iNEER Awards Committee

WOJCIECH ZIELINSKI, Poland (Chair)

Wojciech Zielinski became Rector of Silesian University of Technology (SUT) in 2002.  Prior to that, he was Vice Rector for Education. He obtained both the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at SUT. He was Head of the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology of SUT during 1991–1997. He is a member of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Organic Industry in Warsaw, the Council of International University in Zittau, Germany; Polish Committee of Standards, and Polish Academy of Sciences. His research interests concern synthesis of organic compounds. He received Achievement Awards from the Ministry of Education in 1976, 1978, 1984 and 1987. He served on the 2002 iNEER Awards Committee.

JOHN D. CARPINELLI, USA (Member and Secretary)

John Carpinelli is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of the Center for Pre-College Programs at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA.  He received the B. Engr. degree from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1983, and the M. Engr. and Ph. D. degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1984 and 1987, respectively.  He has served as Director of the Computer Engineering Program at NJIT and as a member of the Governing Board for the Gateway Engineering Education Coalition.  His research interests focus on educational computing, distance learning, computer architecture, and interconnection networks.  His textbook, Computer Systems Organization and Architecture, has been used at over 150 universities and has been translated into several languages.

PATRICIA FOX, USA (Member)

Patricia Fox received her B.S. in Accounting from Indiana University in 1980 and M.B.A. from Butler University in 1985. She is the Associate Dean for Administration and Finance and Assistant Professor of Organizational Leadership and Supervision in the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). In addition to her administrative duties, Pat teaches various courses in the Department of Organizational Leadership and Supervision. Pat currently serves as the Chair of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Engineering Technology Council (ETC) and serves on the Board of Directors of the ASEE. She has taught several summers at the Berufsakademie Mannheim. Pat is an instructor of GO GREEN.

KWANG-SUN KIM, South Korea (Member)

Kwang-Sun Kim received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Hanyang University of South Korea and the MS, Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Kansas of USA. He became a Fellow of ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineer) in 2007. He served at KUT (Korea University of Technology & Education) as Dean of Graduate School for four years and Dean of Planning Affairs for another four years. He is Honorary Chair of KSDET (Korea Society of Semiconductor Display Equipment Technology), and Chair of Korea Semiconductor Standard Advisory Committee. He is a policy evaluator of Ministry of Science and Technology of the Korean Government and a steering committee member of “Science TV” of Korea. He received a National Medal of Excellent Recognition for Public Service from the President of Korea in 2006 and achievement awards from the Minister of Commerce, Industry, and Energy in 2007; the Governor of Chungnam Province in 2004; and the Patent Office of Korea in 2006. He will be a co-general chair of the ICEE/ICEER2009-Seoul Conference.

LASZLO T. KOCZY, Hungary (Member)

Laszlo Koczy if Professor and Dean, Szechenyi Istvan University (SZE, Gyor) and Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) Hungary. He received the M.Sc., M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees from the Technical University of Budapest (BME) in 1975, 1976 and 1977, respectively; and the (postdoctoral) D.Sc. degree from the Hungarian Academy of Science, all in Electrical/Control Engineering. He spent most of his career at BME until 2001 and from 2002 at SZE. He has been a visiting professor at various universities abroad, namely in Australia (ANU, Murdoch and UNSW), Japan (TIT), Korea (POSTECH), Austria (J. Kepler U.), Italy (U. of Trento) and Brazil, China, Finland and Poland for summer schools. He was one of the LIFE Endowed Fuzzy Theory Chair Professors at Tokyo Institute of Technology and advisor to the Laboratory for International Fuzzy Engineering Research in Yokohama. His focus of research interest is fuzzy systems and Computational Intelligence topics (evolutionary algorithms, neural networks), as well as applications. He has published over 380 refereed papers and several text books on the subject. He introduced the concept of rule interpolation in sparse fuzzy models, and applied it successfully to the control of an automatic guided vehicle, as well as hierarchical interpolative fuzzy systems and fuzzy Hough transform. This latter topic provided the key technology in the winning vehicle in the 2007 Hungarian Mars Rover Competition. His research interests include applications of CI for telecommunication, transportation, vehicles and mobile robots, control, and information retrieval. He had been an Associate Editor of IEEE TFS and he is an Associate Editor of Fuzzy Sets and Systems, Int. J. of Fuzzy Systems, J. of Advanced Computational Intelligence, Mathware and Soft Computing. He was the General Chair of FUZZ-IEEE 2004 in Budapest, and a number of other conferences, co-chair, and PC member at many other scientific events. He served in the International Fuzzy Systems Association as President, and is now an Administrative Committee member of IEEE Computational Intelligence Society. At SZE he serves his second term as Dean of Engineering, he chairs the Ph.D. School Council and is one of the sponsors of the Szechenyi Alternative Fuel Engine Vehicles Competition, the National Conference of Mechanical Engineering Students, and other activities.

JOSEF MECSI, Hungary (Member)

József Mecsi received his BSc-MSc in Civil Engineering from the Technical University of Budapest in 1969, his CSc from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1994, his PhD and Dr. habil. from the University of Miskolc, the former in 1996 and the latter in 1998. Professor Mecsi worked as a fellow researcher at the Technical University of Budapest from 1970 to 1985, a technical advisor at Vízügyi Építő Vállalat from 1985 to 1992, a private professor at the University of Miskolc from 1991 to 2005 and has served as a full professor and Dean of the University of Pécs, Pollack Mihály Faculty of Engineering since 2005. He has been a member of the Hungarian Accreditation Committee (MAB) Board since 2000, a core member of the committees ISSMGE-TC-28 and TC-40 since 2002, a representative of Hungary at the European Committee of Civil Engineering (ECCE) since 2002 and president of the Section of Geotechnics of the Hungarian Chamber of Engineers since 1996. He has authored more than 125 scientific publications and made more than 600 geotechnical reports.