Judges for the 2006 Tennessee State Tournament

Tom Burgess - Design Award

Tom Burgess is currently the Remote Systems Group Leader in the Nuclear Science and Technology Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He is a mechanical engineer (UTK, 1983) with over 20 years experience in the R&D and design of advanced robotic and remote handling systems, tooling and process systems for hostile environments. Primary fields of application have included the nuclear fuel cycle, fusion reactors and accelerators. He has led many R&D and design activities in these fields for both national and international projects.

Craig Bradley - Design Award

Craig Bradley is a development engineer and project manager at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the Remote Systems Group. He has over 25 years experience in leading development projects for remotely operated and robotic equipment. Some of the equipment he has helped develop include, nuclear fuel handling and dismantling equipment, a radioactive waste transport cart, and a remotely controlled robotic arm for reloading Patriot missiles. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas, and is a registered Professional Engineer in Tennessee.

Dr. Stephen Canfield - Design Award

Dr. Stephen Canfield received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech, in 1997. Currently, Dr. Canfield is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tennessee Technological University. He teaches courses in kinematics and dynamics of machinery, robotics, mechatronics and intelligent machines. He and his students are involved in research for compliant spatial manipulators, mobile climbing robots, assistive mechanisms for children with disabilities, and genetic algorithms for synthesis of compliant mechanisms.

Dr. John V. Draper - Design Award

John Draper is President and Chief Scientist of Raven Research Corporation, a small business performing research and development work in human factors and ergonomics, specializing in teleoperation and virtual reality applications. Raven Research is located in Lenoir City, Tennessee.

Mark Noakes - Design Award

Mark W Noakes, a R&D staff member with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Robotics and Energetic Machines Group, has been involved with development, test, and deployment of robot systems for more than 22 years. He received his BS degree in Electrical Engineering from Tennessee Technological University, his MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tennessee, and is currently completing requirements for a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tennessee. His primary interests focus on telerobotics, the human control of machines integrated with autonomous robotic actions to improve performance.

Balajee Kannan - Design Award

Balajee Kannan is a PhD. candidate in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK). He received his Master degree in computer science in 2003 from the University of Tennessee, performing his research in distributed mobile robotics. His PhD. research focuses on designing, implementing and evaluating a generic fault-tolerance architecture for multi-robot teams. His research interests include fault-tolerance, multi-agent systems, machine learning, and human-robot interaction.

Paige Stafford - Design Award

Paige Stafford received her Masters Degree in Computer Science from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 2002. She currently works at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the Networking and Computer Technologies Division. Her work focuses on network-related business applications such as the Network Registration System. She designs and implements database (ORACLE, mySQL) driven web applications, and manages the network services, DNS and DHCP. Her preferred programming tools include C, Perl, shell scripts, HTML, and JavaScript.

Dr. Venu Varma - Design Award

Dr. Venu Varma received his Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1993. From 1993-2001, he has been with the Robotics and Process Systems Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and works in the kinematics, mechanical design, dynamics and control aspects of robot development. Currently, he is a member of the Nuclear Science and Technology Division at ORNL. His current interests are in the area of piezoelectric and shape memory alloy actuator development.

Dr. Fred Baker - Presentation Award

Fred is a Senior Research Staff Member in the Materials Science and Technology Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he is the technical manager of the low cost carbon fiber precursor development program. He obtained his Ph.D. in Surface Chemistry at Brunel University (London, UK). He is a Chartered Chemist and Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and is the immediate past chairman and chief executive officer of the American Carbon Society. One of his current research interests includes production of carbon fibers from renewable resources for lightweight automotive composites.

Kathy Nichols - Presentation Award

Katherine Nichols, PE, is Manager of Civil/Facility Design Engineering for Aerospace Testing Alliance at Arnold Air Force Base. She has a Masters degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Iowa and is the current Vice President of the Tennessee Society for Professional Engineers.

Dr. Karren More - Presentation Award

Dr. More earned her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from North Carolina State University in 1992. Dr. More is Group Leader of the Microscopy Group in the Materials Science & Technology Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She has worked at ORNL since 1988 and has focused her research on understanding microstructure-property relationships for different materials systems, such as structural ceramics and proton exchange membrane fuel cells.

Dr. Christopher Rouleau - Presentation Award

Dr. Rouleau earned his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Florida, Gainesville. In 1996 he became a research staff member of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Chris works in the area of thin film growth by pulsed laser deposition and laser processing of materials for nanotube synthesis.

Yolanda Childs - Teamwork Award

Yolanda Covington Childs, a native of Centreville, Illinois, received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and has completed graduate courses in both Chemical and Environmental Engineering. She is employed at the Y-12 National Security Complex as a Systems Engineer. Yolanda coached FIRST LEGO League teams for the Artic Impact and City Sights Challenges of 2001 and 2002.

Bill Toth - Teamwork Award

Bill Toth is an Engineering Manager, working in non-proliferation programs at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He has focused his career in systems engineering on the programmatic approach to safeguards and security. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering and a Masters Degree in Industrial Engineering both form the University of Tennessee. His previous work experience includes support of the Department of Energy in Washington, DC; work as a Security Systems Engineer at the Y-12 facility in Oak Ridge and work as an Avionic Systems Engineer at General Dynamics in Ft. Worth, TX.

Terry Oberling, P.E. - Teamwork Award

Terry Olberding is the Assistant Manager for the Office of Programs at the Y-12 Site Office, National Nuclear Security Administration. Her responsibilities include the managing the NNSA programs and projects at the Y-12 Plant. Terry has twenty-five years of government service. Previous work experience includes three years as the Assistant Manager for Technical Services at the Y-12 Site Office, several years as a Team Leader in the Nuclear Safety Division at Oak Ridge Operations, and numerous years as a mechanical engineer at the Tennessee Valley Authority. Terry obtained her Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Science and Mechanics from the University of Tennessee in 1978, and she is a registered Professional Engineer in Mechanical Engineering.

Marie Westfall - Teamwork Award

Mrs. Westfall has 25 years experience in program design and implementation for government, public and private agencies. She currently administers education programs involving the latest technologies in research and science applications for the Department of Energy, the Appalachian Regional Commission, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Joseph Westfall - Team Spirit Award

Joseph Westfall obtained his BS. Degree in Industrial Technology from Middle Tennessee State University; he received his Masters Degree from Vanderbilt University. He has served in the US Army, served as adjunct faculty at MTSU, has extensive experience in remodeling and construction, and has been the technical representative for a large, construction equipment sales company. He is currently a minister in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

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The FIRST LEGO League Tennessee State Tournaments are co-sponsored by UT-Battelle and the Tennessee Technological University.