Summer 2002
|
Summer 2002 |
|
Each year, Rose-Hulman honors four alumni with the Distinguished
Young Alumnus Award. It recognizes impact the alumni have made in their professional
fields and communities. The honor goes to alumni who have graduated within the last 20
years. In 1988, Larry Alldredge received one of those life-changing
phone calls from his former Rose-Hulman roommate, Mark Muri, a 1982 computer
science graduate. Alldredge, employed by Rose-Hulman as associate director for
academic software services, listened while his friend asked if any recent
graduates would be interested in a job with a company called Telesoft. Alldredge
could think of only one clear candidate: himself. Six years later, the same roommate accepted a position with
Qualcomm. Alldredge would follow after receiving another call from his roommate.
This time, the job offer was for one in the Qualcomm OmniTRACS division, which
developed a satellite data network used by the trucking industry. In 1999, Alldredge helped the OmniTRACS division complete a
restructuring that formed Qualcomm Wireless Business Solutions. The follower
completed his transformation into a leader by accepting the position of vice
president. Today, Alldredge serves as the technical visionary for the
business solutions division. The 1982 computer science graduate hand-selected a
team of 50 highly specialized individuals to work on a next-generation satellite
communication project that could revolutionize communication in the trucking
industry. "My story is not a traditional climbing of the ladder. I wanted
to experience the corporate world rather than the academic world. I certainly
didn’t think that satellite transportation would be in my future, but now I
could be at Qualcomm forever," said Alldredge. The Solitude, Indiana, native entered Rose-Hulman as an
electrical engineering major in 1978. He became interested in electricity in the
third grade, but had never touched a computer prior to college. He remained at Rose-Hulman for the next 10 years as a student
and Waters Computer Center employee. He developed terminal connecting software
and Ethernet structures that networked Rose-Hulman through the VAX system for
the first time. At Telesoft, Alldredge continued his work with the VAX to
develop an Ada compiler for F-22 fighter planes. "The Ada compiler software was innovative technology at the
time. The work was fun for a while, but the market eventually dried up and
another company acquired our research. I started looking for something new,"
said Alldredge. At Qualcomm, Alldredge relied on his VAX background to edit
200,000 lines of computer code into a product that allowed 50,000 truck drivers
to form an information network. He gained added responsibilities as the director
of engineering for the OmniTRACS division. Today, Alldredge leads a team that hopes to create a
less-expensive version of satellite networking for truck drivers. The
communication theory involves moving bits of information at a faster rate.
On-board computers and increased intelligence inside vehicles have prompted much
of the technological advancement. "We built our first product like a tank. Now, we want to
manufacture a more versatile product with new and lighter materials," said
Alldredge. The next-generation product should be available within two years. "We have a great variety of disciplines on our product team. We
have software engineers, embedded programmers, digital engineers and mechanical
engineers integrating with business and pulling together as one. It is an
exciting time in the product cycle," said Alldredge. The path to Qualcomm began with a simple phone call and could
end with a product linking much of the nation’s transportation network together
in a state-of-the-art satellite system. Through it all, Alldredge has remembered
his most valuable Rose-Hulman learning tools. "The most important thing that graduates can do is maintain
contacts with their friends and professors," said Alldredge. "The
outside-the-classroom and campus environments may have been more important to me
than class projects. They provided the foundation for the skills that I use
everyday at Qualcomm." When asked what has been the key to his success in the volatile,
high tech/biotech business sector, Curt Bilby answers with one word - mentors.
