2015 Hall of Fame Inductees

Newsha K. Ajami, is the director of Urban Water Policy with Stanford University's Water in the West program. She is a hydrologist specializing in sustainable water resource management, water policy, and the water-energy-food nexus. Her research throughout the years has been interdisciplinary and impact driven, focusing on the improvement of the science-policy-stakeholder interface by incorporating social and economic measures and effective communication.

Dr. Ajami is a gubernatorial appointee to the Bay Area Regional Water Quality Control Board. Before joining Stanford, she worked as a senior research associate at the Pacific Institute, and served as a Science and Technology fellow at the California State Senate's Natural Resources and Water Committee where she worked on various water and energy related legislation. She has published many highly cited peer-reviewed articles, coauthored two books, and contributed opinion pieces to the New York Times and the Sacramento Bee. She was the recipient of the 2005 National Science Foundation award for AMS Science and Policy Colloquium and ICSC-World Laboratory Hydrologic Science and Water Resources Fellowship from 2000 to 2003. Dr. Ajami received her Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering from the UC, Irvine, an M.S. in hydrology and water resources from the University of Arizona.

Roger Brum has served as president of Meggitt Defense Systems, Inc. since 1995. He was one of the founders of Southwest Aerospace in 1982 which was later sold to Meggitt and became Meggitt Defense. In addition to serving as its president, he has been the principal innovator of several major products including training systems for the Army, Air Force and Navy. Roger pioneered towed decoy aerodynamics, towline and deployments systems which have been credited with saving many aircraft in combat. He holds over a dozen patents.

After receiving his PhD under Dr. Samuelsen, Roger continued to teach an engineering course at UCI for the next decade. Dr. Brum has served on the board of directors of several companies.

Mr. Busch has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Lantronix (NASDAQ:LTRX) since August 2011. Mr. Busch served from October 2006 to August 2011 in senior leadership positions at Mindspeed Technologies, a leading supplier of semiconductor solutions for network infrastructure applications ("Mindspeed"). From November 2007 to August 2011, he served as Senior Vice President and General Manager for Mindspeed's high performance analog division and from October 2006 to November 2007 he served as Vice President of Marketing and Applications. Since 1990, Mr. Busch has worked in the networking communications industry. His experience also includes business development roles at Analog Devices as well as roles in engineering, sales, marketing and general management at Digital Equipment Corporation, Intel and SMSC. In addition, Mr. Busch served as the President of the U.S. subsidiaries of two foreign start-ups in the semiconductor space. He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in electrical engineering and a Bachelor of Science Degree in biological science from the University of California at Irvine. At UCI Irvine, Mr. Busch was a founding member of the California Kappa Chapter of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity. Mr. Busch received his M.B.A. from Santa Clara University in 1998. He is currently a member of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO), the University of California, Irvine (UCI) CEO Roundtable and UCI Alumni Association Board of Directors.

David Cuccia began at UC Irvine in 1997 as an undergraduate student in Physics with a biomedical concentration, as well as minors in Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science. David was in the Campuswide Honors Program, and was a research fellow in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) for his work in Prof. Bruce Tromberg's lab at the Beckman Laser Institute. David also spent the summer of 1999 as a NSF student researcher the National Institute of Standards and Technology. By the time he graduated Cum Laude in 2002, David helped invent and obtain a patent for using patterned light projection to measure functional tissue parameters quantitatively and non-invasively.

Committed to the technology, later called Spatial Frequency Domain Imaging (SFDI), David decided to stay at UC Irvine to pursue his PhD dissertation in Biomedical Engineering. In 2002, David was awarded a Whitaker fellowship, and the following year became the first BME graduate student to receive an NSF predoctoral fellowship. David published three papers on SFDI and in 2005 put together a SBIR proposal to fund SFDI commercially. He became the project's principle investigator and co-founded Modulated Imaging, Inc (MI) where he is now CEO and CTO.

