Profiles of Distinction

photo of Milan Mashanovitch

Milan Mashanovitch, CEO Freedom Photonics

Interviewed for the Fall 2019 ECE Current newsletter

Mashanovitch received his M.S. in Photonics in 2000 and his PhD. in ECE in 2004. He worked at UCSB as a Scientist on photonic integrated circuits in Indium Phosphide, as well as an Adjunct Prof. teaching graduate-level classes on semiconductor lasers and photonic ICs. In 2005, he co-founded Freedom Photonics and has served as CEO since 2016.

photo of Sun Choe

Sun Choe, President, Norcomp SC

Interviewed for the Fall 2017 ECE Current newsletter

Choe received his BS in ECE in '86. He then worked on the Maverick missile at Hughes Aircraft, next in semiconductor sales at Integrated Device Technology and after that in sales and sales mgmt at several semiconductor companies. In 1996 he started Norcomp inspired by company trends of using independent sales orgs or manufacturers reps – except his company had engineers with design experience.

photo of Diego Rey

Diego Rey, Founder, GeneWEAVE

Interviewed for the Fall 2016 ECE Current newsletter

Diego Rey received his BS in ECE from UCSB in 2008. He is the founder of GeneWEAVE, a company acquired by Roche Molecular Diagnostics in 2015. GeneWeave takes on drug-resistant bacteria by using novel Smarticles™ technology to build solutions to give healthcare providers the tools needed to guide treatment and keep patients safe from the threat of bacterial infections.

photo of John Gerngross

John Gerngross, Founder, Condor Engineering

Interviewed for the Fall 2015 ECE Current newsletter

Mr. Gerngross holds an M.S. in ECE ('82) from UCSB and a B.S. in Math from Boston U. He founded Santa Barbara-based Condor Engineering in 1989, which was a supplier of avionics databus tools and solutions. The company’s product portfolio included embedded, test, and simulation interfaces for commercial and military avionics databuses. Condor was acquired by GE Intelligent Platforms in 2006.

photo of Jose Hernandez

Jose Hernández, Astronaut, NASA

IInterviewed for the Fall 2014 ECE Current newsletter

Jose Hernández received his M.S. in ECE from UCSB in 1986. He was an astronaut for NASA during space flight STS-128 Discovery and helped establish the Reaching for the Stars Foundation to inspire young people to learn math and science.

photo of Jeff Blokker

Jeff Blokker, CEO, Sandhill Software Develop.

Interviewed for the Fall 2013 ECE Current newsletter

Jeff Blokker received a B.S. ('80) & M.S. ('84) in EE from UCSB. He was a research ass't. for Nobel Laureate Herb Kroemer investigating GaAs device fabrication. He formed CableSoft, Inc. in 1984 and is currently a software consultant. His expertise is in material, software development, networks including wireless & advanced computing.

photo of Bobby Brar

Bobby Brar, President, Teledyne Scientific Co.

Interviewed for the Fall 2012 ECE Current newsletter

Dr. Bobby Brar received his MS ('92) and Ph.D ('95) in EE from UCSB and studied the InAS/AlSb/GaSb compound semiconductor material system for high-speed electronic and optoelectronic applications. Brar presently runs TSC, Teledyne’s R&D lab developing technologies in Materials, Optics, Information Sciences, and MEMS/Electronics.

photo of Peter Kokotovic

Petar Kokotovic, ECE Professor Emeritus

Interviewed for the Fall 2012 ECE Current newsletter

Professor Emeritus Petar Kokotovic joined the ECE department in 1991. He helped form and went on to direct until 2003 what is now the Center for Control, Dynamical Systems, and Computation. His research focused on nonlinear control (robust and adaptive) and he is one of the highly cited authors in his field and in engineering.

photo of David Wong

David Wong, Chairman & CEO, D2 Technologies

Interviewed for the Fall 2011 ECE Current newsletter

Wong received his BSEE, MSEE, and PhD from UCSB. He went on to be involved in multiple start-ups, including D2 Technologies, for which he is the current CEO and chairman. He helped spearhead the College's (CoE) Technology Management Program and serves on 3 CoE boards. He was presented the 2007 CoE Alumni Award.

photo of Jeff Schlageter

Jeff Schlageter, Project Management Consultant, Project Acceleration

Interviewed for the Fall 2011 ECE Current newsletter

Schlageter, a graduate of ECE's first class in 1965. He designed integrated circuits for GE, Fairchild Semiconductor, AMD and Actel. At Actel he was responsible for the development of the CMOS Field Programmable Gate Array ICs on the '97 Mars Pathfinder mission.

photo of George Matthaei

George Matthaei, ECE Professor Emeritus

Interviewed for the Fall 2011 ECE Current newsletter

Professor Emeritus Matthaei came to UCSB in 1964 when the department had just been formed. Matthaei is an IEEE Fellow and member of Sigma Xi and Tau Beta Pi. He worked for the ECE department for 27 years until he retired in 1991.

photo of Herb Kroemer

Herbert Kroemer, ECE Professor Emeritus & Nobel Prize Winner

Interviewed for the Fall 2010 ECE Current newsletter

Prof. Kroemer has been a faculty member since 1976. He is a leader in compound semiconductor technology and molecular beam epitaxy. In 2000 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics and in 2002 he also received the IEEE Medal of Honor. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences.

photo of Dennis Monticelli

Dennis Monticelli, TI Fellow, Texas Instruments

Interviewed for the Fall 2010 ECE Current newsletter

Monticelli received his BSEE from UCSB in 1974. He joined National Semiconductor upon graduation and for 16 years he worked as both as a circuit designer and design manager. Later he led the Power Management business unit, was promoted to VP in 1995, and named a Fellow in 2000. Following the acquisition of National Semiconductor by Texas Instruments in 2011, he was named at TI Fellow.

photo of Yulun Wang

Yulun Wang, Chair & CEO InTouch Technologies

Interviewed for the Fall 2009 ECE Current newsletter

Yulun Wang received his Ph.D. in EE in 1988. He has since founded two companies – Computer Motion and InTouch Technologies. He also invented the first FDA-approved surgical robot. Wang is involved with the College and ECE as an advisor, donor, mentor, and recruiter. In 2009 he was recognized with the College's Alumni Award.

photo of Roger Wood

Roger Wood, ECE Professor Emeritus

Interviewed for the Fall 2009 ECE Current newsletter

Prof. Emeritus Roger Wood played an instrumental role in making the College and ECE dept. the examples of excellence they are today. During his tenure at the UCSB, Wood received the Mortar Board Prof. of the Year award, the UCSB Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award, and the UCSB Affiliates Prof. of the Year Award.