Department Inducts Members of 2018 Alumni Hall of Fame

James F. Collins

James Frank Collins received a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in electrical engineering from NC State University in 1964 and 1966, respectively.

Jim then became an officer in the U.S. Navy after graduating from the Naval Officers Candidate School located at the U.S. Naval Base in Newport, Rhode Island. For the next two years, he served as a Contracts Administrator at the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina. From December 1968 to November 1969, he fought in the Vietnam War while stationed in Danang, Republic of South Vietnam with the Navy Seabees supporting the U.S. Marines.

After being discharged from the Navy, Jim moved to California and worked as a hardware design engineer for 14 years at ARGOSystems, a supplier of ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) and COMINT (Communications Intelligence) gathering equipment.

Jim then conceived of and co-founded Applied Signal Technology which soon became the premier supplier of strategic and tactical telecommunications reconnaissance and processing equipment for the U.S. military and U.S. intelligence agencies. AST, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, pioneered the use of digital signal processing to implement that equipment. While at AST, Jim and his daughter, Sarah, also an AST hardware engineer with her Bachelor and Master’s degrees from Stanford, hosted Dr. Tom Miller and his NC State University Entrepreneurship students on several occasions. Jim always encouraged the students to take career chances or “opportunities” by joining start-up companies or by starting their own.

After AST reached approximately 700 employees in 2011, Raytheon, the fourth largest defense contractor at that time, purchased AST. In 2015, Raytheon dedicated the James Frank Collins Museum in Sunnyvale, California which displays many of the equipment that Jim and AST built. Jim remains a part-time consultant with Raytheon AST.

Jim and his wife, Danna, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in June 2017. While maintaining their permanent residence in Sunnyvale, CA, they spend much of their time in their home on the island of Sunset Beach, North Carolina.

Nick England

Nick England graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from NC State University in 1969. After working for a few years, he returned to NC State to take EE graduate courses and became a Research Assistant in Professor John Staudhammer’s computer graphics lab. There he discovered a talent for digital hardware design and a passion for interactive computer graphics and image processing. In 1978, instead of finishing his Ph.D., he and Mary Whitton started Ikonas Graphics Systems, based on Nick’s research at NC State, creating a programmable raster graphics processor system which was the forerunner of today’s GPGPUs. After Ikonas was acquired by Adage Inc, Nick spent several years as Adage’s VP of Graphics Technology until leaving to found Trancept Systems with Tim Van Hook and Mary Whitton – creating a programmable graphics/imaging processor to plug into Sun Microsystems workstations. After Trancept was acquired by Sun Microsystems, Nick spent several years as their Director of Visualization and Imaging Products. In 1993 he joined UNC Chapel Hill’s Computer Science Department as a Research Professor, working on the PixelFlow massively parallel graphics system. During this time he served on several local company and national technical association boards of directors. In 2000 he left UNC to form 3rdTech Inc., commercializing several graphics/imaging technologies developed at the University. In 2015, he finally quit trying to create new products and start new companies, and today enjoys documenting the history of US Naval Communications and restoring vintage Navy radio and teletype equipment .

Tim Humphrey

Timothy Humphrey currently serves as Vice President, IBM Chief Data Office and as the Senior State Executive for IBM in North Carolina and Senior Location Executive for IBM in Research Triangle Park, here in North Carolina and one of the company’s largest sites. Previously, Tim held various IBM executive roles spanning Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Data, Acquisitions, Supply Chain, and Sales Support. He led IBM’s efforts to transform into the premier cognitive enterprise by embedding Artificial Intelligence into internal business processes across the company. Prior to joining IBM's supply chain organization in 2011, Tim held several engineering roles leading the design, development and launch of several technologies and offerings for Lenovo and the former Personal Computer Division of IBM. Tim has over 20 years of global experience in the computing industry with experience in technical support, hardware and software development, quality assurance, and battery technology. He has earned numerous patents as well as management, innovation, and excellence awards for his contributions to the computing industry.

Active in the community, Tim engages in several non-profit fundraising activities, special events, and volunteer efforts and serves as a board member for many local non-profit organizations. Tim is also a very active mentor to over 30 global professionals, students, and youth.

Tim graduated from North Carolina State University in 1996 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and is a North Carolina native and currently resides in Raleigh.

Patrick Hutchins

Mr. Patrick Hutchins, a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from NC State University in 1985, and a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in 1992. He has spent his career creating excellence in the provision of life safety and mission critical products and has performed business in over 30 countries managing sales, service, business development and supply chain. Patrick began his career with Siemens in Wilmington, North Carolina where he had roles in Engineering and Quality in the production of electro-mechanical and solid-state circuit protection devices. He left Siemens to take part in a multi-factory relocation with Chloride Power Electronics, now a division of Emerson, where he held roles in Quality and Operations before taking over the reigns as General Manager and President of Chloride Power Electronics North American divisions.

