Sergio Melais, Electrical Engineer • Tampa Microwave

Sergio Melais received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of South Florida, Tampa, in 2003, 2005, and 2009, respectively. He is currently working as an Electrical Engineering for Tampa Microwave, Tampa FL. He has authored or coauthored 11 papers and has one patent application on flexible low-profile microwave antennas. Dr. Melais has been a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) since 2002 and the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society (IMAPS) since 2007.

Dr. John Dunn, Senior Engineering Consultant • AWR Corporation

Dr. John Dunn is a senior engineering consultant at AWR Corporation, where he is in charge of training and university program development and writes numerous technical articles and seminar presentations for industry seminars and symposia. His areas of expertise include electromagnetic modeling and simulation for high speed circuit applications. Dr. Dunn’s past experience spans both the worlds of industry and academia.  Before entering the commercial electronics industry, he was a professor of electrical  engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder, for 15 years, where he lead research groups in the areas of electromagnetic simulation and modeling. For four years prior to joining AWR, he was head of the Interconnect Modeling Group at Tektronix Corp. in Beaverton, Oregon. Dr. Dunn received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Applied Physics from Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and his B.A. in Physics from Carleton College, Northfield, MN.  He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). 

George Kizer, President • TeleVision, Inc.

George Kizer is currently an independent consultant specializing in microwave radio and fiber optics systems. George has 35 years of telecommunications experience primarily with Alcatel-Lucent, Alcatel and the telecommunications division of Rockwell International. While at Rockwell and Alcatel, George served as Systems Engineer (primarily international microwave projects), Program Manager (various long haul and turn key microwave projects), and Product Manager of computer based radio network management and microwave radio products. He holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Oklahoma State University and a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University.

Ian Wood, Application Engineer • CST of America, Inc.

Ian Wood graduated from the University of Victoria with a MASc in Electrical Engineering. His research involved developing a prototype K band imaging array for use in Radio Astronomy. He worked as a student researcher at the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, assisting in the production of 84-116 GHz receiver cartridges for the Atacama Large Millimeter Array Telescope. He currently works for CST of America where he provides advanced antenna simulation expertise for users of the software.

Mark D. Cavalier, Principal Systems Engineer • Overwatch Systems

Mr. Cavalier is the Principal Systems Engineer for Overwatch’s Communication Systems Business Area. Mark has more than 22 years of experience in systems level engineering. Mark received his M.S. in Electrical Engineering with emphasis in communications and digital signal processing from the University of Texas at Dallas in December 1997. He received his B. S. in Electrical Engineering with emphasis in communications systems from the University of Southwestern Louisiana, in 1987. During the last 15 years, Mark has led the development and fielding of Overwatch’s multiband antenna technology.

Alan Tang, RF Chief Technical Officer • Auden Techno Corp.

Alan Tang was born in Taiwan and received the B.Eng. degree from Tamkang University, and M.Eng. and PH.D. degrees from National Sun Yet-Sen University of Taiwan. Currently, he is a RF chief technical officer of Auden Techno Corp. in Taiwan. His current research interests include mobile phone antenna design and antenna module integration.  

Rea Schmid, Sr. RF Application Engineer • Texas Instruments, Low Power Wireless Devices 

Rea has worked RF circuit design for more than 30 years designing discrete amplifiers, matching networks,  PLL,  Data Equalizers and small PCB antennas. Rea holds a BS and MS degrees in Electronic Technology and Information Technology. He has worked with antennas since from Ham radio to Citizen Bands where popular and now provides expertise on simulation for TI sub-GHz and GHz radios. Rea has been with TI for 11 years as a senior applications engineer. He wrote numbers articles presentations on high speed amplifiers and RF PCB design. 

Doug Reed, Solutions Architect • Spirent Communications

Over the years, Doug has focused his R&D career on advancing a variety of leading edge Cellular Radio Technologies. He has more than 40 US patents in air-interface design, radio propagation, and antennas. Doug is recognized in the industry as a primary technical contributor to the Wideband Spatial Channel Model, which has been adopted in standards worldwide for evaluating MIMO antenna systems. His current interest is in developing new channel emulation techniques to support next-generation cellular networks.

Kyle Labowski, Electromagnetics Engineer • Remcom, Inc.

Kyle Labowski has experience in antenna design and simulation. His Master’s Thesis involved modeling a proposed design for the Arecibo HF interactions facility using FEKO software. Mr. Labowski has experience using XFDTD for simulations of various antenna designs. In addition, Mr. Labowski is familiar with the theory behind finite difference time domain from work with MWFDTD. Currently Mr. Labowski is working as part of the team redesigning MWFDTD and updating the code line. His current work is focused on adding new antenna functionality to the MW code.

Paul Tornatta, Chief Technical Officer • Skycross, Inc.

