Philip has a broad and deep technical background and a strong appreciation for the numerous aspects of successful design. He built his first single board computer in 1983. Since that time he has been an avid enthusiast for all things electronic and tracks the players in the industry closely. He is formally trained as a mechanical engineer with a Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He was a member of the mechanical engineering faculty of Michigan State University from 1989 through 1995. In 1995 he returned to the Atlanta area and started FitzSimons Automation. Since that time he has provided electrical/electronic and mechanical design services concentrating on the design of Digital Signal Processor (DSP) - and Microcontroller - based products.