Faculty
A hallmark of electrical engineering faculty is their commitment to undergraduate education. Our professors readily make themselves available to assist students. Where appropriate, our faculty is augmented by experienced professionals in industry serving as adjunct faculty.
Faculty offices are located in the Engineering Mathematics and Computer Science (EMCS) building on the third floor.
Professor Ahmed H. Eltom, P.E.
Dr. Eltom is a Distinguished Teaching Professor of Electrical Engineering. He is an expert in the areas of energy efficient systems, energy conservation, power system protection, advanced motor modeling, and fault analysis.
He has been teaching power system analysis and protection for over 20 years. He developed state of the art industry grade relay laboratory. The laboratory is an educational and research tool for undergraduate and graduate students as well as a training facility for industry engineers. He is the author of Energy Efficient Motors Reference Guide, the University Press of the Pacific, 2005. He has published numerous articles in the areas of system protection, motor modeling, and energy conservation.
Dr. Eltom was a Fulbright Scholar to State Qatar, a consultant for the African development bank, Tennessee Valley Authority, and the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Professorship at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He is a senior member of the IEEE, the former chair of the IEEE PES section in the greater Chattanooga area, and a registered professional engineer in the state of Tennessee.
Dr. Eltom’s webpage is http://www.utc.edu/aeltom.
Associate Professor Michel Holder, P.E.
Dr. Holder received her B.S.E. and M.S.E. degrees in engineering from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 1985 and 1987 respectively and the Ph.D degree in electrical engineering from Vanderbilt University in 1992.
She is currently in her sixteenth year at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where she is Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering. Prior to entering academia, she worked in computer systems design and programming, and architectural design and construction. Her fields of interest include the capture and processing of very small electrical signals, the application of microprocessors to industrial control, and recycling technology. From 1978 to 1983, she worked as plant manager and engineer at a facility where fire logs were produced from recycled hardwood waste, using a process she invented and patented.
Dr. Holder has been a licensed electrician since 1975 and holds three patents.
Professor Virgil Thomason, P.E.
Dr. Thomason teaches courses in engineering-design with microprocessors, logic design, computer interfacing, electronic design, computer program design, sampled data systems, digital signal processing, networks, and solid state devices. His research background includes design with microprocessors as system components, digital signal processing, voice recognition and synthesis applications, inertial guidance systems and data communications.
Assistant Professor Stephen Craven, E.I.T.
Dr. Craven is an electrical engineer with professional and academic experience in digital design, computer security, and reconfigurable computing. He graduated summa cum laude with a B.S.E. degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, specializing in both electrical engineering and mechanical engineering before completing his M.S. degree from Georgia Tech in Electrical and Computer Engineering. At Georgia Tech, where he was a Tau Beta Pi Fellow, he participated in research into algorithms for communication systems.
Prior to pursuing a Ph.D. degree with Virginia Tech’s Configurable Computing Lab, Dr. Craven was employed as a digital design engineer with Lucent Technologies at the StarCore Joint Design Center. For two separate projects he was solely responsible for one-sixth of an entire processor core, consistently exceeding design requirements. Concurrent with the completion of his doctorate, Dr. Craven managed multiple research projects as a Senior Research Engineer with Luna Innovations, Incorporated. In the fall of 2008, Dr. Craven returned to his alma mater as an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering.
Adjunct Faculty
Gary Kobet, P.E.
Mr. Kobet is an Operations Engineer for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in Chattanooga, Tennessee. His responsibilities include performing voltage and generator stability studies for the operating horizon, as well as developing operational tools to monitor reactive reserve within the TVA service area. Previously he worked in TVA’s System Protection department planning relaying schemes for transmission and generation projects, as well as calculating relay set points and performing postfault analysis. He has performed transient studies using EMTP for breaker TRV studies and switching surge overvoltages. Previously he worked as a field engineer and as power quality specialist.
Mr. Kobet earned the B.S.E. (electrical) from the University in Alabama in Huntsville in 1989 and the M.S.E.E. from Mississippi State University in 1996. He is a member of the IEEE Power Engineering Society, CIGRE’, Eta Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi, and is a registered professional engineer in the state of Alabama.
Russell W. Patterson, P.E.
Mr. Patterson is a consultant in power system protection and control with 17 years in the industry. Prior to entering full time consulting he was Manager of System Protection & Analysis for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in Chattanooga, Tennessee. As Manager of System Protection & Analysis he was responsible for setting calculations for all protective relays in the TVA transmission system and at hydro, fossil and nuclear generating plants.
Prior to managing System Protection & Analysis his roles included Manager of the Advanced Power Applications group, Manager of Power Quality, and Specialist in System Protection & Analysis. Russell is a member of the IEEE Power System Relaying Committee (PSRC) where he is vice-chairman of the Line Protection Subcommittee and a member of the Rotating Machinery Subcommittee. Mr. Patterson earned the B.S.E.E. from the Mississippi State University in 1991. Russell is a registered professional engineer in the state of Tennessee, a Senior Member of IEEE and a member of CIGRE'.
Mr. Patterson's webpage is http://relayman.org.
