairman.

David is currently President of the BOP Control Systems division of Axon Energy Products, a houston-based oil and gas equipment manufacturer. He is responsible for managing the profit and loss for the business unit. David joined Axon in 2013.

Prior to Axon, David was with Stewart & Stevenson for almost 15 years where he designed control systems, electronics, and software for a variety of oil well servicing equipment. He managed the control systems group and eventually became engineering manager, leading 25 mechanical and electrical engineers as well as designers, drafters and technicians. His most recent assignment with S&S was Vice President of Research and Development where he was responsible for managing the product portfolio to maximize the utility of R&D funding.

David worked full-time as a software developer for W. R. Biles & Associates, a SCADA software company, while working on his BSEE at the University of Houston. David gives enormous credit to U of H for allowing commuter students the flexibility to work and study. It was a long, unconventional process but he would not have been able to earn a degree without that accommodation.

In 2009, David became a proud double-Cougar when he graduated from U of H’s Bauer School of Business with an MBA.

Michael Hanson is an Engineering Manager at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). He currently manages a large team made up of design engineering, engineering support personnel, technical presales, and customer engagement managers for the HPE Performance Optimized Datacenter (POD) product line. He founded the group, built the team and has helped develop the Modular Datacenter (MDC) Market since early 2008. His efforts have made HPE a Tier 1 provider in that industry around the world.

Michael’s current team is made up of electrical, mechanical, thermal and controls engineers solving complex and multidiscipline problems associated with large scale MDC’s and the integration of IT products within them. Common tasks involve power distribution at the medium to low voltage level (below 35kV level), 480V 3 phase power conditioning and distribution, airflow and thermodynamic balance, structural and mechanical design, and work at the individual server power level.

Prior to developing HPE’s POD program, Michael developed various multiprocessor servers including x86 Industry Standard 8-way servers, an Itanium 64-bit architecture, and the industry’s first AMD Opteron based server. He developed storage products including Modular Smart Array (MSA), Direct Attach Storage (DAS) for blade architectures, and helped develop the industry’s first grid based intelligent switching products that led to the birth of the cloud.

Michael received his BS EE from the Cullen College of Engineering in 1999 and has worked for Compaq and HPE in Houston ever since. He was a member of the first Student Advisory Council (SAC) as a senior at U of H and recently became a member of the Industry Advisory Board for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Kelvin Ihaza is the local Electrical Engineering Manager for the Energy Industries Division at ABB Inc. He has developed the competency of the local electrical engineering team to include advanced power system modeling and front-end engineering and design (FEED) activities. Some notable projects performed by this team include a detailed carbon reduction analysis for a lubrication facility and microgrid projects integrating renewables. Other type of projects Kelvin and his team have delivered include offshore power distribution systems for Oil & Gas fields and several power distribution systems for petrochemical clients.

Kelvin continues to expand the engineering capabilities of the local engineering team, focusing primarily on the energy transition across industries. He has over 12 years of professional experience in the energy industry — specifically petrochemical facilities.

He began his career with ABB’s Process Automation division as an Automation Engineer on the Field Operations team. In this role, he provided on-site engineering support for various petrochemical facilities. After providing significant engineering support for one of ABB’s largest petrochemical clients, Kelvin was asked to take a resident application engineering role within the customer’s facility. In this role, he worked as a dedicated automation consultant advising this client on various system integration projects. After spending about four years in this role and having acquired his professional engineer (PE) license, Kelvin was asked to lead power system projects at the main project office in Houston, Texas. In this role, he provided technical leadership and detailed engineering support for multimillion-dollar electrical distribution projects. These projects include onshore industrial substations and switchgear rooms, offshore platform electrification, subsea power distribution, and similar projects.

Kelvin holds a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Houston (2010) and a MS in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University (2020).

Lloyd Irvin, P.E. is the Senior Vice President at Dashiell Corporation in Deer Park, Texas.  In 2022, Lloyd celebrated his 30th year at Dashiell. He is a graduate of the University of Houston, where he earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1992. After graduation, he started as a field engineer for Dashiell learning about testing high voltage substations. After two years, Lloyd moved into project engineering designing the high voltage substations he learned about while working in the field.

He received his professional engineers license in 1996. As a professional engineer he became an operations manager for the Field Services Division where he learned the business side of Dashiell. Soon afterward, his expanding expertise and management style allowed him to move into the position of director then vice president. Today he manages over 175 field engineers and technicians for Dashiell Corporation.

