Alumni Council
From Alumni
The College of Computing established the Computing Alumni Organization in 2001. Its purpose is severalfold and includes creating and fostering of an alumni community as well as supporting the continued excellence of the College. The alumni organization is open to all graduates and students of the College and its predecessors (IS, ICS). The alumni organization is governed by a council composed of a chair, vice chair, secretary, treasurer, and members-at-large. Under the auspices of the council's first chair, Reza Ghorieshi, the organization was created. Kipp Jones took over the alumni organization in 2005. Under his guidance, a charter and by-laws were formalized, the organization was recogized as an affinity group by the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, and a challenge grant program (also with the Alumni Association) was established to raise funds for the group.
If you would like to volunteer or be a member of the alumni council, please contact any of the current council members.
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Council Members
Officers
Bobby Krupczak Chairman (rdk@krupczak.org)
Bobby Krupczak, Ph.D. CS 1997 (Networking, systems), is currently Chief Scientist at the Krupczak Organization where his research interests are many and varied. While in graduate school, Bobby and his wife Cheryl founded Empire Technologies which developed products for systems and application management. Their profitable company had 400-plus customers when they sold it in 1999. In 2003, Bobby briefly retired but has now started another software company with Cheryl. Their new startup focuses on the interactions between systems, applications, and networks and applies peer-to-peer concepts to de-centralize the traditional manager/agent model common in today's management architectures. Bobby resides in Smyrna, Georgia with Cheryl and their three children.
Tucker Balch Vice Chairman (tucker.balch@cc.gatech.edu)
Tucker earned a BS in ICS and a PhD in CS at Georgia Tech. He is now an Associate Professor in the Interactive Computing Division. Professor Balch hopes that as an alumnus and a member of the faculty, he can help strengthen ties between these groups. While campaigning for Vice Chairperson of the Alumni Council, Tucker promised that, if elected, he would work closely with the administration to ensure a timely redeployment of of CSS faculty from their CCB positions to the KACB territories.
Martin Westbrook Secretary (mwestbrook@yahoo.com)
Martin started meeting with the Computing alumni in 2004, and joined the Computing Alumni Organization as Secretary in the Fall of 2005. After graduating from Georgia Tech with a BS in Computer Science, Martin has worked in the computing industry in the Atlanta area for 14 years. His focus is on software product development and strategic product delivery. Martin currently works in product strategy and delivery at nuBridges, an eBusiness company.
Mark Pearson Treasurer (Mark.Pearson@SunTrust.com)
Mark Pearson, Ph.D. CS 1993 (Distributed Systems) is Senior Vice President and Chief Architect at SunTrust Banks, Inc., an Atlanta-based financial holding company. Prior to his role at SunTrust, Mark held various senior technical and corporate development roles at S1 Corporation, was a senior member of technical staff at IBM Corporation (Transarc), and a practice manager for Gartner. Mark lives in the Virginia Highland neighborhood with his wife Diana and daughter.
This position is open Communication
This position is open Events Planning
Council Members at Large
Pam Buffington (pam@gatech.edu)
Pam grew up in Dodge City KS with a brief year in Alstonville Australia as an exchange student. She came to Georgia Tech in 1990 and received her BS in CS in 1995. She worked part time while in college in CoC's CNS group. Upon graduation, Pam accepted a position with CNS where she stayed through its transition to TSO until 2006. She is currently working for the CTO of Georgia Tech working on campus technology projects. Pam is married with two children -- Sydney (3) and Rebecca (5). During her "copious" free time she likes to read books, travel and play computer games.
Kipp Jones (kippster@yahoo.com)
As a member of the technical and executive teams of more than 10 early stage companies, he has helped raise over $100 million in funding and helped bring several successful technology products and services to market. His technology focus has been centered on the Internet and Web specific technologies, security, information management, wireless/nomadic networks, and video distribution. His experience in building technology businesses from the ground up provides a basis to understand and formulate methods for technology introduction, diffusion, applicability, financing, and business modeling. Kipp received his BS in Computer Science from the University of Nebraska at Kearney in 1988 and an MS in CS from Georgia Tech in 1995. He is currently a second year PhD student in the Computing Science and Systems division at Georgia Tech.
Chelsea Navo graduated from Georgia Tech with a BS CS, specialization in Software Engineering in 2004. Chelsea works for Lockheed Martin at the CDC as a Sr .NET Developer. This is her third year being on the CoC Alumni Council and her fourth year as a Georgia Tech Roll Call member. Chelsea serves as the National Vice President of Alumnae Relations for Omega Phi Alpha, National Service Sorority. In the Atlanta community, she is a member of the AtlantaSPIN. She currently lives in Mableton, GA with her husband, Chris Navo (BS CS 2005).
Richard Wang (richard.s.wang@accenture.com)
Richard S. Wang (BS CS 98) is a Senior Manager with Accenture's Technology Consulting practice with a focus in Network Technologies. While at Tech, he held various leadership positions in Student Government, Interfraternity Council, and the GT Taekwondo Club. Additionally, he was a Technology supervisor for the Olympic Village at Georgia Tech during the 1996 Olympic Games. He resides in Buckhead and is married to Stephanie Allen-Wang (B EE 01, MS HCI Candidate).