Without hesitation, Bilby names his mentors who range from
high-school and Rose-Hulman teachers, to Teledyne co-founder and National Medal
of Technology winner George Kozmetsky, to Hans Mark, former Air Force Secretary,
and his parents, wife and brother. Bilby encourages people to not only seek out mentors, but also
to be mentors. His ability to mentor management and staff has been vital to his
career as the president of four companies. He now serves as chairman and chief
executive officer of Evacyte Corporation in Austin, Texas. Evacyte is an early
stage, biotech company that will improve therapeutics and diagnostics to treat
metastatic cancer. "My accomplishments aren't my own. I've had tremendous mentors
who cared about me and my career," says the Sheridan, Indiana, native. His first mentors helped lead him to Rose-Hulman. "My
high-school teachers, such as John Terhune and Kent Harris, motivated me to
succeed in math and science which created an interest in engineering," he
recalled. As an all-state baseball and football player, Bilby looked at
Rose-Hulman as a way to not only receive an excellent education, but also to
continue his athletic success. His first three years at Rose-Hulman weren't what
Bilby had expected. "I quickly discovered that the academics at Rose-Hulman were the
biggest challenge that I had ever faced," says Bilby, who earned a mechanical
engineering degree in 1981. Repeated injuries limited his athletic
participation, which added to his frustrations. In his senior year, two faculty became important mentors who
guided him to academic success, graduate school and a rewarding career. "Drs. Roper and Hulbert gave me the advice and motivation I
needed at that time in my life," he stated. "Professor Roper cultivated my interest in aeronautical and
aerospace engineering." As Student Government Association president his senior year,
Bilby often met with President Hulbert. "He was persistent at encouraging me to
consider graduate school," he said. Bilby took that advice and earned graduate
degrees in aerospace engineering from Auburn University and the The University
of Texas at Austin. During a NASA fellowship, Bilby met Drs. Mark and Kozmetsky, two
mentors who would have the most significant impact on Bilby's career. Kozmetsky
served as dean of the university's graduate school and played a key role in
Austin, Texas, becoming a center for high-tech business. Mark was then the
chancellor of the University of Texas system. Bilby's leadership philosophy was strongly influenced by
Kozmetsky as well as his pastors, Frank Boswell and Jim Rose. "Successful
managers must be servant leaders," Bilby stressed. "Serve your employees by
doing everything you can to help them achieve more than they think they can. Put
yourself in the position of the people you're asking to follow you," he added.
After the NASA fellowship, Bilby became general manager for a
division of KDT Industries, which did work for NASA and the Strategic Defense
Initiative. He then co-founded Arrowsmith Technologies, which is a leading
provider of GPS-based workforce management systems. His career next led him to
the medical field when he took the presidency of a subsidiary of Ambac, a
supplier to clinical research laboratories. After Ambac, Bilby commuted to
Europe while leading a pan-European clinical research group. When the board of
Eurimed wanted Bilby and his family to move to Paris, France, he decided to stay
in the United States and joined Evacyte. Bilby brought his mentoring role to Rose-Hulman students during
presentations in a biomedical engineering class, and at a seminar on
entrepreneurship. He told students, "Inventors always want to talk about
technology, but a successful technology business must focus on creating a
product that will lead to value-based business transactions (i.e. sales)." He encouraged them to "be introspective. Find your passion."
Bilby has found his passion. It's to be a great mentor. Ben Brian pursued a career in biomedical engineering, hoping he
could make a difference in people's lives. Those dreams are finally becoming a reality with the 1982
chemical engineering alumnus leading the development of a new, compact
heart-lung bypass system that could drastically change patient care/life-support
during cardiac surgery. As vice president of research and development for CardioVention
Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif.-based start-up company, Brian, one of this year’s
Distinguished Young Alumni, is developing innovative proprietary products for
use in cardiovascular therapies. The company's first product is the CORx System
that potentially avoids many of the harmful effects of current heart-lung
machine technology. Aimed at the $1 billion annual cardiovascular surgery market,
CORx debuted in January and initial clinical trials have shown that, compared to
the blood circuitry of today's much larger heart- lung bypass machines, the
small unit – slightly larger than a coke can – is able to function with
one-tenth the amount of surface area exposed to blood and with minimal to no
priming volume required for the system. The effect of priming, known as "hemodilution," thins the
patient's blood, reduces its oxygen carrying capacity and compromises other body
functions. By reducing hemodilution and the surface area exposed to blood, the
new system is expected to play a critical role in minimizing platelet loss,
blood damage, blood transfusions and systemic inflammation. "This is the first major advance in heart-lung bypass technology
in more than 20 years," states Dr. Valavanur Subramanian, chairman of the
department of surgery at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital. "Using the CORx
heart-lung machine is like going from a mainframe computer to a laptop . . . It
should enable better heart access in beating-heart procedures." Such praise brings a smile to Brian and his hard-working
colleagues, whom he is quick to credit. "We're living the medical device version of the start-up dream,"
stated Brian, who arrived in January of 2000, initially as CardioVention's
director of marketing and business development (from strategic marketing
director of Johnson & Johnson's Ethicon Division). However, he had to brush off
his engineering and biomedical expertise when the company's initial development
direction hit a snag. Project "Bypass Light" began in June of 2000 under his
leadership, with 14 remaining key employees. "Like most Silicon Valley start-ups, we were surviving month to
month," Brian stated. Amazingly, within one year, the CORx System was used
clinically in India and Argentina. The successful completion of those trials and
the surgeon testimonials were crucial to the subsequent closure of a $21.1
million C-round of financing, as the company was running out of money. CardioVention's staff is now at 60 persons and rising. Great
news arrived in April with the FDA clearance of the device for the U.S. market.
