Alumni

Engineering Alumni Receive 5 of 9 VUAA Awards

This past October, the Valparaiso University Alumni Association recognized nine alumni for outstanding accomplishments, five of whom were engineering alumni.

Receiving the alumni achievement award for extraordinary success in their professions, were:

Linda (Ivett ’78 ME) Allen of Kennesaw, Ga. She has spent a 28-year career at Lockheed Martin in a variety of positions, including leadership of international inspection teams and aircraft fleet support teams, as well as management of major aeronautical proposal projects. Allen currently directs modification and sustainment activities for the C-130 fleet. She has been a member of the Valpo Guild since 1979 and serves on Valpo's College of Engineering National Council.
James Beyreis ’66 CE of Arlington Heights, Ill. He holds the position of vice president of technical training for the global fire and signaling sector at Underwriters Laboratories Inc., where he has worked for more than 40 years. The National Fire Protection Association presented its Distinguished Service Award to Beyreis in 1996 and the Environmental Protection Agency honored him with its Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award in 1990.
Duane Rabe ’76 EE of Hawthorn Woods, Ill. During 30 years at Motorola, Rabe helped design and develop many leading cellular phone models, and was chief architect for the world's first commercial digital cellular phones. The inventor of 25 patents with several more pending, Motorola named Rabe a Dan Noble Fellow, its highest honor for technical impact, and presented him the Master Innovator award, its most prestigious recognition for creativity and innovation. In 2006 he retired and founded the private consulting firm Duane Rabe & Associates. He serves on the College of Engineering National Council.

Winners of the outstanding young alumnus award, which recognizes alumni under the age of 40 who have distinguished themselves, were:

Dr. Mikko Lipasti ’91 CPE of Middleton, Wis. He has worked for IBM, Intel and Sun Microsystems and currently is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Wisconsin. Lipasti's groundbreaking research in the area of dependent data value prediction was recognized with the 2002 Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding Young Electrical and Computer Engineer Award.
Dr. Scott Sanders ’97 ME of Madison, Wis. An associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin, his research has focused on the development of optical diagnostics for gas sensing to improve the performance of combustion engines. Sanders has earned four patents and received the Silver Combustion Medal at the International Symposium on Combustion in 2002.