Speaker Biographies

Dr. Diganta Das

Dr. Diganta Das is a member of the research staff at the Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering. His expertise is in reliability, environmental and operational ratings of electronic parts, uprating, electronic part reprocessing, counterfeit electronics, technology trends in the electronic parts and parts selection and management methodologies. He performs benchmarking processes and organizations of electronics companies for parts selection and management and reliability practices. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Maryland, College Park and his Bachelor.s from Indian Institute of Technology in Manufacturing Science and Engineering.

His current research interests include electronic parts supply chain, counterfeit electronics avoidance and detection, light emitting diode failure mechanisms, cooling systems in telecommunications infrastructure and their impact on reliability, and power electronics reliability. In addition, Dr. Das is involved in prognostics based risk mitigation of electronics. Dr. Das has published more than 75 articles on these subjects, and presented his research at international conferences and workshops. He had been the technical editor for two IEEE standards and is currently vice chair of the standards group of IEEE Reliability Society. He is a sub group leader for the SAE G-19 counterfeit detection standards group. He is an Associate Editor of the journal Microelectronics Reliability. He is a Six Sigma Black Belt and a member of IEEE, IMAPS and SMTA.

Brian Hughitt

Brian Hughitt serves as Technical Fellow and Program Executive Officer for Quality Programs within NASA's Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA). Brian is responsible for Agency Quality Policy; chairs NASA's Quality Leadership Forum and Joint Audit Planning Committee; manages the Agency's Supplier Assessment System; and is responsible for OSMA Delegated Quality Programs - Non-Destructive Evaluation, Metrology and Calibration, Workmanship, EEE Parts Assurance. Industry groups that he actively participates in include the Americas Aerospace Quality Group (AAQG), Aerospace Industry Association (AIA), American Society for Quality (ASQ), and SAE G-19 Counterfeit Parts Technical Committee. Prior to joining NASA in January 2004, Brian served over 20 years in various Government and industry Quality Assurance capacities, including: Inspection Department Supervisor for Corning Glass Works; Quality Assurance Group Leader for Newport News Shipbuilding; Quality Assurance & Submarine Safety Branch Head for Naval Sea Systems Command; and Material Control Manager for NAVSEA's Quality Programs Office. Brian earned a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from the University of Virginia and is a graduate of George Washington University's Executive Development Program.

Kirsten M. Koepsel

Kirsten M. Koepsel, Director, Intellectual Property and Industrial Security, is responsible for looking at policy issues relating to counterfeiting and piracy, computer crime, theft of intellectual property by employees, protection of data submitted to the US government, the security clearance backlog and tax. Koepsel joined AIA after finishing her LL.M. at Franklin Pierce Law Center in Intellectual Property, Commerce and Technology. Her LLM coursework included the protection of patents and copyrights internationally, computer crime, as well as technology transfer. Prior to that, she worked for the University of Texas at Arlington supporting the Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center. Her area of expertise was implementation of environmental management systems and improving manufacturing processes. Kirsten also worked for over 11 years at General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems as an engineer in both research and development and manufacturing and for various aircraft programs including the F-16, F-22, STOVL, VTOL and the National Aerospace Plane (NASP). Areas of concentration were high temperature metals, metal matrix composites and the effect of hydrogen on materials. Koepsel also earned a JD at Franklin Pierce Law Center concentrating on intellectual property and a bachelor of science in metallurgical engineering from the University of Tennessee. She also holds two degrees from Kansas State University in grain science and microbiology. She is an Adjunct Professor at the Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property at UNH School of Law. She teaches courses in counterfeiting.