Since his days at Chloride Power Electronics, Patrick has sought out roles in the production of high performance products, such as microwave transceivers and precision aerospace components. He has targeted companies that required leadership during significant growth or were in need of a turn-around expert. As a true believer of best practice and process, he also knows that people buy from people, and has consequently lived a career of customer engagement by offering irreplaceable value.

Currently, Patrick is the President of Staco Systems, a solutions provider of Human to Machine Interface products for aerospace and defense markets in Irvine, California. He also serves as a board member of Omni-Lite Industries and a consultant to the aerospace fastener industry.

Patrick has been a member of both the NC State Alumni Association and Wolfpack Club for over 30 years, resides in Orange County, California and has two grown children.

Patti Key

Patti Key joined Keysight Technologies via acquisition in 2017 and leads global sales for the Ixia Solutions Group. Prior to Keysight, Patti held leadership positions at companies including Ixia, Agilent Technologies, Hewlett-Packard, and BellSouth. She joined Ixia in 2008 as a Vice President and led sales in the East Region and then the Americas. She was promoted in 2016 to Senior Vice President for Global Sales and was instrumental in positioning the company for the 1.6 billion dollar acquisition.

She held a variety of engineering and leadership roles at Agilent, HP and BellSouth and during that time, she became a licensed professional engineer and was awarded two patents. Patti also currently serves as a Technical Advisory Board member for Uplevel Systems.

Patti holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University. She is Co-Founder of CC’s Heart Fund, a non-profit that helps provide financial assistance to families for pets that need life-extending cardiac care.

Raymond Leopold

Dr. Raymond J. Leopold was the chief technologist and co-inventor of The Iridium System, the first realization of worldwide, wireless, personal communications. As the Vice President and Chief Technical Officer of Motorola’s Satellite Communications Group he guided the creation, development, deployment, and initial operation of Iridium. He is an IEEE Life Fellow, an Aviation Week and Space Technology Laureate for Space and an inductee in their Hall of Fame at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. He is a recipient of The IEEE Third Millennium Medal, The AIAA Biennial Communications Award, and The Mobile Satellite Users' Association’s Pioneer Award. He is also a Motorola Master Innovator and holds Motorola’s highest technical honor, The Title of Dan Noble Fellow. He has 27 US Patents and 75 foreign patents.

A retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, he directed the development of military communications systems, twice served in The Pentagon, taught at the USAF Academy, performed R&D at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory, and earned The Defense Meritorious Service Medal, The Air Force Meritorious Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters, The Air Force Commendation Medal, and The National Defense Medal.

He was the James C. Hunsaker Visiting Professor of Aerospace Systems at MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and delivered their Golden Anniversary Minta Martin Lecture in 2004. He previously chaired MIT’s Industry Advisory Board for their Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate Initiative. He earned his BS in Electrical Engineering from the USAF Academy in 1967, a Master’s of Electrical Engineering from NC State in 1968, and his Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico in 1973, and was honored with a Doctorate in Telecommunications Management from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in 1997.

Tony Montalvo

Tony Montalvo received a B.S. in Physics from Loyola University New Orleans in 1985 and an M.S.E.E. from Columbia University in 1987. He was with Advanced Micro Devices from 1987 to 1991 where he was involved in the first generation of Flash memories and is a co-inventor of several fundamental patents.
He arrived at NC State in 1991 and received his Ph.D. in 1995. His Ph.D. involved an analog implementation of a neural network machine learning system. While in grad school, he taught a junior level circuits class and received the Best Teacher award. After completing his Ph.D. he joined Ericsson in Research Triangle Park where he developed RF integrated circuits for cellular handsets.
Tony has been with Analog Devices since 2000 when he founded their Raleigh design center on Centennial Campus. At ADI he has led the development of a family of software defined radio products with a wide range of applications ranging from cellular base stations to satellite communications. He was promoted to Fellow in 2012 and in 2017 became the Director of Technology of the more than $1 Billion Communications Business Unit.
He taught an RF integrated circuits course at NC State as an Adjunct Professor between 1998 and 2004. In addition, he served on the technical program committee of the International Solid State Circuits Conference for 8 years. He has over 30 patents and 15 conference or journal papers.
Tony has four children and lives in Raleigh with his wife Linda Zier and their two youngest kids.

