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Brooklyn, NYPermit No. 1778

Tech Times

The magazine ofThe Brooklyn Tech Alumni FoundationThe magazine ofThe Brooklyn Tech Alumni Foundation

Fall 2014Fall 2014 spotlight on Young scholars

Tech Times2

6 10Tech’s iconic auditorium gets a 21st century upgrade.

Did you conduct college-level, publishable research in your Tech days? These young Technites do.

Research Stars Classic, Revived

Fall 2014

The magazine of The Brooklyn Tech Alumni Foundation

Tech Times2

Contents Inside Tech 2Alumni Events 2014-15 4 From the Alumni Foundation President 5Principal’s Letter 5Lifetime Giving Society 22

1216 18Tech’s majors system gives students a major advantage.

“If you have a niche to be found, you will

find it here.”— Emma ParsONs ’15 second generation Technite

Larry Felix ’76 makes more of it than any of us.

Six years out of Tech, he invented the digital camera.

Major Achievers Money Man Innovator

Brooklyn Tech Alumni Foundation, Inc.29 Fort Greene Place Brooklyn, NY 11217

www.bthsalumni.org

Who said engineering is a dry subject?Once a year at Brooklyn Tech, it’s very, very wet.That wouldbe the annual Cardboard Boat Regatta, the cap-stone event of EngineeringWeek, a week of activities to raiseawareness of engineering. Inthe Regatta, 200 Technitesaim to demonstrate theirdesign-and-build prowess, notin the classroom but in the Techswimming pool.

The object of the Regatta isas simple as it is absurd: con-struct a boat entirely out of cardboard and duct tape. Thenpaddle it up and down the pool’slength betterthan anyone else,without capsizing or imploding.

Pirateboats, rubber duck boats, ungainly contraptions of

every conceivable shape– 60 entries lined up, and all floated,for a few seconds at least. Many actually completed.

Not surprisingly, the full range of Tech ingenuity surfaced in allaspects of the competition: design, construction, paddling and

navigation techniques and –possibly above all – the scientificprinciples each team chosetoapply. A sampling of these:“The principles of density and resistance.”“Common sense – a point in the front and narrow in the back.”

“The physics of water motion.”“We wanted to keep in mind the point of inertia, and balance all the forces.”“Perpendicularly corrugated cardboard for maximum strength.”

it ’s happening at fort greeneplace29Tech Times

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Sink or SwimEngineering WeekRegatta:

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Gerry Goffin ’57

The entrance exam:Providing Access, Maintaining Excellence

Gerry Goffin ’57, a lyricist who with then-wife Carole King wrote some of the most endur-ing songs of the 1960s including “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?,” died on June 19 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 75. Goffin met King in 1958 when they were both students at Queens College. Their marriage and divorce were the basis of Broadway’s Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Their work has been recorded by 1960s megastars including the Beatles, the Supremes and Aretha Franklin. Goffin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 – the only Technite enshrined there. Rebecca T. Kaplan ’09

Legislation to revise the admissions criteria for Brooklyn Tech and seven other specialized high schools, by breaking with the historically successful use of a single fair entrance exam, was introduced and tabled in the last session of the State Legislature. The bill is expected to be re-introduced once the Legislature reconvenes. The Brooklyn Tech Alumni Foundation has taken the lead in both pointing out the bill’s deep flaws, and in making recommendations to attract more students from underrepresented communities to the specialized high schools. To read the Alumni Foundation position paper and learn more, visit www.bthsalumni.org.

A Barclays Sendoff

Class of 2014

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“We calculated Force B, buoyancy, and Force G, gravity, to determine Sigma F – the net force.”

The winning team useda simpler approach: “We measured it so it would stay together,” said sophomoreAida Anesmi.

One step closerto sheersimplicity was the strategy ofa team of freshmen, which

didn’t win but did finish.“We used hope,”

said team memberAngelina Tham.

Calendar of Events

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The 2013-2014 academic year was a good one for Brooklyn Tech. Of 20,000 high schools nationwide reviewed by U.S. News & World Report, Tech ranked 60th. The racial and ethnic makeup of the student body may have changed from your era, but as it was for you, Tech provides the children of working and middle class families with an outstanding education that enables them to succeed in college and in life. In the pages of this issue, you will meet some of them. I suspect you will marvel, as I did, at their talents and achievements. seventy-nine percent of the student body belongs to a minority group, with asian ameri-can students the largest in number. Eighteen percent are african-american or Hispanic. Two thirds of the students speak a foreign lan-guage at home. All are admitted, as you were, on the basis of a competitive exam. Nearly 30,000 students sit for it. Tech, the largest of the specialized high schools, can still accommodate only 1,350 fresh-men each year. Tech students rank among New York City’s highest academic achievers. Last year’s class had an average combined SAT math and reading score of 1250, which puts the school among the top 10 in the City. Tech’s academic and athletic teams performed very well this year. The mock Trial Team won the city-wide championship. The Debate Team took first place in several categories at the New York state championships. The robot-ics Team won the city-wide competition and scored silver in the national finals. The Girls Lacrosse Team won the city-wide championship as did the Boys Cross Country Team. You have the right to feel proud of what Tech is doing today. Alumni help has provided critical support to promoting Tech’s academic and athletic excellence. I thank you for what you have done to help. Oh, by the way: while we know that too much emphasis can be placed on comparing one school to another based simply on ranking, you will be pleased to know that Tech scored higher in the national rankings than Stuyvesant. (60th vs 69th) Yes, it was a very good year!

Larry Cary ’70PresidentBrooklyn Tech Alumni Foundation

An Outstanding High School

From The Principal Randy Asher

Larry Cary ’70

Brooklyn Tech has long been a place where immigrants or the children of immigrants can begin to achieve the American dream by challenging themselves to compete with the best and brightest amongst their peers. Our cur-rent students reflect a population that is often not what is expected when looking at institutions with our historical record of success. Over 65% of them are eligible for free or reduced lunch, because their family income is at or below poverty line. In 70% of our households, the primary language spoken is one other than English. These students, most of whom may be the first in their family to attend college, are the backbone of the Tech experience. The unparalleled support of our alumni and an outstanding faculty create an environment that is transfor-mational in their lives. Iconic courses like Foundry and IP have evolved through the years as have the majors themselves. What has remained consistent is the level of rigor to which students are exposed, the alignment of our instructional objectives to the expectations of colleges and universities, the insight shared by our partners in industry to help craft the next generation of skilled em-ployees and the recognition of student accomplishments surpassing local, state and national benchmarks. The students, like the faculty and adminis-tration, are aware that we stand on the shoulders of giants. Technites and faculty emeriti have changed the world for generations. Please get involved with our programs to enable the next generation of students to be even more successful. You can do this by mentoring research students, hiring interns, contributing financial support, creating partner-ships in your industry or serving in an advisory capacity to one of our academic sequences. On behalf of our students, parents, and faculty thank you for your con-tinued support.

Randy J. AsherPrincipal

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igh school students as young as 16

and 17 conducting scientific research at a college level, and getting published? Where else but…Brooklyn Tech. Thanks to the generosity of Josh Weston ’46 and his wife Judy, the Weston Research Schol-ars Program has created this ex-traordinary opportunity for 62 Technites since its 2012 incep-tion. The first of these young scholars entered college this fall.

In a program developed and run by Alumni Foundation Chief Educational Officer Dr. Mathew Mandery, students pair with a mentor-teacher at Tech and a college professor, scientist or engineer to con-duct original research. Many Weston projects have won and excelled in competitions and been published and presented at scientific conferences. all of this takes place in addition to a full course load.

Weston Scholars have joined research teams at Albert Einstein College of medicine, City University Research Cen-ter, NYU, NYU-Polytechnic, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Mount Si-nai Hospital. On the following pages, a sampling of these astonishingly sophisticated research endeavors and the Technites conducting them:

A select group of Technites is conducting college-level research. They’re designing robots, studying cancer and getting

a head start on their futures.

YoungResearchers

W e s t o n R e s e a R c h s c h o l a R s P R o g R a m

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shadae Boakye- Yiadom ’14 Major: Gateway to MedicineCollege: Polytechnic Institute of New York University

Weston project :Develop a safer, more precise and environmentally friendly tranquilizing dart gun to re-strain aquatic animals. Poly-technic Institute of New York University

Jonathan cheng ’14 Major: Mechanical EngneeringCollege: Drexel University

Weston PRoject :Design and build a first-ever, two speed transmission for use in the robotics team competi-tion. It propelled Tech all the way to the world robotics competition finals.