Since 2006, David has helped to raise approximately $7 million dollars in grants and contracts to develop the SFDI technology, for assessment of tissue health in applications of surgical guidance and wound care. David developed the technology "from the benchtop to the bedside," and now with nine people, including three other alumni from UC Irvine, MI is marketing and manufacturing their Ox-Imager RS for research use in both companies and academic laboratories. From their office in Irvine, CA MI is currently pursuing FDA clearance for its first medical product.

David is an author of five awarded patents, and is a co-author of over forty related publications and book chapters, which collectively have been cited over 1000 times. In 2012, David was the recipient of the Dr. Horace Furumoto Innovations Professional Development Award by the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery, which recognized him as a future technology innovator and leader.

Nick Desai is successful serial technology, internet and mobile entrepreneur. Since 1997, Nick has founded/built four venture-funded start-ups, raising over $45 million from top investors including Qualcomm, Spark Capital, Anthem Blue Cross, Oracle and numerous others. Nick's award-winning start-ups have included the web's first self-updating address book, the first online weight loss coaching solution, pioneering software to publish rich media from phones to the internet and now, Heal – the “uber for doctors” app featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and other top news outlets. Nick's companies have won global brands as customers/partners including Conde Nast, Jenny Craig, Sears, Motorola, AT&T, T-Mobile, Anthem, and many others. Nick earned an MS in Electrical Engineering from UCLA after earning his BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UC Irvine. Nick writes for the Huffington Post and resides in the Pacific Palisades with his wife and two sons.

Amit earned a B.S., Summa Cum Laude, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, from UCI's Henry Samueli School of Engineering, graduating with the highest ranking GPA in 1993. He was a recipient of the UCI Engineering Alumni Scholarship, and was engaged in a number of graduate level research projects at the Fluid Mechanics Lab, including one to help extinguish Oil Well fires in Kuwait following the Gulf War. He earned at M.S. in Mechanical Engineering at MIT, and a Ph.D., Operations Management, at the MIT Sloan School of Management. While at MIT, he was President of the Indian Students Organization, the largest student body at MIT at that time, and Co-Founded a Mobile Commerce & Analytics startup. He was an Associate Partner with management consulting firm McKinsey & Company for 8 years, and a leader in their Financial Institutions and their Operations & Technology practices. He then joined Aon Corp, leading Strategy for their $6Bn Retail Brokerage business, followed by 4 years as Global COO for their Affinity business. More recently, he was a Senior Advisor with Catterton Partners, and EVP/COO of one of their portfolio companies in digital marketing. He is currently Chief Strategy Officer & EVP Corporate Development for Aon's Affinity business.

Chicago based, Amit & his wife Jen enjoy their time at home with their 2 children - Arjun (7), and Neve (8 months), building Lego's, teaching guitar, visiting interesting places, and being out on the lakefront when its not cold.

Eby G. Friedman received the B.S. degree from Lafayette College in 1979, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, Irvine, in 1981 and 1989, respectively, all in electrical engineering.

From 1979 to 1991, he was with Hughes Aircraft Company, rising to the position of manager of the Signal Processing Design and Test Department, responsible for the design and test of high performance digital and analog IC's. He has been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Rochester since 1991, where he is a Distinguished Professor, and the Director of the High Performance VLSI/IC Design and Analysis Laboratory. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. His current research and teaching interests are in high performance synchronous digital and mixed-signal microelectronic design and analysis with application to high speed portable processors and low power wireless communications.