Robert Moorhead, II

Robert J Moorhead II is the Billie J. Ball Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Mississippi State University and the director of two research institutes at MSU: The Geosystems Research Institute and The Northern Gulf Institute, a NOAA Cooperative Institute. Dr. Moorhead is on the Board of Directors of the IEEE Computer Society’s Technical Committee on Visualization and Graphics, having served as Chair, Vice-Chair for Conferences, and Conference Chair over the past 20 years. He received the Career Achievement Award and the Outstanding Engineering Research Award from the Mississippi State University Bagley College of Engineering. He has been an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics. He has led analytical visualization research and development efforts in support of a plethora of engineering and science studies: computational fluid dynamics, physical oceanography, meteorology, disposal of dredged materials, and coastal / severe storms. Over the years, his research has migrated from image processing to visualization of large-scale computer simulations to most recently using unmanned aerial systems for advancing agriculture performance and understanding the environment.

Dr. Moorhead received a BS in Electrical Engineering from Geneva College in 1980 and a MS in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University in 1982. After receiving his Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1985 from NC State under Dr. Sarah Rajala, he joined the Image Technologies Group at IBM’s Research Center in New York as a Research Staff Member where he worked on what became the JPEG image standard. He joined Mississippi State University in 1989. Robert is married to Jane Nicholson Moorhead, a 1982 NC State University graduate in Electrical Engineering and a fellow faculty member at Mississippi State University.

Andrew Mueller

Dr. Andrew Mueller received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from NC State in 1992. While at NC State, Dr. Mueller worked as a cooperative engineering student at the NASA Johnson Space Center where he completed assignments as a flight controller in Mission Control and a systems engineer in the Astronaut Office. He also founded a start-up program in which undergraduate students designed and built a space shuttle payload for NASA. The Orbital Debris Radar Calibration Spheres Project flew successfully on the Orbiter Discovery in February of 1993.

Dr. Mueller earned his Doctor of Medicine from the University of North Carolina in 1996. He completed his training in Family Medicine at Malcolm-Grow Medical Center, Andrews Air Force Base, where he was selected as Chief Resident in 1998. After completing his residency, he was assigned to Charleston Air Force Base where he served as a flight surgeon. His duties included serving as a crew member aboard USAF C-17 Globemaster III and deploying overseas in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Dr. Mueller joined Novant Health as a family physician in 2006. He has accepted increasing responsibilities in various physician leadership roles. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President of Novant Health and the President of the Greater Charlotte Market for Novant Health. In this capacity, he is responsible for the profit and loss statement, strategy, growth, implementation of value-based care arrangements, patient experience, market service lines, community relations and capital and operating budgets for the entire market. He also oversees the Community Medicine, Pediatrics, Behavioral Health and Orthopedics service lines across the entire health system. He continues to practice medicine as a family physician.

Dr. Mueller is a Wolfpack enthusiast. His grandfather, father, and wife attended NC State, and his oldest daughter is a current Park Scholar who will graduate in 2019.

Gaurav Sharma

Gaurav Sharma is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of Computer Science, and Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology at the University of Rochester. He is also a Distinguished Researcher in Center of Excellence in Data Science (CoE) at the Goergen Institute for Data Science. From 2008‐2010, he served as the Director for the Center for Emerging and Innovative Sciences, a New York state supported center for promoting joint university‐industry research and technology development, which is housed at the University of Rochester. From 1996 through 2003, he was with Xerox Research and Technology in Webster, New York as a Member of Research Staff, Principal Scientist and Project Leader. He received the Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from North Carolina State University, and his Master’s degrees in Applied Mathematics from NC State and Electrical Communication Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. He received his bachelor of engineering degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.

Dr. Sharma is an IEEE Fellow, a Fellow of SPIE - the international society for optics and photonics, and a Fellow of the Society for Imaging Science and Technology. He is an elected member of Sigma Xi, and of the Phi Kappa Phi and Pi Mu Epsilon honor societies. Dr. Sharma is the Editor‐in‐Chief for the IEEE Transactions on Image Processing and has previously served as the Editor‐in‐Chief for the Journal of Electronic Imaging. He was the Chair and Co‐Chair, respectively, for the 2013 and 2012 IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging Symposia and Technical Program Co‐Chair for the 2012 and 2016 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing. He chairs the IEEE Conference Publications Committee, and serves on the IEEE Publication Services Product Board and on the IEEE Publication Services Product Board Strategic Planning Committee.

