Administration | Computer Support | Network Support | Training Support | Integrated Design Services
Campus Address: |
149 Hammond Building |
|---|---|
Phone: |
814-863-8428 |
Fax: |
814-863-7582 |
Email: |
Click here to email |
William Burkhard is the Director of Information Technology and Design and heads Electronic and Computer Services (ECS) for the College of Engineering. Bill’s vision for ECS, particularly for the Integrated Design Services, is to amplify alignment with the College’s academic mission and objective of educating World-Class Engineers; the success in this area is evident in the growth of student participation in engineering design programs. Under Bill’s supervision as director, the group’s number of student engineers involved in real-world design programs continues to grow. While student participation varies by semester, it continues to average of six undergraduates and two graduate students throughout any given year. Summer full-time support offers our students with an opportunity to take a more active and lead role in projects. Students are continuously provided an opportunity to work with state-of-the-art equipment and instrumentation, high-performance computing, visions systems, Field Programmable Logic Arrays, and software applications that include MATLAB and LabVIEW. As a former systems designer of 20 years, Bill appreciates the educational opportunities this group has to offer aspiring engineers.
Bill began his engineering career as a Senior System Analyst with a defense-related company and gained experience as a software systems analyst for a high performance threat acquisition system onboard a military aircraft and developed the company’s first microcontroller design for signal generation system to stimulate and test military systems. Employed by the College of Engineering since 1983, he continued his systems design career for another five years. During this period Bill designed microprocessor controllers, software, electronics and mechanical systems for numerous application, including a payload for biological experiments on the space shuttle. He also designed a high power Microwave Measurements and Test System for the US Army and constructed several of the system’s test stations to show proof-of-concept.
In 1999, he assumed the position of Associate Director for Communications and Computing in the College’s Center for Electronic Design, Communications, and Computing, which is now Electronic and Computer Services. At that time, his primary responsibility was to improve the performance and responsiveness of the College’s networking and computing environment, migrating operations from a flat Ethernet/VAX networking/ centralized computing environment to an ATM network and distributed computing environment. As the University migrated away from supporting colleges with ATM networks, Engineering returned to an Ethernet-centric network, but still maintained distributed computing services. For four years, Bill also taught senior design classes in Electrical Engineering. In 2003, he assumed his current position as Director of Information Technology and Design and head of Electronic Computer Services.
Campus Address: |
149 Hammond Building |
|---|---|
Phone: |
814-865-3405 |
Fax: |
814-863-7582 |
Email: |
Click here to email |
Jeanne is the Administrative Support Coordinator for the Director of Electronic and Computer Services. Her duties encompass an array of responsibilities, but also incorporate the general management of the department offices. She also acts as the personnel coordinator for the department.
Jeanne also received the Penn State Staff Award for Excellence in 2000 for her efforts in the Eberly College of Science.
Campus Address: |
149 Hammond Building |
|---|---|
Phone: |
814-865-1444 |
Fax: |
814-863-7582 |
Email: |
Click here to email |
Lisa Stevenson is the Administrative Support Assistant and is the first point of contact for both the ECS main office and the ECS Training Lab. Her responsibilities include maintaining registration for Training and Support sessions, managing agendas for training dates and college committee meetings, preparing all training documentation provided by the Training Coordinator including information handouts/packets provided in training sessions, and maintaining departmental expense databases and spreadsheets.
As the Purchasing Agent for the entire ECS department, Lisa coordinates activities, working closely with procurement services and conferring with vendors in order to plan, organize, and oversee events and daily office activities.
Lisa also maintains portions of the website, ensuring current content for sections such as the Software Tips and the Network Notices. She works closely with the Training Coordinator concerning scheduling issues and assists in the development of supplemental training media, contributing to the editorial process of developed training content and additional reference materials.
Campus Address: |
153D Hammond Building |
|---|---|
Phone: |
814-863-3856 |
Fax: |
814-863-7582 |
Email: |
Click here to email |
A graduate of Penn State, Jerry Ciolkosz has been with the College of Engineering since 1985, starting in the area of database management and program development. He was actively involved in the development of the Cost Proposal System (CPS), Approval Path Editing System, and the Permanent Salary Increase System (PERMSAL). He became involved in computer networking and was asked to join ECS in 1995 to assist in the migration of the College to a Windows NT domain environment.
