IEEE-HKN Board of Governors

Dr. M. Ryan Bales is a Principal Research Engineer in the Sensors and Electromagnetic Applications Lab (SEAL) at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). He serves as Chief Scientist of the Sensor Systems Engineering Division, and specializes in FPGA and embedded system design for electronic warfare applications. His work has been the subject of 19 scholarly refereed publications, and he is an IEEE Senior Member and a professional engineer licensed in the state of Georgia.  He received the 2019 GTRI Award for Outstanding Performance in Research and Development.

Dr. Bales is passionate about community and professional service. He has served as an officer of the Atlanta IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society / Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society joint chapter since 2013, and is engaged with the leadership of the Atlanta Section. He is a member of the Association of Old Crows, Eta Kappa Nu, and the Order of the Engineer. He was a very active member of the Gamma Theta chapter of Eta Kappa Nu for four years as an undergraduate and graduate student. He received the Gamma Theta Advisor’s Leadership Award and the Founder’s Award for Service for his work in these roles. He continues involvement with HKN today, having served on the Professional Membership Committee since 2017, as Governor-at-Large from 2020-2022, and as the 2022 chair of the Graduate and Professional Activities Committee. He regularly volunteers in K-12 and collegiate STEM activities. Since 2006 he has served as a judge at more than 40 local, regional, and state science fairs in three states. Dr. Bales is certified by the state of Georgia to test and report water quality in Georgia watersheds, and collects data on the Etowah River.

Dr. Bales received his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering as an Honors Academy Fellow in 2004 and his Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering in 2006, both from the University of Missouri – Rolla. He received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2011.

I completed my BS (95) and MS (97) in electrical engineering at the University of Missouri-Rolla (now Missouri S&T), where I was inducted into the Gamma Theta Chapter.  I was active in the Chapter, including serving a term as president.  I was also an officer in the student branch of IEEE, and was named IEEE UMR Student Branch Outstanding Member for 1994-1995.  During my masters, I also served as secretary for the Optical Society of Greater St. Louis.  I completed my PhD (04) in optics at the University of Rochester.

From 2003-2009, I was an Assistant Professor of Physics at Adelphi University (Long Island, NY), and since 2009 have been an Associate Professor.    During that time, I was awarded a patent for an optical lithography process and have numerous publications and professional presentations.  More importantly to me, in the past 20 years, I have mentored the research of 55 undergraduates, including 29 from unrepresented groups in physics and engineering.  I was awarded the 2013 Adelphi University Tenured Teaching Excellence Award, and the 2022 David Halliday and Robert Resnick Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Physics Teaching from the American Association of Physics Teachers, the top national prize for undergraduate physics teaching.

From 2010-2014, I served on the National Council of the Society of Physics Students.  From 2014-2015, I served as Director of the Society of Physics Students and Sigma Pi Sigma (the physics honor society) at the American Institute of Physics.  I was elected into the Academy of Electrical & Computer Engineering of the Missouri University of Science and Technology in 2016.  I served as IEEE-HKN Regions 1 & 2 Governor for 2018-2019, and served as the chair of the IEEE-HKN Faculty Advisor Committee from 2018-2020, during which time I helped lead the effort in which resources to aid Chapter advisors were created and others greatly revised.  I was awarded Senior Member status in IEEE in 2020.  For the past two years, I have served on the Editorial Board of IEEE-HKN The Bridge, and have served as guest editor on two issues.

Sampathkumar Veeraraghavan is a globally renowned technologist best known for his technological innovations in addressing global humanitarian and sustainable development challenges. He is credited with launching impactful global programs in humanitarian engineering which successfully inspired and engaged students and young professionals in sustainable development activities globally. He is a seasoned technology and business leader with over 16 years of experience in Top 500 Fortune companies. Throughout his career, he has led  business critical strategic  global programs and successfully delivered cutting-edge technologies in areas of conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI), Natural Language Understanding, cloud computing, enterprise systems, infrastructure technologies, assistive and sustainable technologies. He served as an expert in the 2020 Broadband Commission working group on school connectivity co-chaired by UNESCO, UNICEF and ITU to drive “GIGA,” a Global School Connectivity Initiative. He is the founder and president of “The Brahmam,” a technology-based humanitarian program that delivers next-generation social innovations to achieve sustainable development through technological advancements and benefit marginalized communities globally. For over a decade, he has successfully launched large-scale transformational global initiatives that brought together academic institutions, industries and government agencies to address pressing global challenges faced in developing nations and improved the living conditions of children with disabilities, impoverished women and students from marginalized communities. He has delivered 250+ invited talks in international forums, premier technology conferences, industry panels organized by UN, IEEE, ITU, World IoT forum and Top universities around the globe. He has authored  and published 30+ research publications and thought leadership articles in leading global conferences, journals and magazines. His technological innovations and leadership excellence  were featured in cover stories of global media such as IEEE TV, IEEE spectrum, USA today, E-week, AI-news and IEEE transmitter, THE BRIDGE and ACM-News.