Lloyd has developed the Dashiell Field Services Division into one the most successful high voltage testing groups in America. He attributes his success to a one team management style.  He has been married to his wife Casey for 28 years and has two sons AJ and Carson. He enjoys spending time with his family, fishing, hunting and playing golf.

Aurora Kennedy has held positions in new product development, supply chain, manufacturing and line management. She is currently Nuclear Manufacturing Manager at a Technology Center for SLB. She works to accelerate the production of nuclear products such as gamma ray detectors, generators and He3 detectors that enable SLB’s Nuclear Technology worldwide. Production challenges come from the environment needed to produce this ruggedized technology, as well as the specialized and sensitive operations required for the products. With a team of over 78 members and four product lines, engagement and focus on safety first mentality are essential to enable the team’s success on key targets.

In 2013, Aurora started the first Leadership Special Interest group within SLB to help promote and foster leadership skills development and recognition within the company. She continues to be a leader for the group that has now grown to over 3100 members globally.

Aurora received her MSEE from the Cullen College of Engineering, and enjoys promoting STEM career opportunities for kids.

SLB is a global technology company that employs more than 160 nationalities. It’s mission is to drive energy innovation for a balanced planet.

Dr. Venkata Krishnan has over 25 years of system architecture expertise spanning processor architecture, networking, and accelerators. Dr. Krishnan holds a BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras and a PhD from University of Illinois in Computer Science. He is a distinguished architect at Nvidia and an adjunct professor at UH ECE department. Prior to this, he was a principal engineer at Intel, fellow at AMD, research scientist at D.E.Shaw research, and CTO of Dolphin Interconnect.

In his engineering career serving Greater Houston, Brian guides our local municipal, commercial, and industrial partners in realizing their advanced energy goals. He is a champion for important improvements in customer care, including standards for power quality reporting & customer education. Recently, Brian has been supporting customers with the mass widespread integration of grid-scale customer-owned battery storage systems.

In addition to supporting customers, Brian also trains and develops the next generation of engineering minds to maximize value creation for all Houstonians. He currently leads the Student Interactions working group for the Industry Advisory Board for the University of Houston Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. Brian earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Houston and is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Texas.

A devoted Houstonian, Brian works to create value in various organizations across Greater Houston. Most recently, he has shared board governance and stakeholder engagement best practices to jumpstart the local ERG community, raising participation among fellow Houston organizations and shining a light on the expanded work needed to promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Brian and his wife recently welcomed their first child and will work hard to continue the Cougar Life Member legacy.

John Martin founded Martin Company -- an Electronics Engineering and Manufacturing company--in 1980. He has a BSEE ’75 from the University of Houston and is a Professional Engineer in Texas. Before Martin Company, he worked for Western Geophysical (now Schlumberger) and Analog Devices. His focus in over 3700 projects at Martin Company has been analog circuit and embedded system design, difficult industrial custom electronics, and project management. His systems are often designed for hazardous (Class 1, Division 1, ATeX) and high temperature (200 ºC) environments. He has given seminars on Intrinsic Safety Protection and Certification to ISA, and Project Estimation and Clear Schematics to IEEE and UH. He has designed seismic systems, corrosion rate measurement systems, polygraphs, EXIT signs, down hole tools, and a wide variety of other measurement systems. As President of Martin Company, John oversees ten engineers, interfaces with customers, defines new projects, oversees engineering work, hires engineers, identifies and removes project and technical roadblocks, and supervises the business part of the company. John is interested in teaching and mentoring new engineers as they enter the field.

Dr. Moussa is a senior data scientist who works in the Azure Portal team in Microsoft. His main responsibility is to uncover the customers’ pain points by correlating the customers’ satisfaction scores with customers’ journeys.

Moussa has an issued patent in the domain of Error Correcting codes (Method and system utilizing quintuple parity to provide fault tolerance). The patented solution helps to recover from data loss due to random errors and/or erasures. The algorithm is designed to expand the power of RAID-6 by correcting more errors and erasures, while maintain the same complexity as that of RAID-6.

Moussa's interests are in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and General Analytics.

Before joining Microsoft, Moussa has worked for American Express as a leader of the Machine Learning Center of Excellence in the Merchant Organization. He worked in building predictive models (Recommendation system, Time Series, ... etc.) to provide better personalized customer experience.