Jerry now serves as the Associate Director of Communications and Computing. His responsibilities include leading the ECS computer support team in the evaluation, planning, administration, maintenance, deployment and support of College-level computing systems. The group provides direct user support to the Dean’s Office as well as consulting to address the many IT needs throughout the College. He chairs the College Network Technical Contact Committee and participates in numerous other College and University IT committees.
Campus Address: |
153F Hammond Building |
|---|---|
Phone: |
814-863-4541 |
Fax: |
814-863-7582 |
Email: |
Click here to email |
Joe has been with the College of Engineering for over 11 years serving as a Systems Analyst with ECS’ Support Team. Overall, Joe brings over 25 years of experience in all phases of computer and software support, server administration and automation, networking, and computer security to the team. He is experienced with Windows/Vista, Redhat Linux, Ubuntu Linux, CentOS, OS X as well as other less widely used operating systems and has continuously provided support for applications common to the user community.
Joe lead the deployment of and administers to the College’s central virtual server infrastructure clusters, e-mail messaging infrastructure, and all other core servers. This includes such services as file, print, web, SQL, SharePoint, directory services (Active Directory), and the College’s central HPC cluster. Additionally, he has served on the University’s Security Committee for over eight years and is one of the College’s security liaisons. He presents regularly at the College’s Technical Contact Committee and sits on several other College and University IT committees. Additionally, Joe has helped compile many of the College’s security policies, provides periodic security auditing, and assists S.O.S. in College forensic investigations as needed. In his server administration duties, Joe is responsible for maintaining most of the College servers including auditing, patching, troubleshooting, archiving, and restoration. In his desktop support duties, he provides PC/Mac hardware support as well as OS and application support for all the general operating systems and applications used by College.
Campus Address: |
153E Hammond Building |
|---|---|
Phone: |
814-863-6122 |
Fax: |
814-863-7582 |
Email: |
Click here to email |
As a Systems Analyst of the ECS Support Staff, Holly collaborates on efforts to maintain a stable and modern computing environment for the College of Engineering faculty, staff, and students. She is the primary technical contact for the administrative Dean’s Office.
Holly graduated from Penn State and worked in basic scientific research for many years. Computing knowledge was an integral part of many of the methodologies used in her research projects. Her accomplishments include several publications in major scientific journals, and the motivation to stay current on developments in computers and networking. Eventually, she focused her career on computer technologies. She truly enjoys working with people and assisting them with their computing needs to accomplish their goals.
Campus Address: |
152B Hammond Building |
|---|---|
Phone: |
814-863-4425 |
Fax: |
814-863-7582 |
Email: |
Click here to email |
Jim has worked for ECS since 1983. Jim has been involved with the design of the College networks from the first network in 1988 to the present one. He is
part of the team that maintains the network for the College of Engineering's
26 buildings, which includes the firewalls, switches, VPNs, and wireless equipment.
Campus Address: |
151C Hammond Building |
|---|---|
Phone: |
814-865-6104 |
Fax: |
814-863-7582 |
Email: |
Click here to email |
Tom has worked for ECS since 2000. He is part of the team that maintains the
network for the College of Engineering's 26 buildings, which includes the
firewalls, switches, VPNs, and wireless equipment. Tom is also part of the
team that maintains the Unified Voicemail servers for the College of
Engineering.
Campus Address: |
153G Hammond Building |
|---|---|
Phone: |
814-863-1197 |
Fax: |
814-863-7582 |
Email: |
Click here to email |
Sue Pysher is the Training Coordinator at ECS. Her primary responsibilities are to provide training and support to faculty and staff in the College of Engineering. She is responsible for coordinating and conducting computer and network training sessions in both formal and informal formats. She also provides user support to the College of Engineering regarding software issues, including developing training documentation and reference materials, handling user support calls and user requests for just-in-time assistance. The main elements of her support also encompass the College’s VoIP phone system implementations and University systems support, such as IBIS/ISIS, the University Data Warehouse, EIS, and FIT.
Additionally, Sue has worked to establish various College user committees and user groups as part of ECS’s support efforts. She continues to coordinate and facilitate these groups and also serves on various University committees.
Sue has been employed at Penn State for over 30 years in various administrative positions and has held her current position in the College of Engineering since 1984. She was the recipient of the Penn State Staff Excellence Award in 2006.
