Principal Engineer - Stryker
Kalamazoo, MI

Parag Gupta received his BS (Honors) in Manufacturing Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India in 1989, MS in Mechanical Engineering from University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Canada in 1992 and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University (ISU), Ames, Iowa, USA in 1996. He was Fellow of Iowa Center for Emerging Manufacturing Technology at ISU. He has published several papers, technical chapters in books and holds a patent for designing a milling cutter at Kennametal which is still the fastest cutter on the planet. He has also reviewed several papers for SME and ASME transactions.

He worked for Hurco companies where he managed a team to build the first high speed machining Center which was a quantum leap for Hurco. Parag is currently working as a Principal engineer at Stryker, where he has implemented Finite Element Analysis (FEA) across 9 divisions globally and has guided FEA leaders at all divisions in implementing FEA.

Parag is also an entrepreneur. He invented the Q90 board game and is the co-founder of Spark Games LLC which manufactures and sells this board game. He is the founder & President of KhadiUSA.com which sells hand-made soaps.

Assistant Vice President - Southwest Research Institute
San Antonio, TX

Mr. Smith has accumulated significant experience in the design, development, and testing of electronic systems and in the management and development of related projects and programs.

He has had extensive experience with military, rugged commercial and commercial design requirements and in project, program, and administrative management.

His experience includes management of multi-million-dollar programs and acting as the Principal Investigator for Internal Research projects. He has managed programs involving analysis, research, development, production, testing, consulting, training, and field services, including site surveys, installation and check out, and calibration. He also led numerous QRC efforts. He is experienced with cost/schedule status control systems and other modern project management techniques involving technical performance, fiscal, schedule, personnel, documentation, logistics, reliability, maintainability, and security.

Senior Development Design Engineer - Solar Turbines Inc.
San Diego, CA

Subject Matter Expert Grounding Systems
Extra Class Ham Radio Operator
Mater Tool & Diemaker
Controls Lab Mgr.

Engineer Specialist - Caterpillar Inc.
Dunlap, Illinois

Born 05/10/58 Bucharest Romania
Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering - Automotive Engineering
27 years Mechanical Engineering in Automotive and Industrial Equipment design.

Software: ProE, ProMechanica, Maxwell 3D, StarCD, dSpace, Dynasty, 973.

Senior Engineer - Varian Ion Implant
Gloucester, MA

US Navy Fire Control missile radar systems 1977-1983
Varian Ion Implant Systems 1984-2011
Northeastern University Manufacturing engineering degree

Senior Analytical Engineer - Ferno Washington Inc.
Wilmington, OH

Sailesh Tangirala currently works as a Senior Analytical Engineer at Ferno Washington Inc. Sailesh oversees product safety analysis, material selection and product testing/certification departments at Ferno. He has a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from University of Kentucky and is currently pursing MBA at Xavier University in Cincinnati Ohio.

Doctor - Newport
Santa Clara, CA

Education:
PhD, Precision Instrument Engineering, Tianjin University, China, 1996

Professional Experience:
2010 ~ present: Staff Mechanical Engineer, Newport Corp., Santa Clara
2008 ~ 2010: Mechanical consultant on semicondut equipment R & D, Mountain View, CA
2006 ~ 2008: Mechanical Engineer, Tokyo Electron, Santa Clara, CA
2004 ~ 2006: Mechanical Engineer, Frontier Semiconductor, San Jose, CA
2000 ~ 2004: Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California, Riverside, CA

Professional Membership:
Senior Member of IEEE

6 Sigma Master Black Belt - Caterpillar Inc.
Morton, IL

Professional Engineer with BS and MS Industrial Engineering degrees as well as a MBA. Work experience of over 33 years in design, manufacture, safety and environmental needs of industries including aircraft/aerospace, engines/systems/components, and heavy construction equipment. Providing leadership, education, and training of creation and improvement methodologies for new/current products and processes through Lean and 6 Sigma tools and techniques.

For Information Contact:
Debbie Rothwell
Director of Marketing
Tech Briefs Media Group
212-490-3999, ext.5520 
www.createthefuture2011.com
October 5, 2011

Breakthrough in Preventing Food-borne Illness
Wins $20,000 Grand Prize in Global Design Contest

"Create the Future" Design Contest (www.createthefuture2011.com) sponsored by PTC® (www.ptc.com), COMSOL (www.comsol.com), and Tech Briefs Media attracts over 900 innovative product ideas from engineers and students in 50 countries.

New York, NY – A new invention could protect millions from contracting food-borne illnesses. The αScreen is a portable, rapid pathogen screener that could allow screening of up to 100% of food produced in processing plants, before it is delivered to the consumer. αScreen is highly accurate, can detect as low as a single bacteria, and is approximately 50 times less expensive than the established, currently used detection methods. 

