I was born in Helena, Montana, in 1954, and lived in Bozeman until I was three. We moved to Mesa, Arizona in 1957 where I grew up with my two sisters, Julie and Cheri, and eventually married Victoria Ann Charbonneau, the love of my life. I enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1973 and became a Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory technician, serving in labs from Biloxi, Mississippi to the Philippine Islands. In 1984, I was selected for the Airman Education and Commissioning Program, and was assigned to Arizona State University to study electrical engineering. Shortly after graduation, I received my commission as an Air Force officer.

Along the way, Vikki and I had three children--Christopher, Steven, and Michael. All three were born within a span of 30 months, and as Vikki is fond of saying, it was like raising a litter of active little puppies! Upon retirement from the Air Force in 1996, we settled in Nashville, Tennessee, where I had been accepted to graduate school at Vanderbilt University. Upon completing a doctoral degree, I took a research faculty position in Vanderbilt's Institute for Software Integrated Systems. I left that post in 2001 to join a startup company in Brentwood, Tennessee, developing automation and integration applications for the pharmaceutical industry. Five years and three buyouts later, I took a faculty position at Lipscomb University in Nashville.

Work Experience

Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Raymond B. Jones School of Engineering
Lipscomb University, Nashville, Tennessee
August 2006 – Present
Responsible for teaching, course development, and student advisement. Areas of emphasis include microprocessor design and embedded systems. Also involved in the BEST robotics competition held at Lipscomb each year, and the BisonBot robotic camps held on campus each summer.

Software Architect, Scientific Applications
Thermo Electron Corporation, Brentwood, Tennessee
May 2001 – June 2006
Responsible for the design and development of scientific and automation applications for the biotech and drug discovery industries. Involved in all phases of the software development lifecycle, with emphasis on systems design and implementation using C++, C# and the Microsoft .NET framework. This technology has resulted in several U.S. and International patents, one of which I'm listed on as co-inventor (Data-Centric Automation, International Patent No. EP1493096).

Research Assistant Professor
Vanderbilt University
April 1999 – May 2003
Performed research and development activities in the areas of model integrated computing, modeling and simulation, and graphical language design. Additional responsibilities included teaching and course development, and operations management of the Institute for Software Integrated Systems. Full time faculty member from 1999-2001, and adjunct during 2002 and 2003.

Assistant Professor of Computer Science
United States Air Force Academy
July 1993 – May 1996
Responsible for teaching, course development, and undergraduate research activities. Additional duties included student advisement, summer research faculty member, and student club sponsorship. Awarded Outstanding Junior Faculty Member in Computer Science, 1994-1995, and Outstanding Academy Educator in Computer Science, 1995-1996.

Science and Engineering Officer
Arnold Engineering Development Center
Arnold AFB, Tennessee
January 1988 – June 1993
Managed various instrumentation and technology development projects within the Directorate of Flight Dynamics and the Directorate of Technology. Project manager for several Small Business Innovative Research projects, and directed the summer high school research program. Awarded Company Grade Officer of the Year, 1992.

Education

Vanderbilt University
Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering, 1996 – 1999
Dissertation: "Metamodeling - Rapid Design and Evolution of Domain-Specific Modeling Environments."

University of Tennessee Space Institute
Master of Science, Electrical and Computer Enginnering, 1988 – 1992
Thesis: "Implementation of Linear Predictive and Huffman Coding Algorithms for Real Time Data Compression."

Arizona State University
BSEE, Electrical Engineering, 1984 – 1987
Magna Cum Laude