As their academic journey ends, graduating GW Engineering students gathered in GW’s University Student Center for two events on May 15th to celebrate their accomplishments and pledge their commitment to being responsible members of the engineering and computing professions. These events included the Order of the Engineer and Pledge of Computing Professional Induction Ceremonies, where approximately 100 students were inducted into either chapter, and the Undergraduate Awards Celebration.
The GW chapter of the Order of the Engineer was established in 1977. This occurred only seven years after the first public induction of candidates into the Order, known as the Ring Ceremony, was conducted at Cleveland State University. At the Ring Ceremony, a stainless steel ring is presented to graduates to be worn on the fifth finger of the working hand as a symbol of their dedication to putting the well-being of the public first in their engineering work.
This year marks the inaugural induction ceremony for GW’s chapter of the Pledge of the Computing Professional, which was established last year. This organization was inspired by the Order and ensures that the public is both well-served and protected in the application of new technologies. The symbol computing students received of their responsibility to the public was a lapel pin consisting of matrix of ones and zeros. Each row consists of eight binary digits–a byte of information, the fundamental unit of computer memory, with each byte encoding a letter; when read from top to bottom, the word “Honor” appears.
The awards ceremony that followed these ceremonies honored students who have made particular contributions and achievements during their time at GW Engineering. The Engineer’s Council kicked it off with their awards voted by the students themselves:
- Perfect Attendance Award: Yazan Sawalhi
- Most Likely to be Found in Tompkins after Midnight Award: Kessa Crean
- Most Likely to be Found in SEH after Midnight Award: Ella Farida
- Most Likely to be Found in Machine Shop Award: Abel Suarez
- Most Likely to be Found in GW Innovation Center Award: Henry Mackey
- Most Likely to Make You Laugh Award: Lily Samoyan and Jack Palaian
- Most Likely to Change the World Award: Ruiz Kamaruszaman
- Nut & Bolt Award: Ria Vargis and Zachary Esposito
- Best Study Buddy Award: Sidra Hussain
- Ray of Sunshine Award: Annette Jimenez
GW Engineering Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Jason Zara then came to the podium to present various academic awards, starting with candidates who are graduating with particular distinction:
- The Abdelfattah Abdalla Prize, recognizing scholarship and service by an upper division student in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science, was awarded to Kate Hakushka.
- The GW Engineering Dean’s Alumni Prize, recognizing a graduating student who has shown a commitment to the university and the school, outstanding leadership in campus and community activities and curricular and extracurricular accomplishments, was awarded to Tyler Wyka.
- The Norman B. Ames Award, given by the Engineers’ Council to seniors who have made significant contributions to the student body, to SEAS, and to the university communit,y was awarded to Gabriella Barone-Graybill, Zachary Esposito, and Annette Jimenez.
- The William and Louise Corcoran Service Award, given each year to honor those who have done the most to contribute to GW Engineering, was awarded to Kenise Morris and Ria Vargis.
- The Martin Mahler Prize, recognizing an upper class or graduate student who submits the best reports on tests in the materials laboratories class, was awarded to Zoe Warren.
- The Neilom Prize for Social Impact, recognizing two students who have an interest in the application of engineering to an area of social change, was awarded to Rigel Brown and Ruiz Kamaruszaman.
After reviewing all of the outstanding Senior Design Projects created over the course of the academic year, each department had the difficult task of choosing one winner. The winners of the Class of 2024 Best Senior Design Project for each department and the Pelton Senior Design Competition were:
- Best Senior Design Project in the Department of Biomedical Engineering: Gabriella Barone-Graybill, Jessica Dilone, Lars Hansen, and Rani Patel for their project titled, “Smartphone Attachment for Retinal Image”
- Best Senior Design project in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Hasan Alnaqeeb, Kaj Boeri, Annalise DePaull, and Kaitlyn Noether for their project titled, “Office Building Design with Diagrid System”
- Best Senior Design Project in the Department of Computer Science, named after former faculty and GW Engineering alumnus Arnold C. Meltzer: Chang “Justin” Park, Quan “Leo” Phan, and Karl Simon for their project titled, “RTX Drone Competition - UAV Team”
- Best Senior Design Project in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, named after former faculty Derril Rohlf: Liam Cochrane, Mahir Khan, Luka Martinovic, and Jonathan Pang for their project titled, “Scanley: Object Scanning System”
- Best Senior Design Project in the Department of Enginering Management and Systems Engineering: Gujri Ahluwalia, James Ferguson, Daniel Fisher, and Esha Patel for their project titled, “Optimizing The Distribution of Combat Casualties for Quality Medical Care: A Prototype Decision Support Tool for Patient Healthcare Facility Matching”
- Best Senior Design Project in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering- Tala Hawa, Matthew LeQuerre, Jack Palaian and Shawn Satterwhite for their project titled, “URF Stabilized Gimballed Spotlight”
- Pelton Senior Design Competition for which each department can nominate one project to compete that has a focus on patentability and/or being green: Anika Haski, Patrick Jair, Catherine Ruffino, and Brooke Wilson for their project titled, “PushPro: Automatic Button Pusher for Quadriplegic Patients”
Dean John Lach then came on stage to present winners of the academic award, the Benjamin C. Cruickshanks Award, which was established in 1991 by the Engineer Alumni Association to recognize the top scholars in each of the Bachelor of Science programs. This year’s recipients include:
- Biomedical Engineering: Rebecca Turley
- Civil Engineering: Julian Abeledo
- Computer Engineering: Alicia Ha
- Mechanical Engineering: Gerald Fattah
- Electrical Engineering and recipient of the Philip B. Kaplan prize: Bridget Orr
- Computer Science and recipient of the Alfred Martin Freudenthal Prize given to the graduating senior with the highest grade point average in the school: Matthew Gouvin
- Systems Engineering and recipient of the 2024 Distinguished Scholar Award given to this year’s graduating student who best embodied academic excellence, inside and outside the classroom, in the spirit of the school: James Ferguson
An additional awards presented by the Department of Computer Science was their Gary and Judy Bard Entrepreneurial Award given to the best senior design project deemed to have an E-commerce focus, which was awarded to Evan J. Fries, Sidra Hussain, Sarah M. Jagerdeo, and Colin M. Ranck for their project titled, “ChatGPTravel: AI Assisted Vacation Planning.”
Thank you to everyone who took part in making these ceremonies an event to remember for the graduating class and to the selection committees who had the very difficult task of selecting the awardees. Congratulations to the 2024 award winners! Most of all, we cannot wait to see the impact our soon-to-be alumni will have on the world in their professional careers and hope they stay in touch with GW Engineering.