Faculty Coaches

Ambrose, John R.
Bermudez, Manuel E.
Bosman, Gijs
Bullock, Thomas E.
Crisalle, Oscar
Eisenstadt, William R.
Erenguc, S. Selcuk
Fitz-Coy, Norman
Fridrich, Heinz K.
Gugel, Karl S.
Jordan, Douglas M.
Kumar, Ashok V.
Lam, Herman
Middelkoop, Timothy
Mikolaitis, David W.
Newman, Richard E.
Powers, Kevin W.
Sander, Erik J.
Schaub, Diane A.
Stanfill, R. Keith
Svoronos, Spyros A.
Tufekci, Suleyman
Vakharia, Asoo J.
Vu-Quoc, Loc
Welt, Bruce A.
Wu, Wenhsing

John R. Ambrose is an Associate Professor in the Material Science and Engineering Department at the University of Florida. He received his B.S. degree from Washington and Lee University in 1961 and his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry (Chemistry Physics minor) from the University of Maryland in 1972. His interests include materials selection design, failure analysis of engineering materials, stability of engineering materials, particularly in the area of metallic corrosion. His teaching interests include Materials Selection and Failure Analysis (EMA 4714), Introduction to Materials (EMA 3010), Stability of Material (EMA 4324). He has taught several short courses in Battery Science and Technology for Energizer Power Systems of Alachua, Florida and lectured for the Florida School of Law in the area of Product Liability Law and the Engineering Expert. He is a registered professional engineer in the area of metallurgical engineering for the state of Florida.

Manuel E. Bermudez is an Associate Professor and Latin American Outreach Coordinator in the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Department at the University of Florida. He received his B.S and Licenciado degrees from the University of Costa Rica in 1979 and 1980 and his M,Sc. and Ph.D. in 1982 and 1984, from the University of California at Santa Cruz. His research interests are in programming languages, software engineering, and compilers. His professional interest is in transfer of technology and academic cooperation with Latin America. He has been twice named Teacher of the Year by the ACM Student Chapter at the University of Florida and the Florida University System’s Teaching Incentive Award in 1994. He received the prestigious Fulbright Scholar award in 1996-1997 and in 2003-2004 . He has published a book and over 40 papers in journals and conference proceedings. He is listed in Academic Keys Who’s Who in Sciences Higher Education and in Gale Research’s Who’s Who Among Hispanic Americans.

Gijs Bosman is a Professor in the Electrical and Computer Department at the University of Florida. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands in 1971, 1976, and 1981, respectively. His research interests include the electrical noise and charge transport properties of semiconductor devices and circuits. He has published more than 100 refereed journal and conference papers on these topics. He received several College and Departmental awards for undergraduate teaching and Ph.D. supervision. Dr. Bosman is an editor of Fluctuations and Noise Letters and represents the U.S.A. on the International Advisory Committee on Noise and Fluctuations. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi, the American and Dutch Physical societies, and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Thomas E. Bullock is a Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Florida, retiring in 2003. He received his B.A. and B.S.E.E. degrees from Rice University and MSEE and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford. At Stanford, he developed and managed one of the early hybrid computing laboratories and came to Florida in 1966 in part to assist the department of Nuclear Engineering develop a similar facility. His research and contract work has been primarily in system theory with applications to missile guidance and control. He has had a long-term interest in computers and applications to engineering problems and has enjoyed developing and teaching object oriented programming using C++. He has been an IPPD Program coach since 1999 and managed projects involving networking and hardware-software interaction.

Oscar D. Crisalle is a Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Florida. He received his B.S. degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1982, his M.S. degree from Northwestern University in 1986, and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1990, each in chemical engineering. In 1994, Dr. Crisalle received the College of Engineering Teacher of the Year Award. In 2002, he was the recipient of the University of Florida Teacher of the Year Award and the College of Engineering Teacher of the Year Award. His current research focuses on multivariable control design, with applications to photovoltaics processing systems, emulsion polymerization reactors, and pH control systems. In 1995, Dr. Crisalle received the prestigious CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation. Dr. Crisalle maintains a strong externally-supported research program and is interested in the development and deployment of novel teaching techniques. His pedagogical projects include the design of the Virtual Control Lab, a system of hardware and software elements that permit the development of control systems useful for teaching purposes.

William R. Eisenstadt is an Associate Professor in the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department at the University of Florida. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University, Stanford, and California in 1979, 1981, and 1986, respectively. Dr. Eisenstadt's research is in the area of power amplifiers, on-clip IC test high-frequency characterization, simulation and modeling of integrated circuit devices, packages, and interconnect. His interest is in large-signal microwave circuit and analog circuit design. In 1985, Dr. Eisenstadt received the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award.

