Stevens appoints Vice President for Institute Technology Initiatives

HOBOKEN, N.J. — At a reception for faculty on September 22, 2004, Dr. Harold J. Raveche, President of Stevens Institute of Technology, announced the appointment of Dr. Helena S. Wisniewski to the position of Stevens’ Vice President for Institute Technology Initiatives, a post she recently assumed at the Hoboken, N.J.-based private university. Dr. Wisniewski is a distinguished Stevens alumna, whose career as an entrepreneurial business executive and leader in the corporate, government and academic sectors dovetails seamlessly with Stevens’ mission of Technogenesis®.

"By naming a Vice President for Institute Technology Initiatives, Stevens is taking its unique university model, Technogenesis, to the next level of development,” said President Raveche. Technogenesis, a Stevens-trademarked term that refers to the university’s prime direction in the 21st century, is defined as: The educational frontier where students, faculty and industry jointly nurture new technologies from concept to realization.

"Over the last 25 years, Dr. Wisniewski has been an outstanding leader in science, academia, government and industry sectors, amassing a rare set of skills, knowledge and experiences that make her singularly qualified for this new vice presidency,” Raveche said. “Importantly,” he added, “her broad experience has touched all of the areas critical to Technogenesis and this university’s vision for the future.”

The new vice president is responsible for the complete Technogenesis cycle at the Institute, including protection of significant intellectual property, encouragement of new and innovative partnerships, creation of new companies, building strategies to take those companies’ products into the marketplace, overseeing business services that support research and the international aspects of technology development, and student and faculty academic programs related to Stevens’ mission of Technogenesis.

“I am very enthusiastic about this opportunity,” Wisniewski said at the reception. “I am honored to have been selected for this position, and I feel privileged to be able to work with such renowned faculty.” She added that it is good to “come home again” to Stevens. “I have fond memories as a student.”

Her overall goal is to ensure that Stevens is recognized as a national resource sought after by government and industry for its extraordinary research, technology and entrepreneurial vision. “Technogenesis is integral to achieving this,” she said. “It creates a climate of enterprise and innovation to apply Stevens’ outstanding research and inspire technology innovation to solve problems of critical national need.”

Dr. Wisniewski is a technological entrepreneur and has received awards from government, industry and organizations for her significant contributions to science, technology and leadership. Her past industry positions include a Corporate Directorship at Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin), and Vice Presidencies at Titan and ANSER. She was founding director of the applied mathematics program at the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and served in a key position at the CIA. She also has extensive experience in academia. She held the positions of department head and later Director of Research at Seton Hall University and has served as a university trustee and Chairman of advisory boards at George Washington University, George Mason University, William Paterson University and Virginia Tech.

Consistent with Stevens’ process of Technogenesis, she founded Aurora Biometrics, Inc., a provider of complete biometrics systems. The company's suite of products was based on advances in mathematical modeling that she developed and patented. As its Chairman and CEO, she secured investment capital, developed the business and sold the company, completing the process of innovation to implementation.

Dr. Wisniewski has an international reputation for research in non-linear dynamics, a field in which she continues to publish. She has patents pending in biometrics, a field in which she has played key roles in development and commercialization since 1987. She has been an invited speaker at conferences held globally, and provided testimony to committees of the US Senate. By means of her technological breakthroughs, she has also made a significant impact on neural networks, satellite communications, information technology, video and image compression, materials science, aerospace engineering, and large scale advanced computing systems.

She earned her doctorate in mathematics from the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York, her Master of Science degree in Mathematics from Stevens Institute of Technology, and her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from William Paterson University (Distinguished Alumna, 2000).

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.

Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,150 undergraduate and 3,500 graduate students, with about 250 full-time faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.  

For the latest news about Stevens, please visit StevensNewsService.com.