Dean Jerding (djerding@gmail.com)
Dean Jerding (PhD CS '97, MS CS '96) is President of Infinovate, a custom software development and consulting company he founded with two partners in 2006. Dean is an expert in software architecture and design, software engineering, and UI design and usability--spanning the software stack from the user to the metal and front-end to the back-end. Prior to Infinovate Dean served as VP of R&D at ClickFox, a technology start-up out of Tech. He has also worked at Scientific-Atlanta. Dean lives in Roswell with his wife Marcia and three children.
Kamal Kakish (profkakish@gmail.com)
Kamal Kakish (MS ICS '88, BS ICS '82) is the Chief Technologist of Cobam, Inc. He has over twenty five years experience in the Information Technology and Quality Management industries, with special emphasis and focus on IT Architectures and Six Sigma, and related issues. He has been a senior executive at both fortune 100 and entrepreneurial technology organizations, including the founding CIO of a computer services company. He has served in several executive ranks as CIO, Sr. Vice President of Engineering and Product Development, Vice President of Quality, Director of IT, Director of Strategic Planning, Principal Consultant, Chief Architect, and Six Sigma Champion.
In addition, Mr. Kakish has been an Adjunct Professor for over ten years. He has taught several Information Technology, Business Administration, and Quality Management courses and seminars at a number of reputable universities and educational institutions within the US and abroad. During his academic career he has taught a range of courses including Business Strategies in Electronic Commerce, Project Management, Risk Management, IT Systems Architecture, Quality Management, Network Security, System Analysis & Design, and Six Sigma. Kamal Kakish is currently in the final stage of completing his doctorate degree in Management of Information Technology (DMIT) from Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan.
Past Council Members
Bryan Rank (bryan.rank@gmail.com)
Ayo Alaran (ayo@sloan.mit.edu)
Reza Ghorieshi (reza@mindspring.com)
Allen Vance (allen.vance@gmail.com)
Meetings
Meetings for Fall 2008:
- Thursday Sept 25th
- Wednesday Nov 12th
- Wednesday Dec 10th
Meetings for Winter/Spring 2008:
- Thursday January 17th
- February 21st -> February 28th
- March 20th
- April 17th
- May 15th
Meetings for the Fall semester 2007:
- Thursday September 20th,7pm
- Thursday October 18th, 7pm
- Thursday, November 15th, 7pm
Meeting Notes
Current Projects
* Alumni Survey
AV 1st Draft of CoC Alumni Survey...council members please add/modify...
One a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest, rate your interest in each of the following possible CoC alumni events:
a. Professional/industry event with a speaker and/or moderated panel
b. Alumni casual mixer type event on campus (i.e., Klaus Advanced Computing Building atrium)
c. Alumni casual mixer type event off campus (restaurant, bar etc.)
d. New Grad mixer for CoC seniors
e. Other _________________________
Are you aware of the annual CoC alumni mixers that have taken place hosted by alumni and faculty members each of the last two years ?
___ Yes
___ No
Would you be interested in attending the next mixer ?
___ Yes
___ No
For a professionally-focused event, on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest, rate your interest in each of the following topics:
a. Net neutrality
b. Privacy, Security, Data Sharing and Identity theft issues
c. One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative
d. "Green"/sustainability issues
e. Cloud computing, SaaS, related
f. Linux/(Free) Open Source Software
g. Other _____________________
About how often would you be able to participate in any CoC alumni event:
a. Once per month
b. Once per quarter
c. Twice a year
d. Once a year
e. Very seldom or never
On a scale of 1 to 5, rate your interest in receiving information about the following:
a. Faculty comings and goings
b. Profiles of individual alumni
c. College of Computing research
d. Upcoming speakers on campus
e. Upcoming alumni social events
f. Student news and accomplishments
How would you most prefer to receive this news? (pick one)
g. Posted on alumni wiki/Facebook page
h. In a periodic email communication
i. In a periodic print mailing
j. In the Georgia Tech alumni publications I already receive
k. On the CoC website
To which of the following activities would you be willing to donate your time: (pick all that apply)
l. Serving as a mentor to current CoC students
m. Serving as a mentor to CoC alumni
n. Recruiting other alumni to become active in the Computing Alumni Organization
o. Organizing Computing Alumni Organization events
p. Serving on the Alumni Council
- Spring Social 2008
- Professional Event, Winter/Spring semester, 2008 OLPC related
- Service Program (rdk)
- Alumni-alumni mentor program
- Alumni-student member program
- Socials, lunch, resume review, practice interviews, career guidance
- Recruiting students to GaTech
- POP program
- Annual Report (rdk)
- Membership Initiatives
- New Grad Pizza (2008)
- Recruiting new grads, phoneathon
- Membership cards
-
New Grad Pizza Social
-
Website
- Revise and update bylaws
- Elections in December
- Endowment account
- Financial statement
- Audio/video podcasting and distribution of CoC related events
- Alumni interaction with the CoC
- Monthly guest lecture series
- Mentor program
- Others, TBD