S. Selcuk Erenguc is PriceWaterhouse-Coopers Professor of Decision and Information Sciences Department in the Warrington College of Business Administration at the University of Florida. He holds B.S., and M.B.A. degrees from the American University of Beirut and a Doctoral degree in Business Administration from Indiana University. Dr. Erenguc has had numerous papers published in professional journals such as Computers and Operations Research, Decision Sciences, European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of Operations Management, Managerial and Decision Economics, Management Science, Naval Research Logistics, Operations Research and Operations Research Letters. His primary research areas include supply chain management, production planning and control and project management. He serves as associate editor for Naval Research Logistics and Journal of Operations Management and has edited several special issues for these and other professional journals and has also performed industry consulting.

Norman Fitz-Coy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida. He received his Ph.D. from Auburn University in aerospace engineering in 1990. He lectures in the areas of aircraft dynamics and control, spacecraft attitude dynamics and control, control theory, and orbit mechanics. His research interests are in the areas of space robotics and autonomous satellite capture, multi-objective optimization using differential game theory, and modeling and simulation of multi-body dynamical systems. Dr. Fitz-Coy twice received the Bisplinghoff Award in recognition for his teaching and service to undergraduate education. He is the student advisor for the Aerospace Engineering Honor Society, Sigma Gamma Tau. a senior member of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the American Astronautical Society (AAS). Dr. Fitz-Coy has been an IPPD Coach of Boeing sponsored projects for the past four years.

Heinz K. Fridrich is an Industry Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Florida and is the founder of the IPPD program. He graduated as a Diplom Ingenieur in Electrical Engineering in Germany and holds a Master of Science degree in Industrial Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Fridrich worked for IBM Corporation for 43 years, beginning his career in Germany in 1950. He held a number of key management positions in Europe and the U.S. including Vice President and General Manager of IBM’s largest development and manufacturing site for semiconductors and electronic packages. In 1987, Dr. Fridrich was elected IBM Vice president responsible for worldwide manufacturing and quality until he retired in 1993. He is a member of the German Society of Engineers and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the U.K and he was a member of the National Research Council and the Industrial Advisory Board of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers prior to retirement.

Karl S. Gugel is a Lecturer and Researcher in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Florida. He is co-principal investi-gator (co-PI) on over two million dollars of grants ranging from Development of a Multi-Channel MEMS Beam Forming Data Acquisition System, Hardware Platform Development for New WLAN Algorithm Development and Brain Machine Interfaces. He also engages in industrial signal processing consulting. He has developed voice recognition software for IBM/Citibank, an infrared head tracking device for TDT Technologies, a DSP based control system for control of grinding machines for Royal Master Grinders, hardware to test MRI machines for GE Medical and numerous other DSP based systems for process optimization in the cement industry.

Douglas M. Jordan is a Lecturer and Undergraduate Coordinator in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Florida. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from the University of Florida. Dr. Jordan was director of the UF Remote Sensing Laboratory for five years and became a founding faculty member of both the University of North Florida and the University of West Florida joint programs in Electrical Engineering. His research interests include the optical and electromagnetic properties of lightning and is heavily involved with the International Center for Lightning Research and Testing at Camp Blanding, Florida. Dr. Jordan has written several data analysis programs for analyzing multi-channel data and was lead programmer and consultant for a number of real-time airport access control systems. His teaching interests are broad with an emphasis on undergraduate education including circuits, electronics, and electromagnetics.

Ashok V. Kumar is an Associate Professor of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993 and M.S. degree from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1990. His research interests are in the areas of Finite Element Analysis, Computer Aided Design/ Manufacturing, Rapid Prototyping and Design Optimization. He received the NSF CAREER award in 1999 and funding from Office of Naval Research and industry. His current research includes work on Solid modeling, Mesh free analysis, Nonlinear FEM and Layered manufacturing/ Rapid prototyping. He has taught finite element method and solid modeling at both graduate and undergraduate levels in addition to several design and mechanics courses. He has been an active participant at ASME conferences and has served as paper coordinator for Design Engineering Technical Conference’s, Design Automation Conference and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference.

Herman Lam is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida. He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech in 1972; M.E. in 1974 and Ph.D. in 1979 in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida. Dr. Lam has over 20 years of research and development experience in the area of database management and specialized in the areas of object-oriented systems, extensible database management systems (DBMSs) and rule processing in DBMSs (knowledge base management systems). Currently, his work is focused on Web/grid services, distributed objects, and inter-operability of Web/grid services and distributed objects through event-trigger-rule processing (ETR) technology. He has authored or co-authored over 60 refereed journal and conference articles and one textbook. He has also earned several teaching awards at the departmental, college, and university levels.