He is the author of almost 500 papers and book chapters, 13 patents, and the author or editor of 16 books in the fields of high speed and low power CMOS design techniques, 3-D design methodologies, high speed interconnect, and the theory and application of synchronous clock and power distribution networks. Dr. Friedman is the Editor-in-Chief of the Microelectronics Journal, a Member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Low Power Electronics and Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications, and a Member of the technical program committee of numerous conferences. He previously was the Editor-in-Chief and Chair of the Steering Committee of the IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems, the Regional Editor of the Journal of Circuits, Systems and Computers, a Member of the editorial board of the Proceedings of the IEEE, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Analog and Digital Signal Processing, IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems, Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing, and Journal of Signal Processing Systems, a Member of the Circuits and Systems (CAS) Society Board of Governors, Program and Technical chair of several IEEE conferences, and a recipient of the IEEE Circuits and Systems 2013 Charles A. Desoer Technical Achievement Award, a University of Rochester Graduate Teaching Award, and a College of Engineering Teaching Excellence Award. Dr. Friedman is a Senior Fulbright Fellow and an IEEE Fellow.

Marinela Gombosev is a senior business executive with strategic thinking and execution skills that have delivered significant results in a variety of high technology industries in both public and entrepreneurial companies. Marinela is currently Executive Vice President of Operations and Marketing for Evoke Neuroscience, a medical device company that develops and markets products that improve patients’ brain function. Marinela Gombosev earned a Master of Business Administration from Pepperdine University and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Irvine, where she was named Engineer of the Year at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering.

Prior, at BIT Analytical Instruments, she successfully led cross-functional teams on multi-million dollar programs to design, develop, and deliver new products to the market. She and her team were also awarded a US patent for the development of a novel automated allergy analyzer. At Parker Hannifin’s Aerospace Group, Ms. Gombosev was a project lead for flight controls electronics products and designed lighting protection circuits for executive business jets. Marinela has led strategic marketing and business initiatives for Vizio, Solid Concepts, and Fisker Automotive in consulting capacities. In 2013, Ms. Gombosev was honored as one of the leading business people in OC METRO magazine’s “Hot 25” list of influential leaders and innovators. In 2010, Ms. Gombosev was awarded the prestigious C200 Scholar award by the Committee of 200, a membership organization of the world’s most influential women entrepreneurs and corporate business leaders. Since receiving her C200 scholarship, Marinela has coordinated and launched the C200 Scholar Network which is comprised of approximately 100 women business leaders world-wide. Marinela is an advocate of young women pursuing careers in STEM and is a frequently sought after speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship, innovation, and women’s leadership.

Dr. Hakhu currently holds the following positions:

• Executive Corporate Office, HORIBA Ltd.
• Chairman, President & CEO of Horiba International Corporation
• President, Horiba Europe Limited
• President, Horiba Medical France
• President, Horiba India
• Senior Advisor to Golden Gate Capital, USA
• President & CEO of R.C. International LLC

Prior to above positions, he held the following positions:

• Corporate Vice President, Intel Corporation
• Vice President, Varian Semiconductors
• Vice President, Rockwell International

In addition, he has served on several boards of stand-up and established companies.

He and his team have contributed significantly in the fields of computer, mobile technology, GPS, healthcare, automotive, scientific and environmental fields. He is also an expert on mergers & acquisitions.

He has taught at University of Roorkee, California State Long Beach, University of California Irvine and given lectures at Stanford and MIT.

Education: Dr. Hakhu holds following degrees:

• Bachelor of Sciences from J&K University
• Bachelor of Engineering from India Institute of Sciences
• Master in Solid State Engineering from University of Roorkee (now IIT) Roorkee, India
• Ph.D. from University of California, Irvine.

Honors:

• Gold Model from University of Roorkee (now IIT Roorkee)
• Outstanding Alumnus Award, University of California, Irvine
• Will be inducted into Hall of Fame of University of California on October 3rd, 2015

He is married to Dr. Nalini, together they are blessed with a daughter-Dr. Nisha, son-in-law-Pat, son-Navneet and granddaughter-Talia.