Denise was inducted into IEEE-HKN in 2018 as a professional member of the Epsilon Delta Chapter at Tufts University.  She will be the Chair of the HKN Pathways to Industry event being held in early 2023.  She has been a member of IEEE since 1987, serving as Chair at Tufts University and then professionally in the Boston Section where she currently serves as Section Chair.  For 10 years she was the IEEE Liaison to Engineers Week New England, partnering with non-profits and companies to run a yearly event during Engineers Week.  Her role was to run the Career Fair, recruiting companies and showing them on the value of partnering with IEEE.

Jennifer Marley received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering with a concentration in Renewable Electric Energy Systems from North Carolina State University in 2012. She earned the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering: Systems from the University of Michigan in 2014 and 2017, respectively. She joined the faculty of Valparaiso University as an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2017 and currently holds the Frederick F. Jenny, Jr. Professorship of Emerging Technology.

Jennifer first joined IEEE-HKN in 2010 as an undergraduate student inductee of the Beta Eta Chapter located at North Carolina State University. She now serves as the faculty advisor of the Mu Rho Chapter of Valparaiso University. She is the 2020 recipient of the IEEE-HKN C. Holmes MacDonald Outstanding Teaching Award and was selected “for excellence as a teacher, her contributions to the scholarship of teaching, and her mentoring of undergraduate research students.” She has been a member of IEEE and the IEEE Power and Energy Society since 2012. Since 2019, she has served on the board of the Calumet Section of IEEE in the following capacities: Student Activities Chair, Publicity Chair, and Secretary.

Colleen Bailey is an Assistant Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of North Texas and the PI of the Optimization, Signal Processing, and Control Algorithm Research Lab (O.S.C.A.R.). She received her PhD and MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Buffalo in 2017 and 2012, respectively, after earning her BS in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2010. Her area of research focuses on efficient and accurate machine learning algorithm design from the perspective of traditional optimization, signal processing, and control. She is an IEEE Senior Member.

Colleen is currently serving as the chair of the IEEE Fort Worth Section and the IEEE Fort Worth Computational Intelligence Society. She is an IEEE STEM Champion and an IEEE VoLT graduate. She also serves as the IEEE UNT Student Branch Counselor and IEEE-HKN Lambda Zeta Chapter Advisor. Colleen is the recipient of the 2019 and 2023 IEEE R5 Outstanding Branch Counselor Award as well as the 2022 UNT Advisor of the Year Eagle Award. She is the 2023 recipient of the UNT College of Engineering Faculty Teaching Award.

Supavadee Aramvith received the B.S. (first class honors) degree in Computer Science from Mahidol University in 1993. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle, USA, in 1996 and 2001, respectively. She joined Chulalongkorn University in June 2001. She is an Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, specializing in Video Technology. She has successfully advised 11 Ph.D., 27 Master’s, and 36 Bachelor’s Graduates. She published over 140 papers in International Conference Proceedings and Journals with 5 International Book Chapters. She has rich project management experiences as the project leader and former technical committee chair to the Thailand Government bodies in Telecommunications and ICT. She is very active in the international arena with leadership positions in the international network such as JICA Project for AUN/SEED-Net, and professional organizations such as IEEE, IEICE, APSIPA, and ITU.

She has successfully spearheaded and delivered high impactful member engagement and global and regional initiatives on various IEEE boards and committees. She has gained strong expertise and experience managing global and regional IEEE programs. The accomplishments have been proved by themselves as to the contributions, countless volunteer services, and consecutive appointments into IEEE leadership roles, including five years as an IEEE EAB member (2015, 2018-2021), eight years as IEEE Region 10 Executive Committee (2011-2016, 2019-2020), and three years as IEEE Consumer Technology Society BOG member (2019-2021).  In EAB, she served as a Pre-University Education Coordination Committee Chair, Section Education Outreach Committee Chair, Awards & Recognition Committee, and MGA representative.   She was inducted as an HKN professional member in 2015 and a faculty advisor of the Mu Theta Chapter at Chulalongkorn University.  The chapter won the HKN outstanding chapter award in 2016.  She served HKN Globalization Committee from 2016-2017.

