2023 Engineering Hall of Fame

After starting out working on the Apollo S-Band communication system at Motorola in Scottsdale, Jon Bayless career has taken him from teaching electrical engineering to transitioning a Dallas telecommunications network from analog to digital technology. He then joined venture capital fund Sevin Rosen Management Company to focus on early stage investing in technology based businesses and companies that strive to transform the workplace. Bayless has served as chairman and been involved with several successful startups that have been acquired by major corporations. He recently formed Bayless Capital with his daughter to focus on seed investments in emerging businesses. Bayless also served with SkySong Innovations, formerly Az Technology Enterprises (AZTE), on the advisory board to enhance the technology transfer portfolio at ASU.

After graduating from ASU in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering, Margaret “Maggie” Woodward served more than 32 remarkable years in the U.S. Air Force. Her service led to many achievements, including flying more than 3,800 hours, leading during world conflicts and becoming the first woman to command a combat air campaign. She was recognized by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of 2011. After retiring in the grade of Major General, Woodward is now an Air Force senior mentor responsible for building and educating the next generation of Air Force senior leaders. Woodward also served on ASU’s Flag Officer Advisory Council.

Armand Neukermans has led a prolific research, management and entrepreneurial career. Neukermans has held various research and management positions within the organizations of Hewlett-Packard, Xerox and General Electric. At Hewlett-Packard he worked on the team that invented the inkjet printer. He founded Xros, an optical switch company that was acquired by Nortel Networks in 2000, and is the inventor of more than 80 patents in diverse fields. In addition to other prestigious awards, Neukermans was named Silicon Valley Inventor of the Year in 2001, and was knighted as an “Officer in the Order of Leopold” by the Belgian Crown. Since his retirement, Neukermans has supported numerous environmental and social entrepreneurial projects, including a widely acclaimed knee prosthesis and a landmark model for community buying of solar power, which helped launch SolarCity.

In 1956, U.S. Army veteran George Beakley Jr. took a high-risk but high-potential job in Arizona at a startup engineering program inside a small teachers college in Tempe, Arizona. In his first year, he and Dean Lee Thompson invented and implemented a new method of engineering education which provided a bridge between mathematics, basic sciences and engineering practices. This revolutionary improvement to engineering education has played a fundamental role in the success of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. Well over a million students have benefited from Beakley’s many contributions to engineering excellence.