Howard Michel

Howard Michel, IEEE President, 2015, faculty of the University of Dayton and is currently at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, where he has graduated three Ph.D. and thirty-five M.S. students.

Biography

Howard E. Michel earned the following academic degrees: B.S. in Electrical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, 1975; M.S. in Systems Management, University of Southern California, 1981; M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1988; and Ph.D. in Computer Science & Engineering, Wright State University, 1999.

Since joining IEEE more than four decades ago, Michel has held a variety of leadership positions, including 2015 IEEE President and 2011 Vice President of Member and Geographic Activities (MGA), where he led efforts to enhance IEEE’s member and volunteer communities. In addition to his efforts within MGA, Michel also chaired the Public Visibility Committee that created IEEE’s “Advancing Technology for Humanity” tagline.

An IEEE Senior Member, Michel has been a member of the faculty of the University of Dayton and is currently at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, where he has graduated three Ph.D. and thirty-five M.S. students. In addition, Michel is a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense and private industry, specializing in the area of embedded systems, avionics, instrumentation, and systems engineering. He has authored and published dozens of papers on intelligent systems, artificial neural networks, and optical computing. Michel holds patents for a distributed seismic and acoustic sensor system for detecting low flying aircraft, and an advanced artificial neural network based on high frequency analog signals.

Prior to his efforts as a consultant, Howard had a long and distinguished career as a U.S. Air Force pilot, satellite launch director, and engineer. While with the U.S. Air Force, he served as a senior U.S. Government technical representative enforcing technology-transfer control plans and procedures during two satellite launches, working with key technology leaders in the People’s Republic of China. Other achievements include successfully launching seven U.S. satellites by directing launch-base test and integration involving booster, satellite, and telemetry-range hardware; and developing U.S. Department of Defense engineering processes for mission-critical computer systems.