Distinguished Speakers

2005 - Mani Soma

"What It Means To Be A Community of Innovators"

Professor Soma joined the UW faculty in 1982 and has held numerous administrative roles over the years, including associate chair and acting chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering (1994-96) and associate dean of the College form 1997 to 2000. His leadership was instrumental in enabling our student service and facility management programs to excel.

Professor Soma is one of the world's foremost experts in testing techniques for mixed-signal VLSI (very large-scale integrated circuits) and lectures internationally. He and his research teams are developing on-chip, built-in, design-for-test and test methods for mized analog-digital and radio-frequency circuits and systems. Their work has applications for cell phones and other wireless communication systems.

Born in Vietnam, Professor Soma came to the United States for his engineering studies. He earned a BSEE and bachelors in mathematics from California State-Fresno, and his masters and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University. A man of many interests and talents, he enjoys hiking and gardening and is renowned for his excellent cooking skills and his passion for folk dancing, which he also teaches.

2004 - Alan Courts

"Reliability of the NW Power Grid: BPA's Role Past, Present and Future"

Alan Courts Mr. Courts has served as Vice President of Engineering and Technical Services since October 1996. As a member of the Transmission Business Line executive management team, he is responsible for engineering, design, project management and technical support for system maintenance.

Mr. Courts joined Bonneville in 1973 as an electrical engineer in the System Engineering Division. His career has progressed through positions of increasing responsibility in engineering management. In 1979, he assumed responsibility for the Test and Development Section followed by advancement to chief of the High Voltage Practices Branch in 1985. In 1987, he was appointed assistant director of the System Planning Division. In 1989, Mr. Courts was reassigned as project manager for the Puget Sound Electric Reliability Plan to deal with the threat to reliability brought on by high load growth. In 1994, he was selected as manager of Transmission Planning. In 1995, he was given a special assignment to lead one of the business process reengineering teams.

Mr. Courts graduated from Portland State University in 1972 with a bachelor's degree in applied science and attended graduate school at PSU during 1973. He has taught various engineering courses at PSU from 1972 through 1983.

Mr. Courts is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Oregon.

2003 - Denice D. Denton

"Where is Engineering Going and How Does Power Engineering Fit the Picture?"

Denice Denton Dr. Denice D. Denton is the Dean of Engineering and a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington. She was a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1987 to 1996. She received the B.S., M.S. (1982), and Ph. D. (1987) in Electrical Engineering from M.I.T. Her dissertation focused on the characterization of polyimide, a polymeric insulating material used in integrated circuits as an inter-metal insulator and passivant.

Denton works extensively on engineering education reform. She chaired the NRC Board on Engineering Education (1996-1999), was a member of the NAS/NRC Committed on Undergraduate Science Education (1993-1997), and served on the NAE Committee on Engineering Education (1999-2001). Professor Denton was co-director of the National Institute for Science Education in 1995-1996. She currently directs for the University of Washington's NSF ADVANCE program. She has also won the University of Wisconsin Kiekhofer Distinguished Teaching Award (1990), and the Benjamin Smith Reynolds Teaching Award-University of Wisconsin College of Engineering (1994). In addition, she is the recipient of the American Society of Engineering Education AT&T Foundation Teaching Award (1991), the Eta Kappa Nu C. Holmes MacDonald Distinguished Young Electrical Engineering Teaching Award (1994), the ASEE George Westinghouse Award (1995), and the IEEE Harriet B. Rigas Teaching Award (1995).

Professor Denton has developed a Microfabrication Demonstration Kit which is being used in K-12 classrooms in more than 30 states to introduce students to microelectronics. She also works actively to encourage women and underrepresented minorities to consider careers in Science and Engineering.

2002 - Kai Strunz

"Collaboration in Development of Energy Systems Research Education"

Dr. Kai Strunz graduated with the Dipl.-Ing. degree, the German equivalent to the Master's degree, in electrical and electronic engineering from the University of Saarland in Saarbrucken, Germany, in 1996. He was awarded the Dr.-Ing. degree and graduated summa cum laude from the same university in 2001.

From 1995 to 1997, Dr. Strunz pursued research at Brunel University in London, where he worked in collaboration with the National Grid Company in the fields of power system stabilization, electromechanical transients, and power system modeling. In 1997, he joind the R&D division of Electricite de France (EDF) in the Paris area. At EDF, his main research work was concerned with the development of efficient numerical methods for digital simulation of electromagnetic transients.

In the framework of a collaborative research project, he worked as a visiting scholar at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver from January 1998 to August 1998. Dr. Strunz began working as an assistant professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington in April 2002.