Robbie Troxler

Dr. Robert E. Troxler is a native of Raleigh NC. In 1983 he received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University. In 1986 and 1992 he received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. During that period, he studied Electromagnetic Theory, Materials, and Optics. His research involving thin film superconducting microwave components led to a fellowship with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center under the Graduate Student Researchers Program. At Marshall, Dr. Troxler worked in the Space Science Laboratory and conducted experiments on microwave circuits below 7 degrees Kelvin.
Dr. Troxler is now Director of Advanced Technologies at Troxler Electronic Laboratories in Research Triangle Park NC. Although his interests are broad, at Troxler he concentrates on Electromagnetics, optics, sensor design, acoustics, and applications of nuclear physics towards instrumented devices; typically used in the fields of geotechnical and civil engineering. He holds over 80 US and international patents.
Dr. Troxler has served on the Engineering Foundation and as a Strategic Advisor to the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at NC State. He continues to mentor senior design projects and both graduate and undergraduate internships. He also supports the Troxler Senior Design Center and the Troxler Maker Space at the NC State Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is a member of the honor societies Eta Kappa Nu and Tau Beta Pi.

James L. Wall, II

James L. Wall, II is Director of Powertrain for 12-time NASCAR Cup Series Champions Hendrick Motorsports. He leads a team of 120 people that produce more than 600 engine builds annually. He oversees the engineering, manufacturing, development, production, track operations, transmission, driveshaft, and rear-gear groups.

At 18 years old, Jim began working with legendary engine builder Randy Dorton at Competition Engines. Jim received his B.S. in electrical engineering at NC State in 1985. He worked for the Hendrick Motorsports engine program as their first degreed engineer before finishing his M.S. in electrical engineering at NC State in 1988 with a concentration in Power Systems and Circuit Design and a minor in Mathematics.

After rejoining Hendrick Motorsports in 1989, Jim began his full time work on engines, dyno test systems, instrumentation, part design, analysis, and performance optimization. He founded the Information Technology group, implemented 3D CAD/CAM/CAE and PLM, started a Quality Control Metrology lab, integrated 5 axis CNC manufacturing operations, and implemented an Additive Manufacturing Lab. Jim plays a pivotal, hands- on role in developing and managing Hendrick Motorsports’ vital relationships with technical partners, including Chevrolet/GM Powertrain, Bosch, Siemens PLM, Haas Automation and Valvoline. He is a frequent keynote presenter at corporate events and conferences and has been featured in numerous publications for his expert insight into metrology, manufacturing, IT, PLM, and CAD/CAM/CAE.

During Jim’s 30-year tenure, Hendrick Motorsports has been awarded a NASCAR-leading 20 engine builder of the year awards. He has contributed to all 12 of the team’s Cup-level championships and its 15 NASCAR national series owner titles, which are both all-time records.

In 2003, Jim was presented with the Papa Joe Hendrick Award of Excellence, which is Hendrick Motorsports’ highest honor bestowed for significant contributions to the organization. Jim is on the advisory board of the Boys & Girls Club of Cabarrus County and serves at First Baptist Church in Concord, North Carolina.

David R. Wooten

David R. Wooten entered NC State University after serving in the US Air Force and received his BS in Electrical Engineering in 1974. While an EE undergrad, he worked in Professor John Staudhammer's graphics research lab and co-authored (with Ph.D. student Jeff Eastman) a SIGGRAPH paper entitled "A general purpose, expandable processor for real-time computer graphics.”

In 1976, after jobs in microprocessor and graphics hardware, David joined Mostek as Senior Applications Engineer closely involved with DRAM development. This led to his becoming the first employee at newly formed Inmos Corp in 1978. There David developed a number of DRAM techniques that became industry standards (nibble mode, CAS-before-RAS refresh, folded bit line memory cell architecture) as well as designing the world's fastest DRAMs. The DRAM cell architecture that David developed has been used in every DRAM manufactured in the last 40 years. David received three patents on his work at Inmos, and he was an influential contributor to many JEDEC DRAM standards.

After leading start-up teams in several companies from 1983 to 1990, David joined Compaq Corporation, advancing to Compaq Fellow and guiding new technology development. He was extremely active in the development of industry standards, including Chair of the IEEE 1394b standards group and the 1394 Trade Association. David was principal architect for USB 1.0, USB 1.1, and USB 2.0. In 2000-2003, he continued his work in this field as a Vice President at Cypress Semiconductor and led the work on the OHCI standards for both USB and 1394.

In 2003, David joined Microsoft Corporation and worked extensively with Intel and AMD on virtualization and security issues until his retirement in 2016. David represented Microsoft on the Board of Directors and Technical Committee of the Trusted Computing Group, and was architect and specification editor for the Trusted Platform Module 2.0 (ISO/IEC 11889). David became a partner at Microsoft and received over 16 patents for his work in virtualization and security hardware.