Bernard Harguindeguy is the founder/CEO of Elastic Beam. A serial entrepreneur with over 30 years of operating experience, he currently serves on a number of boards including as Chairman of Norskale and Chairman of Booshaka. Mr. Harguindeguy was most recently the Chairman and CEO of Atlantis Computing which he built from the ground up. Previously, Mr. Harguindeguy was the CEO of GreenBorder which he sold to Google in 2007 (technology morphed into Chrome), Board member at Sygate Technologies (acquired by Symantec), Chairman of the Board at BorderWare (acquired by WatchGuard), and CEO of WorldTalk (NASDAQ – acquired by Tumbleweed Communications). Mr. Harguindeguy is also a member of the University of California Irvine School of Engineering Leadership Council. Mr. Harguindeguy holds a MS in Engineering Management from Stanford University and a BS in Electrical Engineering, Summa Cum Laude, from the University of California Irvine.

Patrick Hong is the the founder and CEO of Prenostik, a data analytic cloud-computing software company. With over 20 years of experience in media and marketing, Patrick combined his technical background and problem solving skills and developed a patented technology to help companies increase sales. In additon to Prenostik, Patrick is the managing director of Quantum Ventures, a strategic marketing consultancy for various industries. As a lecturer for UCI Samueli School of Engineering, he enjoys sharing his experience and help students better communicate in the professional world.

With great fondness for his undergraduate experience at UC Irvine, Patrick supports his alma mater by having served as the Engineering Alumni Society president in 1997, and on the UCI Alumni board of directors in 2003. Every summer, he helps the university's COSMOS (California State Summer School for Mathemtaics and Science) program and talks to high school seniors about future careers in engineering.

Prior to his entrepreuial ambitions, Patrick was the Executive Editor for Road & Track, America's longest-running automotive enthusiast magazine. In that role, he led the editorial transformation from a traditional print publication to a multi-channel media brand. As a writer, he enjoys creating stories about unique adventures such as flying in a jet fighter and NASA's Zero-G vomit comet, driving a Ferrari through China and India, piloting a Mercedes through Russia and racing a Maserati in a 24 Hour race in Germany.

Patrick received his BS cum laude from UC Irvine Henry Samueli School of Engineering with a business management minor in 1995. As an undergraduate, he served as the peer academic advisor, volunteer speaker for UCI Student Speakers' Forum and was the president for various engineering student associations, including Engineering Student Council. From UCI, he continued his graduate studies and earned his master degree in aerospace engineering from University of Southern California in 1997, and MBAs from UCLA and National University of Singapore in 2007.

• Name in full: Atsushi Horiba
• Date of Birth: February 5, 1948

EDUCATION

• Apr.1967 - Mar.1971: Konan University (Kobe, Japan) Science of Physics
• Sep.1973 - Jun.1975: University of California, Irvine(U.S.A.) Electrical Engineering
• Sep.1975 - Jun.1977 University of California, Irvine Graduate School (U.S.A.) Electronics Engineering
• Jul. 2015 Doctor Honoris Causa University of Montpellier, France

EMPLOYMENT

• Apr.1971 - Sep.1972: OLSON-HORIBA INC. (California,U.S.A.)
• Sep.1972: HORIBA Ltd.(Kyoto, Japan)
• Sep.1972 - Sep.1973: Transferred to HORIBA INTERNATIONAL CORP. (California, U.S.A.)
• Sep.1973 - Dec.1977: Transferred to HORIBA INSTRUMENTS INC. (California, U.S.A.)
• Dec.1977 - Mar.1981: Returned to HORIBA Ltd. Manager, Overseas Technical Service Dept.
• Mar.1981 - Jun.1982: General Manager, International Div.
• Jun.1982 - Jan.1986: Director, General Manager, International Div.
• Jan.1986 - Jun.1988: Director, General Manager, Marketing Div.
• Jun.1988 - Mar.1991: Senior Managing Director, General Manager, Marketing Div.
• Mar.1991 - Jan.1992: Senior Managing Director, General Manager, Marketing Div. General Manager, Production and R&D Div.
• Jan.1992 - Feb.1992: President and CEO General Manager, Marketing Div. General Manager, Production and R&D Div.
• Feb.1992 - Dec.1992: President and CEO General Manager, Marketing Div.
• Dec.1992 - : President and CEO
• Jun. 2005 - :Chairman, President and CEO

