Bernie Newman is Director of Software Engineering at Astronautics Corporation of America where he oversees all of the aspects of software development in the company.

During his career he was engaged in software design and verification activities with increasing roles of responsibility from team member, to team leader, to software architect for over 12 years. He became a department supervisor and, with growth in the software department, ultimately became department manager and finally director.

Associated with MSOE
Mr. Newman has been associated personally with MSOE actively since early 2008, as a member of the Industry Advisory Committee. Astronautics Corporation of America has also been associated with MSOE for many years, including membership on the Electrical Engineering Industry Advisory Committee. The company's founder, Nathaniel Zelazo, is a Regent Emeritus and past Member of Corporation of MSOE since 1980, and received an honorary doctorate from MSOE.

Mr. Newman has hosted students and staff at meetings at Astronautics Corporation of America headquarters, and met with students for informal discussions. He arranged to send volunteer judges to the 2008 Bug Stomp, attended the event and secured a major part of the event sponsorship.

Mr. Newman's advice for students
Devote an equal amount of attention to software verification as you do to design. Learn to practice "ego-less" programming, where you seek to disassociate your own personality from the code that you are producing. Attend as many English writing and communications classes as possible; effective written communications is essential.

The Software Engineering program has been well planned to address all aspects of software development as it is actually practiced, or should be practiced, in the workplace. The program will get you well prepared to be productive in as short a time as possible when you start your first job.

Gary Parker is a QA Architect for Compuware Corporation. In this role he helps IT organizations improve their development process, lower software failure rates and improve software life cycle times. He began his career as a programmer/analyst and migrated toward software verification and validation.

MSOE involvement
Mr. Parker has been a member of the SE IAC since 1998.

Advice for students
There are a lot of different areas of IT other than software development. Do not hesitate to explore them as you may find something you really enjoy. If you are considering IT as a profession you couldn't find a better university with a curriculum that gives you a broad base of understanding and skills from which to build a career.

Travis Piotrowski '91 is the Director of Solution Architecture at Northwestern Mutual where he is responsible directing an organization of solution architects who work within the various business units to transform business problems and opportunities into feasible and comprehensive solutions enabled by technology.

He started out as a developer working on the mainframe then moved to a software engineer role for several n-tier systems. This eventually became a team lead over the engineering competency center and later turned into managing an Infrastructure team.    His previous software engineering and managerial experience enabled him to take on his current role as the director of solution architecture.

MSOE involvement
Mr. Piotrowski graduated from MSOE in 1991 with a BA in Computers & Business.  He has been a member of the SE IAC since 2005.

Advice for students
Never stop learning, be an active reader, and listen more than you talk.  The soft skills are often more important than the technical skills if you want to advance your career.  MSOE graduates are the most prepared and well rounded students we hire.   If you want to stand out from the crowd after graduation, choose MSOE.

Jeff Renken has been the Engineering Manager for Johnson Controls since 2004, where he manages a team of software engineers who specialize in operating systems and communications.

He began his professional career with Northrop Grumman as a software engineer/aerospace engineer in 1992.  Subsequently he worked through engineering positions with increasing levels of responsibility and leadership. He transitioned from engineering to full-time management in 2002.

MSOE involvement
His previous supervisor at Johnson Controls, Scott Holland, is an MSOE alumnus and was a member of the SE IAC.  Mr. Renken replaced Holland as JCI's representative on the SE IAC in 2005. 

Advice for students
Take full advantage of the excellent educational opportunities that are available at msoe.  An internship/co-op position in engineering is great to have on your resume. In my experience, part of the complete college experience is involvement on and around the campus.