A L U M N I
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It has been a real pleasure
working with undergraduate, Master's, and PhD students for both our
academic growth and research. Each of the students featured on this
page have worked with the lab for at least 6 months and have been an
active part of producing published work. |
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Graduate Research Alumni (Ph.D.) |
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 Brook Gross, Ph.D. Started: January 2003 Dissertation Defense: Nov. 2007 Graduated: May 2008 |
Brooks A. Gross
earned his Ph.D. in Systems Engineering at Oakland
University. He received his Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience from the
University of Florida (Dec., 1998), a Master of Philosophy in Biomedical
Engineering & Medical Physics from Keele University in England (2001), and a
Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan
(May, 2004) with a focus in Bioelectronics and BioMEMS. Brooks' research
interests include implantable biosensors particularly for applications to
brain carcinomas, intelligent signal processing, and MEMS. In addition to
research, he is also interested in technology transfer and commercial
applications of biomedical sensors and medical imaging. In 2006,
Brooks was awarded a graduate fellowship from the Michigan Space Consortium
for studying a system towards studying neuro-chemical function and effects
during space travel. Brooks’ extra-curricular activities include mountain biking, running, photography, and traveling. He is currently learning the Czech language. Brooks is currently a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the University of Michigan. |
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 David Foster, Ph.D. Started: January 2004 Dissertation Defense: July 2008 Graduated: August 2008 |
David Foster
graduated from Oakland University with a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering. Since 2001, he has been a lecturer in the Electrical and
Computer Engineering Department at Kettering University in Flint, MI,
where he teaches Digital Systems and Microcomputers and is currently on
the faculty. His primary research
interests include embedded systems and sensor networks with growing
interests in computer architecture and fuzzy logic. David earned his Bachelors degree from Kettering University with a major in Electrical Engineering and minors in both Applied Physics and in Applied and Computational Mathematics, and was awarded Kettering University's President's Medal upon graduation. He completed a Masters of Science in Computer Engineering with a specialization in Hardware from the University of Michigan. He worked in the Process Computing group at the AK Steel Corporation in Middletown, OH for three years, and spent a year and a half at Delphi Automotive Systems working with electrical power steering systems. He has been moonlighting as a physics and engineering tutor since 1996, and held a 5-year part-time position as an assistant marching band instructor. David also enjoys golf, home improvement, strategy games, and tinkering with cars that predate the microprocessor. |
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 Girma Tewolde, Ph.D. Started: January 2003 Dissertation Defense: July 2008 Graduated: August 2008 |
Girma Tewolde graduated with a Ph.D. student in Systems Engineering at Oakland University. Girma is on the faculty at Kettering University, Flint, Michigan. His research interests include reconfigurable computing, hardware structures and support software, hardware-software co-design, distributed embedded systems, and sensor networks. His teaching interests are in Embedded Systems design, including Digital Systems, Microcomputers and Computer Architecture. Girma is originally from Eritrea, a small country in the horn of Africa. He did his undergraduate studies at the Addis Ababa University, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with a major in Electrical Engineering, graduated with great distinction, and was awarded the Gold medal of the year. After graduation, he worked for a small private computer company as a microcomputer specialist for three months and returned to Addis Ababa University as a graduate assistant and was awarded a scholarship from the Australian government to pursue his Masters studies in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. After completing his Masters in 1995 he returned to Eritrea to help establish the College of Engineering at Asmara University. With his other colleagues, he took the challenge of establishing the Electrical Engineering program from scratch which involved developing the curriculum, establishing laboratories, preparing course materials, and identifying text and library books. |
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Kala
Majeti graduated with a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering at Oakland University.
She grew up in Windsor, Ontario, Canada and later moved across the border
to get her B.S. and M.S. Degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering
from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. She joined General
Motors Corporation where she worked in the Current Product Engineering
Division at their Milford Proving Grounds and the GM Technical Center in
Warren. Having decided to change career direction to work in the
telecommunications industry, she then moved to AT&T in New Jersey to
work in the data networking systems engineering department. After
a year, she transferred to AT&T in Naperville, Illinois where she
worked as a Systems Engineer in the Switching Systems Business Unit.
In 1997, she was promoted to Technical Manager where she managed a number of projects in areas such as Next Generation Switching Systems, Wireless Networking, and Optical Networking. She was Senior Product Manager responsible for all international applications of Lucent’s optical long-haul transmission system which was deployed in the backbone networks of major telecom operators such as Deutsche Telekom (Germany), NTT (Japan), Telefonica (Spain), Telia (Sweden), KPN (The Netherlands), among others. After her business unit became part of Lucent Technologies, she was responsible for spearheading the offshore development initiatives and setting up the Bell Labs Software Development facility in Bangalore, India. Kala left Lucent Technologies in 2001 and returned to Michigan to be close to her family and pursue her long-time goal of obtaining a Ph.D. She resides in Rochester Hills, Michigan with her son who is in the Tenth Grade. In her spare time, she works for not-for-profit cultural and charitable organizations. |
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Jay Sattler is a Ph.D.
Student in Systems Engineering at Oakland University. He graduated
from Lake Superior State University in 1990 with a BS in Electrical
Engineering Technology. In 1999, he graduated from Oakland University with an MS in
Electrical Engineering with a focus on Computer Engineering.