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sarah Panitz ’15 Major: Electro-Mechanical Engineering

Weston project :Editor’s note: We’d better let Sarah explain this herself: “Design and construct an underwater exploratory vessel that moves more biomimetically similar to eels in anguilliform locomotion. The fuel cell I am holding here, through the process of hydrolysis, will convert chemical energy into electrical energy as a power source for the drone eel.” Polytechnic Institute of New York Uni-versity. NYC science & Engineering Fair Environmental Quest award, 2013

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emma costa ’14 Major: Gateway to Medicine College: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Weston project :Glioblastoma research in Me-morial sloan Kettering’s Hu-man Oncology Pathogenesis Program, under a prominent neurosurgeon: “my work was focused on understanding the relationship between two key receptors, EGFR and PDG-FRA, in glioblastoma tumor growth. I worked with profes-sionals in both the clinical and research fields.”

The project won third prize in a citywide science competition.

Alexander chong ’15 and eva Justo ’15 Majors: Biological Sciences/Chemical Engineering

Weston project :Investigate levels and diversity of bacteria species in four different estuaries after Hurricane sandy to assess ecological recovery. Kingsborough Community College.This project won first place in a statewide scholastic science competition.

Victoria majarali ’14 Major: Biological Sciences College: Vassar College

Weston project :Observe the biodiversity of plant species in Brooklyn Bridge Park through identi-fication of bio-indicators.

To learn more about these young scholars

and their work, please turn to page 21.

Revival of A ClassicThe auditorium gets a facelift

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Mayors LaGuardia, Lindsay, Giuliani and Bloomberg have graced its stage. Directors James Cameron and Spike Lee have vis-ited. Probably every Technite can remember their first day in our imposing, impressive auditorium. The three-story hall, replete with historic chandeliers and marble flooring, fills alumni with nostalgia. Tech’s 3,000-seat auditorium is the third largest in New York City. It’s in the final stages of a multi-year multi-million dollar upgrade to renovate it with state-of-the-art audio, lighting and stage area improvements. Funding was provided by the New York City Council and the Brook-lyn Borough President’s Office. The auditorium is increasing-ly used to house community and public events, and this renovation will make it more accessible for them. The final stage of the reno-vation will add air conditioning so it can truly be a year-round resource for students and the community. (Remember sweating in 90 degree weather through those last end-of-year activities each June? No more, soon!) With the renovation, all orchestra seats have been reup-holstered, and the three surviving iconic chandeliers were totally re-furbished and refitted with energy efficient LED bulbs.

“I remember… ‘Look to your left. Look to your right. One of those guys won’t graduate.’”

DR. steven BoRnfelD , ’69.

“I remember… How unbelievably hot it got. Everyone wore shorts under their gowns at graduation.”

naZaRY neBelUK ’10

“I remember… Seeing the effects of the hydrogen bomb displayed on a screen.” DoYle WaRRen ’59

rooklyn Tech has long set the expectation that students pursue an academic major, just as in college, regardless of whether they lean to the sciences and technology or the humanities.

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Major AdvantageIt’s always been about the majors.

Aerospace EngineeringArchitectural EngineeringBiological SciencesChemical EngineeringCivil EngineeringCollege PrepElectro-Mechanical EngineeringEnvironmental Science ResearchGateway to MedicineIndustrial Design Law & SocietyMathematicsMediaPhysicsSocial Science Research Software Engineering

Meet some of the remarkable young people excelling in their majors…

Tech prepares students, as Principal Randy Asher likes to note, for careers and professions that may not yet exist. accordingly, the actual majors have changed significantly over time to keep pace with a changing world. Principal asher has been carrying out an updating and revising of the majors for the 21st century. many students and their parents say it is the majors program that attracted them to the school. For 2014, Tech offered its students a choice of 16 majors, listed at right. How many of these do you recognize? Is your major on the list, or has it gone the way of the foundry and the step V block?

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ejiro Ojeni ’15 Environmental Science c omment : “Environmental Science is not a tree-hugging major!” c aReeR Plan : Combat air pollution as an environmental engineer: “I’m looking for solutions.” accomPlishments so faR: at age 11, successfully lobbied local officials for more street litter baskets. At Tech, collected Gowanus Canal water samples to test bioremediation agents.

aDmonition : “We have to get rid of the mindset that we can trash the planet with no consequences.”

Jacob mazor ’14 (University of Chicago)Mathematics caReeR Plan : Researcher and professor of particle physics. Recent achievements : Captain, math team. Wrote two 30-page research papers, one on orbital mechanics, one

on an infinite grid of resistors. t ech taUght him : To com-municate more effectively: “Scientists need to know how to communicate their ideas and projects.”

Keri huang ’15 Mathematics DesigneR : Keri designed (and is shown wearing) her class year’s sweatshirt for the math major. ReseaRcheR: Her first

research paper, a 30-page exploration into finding pat-terns in generalized complex functions, won a silver medal in the NYC math Fair. she presented it to a judging panel of three professors. volUnteeRs With : NYPD, red Cross, NYC marathon, Educational Alliance, tutoring math. an ameRican stoRY : Keri emigrated to the U.s. from China at age 12.

mohammad Al Amin ’15 Software EngineeringRenaissance stUDent : Violin-playing, programming-whiz cheerleader; runs an IT support business. ask for his contact info, and he’ll hand you a business card. Has never found time for a formal lunch or free period in three years at Tech.QUote : “many people see programming as lines of code. It’s really about using tools to create something. Programming is art.”

michelle cera ’14 (University of California, Berkeley) Social Science Researchathlete scholaR : Played on varsity soccer and lacrosse teams; tutored elementary school students.ReseaRch aReas of inteRest : Race and gender issues; income and education inequality. Inter-viewed 90 Tech students and 30 teachers for a paper examining effects of conversion of the old Board of Education into a mayoral agency.

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Rebecca Baron ’14 (McCaulay Honors College, City University of NY)Biological SciencesinventoR : On a summer intern-ship at Mount Sinai Medical Center, arranged via the Alumni Foundation, designed a cell phone app for hepatitis C patients to track their condition. Pre-sented it to a board of physicians, who approved it for production and use.stUDent athlete : Top three borough-wide champion runner (5K and 3,000 meter).n eURoscience : started studying the brain in 7th grade (includ-ing watching videos of brain surgeries on YouTube). aspires to be a neuro- or pediatric surgeon.seRvice PeRsonifieD : Was president of Beta, a community service club at Tech; chaired the National Honor society’s mentoring com-mittee, which introduced middle school students to Tech.

Kevin Baichoo ’14 (University of Pennsylvania) Software EngineeringmajoR imPact : “Tech’s majors system allowed me to find my main interest: computer science.”PRogRammeD: Fixed bugs and programmed for the Men’s Health magazine website in an alumni Foundation-arranged internship with rodale Publishing.h oW it feels: “When I’m programming, everything else fades into the background. I am focused.”c aReeR Plan : Become a professor doing research and working with college students: “That’s the most impact you can have.”

Reaz Rahman ’15* and shaeed mcLeod ’14 (Georgia Institute of Technology) Electro-Mechanical Engineering and Environmental Science *Weston ReseaRch scholaR afteR school : reaz tutors middle schoolers in math — and college students in physics. Shaeed volunteers at a nursing home.PoWeRfUl Plans : reaz’s plan – help people in power-poor developing countries find in-novative ways to generate electricity. His plan starts with separating collected rainwater into hydrogen and oxygen. shaeed’s plan – start a solar energy company.

emma Parsons ’15 Social Science Research2nD geneRation : Dad Donald (’69) is a Tech alum: “He’s amazed we don’t have slop cops in the cafeteria!”WhY t ech is sPecial : “If you have a niche to be found, you will find it here.”

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Zaria holcomb ’15 Biological SciencesRenaissance stUDent : Volunteer judge in a court system peer justice program; manager of Tech’s football team; hospital volunteer in Kingston, Jamaica; placed third in a citywide poetry reading contest.c aReeR Plan : Become an emergency medicine plastic surgeon treating victims of war and terrorism. o BseRvation : “I love the diversity of Tech. There are students from around the world here. It makes me feel worldly.”

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Profile Larry Felix

“Many of the things we’re doing now with our currency are directly related to the phys-

ics and chemistry I studied at Tech.”

Meet the Brooklyn Tech alum who

makes more money than any of us.

