Strategic Advisors

Dr. Robert P. Colwell
Former Fellow, Intel Corporation

Bob Colwell was an Intel Fellow, and Intel's chief IA-32 architect from 1992 - 2000, responsible for the architectural design and direction of the Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, and Pentium 4 microprocessors.  Prior to Intel, Dr. Colwell was a CPU architect at VLIW startup Multiflow Computer.  He also worked as a hardware designer at workstation vendor Perq Systems and as a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Labs from 1977 to 1980, working on the Bellmac series of microprocessors.  Dr. Colwell received his PhD in ECE from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA.  He is inventor or co-inventor of more than 40 computer-design patents, and is a member of the editorial review board of IEEE Computer Magazine, for which he writes the monthly "At Random" column.  Dr. Colwell has been an independent consultant since leaving Intel in 2001.

Dr. Richard S. Payne
VP MicroFabrication, Pixtronix

Richard Payne leads the Pixtronix engineering and fabrication teams.  Prior to Pixtronix, Dr. Payne was at Polychromix and served as Chief Scientist and General Manager of East Coast operations at OMM Inc., an all-optical switching company where he was instrumental in developing and qualifying the first MEMS optical switch to pass stringent Telcordia standards.  He also served as Chief Technical Officer for Cyrano Sciences, Inc.  Before that he served at Analog Devices as Director of Manufacturing Micromachines Development and as a division Fellow responsible for developing the first MEMS commercial surface micro-machined acceleration sensor.  He has also worked for AT&T Bell Laboratories, heading the company's CMOS technology effort.  Dr. Payne was awarded the J. J. Ebers award by the IEEE Electron Devices Society for his pioneering work in CMOS.  He serves on the Board of Directors of IC Mechanics.


Dr. Michael A. Mignardi
Digital Micromirror Device Program Manager, Texas Instruments

A Senior Member of Technical Staff within the Digital Light Processing™ group at Texas Instruments, Inc.  Michael is the DMD Program Manager responsible for pixel and process development.  He joined TI in 1989 within the Central Research Labs: This research group was responsible for the development and fabrication of the early Digital Micromirror Devices (DMD).  He holds a B.S. and Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Florida.  He is currently an Executive Committee member for TexMEMS and is on the Governing Council of the MEMS Industry Group.

Michael N. Cannizzaro
Operating Partner, J.W. Childs Associates

Mike Cannizzaro was President and Chief Executive Officer of Beltone Electronics from 1998 to 2000 when the company was acquired by GN Resound, one of the top four leading hearing aid company's.  Prior to joining Beltone, Mr. Cannizzaro was president of Caremark International's Prescription Service Division from 1994 to 1997. During 1993, he was President of Leica North America.  From 1976 to 1993, Mr. Cannizzaro was with Baxter Healthcare Corporation where he successfully managed four different divisions as President and from 1971 to 1976, he held sales and marketing positions with Procter & Gamble Co. and PepsiCo, Inc.  Mr. Cannizzaro holds a B. B.A. from Loyola University.

Dr. Gary K. Fedder
Co-Director, MEMS Lab @ Carnegie Mellon University

Dr. Fedder is an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University where he holds a joint appointment with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Robotics Institute.  He is co-director of the MEMS Laboratory ay Carnegie Mellon and is the key contributor to the development of CMOS-based MEMS.  He received BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering from MIT. From 1984 to 1989, he worked at Hewlett-Packard on a VLSI IC tester and modeling printed-circuit-board interconnects.  He received his PhD in 1994 from UC Berkeley.