I am Prof Joseph Kasser and I was a practicing systems engineer, manager, academic, mentor and teacher for 50 years before becoming a coach and mentor. I am:
- A recipient of NASA’s Manned Space Flight Awareness Award (Silver Snoopy) for performing and directing systems engineering and many other awards and commendations.
- The author of seven published books on systems engineering and more than 50 peer reviewed journal and conference publications.
- A Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).
- A Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Singapore (IES).
- A Chartered Engineer in the UK and Singapore.
- A Certified Manager.
- An INCOSE Fellow (1995-2018).
I hold:
- A Doctor of Science in Engineering Management from The George Washington University.
- A Certified Membership of the Association for Learning Technology (CMALT). (expired in 2021 when I stopped paying the ALT membership dues).
Awards include
- National University of Singapore, 2008-2009 Division of Engineering and Technology Management, Faculty of Engineering Innovative Teaching Award for use of magic in class to enrich the student experience.
- Best Paper, Systems Engineering Technical Processes track, at the 16th Annual Symposium of the INCOSE, 2006, and the 17th Annual Symposium of the INCOSE, 2007.
- United States Air Force (USAF) Office of Scientific Research Window on Science program visitor, 2004.
- Inaugural SEEC “Bust a Gut” Award, SEEC, 2004.
- Employee of the Year, SEEC, 2000.
- Distance Education Fellow, University System of Maryland, 1998-2000.
- Outstanding Paper Presentation, Systems Engineering Management track, at the 6th Annual Symposium of the INCOSE, 1996.
- Distinguished Service Award, Institute of Certified Professional Managers (ICPM), 1993.
- Manned Space Flight Awareness Award (Silver Snoopy) for quality and technical excellence, for performing and directing systems engineering, NASA, 1991.
- Goddard Space Flight Center Community Service Award, NASA, 1990.
- The E3 award for Excellence, Endurance and Effort, Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), 1981, and three subsequent awards for outstanding performance.
- Letters of commendation and certificates of appreciation from employers and satisfied customers including the: Defence Materiel Organisation (Australia) , University of South Australia, Systems Engineering Society of Australia (SESA), United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM), University System of Maryland, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), Loral Corporation, Luz Industries, Communications Satellite Corporation (Comsat), American Society for Quality (ASQ), Association for Quality and Participation (AQP), the Wireless Institute of Australia, and the American Radio Relay League (ARRL).
Synergy
I mix my profession with my hobby and see many similarities between systems engineering and amateur radio. I am an active amateur radio operator. I received my first call sign G8BTB more than 50 years ago, and after upgrading to G3ZCZ also operated briefly as ON8IK, F0WN and W8/G3ZCZ, and then for many years as W3/G3ZCZ, 4X/G3ZCZ and VK5WU. I have a history of experimentation and innovation, including:
- Designing a hardware-based Self Operating Radioteletypwriter Contest Amateur Radio Station (SORCARS ) in 1972 and programmed it into LanLink years later. The QSO machine performed unassisted (but not unattended) in the 1990 ARRL RTTY contest, and did not come last in its section! This was the first and only legal automatic robot contest station in ARRL contests.
- Being one of the initial group of experimenters to receive a special permit from the US Federal Communications Commission to transmit and receive ASCII over the air when packet radio and other modern digital modes were not even a gleam in their experimenter’s eyes.
- Claiming the first OSCAR contact from a vehicle in motion when Art Feller, W4ART, and I communicated via AMSAT-OSCAR 6 while driving through Silver Spring in suburban Maryland which is about 10 miles up the road from the White House.
- Claiming the first remote computer-controlled station contest operation when I operated W4/G3ZCZ using VOIP via the Internet from VK5 in the ARRL 2001 SSB Sweepstakes contest.
- Serving as AMSAT’s publications editor for more than 15 years, and over the years have authored three books on amateur radio, a number of articles in QST, 73, Ham Radio, RadCom, and other publications in the UK, US, and Australia. As well as writing and editing articles, I also write software for amateur radio, being the author of several programs including ‘Whats Up’, ‘CQ-SS’ and ‘LanLink which was flown on the space shuttle mission STS-35 and featured on a cover of QST. My latest software includes ZCZ Log for enhancing the FT8 experience and ZCZ Cluster for bragging about and checking DX contacts via the DXcluster.