Moussa received a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Arizona with main research areas Error Correcting Code and Artificial Intelligence.

James Ortiz is a Senior Advisor to the NASA Associate Administrator (NASA’s Chief Operating Officer (COO)).  As part of that role, he leads Agency transformation activities in aspects of Program Management and Engineering Capabilities. He has been named as the NASA Program Management Improvement Officer (PMIO) to lead NASA’s implementation of the Program Management Improvement and Accountability Act (PMIAA) directed to improve the Program Management capabilities and performance of NASA space flight and aeronautics missions. 

Dr. Ortiz was the former Director of the Independent Program Assessment Office (IPAO) from 2009 to 2015 at NASA Headquarters.  As Director of the IPAO, he had responsibility over the independent assessment of the Agency’s highest priority spaceflight projects including assessing for sound technical approaches, adequate cost, schedule, management, and overall risk posture to ensure that spaceflight projects were on a path to mission success.

Dr. Ortiz joined NASA at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in July 1990 from the U.S. Air Force where he served as flight test engineer for electronic warfare systems on high performance aircraft. During his career at NASA, Dr. Ortiz has held several technical and executive assignments including Head for International Space Station Astronaut and Flight Controller Systems Training; Senior NASA Research Exchange Engineer with the Air Force Research Laboratory in New Mexico; Chief of the JSC Mission Operations Advanced Projects Office; and Manager of the Office of Analysis and Assessment reporting to the JSC Center Director. He later served as Deputy Manager for Integrated Avionics and Software for the next human space exploration vehicle, the Orion project. Dr. Ortiz also led the design certification review of the Space Shuttle fleet for return to flight after the Columbia accident.

Dr. Ortiz holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering (EE) from the University of Houston, a ME in EE from the University of Florida, and a MS in Systems Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. He holds a BS in EE from Los Andes University in Colombia, South America. Dr. Ortiz is a graduate of the Senior Manager’s in Government Program at the Kennedy School at Harvard University.

Dr. Ortiz is a member of the U.S. Government Senior Executive Service.

Vishal Parekh is a 16-year veteran at Intel Corporation where he is currently serving as the Supply Chain Area Manager for Sort and Advanced Packaging Equipment leading a team technical and commercial professionals (PHD’s, MS and MBA’s) and managing >$700m annual spends with suppliers across the world.

Vishal graduated with his Bachelors in Electronics Engineering from Mumbai University in 2002, Master’s in Electrical Engineering (2005) and PhD in Electrical Engineering (2007), both at University of Houston. In late 2007, he joined Intel as a Senior Process Engineer in the Dry Etch area within Intel’s leading-edge R&D/development fab in Portland, OR (first UH graduate to join Intel technology HQ in Portland, OR). In this position, Vishal supported process development, ramp, managed operations and transferred dry etch technology to Intel’s world-wide high-volume manufacturing fabs through 5 different technology nodes. In 2014, Vishal was identified as Role Model Manager at Intel by Executive Management and he continued to manage a team of engineers in the development fab till 2016.  

To increase his scope and impact to Intel while broadening his skillset, Vishal moved to Global Supply Chain in 2016 in the Die Prep (packaging) area. He developed on the job supply chain skills by managing equipment suppliers across USA, Europe and Asia driving technical specifications and negotiating contracts for equipment to be purchased by the advanced packaging technology development team. As part of Vishal’s career progression at Intel, he was selected by Intel to join the Executive MBA program at Cornell’s Johnson School of Business from which he graduated with Distinction (top 10% of his cohort) in 2021.

While Vishal is committed to delivering the right results for Intel, he is also passionate about helping not only his Intel team grow their careers but also helping/mentoring/advising students at his Alma Mater (University of Houston).

Bill is currently the America’s Market Development Manager for the ExxonMobil Chemical Polypropylene business. His team works with customers to develop future solutions for their specific applications by understanding the growth and technical drivers of the market. The team is made up of chemical, mechanical, electrical and industrial engineers that utilize both technical and commercial skills to lead new product developments. Additionally Bill is the engineering recruiting captain for all of ExxonMobil’s engineering hiring needs at the University of Houston.

Bill graduated from UH in 1993 with a BS in Chemical Engineering and again from UH in 1999 with an MBA. He first started his career at BASF in Freeport as an operations engineer where he ran acrylic acid plants for 6 years. Post his MBA, he went to work for ExxonMobil Chemical where he has had various roles in finance, marketing, customer service and regulatory affairs over the past 18 years. During this time Bill was a part of or led the development and commercialization of several new polymer product platforms.