Campus Address: |
153A Hammond Building |
|---|---|
Phone: |
814-863-4666 |
Fax: |
814-863-7582 |
Email: |
Click here to email |
Maria Ruth is a Microcomputer Systems Consultant for ECS Training Services. Maria provides computer software training and support for the faculty and staff in the College of Engineering. In addition to conducting regularly scheduled training sessions, she assists with one-on-one software issues and questions within the College. Maria maintains the ECS Training web content, creates video software tutorials, and develops print documentation. She specializes in user support for web and graphic design projects and is dedicated to raising awareness of best practices for adherence to web accessibility standards. Maria regularly conducts overview sessions for the Adobe Acrobat Connect web conferencing application. She trains and supports users of the Microsoft Office suite of programs, and the Cisco Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephones.
Maria’s current interests include e-learning, standards-compliant web design, graphic design, and digital photo manipulation for multimedia applications. She values excellence in training, customer service, professional writing, and public speaking.
Maria is a 1995 graduate of Penn State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in the field of Liberal Arts. She began her employment at Penn State in 2000 with the University Libraries, where she immersed herself in web design, graphic design, customer service and computer software support concepts via online resources and experiential practice. Maria has completed an international online web design training program. She continues to expand her understanding of relevant web design, graphic design, software support, and e-learning concepts by regularly attending College, University, and national computer user groups and conferences.
Campus Address: |
153B Hammond Building |
|---|---|
Phone: |
814-865-1751 |
Fax: |
814-863-7582 |
Email: |
Click here to email |
| Website |
Laura Scott is the Multimedia Specialist for ECS. She designs and develops content for electronic as well as printed media. Additionally, she also maintains, edits, and enhances existing media and documentation.
Her current interests include writing and editing, graphical, illustrative and editorial design, interactive multimedia, videography, photography, and animation. Laura retains a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Sciences and Technology, both from Penn State. She has experience with a range of design software, such as Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Dreamweaver.
Campus Address: |
123 Transportation Research Building |
|---|---|
Phone: |
814-865-2818 |
Fax: |
814-865-6663 |
Email: |
Click here to email |
Dr. Michael A. Pusateri is the Director of Integrated Design Services and a Senior Research Associate in the College of Engineering at Penn State University. His current research interests are in the fields of signal processing, novel sensors, novel sensor fusion techniques, multispectral vision and image processing algorithms, real-time image and vision processing, and power efficient hardware implementation of algorithms. He is a strong proponent of experiential education and considers student involvement in design projects as the primary academic mission of Integrated Design Services. Michael has taught electrical engineering courses in continuous and discrete linear systems, electromagnetics, and embedded microcontrollers.
Currently, Michael is working on the development of several night vision systems for the Army Night Vision & Electronic Sensors Directorate in partnership with Heatfusion Incorporated. He is assisted in this effort by a team that, over time, has included a total of more than fifteen undergraduate and graduate student employees of Integrated Design Services.
Michael’s team recently finished the second phase of work on the Advanced Digital Multispectral Night Vision Goggles, a prototype featuring stereo intensified visible/near infrared imagers, a short wave infrared imager and a long wave infrared imager. The team researched and tested over 100 candidate algorithms for the goggles. Of these candidates, the four that survived the vetting process were included in the design. They were extensively developed in MATLAB, first using floating point simulations and then using integer simulations on a library of multispectral videos. Once satisfactory performance was achieved, the team implemented the algorithms in Verilog HDL and continued to refine the design to maximize the power efficiency of each algorithm. Field testing of the goggles was successfully completed in early 2009.
His team also recently completed a full brass board development for the Rattler program; this system was designed to provide both broadband multi-spectral vision from UV to LWIR and hyper-spectral imaging in the SWIR band. The IDS team wrote control software for the systems’ four cameras, the AOTF, and the four laser illuminators included in the system. The team also provided a significant portion of the Verilog HDL used to perform image acquisition, processing, fusion, and display; this code was implemented on the Heatfusion MonaLisa embedded video processing system. His team also developed a brass board for the Active Handheld SWIR program using a subset of the components in Rattler. Both systems were successfully completed and field tested in June 2009.
Michael began his higher education at General Motors Institute (currently Kettering University). In this program, he alternated semesters between work at General Motors and school. While enrolled, he gained an appreciation for the value of experiential education. His work experiences included press room production supervisor, metal assembly production supervisor, quality inspection supervisor, second-shift quality control manager, and production and facilities engineer. After graduation, he continued working for General Motors at their Milford, MI Proving Grounds as an electrical and electronics test engineer, validating systems on prototype cars. He left General Motors to pursue graduate studies at Penn State and completed his master’s and doctorate in electrical engineering. He also worked on the FindIT/TIPS project at the University’s Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, developing an inertial navigation sensor array from low cost micromechanical sensors. Michael’s doctoral research was the development of novel quadrupole resonance probes using high-temperature superconducting resonators.