HONOR

• Jan.22, 1998 L'Ordre National du Merite, Officer
• Jan.26, 2010 L'Ordre National de la Legion d'honneur, Chevalier

CONCURRENTLY ASSIGNMENT

• University of California, Irvine(U.S.A.) Ambassador
• Rock Field Co., Ltd. (Hyogo, Japan) Director
• WACOAL HOLDINGS CORP. (Kyoto, Japan) Director
• Japan Electric Measuring Instruments Manufacturers' Association (JAPAN) Vice-Chairman
• Japan Analytical Instruments Manufactures' Association (JAPAN) Vice-Chairman
• The Kyoto Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kyoto, Japan) Vice-Chairman

Mr. Labib is principle and founder of John Labib + Associates, Structural Engineers - one of the premier structural engineering design firms in Southern California. He and his team of 34 engineers, provide consulting services for new commercial, institutional and single family residential construction and renovation, as well as seismic retrofit of existing structures. Mr. Labib also serves as a member of the Structural Engineers Industry Leaders Committee, having gained the respect of his peers through years of engineering excellence, authoritative leadership, and positive mentorship within the industry. The latter of these roles - mentor within the industry and to his team at John Labib + Associates - is one to which Mr. Labib is particularly dedicated. It reflects a lasting commitment to helping others achieve their highest potential modeled for him by the faculty of UCI. As a young immigrant from Egypt in the early 1990's, Mr. Labib was encouraged and benefited greatly from the support of his mentors at UCI, who helped him secure work on experimental projects through the UCI Structural Laboratory and also working as a Grader. These job opportunities, in addition to a night-shift security guard position, enabled Mr. Labib to fund his education and go on to graduate Magna Cum Laude from UCI School of Engineering in 1994. Mr. Labib has contributed to several renowned projects throughout Southern California including the seismic retrofit and renovation of Dodger Stadium, the New Getty Villa in Malibu. He also served as lead structural engineer on the UCI Replacement Hospital, a responsibility he was honored to fulfill on behalf of his alma mater. In his personal life, Mr. Labib is married to Mrs. Barbara Labib and is a proud father of two - a son John, aged 10 and daughter Colette, aged 8.

Mr. Macias has had an extensive engineering career developing new innovative technologies for the aerospace industry. He has made significant technical contributions to smart bomb technology, unmanned airborne systems and manned surveillance programs in his career. He is devoted to mentoring and educating young engineers with the basis of his experience and engineering insight. Currently he is devoting his time to assisting UCI engineering students with the Solar Decathlon Competition

Mr. Macias joined Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems as the Mission System Integration Business Area Chief Engineer supervising over 1200 engineers. The biggest assignment included the successful flight test and performance testing for the Sentinel R1 reconnaissance aircraft program with the Airborne Stand-Off Radar (ASTOR) system to the British MoD. He successfully captured and managed over $3.5B in new and existing contract deliveries.

Prior to joining Raytheon, Mr. Macias was employed at Northrop Grumman Unmanned Systems where he was responsible for the development of Unmanned Air Vehicles and new technology. Mr. Macias held many senior engineering positions during his career including Chief Engineer of the Global Hawk Radar Integration Contract.

Carrine (Palm) Walborn earned her BS in Civil Engineering from UC Irvine in June 1996. While at UCI, she was on the UC Irvine Sailing Team and 1995 All American Crew. She was also a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.

