Biography of Ken Sochats

Ken Sochats is the Carnegie Science Center 2002 award winner for IT excellence. He has over thirty years of experience in the Computer and Telecommunications industries. He holds advanced degrees in Electrical Engineering and Business Administration. After spending several years at Westinghouse Electric Corporation where his work resulted in several inventions and patents, he accepted a faculty position at the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently the Director of the Visual Information Systems Center and Assistant Professor of Information Science and Telecommunications. He has taught over twenty-five different courses in telecommunications, computing, systems and business.

While on leave last year, he helped co-found BroadStreet Communications Corporation a next-generation telecommunications company. BroadStreet has attracted over $180 million in startup capital. He served as Vice President of Information Systems.

He currently also serves as the manager of the Link To Learn Project out of The Governor’s Office of Information Technology. This group annually produces the Pennsylvania Technology Atlas. The Progress and Freedom Foundation named the Link To Learn Project their 1998 Best Practice in the Educational Technology category.

Ken served on The Telecommunications advisory panel of Governor Ridge’s Pennsylvania Regional Development Committee and as a consultant to the Keystone Telecommunications Project and the Governor's Policy Committee. He served on the Governor's Year 2000 Technical Outreach Committee, which was responsible for helping Pennsylvanians prepare for the Y2K computer problem. His group at the Joint State/Federal Y2K Conference was awarded the University Continuing Education Association’s Award of Excellence.

He has served as a consultant to over 35 organizations of all types. Government/agencies at the federal, state and local levels include Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, State of New York, Westmoreland County, US Departments of Defense, Agriculture and Energy and NASA. Private firms include ALCOA, USAirways, Penn Access, Hyperion, Brightline, American Hytech and numerous smaller companies.

Ken was principal investigator of the group that performed the preliminary design and analysis work that resulted in the establishment of the Penn Access CAP network in Pittsburgh.

His publications include three books and over 30 Journal papers and conference proceeding papers.