The LETD Team

Don Augenstein

Don graduated with distinction from Cornell University with a BS and MS degree in Electrical Engineering and an MS in Systems Engineering from the University of Maryland. After university, Don worked for Hughes Satellite designing and deploying the Intelsat VI satellite fleet. Later, his satellite research continued with the LACE satellites with US Naval Research laboratories.

Don joined Caldon in 1993 to design and manage the Caldon meters. He became VP of Engineering in 1996 and was responsible for the development of all Caldon products. His responsibilities included electronics design, transducer design, mechanical design and software development. Don has received over 30 U.S. patents for his work on ultrasonic flowmeters and instrumentation and has been published many times.

Cal Hastings

Cal graduated from the University of Maryland with a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MS Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland. He subsequently studied Advanced Fluid Mechanics at MIT. Cal joined Westinghouse Electric Corporation where he worked as a Product Development Engineer. One of his first successful developments was a Barium Titanate 1 megahertz ultrasonic transducer for the U.S. Navy. He was promoted to Manager for the development of ultrasonic flowmeters, initially for the U.S. Navy and later for industrial applications. Cal advanced into higher management executive positions within Westinghouse.

In 1987, Cal left Westinghouse and founded a company named Caldon, to develop high technology instrumentation for industrial applications. In 1989 he purchased the LEFM Flowmeter product line from Westinghouse and moved it to Caldon’s facility in Pittsburgh. Since then, Caldon developed and commercialized 17 new products that employed ultrasonic technology. Cal retired from Caldon in 2014. Since then he has worked as a management and technical consultant.

Jim Walsh

Jim obtained a BS degree from the University of Massachusetts in Electrical Engineering in 1979 and his MBA in 2013. From 1979 until 2005 Jim was employed by ORE (Ocean Research Equipment) and later Accusonics. These companies manufactured ultrasonic flowmeters primarily for the Hydroelectric and Oceanographic industries. In 2006 Jim founded Rennasonics, a company focused on applying ultrasonic flowmeters to accurate performance measurements at hydroelectric power plants. Currently, Jim is chairman of the ASME PTC-18 Committee for Turbine and Pump Performance testing. Jim is also the USA TAG for IEC TC-4 which is responsible for all hydraulic matters related to hydro plants.

Bill Freund

Bill graduated from Georgia Tech with a Physics degree. Using his physics background, Bill worked for Foxboro Meters from 1970 to 1980 developing magmeters and vortex shedding meters. Bill then joined Daniel Meters in 1980 where he worked through 2005 as the lead engineer for Daniel’s ultrasonic gas flowmeter. Bill joined Don and Cal at Caldon in 2006. Bill was the Lead Engineer on the development of Caldon’s ultrasonic gas meter.

Keith Bergstrom

From 1993 to 2017 Keith worked as Caldon's lead designer. Keith and Don teamed up on 17 ultrasonic meter designs produced at Caldon (and later Cameron). Keith is a gifted designer who can make mechanical designs spin on the tip of his finger. Keith is on multiple patents for his work.