Summer 2023
Tim Chartier
Ever since Tim started as a full-time technician on the EmBase team, he has added significant value to the group in its processes and testing execution and has been a fantastic addition. The main point of recognition for Tim is the mentality and positive attitude he brings with him when helping others. Tim will dive eagerly into whatever is asked of him, regardless of whether it is soldering, organizing information regarding device problems, or even figuring out random cable measurements. Detail-oriented, he takes pictures of setups and captures for later reference, which has helped and guided others in understanding results. If you work with Tim, you can be sure that thoughtful effort and time have been put into the project. Without Tim's efforts and involvement in the space, the PHY area would be a shell of its current self. He goes above and beyond to take time out to help others and is a great asset to SPE and the lab, he is well deserving of this recognition as a rising star.
Will Gawron
In a short time, Will has become an invaluable member of the Broadband group. In no time at all, he was able to master our DSL testing with an unusually deep understanding of the underlying technology, proving he would be a cornerstone of our team. In his role as a test technician, his exceptional attention to detail and dedication to accuracy immediately set him apart. Will continues to grow his skill sets and accomplishes more at the lab. As a result of his development work on Test Sentinel software, it has recently become more stable and capable. As a mentor and a leader, he is always willing to share his knowledge with new employees and accept new responsibilities. It’s impressive to see how quickly he learns new concepts and technologies. The quality of his leadership was particularly important this summer when he became the sole member of our wireless team. In record time, he has become one of the best technicians the group has seen. It has been a pleasure to watch Will grow into a fantastic team member. There is no question that he is deserving of the IOL star award.
Michael Crawley
As part of the NVMe development team, Michael Crawley has consistently put forth one of the strongest and most consistent efforts over the past 6 months. In the past 15 months, it has been impressive to see how quickly he is able to learn and grasp new concepts on a deeper level. He approaches problems from multiple perspectives and is capable of understanding the issues he is tackling in a way that would make one think he has several years of experience with NVMe, when in fact he has less than two years. Beyond NVMe development, Michael has been an excellent mentor to new hires. Due to his seemingly limitless patience and a good attitude, he is fostering learning and innovation every day he comes into the lab and sits down to work. He is always willing and able to help out both new hires and more senior students alike. His work with the interns this summer is just a showcase of his ability to educate and help create a productive learning environment. He is also a consistent and vocal contributor to the NVMe test tool INTERACT, he's very active in the code reviews, making suggestions and providing feedback on code to ensure the contributions are robust. His last 6 months of hard work is very much deserving of recognition at this meeting, and we look forward to seeing what he will help us achieve next as part of the Data Center team.
Dilan Patel
Dilan Patel is everyone's right-hand man in the data center. Every year during his time in the lab, he was always available to help fix bugs or spend extra time moving projects forward. Coming here every week, it's always amazing to see that Dylan not only set out to do a big job, but completed it well ahead of schedule, even though he ran into big obstacles along the way. . There is basically nothing that slows Dilan down, if a solution exists he will find it. No task is too small or too big, He is committed to the success of the data center team and his presence benefits everyone around him. From leading successful projects like HTB to cleaning the cold room, Dylan invests 100% in everything he does. Dilan is a data center leader, a mentor to many, and an example to all. For everything Dylan has accomplished and all the hard work he has put in, he deserves recognition as his IOL star.
Vanessa Skinner
Vanessa began working as a full-time engineer on the IPv6 test team at the end of 2022, and has consistently performed routine test duties with incredible efficiency ever since. She was also happy to help troubleshoot for other team members. Vanessa is also a go-to resource for in-person assistance, resetting physical devices, and checking network connectivity as needed. She was very helpful when in the lab, especially when some of the regular IP staff were out of the office during IETF meetings. She's a great help and asset to the team and a worthy IOL star.
