SUMMARY VITA – Premjeet S. Chopra
Professor
Years on Faculty: 16
(original appointment
Degrees:
BS in Civil Engineering,
MS in Structural Engineering,
PhD in Structural Mechanics,
Specialized in Finite Element
Fracture Mechanics
Other Related
Experience:
Graduate Teaching Assistant
THE BOEING COMPANY,
Starting as a Stress
Analyst, moved to Fatigue Analysis. Performed stress and
fatigue analyses of Boeing 707, 720, 727 and 747 airplanes. Helped develop the fatigue and fail-safe
criteria for the 747 airplane and co-authored the documentation for the FAA
certification of the airplane. Program
Manager, proposed, implemented and managed the Boeing Fatigue and Fail-Safe
Training Program.
Supervisor of
Component Analysis for the Experimental Breeder Reactor (EBR-II). My group also designed new equipment in
accordance with ASME, ANSI and ASTM codes and RDT (now NCR) standards. Analyses of fuel elements and reactor core
components required detailed analytical and experimental investigations of
non-linear creep and swelling phenomenon.
SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT: Chaired the
Special Task Force on EBR-II Reliability and Availability. The work was documented in a three-volume
Task Force Report and published in various technical papers and reports.
As Manager of Reactor Systems
for the Fast Breeder Reactor Safety Test Facility (STF), was responsible for
the analysis, design and procurement of the $250 million facility. Extensive use was made of project management
techniques following the Department of Defense's Costs and Schedules Control
System Criteria (C/SCSC), CPM and PERT.
As Director of Energy Supply
and Utilization in the Energy and Environmental Systems Division, I was
responsible for planning, marketing and directing programs valued at several
million dollars per year in energy conservation, environment and safety.
TRAK MICROCOMPUTER CORPORATION,
INC,
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,
co-founded this designer and manufacturer of intelligent disk drive subsystems
for the Apple, IBM PC, Atari, Radio Shack and Zenith microcomputers. TRAK's AT-D4 disk
drive was named one of the ten most innovative products at the 1984 Consumer
Electronics Show.
TPR INTERNATIONAL,
Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer. This
was a management and technical consulting company. Areas of practice included, technology
transfer from government agencies to the private sector, evaluating funding
proposals and high-tech startups for venture capital firms, and managing high
technology turn-around.
Professor of
Engineering Management. Started as Senior Fellow of the
Principal
Publications of Last Five Years:
Chopra, P. S., Leadership and Ethics in Action, Hanrow Press, 2002.
Chopra, P. S., The Purpose and Meaning of Life,
Hanrow Press, 2001.
Thomason, Virgil, A. and Prem S.
Chopra, "Senior Engineering Design: Grading by Objectives," Proceedings
of the 1999 ASEE Southeastern Section Conference,
Thomason,
Virgil, A., and Prem S. Chopra, "Twelve Steps of
Purposeful Action for Senior Engineering Design," Proceedings of the
1998 ASEE Southeastern Section Conference, Orlando, Florida, 1998.
Chopra,
Prem. S., Virgil A Thomason and Robert Wynn, "Senior Engineering Design
Project: From the Classroom to the Boardroom," Proceedings of the 1997
ASEE Southeastern Section Conference,
Professional
Activities:
Authored two books and have
written more than a hundred
technical papers and reports, several of which are published in refereed
journals or conference proceedings. Have presented numerous invited lectures at technical meetings,
research institutes and universities in the
Awards and Patents:
Foreign Exchange Tuition
Scholarship,
The Boeing Company, Lift and
Thrift Award
U.S Patent disclosure for
Fail-Safe Fuel Assemblies (
U.S. Patent disclosure on
telephone-accessed database (IVS)
Research Excellence Award,
Institutional and
Professional Service:
Engineering
Representative to Faculty Senate (one year)
Chair
of Tenure and Promotion Committee (one year)
Member
of
Editor, Directions in Engineering Management, EM Department
Newsletter.