[3] After completing his studies, Chowaniec moved back to Canada to take up a post as Professor of Electrical Engineering at Acadia University, Nova Scotia.
[4] In 1976 Chowaniec left academia for a career in engineering management, joining Bell-Northern Research, later to become Northern Telecom Limited (Nortel), a multinational telecommunications manufacturing corporation based in Mississauga, Ontario.
[2] The company had sold many millions of its popular Commodore 64 personal computer, but needed a new product to maintain its competitive position.
[7] Commentator Jeremy Reimer described it as "seem[ing] like it came from ten years in the future",[8] while Byte thought it "so far ahead of its time that almost nobody – including Commodore's marketing department – could fully articulate what it was all about.
[10] Under his management, the company doubled in size through a well-judged acquisition, and grew further after it won a large federal grant to work with a British partner on integrated circuit development.
[15] Chowaniec served on a number of industry-related bodies, including the National Sciences and Engineering Council, the Information Technology Association, and the Public Sector Advisory Board.