ATC Senior Management
Kenneth J. Thurber
President and Founder
Dr. Thurber is a recognized computer architecture/advanced software expert with 35 years of hardware and software experience, including 25 years of LAN R&D experience. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Montana State University in 1969.
Dr. Thurber has extensive system architecture experience. He was the Principal Architect of several mainframe systems developed in the Sperry Defense Systems Division including the Navy's fleet-wide standard computer.
Dr. Thurber has authored over 60 papers and 14 books in the areas of computer architecture and local area networks. He developed the first IEEE Computer Society tutorial book on Local Computer Networks. He has twice served as the chairman of the IEEE Computer Society's Technical Committee on Computer communications. He has also served on the IEEE Computer Society Governing Board and as Chairman of the 6th, 7th, and 8th Data Communications Symposia. In 1996, the IEEE Computer Society named Dr. Thurber to their "Golden Core"—individuals making the most significant contributions to computing in the first 50 years.
Gene Proctor
Vice President, Business Development
Since 1996, Gene Proctor has been the Vice President of Business Development responsible for working with numerous government agencies to identify and capture new opportunities for R&D, consulting/engineering services and government contracts for new product development. With his guidance, ATC is now recognized as an industry leader in software product developments for leading edge networking systems.
Growing up in Washington DC, Gene's marketing career began in the Washington Office of Lear Siegler where he worked on anti-submarine warfare and navigation systems for Navy helicopters. Leaving Washington to join Sperry Univac, Gene spent three years in St. Paul, MN marketing computer systems to the Navy's P-3 and S-3 aircraft programs. He transferred to the Sperry District Office supporting the US Army in Ft. Monmouth NJ. After joining TRW, Gene became the Senior Marketing Manager for R&D and, in 1990, transferred to Washington to assume business development responsibility for TRW's contracts with DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency).
Ranga Ramanujan
Chief Technology Officer
Dr. Ramanujan's research interests cover the areas of computer networks, distributed computing, real-time computing, and fault-tolerant computing. He has demonstrated experience in leading and contributing to technology development efforts ranging from concept development to full-scale system implementation. He has served as the PI of over 15 research efforts sponsored by agencies such as DARPA, the US Army, the U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Coast Guard, NSF, and NASA.
Dr. Ramanujan has served on the program committees of the 2002 ACM Workshop on Wireless Security, the 1997 International Symposium on Reliable Distributed Systems, the 1996 and 1997 Heterogeneous Computing Workshops, and the 1987 Real Time Systems Symposium. He has published over 30 technical papers in the areas of computer networks and distributed computing and has two pending patents on denial-of-service (DoS) protection techniques.
Dr. Ramanujan holds degrees in Electrical Engineering from Annamalai University (B.S), Clarkson University (M.S.), and the University of Iowa (Ph.D.).
Noel Schmidt
Vice President, Operations
Noel Schmidt has over 30 years of Systems Engineering and Software Development experience working with real-time, performance-sensitive, distributed systems. Since 1983, he has supported the FAA in systems architecture and engineering assignments related to acquiring air traffic control systems including the Display Systems Replacement and the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System.
Since 1992, he has led software development supporting FAA R&D efforts in runway safety systems for the Runway Status Lights Project at Boston Logan, the Runway Incursion Reduction Project at Dallas/Fort Worth, and the Loop Technology, Surface Technology Assessment, and Final Approach Runway Occupancy Signal Projects at Long Beach and coming soon to DFW.
Mr. Schmidt holds a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University and a Masters in Computer Science from George Washington University, Washington, DC. He is an active private pilot and aircraft owner.
Julie Baker
General Manager, ATC-NY
As General Manager of ATC-NY since 2001, Ms. Baker leads a team of scientists and engineers focusing on research and development in information assurance, information management, and reliable computing. Under her direction, the group continues to lead the industry in innovative research and has developed several products that are being commercialized by two spinoff companies.
From 1998 to 2001, Ms. Baker led research and development efforts in secure collaborative simulation, and contributed to projects developing security infrastructure for information objects, and intrusion detection for CORBA-based applications.
Prior to joining ATC-NY, Ms. Baker was a Software Development Consultant to the Fraunhofer Institute, Institute for Production Automation, in Stuttgart, Germany. Previously, she was a Consultant at Applied Decision Analysis, Inc. in Menlo Park, developing software for market research analysis, and a Software Analyst at Daniel H. Wagner, Associates in Sunnyvale, California, developing decision aid tools for tactical commanders on U.S. Navy P3C-Orion aircraft.
Ms. Baker holds a Bachelor's degree in Music from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University.