Vote for the 2011 Test Engineer of the Year
Voting for this award ended on February 1, 2011.
-- Test & Measurement World, 12/22/2010 12:03:00 AM
As companies ramp up business following a tough recession, it's more important than ever that they ensure products meet the quality and reliability standards demanded by customers. At the forefront of meeting this challenge are test engineers, who serve as the guardians of quality in electronics. Their vital work influences products through every stage: design, compliance, manufacturing, and field test.
To honor the contributions made by test engineers, Test & Measurement World is presenting the eighth annual Test Engineer of the Year award.
This fall, we've received nominations of outstanding test engineers from a broad range of industries, and our editors have chosen six finalists for the award. The finalists' work shows the far-flung nature of test, from automotive electronics and medical simulators to mainframe processors and standards development.
Please review the profiles of these engineers for on-the-job skills and overall contributions to their fields. Then, cast your vote online by visiting www.tmworld.com/teoty, where you will find additional Web links to information on the candidates and their companies. The voting deadline was February 1, 2011.
The T&MW editors will announce the recipient of the 2011 Test Engineer of the Year award in April. Our May cover story will describe the outstanding work of this engineer, who will designate an engineering school to receive a $10,000 grant, courtesy of award sponsor National Instruments.
Voting for this award ended on February 1, 2011
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2011 Test Engineer of the Year finalists: Henry Huang | Wade Lowdermilk | Ed McCain |
AUTOMOTIVE ELECTRONICS TEST
Ford Motor Co.
A technical specialist with Ford Motor Co.'s Infotainment & Connectivity electrical engineering team, Henry Huang tests the electronic features that enrich today's driving experience. Well-versed in Bluetooth, embedded systems, and vehicle electronics, the 20-year Ford veteran is a hardware-in-the-loop expert skilled in automating the testing of electrical modules.
Huang's commitment to test-process improvement helped Ford bring its SYNC in-vehicle connectivity system to market. He also led efforts to transition SYNC from a Tier 1 delivery model to an in-house development model. That step enabled Ford to cost-effectively deliver SYNC as part of MyFord Touch, the technology that lets a driver use voice controls, touch screens, and buttons on the steering wheel to activate phones, infotainment systems, climate controls, and navigation devices.
An author of eight patents and with master's degrees in electrical engineering and computer science, Huang noted that testing in-vehicle electronics is particularly complex because of the interface of so many features. The importance of getting it right relates directly to customer satisfaction. All this keeps Huang busy studying and testing advanced in-vehicle connectivity technologies, such as voice recognition, navigation, communications, and safety features.
Links to relevant sites about Henry Huang
MILITARY/AEROSPACE TEST
BAE Systems
A study by the Government Accountability Office noted that the Department of Defense maintained more than 400 types of test systems and spent $50 billion to buy and support the equipment over a 12-year period. How do you slash these costs? Wade Lowdermilk, a senior technical fellow with BAE Systems, has the answer: synthetic instruments. Using off-the-shelf components, the electrical engineer and his team have built RF synthetic test instruments that support frequencies exceeding 26 GHz.
This new breed of instrument replaces seven box instruments with one integrated system that features FPGA hardware, LabView, Matlab, and a PXI Express platform. The tester is one-fifth the size of the technology it replaces and offers a tenfold improvement in speed and accuracy at a much lower cost.
"Synthetic instruments are a disruptive technology that changes the test process from a sequential model to a parallel one that accelerates test times," explained Lowdermilk. "It is also a green technology, with a compact footprint, lower energy use, and reduced heat build-up."
Military customers have been pleased with the synthetic instruments, and now Lowdermilk is taking the technology to industrial and telecom test applications. As he sees it, the move to synthetic instruments will both reduce the need for expensive, dedicated instruments and trim training and logistics costs.
Links to relevant sites about Wade Lowdermilk
SEMICONDUCTOR TEST
IBM
In September, IBM unveiled the four-core z196 processor, which is used in the new zEnterprise IBM mainframe and contains 1.4 billion transistors on its 512-mm2 surface. Engineering took just one year to bring this complex processor from power on to market availability.