He’s Larry Felix ’76, and he makes

$358 billion a year.

arry is Director of the United States

Bureau of Engraving and Printing — the agency that prints our money. It’s a big job, and it’s getting bigger every year. Despite recessions, credit cards, e-payments, bitcoins and all the rest, the appetite for U.s. currency grows every year. It’s Larry’s job to meet the demand. and, in this age of digital high-tech counterfeiting, it’s an increasingly challenging and technology-based job. Who else but a Technite to handle it? Back in the day, his Tech teachers and classmates would not have predicted this career path. A College Prep major, he fully intended to become a his-tory teacher. But there were hints, if you looked closer. Larry was captain of the audio Visual squad. more important, he learned — as have generations of Tech students —

how to solve a problem. And so, a pat-tern emerged at the Bureau

of Engraving and Printing, the agency he joined in 1991: vexed supervisors would call him into their office and say, “We have a problem, can you fix it?” Confident that his Brooklyn

Tech training could help him master any challenge, he would reply, “Yes. absolutely.” and then walk out the door, clueless as to what he would do next. But not clueless for very long. As his successes grew, the sce-nario shifted slightly. Now, a top boss would sit him down and say, “Larry, I know you’re not an engineer, but do you think you could be our Chief Engineer?” Or, “Larry, you don’t really have the educational credentials, but can you serve as Chief Technology Officer?” “It’s a pretty darn good thing,” he says today, “that I went to Brooklyn Tech.” Pretty soon, he had climbed so high up the ladder that there was only one job left. In 2006, the Treasury Department gave him the Director’s office. and a fairly cool office it is. Most days — including the crisp fall afternoon TechTimes visited — the Presidential motorcade glides right by the ground level window. “On his way to lunch,” Larry, barely looking up, explained. Sometimes the routine var-ies and the President zips over-head in a helicopter. One day, this happened as Larry was re-ceiving some dignitaries from China. The following year, when he reciprocated the visit,

his Chinese hosts apologized profusely for not matching his hospitality with a flyover by their leader.

It turns out that a lot of sci-ence lies within the art of mak-ing 21st century money: The chemistry of ink and solvents. The visible and hidden phys-ics and optics of counterfeit prevention. It’s a lot for a non-science guy to be in charge of. It’s a good thing indeed that Larry was an attentive student during those Brooklyn Tech classes and labs. some years back, a group of Bureau engineers and scien-tists met to resolve a problem bedeviling the money-makers: Something during the press plate cleanup process was un-expectedly gumming up the works by causing a severe foam buildup. Larry sat in on the session. a dim memory from Brook-lyn Tech’s Chem Lab quickly came into focus. “Have you guys looked at the lauryl sulfate in the mix-ture?” he asked the scientists in the room. after their mouths dropped, one of them said, “That’s exactly the path we’re following. How did you know that?” Larry Felix just smiled.

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MONEY MATTERS Here are some questions Brooklyn Tech’s Money Man, Larry Felix ’76, gets asked often:Why is our money green?Nobody’s really sure. The answer comes down to, because that’s what it always was. That said, green pigment ink has long been readily available, and resists chemical and physical changes well. Plus, people are believed to as-sociate green with warm fuzzy feelings toward the government’s strength and stability.

How much money does Larry make?8.4 billion individual notes a year, totaling $358 billion.

What does it cost to make them?Ten cents a note.

Why make so much money?Over 90% of it ships out to replace aging notes whose lifespan is over.

How long does a bill stay in circula-tion? Almost six years for a $1 bill. More like 15 for a $100 note, because it changes hands less often.

How many times would I have to fold a bill before it tears?8,000.

How much does $1 million weigh? In $1 bills, 2,040.8 pounds. So in $100 bills, just 20.4 pounds.

How much U.S. money circulates outside U.S. borders? Over 70% of it. People overseas like the green-back for all kinds of reasons, while we’ve moved toward cashless transactions.

So the cashless economy is shrinking demand for paper notes? Actually, demand is growing 7% yearly. In part because nothing else is as anonymous.

And the question Larry Felix gets asked most…

Can I have a free sample? No.

Talking With….Steve Sasson: On Innovation

Steve Sasson

’68

a researcher for the world’s largest manufacturer of photographic film, Eastman Kodak Company, he cobbled spare parts and low-cost electronics components into an eight pound

aluminum gadget the size of a bread box. It took him less than a year.

No one at Kodak had assigned him this mission. It was just something he decided to do. 18

Few people invent something that changes the way we live. steven J. sassson ’68 is one of them.

Just six years after graduating from Brooklyn Tech, sasson invented the digital camera.

It was a brief conversation. A boss at Kodak asked the 24-year-old researcher to take an open-ended look at an image sensor, based on light-sensitive capacitors, that another company had just developed. No targets, expectations or directions were set.

T2: So did you wake up one day and say, “I think I’ll invent the digital camera”?A.: It was a very casual kind of assign-ment. I thought since no one was looking and it was a very open atmosphere, “Let me see if I can capture an image [elec-tronically].” Then I thought, “If I can do that, I’ll have to display it, and I’ll need a way to do that. Wouldn’t it be neat if I could build something like a camera? Store an image somehow, and then gener-ate a television signal somehow and put it on a TV set.”

T2: What drove you?A.: I thought I’d try to build a camera with no moving parts at all. As a kid, I loved building stuff – stuff that had no purpose. maybe it was a little bit of the Brooklyn Tech in me. You know, “Let me try to do something really nuts here, and drive these other guys crazy.” I just thought it would be fun.

T2: There had to be an intellectual challenge too.A.: I thought, “I can freeze time.” That’s what digitalization does. You take a continuous wave form, sample it and turn it into numbers that get stored in digital memory – for as long as you want. I was simply thinking about removing film from the chain and viewing images electroni-cally. I thought that would be cool.

T2: How did you break the news to your employer, the global giant of film?

A.: I used to call it filmless photography. a bad choice, right?

T2: At Kodak, definitely. Did you consider that before proceeding to invent?A.: The [first] images didn’t look good; they were black and white. Exposure time was 50 milliseconds, but it took 23 seconds to record the information [onto tape] from the internal memory. I thought: I’m not going to endanger anybody with this thing – it was so far away. I just loved the idea of light, silicon, no moving parts, all digital. New ideas – putting them together, could I get this to work? This was the tinkerer in me. I was so lucky to be in a place that had a lot of [spare] parts, and smart people around me to ask questions of.

T2: But many colleagues must have thought you a nonconformist who worked on crazy stuff all day long. How does an inventor disregard that and keep going?A.: I didn’t think about that at all. Inno-vators tend to think about “the problem” more than about themselves. That’s why inventors are bad dressers. (Laughs) You’re thinking about the problem, the joy of trying to solve it. I wasn’t really thinking about what people would think of me, until I started showing it and peo-ple started asking me questions. [Then] I became sensitive to the fact that this potentially could impact the business.

T2: You were swimming on your own into deep uncharted waters. Where does the motivation and discipline come from to keep going?A.: Don’t feel like you have to know the answer for everything. The whole world is inventing along with you. I had to have faith that microprocessors would

be faster and better, that digital memory would shrink in size and cost, that there would be a non-volatile solid state form of memory. I couldn’t see any fundamental reason, any law of physics, saying it couldn’t happen.

T2: Kodak’s reaction covered the spectrum, from fear to ambivalence to great interest. What did it feel like to you when the time came to show the bosses your invention?A.: No one ever asked me how I got the thing to work – I had spent years working on it, all kinds of technical tricks. Nobody really cared about the technical effort. What they cared about was the future: “When will it be commercializable? When’s it for consumers?”

T2: Did you know?A.: I didn’t. I used moore’s Law: I had 10,000-pixel images. How many pixels would be equivalent to a consumer color film? Two million. so it was 200 to one. I asked, “When will Moore’s Law predict the 200-to-one range?” That’s how desperate I was. I came up with 15 to 20 years – not even knowing if moore’s Law applied to transducers like the Charge Coupled imaging array I was using. (Edi-tor’s note: it basically does, and the estimate was essentially right on the money. Sasson modestly considers this “dumb luck.” Smart luck might be more accurate.) T2: What else did they ask you?A.: In the early days, “Why would anybody want to look at a picture on a television set?” Even at the time I thought that was a bad question. We had a slide business that projected film onto a wall, much bigger than a TV set. There were many good questions: “What’s a photo album going to look like?”

T2: And then there were the doubters.A.: Experts will tell you all the reasons something won’t happen. That’s their job. They know the limits of an idea. That’s what research is about. It isn’t about how things work; it’s about the ways things can’t work. I don’t have time to tell you all the reasons I heard, over 30 years, why digital cameras would never exist.

a recipient of the National medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest honor the United States awards to scientists, engineers and inventors, and inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, sasson was Tech’s 2013 Commencement speaker. He sat down with TechTimes after the ceremony to talk about … innovation.

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T2: How did that not stop you in your tracks a thousand times?A.: I would say, “OK, you are way smarter than me.” I was never the smartest person in the room. I would listen to them and then I’d say, “Go with me for a second. Those three reasons you just told me why this won’t work. Just make believe somebody solved them.” And they would say, “Maybe you could do this, or maybe that.” all of a sudden, the expert’s a little bit outside the pie. Now he’s free to think a little more aggressively.

T2: How does an inventor know if his or her idea is a good one? If the invention that the idea turns into is good?A.: Remember, you can’t displace a tech-nology unless it is as good as the technol-ogy you’re displacing in every aspect. And then, better in at least one.