Thomas Sharpe

Tom is Executive Vice President of SMT Corporation located in Connecticut. Founded in 1995, SMT maintains the one of the largest inventories of obsolete & DMS-type electronic components as well as the largest in-house testing services within the Independent Distribution sector. SMT's labs are credited with the initial identification and industry-sharing of several counterfeit processes over the past several years as well as developing the required mitigation inspections to reliably detect these new counterfeiting methods. In addition to his longtime membership with ERAI Tom served 9 years on the board of directors of the IDEA and 2 consecutive terms as IDEA Vice President. He is a member of the Aerospace Industry Association's (AIA) Counterfeit Parts IPT committee, and also a member of the SAE G-19 committee which is continuing to develop new inspection and process standards in the fight against counterfeit electronic components in global supply chains. In 2011 Tom was requested to provide subject-matter-expert testimony before the formal Senate Armed Services Committee hearings on counterfeit electronic components within DoD supply chains. As part of this investigation the GAO chose SMT's lab facilities to provide all authentication and forensic analysis on behalf of the SASC investigation. Tom is very active on the Electronics Industry speaking tour and has become the leading voice from the independent sector in the fight against counterfeit components in the electronics industry. Tom's presentations serve to educate all sectors of the electronics industry about the growing dangers of counterfeits in today's market and best practices to reliably detect and mitigate these constantly evolving dangers.

Dan Deisz

Dan Deisz got his B.S.E.E. from the University of Alabama in 1984 and has more than 25 years' experience in design engineering, technology marketing, and engineering management. Dan started his career at Harris Government Systems in Melbourne, Florida, doing digital design. In his 20 years at LSI Logic from 1987 through 2007, he supported several hundred ASIC designs through the signoff process, managed all the North American Design Centers, and ended his tenure in Technology Marketing. Dan currently manages the Design Group at Rochester Electronics and is based out of their Rockville, Maryland, office. Previous publications include US patent 7424696 and patent application 20090285261.

Anne Poncheri

Anne Poncheri is a participating Member of SAE G-19 Counterfeit Electronic Components committee which is chartered to address aspects of preventing, detection, responding to and counteracting the threat of counterfeit electronic components. She is also an active member of several subcommittees responsible for writing test methods for counterfeit detection of electronic components.

Edward Minchin

In a 28-year career, Dr. Minchin has worked in nearly all major areas of highway construction. He started his career as a construction laborer with Trawick Construction before graduating from college and taking a job as an Estimator with Couch Construction Company (later APAC-Florida). Moving to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), he worked for a major construction owner in a number of capacities, including construction inspector, Project Engineer, Resident Engineer, and finally the state's Chief Area Construction Engineer. Once in academia, Dr. Minchin served as a consultant to the Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT) on two contracts dealing with the largest construction project in the state's history, the I-235 Corridor project through Des Moines. Finally, as a researcher, he has participated in numerous highway construction research projects for the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, the USDOT, IDOT, FDOT, and equipment manufacturers Ingersoll-Rand and Caterpillar. Dr. Minchin is a nationally-recognized authority on Construction Management, and has taught courses in Construction Law and Construction Contracts Interpretation. He has authored over 75 published papers and reports and has lectured nationally and internationally, once being awarded for the best paper at the top international construction conference - a paper based on his research of an FDOT construction project, and more recently serving as the Keynote Speaker of a national meeting of the construction industry in Beijing, China. He has been lead researcher on 13 projects worth over $1,100,000 and has assisted on several more worth over $1,400,000. Dr. Minchin also served for eight years as a reserve naval officer. His last assignment was as a battalion Company Commander in the U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps, earning a Naval Achievement Medal in 1992.

Randy Daugharthy

Bureau Veritas

Dan DiMase

Dan DiMase is the Director of Compliance and Quality at Honeywell International Inc, working in the counterfeit parts prevention team for the Aerospace strategic business group. He has primary responsibility for mitigating the severe and growing threat that counterfeit parts and cyber-physical systems security vulnerabilities pose to Honeywell Aerospace's highly diversified business operations. He is involved in implementing internal policies and procedures to mitigate counterfeit and cyber risks and manages customer and regulatory concerns. He participates in standards development activities to develop and deploy industry best practices and procedures for avoidance and detection of suspect counterfeit electronic parts and cyber vulnerabilities. He also contributes in site and supplier audits for Honeywell. He has worked on the NASA Contract Assurance Services team assisting NASA centers become compliant to the NASA EEE Parts Policy and the SAE AS5553 standard for mitigating counterfeit electronic parts. Dan DiMase is an active participant in SAE International's G-19 Counterfeit Electronic Parts Document Development group. He is chairman of the Test Laboratory Standards Development committee, co-chairman of the Distributor Process Rating committee, and actively participates on the Counterfeit Electronic Parts standard development committee for distributors. He has been active in the executive committee of the Aerospace Industry Association's Counterfeit Parts Integrated Projects Team. He is on the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of CBP in the Intellectual Property Rights subcommittee. He received a special recognition award at the DMSMS and Standardization 2011 Conference for his leadership role in mitigating counterfeit parts. Mr. DiMase has over 20 years of industry experience, previously serving in leadership positions as president of SemiXchange, Inc. and ERAI. He is a results-oriented leader proficient in supply-chain, operations and finance, with cross functional expertise in numerous areas, including international logistics, global sourcing, risk management, and strategic planning. He has a Six-Sigma Green Certificate from Bryant University. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from The University of Rhode Island. He has an Executive MBA from Northeastern University.

