Friday, April 25, 2025

IEEE Requirements Legend Koepfinger Passes at 99


Joseph Koepfinger

Developed requirements for electrical energy techniques

Life Fellow, 99; died 6 January

Koepfinger was an energetic volunteer with the
American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE), an IEEE predecessor society. He made important contributions to the fields of surge safety and electrical energy engineering.

Within the early Fifties he took half in a three-year activity drive learning distribution circuit reliability as a member of AIEE’s
surge protecting units committee (SPDC), in keeping with his ArresterWorks biography.

In 1955
he helped revise the AIEE Normal 32 on impartial grounding units and was a part of a workforce that developed pointers for energy transformer loadings.

Within the Sixties he grew to become chair of the SPDC and initiated efforts to develop requirements for low-voltage surge protectors. Later, Koepfinger served on the
IEEE Requirements Affiliation Board and contributed to the event of IEEE requirements for lightning arresters and surge protectors.

He obtained a number of awards for his work in requirements growth, together with the
IEEE Requirements Affiliation’s first Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 and the 1989 IEEE Charles Proteus Steinmetz Award. In 2008 he was inducted into the Surge Safety Corridor of Fame, a tribute webpage honoring engineers who’ve contributed to the sphere.

Koepfinger had a 60-year profession at
Duquesne Mild, in Pittsburgh, retiring in 2000 as director of its system research and analysis division. After retirement, he continued to function a technical advisor for the Worldwide Electrotechnical Fee, a requirements group.

He obtained bachelor’s and grasp’s levels in electrical engineering from the
College of Pittsburgh in 1949 and 1953.

Bruce E. Arnold

Electrical engineer

Life member, 81; died 16 January

Arnold was {an electrical} engineer and pc help specialist. He started his profession in 1967 at stitching machine producer Singer in New York Metropolis. As supervisor {of electrical} design and electromechanical gear, he developed new digital and motor bundle subsystems for high-volume shopper stitching machines.

Arnold left Singer in 1983 to hitch
Revlon, a New York Metropolis–primarily based cosmetics firm, as director {of electrical} engineering. There he designed digital and pneumatic techniques for automated manufacturing and robotic automation.

Ten years later he modified careers, turning into a pc help specialist at Degussa Corp., a chemical manufacturing firm in Piscataway, N.J. Degussa is now a part of
Evonik.

Arnold retired in 2006 and have become a guide.

He obtained a bachelor’s diploma in electrical engineering in 1969 from the Newark Faculty of Engineering (now the
New Jersey Institute of Know-how). He earned a grasp’s diploma in EE in 1975 from NJIT.

William Hayes Kersting

Electrical engineering professor

Life Fellow, 88; died 7 January

Kersting taught electrical engineering for 40 years at his alma mater, New Mexico State College, in Las Cruces.

Throughout his tenure, he established the college’s
electrical utility administration program. He printed greater than 70 educational analysis articles. He additionally wrote Distribution System Modeling and Evaluation, a textbook that’s broadly utilized in graduate applications worldwide.

He was an energetic volunteer of the
IEEE Energy & Power Society, serving on its schooling committee and distribution techniques evaluation subcommittee.

Kersting obtained the
Edison Electrical Institute’s 1979 Energy Engineering Training Award.

Richard A. Olsen


Human elements
engineer

Life member, 90; died 7 November

Olsen made important contributions to aerospace protection applied sciences and transportation security. He specialised in human elements engineering, a discipline that focuses on designing merchandise, techniques, and environments which might be secure, environment friendly, and straightforward for individuals to make use of. Whereas working as a human elements engineer on the
Lockheed Missiles and House Co. in Sunnyvale, Calif., he contributed to early pointers for computer-human interplay.

He helped construct the first-generation
Picture Knowledge Exploitation (IDEX) system, utilized by intelligence companies and the army to research digital imagery.

After receiving a bachelor’s diploma in physics in 1955 from
Union Faculty, in Schenectady, N.Y., he enlisted within the U.S. Navy. Olsen attended the Navy’s Officer Candidate College, in Newport, R.I., earlier than being assigned to a destroyer ship in December 1956. He left energetic responsibility three years later.

In 1960 he joined
Hughes Plane Co., a protection contractor in Fullerton, Calif., as a discipline engineer. He helped develop radar techniques and labored on the Navy Electronics Laboratory’s Fleet Anti-Air Warfare Coaching Heart, in San Diego, on the USS Enterprise and USS Mahan. He later was promoted to guide discipline engineer and labored on the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, in Vallejo, Calif.

Olsen moved to Pennsylvania in 1964 to attend graduate faculty at
Pennsylvania State College in State Faculty. After incomes grasp’s and doctoral levels in experimental psychology in 1966 and 1970, he joined Penn State’s Larson Transportation Institute as director of its human elements analysis program. 4 years later, he grew to become an assistant professor on the college’s industrial and administration techniques engineering division.

He left Penn State in 1980 to hitch Lockheed. After retiring from the corporate in 1990, he served as an skilled witness for 14 years, testifying in a number of hundred accident-investigation circumstances.

He was a member of the
Affiliation for the Development of Automotive Drugs, the Nationwide Academy of Engineering’s Transportation Analysis Board, and SAE (the Society of Automotive Engineers). He was a Fellow of the Human Elements and Ergonomics Society and edited certainly one of its newsletters, The Forvm.

Jo Edward Davidson

Communications engineer

Life senior member, 87; died 24 April 2024

Davidson’s work as {an electrical} engineer impacted a number of key communications applied sciences together with early GPS growth.

He was instrumental in putting in mobile networks in Argentina, Nigeria, and the Philippines. He wrote about his profession in his memoir:
Far From the Flagpole: An Electrical Engineer Tells His Story.

He served within the U.S. Air Pressure from 1959 to 1965, attaining the rank of second lieutenant. After he was discharged, he labored at a number of corporations together with
Eastman Kodak, Scientific Atlanta, and BellSouth Worldwide.

He contributed to a number of satellite tv for pc communications and community initiatives whereas working at
Alcatel and Globalstar, each in Memphis. He retired from Globalstar in 2000 as director of satellite tv for pc community techniques.

Davidson obtained a bachelor’s diploma in engineering in 1963 from
Arizona State College, in Tempe.

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