Amy Jones graduated from Missouri University of Science & Technology in 2003 with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and minors in Business, Mathematics, and Psychology of Leadership. She received her Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University in 2014 and a certificate in Systems Design and Management from MIT in 2018.

Amy began her career as a Project Engineer at Sachs Electric Company in St. Louis, where she was responsible for the successful execution of over large scale industrial and commercial construction projects. In 2010, Amy joined John Deere full-time as a Software Verification and Validation Engineer in the Construction and Forestry Division, where she had previously completed three internships as an undergraduate.  As a test engineer, she received recognition for leading the first team to successfully implement the complete embedded software development process on a construction product line. In 2014, Amy accepted a position as Senior Systems Engineer for the Excavators Outside the Americas product line. In this role, she supervised and led a global team to define, develop, and implement electrical systems that meet the needs of a diverse customer base. Her team was widely recognized for innovation and execution, delivering eleven models to production in four years. Amy holds eight patents and received an enterprise collaboration award for her work on excavators. In 2020, Amy became the supervisor of the Operator Station Systems and Module team, where she was responsible for supporting factory production of cabs as well as leading new development of common components and systems for the Construction division. Currently, Amy is the Display Product Manager, where she leads strategic portfolio development for display platforms.

John D. McDonald, P.E., is Founder & CEO of JDM Associates, LLC. John has 50 years of experience in the electric utility transmission and distribution industry. John received his B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. (Power Engineering) degrees from Purdue University, and an M.B.A. (Finance) degree from the University of
California-Berkeley. John is a Life Fellow of IEEE (member for 53 years), member of IEEE-HKN (inducted 53 years ago) and Tau Beta Pi (inducted 51 years ago), member of the Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity, and was awarded the
IEEE Millennium Medal, the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) Excellence in Power Distribution Engineering Award, the IEEE PES Substations Committee Distinguished Service Award, the IEEE PES Meritorious Service Award, the 2016 CIGRE Distinguished Member Award, the 2016 CIGRE USNC Attwood Associate Award, the 2021 CIGRE Honorary Member Award and the Smart Energy Consumer
Collaborative (SECC) Lifetime Achievement Award. John is Past President of the IEEE PES, the VP for Technical Activities for the US National Committee
(USNC) of CIGRE, the Past Chair of the IEEE PES Substations Committee, the IEEE Division VII Past Director, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. John was on the Board of Governors of the IEEE-SA (Standards Association); is an IEEE Foundation Director, Chair of its 50 th Anniversary
Celebration Committee, and Vice President of its Development Committee; and is a Founding Board Member of the SECC. John received the 2009 Purdue University Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineer Award and the 2023 Purdue University Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award. John teaches Smart Grid courses at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and Smart Grid courses for various IEEE PES local chapters as an IEEE PES Distinguished Lecturer (since 1999). John has published one hundred fifty papers and articles, has co-authored five books and has one US patent.

Dr. Meier is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE). He received B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Engineering from Iowa State University. His computer engineering specialty is Computer Architecture. Dr. Meier is a member of IEEE, IEEE-HKN, and the IEEE Computer, Education, and Professional Communications societies. He joined IEEE as a student and has a 30-year history of membership and service.

Dr. Meier grew up on a large farm in Nebraska and agricultural machines fascinated him. He loved examining and fixing tractor engines, augers, combines, automatic livestock feeders, and other equipment. He also like solving agriculture problems using tools and determination. In high school, the personal computer era dawned and fantastic new machines running software changed his world. These machines had parts hidden inside ceramic chips and magically used electricity to do cool things! The Apple II and TI-99/4a were simple compared to modern computers, but they became his platforms to explore automation and control using the BASIC and Pascal programming languages. He quickly discovered his passion for computing and enjoyed helping his classmates learn about how computer hardware and software work. By the end of high school, it was clear that a professional career in engineering and engineering education was his future. Dr. Meier enrolled as a first-generation college student and had an amazing freshman year because he got to learn Fortran – a language he stills writes programs in today.