Mr. Tornatta has more than 25 years of experience the aerospace, wireless, telecommunications and automotive industries. Prior to joining SkyCross, he served as vice president of the automotive business unit at Radiall Corp., a supplier of RF interconnect products. He also served in a variety of leadership positions at Larsen Antenna Technologies, Metricom and Lockheed Martin. Paul earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from New Mexico State University. He has written articles on RF design and electromagnetics for a variety of RF trade publications. He is a member of IEEE and the Society of Automotive Engineers.

Ming Hui Chen, President • Victory Microwave Corp.

Dr. Chen has more than 45 years of experience in microwave engineering and antennas. He earned a PhD degree from the Electophysics Department at Polytechnic Institue of Brooklyn in 1969, and worked at various microwave companies in USA including Microtech, Radiation Systems Inc., MIT Lincoln Laboratories, Comsat Laboratories, and TRW.  In 1990, he returned to Taiwan to form a Microwave Division at Victory Industrial Corporation. This division was later spun off to become Victory Microwave Corporation. He has successfully developed low cost manufacturing methods for microwave components used in the wireless industry. His contributions include include die-casting hardware for orthomode transducer for VSAT systems, casting diplexers for microwave radios and extruding waveguide method for slot array antennas.

Dr. Devis Iellici, Director of R&D • Antenova Ltd.

As Director of R&D, Dr. Iellici and his team are responsible for developing new and innovative solutions in antenna and RF technology. Prior to joining Antenova, Dr. Iellici was Chief Antenna Designer at Telit Mobile Terminals S.p.a., where he designed handset antennas, satellite antennas and low-SAR systems. He is the author of many antenna patents, has comprehensive experience in designing antennas for handsets and laptops, and his designs have been manufactured in millions of units. Dr. Iellici has a PhD in theoretical physics and joined Antenova in 2003.

Arthur L. Chait, President and CEO • EoPlex Technologies, Inc.

Arthur L. Chait is President and CEO of EoPlex Technologies, Inc. He is a materials engineer with broad experience in all facets of manufacturing, including operations, engineering design and business. Chait was previously a senior executive of Solectron Corp. Chait had responsibility for Solectron’s Global Account Organization, representing more than 70 percent of the company’s revenue. Chait’s career includes senior management, marketing and consulting roles with: SRI International, Zitel Corporation, Booz Allen & Hamilton, The PA Consulting Group and Dresser/Halliburton. Mr. Chait is a past recipient of the Steinmetz Medal from GE. He holds two degrees: a BS degree in Ceramic and Materials Engineering from Rutgers University and an MBA in Strategy from the University of Pittsburgh. Mr. Chait’s affiliations include IEEE and the American Ceramic Society. He serves on the Boards of Blue Iguana Networks and TechVenture Networks.

Rishi Bharadwaj, Vice President of Product Management & Marketing, Antenna Products Group • PCTEL

Currently, Rishi leads the Product Management & Marketing organization of PCTEL’s Antenna Products Group. Rishi has been instrumental in expanding PCTEL’s Antenna Product Group’s leadership in various vertical markets and technologies including Broadband Wireless Access (BWA), Fleet Management & Asset Tracking, Industrial Communications and Defense. Rishi joined PCTEL in 2003 as Business Development Manager responsible for PCTEL’s successful patent portfolio management and intellectual property licensing Program. Rishi also did strategy development and M&A support in that role. Rishi began his career in 1996 with SAFCO Technologies then Moving on to Agilent Technologies performing various product development and business development roles in the area of wireless test and measurement. Rishi led the development of several successful test and measurement software products for CDMA and UMTS cellular standards. Rishi holds a BS in Electrical Engineering, a Masters in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Rishi holds a US patent and has a pending patent application in the area of testing quality of data services over wireless networks.

Alessandro Perrotta, Corporate VP • Amphenol

Alessandro Perrotta is the Corporate VP of Amphenol and the Group General Manager of the Mobile Consumer Product Division (MCP) with base out of Hong Kong. Prior to entering in this role, Mr. Perrotta was the General Manager of Shanghai Amphenol Airwaves an antenna focused company based in Shanghai. Mr. Perrotta joined Amphenol in 2000 but prior to Amphenol he was at Motorola. While at Motorola he formed and led the development of all the antenna design for the iDEN System. Mr. Perrotta has been dealing with antennas since 1994 when he joined the NSF Center for Advanced Communication at Villanova University. He holds an MBA from University of Miami an MSEE from Villanova University and a BSET from Temple University. He had also take focus courses at INSEAD and INSEAD/Wharton.

Derek Skousen, Product Marketing Analyst • MI Technologies

Derek has more than 12 years of experience in RF and Microwave test and measurement. He has worked for Hewlett-Packard and Agilent Technologies and joined MI Technologies in 2004. Currently Derek is the Vice-Chair of the CTIA Reverberation Chamber Subgroup (RCSG) for exploring industry standardization of next-generation wireless over-the-air testing using reverberation chamber technology. Derek earned his Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering from Brigham Young University and his MBA from Emory University.

