Allen D. Benusa

Experience

9/2001 – Present. Ridgewater College Faculty
Ridgewater College, Hutchinson, MN. College instructor/department chair of Automated Systems Engineering Technology; instructor - Computer Systems Technology; instructor - Multimedia Design Technology. Course subjects: Industrial courses - PLC programming, motion control, and process control; Programming languages - Visual Basic.NET, C#.NET, ASP.NET, and Java; Web design technologies - XHTML, Javascript, PHP, MySQL, and Dreamweaver; PC hardware/software diagnostics; Digital Circuits. Job requires thorough understanding and application of course subjects and also requires effective student and department management skills.

6/1995 – Present. Sole Proprietor of PC tech support business.
Sole owner of part-time business in which I perform PC tech support, hardware installs, network installs, internet tech support, web site programming and maintenance. Through the years the business has grown to a large customer base with continued repeat business. Customers include medium/small businesses and  home PC users in the Hutchinson area.

10/1998 – 8/2001, Summer 2005, 2006, 2007. Controls Engineer
Hutchinson Technology Inc., Hutchinson, MN. Designed industrial control systems to control various manufacturing processes and to take in-process measurements. Used a wide variety of programming languages such as Visual Basic, C++, C#, motion control, and ladder logic. A thorough knowledge of IBM PC hardware and software was required. Regarded by others in the department as the subject matter expert of PC hardware. Full time employee 1998 – 2001.  Full time temporary employee summer 2005, 2006, and 2007 with full engineering pay.

8/1992 – 10/1998. Controls Engineering Manager
Millerbernd Design and Fabrication, Winsted, MN. Created and managed the Controls Department at Millerbernd Design. Hired by the company to start the Controls Department from scratch and help the business grow in size. Primary duties were to design industrial control systems for automated machinery in the food processing industry from concept through to final installation. Job required quoting, parts procurement, design, drafting, wiring, programming, and commissioning. Job involved extensive use of Programmable Logic Controllers, ladder logic programming, and electrical design skills. Leadership, customer relations, and a thorough understanding of control theory was required. Secondary duties were to purchase, setup, and maintain the office computers and the computer network. A thorough knowledge of PCs was required.

9/1988 - 8/1992. Project Engineer
Scherping Controls, Winsted, MN. Designed industrial controls for food processing equipment. Extensive use of Programmable Logic Controllers was required.

5/1988 - 9/1988. Electronics Technician
IDA Corp., Moorhead, MN. Tested and repaired equipment as it left the electrical assembly line. Job required applying electronic theory to troubleshoot problems with the circuitry. Equipment manufactured were mobile telephones and related equipment.

5/1987 - 5/1988. Electronics Technician
Digital Hospital Electronic Services, Fargo, ND. Job required hands-on experience with repair and maintenance of microcomputer systems.

Education

Continuing Education - Computer Science Graduate level courses.
St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN, Sep 2007 - May 2008.
Awarded a one year sabbatical by Minnesota State Colleges and Universities to be a full time graduate student for an entire academic year in the area of Computer Science.

Continuing Education - Vocational Teaching Graduate level courses.
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis - St. Paul, MN, Jan 2002 – Dec 2004.
Courses to secure teaching licensure. Subjects included course development for industry and business, instructional methods, and student and trainee assessment.

Continuing Education - Computer Science courses.
Ridgewater College, Hutchinson, MN, Jan 2000 – May 2001.
C++ programming, Java programming.
Self taught in Visual Basic .NET, C# .NET, ASP.NET, Java Servlet Pages, PHP, MySQL, XHTML.

B.S. degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering with Computer Engineering option.
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, May 1988.

The Computer Engineering option is a Computer Science emphasis mixed with courses in digital hardware design to complement the BS degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering. The Computer Engineering option involved hands-on experience of digital control systems design. Requirements included writing control software in 6502, 6800, 6811, and 68000 machine languages. Personally designed and built parallel, serial, and special purpose hardware interfaces for microcomputers.

Senior Design: Mobile Phone Patch which allowed telecommunications through a set of CB transceivers. Design involved VOX circuitry, DTMF tone recognition and regeneration, phone line interface circuitry, and a parallel interface to an Apple II computer bus. Project was demonstrated and received 2nd place in the IEEE Red River Valley Region student design contest.

Other Activities

Member – Knights of Columbus fraternal organization.

Traveling – Have traveled to Russia (4 weeks), Western Europe (2 weeks), China (2 weeks), and the Caribbean (2 weeks).