Winter 2026
Aidan McGinley
Aidan McGinley is an asset to the PoE team. He joined the PoE team as our lead technician was leaving and was able to rise to the occasion despite this. In a brief amount of time, Aidan was able to come up to speed with the technology. He took initiative to use his own time to quickly understand the PoE standards. He excels at testing and helps customers debug problems and suggests possible areas of contention with the standards. Aidan is the PoE team lead and has become the expert in all the testing of the technology. Aidan applies his abilities and expertise to help in other areas of the IOL. He has helped train people in soldering, board design and PoE testing. Not only does he work with other groups in the lab, Aidan has become the go to for questions from our members. Aidan has grown our relationship with test and measurement vendors and continues our work with the Ethernet Alliance. He approaches each project with 110% effort, a great attitude, and the passion for follow through. It is a great honor to have Aidan on the PoE team and part of the IOL.
Rhy Fernands
Rhy Fernands has been a cornerstone of the EmBase team for over two and a half years. In that time, she has performed PTP and Avnu testing superbly—setting a high bar for quality, consistency, and follow-through. When the need arose for clear technical leadership, Rhy rose to the challenge and took over the software development lead role for the Violett conformance test software, demonstrating initiative, ownership, and a steady hand in guiding this critical tool forward.
Rhy’s drive for excellence extends beyond the lab. She recently graduated with a BS in Computer Science and is now beginning her Graduate Program to pursue an MS in Computer Science. Even while advancing her studies, she continues to contribute meaningfully—assisting with PTP testing for CERN via the NSF POSE OpenPHASE effort. Her diligence, curiosity, and thoughtful approach exemplify the best qualities of an IOL Star.
For these and numerous other reasons not cited herein, Rhy is an exemplary member of the UNH‑IOL team and well deserving of the IOL Star recognition.
Brett Dupont
Brett Dupont exemplifies what it means to be an IOL Star. He approaches every task and project with a natural sense of ownership, consistently assuming responsibility to ensure success. His reliability and initiative have made him the go-to resource within the PON team, and his dependable leadership ensures that his team remains focused and effective. Brett has led numerous major efforts, including the development and automation of several vendor-specific PON interoperability test plans, the automation of the Broadband Forum’s TP‑255i2 test plan, and key contributions to the BBF PON plugfest in October 2025. He also played an essential role in the BBF.247 HTML report parsing work and the BBF.247 lab alignment testing phase. These efforts are central to ensuring our long-term success. His work ethic stands as a model of excellence within the PON team and across the IOL.
Matthew Gee
Matt Gee joined the Open Source team only 7 months back, but has made a major impact in a short time. He designed and implemented a PXE boot server to support our lab machines, he added support for additional operating systems to our Lab as a Service offering, and he spearheaded our new testing solution for a new open source container runtime, Ocre. Beyond his strong technical contributions to our project, he also works hard to provide support to our users. For instance, he was fielding requests from our users over Christmas break, something he definitely was not obligated to do, but which we appreciate nonetheless. One of the best aspects of working at IOL is seeing passionate young people tackle problems with enthusiasm and commitment. I see that in Matt every day, and it’s a pleasure to work with him.
Dan McCarthy
Since joining the team a little over 2 years ago, Dan McCarthy has now become a jack-of-all trades within IP and our de facto senior tester. While most technicians learn two or three test suites in their time here, Dan has shown that he’s adept at nearly all of them. His experience includes IPv6 Core protocols and Address Architecture, OSPFv3, IPsec/IKEv2, and IPv6-Only functional testing. Dan has even run performance testing on next generation firewall products for NetSecOPEN, something that few team members can run due to its unique tools and complexity. Most recently, Dan has started learning CE Router testing; one of IP’s less requested (and less well-documented) test suites. He was also tasked with rebuilding the CE Router testbeds at the same time. With minimal direction, Dan was able to completely rebuild them on his own and execute multiple rounds of interoperability testing within a few weeks, demonstrating an unparalleled level of independence in his work. Like any great IOLer, Dan is also always willing to share his knowledge and experience with others. Dan is the go-to person for testing questions and general mentorship. When you walk by the IP area, chances are that Dan is sitting down with someone offering guidance to our newer hires. It’s rare to see someone as versatile as Dan McCarthy, and he is more than deserving of an IOL Star.
