Richard Kahlenberg

Richard Kahlenberg is an educational media reporter whose award-winning "TV Smarts" column won the Editorial Innovation Award from the Los Angeles Times. A veteran of the Foreign Service of the U.S. Information Agency and the Founding Archivist of the American Film Institute, he also served as the Adminstrative Director of the AFI's Center for Advanced Film and Television Studies. He is a graduate of the School of Communications at Northwestern University where he also taught following graduate studies there and at Boston University's College of Communication.

Tim Collings

Tim Collings is a former professor of and taught engineering at the Technical University of BC (TechBC) and Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Vancouver, Canada. His research interests include analog, digital & microprocessor systems design, communication systems, and digital signal processing (DSP). Tim invented the V-chip at SFU in 1989.

In 1996 he was awarded the APEBC Meritorious Achievement Award, the BC Science Council Young Innovator Gold Medal, and the Ernest C. Manning Principal Award in recognition of his V-chip technology. He was invited to address the G7 regarding V-chip technology in 1995 and again in 1996 and he was invited to the White House in 1997 to demonstrate the V-chip at a press conference with VP Al Gore. In 1998 he was recognized as one of Canada's "Top 40 Under 40".

Parents, educators and the community in general can benefit if the v-chip technology is used to guide children to programs that support academic performance. Tim has been actively involved in assisting organizations understand the potential in maximizing the value of this tool.