Lisa Uzzel, Engineer Customer Relations
One look at Mike lets you know the genesis of our logo. On first meeting him,
people tend to focus on his mustache and ask him a standard set of questions.
Since you must be wondering some of the same things, let's start by supplying
some of the answers:
The first half of the story of
American Computational
deals mainly with Mike's career in those days. He supported numerous clients
and gained experience in such disparate fields as real-time executives, rotary
wing aircraft, accounting, navigation and guidance systems, Operational Flight
Programs, database management, graphics and animation, payroll, and
configuration management. Many people express confusion over this breadth of
experience stemming from an education in aerodynamics, but he feels that this
background in one of the physical sciences (after all, aerodynamics is merely
a subset of physics) gives him the best of backrounds for software engineering
since he understands the purpose behind the code in addition to knowing
the code itself. Granted, accounting has little relevance to the physical
sciences, but crunching numbers doesn't differ all that radically, regardless
of the application.
Mike has been described as a fiercely independent guy, which explains his
founding American Computational. He feels that today's politicians
misunderstand the American dream: Americans don't just dream of owning their
own home, they dream even more of being their own boss. Of course anyone in
business has more bosses than any wage-earner. Such people must answer to the
most demanding bosses of all, their customers .
Although he occasionally had colleagues in his efforts, he generally ran
American Computational as a one-man shop to earn his own living. Not until
Robin
joined the company in 1991 did he begin adding a permanent staff. Although
Mike now has to do far more management and sales work than in his early days,
he still takes a very active part in the technical work of the company, acting
as Technical Lead for our efforts.
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We have used Grant's expertise to further our efforts in a
variety of ways. In particular, he set up a simulation lab we
support to run in a variety of modes. When we started the work,
no one knew for sure if what we wanted to do was possible. When
we contacted Grant about it, his easy assurance in how it could
be done quickly impressed everyone.
Grant now functions as our primary resource for systems support
work. Like any other businessman, he always wants new business.
You can contact him via e-mail by
clicking here .
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Amy provides our clients with a necessary view into our efforts.
Without her, we would not be able to offer our products to the
public, because she documents our work. We have received many
compliments on the quality of our documentation, and Amy deserves
the credit for these compliments. Like most techies, ours have
no great fondness for creating documentation, and Amy relieves
the rest of us of that burden. One and all, we are grateful for
her presence.
An extensive background in system administration may seem a
questionable introduction to becoming a tech writer. However, it
put Amy into a position where she needed to use documentation
from many sources on an almost daily basis. The differences in
quality made her well-aware of what a reader needs to make
effective use of a document. She makes liberal use of examples
and organizes chapters to make topics easy to locate. In
general, she always keeps the needs of the reader in mind.
Amy knows her audience. She does not write for us , she writes
for you .
Amy does more than just document our code, she helps us to write it. Although
she originally joined us as a tech writer, Mike always harbored the desire to
take advantage of her full range of talents, and has finally had that desire
fulfilled. Like Kim, she has a knack for thinking around corners, and has
a keen mind for details, for the little things that make a piece of code
complete. Many engineers focus on the immediate task and fail to account for
the fact that a user will not do things the same way they do them. Amy can
get into the minds of the user and suggest ways to aid their efforts.
Like the rest of us, Amy has a variety of interests outside of
American Computational, but she has the most unique. She is
part-owner of a marina, Sugar Hollow Dock on Norris Lake in
Tennessee. This opportunity caused her to leave TRW, and she
joined American Computational a year later. Contributing to our efforts
provides a convenient way for her to keep her technical career
active since she can fit it in during slack periods of her more
visible activities. If nothing else, it gives her a reason to
escape occasionally from the constant pressure of attending to
her dock's customers! Is Mike more demanding than anglers and boaters?
Only Amy knows for sure.
Balancing Sugar Hollow against American Computational overburdens
her more than a bit during the summer, especially when you factor
in the demands of raising two children! But she always has a
smile of greeting for marina customers, and always produces
quality work when she dons her technical hat.
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Lisa graduated from Wright State University in 1989 with a BS
degree in Computer Science. She applied this education in a
variety of ways, concentrating on advanced data display
algorithms and system control software.
She met
Mike
while both supported an advanced navigation lab. At
the time, she planned a standard career in the corporate world.
But when her son was born, she decided to spend her time at home
raising her family. After six months, she joined American
Computational as a software engineer. She quickly joined our
efforts to obtain new business, and has recently begun to play a
major role in that side of things.
You may consider yourself an optimist, but it's doubtful that you
could outdo Lisa!
Michael J. Miedlar
Mike is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, from which he earned a
BS in aerodynamics in 1980. He worked for the Air Force upon graduation as
a stability and control engineer, rising in three years to become acting Group
Leader of his group. He left civil service in late 1983 and worked for six
months for Gould Systems, after which he founded American Computational and
began working as a contract engineer.
Grant Dixon
Grant isn't really a member of American Computational. He is a
technical consultant and runs his own business, Cybertech
Resources, Inc. Grant is a well-known expert in computer systems,
specializing in Digital Equipment Corporation systems.
Amy C. Stoudt
A 1985 graduate of Wright State University, Amy has a strong
general background in computer systems. She has worked for NCR,
SASC (now CSC via ARC), and TRW. While at TRW, she worked with
Mike and Robin
in their efforts to support TRW's avoinics intergation
projects. She became very proficient in adminsitering computer
systems, becoming an acknowledged expert in VAX VMS systems. She also
worked with Kim
and brought her to Mike's attention when we needed technical help.
Lisa W. Uzzel
Barbara Striesand sang about people who need people. Well Lisa
Uzzel is the ultimate "people person". She takes great delight
in interacting with customers and clients (which she likes to
call shmoozing), invariably turning them into friends. This
makes her an ideal person to help investigate new business
opportunities.