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About TSi
 

 
Leadership Team

Dr. Gilmer L. Blankenship , Chairman of TSi, has conducted research in control system science for more than 25 years. His research interests include applications of signal processing, scheduling theory and applications, nonlinear and adaptive control theory, and the design and application of software systems. He has published more than 120 papers and reports in these areas. Dr. Blankenship is also Professor and Associate Chairman of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Maryland , College Park. His MS and Ph.D. students work at universities, research laboratories, and high technology companies around the world.

He is a Fellow of the IEEE.

Dr. Harry G. Kwatny is Executive Vice President, principal shareholder, and member of the board of directors of TSi. He is an expert on structural mechanical modeling, nonlinear dynamics, and control systems. He has extensive experience in design of feedback controllers for large-scale systems from the electric power industry. He has developed important modeling and control techniques for electric power systems, particularly for power plant control systems. His work in this area established standard models for the field. He has also developed a modeling methodology for nonlinear, hybrid structural mechanical systems including both flexible and discrete rigid bodies. Dr. Kwatny is a Fellow of the IEEE and S. Herbert Raynes Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Mr. Christopher J. LaVigna is the President of TSi. During his career at TSi he has managed and directed the development of numerous advanced technologies. Some of these include smart materials technologies such as optical fiber strain sensors and their application to structural monitoring and control, innovative weapon pointing and stabilization systems, acoustic sniper detection and rapid weapon cueing systems, and small arms stabilization technologies. Mr. LaVigna has obtained two U.S. patents for his work in optical fiber sensors and gun system technology: No. 5,631,437 entitled “Gun Muzzle Control System Using Barrel Mounted Actuator Assembly” and No. 5,825,948 entitled “Fiber Optic Sensor for Spatially Separated Elements in a System.”

Ms. Amy Pfirrmann Hizoune, TSi Vice President of Finance, Ms. Hizoune has more than 15 years of experience functioning as general business manager of Techno-Sciences, Inc. She has extensive experience in all financial matters including: accounting, contract administration (US and Foreign Government), business development, export administration, personnel, industrial security, and quality management.

Mr. Jeff Khorrami, TSi Vice-President for SARSAT Programs, has over 20 years of experience in the design, development, and implementation of COSPAS-SARSAT Local User Terminals (LUTs). He is responsible for the entire TSi SARSAT operation at TSi. He is one of the original developers of the original processing algorithms commonly used in LUTs today. Among his other accomplishments, Mr. Khorrami designed, developed, and implemented a database system for the NASA SARSAT program. This database can store the data received from the US LUTs. It includes application programs to generate statistical and error analyses, status and performance reports, and location searches. He is currently working on the next-generation SARSAT GEO and LEO LUTs, and managing TSi's worldwide customer base.