Three finalists have been announced for the inaugural Leadership in Engineering Achievement Program (LEAP) Awards’ Switches & Sensors Category. These finalists have created and incredible mix of new technology advances. The task of judging this highly competitive category went to a panel of independent technical/engineering-oriented judges. Responsible for the Switches & Sensors category were these four judges:

Bonnie Baker
Consultant
ATW, LLC

Bonnie Baker is the author of six books, including A Baker’s Dozen: Real Analog Solutions for Digital Designers. Baker holds a Master’s of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Arizona and has authored more than 500 technical publications including magazine articles, app notes, seminar sessions, data sheets, and a few patents. She is also frequent presenter at technical conferences and shows.

She has been involved with analog and digital systems for more than 30 years. Baker started as a manufacturing product engineer, supporting analog products at Burr-Brown. From there, she moved up to IC design, analog division strategic marketer, and then corporate applications engineering manager. In 1998, she joined Microchip Technology. This expanded her background to not only include analog applications, but microcontroller solutions as well.

Plamen Doynov
Research Professor
University of Missouri-Kansas City

Plamen Doynov became a research professor in physics last year, after a long and storied career that included stints as the Principal Engineer at MRIGlobal, a Biomedical Engineer at Flint Hill Scientific, and VP of Electrical Engineering at Aviation Simulation. He holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a Master’s in Electrical Engineering from The Catholic University of America.

Doynov has been active in and a local board member of the IEEE and has won numerous honors and awards from the MRIGlobal Council of Principal Sciences, Boeing and the Bulgarian Society for Biochemistry and Biophysics. He has experience in electronics, electrical and biomedical engineering, as well as research and development of specialized scientific systems.

Geoffrey T. Haigh
Principal/Senior Partner
Haigh Consulting LLP

Geoffrey Haigh holds a BS in Physics and Instrumentation from Drew University and is a Principal Partner and Senior Scientist form Haigh Consulting, which creates IP and solves problems for clients. Haigh has 31 patents issues worldwide and was the originator and inventor of the ADI ICoupler technology during his time working for Analog Devices Inc. Devices he has designed and patented are on Mars rovers.

He also previously worked for Analogic Corporation on factory automation systems and nuclear measurement instrumentation.

Sam John
President
Innovative Products Inc.

As President of Innovative Products, Sam John is responsible for the design and manufacturing of various custom-built automatic machines for different industries. He also resolves design and manufacturing issues, conducts project meetings and issue status reports, manages budgets, submits project proposals, and directs projects. He’s worked with clients as varied as Medtronic, Tinker Air Force Base, GE Oil and Gas, and AVARA Pharmaceutical Services. Previously, he worked for Sorb Technology (now Fresenius) and Akzo-Nobel.

A member of the ASME, John has an MBA from Oklahoma City University, a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Calicut.

Below are descriptions of the three finalists. The overall winner of the Switches & Sensors category will be announced at an awards dinner on December 11th in Costa Mesa, Calif.

Omron Automation Americas
A2W Wireless Pushbutton

Omron’s new pushbutton – known as the A2W – is both wireless and battery-free, making it a technology of choice for flexible production lines. By removing restrictions in production line layouts and providing reliable communication with zero maintenance needs, it gives manufacturers significantly more freedom in designing their operations. It also provides world-class reliability with a 922.5 MHz frequency band that reduces interference.

Because it works wirelessly, the A2W can be easily added to existing facilities and installed on moving parts. It uses an LED indicator to provide reception confirmation when the surroundings are noisy or lacking in visibility. Manufacturers seeking to implement more versatile and flexible production systems to effectively deal with frequent changeover of low volume production will find a key solution in the A2W.

RAFI
RAMO Series Industrial Controls

The single-piece RAMO Industrial Control line features a mono-housing design for quick assembly with M12 connector systems.

Designed for maximum protection against dirt andmoisture, RAFI’s broad RAMO Switch line features single-piece mono-housing construction that delivers minimum IP65, (versions available with IP66, IP67 and IP69) ingress protection levels above and below the panel, eliminating the need for a costly NEMA type sealed enclosure to protect the controls and wiring, a first in the controls industry.

RAMO components mount easily into standard 22.3 or 30.3 mm holes and are threaded to connect quickly with plug and play M12 cabling, saving assembly time and reducing installation cost. The RAMO “T” tactile pushbutton, and “I” Indicator lights were the first commercially available products from RAFI in the RAMO in 2017. Recently launched in 2018 to complete the RAMO family are the RAMO “E” Emergency stop, “S” Selector switch, “K” Keylock, “F” Pass Through, and RAMO EDGE as a mounting DIN Rail hardware.

Renesas Electronics
CMOS Image Sensor

The Renesas Electronics RAA462113FYL is a high-sensitivity, high-resolution 8.48-megapixel CMOS image sensor that supports 4K network security video cameras. The high-end CMOS image sensor achieves excellent low-light performance by achieving clear-high-visibility full-color imaging even in a moonlit environment.

Additionally, it has high resolution at high data rates. As a result, the sensor captures clear, high-visibility images even when digital zoom is used due to its capture of high-reliability 4K video at 60 fps. The sensor supports a line-by-line HDR (high dynamic range) mode in which long exposure data and short exposure data are output separately for each line, which allows video capture, even for high-contrast scenes.