T2: How did you demonstrate that in your company, decades before personal computers, cell phones, the Internet and selfies?A.: People were very happy, thank you, with photography. Film was really good. It was a highly profitable model that the consumer was very happy with. Think about it: something this big (holds his fingers a few centimeters apart) you could manufacture for a tenth of a cent and buy for a few cents. Put it in any camera,

expose it for a fraction of a second, get an incredible image, store it in your camera maybe for five years. Develop it, and project it. all for about half a cent. That’s what we were trying to displace, We knew how good our system would have to be.

T2: But at first it wasn’t. Low resolution, and no easy way to show and share.A.: When we built an experimental digital camera that looked and acted a lot like today’s modern DSLRs, I asked Marketing if they could sell it and they said, “Yes, but not if it comes at the expense of one film camera.” They asked me, “What economic model are you proposing for this new technology that will enhance our return?” I couldn’t come up with a good business model. All I knew was that we could do it, and that it indeed had several advantages over film. For the next 10 years Kodak spent a lot of money trying to figure out when it could happen, but they didn’t really want to see it happen. The irony was that there was more work going on inside Kodak on digital photography than anywhere in the world.

T2: What are some lessons from your experi-ence that inventors can take away?A.: I learned over my career that not everyone has your technical background or experiential base, yet you have to

convince them. That requires a different set of skills. Your idea is only as good as your explanation of it – how clearly you demonstrate it, how convincing you are. You work on an idea for five years, and you explain it to people for the first time in five minutes. and you’re disappointed that they don’t get it. Just being right is not enough. You have to tell your story.

T2: Difficult for some technology-centric people to do.A.: It’s not what technical people do, but it’s so important: writing intelligently, making a presentation, letting your emo-tions and passions show through in a controlled way.

T2: In your Commencement speech to the Tech grads, you encouraged them not to fear failure. What were you getting at?A.: Failing is wonderful. It is totally underrated. You learn so much more. Thomas Edison was asked about the thou-sand experiments he did before succeeding at the electric bulb: “Wasn’t that a waste of time?” His answer was, “Of course not. I know a thousand ways how not to make a light bulb.” That’s the process of success. as people see the product the end result of a suc-cess. They forget the process that led to it.

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President Obama presents Steven Sasson with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation

“I just loved the idea of light, silicon, no

moving parts, all digital.”

21

shadae Boakye-Yiadom ’14

shadae ’s career plan , as of noW:

1. major in mechani-cal engineering and Japanese

2. Work in Japan for an employer that builds high-speed bullet trains (which are more common in that country).

3. return home with the expertise she acquires in Japan; join the team that builds the first bullet train in the U.s.

Co-published in the annual Conference Proceedings Journal of the american as-sociation of Zoo Veterinarians; semi-finalist, Junior stockholm Water award, 2012

Jonathan cheng ’14

Beyond the Book : Jonathan designed and built his inven-tion from scratch, at Brooklyn Tech. He has been designing robots since age 12.

“With the facilities, teachers and resources Tech provided me, I was able to understand complex engineering concepts that went beyond the book. With so many hands-on activities at Tech, I could see how concepts and formulas apply to real-life projects.”

sarah Panitz ’15

sarah ’s typical day:• Enter the Brooklyn Tech gates by 8 a.m.• Get home about 6 or 7 p.m. during

sports seasons• Get home about

10 p.m. during robotics season

• squeeze in 3-4 hours of homework

• Get about ½ hour of free time before bedtime

“I always liked to build things. The Weston program got me interested in research as well. More generally, Tech has increased my interest in STEM subjects.”

Victoria majarali ’14

activist scientist : Victoria collected 100samples over threeyears and discoveredevidence of possible soilcontamination in the aftermath of Hurri-cane Sandy, which she reported to theParks Department.

emma costa ’14

Class of 2014 Valedictoriancareer interests :Oncology and neuro-

science

Emma won Tech’s highest student honor, the Blue and White award, for outstand-ing overall achievement; she scheduled each 10-hour day of classes and extracur-ricular leadership meticulously with a bound planner: “I organize my life so I don’t have to plan at the last minute.”“Being a woman in science isn’t the easiest path. Often I am the only, or the second,

woman in the room. But my mentors at Brooklyn Tech encouraged me to express my interests, and go after what I aspired to achieve. At Tech I learned to have confi-dence in myself.”

Alexander chong ’15 and eva Justo ’15

Big plans :Their Weston project’s purpose was to explore concerns that storm-caused sewage overflows might pollute recreational waters. The study concluded that recovery levels were adequate.

alexanDeR : “Tech has taught me time man-agement skills and how to be independent.”h is cURRent inteRests : • On the track team• studying telomeres*h is Post -t ech Plan :• Earn a Ph.D. in biochemistry• Pursue a career in medicine

eva: “I have teachers who know what it means to be in a college class.”h eR ReseaRch ResUme so faR:• rutgers University• science research mentoring Program, american museum of Natural History• Black rock Forest Consortiumh eR Post -t ech Plan :• study biochemistry; “Get a good basis in all the sciences.”• Work in gene therapy* at the tips of chromosomes, they prevent the loss of DNa during cell division

Westons (Continued from page 9)

Willard Archie ’61 h eaDeD the nation ’s laRgest minoRitY -oWneD cPa fiRm

“Tech gave me an introduction to the world. I didn’t have family members who were profession-als, who could talk about architecture or engineering.”How willard gives: “I keep up with what’s happening at Tech, and I hear good things. I’ve made a gift every year since the Alumni Foundation began.”

Why I Give Why I GiveBonnie Kong ’08f inancial analYst , jP moRgan chase

“Even a small donation makes a difference. I remember how $50 could buy a whole chemistry set for one class.”How Bonnie gives: marked her first year of post-college fulltime work with her first donation: “I intend to give annually.”

$1,000,000 +Isaac Heller ’43Norman K. Keller ’54Leandro P. rizzuto ’56Leonard riggio ’58Charles B. Wang ’62$500,000 +Fred m. Grafton ’44Josh S. Weston ’46

Organizations Goldman Sachs Gives Annual Giving Fund$200,000 +Erik Klokholm ’40Harold antler ’46mary & richard schnoor ’49Victor Insetta ’57achilles Perry ’58James Fantaci ’64Floyd Warkol ’65John A. Catsimatidis ’66OrganizationsCon Edison$100,000 +Frederick C. Meyer ’40Charles a. DeBenedittis ’48alfred Lerner ’51Lee James Principe ’56michael F. Parlamis ’58Jeffrey m. Haitkin ’62Herbert L. Henkel ’66Friends of TechRichard MackStephen C. MackOrganizationsBTHs Parent Teachers Association$50,000 +Joseph J. Jacobs ’34martin V. alonzo ’48Thomas J. Volpe ’53anthony J. armini ’55Peter a. Ferentinos ’55Joseph J. Kaminski ’56richard m. Kulak ’56William L. mack ’57michael a. Weiss ’57robert C. Ochs ’59Jacob Feinstein ’60Louis H. siracusano, sr. ’60Willard N. archie ’61michael minikes ’61rande H. Lazar ’69Carmine a. morano ’72OrganizationsIngersoll Rand$25,000 +John C. siltanen ’31Arnold J. Melloy ’40murray H. Neidorf ’45stuart Kessler ’47David abraham ’48George E. safiol ’50Joseph m. Colucci ’54robert F. Davey ’58William sheluck, Jr. ’58Howard Fluhr ’59Eric Kaltman ’60Bert Reitman ’63anonymous ’67andy Frankl ’67Peter J. Cobos ’72Chester Wong ’94Class of 2011 Graduation Gift

Friends of TechDorcey ChernickJason HaitkinPenny HaitkinBetty J. MayerOrganizationsamerican Express FoundationBTHs alumni Long Island ChapterC. R. Bard FoundationKeyspanNational Gridsimpson, Thacher & Bartlett LLPThe Segal Company$10,000 +Louis Walkover ’37Frederick H. ajootian ’41roy B. simpson ’41Daniel K. Roberts ’43armand J. Valenzi ’44Sidney A. Mayer ’46Ronald P. Stanton ’46Wesley E Truesdell ’46Joseph N. sweeney ’48Leroy N. Callender ’50Lawrence sirovich ’51michael D. Nadler ’52George suffal ’53Lawrence C. Lynnworth ’54Len Edelstein ’55John moy ’58michael Tannenbaum ’58William a. Davis Jr. ’59Richard E. LaMotta ’60Patricia Vasbinder & Victor B. montana ’60Bernard r. Gifford ’61michael Levine ’61mathew m. mandery ’61George W. moran ’61John B. rofrano ’61Edward r. rothenberg ’61Douglas Besharov ’62Murray Dropkin ’62Joseph Angelone ’63Thomas C. DeCanio ’63steve H. Kaplan ’63Edward P. salzano ’64William H. Wong ’64alan m. silberstein ’65Ned steele ’68John DiDomenico ’69Jeffrey L. Goldberg ’69alan s. Natter ’69William J. Rouhana Jr. ’69Tony Bartolomeo ’70Larry L. Cary ’70George Graf ’70George L. Van amson ’70James DiBenedetto ’71Domingo Gonzalez ’72Keith Forman ’76susan mayham ’76Nicholas Y. Chu ’77Franklin F. Lee ’77Friends of TechEmanuel BeckerElizabeth KorevaarEllen mazur ThomsonDaniel StahlJonnie Stahlrandi ZinnOrganizationsB. T. alex BrownBDO seidman, LLPCare2Charles B. Wang Associates, Inc.