Erik Jordan

Erik Jordan is responsible for the sales of decapsulation equipment in North America. He specializes in equipping labs with automated decapsulation equipment for Failure Analysis and counterfeit detection. He has partnered with multiple organizations including SMTA, ERAI, CTI, ISTFA as well as Universities to present decapsulation as a counterfeit detection solution. He is a contributing member of SAE 6081 and is the head chair for decap on SAE 6171. Erik has published work with SMTA, ERAI and ISTFA regarding decapsulation as a method of counterfeit detection.

Bill Cardoso

Bill Cardoso, Ph.D., is the Chief Executive Officer and founder of Creative Electron. A native of Brazil, Bill came to the US in 1998 as a 'guest engineer' at the US Department of Energy's renowned Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), one of the leading research institutions for high energy and nuclear physics. In a nine year career at Fermilab and starting with an associate electronics degree earned in Brazil at age 13, Bill took on significant project, personnel, and budget responsibilities while at the same time he earned MS and PhD degrees from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and an MBA from the University of Chicago. After leaving Fermilab as Department Head for Electronic Systems Engineering, Bill moved to California to become the VP of Technology at the government contracting firm he eventually acquired from the estate of the founder to create Creative Electron in 2008. An industry thought leader, Bill has been recognized as IIT's 2011 Outstanding Young Alumnus Awardee for his contributions to science and technology. He is also a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA), American Physics Society (APS), and the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE). Bill is an active member of his community and is part of the technical committee of several conferences including the SMTA/CALCE Component Counterfeit Conference, SMTA International, Components for Military and Space Electronics Conference, SPIE Photonics, and the IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium. Bill serves in the G19 committee writing the standards for counterfeit detection for the aerospace and defense markets. He is also a reviewer of academic proposals for the Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, and National Science Foundation. He is the author of over 120 technical publications and contributor to 2 books, and is a frequent speaker at technical conferences on radiography and optical inspection worldwide. Bill is a holder of several patents in the areas of radiation detection, radiography, and quality inspection.

Sultan Lilani

Sultan Ali Lilani is Manager of Technical Business Development at Integra Technologies. Prior to joining Integra Technologies, Sultan held a similar position at Hi-Reliability Microelectronics, a Division of Silicon Turnkey Solutions. Previous to Hi-Rel Microelectronics, Sultan was Director of Quality and Reliability at NEC Electronics for 18 years and also served as Director of Product and Test at Akros Silicon, an energy management IC start-up. Sultan has in-depth knowledge of Reliability Engineering, Program Management, Testing and Qualification for Aerospace, Defense and Industrial applications for semiconductor products including Digital, Analog, Mixed Signal, ASICs, Microprocessors, Memory, Custom Semiconductors, Discretes, Linears and Passives. Sultan is the co-chair of SAE G19A Counterfeit Committee which is developing standards to detect suspect counterfeit components, promoting the maxim use of authentic parts, and helping ensure consistency of test techniques and requirements across the supply-chain.

