The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has elected Carnegie Mellon University professors Ralph Hollis, Mel Siegel, and Dan Stancil as IEEE Fellows for 2004.

The IEEE, a technical professional association of more than 377,000 members, developed the grade of Fellow to recognize individuals who had demonstrated outstanding proficiency and had achieved unusual distinction in the profession.

Hollis, a, research professor of Robotics in the School of Computer Science, was recognized for his contributions to multi-degree-of-freedom robotic devices. Siegel, an associate research professor of robotics in the School of Computer Science, was recognized for his contributions to the field of sensors, measurement and robotics, while Stancil a professor of electrical and computer engineering in CIT was recognized for his contributions to the theory and development of microwave and optical devices using magnetic garnet thin films and patterned ferroelectric domains.

"This is a very nice recognition from my colleagues in the field of robotics and automation. said Hollis.

"I am extremely grateful to receive this recognition from my colleagues and the IEEE, and extremely humbled by being in the same class (as IEEE calls the group of Fellows selected each year) as such real luminaries as Richard Garwin and Bradford Parkinson," Siegel said.

Hollis joined the Carnegie Mellon faculty in 1993, He is founding director of the Microdynamic Systems Laboratory. Prior tocoming to the university, he was a research staff member and manager of advanced robotics at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. During his 16 years at IBM, he received five invention achievement awards and an outstanding technical achievement award for work in precision robotic positioning. His current research centers on haptics, agile precision assembly, and dynamically-stable mobile robots.

Siegel joined Carnegie Mellon University in 1982, where he is the founding director of the Intelligent Sensors, Measurement, and Control Laboratory. Siegel has served on several government panels and is an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurements. He has received three IR-100 awards (100 most important inventions of the year) for inventions in analytical instrumentation and semiconductor sensors and a "best paper of the year award" from Industrial Robotics Journal for a paper on his work in robotic inspection of aging aircraft. Between his undergraduate and graduate years, Siegel taught physics and math as a US Peace Corps volunteer at Achimota School in Ghana.

Stancil joined the faculty at Carnegie Mellon in 1986 as an associate professor. In 1996, he co-founded the Applied Electro-optics Corporation with Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Professor Ed Schlesinger and Adjunct Professor of ECE Robert Unetich. In 1998, Stancil and Schlesinger received a Carnegie Science Center Science Award for Excellence for their work on the development and commercialization of electro-optics technology. This technology was also recognized with an IR 100 Award and a Photonics Circle of Excellence Award. His recent interests have been related to novel antennas, ways to distribute wireless signals in buildings, and wireless networking to automobiles.

"I really feel honored to have been elected an IEEE Fellow, and deeply appreciate the support and encouragement from my colleagues that this represents," Stancil said.