Chase Manhattan BankComputer Associates International, Inc.Cowles Media FoundationDurst GroupFIRST RoboticsGameStop CorporationGoldman SachsHeritage mechanical Services, Inc.John Wiley & sons, Inc.mancini DuffyMarathon BankMath For America IncmBs Textbook Exchangemerrill Lynch & Co. Foundation

SIACT.E.C. Systems, Inc.TD Bank, NaThe Lotos FoundationThe New York Community TrustThe Durst OrganizationTime Warner$5,000 + Ernest r. schultz ’25allan C. Johnson ’28Charles Kyrie Kallas ’37Frederick DeMatteis ’40Eugene V. Kosso ’42David W. Wallace ’42Lawrence G. Rubin ’43Bertram Quelch ’45Robert Gresl ’46Irwin Smiley ’46robert J. Domanoski ’47Gordon H. Hensley ’47robert J. Pavan ’47Irwin shapiro ’47Donald Bady ’48Herbert a. Granath ’48Bert Krauss ’50Lee H. Pomeroy ’50ralph B. Wagner ’51murray Farash ’52Carl H. Kiesewetter ’55Floyd r. Orr ’55Les P. Kalmus ’56Edward D. miller ’56William H. Henry ’57stephen J. Lovell ’57raymond m. Loew ’58robert J. Ciemian ’59Glenn Y. Louie ’59Robert C. DiChiara ’63Joseph F. azara Jr. ’64K. steven Horlitz ’64Domenick J. Esposito ’65Peter Kakoyiannis ’65Edward T. LaGrassa ’65marvin J. Levine ’65Kenneth D’Alessandro ’66John M. Lyons ’66Steven Wishnia ’66John V. Cioffi ’67

arthur H. Kettenbeil ’67anthony P. schirripa ’67William C. Wurst ’67Lloyd Zeitman ’69Charles J. rose ’70roger E. schechter ’70Barry sohnen ’70marty Borruso ’71steven a. Hallem ’72arnold Goldman ’73Jonathan D. Dubin ’74Edward m. rosensteel ’74seth ruzi ’76Elizabeth m. Wieckowski ’79Hau Yee Ng-Lo ’80Wilton Cedeno ’82margaret murphy ’83

Kenneth D. Daly ’84John Liu ’98Kaeisha T. O’Neal ’99Friends of TechRandell BarclaySyd BlattBrian CosgroveLucia DeSantiJames DimonAl FerraraWilliam L. HainesKiseon KoThomas Lowrystephen mazurJoan RiegelJonathan RiegelRandi RossignolJohn ThonetOrganizationsAir ProductsBonanza Productions, Inc.Burson-marstellerCary Kane LLPCellini Fine JewelryChicago Bridge & Iron CompanyCredit Suisse SecuritiesDeutsche BankDuggal Color Projects, Inc.Eastern Metalworks, Inc.El Paso Energy FoundationGateway Institute for Pre- College EducationHaights Cross Operating CompanyITW FoundationLaura Berdon FoundationLucent Technologiesm & I Electric Industries, Inc.Morgan Stanley CybergrantsNational Hockey League FoundationPennoni Associates, Inc.Pension ReviewPolytechnic UniversityRaytheon CompanyRidgewood Savings Bank

Robinson Silverman Pearce aronsohn & Berman LLPTextron Charitable TrustThe Jay Chiat Foundation, Inc.$2,500 +Louis K. Robbins ’30Virgil V. Chiavetta ’35L. remsen skidmore, Jr. ’37Ernest E. Pearson Jr. ’40James E. amrhein ’41rudolph Bahr Jr. ’41Joseph P. Barbieri ’41Eugene L. Fieldhammer ’42Robert W. Mann ’42J. L. Snoke ’43

Oscar a. Levi ’44al roffman ’44Dominic N. Castellano ’45arthur a. Feder ’45Henry H. Frank ’45Robert W. Citron ’46Irwin Dorros ’46Gerard Hirschhorn ’46Erwin L. Schaub ’46arnold Jaffe ’47saunder schaevitz ’47Joel F. Lehrer ’48Frank s. Vigilante ’48Harry H. Birkenruth ’49stephen P. Cuff ’49James E. Dalton ’49Stanley D. Margolin ’49Saul Muchnick ’49Gerald F. Ross ’49Charles J. Sisti ’49Chester P. Soling ’49Joseph J. Kohn ’50arthur m. Dinitz ’51John J. Huson ’52sheldon Katz ’52Kenneth E. Batcher ’53William J. D’antonio ’53robert J. Heilen ’53sidney Levitsky ’53stuart K. Pertz ’53robert H. Tuffias ’53Erwin Zeuschner ’53Peter J. Kolesar ’54Ivan D. steen ’54Donald Lanier ’55Owen D. mcBride ’55Jean G. miele Jr. ’55robert F. Dendy ’56Joel O. Lubenau ’56Dan m. ruesterholz ’56Bernard J. stein ’56salvatore J. Vitale Jr. ’56robert B. Bell ’57David J. Bershad ’57Peter Dornau ’57Zdzislaw mikolajczyk ’57Francis C. moon ’57Joseph riggio ’57Leon C. silverman ’57anthony Borra ’58

Joseph a. Cavallo ’58Joseph B. Ciccone ’58Barry D. Epstein ’58stanley m. Ferber ’58Kenneth D. Greene ’58James H. m. malley ’58stuart schube ’58Donald J. stahl ’58Thomas V. Delfina ’59robert Ennis ’59richard r. Ferrara ’59Zachary C. Fluhr ’59stephen a. Levine ’59Valentine P. Povinelli, Jr. ’59robert J. stalzer ’59Michael A. Antino ’60Michael T. Cohen ’60Joel M. Fields ’60John Klvac ’60Walter Skuggevig ’60Richard E. Sorensen ’60anonymous ’61robert H. Digby ’61Kenneth a. East ’61Warren L. Gutheil ’61robert F. Kelly ’61Frank r. Luszcz ’61John r. murphy ’61Joel A. Aragona ’62Warren Christie ’62Joseph Macnow ’62Samuel D. Cheris ’63Vincent DeLuca ’63Ed R. Diamond ’63John Glidewell ’63Steven Protass ’63Jeffrey a. stein ’63Benjamin E. Feller ’64michael Greenstein ’65Frederic H. Jacobs ’65Joel seidner ’65stephen L. shupack ’65Paul J. Angelides ’66Vincent D’Onofrio ’66Samuel Estreicher ’66Mike L. Johnson ’66Chester Lee ’66Michael J. Macaluso ’66Louis G. adolfsen ’67al D’Elia ’67Jerry m. Friedman ’67Donald P. mcConnell ’67alfred J. mulvey ’67ron s. adler ’68Kenneth s. albano ’68richard s. Feinstein ’68Richard W. Turnbull ’69Lance Turner ’70James Ellerbee ’71alan Flash ’71Frederick a. Frenzel Jr. ’71allan Chong ’72Victor J. Dasaro ’72robert Femenella ’72robert m. Ianniello ’72robert E. Kupiec ’72robert J. Paterna ’72Eric D. Barthell ’75Bradford r. Jones ’75Gerard Justvig ’75Thomas Breglia ’76Eugene Picone ’76George s. Cuhaj ’77marc B. mazur ’77George mejias ’77Keith Franklin ’78michelle Y. Johnson-Lewis ’79russell P. Wong ’79Kay D. Benjamin ’80Deirdre D. Cooke ’80Derek a. Holley ’80David L. Fung ’81anonymous ’82Jose r. Claxton ’82

This list reflects total lifetime giving throughJuly 1, 2014 above $1,000. Many thanks to all the contributorswho have not yet reached that level but whose contributions are making a difference at Brooklyn Tech.