As a professor at MSOE, he mentors future engineers in the areas of digital logic, computer architecture, digital electronics, and computer networking. He has a 29-year history of teaching excellence at the undergraduate and graduate levels. His teaching skills have been recognized with an Iowa State University Teaching Excellence Award, the Iowa State University Warren B. Boast Award for Undergraduate Teaching Excellence, and the MSOE Oscar Werwath Distinguished Teacher Award. His research interests include engineering education, embedded systems, evolvable hardware, and computer architecture. His NSF funded research explores how first year students develop computational thinking.

Jim Jefferies is a retired AT&T and Lucent Technologies executive who in 33 years rose from manufacturing engineer to vice president. He was responsible for teams that transferred glass technology from Bell Telephone Laboratories and developed fiber optic cables for AT&T. He also served as logistics vice president, responsible for worldwide supply chains, Quality Assurance, and export planning. He has led teams in major technology transfers, transitions of information technology, and organizational change. More recently, he teamed with fellow Stanford Business School graduates in an entrepreneur venture in San Francisco and served as Chief Operating Officer. . He was 2015 President of IEEE-USA supporting globalization of its policy initiatives and served as 2018 IEEE President and CEO.

He received his BSEE from the University of Nebraska and an MS in Engineering Science from Clarkson University and is a licensed professional engineer (Emeritus).  He attended the Stanford University Graduate School of Business as a Sloan Fellow earning an MS in Management.

I am delighted to address you all today and present my candidacy for the position of Student Governor. My name is Trinh Huynh, and I am a graduating student majoring in Electrical Engineering with a minor in IoT, I firmly believe that my academic achievements, extracurricular involvements at the Mu Mu Chapter, and leadership experiences make me an ideal candidate for this esteemed position.

As a new immigrant, my journey in this country has not been without its challenges. However, I firmly believe in the transformative power of education and have embraced it wholeheartedly. Despite switching my career from Hospitality Management to Electrical Engineering at the age of 30 with a financial hardship, I have maintained exceptional academic performance, consistently securing a place on the Dean’s List and ranking in the top 10% of my major. Furthermore, my dedication to research has led to the publication of two research papers, both of which were recognized as the Best Student Research Paper (2nd place) at the Annual American Society for Engineering Education – Northeast section Conference in 2021 and 2022. These achievements are a testament to my perseverance and commitment to excellence.

Beyond my academic pursuits, I have actively engaged in leadership programs and organizations. In 2021, I was selected as one of the inaugural cohorts for the Women Leadership Initiative, where I underwent specialized training in leadership skills. Additionally, my commitment to academic excellence and being a first-generation college student was acknowledged through my induction into the Tri-Alpha Honor Society.
For the past year, I hold the esteemed position of Chapter President of IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu, where I have successfully organized numerous technical workshops, seminars, recruitment events, on-site company tours, and tutoring sessions. These initiatives have attracted more than 250 students from six majors, building their professional networks, assisting them in securing co-op jobs, and enhancing their technical skills. I have also volunteered extensively, offering my assistance to several events at my school such as Industry and Professional Advisory Conference, Wentworth Open Day, Wentworth Welcome Day, Girl STEM events, and ImpactLab. My dedication and contributions to extracurricular activities have been acknowledged with the Wentworth Bowl and Leading Leopard awards.

Moreover, I took on the challenge of undertaking two 6-month co-op positions as an IoT/Automation Test Engineer and an Electrical Engineer while simultaneously managing a heavy 19-credit semester. My exceptional performance at Keurig Dr Pepper prompted the company to visit our campus for a private recruitment event, giving other students the opportunity to connect directly with employers. As a result, two students were hired for co-op positions, and this success inspired these students to continue attracting more companies to Wentworth students.

In my role as Chapter President of IEEE-HKN, I have revitalized the organization within the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. I have facilitated tutoring sessions, organized fundraising activities, and sponsored seminars and workshops for the benefit of my fellow students. Through these endeavors, I have built collaboration and engagement among students, professors, administrators, staff, and external experts, creating a vibrant community that enriches the knowledge and skill sets of all involved.

As I prepare to embark on the next chapter of my academic journey as a Robotics master’s student at the University of Michigan, covered by a prestigious fellowship, I am eager to bring my accomplishments, experiences, and passion to the role of Student Governor at IEEE-HKN. I firmly believe that my dedication, hard work, and commitment to both academic and professional development make me an ideal candidate to represent and serve my fellow students. It would be a tremendous honor for me to contribute to the growth and success of IEEE-HKN as the Student Governor for the 2024 term. I am ready to embrace the responsibilities and challenges that come with this position, and I am confident that my unique background and diverse experiences will enable me to bring fresh perspectives and make a meaningful impact within the organization.