Salem, Ore. – The Oregon Senate confirmed two new trustees for the governing board of Oregon Tech last week. The trustees are Assistant Professor of Computer Systems Engineering Technology Phong Nguyen and Embedded Systems and Software Engineering student Mason Wichmann.
The at-large faculty and student trustee positions were served by Trustees Rose McClure and Tim Hasty, who concluded their terms on June 30, 2022.
Phong Nguyen is an Assistant Professor in Computer Systems Engineering Technology at Oregon Tech’s Portland-Metro campus and has worked at Oregon Tech since 1999.
In 1975, Nguyen, a refugee from Vietnam, left an orphanage in Camp Pendleton to reunite with his family in Klamath Falls. In the late seventies, his father, two uncles, and cousin graduated from Oregon Tech. Determined to follow their higher-ed pursuit, he graduated from the Naval Academy as a part of the 15th Company, Class of 1985. Following his subsequent 11-year naval service, he proudly left as a Lieutenant Commander. Following in his footsteps, his two sons, 2017 and 2018 Naval Academy graduates, are serving this great country as young Navy Lieutenants.
While Nguyen worked as an engineer at Lockheed Martin and Xilinx, his wife wanted to return to school. To support her educational goal, his family returned to Oregon Tech, where he taught in the Computer Systems Engineering Technology Program while she enrolled and graduated with honors from Oregon Tech’s Vascular Ultrasound Program.
Outside of teaching, in support of the Klamath community, Nguyen and his two young sons formed the BeeTeeRific String Trio, which performed over 50 concerts. Furthermore, he was a Little League umpire and volunteer high school wrestling coach. In 2015, he moved to Wilsonville to teach at the Portland-Metro campus and was awarded the Oregon Tech Foundation Excellence in Teaching Award in 2021, followed by the Oregon Tech Honorary Alumnus Award in 2022.
Mason Wichmann is a dual major in Embedded Systems and Software Engineering at Oregon Tech’s Klamath Falls campus and is in his fourth year of a five-year track.
Originally from Beaverton, Wichmann attended Health and Science High School and took Oregon Tech’s dual credit courses specializing in engineering and technology principles. Once he reached his senior year of high school, he took advantage of Oregon Tech’s High School Transition Program and took most of his classes at Oregon Tech’s Portland-Metro campus while awaiting graduation in 2018.
While attending Oregon Tech, Wichmann has been involved in Campus Life and Student Government. In his junior year, he applied for the Multiple Engineering Cooperative Program (MECOP) and completed two six-month paid internships at Daimler Trucks North America and Intel.
Nguyen and Wichmann will join the Board at the Oct. 17-18 meeting at Oregon Tech Portland-Metro.
For more information on Oregon Tech Board members, go to www.oit.edu/trustees.
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