Lifetime Giving

22

Norbert F. Giesse ’83Horace H. Davis ’84robert B. Liebowitz ’84Julia C. de la Garza ’86mario Guerrero ’86Joy H. Hsiao ’87Penelope Kokkinides ’87Leslie D. Wade ’87sunil G. singh ’89Gordon Mak ’93adrienne D. Gonzalez ’94Friends of TechCharles Cahn Jr.William CheungJoseph Cuzzocrea sr.Daniel DeMatteoR. Richard FontaineJ. Alan KahnNoel N. KriftcherJeffrey LaneGordon C. LatteyDavid LeeGodwyn Laura MorrisDiiana Oliver-steinbergstanley H. Pantowichroxane m. PrevityMajorie SmithLynne TarnopolMark D. ToddJudy TranOrganizationsAlone Productions, Inc.Bulgari Corp. of americaCirocco & Ozzimo, Inc.Citicorp FoundationEllenbogen Rubenstein Eisdorfer & Co.Elsevier Inc.ExxonmobilFirst New York PartnersGE FoundationHatzel & Buehler, Inc.Hellenic american Bankers Association Inc.Insignia/ESG, Inc.Israeloff, Trattner & Co.J.P. Morgan Chase FoundationJohnson and JohnsonLangenscheidt Publishing GroupMerck Company FoundationNew York City College of TechnologyOpus Northwest, LLCPfizer Inc.PSEGrafflesreed Business InformationsUNY FarmingdaleTAG Associates LLCWhitestone Capital, LLCWolters Kluwer Law and Business/Aspen PublishersYoswein NY$1,000 +Herbert I. Butler ’32Martin Kaltman ’32robert V. Henning ’34Danos Homer Kallas ’35David Bady ’36Paul Gitto ’36Claude W. Peters ’36Harris H. Levee ’37John Papamarcos ’37Charles W. Potter ’37arturo rescigno ’37Carl P. Weber ’38adolph H. Wold ’38Constantine S. Cucurullo ’39Joseph De rienzo ’39Edmund J. Moderacki ’39Zeke Cooper ’40Joseph B. Milgram Jr. ’40Jerome D. Luntz ’41melvin schoenfeld ’41Tellef Peter Tellefsen ’41Eugene Miritello ’42

Carl V. Pernicone ’42Karl M. Sandbo ’42William J. stolze ’42salvatore J. azzaro ’43Norman W. Castellani ’43David s. Hacker ’43alfred L. Haffner ’43Norman a. schefer ’43Morton Sorkin ’43Robert E. Wentsch ’43William C. Drewes ’44Joseph L. Flood ’44Paul J. Glasgow ’44Warren m. Haussler ’44Charles J. Heilbronner ’44Gerald A. Lessells ’44Jonathan V. Levin ’44Eugene E. Lopata ’44Joseph T. Pardovich ’44robert U. schoenfelder ’44Joel J. Sterling ’44Charles H. Waide ’44Eugene A. Weisberger ’44richard Foxen ’45Burtin Goldberg ’45Henry Kirchdorfer ’45Daniel a. LeDonne ’45Norman N. Lewin ’45George T. Lewis Jr. ’45monroe F. richman ’45George H. spencer ’45ruth E. staehle ’45Irving streimer ’45Peter a. Tufo ’45Kenneth B. Wiberg ’45stanley Wolpert ’45Harvey Brickman ’46Nathaniel B. Cohen ’46Milton Cooper ’46Seymour Fagan ’46martin r. Horn ’46James H. Lantelme ’46Velio a. marsocci ’46Leonard Matin ’46Norman moskowitz ’46Lewis G. Nieberg ’46Frank L. Peishel ’46alfred schroeder ’46Bertram H. stiller ’46William J. anton ’47Harry Bernstein ’47

robert r. Detwiler ’47melvin Elfin ’47Charles D. Federico ’47arnold W. Frank ’47Fred a. Grauman ’47richard J. Katucki ’47stephen J. Keane ’47abraham L. Landis ’47Edward W. Lewison ’47robert marchisotto ’47marvin I. mazur ’47arthur miller ’47stuart Pivar ’47Norman Y. Zelvin ’47Jerome L. sackman ’47George W. smith ’47Donald J. Bachrach ’48sheldon Batterman ’48roger E. Beutner ’48John W. Chromy ’48Bernard Friedland ’48John a. Garstka ’48

Lino a. Graglia ’48Louis Gross ’48William K. Kramer ’48murray a. Luftglass ’48richard F. marsh ’48Joseph a. Parrella ’48morton Povman ’48Leonard shapiro ’48Harold sobol ’48David Weild III ’48George a. Yabroudy ’48Hermann F. anton ’49Klaus Bergman ’49Richard M. Ehrlich ’49Leonard Ehrman ’49murray H. Feigenbaum ’49Alvin R. Finkelstein ’49Barry D. Greene ’49richard J. Harper ’49Pazel G. Jackson, Jr. ’49Stratos G. Kantounis ’49Allan W. Lyons ’49Lionel A. Marks ’49Sidney S. Paul ’49R.A. Satin ’49Alvin M. Silver ’49Walter J. Smith ’49Edward P. Taudien ’49anonymous ’50robert J. anders ’50William H. Chamberlain ’50robert T. Cole ’50Frank J. Farella ’50richard G. ramge ’50Bert W. Wasserman ’50F. richard Zitzmann ’50albert r. adelmann ’51Noah m. Berley ’51Lawrence D. Brown ’51Frank a. Cipriani ’51morton Corn ’51Gordon Davidson ’51Kenneth a. Griffin ’51Walter G. Jung ’51m. robert Kestenbaum ’51angel martin ’51arno a. Penzias ’51richard J. Pressel ’51robert m. rosen ’51George C. Stoutenburgh , Sr. ’51

William assiff ’52richard B. Brandt ’52Hank E. Carillo ’52Victor J. Caroddo ’52alan B. Dolmatch ’52alan Drucker ’52Karl E. Fritsch ’52Lester a. Hoel ’52John m. Jeffords ’52David Kliot ’52robert E. melnik ’52Edward m. messina ’52C. raymond Nelson ’52James P. Popino ’52stuart J. rothkopf ’52steven P. shearing ’52Theodore Thomte ’52michael a. Turin ’52Vincent Volpicelli ’52raoul alvarez ’53roger s. Blaho ’53alexander N. Casella ’53

William Cullen ’53Clifford J. Daly ’53sheldon W. Dean Jr. ’53anthony r. Fandozzi ’53Carl D. Harbart ’53Charles F. muller Jr. ’53richard schwartz ’53Jerome I. sharrin ’53William m. slyman ’53ron Tevonian ’53Bernhard E. Deichmann ’54Franklin J. Gladstone ’54Thomas W. Hall ’54Heinz a. Hegmann ’54Norman D. Henderson ’54albert Loschiavo ’54Peter F. margulen ’54John C. munnelly ’54Hans r. Naumann ’54Kurt r. Willinger ’54Fred H. Woodruff ’54Lawrence m. Baskir ’55robert B. Bruns ’55Joseph a. Castellano ’55Vincent r. Damiano ’55W. Philip Johnson Jr. ’55Carl J. Lange ’55John Leary ’55Joseph D. monticciolo ’55Eric C. Olsen ’55Irving rozansky ’55Joel m. spiro ’55robert J. sywolski ’55John H. andren Jr. ’56anthony J. Balsamo ’56Joel B. Chase ’56marvin C. Gersten ’56Bruce L. Hollander ’56Joseph T. Kavanagh ’56William B. Knowlton ’56Peter a. Lopes ’56Peter L. Norgren ’56Joseph F. Plummer ’56robert rung ’56Bernard schwartzman ’56stanley skalka ’56Philip G. Taylor ’56Jack H. Willenbrock ’56Elkan abramowitz ’57robert H. Buggeln ’57Louis P. Crane ’57

Frederick J. Dymek ’57arthur Fontaine ’57Bernard H. Friese ’57Victor F. Germack ’57martin L. Goldfarb ’57Ed Goldman ’57robert Hoch ’57Jack Karczewski ’57Donald C. mcCann ’57Thomas J. mitchell ’57Joseph m. moran ’57D. robert Oppenheimer, Jr. ’57Kenneth m. rosen ’57richard s. Taylor ’57John J. Tomaszewski ’57allan abramson ’58anthony r. Baldomir ’58David Berman ’58Joel D. Citron ’58sal Dunn ’58allan r. Ginsberg ’58