Monika Weber of New Haven, CT, a graduate student at Yale University, is the team leader on this design project. She and a select team of students at Yale University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science are responsible for the advancement of the design. Monika spent two years working on preliminary projects in bio-detection before the design for the αScreen was finalized.

After hearing the news that she was the grand prize winner of the “Create the Future” Design Contest, Ms. Weber replied, “Winning the Create the Future Design Contest was far beyond my expectations and I am really honored by receiving this award. I feel by winning this contest, it will give me the exposure needed to bring this product to market.”

The Create the Future Design Contest is sponsored by PTC (www.ptc.com), COMSOL (www.comsol.com), and Tech Briefs Media Group (www.techbriefsmedia.com). The αScreen bacteria detection device was among the more than 900 new product ideas submitted in the ninth design contest, which was established to recognize and reward engineering innovations that benefit humanity, the environment, and the economy.

In addition to the grand prize, first-place winners (of Hewlett-Packard workstations) were named in seven categories:

Consumer Products
UVA+B Sunfriend
Karin Edgett and Shahid Aslam
A wristband that provides effective and inexpensive UVA and UVB monitoring.

Electronics – sponsored by Digi-Key (www.digikey.com)
iPecs Tech
Michael Leydet, College Park Industries
A tool to accurately measure human locomotion or gait parameters on users of lower limb prostheses.

Machinery & Equipment
Hybrid Rotor Compressor for Natural Gas Extraction
Jeremy Pitts and Pedro Santos, OsComp Systems
A breakthrough natural gas compression technology that is 30% more energy-efficient than current compressors.

Medical
XVIVO Organ Perfusion System
Chris Jaynes, Tom Taccini, and Tim Klug, XVIVO Perfusion
A mobile intensive care unit that can repair damaged organs ex vivo (out of the donor's body) for successful transplantation into a waiting recipient.

Safety & Security
AquaSonus Passive-Sonar Pool Alarm
William C. Roberts, Bob Hoenig, and Paula Bailey, AquaSonus.com
State-of-the-art digital signal processor pool alarm system designed to prevent child drowning accidents.

Sustainable Technologies
TO:CMA Spherical Generator
Angel Francisco Martinez, Delia Beatriz Martinez, and Trupti Bulbule, Cornell University
A generator that creates copious amounts of clean electricity out of ocean waves at costs below all major existing renewable energy sources.

Transportation
Dynamic Aero-Shroud Oscillating Jet
Rebecca Farr, Endwell Daso, Victor Pritchett, and Ten-See Wang, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
This technology could enable hypersonic passenger transport connecting Earth's cities, dramatically shortening travel times.

Finalists were selected by senior editors at Tech Briefs Media Group and judged by an independent panel of design engineers. Visitors to the contest Web site could vote on entries, with the 10 most popular designs awarded a SpaceNavigator 3D mouse from 3Dconnexion. Popular design winners and honorable mentions hailed from Canada, Mexico, Italy, and the Slovakia, in addition to the U.S. For more information, visit
www.createthefuture2011.com.

About COMSOL
COMSOL, Inc. (Burlington, MA) provides software solutions for multiphysics modeling and simulation. Its flagship product, COMSOL Multiphysics, lets engineers and scientists build simulations that bring their design ideas to life. COMSOL's customers apply this technology to make cars and aircraft safer and more energy efficient, enhance the reception of our cell phones, search for new energy sources, explore the universe, develop medical equipment enabling more accurate diagnoses, and educate the next generation of scientists.
www.comsol.com

About PTC
PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC), The Product Development Company(r), develops, markets and supports product development software solutions and related services that help companies achieve their product development strategies and optimize their processes. Using the company's tightly integrated CAD and enterprise PLM solutions, organizations are better able to create and manage product information throughout the lifecycle for optimal product development success. More information may be found at
www.ptc.com

About Tech Briefs Media Group
Tech Briefs Media Group is publisher of NASA Tech Briefs, the largest-circulation design-engineering magazine worldwide and Defense Tech Briefs, the largest-circulation engineering magazine for the mil/aero market. The Tech Briefs Media Group product line has grown to include print/digital advertising, email/web products, virtual events, seminars & conferences, custom media and content related advertising. Combined, these products reach over 600,000 engineers and managers worldwide.
www.techbriefsmedia.com

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For Information Contact:
Debbie Rothwell
Director of Marketing
Tech Briefs Media Group
212-490-3999, ext.5520
www.createthefuture2012.com
September 25, 2012

Sensor That Makes Smartphones “Smarter” Wins Global Design Contest

Contest Draws over 950 Innovative Product Ideas from Engineers and Students in 65 Countries

New York, NY – A new invention, Sensordrone, with the potential to dramatically extend the sensing capability of smartphones and tablets has been awarded the grand prize of $20,000 in the 2012 "Create the Future" Design Contest.

