Chesapeake Chapter
Board of Directors
Back: Don York, John Lewis and Paul Martin.
Front: Bob Berkovits, George Anderson, Bhanumati Sunkara, and Glenn Gillaspy. Missing: Gundars Osvalds
Board of Director Officers, 2011
President: Mr. John Lewis
Mr. Lewis has served as an information system architect and team leader on numerous commercial and government projects. The $100m DARPA Initiative in Current Engineering (DICE) gave him a dozen subcontracts to manage, the Product Process Organization (PPO) model for the enterprise, the GE Concurrent Engineering Toolkit (an early offering of engineering and manufacturing services on the INTERNET), and cross disciplinary tools for designing/manufacturing dozens of products. That experience lead to other enterprise models like the Army Material Command Information Systems Architecture (AMCISA) and the Army Operational Data Repository (AODR). Mr. Lewis was also responsible for designing and developing software products like the GE/DEC VAX Decision Expert and hardware products like the signal processing front end for the pioneering Yale ELI workstation and its application to the analysis of cardiac rhythms. Mr. Lewis earned a BS in Physics at Stanford University and a PhD in Computer Science from Yale University. He has taught at Yale University, SUNY Albany, Union College, Arizona University, Johns Hopkins, and UMBC. John in the past has served as director of communications in the INCOSE Chesapeake Chapter.
Past-President: Mr. George Anderson
Mr. Anderson has more than 40 years experience as a practicing Systems, Aeronautical and Mechanical engineer. He has worked in the Aviation, Automotive and Defense Contracting Business areas and is currently employed by Camber/I2s, in Columbia, MD as a senior systems engineer working in standards and strategic planning. Prior to joining Camber, he worked for Titan, Inc. as a Systems Architect, for TASC, as a Process Engineer, and, for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), as a member of the Major Aircraft Accident Investigation (Go) Team. He also served in the U.S. Air Force as a pilot and engineer where he participated in the design, procurement and engineering support of the A-10, C12, F-111, F-105, and F-100 aircraft. He flew combat missions in Viet Nam in the EC-47 Electronic Warfare aircraft and received the Distinguished Flying Cross for a mission flown in support of the Marines during the battle of Khe-Sanh. He earned his BS degree at the US Air Force Academy in 1964 and a MSAE from the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) School of Engineering in 1973. He has been recognized by recent company and DoD citations for his work with architecture development, process improvement, and contributions to improving network interoperability.
President Elect : Mr. Gundars Osvalds
Mr. Gundars Osvalds is a Senior Principal Enterprise Architect at Northrop Grumman where he is responsible for developing processes that support the design of systems that meet the needs of our customers. Mr. Osvalds supports large government transformation programs with systems engineering and architecture tasks, including planning, implementation and reviews of architectural products, and processes for architectural design and modeling. Mr. Osvalds has used and supported the DoDAF and OMB FEA architecture frameworks for the Federal Government and DoD communities. Currently Mr. Osvalds is developing Model Driven Systems Engineering techniques and tools for use in large systems. Mr. Osvalds is a member of the INCOSE team supporting the ISO on enterprise architecture concepts for the next version of ISO 15704 and 42010 (an update of IEEE 1471). He supported the Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC) Interoperability Framework (NIF) Architectural Concepts Functional Team and Working Group in the development of the NIF Reference Manual.
Treasurer: Mr. Glenn Gillaspy
Glenn Gillaspy holds an MBA from the University of South Dakota and a BBA from Texas Christian University (TCU). His SE professional experience since 2002 has been at Ft. Meade and FBI headquarters. He was awarded DAWIA Level III in program management in an assignment while awaiting his polygraph. Prior to that, Glenn was with SAIC for two years at Edgewood Arsenal and the Boeing Company for seventeen years in their Washington, DC office and their Helicopter division in Philadelphia. His assignments include: the V-22 Osprey / Tilt-rotor program office, successful proposals, Boeing Computer Services and advanced research programs. His Army Reserve military assignments as an officer include program manager and auditor-in-charge. While on active duty he was an Air Force missile combat crew commander in an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) command post. Decorations include: 15th Air Force combat readiness medal, outstanding unit award and marksmanship. His military schools include: the Government Comptrollership Course, and the Senior Internal Auditor Course and missile operations, all in residence. Off-hour activities include various technical and business correspondence courses, a board member with the Big Brother / Big Sisters organization, Certified Toastmasters, Lions club, the American Legion, and church work.