Edward Haleman ’58marvin L. meistrich ’58arthur W. Kirsch ’58ronald morony ’58steven J. Nappen ’58anthony C. Nicoletti ’58ronald Olson ’58robert raifman ’58raymond reilly ’58Edward rogas Jr. ’58stanley m. rogovin ’58Lester a. rubenfeld ’58richard K. ruff ’58robin J. russo ’58Jack B. shaifer ’58alvin J. siegartel ’58Paul B. Thorn ’58Thomas E. Waber ’58richard F. Worsena ’58stephan ariyan ’59melvin J. Band ’59steven m. Darien ’59Clifford H. Fisher ’59robert a. Grossman ’59arnold a Gruber ’59arnold Katz ’59marshall J. Levinson ’59Joel s. Levy ’59Charles J. Luchun ’59Dennis J. moran ’59andrew G. mueller ’59albert F. Neumann ’59Bruce N. Newrock ’59Edward a. Oxer ’59Ira N. slow ’59Chuck spillert ’59Louis P. Torre ’59Francis J. Voyticky ’59Jack S. Bakunin ’60Louis R. Comunelli ’60Nicholas J. DeCapua ’60Robert W. Donohue ’60Asher Etkin ’60Bernard Grossman ’60Steven Koestenblatt ’60Derek I. Lowenstein ’60Ray A. Lynnworth ’60Paul B. mentz ’60robert O. mercer ’60Eugene B. Michaelsen ’60Edwin Neff Jr. ’60Paul Pliester ’60John H. Powers ’60Arthur P. Rea ’60Stephen L. Richter ’60Bruce Rubinger ’60ronald H. schmahl ’60Miles A. Slater ’60William J. Tinston Jr. ’60David H. abramson ’61richard P. anastasio ’61 Irving m. adler ’61Lawrence a. Baker ’61Peter J. Balestiero ’61sheldon Bernstein ’61alan I. Brooks ’61Peter J. Coppolino ’61Peter L. Cuneo ’61Elliott J. Dubin ’61Dennis E. Ellisen ’61Paul D. Felder ’61marshall N. Gartenlaub ’61Peter N. Geornaras ’61John Hahn ’61Franz J. Hoge ’61Clifford a. Hudsick ’61George B. Johnson ’61Gordon a. Lewandowski ’61William D. Livesey ’61Joseph J. merenda Jr. ’61Joseph Nalven ’61marvin Pflaum ’61Lawrence J. simon ’61mark C. stern ’61michael F. Trachtenberg ’61Norman Weinstein ’61Douglas B. Woessner ’61michael E. Zall ’61Steven M. Bauman ’62Richard J. Cusick ’62William B. Follit Jr. ’62

Curtis K. Goss ’62steven Heymsfield ’62Stanley Keyles ’62Peter Konieczny ’62allan a. Koslofsky ’62Pete Kudless ’62Michael Lamoriella ’62Robert Levine ’62Dennis A. Paoletti ’62arthur N. Peterson ’62Joel Zizmor ’62Neil Bromberg ’63alan r. Cravitz ’63michael DeFazio ’63Jeff Erdel ’63Joel M. Feldschneider ’63Bradley B. Fordham ’63William P. Fox ’63Peter Gamba ’63Donald Gaylord ’63Andrew Kohl ’63Lloyd J. Lazarus ’63Herbert J. marks ’63Emil Monda ’63David a. rosenzweig ’63Chet Singer ’63Bernard M. Spiegel ’63stephen N. Weiss ’63arnold Zimmerman ’63Robert Filosa ’64Richard D. Firestone ’64Richard Gaccione ’64William J. Gallo ’64Gabriel Goldberg ’64Louis D. Greenzweig ’64Eliot Hess ’64Peter Kunka ’64Kenneth R. Pierce ’64Steven Schlosser ’64Glenn C. Seale ’64Wayne L. Taylor ’64Damon S. Williams ’64Barry Zemel ’64William J. aghassi ’65John Berenyi ’65ronald E. Brandt ’65Bruce a. Brice ’65Vincent Cavaseno ’65Charles s. Di marco ’65John J. Eschemuller ’65John J. Fahner ’65alan s. Fitter ’65Jeffrey Greenberg ’65mark Hauerstock ’65sandor J. Kovacs ’65Ta m. Li ’65Thomas G. may ’65Paul E. mendis ’65Leonard P. morse ’65Joseph Napoleon ’65Elby m. Nash ’65ronald C. ruoff ’65samuel I. schwartz ’65steven a. shaya ’65raymond s. stefanowicz ’65salvatore T. Troiano ’65rein Uibopuu ’65Michael C. Alavanja ’66Andrew W. Au ’66Steven Bauml ’66Robert E. Browne ’66Paul Ellingsen ’66Thomas F. Fagan ’66Howard Fluhr ’66Laurence Greenberg ’66Nicholas Koopalethes ’66Joseph D. Korman ’66Alan W. Kramer ’66Richard A. Laskowski ’66Harry a. Laster ’66Bruce S. Lederman ’66Michael M. Liu ’66Edward r. Lubitz ’66Peter Z. mantarakis ’66Vincent massaro ’66Kevin McPartland ’66Stephen J. Roppolo ’66Gabor Rothauser ’66mark H. scherwin ’66abraham m. akselrad ’67steven Berkowitz ’67

23

Joseph m. Calabro ’67marc F. Colman ’67Joseph P. Crosson ’67Joseph s. Cusumano ’67mark L. Kay ’67raymond C. martinez ’67Jeffrey Nathan ’67Joseph Pellegrino ’67mark s. rosentraub ’67

stanley rowin ’67Kenneth r. adamo ’68martin s. Brooks ’68mitchell Fine ’68Lawrence Gulotta ’68andrew a. Janczak ’68Zbigniew r. Jankowski ’68Jack C. Jawitz ’68Edward roffman ’68sholom sanders ’68mark seratoff ’68roger L. shields ’68Carlton P. Tolsdorf Jr. ’68robert Trentacoste ’68stephen Wanderman ’68Anonymous ’69Raoul G. Farrell ’69Sandy D. Fein ’69John P. Fillo ’69Robert M. Krasny ’69Richard P. Lampeter ’69Benjamin Moreira ’69Daniel K. Moy ’69Carl W. Ordemann ’69John M. Picariello ’69Norman D. romney ’69Roger S. So ’69Frank P. szaraz ’69Christopher J. Cavallaro ’70Thomas m. Giusto ’70Carmine r. Inserra ’70michael r. Krieger ’70Parkin Lee ’70Isaac a. Lewin ’70Fred Parise ’70James F. reda ’70Eliseo rosario Jr. ’70Francis J. sanzillo ’70Kenneth arbeeny ’71James E. Brennan ’71Fred m. Del Gaudio ’71David Gerson ’71Thomas m. La Guidice ’71steven a. mirones ’71Daniel r. O’Connor ’71raymond C. stewart ’71John C. sweeney ’71Barton a. Chase III ’72Costantino Lanza ’72steven D. menoff ’72James murphy ’72Carl m. renda ’72alfredo sardinas ’72robert E. Borowski ’73James G. Calderone ’73marshall Haimson ’73William Lee ’73mark V. Lindstrom ’73Gary J. mcDonagh ’73richard E. mikaelian ’73

Justin O. schechter ’73russell m. Price ’73robert H. shullich ’73John W. Bellando ’74Kenneth E. Chapin ’74Thomas E. Cuhaj ’74Isaac B. Honor ’74raoul D. Ilaw ’74raymond P. Jones ’74

Tony H. Lawrence ’74Edward mecner ’74anthony P. Nuciforo ’74albert rodriguez ’74Felix L. rodriguez Jr. ’74Frank scipione ’74Barry a. Callender ’75Keith K. Chan ’75Jo anne Kana ’75albert H. Ziegler ’75Gary Chan ’76Carlos Garcia ’76sharon P. munroe ’76Giovanni Tafa ’76Grayling G. Williams ’76Duncan Wong ’76Douglas Yagilowich ’76allen V. Zollo ’76Vance B. Barbour ’77susan L. Downing ’77mitch Friedman ’77Nicholas O. Kallas ’77richard T. Konig ’77sidney milden ’77Howard L. millman ’77Wayne P. Naegele ’77richard Puswald ’77robyn V. allen-mcKinnon ’78aubrey Braz ’78

robert s. Bright ’78Carl E. Brown Jr. ’78Glennis r. m. Hall ’78King C. Ng ’78Wai Nam Tam ’78Charles Tepper ’78George Yanakis ’78Walton D. Pearson ’79anonymous ’80audrey C. Churchill ’80

Brian Clark ’80andrea Currie-Wigfall ’80Lenworth a. Daley ’80Leslie Osei-Tutu ’80alex sosa ’80adam N. stoller ’80Kenneth Wong ’80anonymous ’81John K. Goudelias ’81

Derrick a. Hostler ’81Ira s. Krolick ’81Dana s. Newbauer ’81David W. robinson ’81Vera L. admore-sakyi ’82stephen Blanchette Jr. ’82marion Bobb-mcKoy ’82Beverley a. madden ’82Frank s. Viola ’82mark arzoomanian ’83Carmen m. Colon ’83Carol Cunningham ’83selena L. Holmes ’83James J. mcCarthy ’83Eric Polite ’83mitchell E. stashower ’83Denice C. Ware ’83mark s. Christopher ’84Joseph C. Cuzzocrea Jr. ’84raymond Feige ’84Gretchen mullins-Kim ’84Lauren Nassau ’84Pamela rumph ’84David L. Yang ’84Cherryann Joseph ’85Cheryl-ann Leslie ’85Dionne G. sinclair ’85anthony Whiteman ’85Travis Wiltshire ’85Lynda P. Wyatt ’85