In addition to his duties as the Director of Integrated Design Services, Michael is a member of the committee for the IEEE Computer Society Applied Imagery and Pattern Recognition workshop held annually during October in Washington, D. C. He serves as the faculty advisor to E-house, a special living option for engineering students. Outside the university, Michael serves on the school board for a local charter school. An Eagle Scout, he continues his involvement in Scouting by serving as the Committee Chair for both a Cub Scout Pack and Boy Scout Troop in State College, PA.
N. Scott DenoCampus Address: |
119 Transportation Research Building |
|---|---|
Phone: |
814-863-7581 |
Fax: |
814-865-6663 |
Email: |
Click here to email |
Scott Deno has over 35 years of engineering experience in electrical engineering, software engineering, and business. For 15 years, Scott has been with Penn State’s College of Engineering working on research investigations and development of small, medium, and large scale computer and electronic systems.
Scott retains a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from Penn State as well as an Ed. Masters in Bio Engineering. His technical strengths include areas of software, firmware, hardware, networking, and system design. His work in hardware includes low and high frequency analog design; discrete, PLD, and FPGA digital design; and networking hardware implementations. Scott also works with software languages such as LabVIEW and C++, applications including databases, spread sheets, printed circuit design, FPGA programming, analog circuit simulation, digital circuit simulation, digital circuit design, embedded controller compilers, embedded controller emulators, and operating systems. Scott's firmware expertise includes embedded controllers, state machines, and grouped VLSI special function chips. His networking experience includes work with intra-circuit communications, intra-enterprise communications, and world wide communications using Ethernet, TCP/IP, custom protocols, fiber optic, and RF connections. Scott has optimally integrated of all of his technical expertise for use in system design solution development. Additionally, he is responsible for general project management, supervising student and staff, assisting in ECS resource requirement planning, and maximizing utilization of sponsor funds. Scott is also a certified LabVIEW developer and instructor. He is also involved in the student internship educational program at ECS, managing students into active project investigations where they participate as members of a project team, challening the student while meeting the goals and deadlines imposed by the sponsor.
Eric E. GheerCampus Address: |
112 Transportation Research Building |
|---|---|
Phone: |
814-863-3855 |
Fax: |
814-865-6663 |
Email: |
Click here to email |
As an eletro/mechanical designer with Integrated Design Services, Eric frequently addresses customer needs in the development of designs and often works as a liason for customers within the machine shop during the hardware manufacturing process. He also provides support and assistance to student interns in their project work for customers of the Eletronic and Computer Services.
Eric's project work includes the Foxtrot Low Mass Gimbal, which is a two axis pointing device that aims instruments at given points by combining vertical and horizontal data. Each axis includes a motor to provide motion and an encoder to quantify the resultant movement. When combined with a control system developed by Electronic and Computer Services personnel, the gimbal is able to function in a sweep mode and a tracking mode. Computer modeling of this device began with an envelope within which the device must fit. In this design, the motor is at one end of an axis and the encoder is at the other. When these requirements are met, the smaller inner ring is designed to fit within the outer ring. It is mounted between the motor and the encoder of the outer ring and with its own motor and encoder controlling vertical movement of a platform where the instruments are mounted. Design involves fitting the required functionality within the available envelope.
Prior to his employment at Penn State University, Eric studied post-secondary machine shop at the Altoona Vocational Technical School. He retains a BS ED in Biology from the Shippensburg State College. His employment history includes machine shop work at Penn Jacobs Fastener Company and Chicago Rivet and Machine Company.
Eric has developed his CAD abilities for over 20 years. He models and draws, providing design drawings and three dimensional models for project review and machine shop CAM operations. Eric also retains experience with two additional CAD programs: Pro-E and SolidWorks. He has contributed to a wide variety of projects including work for the Applied Research Laboratory, Biochemistry, Polymer Science, Nuclear Engineering, Mineral Sciences, and the Naval Research Laboratory.