Timothy Middelkoop is an Assistant Engineer in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Florida. He received his Ph.D from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research in 2006 and his M.S. and B.S. from Florida State University in 1998 and 1996 respectively. Dr. Middelkoop has industry experience in designing web-based applications and embedded systems. His research interests include large-scale distributed computational systems, distributed resource allocation, sensor networks, multi-agent systems, supply chains, and integrated design systems. Dr. Middelkoop is a member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers, the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), and the industrial engineering honor society Alpha Pi Mu.

David W. Mikolaitis is an Associate Professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department of the University of Florida. He received his B.S. in engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology in 1975, and his M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1978 and 1981, respectively. His research concerns combustion modeling, especially in coupling between fluid transients and chemical kinetics and high pressure chemical kinetics, and advanced propulsion devices. Dr. Mikolaitis has won several teaching awards and is a regular member of the Combustion Institute’s International Symposium Advisory Committee.

Kevin W. Powers is the Associate Director for the Characterization, Research Instrumentation and Testbed (CRIT) laboratories at the Engineering Research Center for Particle Science and Technology at the University of Florida. He received his B.S. in chemistry and physics from the United States Air Force Academy, a Masters in Chemistry from Michigan State University and his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Florida in 1998. He served 20 years in the US Air Force as a tactical pilot, flight instructor, and command and control specialist and taught chemistry as an assistant professor at the Air Force Academy. He also served a tour as test manager for command and control software at the Air Warfare Center at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. His research interests include sol gel synthesis of materials, the characterization of particulate systems, optical image analysis and light scattering. He is a member of the American Chemical Society, American Ceramics Society, the American Lab Managers Association and ASTM Committee E-29.

Erik J. Sander is the Director of Industry Programs for the College of Engineering at the University of Florida. He received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florida and Master of Science in Management of Technology (Cum Laude) from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Mr. Sander has served as Director of the University of Florida University Center and as Associate Director for Industrial Collaboration and Technology Transfer for the University of Florida Engineering Research Center and Director of Business Development for Cenetec Ventures, LLC, a private technology accelerator and early stage venture fund. He also serves on the Board of Directors for several world class companies and research institutes, is a published technical author, and a recipient of the NASA Achievement Award and the Martin Marietta Eagle Award.

Diane A. Schaub is the Director of the University of Florida Industrial Assessment Center, a Senior Lecturer in the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department and the ISE Undergraduate Coordinator at the University of Florida. She received her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Arizona State University, her M.S. in Business Administration from Indiana University Northwest and her B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. She is an Association of Energy Engineers Certified Energy Manager (CEM), an American Society for Quality certified quality engineer and manager (CQE and CQM) and a Six Sigma Black Belt. Her research interests include design of experiments, quality management, and energy management, especially the link between energy and productivity.

R. Keith Stanfill is the Director of the Integrated Product and Process Design Program for the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department at the University of Florida. He received his B.S., M.E., and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Florida in 1985, 1991 and 1995, respec-tively. Dr. Stanfill has over ten years’ industrial experience and has designed gas turbine hardware for fighter aircraft--most recently the Joint Strike Fighter. He served as a key resource to the New Product Development Council Steering Committee, facilitated Design for X (DFx) workshops internationally, developed business process linkages between new product development and lean manufacturing, and developed and implemented manufacturing systems software. His interests include technology transfer, product development, design education and DFx. He is a registered professional engineer in the state of Florida and is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Society of Engineering Education.

Spyros A. Svoronos is Professor and Interim Chair of Chemical Engineering at the University of Florida. He received his B.A. in Chemistry from Oberlin College, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota. His research interests are in process modeling, optimization and control, with specific emphasis on particle separations and wastewater treatment. He has authored over 40 journal papers and teaches undergraduate and graduate chemical engineering courses, including Process Control, Transport Phenomena, Mathematical and Numerical Methods, Unit Operations Laboratory, Process Control Laboratory, Material Balances, Biochemical Engineering, and a total immersion megacourse in Process Engineering. The latter, as well as the Integrated Product and Process Design Course, are partially funded from a SUCCEED Coalition National Science Foundation grant, for which Dr. Svoronos is the Principal Investigator. He has received several teaching awards, including the Outstanding Chemical Engineering Faculty Member Award in 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1997, 1999, and 2000, the University of Florida Award for Excellence in the Undergraduate Instruction in 1989, and the University of Florida Teaching Improvement Award in 1993 and 1996.

Suleyman Tufekci is an Associate Professor in the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department at the University of Florida. He received his B.S., and M.S. degrees in industrial engineering in 1971 and 1973, respectively. Dr. Tufekci received his Ph.D. degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology in 1977. He served as a postdoctoral fellow at Georgia Tech and has over 100 papers and presentations in the areas of manufacturing emulation, development of manufacturing decision support systems, operations research, supply chain planning, project management, quality function deployment (QFD) in product realization and economics of manufacturing. Dr.Tufekci has directed or co-directed many sponsored research activities totaling over one million dollars. He has developed a virtual reality factory emulator. This work has been sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the SUCCEED Coalition since 1992. The virtual factory will enable manufacturing managers to test different manufacturing control decisions on the emulator of their own facilities and decide in optimal control strategies. He has been conducting Lean Manufacturing and Total Productive Maintenance workshops and consulting to industries throughout the world.

