University Alliance - Design Competition 2008 Judges

The 2008 University Alliance Design Competition entries will be judged by both internal and external judges. These judges are experts in their fields and support the Design Competition as a learning tool allowing students to experience all aspects of the design process.

Ernest J. Garcia

Ernest J. Garcia is a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff in the Electromechanical Engineering Department at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. Using a range of MEMS technologies, he has successfully developed micro and meso actuation devices (surface micromachining, LIGA and bulk micromachining), micro acceleration switches, micro gyroscopic rate sensors including the first surface micromachined rigid-body gyro, micro pumping devices, micro geared systems, micromirror systems in silicon, and opto-mechanical switching devices in both silicon and gallium arsenide. He has worked on micro and meso mechanical systems for more than 20 years and has a number of patents related to that work. His most recent activities are concerned with the development of high reliability microsystems for defense applications.

Roy H. Olsson, III Ph.D.

Roy H. Olsson III received B.S. degrees (Summa Cum Laude) in electrical engineering and in computer engineering from West Virginia University in 1999 and the MS and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2001 and 2004. After completing his B.S. degrees, he interned at Lucent Technologies, where he designed mixed signal ASICs for cellular phone applications. From 1999 to 2004 he was a research assistant in the Center for Wireless Integrated MicroSystems (WIMS) at the University of Michigan, where his doctoral research was in the development of implantable electronics for neural recording applications including amplification, multiplexing, and data compression circuitry. In July 2004, he joined the Advanced MEMS Group at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM where he is currently a Principal Member of the Technical Staff. Roy’s current research interests include RF microresonators, oscillators and filters, MEMS resonant inertial sensors, micro-acoustic bandgap devices, low noise optical readout circuits for inertial sensing and wireless neural interfaces. Roy has authored over 20 journal and conference papers in the area of MEMS and microelectronics. Roy won 1^st prize in the conceptual category and the best overall paper award at the 2002 design automation conference student design contest for his paper entitled “A microsystem for near-patient accelerated clotting time blood tests”. Roy is a member of the IEEE Solid State Circuits Society, IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Society, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Etta Kappa Nu, and Tau Beta Pi.

Michael J. Shaw, M.S.

Michael J. Shaw received his B.S. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of Troy, New York in 1999 and earned his M.S. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2001. From 2001 to 2006 he has worked as a Member of Technical Staff in the MEMS Science and Technology Organization at Sandia National Laboratories. He is currently a Senior Member of Technical Staff in the MEMS Science and Technology organization with responsibility for Waveguide fabrication technology and other novel Silicon and integrated MEMS technologies. His research interests include the science of fabrication induced stresses in thin films and attenuation reduction in Planar Lightwave Circuits. He is an inventor of 1 issued patent and has one patent pending. Michael is an instructor for the Sandia MEMS Advanced Design Short Course, and has presented at conferences for The Electrochemical Society (ECS), The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS), Society of Photo-Optical Instrument Engineers (SPIE) and Rio Grande Symposium on Advanced Materials.

Danelle M. Tanner, Ph.D.

Danelle M. Tanner earned B.S. degrees in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Southwestern Louisiana in 1976. She then received her Ph.D. from Texas A&M University specializing in Nuclear Physics. Dr. Tanner hired into Sandia National Laboratories in ’84 to perform radiation effects testing in electronic systems and subsystems. She transferred into the Reliability Physics Department in ’92 and specialized in oxide reliability in microelectronics. In ’94, Dr. Tanner received internal funding to establish a MEMS (MicroElectroMechanical Systems) reliability research effort. She led research teams to uncover dominant failure mechanisms in surface-micromachined devices. Dr. Tanner has studied MEMS under the environments of humidity, shock, vibration and temperature. She and her team have increased the capability of the reliability laboratory by designing and building parallel test systems. Dr. Tanner is presently investigating accelerating methods to induce failure and developing models to predict failure. Dr. Tanner chaired an international SPIE conference on Reliability, Testing, and Characterization of MEMS/MOEMS that was held annually during Photonics West (2002-2006). She has also chaired the MEMS session at IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium many times. Dr. Tanner is a member of IEEE and has published 30 papers on MEMS reliability, testing, or characterization, in conference proceedings and journals.

Roger T. Howe, Ph.D. (Stanford)

Larry L. Howell, Ph.D. (BYU)

Stephen J. Fonash, Ph.D. (Penn State)

George Barbastathis, Ph.D. (MIT)