Secretary: Mr. Bob Berkovits
Mr. Berkovits has more than 40 years experience as a Systems and Electrical Engineer. He is currently employed by Northrop Grumman’s Electronic Systems Division in Linthicum, MD, as a Senor Electromagnetic Environmental Effects (E3/EMC) Engineer. Project responsibilities have included systems requirements, hardware design, and testing of land, sea and airborne radar and ESM systems. He has worked on various design, analysis and testing aspects of the A-10, EA-6B, A6, EF-111 and F-14D aircraft. Prior to this, he worked for GTE Sylvania, IIT Research Institute, GE, and supported the USAF Electronic Systems Division at Hanscom AFB, MA. In addition to his INCOSE participation, Mr. Berkovits serves on several IEEE committees and is the chair of the IEEE EMC society in Baltimore. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BSEE, took graduate courses at Penn, and obtained a MS in Systems Engineering at Boston University. His thesis title was: Memory Requirements Analysis for a Weather Data Acquisition System of an LTA Airship. He has completed further graduate courses in Clinical Engineering, Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Safety Engineering. His current interests are primarily in EMC and he has attended recent courses in Systems Engineering and Risk Management.
Directors at Large
Communications: Mr. Paul Martin
Mr. Martin has more than 20 years experience as a General Engineer specializing in Systems Development and Procurement in the Defense Acquisition community. He is presently working as a Senior Systems Engineer for Serco-NA, Inc. He is also an Adjunct Professor for the UMBC College of Engineering and Information Technology, Systems Engineering Graduate Programs, where he teaches ENEE 663: System Implementation, Integration, and Test. He also teaches a CSEP preparation for UMBC Training Center. He has earned a Master of Science in Systems Engineering along with a Certificate in Software Systems Engineering from George Mason University in 1994. He also has a DAWIA Level III certification in Systems Planning, Research, Development and Engineering. In March 2007 he became an INCOSE “Certified Systems Engineering Professional.”
Programs: Dr. Donald York
Dr. York has over 30 years of professional experience in the areas of Mechanical and Systems Engineering. He has been an active member of INCOSE since 1994 formerly serving as co-chair of the Requirements Management Working Group. He is a licensed professional engineer, a Certified Systems Engineering Professional and holds a PhD in Information Technology Systems Engineering from George Mason University. His doctoral thesis was entitled: An Early Indicator to Predict Requirements Volatility. Dr. York has taught systems engineering at the graduate level at both George Mason University and the University of Maryland Baltimore County. He is currently a senior systems engineer with TASC. Prior to joining TASC, Dr. York was engaged in the development, engineering and deployment of leading edge technologies and systems at Sage Management, AT&T Bell Laboratories, the Westinghouse Research and Development Center, and Northrop Grumman Corp.
Membership Committee: Ms. Bhanumati Sunkara
Bhanumati Sunkara holds bachelor degree in Electrical and Communication Engineering from Government College of Engineering, Kakinada, India. Other educational background includes graduate level courses in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University and various other engineering courses within Westinghouse/NGC. She worked at Westing house/Northrop Grumman Corporation, Electronic Systems for 33 years in Systems Engineering and Software Quality Engineering. Systems Engineering experience is in Requirements Management, Radar Flight Data Analysis and Integration and Test activities. Mission Assurance experience includes Software Quality audits, engineering tool certifications, customer interface for Radar system sell off efforts, test software and test data evaluation. Received customer recognition award for supporting the customer in various efforts.
- IEEE Member – From 1986 to 2003
- INCOSE member since 2005 and has been the membership chair for Chesapeake chapter since 2006.
Click here for Past Board of Directors.
New Student Division started by the Chesapeake Chapter
The Chesapeake Chapter Board of Directors (BOD) are proud to announce the inauguration of the new Student Division. The event occurred at the recent BOD meeting held on July 14, 2010 with the official acceptance of the Student Division. Present at the event with the BOD were Steve Biemer, Student Division Faculty Advisor and Student Division President, Matt Alexander. Once again, Johns Hopkins University, has shown generous support to the Chesapeake Chapter by recommending Steve Biemer as the Faculty Advisor.