After obtaining her degree, she joined the US Navy and was commissioned as an officer in December 1996. She earned her “wings” as a Naval Aviator in July 1999 and joined the VF-102 Diamondbacks, an F-14 Tomcat squadron in July 2000. On September 19, 2001, just days after the 9/11 attack, she deployed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt flying combat missions in the F-14 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. After her deployment, Carrine transitioned to the F/A-18 Super Hornet and became a Fleet Replacement Squadron Instructor. During her time as an instructor, she was also a Legacy Demonstration Pilot flying the F/A-18 in airshows with former military aircraft.

In 2007, she joined Delta Air Lines as a First Officer in the Boeing 757/767 Extended Range aircraft flying mainly international routes. Carrine also transitioned to the Navy Reserves in 2007 and continues to train the next generation of Naval Flight Officers in squadron VT-86 flying the T-45 and currently holds the rank of Commander.

She is married to Steve Walborn and they have two sons Jake (age 3) and Chris (age 1).

Dr. Stephen Palm is currently senior technical director for Broadcom's Broadband Communications Group (BCG). He is responsible for driving Broadcom's home networking strategy to enable multimedia, internet of things, and smart energy services for distribution via residential wired and wireless networks.

He is an active participant in several standards leadership positions, holds a number of patents, and has published numerous whitepapers, articles and conference presentations. Dr. Palm chairs and participates in committees that include DLNA, MoCA, Wi-Fi Alliance, HomePlug Alliance, CSEP Alliance, UPnP Forum, RVU Alliance, IEEE 802.11 and IEEE 1905, with particular emphasis in home networking applications and quality of service technologies.

He earned a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Irvine, a M.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Tokyo.

Dr. Salama has more than 30 years of professional experience in academia and consulting practice. He obtained his Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Civil Engineering from Cairo University- Egypt. He obtained his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering with a focus on Structural/Earthquake Engineering from the University of California- Irvine in 1995. He has taught many undergraduate and graduate classes in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at UC-Irvine. He worked over 20 years as a consultant in the Highway and Transportation engineering market. He is currently the regional vice president for the West Region at TranSystems Corporation where he manages the operations of its offices in California, Arizona and Washington. He is one of Transystems' national bridge directors and has helped the company implement a growth plan strategy nationwide. Additionally, he provides his technical expertise on complex highway projects.

He has managed, executed and supervised many complex roadway, bridge design and infrastructure public works projects. He has been an active team member in the planning, design, and construction engineering of many highway and railroad bridges in California, including major highway and river crossings with conventional and pre-stressed cast-in-place concrete; precast, pre-stressed concrete girders; and structural steel. In addition to new bridge design experience, he has also been involved in more than 25 bridge seismic retrofit projects. He is thoroughly knowledgeable in the use of the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) publications, design criteria, operating procedures and local assistant guidelines. He is experienced in using Caltrans computer programs as well as many advanced 3-D finite elements software such as ADINA and SAP 2000. Mr. Salama led the quality control/quality assurance on many major highway improvement projects and has worked on two previous design-build contracts as a structures leader and quality control lead for structures design.

Eric Shen is the Southern California Gateway Office Director, Maritime Administration (MARAD) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). Based in Long Beach, California, his responsibility area includes four deep water ports in Southern California and the state of Arizona. Known as a collaborative and innovative leader, Eric carries out the agency’s mission on promoting and integrating the Nation’s Marine Transportation System for commerce and national defense. In addition to Gateway duty, Eric also serves as the Designated Federal Officer for the U.S. Maritime Transportation System National Advisory Committee (MTSNAC).

Prior to joining MARAD, Eric was Director of Transportation Planning in the Port of Long Beach where he oversaw the planning, design and development of transportation strategies. He was instrumental in securing full funding for the billion-dollar Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project which began construction in 2013. Under his leadership, the Port also successfully pursued and secured more than $40 million of State and Federal grants to complete the $84-million Green Port Gateway Rail Improvements Project.