Kirwin Gibbs ’86margaret mullins ’86Gary s. Pasricha ’86michael V. swabowicz Jr. ’86Wei-Jing Zhu ’86rory a. anglin ’87monya Bunch ’87Virginia-marie m. Chan ’87michelle Gay ’87randolph B. Houston Jr. ’87

Paul W. Katzer ’87richard Lukaj ’87Jason Orefice ’87rodney L. shannon ’87Janet sosa ’87robert W. Berger ’88Victoria reyes ’88Donovan Wickline ’88andrew Beyzman ’89Kenyatta m. Green ’89Petula K. Lee ’89Luke mangal ’89John P. Albert ’90scott rozany ’90Michael Simpson ’90George Bougiamas ’92Carl Erik Heiberg ’92Emrah Kovacoglu ’92Nathan Lipke ’92Suman Sabastin ’92Erika Terebessy ’92Robert Roswell ’94Katrina Burton-Nichols ’95seth C. Flash ’95Carina Lucia L. Kim ’99Taahira Maynard ’99Vadim Verkhoglyad ’02Friends of TechAnonymousAnonymous

Bruce BaskindJohn L. BattaglinoJames BattermanNoreen BegleyAllyson BrennerJames M. BerginLeonard Berner

Michael E. BillettPhilip E. BruggeMatthew BurkleyRobin CalitriThomas CallahanClass of 1999 Graduation GiftClass of 2004 Graduation GiftMorris Chernick

James CroweArt DauberCharles M. DauberRosanne D’AugustaJoseph D. D’EspositoThomas A. EvangelistMaryann M. FeeneySarah FlanaganBarbara FriedmanPeter GethersKenneth Greenbergsusan HarmonHarold HeffnerJerry m. HultinHenry JacksonJoseph KaelinIrwin KallmanJohn D. KaltmanLauren KaltmanRichard KaltmanMary Ellen KeatingHoward KellyMitchell KlipperJodi KoelschRichard KornRichard Latteyricardo LezamaConcetta LicitraEvelyn MaloneyPatrick MaloneyVergenia mcrae

Peter menikoffIrene MillerLorraine C. NankoDavid Newmanrichard Nicotramiriam NightengaleKenneth NisbetLinda NoonanKecia O’NealJoan m. O’sheaElaine OsterweilHoke PeacockJames Gw. PepperAchilles M. Perryalex PicozziIsaiah PrattWilliam PrenskyBruce RatnerWilliam ReillyBernice RighthandFrank Ritotamax robertsLori roland-PlonskiRobert RothbergCarleton SchadeElizabeth a. sciabarraDalila SerranoEnrique r. rodriguezAndrew T. SilvermanNorman s. sternmanette H. ThomasAlice TimothyJohn P. TobinMarie J. ToulantisBarbara L. TrommerGeorgene C. TufoJanet Tweed

Jack s. VanderrynLeonard J. Verebayrobert VillencyScott WinstonDon ZachariaEdwin ZarowinNorman L. ZlotnickOrganizationsAnonymousAllied Signal Found, Inc.american Express Tax & Businessatlantic Bank of New YorkBaltimore Community FoundationBelmet Products Inc.BP Amoco Foundation Inc.Brooklyn College auxiliary EnterprisesBWD Group LLCCarter-WallaceConairCouncil of school supervisors & administratorsEthicon, Inc.FioriGilletteHoneywell International FoundationHsBC

Jewish Communal FundJP Morgan ChaseLogiconm. shanken Communica- tions, Inc.Millennium Capital Markets, LLCMoody’s Investors ServiceMotorola FoundationNBC studios, Inc.New Jersey Brooklyn Tech Alumni GroupNew York Chapter associa- tion of Energy EngineersNorthrop GrummanPerseus Books LLCsonenshine & Pastor Co.Sorrentino Development Corp.St. Francis Food Pantries & sheltersSt. John’s UniversityThe Bank of New YorkThe Marketplace RealtyThe Prudential FoundationThe Scout Company, Inc.Tomkins Corporation FoundationTurner Construction Co.United Defense FmC FoundationUnited Way of New York CityVanguard ConstructionWaldner’s Business Environ- ments Inc.

24

Board of Directors

Larry Cary ’70President

susan mayham ’76anthony schirripa ’67Donovan Wickline ’88

Vice Presidents

Horace Davis ’84Secretary

Carmine morano ’72Treasurer

Wilton Cedeno ’82Jim DiBenedetto ’71

Jack Feinstein ’60Norman Keller ’54

Penelope Kokkinides ’87Amy Kong ’99

Edward LaGrassa ’65John Lyons ’66

margaret murphy ’83achilles Perry ’58

Ned steele ’68Denice Ware ’83

michael Weiss ’57Marc Williams ’90

Laurie Zephyrin ’92Directors

Zeshan Gondal ’15Student Representative

Foundation Office

Elizabeth a. sciabarraExecutive Director

mathew m. mandery ’61Chief Educational Officer

Rikhia ChowdhuryResearch Analyst

Ina CloonenOffice Manager

suzanne HausmanGraphics Administrator

Liliya magalnik Nissen ’01Special Events and Projects

Coordinator

Vance Toure ’06Special Assistant

Tech Times Staff

Editor In Chief and Chief Writer:Ned steele ’68

Graphic Design: robert Horansky

Editorial Direction: Elizabeth a. sciabarra

Writer: Rebecca T. Kaplan ’09

Photography: Ron Glassman (pages C1, C2, 7-9, 12-15, 21) robert Horansky (pages 2- 4, 10-11) Steve Kelly (pages 1, 18) Be aware Photography/simone Yhap ’15 (pages 2, 3, C4)

Tech Times© 2014 Brooklyn Tech alumni Foundation, Inc.

Tech Times is published annually by the Brooklyn Tech Alumni Foundation. Articles may be reprinted with its permission.

To receive the Technite Online e-newsletter by email, contact info@bthsalum.org.

Please send class notes and updates, letters to the editor, address changes and other communications to:

BrOOKLYN TECH aLUmNI FOUNDaTION29 Fort Greene PlaceBrooklyn NY 11217718-797-2285www.bthsalumni.orginfo@bthsalum.org

The magazine of The Brooklyn Tech Alumni FoundationFall 2014

Tech Times2

Intel School of Distinction Finalist – scienceProject Lead the Way Model School

Randy J. Asher, Principal BrOOKLYN TECHNICaL HIGH sCHOOL

As the 2014-15 school year opens, the Brooklyn Tech Alumni Foundation has much to celebrate. During the last school year, we helped Brooklyn Tech in a number of ways, thanks to your support and your donations. We provided the faculty with over $100,000 in grants. Their projects included the purchase of special instructional materials and equipment, professional development workshops and conferences and sponsorship of academic and athletic teams. We partnered with various corporations and universities to directly impact school programs and student opportunities. National Grid, Makerbot, Stevens Institute of Technology, Pennoni Associates and Drexel University are but a few of these. We sponsored a lecture series that focused on all areas of STEM (Sci-ence, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics); these lectures highlighted innovative programs to pique the intellectual curiosity of our students. We expanded our Weston Research Scholars Program to include new place-ments at Stevens Institute of Technology, NYU-Poly and CUNY. We continued to work with the school on the modernization and upgrade of the auditorium and the first floor gymnasium. We secured Capital Project money to renovate and upgrade the Tech Athletic Field. We funded an outstanding public rela-tions campaign that bought air time for Brooklyn Tech on public television; the segment on STEM was part of the Breakthrough Series. We purchased six 3-D printers and supported the Robotics Team in its quest for the national championship. We expanded our National Grid STEM Pipeline Program and middle school outreach efforts to educate prospective students about Brooklyn Tech. We supported such student events as the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, Banner Day and Senior Awards Night. We connected graduating seniors with the Alumni Foundation through our Homecoming, Career Day and Ruby events. We think it important for seniors to understand the role the Foundation plays in our school and how instrumental your dollars are to making their time at Tech truly extraordinary. Finally we lauded several alumni at our annual dinner; recognizing our alumni and sharing their achievements with the larger school community are essential components of our strong partnership with Tech. Looking ahead, we will continue to ask for your support. We are spon-soring a facilities feasibility study to develop a full-fledged strategic plan for the Tech of the future. This study will look at all the spaces in the building that have not yet been re-tooled by the Foundation, so we can plan for future upgrades and re-purposing. We have to take care of Tech so that Tech will take care of our future generations of Technites! Thank you for all you have done for Tech!

Elizabeth A. Sciabarra Executive Director

THE BLuepRInt SOCIetyPlease consider including Brooklyn Tech in your estate and tax planning through a bequest or other form of planned gift.

To learn more, please contact info@bthsalum.org or call the Alumni Foundation Office inside Brooklyn Tech, 718-797-2285. Your inquiry will be treated with respect, appreciation and strict confidentiality.

From TheFoundation Office