The challenge ahead will be scaling up manufacturing to meet the market demand
(projected 40,000 units at full-year adoption). "My name isn't the first one listed on the pending device
patents, I was just the leader of a team of quality people that were committed
to a worthy cause," said Brian, who earned his doctorate in chemical engineering
(1991) from Arizona State University and was principal design engineer and a
marketing manager (1989-1998) for COBE laboratories (Golden, Colo.). "Luckily, I
have been part of development teams that have focused on patient benefit in
device design. If you're not going to focus on the patient, you're vision isn't
going to take you very far in the health care industry." Some of Eric Mooney’s patients walk four days to take advantage
of his skills as a plastic surgeon. This is not the result of some no-frills
HMO. Instead, it is an outreach Mooney volunteers for through an organization of
plastic surgeons called Interplast, a non-profit organization that provides free
reconstructive surgery for children in developing nations. A 1982 chemical engineering and chemistry graduate, Mooney is a
team leader and administrator for Interplast. His volunteer work has taken him
to countries such as Vietnam, Brazil, Ecuador and Bangladesh. During a January
trip to Ecuador, Mooney and his colleagues operated on 120 children in eight
days. "In our country, we probably have the best-developed medical
technology. It’s incumbent upon us who have gifts of technology to help those
who don’t have the resources to help themselves," Mooney explained of his
involvement in Interplast. Usually 12 to 15 people, including three or four plastic
surgeons, form a visiting Interplast team. In addition to their skills, team
members bring all of their own equipment for the surgeries. Interplast teams
also train local surgeons and coordinate technology transfer so the work can
continue after the volunteers leave. When he is not traveling the world for humanitarian work,
Mooney, one of this year’s Distinguished Young Alumni, serves as an attending
plastic surgeon for Bassett Healthcare in Cooperstown, New York. Each year he
performs 600 major surgeries and another 100 charitable surgeries. Ninety
percent of his work is reconstructive surgery. Mooney also teaches students from Columbia, Syracuse and Albany
medical schools. In addition, he conducts clinical research, focusing largely on
tissue-engineered skin. Mooney earned his medical degree from the University of
Cincinnati, and he is a former fellow at the University of Massachusetts Medical
Center where he received the Center’s Mitch Kaplan Memorial Award for excellence
in resident training. People are the reason Mooney spent 14 years in medical training.
"As plastic surgeons, we get scientific about how we do things, but the big
payoff is when the patients come back able to do things they couldn’t do
before," Mooney said. "My biggest reward is seeing how grateful people are after
we help them. "Prior to each surgery, a colleague of mine says ‘This is the
most important day in this person’s (patient) life.’ I adopt that approach in my
work." Each surgery is different and Mooney many times has to adapt as
"surprises" arise during an operation. His longest surgery has been 34 hours.
During a visit to a Rose-Hulman biomaterials engineering class, he showed slides
of a skull reconstruction that took 26 hours. Mooney draws on his engineering background for his work in
medicine. "At Rose-Hulman the number-one skill I learned was problem-solving. I
learned how to approach a problem and solve it without getting frustrated by
it," he said. "That philosophy applies to surgery as well as engineering." Mooney’s Rose-Hulman roots also serve him in the area of
technology. "Because of the broad scientific education I received, I have a real
appreciation of new technologies being applied in my field every day. It really
surprises me there aren’t more engineers who become surgeons. The next 20 years
will be the most exciting time in medicine because of these technologies. The
potential impact of engineering students on the medical field is boundless at
the moment."
|