Eric is appointed by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences as Marine Group Chair (2015-2018), after successfully chaired the Ports and Channels Committee (AW010) for 6 years. He serves on the Board of Directors for WTS-LA and the California Transportation Foundation (CTF). He is a registered Professional Engineer in Alabama and California (Civil), a Certified Port Executive (CPE), and a Professional Transportation Planner (PTP). Eric is an adjunct professor in the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering and the Sol Price School of Public Policy. He is the faculty adviser to the ITE/USC Student Chapter.

Eric received a BSCE with honors and a MSCE from University of California, Irvine. Eric received numerous honors for his commitment to transportation profession and teaching. Key awards include the UCI Alumni 2003 Lauds and Laurels Award, the 2013 Transportation Educator Award by the Institute of Transportation Engineers, and the 2015 Outstanding Engineering Educator Award by the Orange County Engineering Council. Most recently, Eric was inducted into the UCI Samueli School of Engineering Hall of Fame.

Professor Krishna Shenoy directs the Neural Prosthetic Systems Lab (NPSL) at Stanford University, where his group conducts neuroscience and neuroengineering research to better understand how the brain controls movement and to design medical systems to assist those with movement disabilities. His neuroscience research investigates the neural basis of movement preparation and generation using a combination of electrophysiological, behavioral, computational and theoretical techniques. His neuroengineering research investigates the design of high-performance neural prosthetic systems, which are also known as brain-computer interfaces and brain-machine interfaces. These systems translate neural activity from the brain into control signals for prosthetic devices, which assist people with paralysis by restoring lost function. This work includes statistical-signal processing, machine learning, low-power circuits and real-time system modeling and implementation. Shenoy co-directs (along with Professor Jaimie Henderson, Neurosurgery) the Neural Prosthetics Translational Laboratory (NPTL; 2009-present) which conducts brain-machine interface FDA clinical trials with people with paralysis.

Professor Shenoy received his B.S. (summa cum laude) in electrical engineering from the University of California, Irvine under Professor G.L. Shaw in 1990, and both his S.M. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from MIT under Professor C.G. Fonstad, Jr., in 1992 and 1995, respectively. He was then a postdoctoral fellow in neurobiology at Caltech under R.A. Andersen from 1995-2001. Shenoy joined the Stanford University faculty as an Assistant Professor in 2001, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2008, and was promoted to Full Professor in 2012. In 2015 Shenoy became a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at Stanford University. He is with the Departments of Electrical Engineering, Neurobiology (by courtesy), and Bioengineering (affiliate). Shenoy's honors and awards include the following: Tau Beta Pi (engineering) and Eta Kappa Nu (electrical engineering) honor societies, NSF & Hertz Foundation graduate fellowships, the 1995 Hertz Foundation Doctoral Thesis Prize, Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences (1999), Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow (2002), Defense Science Research Council (DSRC/DARPA) Fellow (2003-2005), a McKnight Technological Innovations in Neurosciences Award (2007), a Charles Lee Powel Faculty Scholar (2008), an NIH Director's Pioneer Award (2009), the 2010 Stanford University Postdoc Mentoring Award, the Award of Excellence in Research by the North American Konkani Association (2012), a University of California at Irvine Distinguished Alumnus Award in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering (2013), and an HHMI Investigatorship (2015).

Betsy graduated with a BS in Engineering from UCI in 1980. She was an active leader in the School of Engineering serving as Peer Academic Advisor and President of SWE and ASCE. She also enjoyed studying dance and was a member of the Delta Gamma Fraternity. Upon graduation, she began work for the Procter & Gamble Company at the Long Beach, CA manufacturing plant. She moved rapidly from entry level position through various roles and locations to become Plant Manager of an Ohio plant before progressing to Director of Product Supply, Global Beauty Care and eventually to Vice President, Product Supply for P&G's $4Billion Global Health Care business. Since her retirement she has been a Senior Consultant with the Cincinnati Consulting Consortium in the areas of Strategic Planning, Leadership and Supply Chain Operations.