The Sensordrone Tricorder Platform for Consumers and Mobile Device Developers is a key fob-sized device that includes multiple environmental sensors that enable consumers to run a variety of Apps — from carbon monoxide monitoring to breath alcohol testing. For mobile device developers, it offers an open platform to create new low-cost sensor applications, both for entertainment and more serious applications such as medical sensors.

Sensordrone was among the more than 950 new product ideas submitted in the tenth annual design contest, which was established in 2002 to recognize and reward engineering innovations that benefit humanity, the environment, and the economy. This year’s contest was co-sponsored by Nordson EFD (www.nordsonefd.com), COMSOL (www.comsol.com), and Tech Briefs Media Group (www.techbriefsmedia.com).

Mark Wagner, president and founder of Sensorcon (Buffalo, NY), is part of the design team and sees the Sensordrone product as a first step in making sensors, meters, and instruments “Apps” instead of single purpose, bulky, expensive equipment.

After hearing the news that he was the grand prize winner of the Create the Future Design Contest, Mr. Wagner replied, “Winning the Create the Future Design Contest was far beyond my expectations and I am really honored by receiving this award. As the product is now moving from prototype to production, this will add an additional level of credibility.”

In addition to the grand prize of $20,000, first-place winners (of Hewlett-Packard workstations) were named in seven categories:

Consumer Products
LumEN: Luminescent Solar Concentrators for Sustainable On-Demand Electricity Production
Gianmarco Griffini
A portable device able to harvest solar energy and deliver electrical energy on-demand indoors or outdoors.

Electronics
Cloud and Smartphone Accelerator
James Awrach
A tool that enables faster local and globally distributed supercomputing at lower power and cost.

Machinery & Equipment
Thermal Stir Welding Process
Jeff Ding
A new solid-state welding process invented at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center that greatly improves weld quality and strength.

Medical – sponsored by Value Plastics, Inc. (a Nordson Company)
Prosthetic Leg Connector
Dave King
A device to aid those who wear prosthetic limbs that allows for much easier application and better comfort.

Safety & Security
LIFE PACK – Hypothermia Prevention Floatation Device
Dwight & Jane Cushman
A heat-generating floatation device resembling a backpack that offers protection in dangerously cold water.

Sustainable Technologies
Aquaback Water Purification System
E. Andrew Condon
A highly efficient, low cost, low maintenance, compact, modular vapor compression distiller to be used in a wide variety of water processing systems to clean incoming water or reclaim waste water.

Transportation
Re-Thinking Automotive TPMS
Ivan Batinic
A new approach to implementing vehicular Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS) which is more economical and ecological than existing systems.

Finalists were selected by senior editors at Tech Briefs Media Group and judged by an independent panel of design engineers. Visitors to the contest Web site could vote on entries, with the 10 most popular designs awarded a Space Mouse PRO 3D mouse from 3Dconnexion. Popular design winners hailed from Canada, India, and Egypt, in addition to the U.S. For more information, visit www.createthefuture2012.com.

About COMSOL
COMSOL, Inc. (Burlington, MA) provides software solutions for multiphysics modeling and simulation. Its flagship product, COMSOL Multiphysics, lets engineers and scientists build simulations to verify and optimize their designs. Its unparalleled ability to include all relevant physical effects that exist in the real world opens up a wide array of modeling possibilities. COMSOL's customers apply this technology to make cars and aircraft safer and more energy efficient, enhance the reception of our cell phones, search for new energy sources, explore the universe, develop medical equipment enabling more accurate diagnoses, and educate the next generation of scientists.
www.comsol.com

About Nordson EFD
Nordson EFD designs and manufactures precision fluid dispensing systems for benchtop assembly processes and automated assembly lines. By enabling manufacturers to apply the same amount of adhesive, lubricant or other assembly fluid to every part, every time, EFD dispensing systems are helping companies in a wide variety of industries increase throughput, improve quality and lower their production costs. Other fluid management capabilities include high-quality syringe barrels and cartridges for packaging one- and two-component materials, and a wide variety of fittings, couplers and connectors for controlling fluid flow in medical, biopharmaceutical and industrial environments. The company is also a leading formulator of high-quality solder pastes for printing and dispensing applications in the electronics industry.
www.nordsonefd.com

About Tech Briefs Media Group
Tech Briefs Media Group is publisher of NASA Tech Briefs, the largest-circulation design-engineering magazine worldwide; Defense Tech Briefs, the largest-circulation engineering magazine for the mil/aero market; and Medical Design Briefs; the only medical publication targeted 100% to OEM product designers. Combined, these products reach over 600,000 engineers and managers worldwide. Additional publications include Photonics Tech Briefs, Imaging Technology, Motion Control and Automation Technology, RF & Microwave Technology, Embedded Technology, and Lighting Technology. The Tech Briefs Media Group product line has grown to include print/digital advertising, email/web products, virtual events, custom media, and content related advertising.
www.techbriefsmedia.com

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