A central figure in that accomplishment was senior engineer Ed McCain, who led the team responsible for verifying the functionality of the processor and memory subsystems. This work involved modeling the multichip module as well as developing a test matrix containing more than 1250 hours of test cases. McCain also applied "Virtual Power On" and "Virtual Bring Up" techniques—methods he helped pioneer at IBM—to spot defects earlier in development. Virtual Power On cuts time to market by using a hardware accelerator and software package to simulate system hardware. This allows debug of firmware months before it mates with actual hardware.
Among other innovations, McCain and his colleagues developed a new test-floor monitoring system, a dashboard-style tool that tracks the status of prototype machines and helps set each day's test agenda. McCain, who holds a patent for central electronic core simulation, takes great pride in leading a test team faced with daunting challenges under tight deadlines. "The real satisfaction comes with doing a quality job in a timely fashion."
Links to relevant sites about Ed McCain
ROBOTICS TEST
Adept Technology
As a platform for mechatronics, few applications rival robotics, and California's Adept Technology has pushed the envelope with Quattro, a vision-guided robot that picks parts from a conveyor at a rate of up to 180 per minute.
While still a PhD student at France's Montpellier Laboratory of Informatics, Robotics, and Microelectronics, Adept engineer Vincent Nabat worked on the kinematics, mechanical, and electrical design of a Quattro prototype called PAR4. And he has shepherded the project from concept and modeling to advanced prototypes and final production. "I feel like Quattro is my baby," he noted, "and it has been exciting to see it evolve into actual factory applications."
Quattro differs from conventional Delta robots in using four kinematic chains instead of three. It also features an articulated traveling platform for faster acceleration. Nabat used Matlab to model the innovative kinematics, but conventional design-verification testing was not sufficient for evaluating hardware performance. Instead, he used a Cartesian robot mounted under Quattro on the same frame. Equipped with force sensors, camera, and laser, this linear-module test robot measured stiffness, repeatability, overshoot, and accuracy in Quattro.
What Vincent brings to Adept is his strong holistic approach. Instead of testing specific subsections of the robot, Vincent was adamant about taking the whole system into account.
Links to relevant sites about Vincent Nabat
MEDICAL ELECTRONICS TEST
CIMIT, Massachusetts General Hospital
The medical field has increasingly embraced patient simulators to train everyone from nurses and combat medics to dentists and surgeons. At Boston's Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT), based at Massachusetts General Hospital, PhD engineer Mark Ottensmeyer has spearheaded development of a sophisticated simulator called COMETS, short for Combat Medical Training System. This full-body mannequin mimics traumatic injuries that battlefield medics encounter. The wireless simulator bleeds, screams in pain, falls unconscious, dies, and responds to tourniquet placement and IV fluids.
Drawing from experience designing a chest-trauma simulator, Ottensmeyer led the way in defining the mannequin's features and fabricating electromechanical systems, ranging from an animatronics head and limbs to a circulatory system with pulsing arterial bleeding. The MIT-educated engineer also designed, built, and tested the prototype interface electronics that link the real-time controller to embedded FPGA, I/O, sensors, and actuators. He also worked closely with a vendor to develop custom-fabricated boards. "The entire system runs on LabView, so we can monitor the functioning of the code," noted Ottensmeyer. CIMIT recently licensed COMETS to a commercial partner, with production expected in 2011.
Links to relevant sites about Mark Ottensmeyer
COMPLIANCE
Underwriters Laboratories
When it comes to safety certification, perhaps no organization wields more influence than Underwriters Laboratories. Each year, UL evaluates more than 19,000 types of products, components, and materials in its 68 labs.
One of the hottest items on UL's agenda is renewable energy. "It's very hard for standards and codes to keep pace with the rate of change in energy technology," said Tim Zgonena, a 20-year UL veteran. "We're working diligently with manufacturers, distributors, and national labs to ensure that all parties get up to speed."
An electrical engineer, Zgonena has been UL's point man in this effort—anticipating safety concerns involving new technology, collaborating with standards-making bodies, and working with UL test engineers. He also has done plenty of hands-on testing in such key areas as grid-interconnect inverter products.
In the past year, Zgonena led work in the International Electrotechnical Commission committee to address requirements for photovoltaic products. He worked closely, too, with industry standards committees to publish requirements for wind turbines. In addition, he has been active in fire-research testing of PV systems with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. His work with the National Fire Protection Association also paved the way for new arc-fault protection requirements for photovoltaic systems in the 2011 National Electrical Code.
Links to relevant sites about Tim Zgonena
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