His research interests are Reconfigurable Logic, Programmable Logic
Synthesis and Embedded Systems Architecture. His
current projects involve the development of algorithms and software for
automotive systems. In addition, Jay teaches training classes in the
subjects of VHDL, Multithreaded Programming and Real Time Operating
Systems. |
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Graduate Research Alumni (Masters) |
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 Lawrence Kennedy Started: May 2005 Graduated: December 2006 |
Lawrence Kennedy graduated with a Master's in Embedded Systems from Oakland University in December of 2006. He received his Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan in May 2004. Lawrence started working with Dr. Hanna in May of 2005 to construct a compiler to compile Java to VHDL for the implementation of flowpaths on an FPGA. His research interests include most anything related to science, technology, and embedded systems. Lawrence was a great asset to the lab and contributed significantly. Although he has moved to California to accept a job offer, he remains in contact with our research lab and is still working on advancing flowpaths. While working in the lab, Lawrence also worked at Continental Teves as a test engineer for the anti-lock, traction control, and stability control brake systems software. During his undergrad, he played on the water polo team at U of M for four years, and still enjoys swimming and playing water polo in his free time. Lawrence also enjoys traveling and spending time with friends and family. |
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 Ravi Dhiren Shah Started: October 2003 Graduated: May 2005 |
Ravi Dhiren Shah graduated with his Master of Science in Embedded Systems at Oakland University in May 2005 and took a job with a local engineering company. He worked for Dr. Darrin Hanna and Dr. Daniel Aloi since October 2003 on the Soft Radio Based GPS Receiver project while studying embedded hardware and embedded software development. This project was conceived to realize the application where an antenna array orientation is controlled through a feedback loop. This feedback loop receives a S/N ratio value for its functioning from this FPGA based GPS receiver. Ravi is a major movie buff and loves to watch English and Hindi (India’s National Language) movies. His favorite games are Cricket, table tennis, swimming, pool and snooker. Ravi's philosophy in life is to never give up and always keep trying, which he calls the “CRUSH THE GAME” attitude. His family has taught him to never give up and give his best effort, be patient, truthful and caring. His long-term goal is to work in the Embedded Systems field and eventually becoming an entrepreneur. |
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Undergraduate Research Alumni |
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 Matt Wozniak Started: September 2006 Graduated: December 2007 |
Matt Wozniak graduated with a Bachelor's
degree in Computer Science
from Oakland University. Matt worked with the research team on building the
floating-point operations for the high-speed, low power flowpaths. Matt’s primary experience with the research group has been to design compact, fast and efficient hardware floating-point arithmetic algorithms. He has also designed a simple simulated annealing algorithm to test and benchmark the floating-point flowpaths. Outside of research and coursework Matt enjoys developing web style applications, and also has an ongoing project of building his own 3D network multiplayer game. He likes to spend time with his friends, girlfriend, and family when he is away from school and work. |
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 Jason Gorski Started: May 2005 Graduated: December 2006 |
Jason Gorski graduated from Oakland University with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree in Computer Engineering in 2006. His interests are very diverse as he is interested in Mechanical Engineering. Jason graduated from the International Academy in Bloomfield Hills, MI and is currently pursuing his own research interests in artificial intelligence methods for mathematically modeled sensor networks with Dr. Hanna. Jason was also a teaching assistant for core engineering classes. In his free time, Jason mainly likes to sleep although he rarely has the time. He usually has three to four projects going on the side for fun. He believes that one must always be productive to enjoy life, and for him that means building or fixing something -- cars, motor homes, boats, computers, and TVs. Although he is not all geek, Jason also enjoys physical exercise once and a while. He is still an active swimmer and at one time, placed 8th in the state in the 200m individual medley. He is an avid poker player and TV-watcher. Jason also graduated with an MS in Embedded Systems from Oakland University in May 2009. |
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 Brian Carpenter Started: May 2005 Graduated: December 2006 |
Brian Carpenter received his Bachelor's degree
in Computer
Science from Oakland University in December 2006. During his
undergraduate studies, Brian worked with Dr. Hanna on the compiler
for the flowpath project, and as a teaching assistant for CSE 378:
Computer Hardware Design. During his tenure in the lab, Brian
contributed greatly to the success of automatically generating state
machines for flowpaths. Brian finds working with the students to be
rewarding, as he enjoys helping people. In addition to being a full time
undergraduate student, research assistant, and teaching assistant, he was
employed with Total Automation writing software for industrial
systems. He specializes in robotics and vision systems. Brian particularly likes to program applications that have real-world applications, hence his attraction to automation. In his free time, when he has some, he likes to swim, bike and write software. He tries to stay active, but finds himself drawn to one of his many projects. Besides software design, Brian has a background in drafting, electrical controls, and networking, all of which are quite useful at his current job. |
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 Loretta Macklem Started: January 2004 Graduated: December 2005 |
Loretta Macklem graduated with a BSE in computer engineering from Oakland University in December 2005. She continued her studies in the graduate program at Michigan State University. While working in the lab, Loretta contributed towards research that resulted in professional publications from participating in research into airborne and solid material bacteria detection. Loretta considers her interests in engineering a family affair, besides having two older brothers who are engineers, she also has an older sister in the computer engineering field. She attributes much of her ongoing success to her older sister who has always guided her and mentored her in this field. For the past year she has worked as an intern for her sister’s computer consulting company AM Software. Loretta’s main interests are in artificial intelligence and biotechnology. She also enjoys other adventures such as sky diving, snowboarding, running, playing piano, cross-country skiing, and wakeboarding. |
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