Max is a senior economics and government major from Chevy Chase, Maryland. Following graduation he plans on either attending law school, grad school, or working as a waiter traveling across Europe. In his free time he enjoys watching movies, playing sports and reading.

Steve is a senior Bioengineering major and hopefully minoring or doubling in Mechanical Engineering. As a member of the signal acquisition team, he hopes to provide the Holy Grail of EMG Therapeutic databases of how muscles should coordinate to provide the maximum curing power to his subjects. In his spare time, he can challenge anyone to a Texas Hold 'Em cash game and enjoys fiddling around with his music production/playing skills.

Elaine Petro is an Aerospace Engineering major with a minor in Spanish Language from Poolesville, Maryland. She is a member of the EMG/Signal Acquisition subgroup and also the secretary for the team. Outside of Gemstone and other school work, you are likely to find Elaine playing field hockey for the Maryland Club Team, snowboarding, or serving food at the local Italian Restaurant, Mamma Lucia. She looks forward to accomplishing some great things during her time as a member of this team over the next couple of years.

Mark is a chemical engineering and psychology major. He plans to become an engineer while continuing to pursue psychology on the side. He aspires to complete a marathon, and in his free time enjoys spending time with friends, running, listening to music, and playing Starcraft and Guitar Hero.

Pratik is a senior aerospace engineering student who is in the signal processing subgroup. In addition to learning about what makes airplanes fly, he is learning how to filter and classify EMG signals using a variety of signal processing algorithms and techniques.

James Doggett is an Aerospace Engineering major from Middletown, Maryland. Because of an overdose of Star Trek, at the age of seven he decided he wanted to be an astronaut and, to be honest, he still thinks this would be the coolest job ever. In the meantime he works as a student supervisor for Intramural Sports and a section leader for a GEMS104 class, and every now and then manages to do some homework too.

Erik Li is a biological engineering major, with plans to attend either medical or graduate school. He is interested in studying problems and enjoys the ability to attack problems with open-ended solutions. A bit of a tinkerer, he enjoys knowing how things work and the principles that drive them, which may be why he is such a proponent of open source and Linux. He enjoys graphic and web design, breakdancing, wushu, programming, puzzles, reading and the smooth feel of a fountain pen when he dabbles at writing.

Erik Li created this website, and all graphics contained on this site are © Erik Li 2008 or their respective authors. He also maintains the website, and can be reached at erli[at]umd.edu.

Avi is a junior at the University of Maryland from Rockville, Maryland. He has a history working with technology and is very excited to be a part of Team CHIP. He hopes his contributions to the project will create new and significant advancements in the field. When Avi is not working for the team, he enjoys playing guitar and listening to lots of eclectic music to expand his repertoire.

Nick is a senior electrical engineering major from Washington, DC. Nick is an avid fan of music, and enjoys video games, eating good food, sports, and sleep when not studying or doing schoolwork. Nick has enjoyed his time in this team immensely, and hopes to accomplish great things with this project.

Natalie is a senior electrical engineering major with a minor in nanotechnology. Natalie's favorite thing about being on Team CHIP is the diversity of skills each team member brings to the table, despite the fact that our team is 92.3% engineering majors. In her free time Natalie enjoys coloring in coloring books, eating dim sum, and seeing movies.

Benjamin is a Computer Engineering major who hails from Takoma Park, Maryland, and is part of the Hardware subgroup of Team CHIP. He is a member of the Maryland Marching Band and Pep Band, as well as the student-run Gamer Symphony Orchestra. He is also planning on completing the Engineering Honors program at Maryland in the next few years. Ben looks forward to contributing significantly to the development of this Gemstone project over the summer of 2008 as part of a research internship at the Institute for Systems Research on campus.

Andy is a senior who was originally studying Chemical Engineering, but switched to Electrical Engineering. He came from Damascus High School where he was captain of the wrestling team. Andy enjoys Crichton novels, old video games, Andy plays the guitar and drums, and wants to join a band, or at least jam with other people who play.

Pamela A. Abshire is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, with appointments in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Institute for Systems Research. She is also a member of the Programs in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS) and Bioengineering. Her areas of specialty are in the fields of VLSI circuit design and bioengineering, particularly adaptive circuits and biosensors, and understanding the tradeoffs between performance and energy in natural and engineered systems. She received the B.S. degree in physics with honor from the California Institute of Technology, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical and computer engineering from The Johns Hopkins University. She also worked as a Research Engineer in the Bradycardia Research Department of Medtronic, Inc. She received the NSF CAREER Award in 2003, the George Corcoran Memorial Award for Electrical Engineering Education in 2004, and the University of Maryland Invention of the Year Award in the Physical Sciences category in 2005 for Cell Sensor Based Pathogen Detection.

Alfred Haas received his Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Duke University in 1993, his J.D. from The George Washington University in 1997, and, after several years practicing as a patent attorney, entered the Ph.D. program in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, in the Fall of 2004. As an instructor for the University of Maryland, he has taught freshman and sophomore courses, including Introduction to Engineering Design and Digital Logic Design. In the lab, his research interests coincide with his most recent efforts which are directed at developing novel interfaces between biological cells and analog VLSI circuitry; in particular, he is focused on the design of low-power mixed-signal circuits for sensing, characterizing, and decoding biological signals.

Robert Kackley works at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Library where he handles reference chat and IM inquries. He is in charge of the Collection Development responsibilities in the areas of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Astronomy, Geology, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Materials Science Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering. Also, he does library instruction for many UM groups such as graduate as well as undergraduate students, along with summer program attendees.