Portrait of Chet McQuaideIn his lengthy career, Chet has gained expertise in a variety of technical writing genres, including reports, performance appraisals, business correspondence, and conference proceedings. Persuasive writing challenges he has faced include developing project proposals, writing performance evaluations and salary and promotion recommendations, preparing patent proposals, and even preparing responses to proposed regulatory rulings under consideration by the Federal Communications Commission. He continues his persuasive writing in advocating for environment, social, and political causes, and occasionally writes letters of recommendation for students and colleagues.

Chet has served as President of the Penn State Electrical Engineering Alumni Society and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Alumni Society of the Penn State School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (PSEECS). In that capacity, he co-chaired an annual conference which brought together the Penn State EE/CS community (students, faculty, alumni, and industry partners) to discuss latest trends in in the field. He currently mentors undergraduate electrical engineering students and serves as an Alumni Admissions Volunteer, representing Penn State at college fairs in the Atlanta area, where he and his wife reside.

Upon graduating from Penn State, Chet was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Navy. After his military service as a nuclear project officer, he launched his engineering career, spending many years leading telecommunications network and service R&D (Research and Development) teams at AT&T, AT&T Labs, Bell South, and Bell Labs. After retiring from corporate life in 2008, Chet maintained a part-time consulting business.

Chet’s consulting activities included serving as external technical advisor for a European Union Project, “Second Generation Locator for Urban Search and Rescue,” whose purpose was to employ the latest technology in locating victims of natural disasters. That work required persuasively documenting potential improvements in designs and plans prepared by a consortium of European corporations and academic institutions which developed a prototype system.

Chet earned his BS in Electrical Engineering at Penn State, an MS in Electrical Engineering at Stanford, and an MS in Management from Pace University. He is a member of Eta Kappa Nu (EE), Tau Beta Pi (Engineering), Phi Kappa Phi (academic), and Quarterdeck (NROTC) honor societies and is inventor or co-inventor of 45 patents. More information is available in his LinkedIn profile.