MITRE Employees Honored as 2009 Black Engineer of the Year Award Winners

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

MCLEAN, Va., February 25, 2009 — The MITRE Corporation is pleased to announce that Dennis Copeland and Eugene Mwendwa have been named category winners by the 2009 Black Engineer of the Year Awards (BEYA) Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Global Competitiveness Conference. Shariff Ali was nominated for his contributions to the technology field.

Copeland and Mwendwa accepted their awards at the 23rd annual BEYA STEM Conference held February 18-22 in Baltimore, Md. Established in 1986, the national award program recognizes African-Americans who demonstrate excellence in engineering or science and leadership in the workplace and community.

"This recognition is a true compliment—for the winners, the nominees, and the company," said Lisa Bender, vice president and chief human resources officer at MITRE. "These honors speak to the caliber of our employees’ technical expertise."

Dennis Copeland

A principal information systems engineer in MITRE's Homeland Security Center, Copeland was honored in the Professional Achievement in Industry category for his contributions to the evolution of federal systems technology and acquisition-oriented processes during his 35-year career. He currently leads a team assisting the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to reengineer its acquisition and investment review process. With MITRE since 1973, Copeland has served as technical manager for many of the company's federal civilian work programs, including the General Services Administration and the Social Security Administration. He has taught internal technology courses, published in technical journals, and has presented at conferences on expert systems.

Copeland holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Maryland and a certificate in management in technology organizations from American University in Washington, D.C.

Eugene Mwendwa

Mwendwa, a senior software systems engineer in MITRE's FAA-sponsored Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD), was recognized as a Modern-Day Technology Leader—someone who is shaping the future of engineering, science, and technology. Since joining MITRE in 2004, he has applied his knowledge of open source configuration tools to enhance CAASD's airspace modeling capabilities. Mwendwa now supports the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) program, which fuses data from a wide range of aviation-related sources to maintain high levels of safety in the National Airspace System. His work helps provide the FAA with data vital to setting benchmarks for terminal and runway safety. Applying his expertise in service-oriented architecture (connecting multiple systems for seamless communication), Mwendwa used Web services and CAASD's Collaborative Routing Coordination Tools application to convey a concept of operations for aviation security.

Mwendwa previously worked at UUNET as a network software systems engineer. He currently teaches and mentors youth and minority-owned businesses about the uses and benefits of technology. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from American University and a master's degree in information systems from University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Shariff Ali

Ali, a senior economic/business analyst in MITRE's Department of Defense Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence federally funded research and development center, was nominated as a Modern-Day Technology Leader for his achievements in IT management. He currently supports the acquisition directorate of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) with acquisition and contract support, including software life-cycle and contract and documentation management. Ali recently supported the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act working group in the development of the NGA's initial planning efforts to address workforce requirements from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Prior to joining MITRE in 2005, Ali was a financial consultant for BearingPoint and a project manager with JACER Corporation. He holds a bachelor's degree in political science from the City University of New York, York College, and a master's degree in business administration from Strayer University. He is currently pursuing a certificate in program management and contracting from Defense Acquisition University.

The MITRE Corporation (www.mitre.org) is a not-for-profit national resource that provides systems engineering, research and development, and information technology support to the government. It operates federally funded research and development centers for the Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Veterans Affairs, with principal locations in Bedford, Mass., and McLean, Va.

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