DOI: 10.2345/0899-8205(2007)41[157:UVTTEC]2.0.CO;2

Marie Guion Johnson, PhD, Ahmed Tewfik, PhD, K. P. Madhu, MD, Arthur G. Erdman, PhD, From the Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Medicine/Cardiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.

Dr Guion Johnson received her BSME degree from General Motors Institute in Flint, MI, in 1990 and her MSc and PhD degrees from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, in 1999 and 2004, respectively. Dr Guion Johnson worked for General Motors Corporation for 12 years before moving into the biomedical field. Her hip joint work resulted in patents in both the United States and world realms. Dr Guion Johnson was a 3M Fellow during her PhD studies and was subsequently supported as a postdoctoral fellow for her work to develop a diagnostic stethoscope. This work also resulted in several U.S. and world patents. Her research interests include medical device design, valvular heart disease, and coronary artery disease.

Dr Tewfik received his BS degree from Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt, in 1982 and his MSc, EE, and ScD degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, in 1984, 1985, and 1987, respectively. Dr. Tewfik worked at Alphatech, Inc., Burlington, MA, in 1987. He is the E. F. Johnson Professor of Electronic Communications with the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. He served as a consultant to MTS Systems, Inc., Eden Prairie, MN; Emerson-Rosemount, Inc., Eden Prairie, MN;, Cyber Nova, Milipitas, CA; Macrovision, Santa Clara, CA; Visionaire Technology, Fremont, CA; and Ipsos, New York. He worked with Texas Instruments and Computing Devices International. From August 1997 to August 2001, he was the president and CEO of Cognicity, Inc., an entertainment marketing software tools publisher that he co-founded while on partial leave of absence from the University of Minnesota. His current research interests are in programmable wireless networks, genomics and proteomics, healthcare safety, and datanomic and pervasive computing and storage.

Dr Madhu finished medical school withh is MD from Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Nagpur University, India. He completed his residency in internal medicine and chief residency at the University of Pennsylvania Health System, Presbyterian Medical Center, PA. His cardiology training was completed at the University of Connecticut, Farmington, CT. Dr Madhu is currently an assistant professor in the Cardiology Division at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. His clinical and research interests include noninvasive cardiac imaging, adult coronary artery disease, valvular heart disease, and adult congenital heart disease.

Dr Erdman received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 1971 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Arthur G. Erdman, PE, is the Richard C. Jordan Professor and a Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota, specializing in mechanical design, bioengineering, and product design. Dr Erdman has published more than 275 technical papers, 3 books, holds more than 30 patents, and shares with his former students 9 Best Paper Awards at international conferences. He has received a number of awards including the ASME Machine Design Award and the ASME Outstanding Design Educator Award. Dr Erdman currently has a number of ongoing projects, many of which are related to medical device design. Dr Erdman has had research collaborations with faculty in ophthalmology, neuroscience, urology, epidemiology, orthopedics, surgery, dentistry, and sport biomechanics. His interests include product development related to medical devices and instrumentation, prototyping, kinematics, and dynamics.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr Guion Johnson, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, 111 Church Street, SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (e-mail: guio0001@umn.edu).