Bill is a 3rd generation Cougar and is married to Lani, also a Cougar alumni. They have two children, Marissa a Cougar majoring in Supply Chain Management, and Kyle a senior in High School. For fun they have season tickets to Cougar football and basketball games.

Sira Rao is a software development manager at Texas Instruments Inc. (TI), where he leads a team of engineers developing robust software for embedded real-time control applications for Industrial and Automotive markets. He has been with TI since 2018, with the C2000 MCU Business Unit. Prior to that, he spent 5 years at Schlumberger, with roles in both embedded software development as well as board design. He earned his Bachelor of Technology degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras at Chennai, India, followed by a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2007. Upon graduating, he joined TI as an applications engineer in their Digital Radio and Infotainment group.

He is passionate about driving innovative solutions that help customers in the areas of embedded systems software and digital signal processing. This passion has led to numerous conference and journal publications, as well as filed and granted patents. He also loves teaching and interacting with students, and taught a course to University of Houston juniors in the Fall of 2016. For excelling in this role, he received the IEEE Region 5 Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in 2017. He is a Member Group Technical Staff (MGTS) at TI, and a senior member of the IEEE. In his free time, he likes to play volleyball and soccer, and enjoys watching (American) football.

Gregory Rogers is a Registered Professional Engineer in Electrical Engineering, Control System Engineering and a TUV Certified Functional Safety Engineer. Greg attended both Louisiana Tech University and Louisiana State University. He has nearly 30 years of experience in Electrical Engineering and related instrumentation, controls, safety systems and networking. Greg has been with Enterprise Products (one of the nation’s largest mid-stream energy companies) since 2011 and is currently serving as the Senior Director of Automation where he is responsible for all Industrial Control Systems (ICS) for plants, pipelines and terminals; as well as, SCADA, Leak Detection and ICS Cyber Security.

Sunny Sadana graduated with a Master’s in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay in the year 2011. He joined GlobalFoundries Singapore as Process Integration Engineer in 2011 where he worked on Technology development for Embedded Flash Memory at advanced nodes for 4.5 years, after that he joined IIT Bombay as an Executive Scientist in the Electrical Engineering department working on the development of OTP memory development and its application as Random Number generator. Since 2019, he has been working as a Senior Engineer in Micron Technology where he was working on reliability and technology qualification of advanced 3D NAND products and recently as 3D NAND Silicon to System Integration Lead for Enterprise SSDs. He has published in journals like IEEE EDL, Applied Physics Letters, Solid-State Electronics, and at conferences like Device Research Conference(DRC), Materials Research Society(MRS), etc. He holds 2 US patents (issued/pending). He also received Dr. P. K. Patwardhan Technology development award 2017 from IIT Bombay for the Development of Strategic Semiconductor Technologies. He is an  Editor for IEEE- Journal of the Electron Devices Society.  He is also an IEEE Senior member since 2019 and is also an active reviewer for IEEE EDL/TED/TDMR. His research interest includes Semiconductor Device Physics, Reliability, and Fabrication, esp. for Non-Volatile Memory Devices and Systems. He also has an interest in Hardware Based Random Number Generator and Computer Architecture and Performance.

Carol Scalf retired from HP Inc. after 29 years. Her last position was the Director of Consumer Quality for HP Inc.’s Personal Systems Group. Carol is an Experienced Quality leader who is passionate about customers, Building Best in Class Technical Support, executing Strategic Initiatives aligned with business results and Leadership Development of her teams.

Prior roles at HP Inc included various positions in Print and PC quality, engineering, and support readiness focused on reliability of the products. Before joining HP, Carol worked at Mostek Corporation focused on assembly and packaging of semiconductor products.

Carol has one patent related to ink jet printhead technology development. Carol received her BS in Engineering Management from SMU in Dallas Texas. Carol is married with 3 children and 2 rescue dogs.

Suresh Sundarababu has excelled as an executive leader with almost 30 years of experience in implementing strategies to scale and transform global organizations. He works with purpose driven organizations with strong values to create impact and value to all stakeholders in the communities they serve. With a unique personal and professional multicultural identity and robust organizational intelligence, Suresh is a trusted leader and a strategic thinking partner to help leaders drive change.