Betsy has also served on numerous community and non-profit boards including: VP Southern Ohio Transit Authority, Staten Island Urban league, and the P&G Alumni Board. She is currently the Board VP of World Dance for Humanity, a non-profit serving 10,000 people in Rwanda, and is a member of the UCI Engineering and ICS Diversity Committee. Other interests include volunteer work, dancing, skiing and cooking. She lives in Santa Barbara, CA with her husband Gary and their pharaoh hound Cairo. Their son Sean, a recently graduated Mechanical Engineer, works in Oxnard, CA.

Dr. John J. Tracy is chief technology officer of The Boeing Company and senior vice president of Engineering, Operations & Technology. He reports to Boeing President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg.

In addition to serving on the company's Executive Council, he provides strategic direction to several functions and business organizations comprising more than 100,000 employees. These include the Engineering, Operations, and Supplier Management functions, and also the Information Technology, Test & Evaluation, Enterprise Technology Strategy, Intellectual Property Management, Research & Technology, and Environment, Health & Safety organizations.

Previously Tracy was vice president of Engineering & Mission Assurance for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. Tracy had functional management responsibility for the IDS engineering processes, engineering tools, and the 32,000-person engineering team.

Tracy is an elected Member of the National Academy of Engineering and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the Royal Aeronautical Society. He is also a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the past chair of the ASME 6,000-member Aerospace Division.

Tracy has authored more than 35 publications in the areas of composite structural mechanics, launch vehicle structures, smart structures, and aging aircraft. He has received numerous Hispanic engineering honors, including being named to the HENAAC Hall of Fame in 2009 and being presented the Renaissance Engineer Award from the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers in 2014. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Illinois Institute of Technology and on the engineering advisory board for several leading universities.

Tracy received a PhD in Engineering (1987) from the University of California-Irvine, and a master's degree and a bachelor's degree in Physics respectively from California State University-Los Angeles (1981) and California State University-Dominguez Hills (1976). He is married to Katherine Katsumata Tracy, and they have two grown children: Scott Tracy and Wendy MacGinnis.

Thomas C.K. Yuen is Chairman and CEO of PrimeGen Biotech. Mr. Yuen is the principal investor of PrimeGen Biotech and has directed corporate development of PrimeGen since its inception in 2002. Primegen is a stemcell research company which focuses on discovery of the potential therapeutic applications of Germ line stem cells; Adipose SP stem cells and iPS stem cells.

Mr. Yuen has also served as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, President and a director of SRS Labs, a leading audio technology licensing since founding the company in January 1994. Mr. Yuen took the company public in 1996 . In 2012 the company successfully merged with DTS , the number 2 audio technology company in the world .

Prior to forming SRS Labs, Mr. Yuen co-founded Irvine-based AST Research, Inc. in 1981, one of the leading PC companies in the world. Since inception, he served as AST's co-chairman and chief operating officer. During his tenure, AST became a Fortune 500 company in 1991 Mr. Yuen left AST in 1992 and focused his efforts on investing in new projects.

Before co-founding AST, he held various engineering and project management positions with Hughes Aircraft Company, Sperry Univac and Computer Automation. He received his B.S.E. with honors from University of California, Irvine in 1974. He is also an Honorary Professor of Minzu University of China in Beijing in 1991. Mr. Yuen is the recipient of several awards from University of California, Irvine, including the Extraordinarius Award 2014 by the UCI Alumni ; UCI Medal in 1990; the outstanding Engineering Alumni Award in 1987 and the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1986. He was named one of the top 25 executives of the computer industry by the Computer Reseller News Magazine in 1988 and 1991. In 1997, Mr. Yuen received the Director of the Year award from the Orange County Foundation of Corporate Directors. He also was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award 2012 by TechAmerica.

Mr. Yuen is a member of the UCI Foundation Board of Trustees. He is a board member of Providence Speech and Hearing Center. He is a founding board member of the UC Irvine Institute for Innovation.