Richard J. Stewart, Director of Engineering, Chief RF Antenna Systems Architect • Microwave Photonic Systems

Mr. Richard J. Stewart has 23 years of professional electrical engineering experience in the fields of RF Communications, Antenna Systems Design, Naval Systems Integration, RF/Microwave Test & Measurement, and Linear Photonics (Fiber Optic) Component & Systems Design, Modeling, and Development. Throughout Mr. Stewart’s tenure at MPS he has continually pioneered the design, development, and integration of high dynamic range RF Linear (analog) Photonic Link hardware and system architectures for use in a wide array of DOD SATCOM, LOS COMS, GPS, and general purpose RF transport systems. Mr. Stewart continually calls upon his 10 years of naval shipboard experience when performing his engineering duties with the Photonics Special Projects Group (PSPG), the Integrated Navigation Systems Branch, and the Exterior Communications Branch.

Joshua L. Korson, RF/Optical Systems Engineer • Microwave Photonic Systems

Mr. Joshua L. Korson brings 10 years eexperience in the Aerospace Industry and Satellite Communications Industry which has provided direct exposure to requirements analysis, allocation, and traceability in both large DoD weapon systems and small custom technology proof of concepts. Mr. Korson’s is responsible for evaluation of current industry trends and end-user requirements to develop and deploy next generation RF / Optical technology. Mr. Korson’s core technical areas are in Fiber Optic Conversion Techniques, Link Budget Analysis, RF to Fiber Transport Systems Architecture, Reliability Analysis, FMECA/FMEA, Fault Tree Analysis, Requirements Management, Life Cycle Cost Analysis.

Bruce Williams, Electronic Products Manager • Nearfield Systems, Inc.

Bruce Williams is the Electronic Products Manager at Nearfield Systems, where he is active in the development of advanced products and techniques for antenna measurement. Prior to joining NSI, he was responsible for all near field testing at Boeing Satellite Systems. At Boeing, he developed advanced proprietary methods for satellite testing. Mr. Williams holds a Masters degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and is a graduate of their Microwave Remote Sensing Lab. At this lab, he was influential in the design and test of several types of Millimeter-wave radar for the remote measurement of weather phenomena.

Dr. Jack Nilsson, Chief Research Scientist • MP Antenna Ltd

Jack Nilsson has more than 25 years of wireless science and technology expertise, inventiveness, and business growth experience. He continues to develop further innovative work on revolutionary antenna technology, achieving better wireless communications through walls, trees, and other obstructions. His “MP - Science & Technology” has already made significant inroads in the Wi-Fi, WiMAX, and VHF/UHF commercial and military arenas. His work promises to markedly enhance the world in which we live as his broad-based patents apply to commercial, military, and retail markets including cell phones, broadcast radio, satellite, and space.

Dr. Lance Griffiths, Radome Design Engineer • MFG Galileo Composites

Dr. Griffiths is the Radome Design Engineer for MFG Galileo Composites.  He leads the RF design, analysis, testing, and R&D efforts.  These efforts include the development of custom analysis tools related to radome and antenna system design, testing of new materials, and developing innovative new designs to meet the needs of modern high frequency antenna systems.  He has extensive experience using hybrid analysis techniques to analyze electrical large antenna systems.  Dr. Griffiths is a graduate of Utah State University and received a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Utah. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and has published or presented over a dozen articles in technical journals, conferences, and trade magazines, and is currently an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Antennas and Propagation. 

William S. Sward, Engineering Manager • RT Logic, Inc.

William S. Sward received a BS in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University and an MS in Electrical Engineering with emphasis in RF Communications from the University of Colorado. He is currently an Engineering Manager at RT Logic working on RF data links, satellite communications and radar. His previous experience includes working with commercial wireless modems, fading channel emulators, CATV modems, GPS receivers, and radar systems for various corporations. His current interests are RF communication systems based on DSP platforms.

Jeff Shamblin, Chief Technical Officer • Ethertronics

Jeff Shamblin is Chief Technology Officer at Ethertronics, and is responsible for overseeing all research and development projects for the corporation.  Mr. Shamblin brings 30 years experience in antenna engineering to this position. Before joining Ethertronics, Jeff worked for two RFID companies, SCS Corp. and Claridy Solutions. At Claridy Jeff was manager in charge of antenna development and assisted in all aspects of RFID relating to antenna and scattering issues.  Jeff previously worked as an antenna consultant providing design and analysis services to several wireless start-ups in the Southern California area.  Prior to his work in the commercial antenna field, Jeff spent over twenty years in antenna design and development in the aerospace industry at Lockheed and Northrop where he was responsible for several antenna designs on various aircraft and missile programs.  He holds nine patents relating to antenna technology.  Mr. Shamblin holds a B.S. in Physics from C.S.U. Northridge.