Final Design Review 2015 | Cluster Presentation
Judges Update Coming Soon!
2014 ~ Cluster Presentation Judges
Sustainability and Food Processing
Warren Ali- Warren Ali is the Director of Manufacturing-Americas at Scholle Corporation where he is responsible for all aspects of manufacturing at 5 different plants worldwide including Merced. Prior to this post he has held positions at many food packaging and manufacturing companies including Campbell Soup Company, and Pinnacle Foods Group LLC. Mr. Ali holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati.
Doug Van Diepen- Mr. Van Diepen is Engineering Manager at Del Monte Foods, Inc. where he manages the Electrical, Instrumentation, Syrup, and Boiler departments and oversees buildings and grounds, water/waste water, and utilities. Doug holds a BS in Industrial Technology from California State University Fresno.
Luke Werner- Mr. Werner is the Energy Solutions Manager at Pacific Gas and Electric Company where he works to develop timely, reasonable and attainable solutions resulting in energy and greenhouse gas reductions. Luke is a Registered Professional Engineer (P.E.) in the state of California, has won the Competent Communicator Award from Toastmasters International and also holds a Department of Energy AirMaster+ Certification. Luke holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota.
Adam Selvin- Mr. Selvin is lead business architect for development and implementation of process and sales effectiveness for energy efficiency programs at PG&E. He has more than a decade of experience in energy efficiency engineering in technologies ranging from commercial HVAC systems to industrial processes and equipment. He is a registered Professional Engineer with a degree from UC Berkeley.
Healthcare Design and Water Efficiency
Mysty Rusk - In 2010, Ms. Rusk became a Partner with MyZe Strategies, a management consulting firm specializing in economic development, business consulting, and coaching. Ms. Rusk focuses on assisting start-ups and developing entrepreneurs and small businesses. She is former President of Corvallis-Benton EDP, former Board Chair of the Kansas Project with Sirolli Institute International Inc., and former Community Development Director with Benton County. Ms. Rusk earned her BS in Psychology from McPherson College and an Executive MBA from Friends University.
Brad Scheer - Mr. Scheer is a patent attorney with Schwegman, Lundberg & Woessner. He is a member of the UC Merced School of Engineering Advisory Board and an adjunct professor, teaching intellectual property law for engineers and scientists. Mr. Scheer has over 15 years of experience in research and development, engineering, and management prior to becoming a patent attorney. He currently has ten issued patents in the semiconductor field and has contributed to over 30 peer-reviewed journals and publications. He has served two consecutive terms as Chairman of the Industrial Advisory Board at Arizona State University. Mr. Scheer holds a BA in philosophy from Concordia College, a BS and MS in engineering from the University of Minnesota, and a J.D. with Honors from Lincoln University School of Law, San Jose, CA.
Jeremy Wilson - Mr. Wilson holds five U.S. patents and is currently a product engineer for Parker Hannifin-Racor, where he designs and develops filters and water-separation systems for light truck diesel applications. He has BS and MS degrees in ME and is a licensed Professional Engineer. He has also worked in engineering and R&D for Hewlett-Packard, Pelco, UC Davis, and UC Merced.
Vic Castillo - Dr. Castillo is an engineer and researcher in the Computational Engineering Division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). He has developed a dual-grid solver for compressible Navier-Stokes equation using cubic splines and has co-developed an implicit solver for multi-species hypersonic flow. He is very active in the STEM outreach program at LLNL, FIRST Lego League, FIRST Robotics Competition, Maker’s events and LLNL’s Teacher Research Academy for computer modeling and simulation. Dr. Castillo is currently a Visiting Scientist at UC Merced and California Polytechnic State University. He recently earned the 2013 Community Service Award from Great Minds in STEM. Dr. Castillo has a Ph.D. in Engineering Applied Science from UC Davis.
Scott Bryan - Mr. Bryan is COO of Imagine H2O- a nonprofit addressing water challenges. Prior to joining Imagine H2O, he served as a Financial Consultant specializing in sustainable investment for foundations and private investors with the Royal Bank of Canada. Mr. Bryan also served as Social Investment Analyst with Piper Jaffray, assessing environmental and social governance in investment processes. He is a member of Full Circle Fund’s Energy and Environment Circle and serves on the board of Vida Verde Nature Education in Half Moon Bay. Mr. Bryan holds a BA in Economics from Colorado College.
