Gerald Karam is Distinguished Member of Technical Staff with AT&T Labs-Research in Florham Park NJ. Before joining AT&T he was an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Systems & Computer Engineering at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. An Ottawa native, Dr. Karam received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Carleton University in 1987, his M. Eng. (EE) from Carleton in 1984, and his B.A.Sc. (EE) from the University of Ottawa in 1982. During 1993 and 1994, he was director of engineering for the Ontario Telepresence Project, within the Telecommunications Research Institute of Ontario (TRIO) and the Information Technology Research Centre (ITRC). TRIO and ITERC are Province of Ontario Centers of Excellence. In this position he managed a group of full-time research engineers and several graduate students. He is a licensed Canadian Professional Engineer.

Since joining AT&T in 1995, Gerald Karam’s primary research has been on new platforms for consumer and enterprise communication services that leverage emerging technology and devices for fixed and mobile services. While an Executive Director of IP Services Research, his work led to several service trials for both consumers and businesses, and the launch of a new business for AT&T - AT&T CallVantage(sm). He was also featured in AT&T's 2004 Summer Olympics Advertising campaign for AT&T CallVantage.
 
Gerald was instrumental in the development of the VoiceXML specification, where he was a co-creator and co-author of VoiceXML 1.0, and VoiceXML Forum; this was an outgrowth of his work at AT&T. His continuing interests include mobile applications and technology, telecommunications software, platforms, and services, software design and analysis, concurrent systems, and real-time systems. He is an AT&T Fellow, the company’s highest technical honor. He is an IEEE Senior Member, has served in many volunteer positions, receiving a IEEE Third Millenium Medal in 2002 and the 1998 Regional Activities Board Innovation Award.

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What’s Love Got To Do With It?

You spend four years getting an engineering degree, and you never get taught the most useful lesson: how to get someone to love what you do. Where does love fit in? I'm NOT talking about romantic love, but the kind of response you hear when someone picks up an iPhone and says, "I love it!"  Those are three words that any business wants to hear from their customers. "I love your work!" will make you really happy if you hear that from your boss or co-workers. "I loved the way you handled that!" from the customer who's service outage you just solved, will go a long way to bring a smile to your face.  In this talk, I will share what I have learned in my 30 year career of trying to instill positive emotions in the people who are touched by my work. With a mix of stories, some simple points and a few laughs probably at my expense, I'll convey just how well this has worked out for me. If you master this one skill, things in your career will go much easier, and you will enjoy earning that dollar every day. 

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