Asoo J. Vakharia is the Beall Professor of Supply Chain Management and Chair of the Department of Decision and Information Sciences in the College of Business Administration at the University of Florida. He has Ph.D. and M.B.A. degrees in Operations Management from the University of Wisconsin and a B.COM. in Accounting and Economics from Bombay University. Asoo's research primarily focuses on e-Business and Coordination Issues in Supply Chains and he has published papers in several academic leading journals including the Decision Sciences Journal, the European Journal of Operational of Operational Research, IIE Transactions, the Journal of Discrete Applied Mathematics, the Journal of Operations Management, Naval Research Logistics, and the Production and Operations Management Journal. He is a Senior Editor for the Production and Operations Management Journal, an Associate Editor for the Decision Sciences Journal, and an Area Editor for Operations Management Research. Asoo's teaching interests are in Operations Management, Manufacturing Planning and Control, Design of Manufacturing Systems, Management of Service Operations, Operations Strategy, Management Science, Transportation and Logistics Systems, and MPC/ERP Systems Integration. He has also been involved in Executive Teaching through the Arizona Executive Program, the Arizona Executive Development Course, the Florida Executive MBA Program, the Florida Flexible MBA Program, the Florida Internet MBA Program, the Florida Executive Scientists and Engineers Program, Florida Professional MBA Program, and the Florida Corporate AT&T MBA Program. Asoo has also taught industry specific executive development courses through the President's Seminar Series for Greyhound Financial Corporation, the President's Academy and Managerial Decision Analysis for Tucson Electric Power Company, the Operations Excellence Program for AT&T Universal Card Services, the Quality Analysis and Statistical Methods Program for Citibank Universal Card Services and the Operations/Financial Analysis Program for AT&T Solutions Customer Care. In addition to his academic experience, he has managed the operations and financial aspects of a leather goods manufacturer. He has also been a Management Consultant specializing in inventory audits, carrying out feasibility analysis of new ventures and writing procedure manuals for banking clients. After joining academia, he has worked with several companies including AT&T Solutions Customer Care, e-Diets.com, Golden Eagle Distributors, Garrett Air Research, Motorola, Sweetheart Cups, Inc., and the University of Arizona Medical Center.

Dr. Loc Vu-Quoc received the Diplome d’lngenieur in Structural Engineering, Summa Cum Laude, from the Institut National des Science Appliquees, Lyon, France, in 1979. After graduation, he worked for two years (1979-81) developing finite-element codes at the Centre Technique des Industries Mecaniques, Senlis, France, for use in the French nuclear engineering and mechanical industry. He went on to receive a MS. degree in Structural Mechanics from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, in 1982. Later, at the University of California at Berkeley, he was conferred in 1985 a MS. degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and in 1986 a Ph.D. degree in Structural Engineering and Structural Mechanics. After two years of postdoctoral work at Stanford and Berkeley, he joined the University of Florida in 1988, and is currently Professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. In 1990, he received the NSF Presidential Young Investigator award. His current research interests are in applied / computational electro-magnetics I mechanics, and in power electronics simulation. In 1996, Dr. Vu-Quoc was bestowed with a Teaching Improvement Program Award for excellence in teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses. Dr. Vu-Quoc’s research has been funded by NSF, Digital Equipment Corp., Florida Technological Research and Development Authority, Florida Space Grant Consortium, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, DARPA and CFD Research Corp., etc. Dr. Vu-Quoc has been a coach in the IPPD program since 1997; for the details on the IPPD projects that he coached, together with other info, see the web site: www.mae.ufl.edu/~vql/

Bruce A. Welt is an Associate Professor for the Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department at the University of Florida. He received his B.S. in chemical engineering from Clarkson University in 1989, a master of science in food science from Rutgers University in 1993, and a Ph.D. in agricultural & biological engineering from the University of Florida in 1996. Dr. Welt specializes in packaging and process design. He also serves as Undergraduate Coordinator for UF’s Packaging Science program. Before joining UF, Dr. Welt worked as a process engineer for Nestlé R&D Center in Marysville Ohio and as president of Alpha Omega Technology in New Jersey.

Wenhsing Wu is an Assistant In Engineering of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Florida. She received her B.S. in Electrophysics from National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan in 1988, and her M.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of California, Los Angeles in 1992. She has industry experience in semiconductor failure analysis to wireless network system voice/data quality testing. Her interests include semiconductor electronics, measurement and analysis, and wireless network testing.