The CIE/USA-DFW annual Spring Technical Symposium (STS) will feature the discussion of Internet of Things (IoT). We focused specifically on application and how personalization is revolutionizing our daily life.

Speaker Information

Keynote: Joel Austin, VP & Chief Information Officer, Oncor Electric Delivery

Joel Austin is the Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Oncor, the sixth largest electric Transmission and Distribution Company in the United States. As head of Oncor’s Information Technology organization, Austin is responsible for strategy, information security, new systems development and production operations and management of Oncor’s extensive sourcing relationships.

Beginning five years ago, Oncor initiated one of the most comprehensive advanced grid investment programs. As a result of this $1-billion-per-year investment program, Oncor is quickly proving itself a technology company as much as an electric utility. Austin oversees the implementation and operation of information technology platforms and communication networks, as well as management of the massive influx of data that enables the company to improve grid operation and customer interaction. He also is responsible for safeguarding Oncor’s data, ensuring that Oncor’s and its customers’ data is managed and secured in the safest way possible and meets the highest industry standards.

Under his leadership, Oncor’s grid, one of the nation’s most advanced smart grids, safely communicates billions of bits of data through a secure network while its power lines move electricity to 3.2 million homes and businesses in Texas. The data is used by Oncor to measure the amount of electricity its customers are using and is available for Oncor’s customers to monitor their electric usage through web-enabled solutions that can help them lower their electric bills. In 2012, Austin was part of the team that linked Oncor’s advanced metering system with its outage management system, allowing for wireless and automatic communication and repair of potential power issues on the grid.

He has more than 26 years of experience in the energy, finance and software industries at Informix, ENSERCH, Deloitte & Touché and the Texas Utility companies, where he has held a number of business operations, IT and leadership roles.

Austin serves on several educational and civic boards, including the Information Technology Operations Management Advisory Board at Southern Methodist University and Treasurer, and Board Member for the North Texas Business Council for the Arts.

Austin holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and business administration from the University of Kansas and a master’s degree in business from the University of Missouri in Kansas City.

Weijun Lee, VP Cloud Computing and IT Division, ZTE Texas USA

Mr. Weijun Lee is a veteran in the telecom industry for 20+ years and leads the technical marketing and strategic directions of ZTE’s multimedia and cloud computing solutions. He has spoken at major industry fora including Mobile World Congress, TV Connect Forum (formerly IPTV World Forum), Broadband World Forum, TelcoVision, and CTIA.

Prior to joining ZTE, Weijun was a System Architect in the CTO Office in Santera Systems, a startup acquired by Tekelec in 2005. And before that, Weijun worked as System Engineering Manager for Nortel Networks in Canada and USA. respectively.

Weijun holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Science at University of Toronto, Canada, and a Bachelor degree in Computer Science at Univesity of Science and Technology of China.

Bill Beesley, Principal Solutions Architect, Fujitsu Network

Bill Beesley brings 20 years of telecommunications industry experience to his current role as a principal solutions architect for packet optical networking at Fujitsu Network Communications. He is responsible for providing business development and product strategy for Fujitsu packet optical networking solutions, focusing on architecting solutions that support the cable and MSO industry.

Prior to joining Fujitsu in 2011, Bill worked at Cox Communications for 14 years, where he held a variety of executive engineering and leadership roles at both the corporate and system level.

Bill holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology Management from Bellevue University in Nebraska, and a Master of Applied Science in Telecommunications Management from the University of Denver. He is also an MEF Carrier Ethernet Certified Professional (MEF-CECP).

Jon Pettit, AMI Program Manager, Oncor Electric Delivery

Jon has been with Oncor Electric Delivery (and the former TXU family of companies) for over 28 years. He started his career as a nuclear power plant engineer doing construction, startup, operations, and technical support. Following this, he was an energy consultant, project manager, business planner, and asset manager. He then served a one year tour with TXU Energy as a Community Relations Manager before having the welcome opportunity to go back to Oncor. He is currently the Advanced Metering System Program Manager for Oncor Electric Delivery.

He is a registered Professional Engineer in Texas with a BS in electrical engineering from Texas A&M and an MBA from Tarleton State University. He lives in Fort Worth with his wife and two children. Additionally, he’s a U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) and served a tour in Operation Iraqi Freedom during 2005.

Maria Wei, CEO, ATCG Solutions

Maria Wei is the Founder and Managing Partner at ATCG Solutions. For the last 11 years, she focused on various Business Intelligence, Big Data and Social Media Analytics Projects across multiple industries. Now she is leading the big data analytics practice at ATCG Solutions.

Prior to starting ATCG Solutions, She led the BI practice at IBM for the distribution sector. Where she worked with leaders from various large public companies on future BI roadmap, and usage of data to improve business process and performance.

She has also been an influential speaker at universities and industry conferences on Data and Business Intelligence Topics.

Ed Hightower, Technical Solutions Manager, BlackBerry Corporation

Ed Hightower is a Technical Solutions Manager at Blackberry USA. His expertise in wireless, networks, software, engineering sales and most recently IoT/M2M, including the Weightless standard, has led to multiple opportunities to work with enterprise customers in advancing their technology offerings. Ed has worked at AT&T, Nortel, Ericsson, Lynx Real-Time Operating Systems and Motorola.. As an active member of the tech community, Ed volunteers his time with the Metroplex Technology Business Council promoting the Telecom Corridor and has spoken at several IEEE luncheons. He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington.

Ariton Xhafa, Senior Technical Staff & Project Manager in IoT Lab, Texas Instruments Inc.

Ariton Xhafa received his Ph.D. degree from Carnegie Mellon University. Ariton is with IoT Lab at Texas Instruments (TI) and is a well-known expert on wireless networks protocol design, algorithms and standardization. Ariton has led TI’s efforts in IEEE 802.11n on medium access control, where his efforts led to creation of new adhoc group to find and propose solutions for 20/40 MHz problem. Ariton also led multi-radio wireless coexistence project in 2.4 GHz band, focusing and developing optimal solutions for WLAN/Bluetooth coexistence. Ariton is currently leading the project in IoT Lab that enables and differentiates TI’s radio platforms while making them IoT ready. Ariton has filed more than 95 patent applications with 35 patents issued, and has published 9 journal papers and more than 35 conference papers. Ariton is a Senior Member of IEEE, Senior Member Technical Staff at TI, and regularly serves as TPC member and Session Chair in IEEE flagship conferences.

Craig Lee, Director of IoT Foundry, AT&T

Craig Lee is the Director of the AT&T Internet of Things Foundry located in Plano TX which fosters “The Art of the Possible” in Internet of Things innovation and solutioning.

Prior to his current position, Lee has served as Director of Technical Resources and Solutioning within the AT&T IoT Center of Excellence, responsible for the architecting, development and deployment of customers IoT solutions.

Additionally, Lee has served in several previous IoT focused leadership positions at AT&T spanning over 13 years.

Prior to AT&T, Mr. Lee served in leadership positions at Motorola, Racal, and GTRI in the areas of business development, RF & electronic design engineering, and pure research.

Craig Lee has been awarded nine US patents.

A native of Alaska, Mr. Lee earned a BSEE from Georgia Institute of Technology, a MBA from Nova Southeastern University and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. from University of Texas at Dallas in Telecommunications Engineering.