Other local universities and colleges, such as the University of Maryland Baltimore College (UMBC) will also be engaged in the growth of the Student Division. The new Division is one of only six Student Divisions that are part of the INCOSE international organization.
Student Division President: Mr. Matthew A. Alexander
Matthew is both a Senior Information Systems Engineer at MITRE Corporation and a graduate student in the Johns Hopkins Systems Engineering Masters program.
He has been involved with INCOSE since December 2008. He has over four years of experience helping local chapters of various professional associations thrive in strategic and tactical roles. He has designed, marketed, and managed events and in high visibility roles. Underlying these contributions have been how he brings the right mix of vision, an attention to detail, and a hands-on approach where necessary in the areas of organizational strategy, strategic communications, chapter events, governance, and creating unique partnerships with local universities.
In his 5+ years of work experience, he has developed system solutions for the Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Army and the U.S. Census Bureau. Earlier in his career, he worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Neutron Science Center, a biotech company, and a Fortune 200 healthcare company. He is ASEP certified and preparing for his U.S. DoD Acq extension exam as well. In addition, Matthew is ITIL V3 Foundation certified. In 2010, he attended the 3rd International Conference on Model-Based Systems Engineering and the AFCEA-GMU C4I Center Symposium: Critical Issues in C4I during and between semesters.
Faculty Advisor:
Mr. Steven M. Biemer
Mr. Biemer is currently APL’s Systems Engineering Competency Advancement Coordinator, responsible for the Laboratory's internal initiative designed to expose, educate and train over half of the technical staff in systems engineering principles and practices. He is also co-authoring the second edition of the book by the same title.
From 2006-2009, Mr. Biemer was the Naval Analysis and Assessments Program Area Manager within the National Security Analysis Business Area. In this position, he worked with Navy and Marine Corps organizations responsible for analytical assessments of manpower, warfighting systems and naval platforms. Activities include: planning and executing analytical studies that support budgetary decisions within the annual Program Objective Memorandum process for the Chief of Naval Operations’ deputies; evaluating system and warfighting concepts for the SECNAV’s Office of Program Appraisal; and assessing medical manpower requirements and process improvements for the Bureau of Naval Medicine. From FY06 to FY09, Mr. Biemer increased the area’s business base from $6.5M to $15.5M.
Previously, Mr. Biemer was assigned responsibility within N70/N81 for the technical coordination, synthesis and integration of the four Sea Power-21 Pillars (Sea Shield, Sea Strike, Sea Basing, FORCEnet) (2005-06). This included acting as lead analyst and integrator for the Integrated Strategic Capabilities Plan for PR-07. In the previous budget cycle, Mr. Biemer was the Sea Shield Studies and Analysis Coordinator, for the five Sea Shield Mission Capability Packages (2003-04).
The previous two years (2001-2003) were spent on-site at the National Security Agency (NSA) where he developed NSA Enterprise and SIGINT system architecture products and evaluation techniques. During that time, Mr. Biemer was the Acting SIGINT Architect for nine months while NSA searched for a government employee with the qualifications necessary for the position.
As Supervisor of the Joint Theater Analysis Group (1996-2001), he performed as study lead and principal investigator on various integrated warfare tasks, increasing the group from 9 technical staff to more than 30 engineers and analysts. These study efforts related to joint theater-level analysis of land attack warfare, joint theater air defense and ground operations, and functional command, control and communications analyses. As Assistant Group Supervisor before then (1995-1996), he was Joint Force and Campaign Analysis Team Lead for the Surface Combatant 21 Cost and Operational Effectiveness Analysis (COEA). Prior to this (1991-1994), he was Section Supervisor within the Strike Warfare Group with lead roles in the Destroyer Variant Study, Tomahawk Improvement Program COEA, and F/A-18 Electronic Warfare COEA.
Mr. Biemer holds the following degrees: B.S.E in Mathematical Sciences from Johns Hopkins University; M.S. in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University; M.S. in Technical Management from Johns Hopkins University; and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Information Technology / Systems Engineering at George Mason University. He is a frequent instructor and curriculum developer for the Johns Hopkins University’s Engineering for Professionals, in the Systems Engineering Department. Mr. Biemer is a current member of INCOSE, IEEE and MORS.