Dr. Brouwer graduated from Calvin with a B.S.E. in 1985. He completed is M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1988 and finished his Ph.D. in 1991, both at the University of Illinois.

During that time, he worked as a teaching assistant and then as a research assistant at the Center for Reliable and High-Performance Computing at the University of Illinois. His work at the Center focused on the development of parallel algorithms for a number of VLSI CAD tools.

During the past several years, Dr. Brouwer has been a Principal Investigator (PI) for two consecutive grants from the Kern Family Foundation. The goal of the grants is to enhance Calvin's engineering program to help our students develop the mindset of an entrepreneur as they address problems each day. Dr. Brouwer is active in the leadership of the West Michigan Section of IEEE, currently serving as vice-chair for the section. In 2005, Dr. Brouwer served as an IEEE-USA Congressional Fellow. During that year, he held a position as science advisor for a member of the House of Representatives, helping with legislative efforts related to NASA and science/technology. In the fall of 2004, he was a faculty researcher at Intel Corporation in Santa Clara, CA. Prior to that, he worked at Smiths Aerospace in Grand Rapids, MI, on several projects which include flight management hardware design, memory testing, Mentor Graphics CAD library development, and automated design archival. He has also consulted with Laser Alignment, Inc. and Chicago Steel Tape Corporation on several projects involving embedded controller applications.

Non-Teaching Professional experience

While a faculty member at Calvin, Dr. Brouwer has been active in a variety of other professional activities.  Recently, as an IEEE-USA Congressional Fellow, he served as science advisor for a member of the House of Representatives.  He also worked as a faculty researcher at the Intel Corporation in Santa Clara, CA.  Prior to that, he worked at Smiths Aerospace in Grand Rapids, MI, on several projects which include flight management hardware design, memory testing, Mentor Graphics CAD library development, and automated design archival. He has also consulted with Laser Alignment, Inc. on several projects involving embedded controller applications.