Winter 2023
Dale Lavoie
A rising veteran in the SPE team, Dale has been a large resource in the higher speed technologies that we have been developing and testing. With experience in almost all things SPE (multiple test plans) he has a unique view of our area and a knowledge base that allows him to tackle a problem from all angles. He is very diligent and keeps a great record of all that he works on testing wise while maintaining good interactions with his peers and vendors. He has been a go-to PCS tester for quite some time and has taken on many new responsibilities along the way. He is a valuable member of the team, very easy to work with and his hard work does not go unnoticed. Dale is ultimately a great resource in the PHY team and continues to evolve as more complicated testing methods and technologies are shown to him. His engagement with everyone, technical know-how of the PMA, PCS and PHYC testing alongside his overall attitude all showcase why he represents the values of an IOL Star and the team would not be the same without him!
Matt Corso
A hardware testing guru or PCB wizard so to speak. Matt is interested in all things EE that take place within the lab and has the knowledge and expertise to help out across all fronts. He has been a large resource in EmBase helping with Plugfests, outreach with students, IOL promotion, working with vendors that visit, hardware or software development and testing. Matt has worked intensely on the PMA aspects of both SPE and APL. The efforts put forth into his PCB designs, Altium organization, and PCB confluence pages has been and will continue to be great resources going forward. His superb attitude makes the working environment all the more enjoyable. This student has ultimately risen up to any occasion in order to help their peers, coworkers and the lab act on all of its values while trying to understand and solve the problems we encounter with industry. Matt exemplifies what it means to be an IOL Star and through this his drive he inspires others to do the same. We are very fortunate to have him be a part of our team and at the IOL!
Joey Heacock
He has been a driving force within the APL and Power groups for the software based tools used not only internally but externally. From the customer facing perspective, he has worked diligently to help address concerns regarding bugs submitted by users in addition to pushing for further automation and ease of test setup. He has risen to the occasion to learn both our Java and Matlab implementations along with our functions that interact between the two. He has proven the ability to effectively work with multiple teams across the broadband and embase Industries at the IOL, and has become an example of what we can achieve and aim to represent when developing software testing solutions. Beyond his significant technical contributions, he stands out with this friendliness and enthusiasm for the work, improving morale and setting an example for all that work with him.
Adam Judge
Adam’s presence at the IOL over the years has greatly influenced how the Interact test tool functions and his development efforts will always make a meaningful difference for every test developer to follow in his steps. For all current developers Adam is a huge source of help, there are many times where a confusing and convoluted section of the spec for a developer can be simply and quickly clarified with a “Hey Adam”. His knowledge on the NVMe spec, the Linux kernel and Python is immense and while it has caused confusion many times during bug scrubs it has led to an expanded knowledge base of every technician in datacenter. There are many things that datacenter can thank Adam for over the years, but this award is to recognize the culmination of his knowledge gained so far at the lab with the creation of ANVMe. What was originally avoided due to concerns over the effort and knowledge needed to create was single handedly developed by Adam in an extremely short time span. Not only did Adam create this driver in such a short period but he designed it to have enough granularity to develop scripts that were previously deemed impossible and with an interface easy enough for new developers to work with and support in the future. Adam continues to push the NVMe and Datacenter team forward and his actions are worthy of being recognized as an IOL Star.
Michael Crawley
Michael has quickly established himself as an extremely knowledgeable and reliable individual in the Datacenter group. He has jumped head first into the NVMe development team and become the lead developer on the latest iteration of the NVMe organization conformance test plan, organizing the test development efforts and keeping everyone on track. But before this, even from the start of Michael’s career at the IOL, it was clear that he had a very strong work ethic and desire to learn and better himself, constantly learning new skills and jumping into new technologies, embracing the learning curve involved in each new area. He goes above and beyond the normal amount of research to learn new things, and is able to learn new technologies extremely quickly. Michael embodies all characteristics of what an IOL STAR should be, and the NVMe development team and Datacenter group is very fortunate to have someone like him as a member of the team.