Walter Keller

Walter J. Keller is a founder and the Chief Executive Officer of Nokomis, Inc. Founded in 2002 Nokomis is the pre-eminent company for the detection, identification and geolocation of electronics. Under Mr. Keller's leadership, Nokomis has developed unique ultra-sensitive RF and microwave capabilities that allow the sensing of unintended electronics emissions with substantially improved sensitivity, acuity and confidence over other available technologies. He has been the Principal Investigator on 12 related efforts with the Navy, Air Force, Army, Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Mr. Keller is listed as first inventor on 2 US Patents and has 10 patents pending related to Nokomis' counterfeit detection and ultra-sensitive Radio-Frequency (RF) sensor systems. Mr. Keller is the Program Manager for the Advanced Detection of Electronic Counterfeit (ADEC) Rapid Innovation Fund (RIF) contract with NAVSEA. This effort is focused on automated counterfeit detection technology, which offers higher-performance and lower-costs than existing methods, for high-profile Navy programs. Even counterfeit devices that conventional test methodologies find indistinguishable from an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) device emit subtle differences in emission spectrum that the ADEC technology is able to detect, process and exploit. Walter Keller received his B.S. in Physics from Union College, Schenectady, NY in 1991 and his M.S. in Physics from University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah in 1993.

Scott Moser

Scott Moser is a Business Development Manager for Commercial Accounts at Diagnosys Systems, Inc since 2007. Previously he has served for Acculogic, Scorpion Technologies and Schlumberger in various managerial roles.

Bhanu Sood

Bhanu Sood is the Director of the Test Services and Failure Analysis (TSFA) Laboratory at the University of Maryland's Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering. He holds Masters Degrees in Advance Materials Processing and Materials Science, and a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering. His research areas include electronic materials characterization, failure analysis of electronic components and assemblies, printed circuit board materials and conductive filament formation. Prior to joining CALCE in 2005 he worked at U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in the areas of embedded electronics, micro-power sources, Laser assisted micro-fabrication, characterization of electrically conductive polymeric formulations and advanced materials. His technical publications include papers on embedded electronics, energy storage systems and instrumentation for fatigue studies.

Matthew Lamberti

Matthew A. Lamberti is Trial Attorney at the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington, DC. At CCIPS, Mr. Lamberti prosecutes intellectual property (IP) and computer crime cases; counsels and trains prosecutors and law enforcement agents on IP and high-tech issues; and advises on legislation and policy issues relating to IP and computer crimes and the collection of electronic evidence. Before joining CCIPS, Mr. Lamberti was Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of California, focusing on federal crimes involving computers, IP, fraud, terrorism, and numerous other matters. As a member of the office's Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (CHIP) unit - which covers an area with a population of over 7.5 million, including Silicon Valley - he prosecuted some of the most complex computer and IP cases in the country. From 2007-2011, Mr. Lamberti served as DOJ's first Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordinator (IPLEC) for Eastern Europe. Based overseas, he worked to enhance the capacity of 25 countries in Central and Eastern Europe to investigate and prosecute IP crimes. As IPLEC, Mr. Lamberti helped train thousands of police, prosecutors, judges, and other officials from over 50 nations. In addition, Mr. Lamberti served for four years as Counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee. There, his responsibilities included covering crime, cybercrime, terrorism, homeland security, technology, victims' rights, and the United States Constitution. Before joining the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Lamberti worked as an attorney with Hogan & Hartson in Washington D.C. doing general and appellate litigation. Mr. Lamberti earned his B.A. from Yale University; an M.Phil. in Politics from Oxford University; and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.

Jeffery Chiow

Mr. Chiow is a member of the firm's Government Contracts Practice Group. He provides counsel on business and compliance issues faced by government contractors and he assists clients in contract disputes and all manner of government investigations. Particular interests include cybersecurity, supply chain assurance, technology services contracting, schedule contracting and contingency contracting. Mr. Chiow is a USMC Combat Veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan where he flew combat missions in an F/A-18D. He was awarded eight air medals, one with Combat "V". Chiow gained valuable legal experience from internships including: the Department of Justice, Criminal Fraud Division; Judge Roger Titus of the Federal District Court for the District of Maryland; the National Science Foundation's Office of Inspector General, and legislative intern to a Member of the House of Representatives.

Fred Schipp

Fred Schipp is an electrical engineer supporting both the Missile Defense Agency's Quality and Safety organization and the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, IN. Fred has helped MDA develop robust anti-counterfeit procedures, and has participated in the development of several industry anti-counterfeit standards. He has audited many government contractors and distributors to assess their anti-counterfeit processes, and has used that experience to gain knowledge on counterfeit part trends, supplier weaknesses, and industry best practices.

