Black Engineer
of the Year
Michael M. Bridges PhD ’94
Spring 2007
Electrical engineering graduate Michael Bridges,
a controls engineer from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
(APL) in Laurel, Md., has been awarded the 2007 Black Engineer of the Year
Award for Outstanding Technical Contribution to Industry.
The award honors innovators who demonstrate excellence in engineering or
science, exemplary leadership in their workplaces and communities, and outstanding
work as role models and mentors who help boost the minority presence in the
nation’s technology enterprise.
Bridges has developed techniques to estimate and predict ballistic missile
trajectories during the boost phase, as well as new algorithms for the intercept
of missiles during this phase. He also has analyzed and simulated models
of a new throttling divert attitude and control system and developed new
intercept point prediction strategies for maneuvering re-entry vehicles.
He currently serves as controls co-lead in the APL project “Revolutionizing
Prosthetics 2009,” sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency.
He’s responsible for control algorithm development and dynamic systems modeling
for a next-generation prosthetic arm that will look, feel and be controlled
like a natural limb.