Vote for the 2009 Test Engineer of the Year
Our editors have selected the six finalists. To help choose the winner, cast your ballot by December 5.
-- Test & Measurement World, 10/1/2008 2:00:00 AM
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PREVIOUS WINNERS: |
In development labs, test engineers devise the tests that validate the functions of new features designed to make products distinctive. In manufacturing, too, test engineers must select systems that will ensure product reliability while at the same time meeting the throughput requirements needed to keep costs in check.
To acknowledge the essential role that test engineers play at every stage of a product’s life—from R&D to field test—Test & Measurement World is presenting its sixth annual Test Engineer of the Year award. Thanks to the sponsorship of National Instruments, the winning engineer will designate an engineering school to receive a $10,000 grant.
Test & Measurement World will present the 2009 Test Engineer of the Year award at our “Best in Test” event during the 2009 APEX Show, taking place March 31 to April 2 in Las Vegas, NV. The winner will also be the subject of our April cover story.
In recent weeks, we’ve received nominations of leading test engineers from a broad range of fields. Our editors have selected the six individuals on these pages as the finalists for the 2009 award. Please review their profiles both for on-the-job skills and for overall contributions to the field.
WE MUST RECEIVE YOUR VOTE BY DECEMBER 5, 2008.
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Go to the ballot and cast your vote |
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2009 Test Engineer of the Year Finalists: Eddie Abshire | Jeff Greenberg | Vince McGarry Mark Pearson | Jay Sayre | David Seiler Go to the Awards Page for more information. |
MEDICALEddie Abshire, St. Jude Medical
Ninety million people in the US suffer from chronic pain, often associated with failed back surgery. While many patients resort to medication, which can lead to dependency, an increasing number now get effective relief from implanted pacemaker-like devices that deliver neurostimulation to control the pain.
ANS, a division of St. Jude Medical, this year gained FDA approval for the Eon Mini, said to be the world’s smallest neurostimulator for such applications. Slightly larger than a silver dollar, the device is more comfortable for patients and requires a smaller incision. A key figure in that development effort was Eddie Abshire.
The senior test engineer, whose 21-year career includes work in missile systems for Texas Instruments, helped verify low-level firmware and electrical circuitry of the Eon Mini early in the project and worked closely with chief engineers to characterize the functionality of the implant and uncover problem areas. He then leveraged this knowledge to develop system-level tests to ensure correct functionality between the implant, charger system, and programming software.
Managers at ANS praise Abshire’s skills in testing embedded software and hardware, as well as his tenacity in identifying and solving problems. Now, ANS is putting his talents to work on a new neurostimulation therapy for those suffering from depression. Said Abshire: "There’s tremendous gratification in seeing a medical product getting into the marketplace and helping people."
Link to relevant sites about Eddie Abshire
AUTOMOTIVEJeff Greenberg, Ford Motor
As senior technical leader at Ford Research & Advanced Engineering, Jeff Greenberg has focused on devising ways to test perhaps the most overlooked part of the vehicle system: the human driver. Since 1989, he has led teams that have built four generations of advanced driving simulators that allow people to drive vehicles in a virtual environment. “The biggest value of simulators is having a place to study the customer before the car is ready,” said Greenberg.
The latest of these simulators is VIRTTEX (VIRtual Test Track EXperiment). Enclosed in a 24-ft-diameter, carbon-fiber dome, the simulator features a full-sized vehicle cab and six-degrees-of-freedom motion. Drivers see the world via life-sized, computer-generated images and feel the motion from six 64-in. hydraulic actuators that move the entire dome based on a mathematical model of vehicle dynamics.
Greenberg has led teams that have used the simulator to develop active safety systems, including forward-collision and lane-departure warning systems. The simulator required an enormous amount of data collection and analysis, including video capture of driver response, a data-acquisition system involving several hundred channels, a network analyzer for CANbus, and a fiber-optic shared cable ring throughout the lab.
The biggest challenge? “System integration,” said Greenberg. “Your success depends on how well you’ve married the subsystems, such as data acquisition, motion, and graphics.”
Link to relevant sites about Jeff Greenberg
CONSUMER ELECTRONICSVince McGarry, Seagate Technology
In the sharply competitive disk drive business, Vince McGarry is described by Seagate managers as “a consummate test engineer,” with extensive knowledge of a wide range of test equipment. That makes him a logical choice for high-stakes projects, such as FDE (full disc encryption) and hybrid disk drives that incorporate flash memory.
McGarry’s work on FDE required the integration of new ASICs and a deep involvement in the interaction of disk drives and operating systems. Using bus and logic analyzers, he identified major problems, such as data miscompares, and developed key debug processes.