Khanjan MehtaCampus Address: |
120 Transportation Research Building |
|---|---|
Phone: |
814-863-4426 |
Fax: |
814-865-6663 |
Email: |
Click here to email |
| Curriculm Vitae |
Khanjan Mehta is a Senior Research Associate in the Electronic and Computer Services department of the College of Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University. His professional interests include innovative system integration, high-tech entrepreneurship, and international social entrepreneurship.
Khanjan frequently lectures on international and social entrepreneurship, design for extreme affordability, and cultural issues in engineering. He has developed and teaches a course focusing on innovative system integration titled, “Sensor and Controller System Integration (EDSGN 497EF)”. The course covers proof-of-concept systems for innovative products and processes, has a significant entrepreneurial component, and is open to everyone across campus. Successful ventures include Buzby Networks, BrioBody, and Mashavu. He also hosts the annual Invention 2 Venture workshop on Technology Entrepreneurship at Penn State.
Khanjan has developed and led various technology-based social entrepreneurial ventures in China, Kenya, and Tanzania. These projects involve multi-disciplinary teams with members from various disciplines across the colleges of Science, Business, Medicine, Education, and Social Sciences collaborating to make the venture truly sustainable and scalable. Projects include:
Khanjan has an MS in Electrical Engineering from Penn State and a BE in Electronics Engineering as well as a diploma in Industrial Electronics from the University of Mumbai, India. He is a National Instruments Certified LabVIEW Developer and Professional Instructor. Khanjan has partnered with various United Nations agencies, government ministries, industry, and community-based organizations on international ventures and has served on various national and international committees and taskforces to further global sustainability.
Joseph PortelliCampus Address: |
122 Transportation Research Building |
|---|---|
Phone: |
814-863-7580 |
Fax: |
814-865-6663 |
Email: |
Click here to email |
Joe has been employed by ECS since 1983 when he was hired as a student. He's worked on and managed many projects during his 25 year employment, and was heavily involved in the NRL projects during the early stages of development.
In 1987, Joe received an award from the Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School for "Service Above and Beyond the Call of Duty In the Promotion of Excellence in Research" for his work with Hershey foods on a machine vision project.
Joe's focus is in designing printed circuit/wiring boards. He also specializes in high-speed designs and signal integrity modeling.
Currently, his work has centered on projects involving Ohm-Labs, as he operates as a project lead on the Smart Resistor project. He is also heavily involved in projects from HEAT, Inc. and KCF.
Al WilliamsCampus Address: |
121 Transportation Research Building |
|---|---|
Phone: |
814-863-3854 |
Fax: |
814-865-6663 |
Email: |
Click here to email |
Al Williams is a Senior Electronics Engineer with the Electronic and Computer Services in the College of Engineering at Penn State University. His primary responsibility has been to bring challenging research and design projects into the group to allow undergraduate and graduate students to gain valuable experience. He also provides expertise and support in the hardware/software design and prototyping of electronics systems to students and staff based on 30 years experience as a research engineer at the US Naval Research Lab and 2 years experience with Harsh Environment Applied Technology (HEAT) Inc.
Al's primary research interests include selecting and implementing state-of-the-art image processing techniques for applications such as night vision goggle systems, active handheld imaging systems, real time hardware missile simulations, and other image fusion devices for long range surveillance. He is also interested in the design and development of image enhancement and fusion algorithms such as AGC, local area contrast enhancement, improved signal to noise ratio, multiband color fusion, probability of detection verses false alarm rate, and tracking with multiband imagery. Al also focuses on the designed and development of infrared and RF input/output subsystems, digital control loops and gimbal system design, and hardware designs using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), Digital Signal Processor (DSP), Reduced Instruction Set Computers (RISC), and Complex Instruction Set Computers (CISC).
Al retains a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from George Washington University, Washington D.C. He has authored or co-authored more than 50 technical papers and conference proceedings on real time image processing, EO/IR system design, physics based modeling and simulation, digital control loops, stable platforms, flyable and other harsh environment system designs and development. Additionally, he has served as a U.S. Science Adviser to NATO Special Working Group on Electronic Warfare. He is a member of IEEE, the IEEE Computer Society, and IEEE Signal Processing Society. Al also serves as an Executive Committee member of IEEE Applied Imagery Pattern Recognition where he participates in the development of the annual workshop on image understanding. Al has retained TS Security Clearance since 1977. Additionally, he was awarded the Technology Transfer Award in 2003 by NRL in recognition of achievement in scientific, engineering, and technical work.
ECS is designing for the future.