In his current role, he serves as the Director of External Partnerships in the Technology and Innovation office at National Instruments, an Emerson Company to help guide the long term innovation related projects in collaboration with academic institutions, research institutes and government agencies

Suresh has a MS in Electrical Engineering from University of Florida and BE in Electrical and Communication Engineering from Bharathiar University in India.

Douglas Verret Ph.D. is semi-retired after having worked for Texas Instruments, Inc  for thirty-four years as a Process Development Manager and as a Program Manager for Flash EEPROM Development.  He has a BS in Physics from Spring Hill College, Mobile AL, an MS in Physics from Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN and a Ph.D. in Solid State Physics from the University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA.  He holds sixteen patents with expertise in device and reliability physics and in semiconductor manufacturing.   Before joining Texas Instruments he taught high school physics and mathematics for five years and was an Assistant Professor of Physics and Pre-engineering at Xavier University, New Orleans, LA.

During his career he has served as an SRC Industrial Mentor at the Universities of FL and MI; founding co chairman of Design Rule and Process Architecture FTAB at SEMATECH; member Baylor University College of Engineering and Computer Science Board of Advocates; member Fort Bend Business Partners in Education Council; Board Member Fort Bend Education Foundation and Advisory Committee member of the K.V. Hightower HS Magnet School for Engineering.  He is currently Chairman of the University of Houston Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Industry Advisory Board.

Doug is a member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Electron Devices Society (EDS) and has served as CMOS Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices for five years and then Editor-in- Chief for eleven years.  In 2012 he was honored with the EDS Distinguished Service Award.  He is an IEEE Life Fellow and a Texas Instruments Fellow Emeritus.

Michael Wroe retired from Enterprise Products after 30 years in the industry. His last position was as the Senior Manager of Control Engineering Projects.

Michael led a multidisciplinary team focused on executing I&E and control systems upgrade projects ensuring the quality, reliability and safety of project execution through project management, engineering, and construction/ commissioning.

During his career, Michael was a member of the AFPM Operations, Planning, Control, and Automation committee for 14 years, as well as, past Chairman and Vice-Chair of committee.

Michael received a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from The University of Akron. He regularly assists at the Montgomery County Food Bank and Habitat for Humanity.

Yan Xu has been a scientist in the machine learning team at PROS Inc., Houston, since Feb. 2016. Currently, she is working on natural user interface and information retrieval. She earned her Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Houston in Dec. 2015. She has been published in the highest-impact machine learning journal PAMI and made the cover of the IEEE journal. She has diverse machine learning background, especially in boosting algorithms, unsupervised learning, data visualization and computer vision. She has great experience in building data science solutions to solve the real world challenges, from biomedical applications to business challenges. She is an Kaggle competition master and also the founder and the leading speaker for machine learning meet-up in Houston area. The non-profit organization is dedicated to making machine learning easy and accessible to everyone who has the interest and passion to learn!

Professional

I graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1987 with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering. I started with Mobil Oil Corporation in their downstream lubricants organization immediately after graduation. I held a variety of roles in their commercial organization, primarily in Sales and Marketing management. I transitioned to ExxonMobil Chemical at our merger in December 1999, and worked in our synthetics and elastomers organizations in both commercial and supply chain leadership positions. EM Chemical functionalized our supply chain around 2013, and I held several global roles including Raw Material Process Manager and Improve Manager. I am currently our Talent Development Manager for the Americas, driving activities in competency development, career path creation, and recruitment (which I have been coordinating in our Chemicals HQ environment for several years). We’ve lived in many parts of the US, and for a short time in Mexico, and have lived in the Katy area twice, most recently since 2008. In the area of secondary education connectivity, I’ve been an engineering and MBA recruiter at various universities for almost 30 years, manage our Chemicals HQ intern program, and serve on the Industrial Engineering Industry Advisory Board at the University of Minnesota.

Current job at Celanese as Global Supply Chain Manager – Santoprene Business.

Personal

I am originally from Northwest Indiana, or most easily recognized as the South side of Chicago. I am married with three daughters, one studying medicine at Stanford, one UH Hilton School graduate currently working for a consulting firm in the Dallas area, and one still at UH studying Art Education. My spouse and I have been active volunteers in KISD, where among other activities I served on one of our bond committees, and my wife is currently an employee of KISD. I have a few hobbies which our family do as much as we can, including Martial Arts/Self Defense (currently Krav Maga), hiking, snowboarding, and mountain biking.  I also enjoy brewing beer and mead.