On hybrid disk drives, McGarry created the ability to capture the bus activity on a hybrid-HDD (hard disk drive), process the data, and then analyze NAND flash versus disk activity. He also developed a method for creating a test script that exactly duplicates a captured command stream. That allows engineers to repeatedly run the same sequence on a hybrid-HDD and observe the response with varying algorithms.
A native of Ireland, McGarry got valuable experience in communications systems with the US Air Force before getting his EE degree from the University of Oklahoma. Early work included systems engineering in Ireland for Tyco Healthcare. No matter what the project, McGarry said that “I’ve always had a passion for hands-on work, like being very stubborn in tracking down root causes of faults in developing new devices.”
Link to relevant sites about Vince McGarry
DEVICE TESTMark Pearson, Sanmina-SCI
An electronic-manufacturing-services giant with $10 billion in sales, Sanmina-SCI values versatile engineers who can devise cost-effective testing strategies. Mark Pearson, senior engineering program manager in the New Technologies and Ventures Group, fits that description well. In nearly 25 years of engineering, he has tested CCD cameras, scanners, magnetic optical disk drives, multimedia devices, and photolithography equipment.
For the last six years, Pearson and his teams at Sanmina-SCI have been testing home monitoring medical devices, consumer electronics products, and fiber security devices for virtual private networks and firewalls. And always, said Pearson, the challenge is the same: “How can we devise test strategies that will drive down costs for customers?”
For security appliances for networking companies, Pearson integrated eight-up testers to optimize throughput. This year, he designed an innovative system for testing set-top boxes for home entertainment systems. In the past, Sanmina created a tester system for every new box. Working with VI Technology, a test engineering services firm, Pearson fashioned a generic platform that is scalable and easily configurable for testing different set-top boxes. Thanks to Pearson’s innovative thinking, the new four-up tester has reduced test times from several minutes to mere seconds, while saving floor space and operator costs. The approach reflects his personal approach to engineering: “Try to keep it simple.”
Link to relevant sites about Mark Pearson
FUEL CELLS/MATERIALS TESTJay Sayre, Battelle Memorial Institute
The quest to build a highly efficient fuel cell is fraught with problems, prompting PhD engineer Jay Sayre to call on his hands-on knowledge of polymers, chemistry, and testing to solve them. The reward? “We at Battelle view cells as having the potential to replace the internal combustion engine and reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” said Sayre.
The materials challenge is especially tough. Observed Sayer: “Cells need a membrane technology that meets the high-temperature, low-relative-humidity, and cost-efficiency requirements of commercial products.”
Even before the Battelle team developed its polymer-electrolyte-membrane chemistry, now ready for portable power applications, Sayre had to design a lab for synthesizing, fabricating, characterizing, and testing fuel cells. That task entailed purchasing a long list of test equipment as well as designing fuel-cell test stations for handling a variety of chemistries, including hydrogen-air and direct methanol. Such potentially volatile materials pose safety issues, which prompted a series of compliance steps, such as installing hydrogen detectors.
Sayre’s work isn’t confined to fuel cells. During his eight-year Battelle career, the former Virginia Tech varsity football player was instrumental in developing composite armor for the military and a “self-healing” polyurethane guard rail that gradually regains its shape after a collision. For his many contributions, Battelle named Sayre its “Inventor of the Year” in 2006.
Link to relevant sites about Jay Sayre
SEMICONDUCTOR TESTDavid Seiler, National Institute of Standards and Technology
As chief of the Semiconductor Electronics Division of NIST’s Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory, David Seiler is responsible for tackling some of the most pressing issues that confront the microelectronics industry. He and his team work to ensure that proper standards, measurements, and reliability test methods are in place to support current semiconductor production, and they conduct leading-edge research on future technologies.
A PhD physicist and IEEE fellow, Seiler has led many efforts at NIST, including characterizing nanoscale reference artifacts that use the spacing between atoms to measure chip dimensions. His division has also developed measurements in molecular electronics and confined silicon devices, as well as the first MEMS standards and test structures.
Among future technologies that his group is addressing, Seiler cites development of metrology standards for nanoscale devices, organic electronics, and “lab-on-chip” devices that marry electronics and microfluidics. Throughout such research, Seiler emphasizes the role that test plays. “We’ve developed one-of-a-kind testers, for instance, in power electronics for fuel cells to test silicon carbide devices at very high speeds and voltages,” he said. Seiler, whose research has appeared in some 200 journals, cooperates with semiconductor firms to shape the NIST research agenda. He also works with standards organizations to ensure that NIST’s measurements and test methodologies are adopted.
Link to relevant sites about David Seiler
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Go to the ballot and cast your vote |
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2009 Test Engineer of the Year Finalists: Eddie Abshire | Jeff Greenberg | Vince McGarry Mark Pearson | Jay Sayre | David Seiler |
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Go to the Awards Page for more information. |
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