Janice Meraglia

Janice Meraglia is Vice President of Military and Government Programs. She joined Applied DNA Sciences almost three years ago at which point she began meeting with various government agencies and industry associations to discuss the anti-counterfeiting potential of our DNA marking application for electronics. Her focus has been to demonstrate the ease, flexibility and power of this solution as a means by which absolute, forensic authentication of originality can be determined at any and all points in the supply chain. In addition to working with scientists who hold PhDs in various biological and chemical disciplines, she has colleagues in sales with backgrounds in the electronics industry. Together their team represents a comprehensive and intelligent solution across the technical and business aspects necessary to effectively mitigate the risk of counterfeits.

Sharon Flank

Sharon Flank, CEO of InfraTrac, focused on providing anti-counterfeiting solutions to the pharmaceutical and medical device industry before turning her attention to electronic parts. An entrepreneur with a background in software, she founded InfraTrac in 2006, expanding on technology originally developed at the University of Maryland. InfraTrac develops product protection solutions that rely on spectroscopy. At eMotion and SRA International, Dr. Flank led technical efforts for successful commercial products, and helped create companies later sold to AOL and Kodak. She is the author of numerous journal articles, on anti-counterfeiting, medication errors, search engines, and natural language processing. Dr. Flank holds eight patents. She received her A.B. from Cornell and her Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Richard McDermott

Dr. Richard McDermott earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Leeds University in 1974 at age 25 and emigrated to the US in 1975. He purchased his first business in 1981 from W R Grace. A self described serial entrepreneur, McDermott has owned and operated 30 businesses over the last 33 years - some of them start-ups, others as large as $420 million annual sales with 1,300 employees. He acquired SignaKey four years ago. It now has facilities in Michigan, Arizona, Massachusetts, Alton UK and Zug Switzerland. He received the SME Donald C. Burnham Award for Exceptional Success in Manufacturing in 2007. He was past Chairman, Production Engineering Division ASME, a fellow in SME and ASME and has held numerous board positions both in US and Europe.

Peter Sandborn

Peter Sandborn is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Director of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) at the University of Maryland. His research interests include electronic part obsolescence management (including forecasting, mitigation and refresh planning), prognostics and health management for electronic systems (including optimal application of PHM to systems, and design for availability), technology tradeoff analysis for electronic packaging, parts selection and management for electronic systems, and system life-cycle and risk economics. He has also done work on return on investment, design for availability, and maintenance optimization for wind turbines and wind farms. Prior to joining the University of Maryland, he was a founder and Chief Technical Officer of Savantage, Inc. Dr. Sandborn has a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan and is the author of over 200 technical publications and books on multichip module design, electronic parts, and cost modeling. He is an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology, a member of the Board of Directors for the International PHM Society, and a Fellow of the IEEE and ASME. The Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE), the largest electronic products and systems research center focused on electronics reliability, is dedicated to providing a knowledge and resource base to support the development of competitive electronic components, products and systems.

Sina Shahbazmohamadi

Dr. Sina Shahbazmohamadi is currently a research fellow at CHASE (Center for Hardware Assurance, Security and Engineering) in University of Connecticut where he studies novel solutions for integrated circuits counterfeit detection and prevention. He is also CHASE's 3D imaging lab manager recently awarded one million dollar for enhancing equipment and counterfeit detection capabilities. He has earned his PhD in mechanical engineering from University of Connecticut in 2013 where he studied the mechanical behavior of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) used in gas-turbine engines. His efforts in this field led to the invention of a patented technology to predict the life of TBCs non-destructively and have been published in 10 journals and conference proceedings.

Matthias Steiert

Matthias Steiert studied from 2003 to 2010 micro system technology with a focus on Life Science at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg. Since May 2011, he is a research associate at the Chair of assembly and interconnection technology. In November 2013, Mr. Steiert finished his PhD with great praise on "Influence of dicing damages on the thermo-mechanical reliability of bare-chip assemblies". His current research focus is on new measuring method for shape and deformation measurement of electronic components under thermal stress. The focus here is the digital image correlation and the multi-wavelength holography.

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