Dena Traina - Mrs. Traina graduated with her Bachelors and Masters degrees from UC Berkeley in civil engineering. She has worked for several consulting engineering companies throughout her career and is currently working for Provost & Pritchard Consulting Group in Modesto as a Principal Engineer and Project Manager. She has had the privilege of working for the last decade with the National Park Service on a variety of projects including the rehabilitation of the utilities in Yosemite Valley. She has also served as project manager for several UC projects including UC Davis’ Dairy Relocation Project and UC Merced’s Housing I and III projects as well as the Site and Infrastructure project. Dena currently serves as President for the San Joaquin Section of Society of Women Engineers and is always interested in promoting engineering to young women.
John Vikupitz - Mr. Vikupitz is President and CEO of Netafim Irrigation, Inc. He is currently focused on addressing the major drought issues of the western states and implications on agriculture and the political issues present with this problem. Mr. Vikupitz is the former National Sales Manager with CMB Industries and former Director of Marketing with Netafim. He earned his BS in Ag Engineering from California State Polytechnic University- Pomona and an MBA from University of Redlands.
Agriculture Process Optimization
Lance Donny - Donny is the CEO and founder of OnFarm Systems, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that integrates a comprehensive array of leading farm hardware technologies into a single management and decision platform. He has previously held leadership positions with PureSense, Valley Ventures Group, and United Security Bank.
Richard Shults - Engineering Manager, R&D - Light Truck Products at Parker Hannifin Corp., Racor Division. He has been a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers since 1992. Richard holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of the Pacific.
David Tucker - Tucker was most recently Project Manager for the expansion of Merced's Waste Water Treatment Plant which had its grand opening May 3, 2013. Prior to that he was the City Engineer for Merced where he was responsible for overseeing critical infrastructure construction at UC Merced. He has BS (SJSU) and MS (Stanford) degrees in Civil Engineering and is a Fellow and Life Member of ASCE.
Protecting Parks and Natural Resources
David Engelstad- Mr. Engelstad is Design Branch Chief within the Department of Health and Human Services. He is a commissioned officer (Commander) with the U.S. Public Health Service and works for the National Park Service Office of Public Health. His current assignment is in Yosemite National Park, Division of Project Management. David is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of North Dakota as well as a Masters of Engineering in Professional Practice from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Trevor Cox- Mr. Cox is the Owner and Founder at TC^2 as well as a Partner at Drop In Media Labs. He has 15 years of experience working with startups, VC/PE portfolio companies, Fortune 1000 public companies, and at top Silicon Valley law firms. Mr. Cox’s corporate development experience in M&A, business development and strategy include Guavas Inc. He is a California Attorney and UK Solicitor with a focus in M&A, IP/licensing, and corporate law.
Tony Oliveira - is a Professor of Economics at West Hills College, and owner of several Central Valley agriculture-related businesses. He served on the Board of for CalPERS, and as Chair of the Finance and Risk Committees. He also served as a member of the Kings County Board of Supervisors, chairing the Economic Development initiative. He currently chairs the Innovation and Technology Working Group for the San Joaquin Valley Regional Economic Summit.
Advanced Instruments and Controls
Babi Ati- Mr. Ati has over 25 years of experience in the tech industry and currently leads a Mechanical Engineering group at Schneider Electric’s Pelco division. Currently, he is responsible for leading a team of innovative and talented young engineers into developing IP cameras for the security industry. Prior to his assignment at Schnieder- Pelco Babi has held positions with AT&T, Fujitsu, and Cisco. Babi holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey.
David Black- David Black is a partner in Schwegman, Lundberg & Woessner in Minneapolis and a registered patent attorney in the firm. After earning a BSEE from University of Minnesota and working for Telex Communications, Inc , he received his law degree and joined Schwegman, Lundberg & Woessner. His areas of practice include Bioinformatics and computer hardware/software.
Alan Hollman- Mr. Hollman is the Vice Principal of Madera High School and teacher at the School of Engineering and Technology. He has gone beyond typical textbooks, study guides and pop quizzes. He wrote and created an innovative engineering course geared toward robotics creation and design. One of the major class assignments is inventing a mobile, multi-functional robot. The class climax is competing in a nationwide FIRST robotics competition. He led his team to the FIRST world championship robotics 2014 competition in St. Louis.
Mike Wegley- Mike Wegley is a Civil Engineer who currently serves as Public Works Director for Water Resources and Aviation for the City of Merced. He previously served in a variety of roles for the cities of Hanford and Merced, including as city engineer and principal civil engineer.
