Harsh Kupwade Patil: Dr. Harsh Kupwade Patil is a Technical Advisor in the Dallas office of Fish & Richardson P.C. His practice supports patent prosecution in a broad range of technologies, particularly in network and system security and applied cryptography. Prior to joining the firm, Dr. Kupwade Patil was involved in collaborative research work with Cisco Systems Inc., Bell Laboratories-Alcatel-Lucent, and Sipera Systems Inc. (acquired by Avaya Inc.). He holds a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Applied Science from Southern Methodist University. Stephen A. Szygenda: Professor Szygenda is the former Dean of the School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University and The University of Alabama-Birmingham. He has held the position of Chairman of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at The University of Texas-Austin, where he also held the Clint Murchison Jr. Chair of Free Enterprise and was the founding Director of the Texas Center for Technology Development and Transfer. During his academic endeavors, Dr. Szygenda acquired extensive government and industry research funding, received numerous awards, consulted for more than 50 international companies and universities, served on the board of directors of a number of companies, and published more than 200 papers. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University. In industry, Dr. Szygenda has served as President of SBI Inc., COMSAT General Integrated Systems, the Rubicon Group, and Comprehensive Computing Systems and Services Inc. He was also a member of the technical staff at Bell Telephone Laboratories. Dr. Szygenda is a pioneer in the areas of Simulation, CAD, Fault Tolerant Computing, Telecommunications, Software Engineering, Entrepreneurship, Strategic Planning, Technology Transfer, Business Management, and Economic Development.
