Awards and honors will be presented by Dean Philippe Fauchet to seniors at the School of Engineering’s annual Commencement Reception at the University Club May 12.
Julie Anne Schnur, from St. Louis, Missouri, is the recipient of the 2016 Founder’s Medal for the School of Engineering. She graduated May 13 with a bachelor of engineering in biomedical engineering.
Schnur spent the past three years researching ways to reduce the number of bone fractures in at-risk populations by improving risk assessment tools and identifying determinants of bone toughness. She also led Vanderbilt’s Design for America studio in a project aimed at decreasing ambient noise in hospitals in order to improve patient comfort. Schnur plans to do product development in the medical device industry.
Schnur is the recipient of a National Merit Scholarship and a Robert H. McNeilly Memorial Scholarship, awarded to an engineering student who demonstrates outstanding academic achievement while working part time to pay for school. For three years, she was a member of Vanderbilt Student Volunteers for Science, and she is a member of Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society
Since 1877, a gold medal has been awarded to the student graduating at the top of his or her class from each of Vanderbilt’s schools. These awards are called “Founder’s Medals” in honor of university founder Cornelius Vanderbilt, who made a specific contribution to endow the awards in their first year.
Justin Stuart Paul, from Prospect, Kentucky, is this year’s Banner Bearer. He graduated May 13 with a bachelor of science in computer science and mathematics, and a master of science in computer science through Vanderbilt’s Advanced Graduate Program in Engineering. Shortly, he will begin working at Google as a software engineer.
Paul has completed internships with Amazon, Epic, and our Institute for Software Integrated Systems. For the past three years he has participated in the Google Student Ambassador program, acting as liaison between Google, Vanderbilt University, and STEM students. In addition, he held a leadership position in VandyApps, a student organization dedicated to designing useful applications for Vanderbilt and the public. Paul was mentored by Professor Daniel Fabbri in Vanderbilt’s Department of Bioinformatics where he focused on predicting bone marrow recovery time for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) through the use of a machine learning technique called neural networks.
The honor of Banner Bearer is awarded to a senior who has been judged by the faculty to have excelled in all aspects of the undergraduate career and is considered an outstanding example of a well-rounded engineering student. The Banner Bearer is selected from the summa cum laude graduates.
Meredith Huszagh will receive the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Service. She is the daughter of Ralph and Robin Huszagh from Lake Bluff, Illinois. This award goes to a senior who has shown remarkable leadership qualities and has also made the greatest contributions in personal service to the school.
Huszagh is a biomedical engineering senior who has served this year and last year as president of the School of Engineering Council. Also in her junior year, she served as president of the student chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society.
Huszagh has served on two Vanderbilt advisory review boards as the School of Engineering undergraduate representative, and she has been a contributing member of the Undergraduate Honor Council, Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society, and the Vanderbilt Student Leadership Team. Outside these commitments, she pursued a passion for engineering and helping others through mentoring in the school program at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, and she recently volunteered in Guatemala to help repair medical equipment in low-resource hospitals.
Dean Fauchet will recognize each graduating senior who achieved summa cum laude distinction. The criteria for summa distinction is achieving a grade point average that equals or exceeds the top 5 percent of the previous year’s Vanderbilt graduating seniors.
Tyler Matthew Anetsberger, Lombard, Illinois
Taylor Marie Cannon, Greensburg, Pennsylvania
Ziyuan Chen, Shenzhen, China
Christopher Lowe Dougan, Kingsport, Tennessee
Katherine Emily Ferraro, Savannah, Georgia
Michael Blessey Fullan, Mountain Brook, Alabama
Kevin Thomas Groll, Cincinnati, Ohio
Sanjid Md. Halim, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Nathan Andrew Honold, Libertyville, Illinois
Meredith Clingan Huszagh, Lake Bluff, Illinois
Mahaliah Eden Hyde, Covington, Kentucky
Zachary Michael Korman, Highland Park, Illinois
Adam Jeremy Levinson, Westport, Connecticut
Victoria Ross Mahon, Cincinnati, Ohio
Connor Robert McGowan, Wake Forest, North Carolina
John Ernesto Mendoza, Boca Raton, Florida
Muhammad Azeem Mohd Yunus, Kulim, Malaysia
Justin Stuart Paul, Prospect, Kentucky
Julie Anne Schnur, Fenton, Missouri
Adarsh Subbaswamy, Amherst, Massachusetts
Other awards and honors
Program awards go to seniors who, in the opinion of the program faculty, made the greatest progress in professional development during the undergraduate careers. The recipients are:
Biomedical Engineering: Taylor Marie Cannon, Greensburg, Pennsylvania
Chemical Engineering: Tyler Matthew Anetsberger, Lombard, Illinois
Civil Engineering: Mahaliah Eden Hyde, Covington, Kentucky
Computer Engineering: Nathan Andrew Honold, Libertyville, Illinois
Computer Science: Connor Robert McGowan, Wake Forest, North Carolina
Electrical Engineering: Christopher Lowe Dougan, Kingsport, Tennessee
Engineering Science: Katherine Emily Ferraro, Savannah, Georgia
Mechanical Engineering: Zachary Michael Korman, Highland Park, Illinois
Adarsh Subbaswamy, Amherst, Massachusetts, is the recipient of the Wilson L. and Nellie Pyle Miser Award, which is given to the senior who has excelled in all aspects of mathematics during the student’s undergraduate career.
Nicholas Quentin French, Boca Raton, Florida, is the recipient the Stein Stone Memorial Award, which is given to a senior who has earned a letter in sports and who is judged to have made the most satisfactory scholastic and extramural progress as an undergraduate.
The Arthur J. Dyer Jr. Memorial Prize is awarded to a senior who has done the best work in the study and/or design in use of structural steel, and who is a member of the American Society for Civil Engineers. The recipient is Kaitlyn Marie Taylor, Middlebury, Indiana.
Shanna Marie Rucker, Nashville, Tennessee, is the recipient of the Greg A. Andrews Civil Engineering Memorial Award, which goes to the senior civil engineering student who has the greatest progress in professional development and who plans to do graduate work in environmental and water resources engineering.
The Walter Gill Kirkpatrick Prize in Civil Engineering is given to the most deserving third-year student majoring in civil engineering. The recipient is Thomas Christian Shott, Bethesda, Maryland.
The Thomas G. Arnold Prizes for Biomedical Engineering Systems Design and Research is shared by Ryan Andrew Spears, Decatur, Georgia (research), and for design: John Ernesto Mendoza, Boca Raton, Florida; Brandon Lee Fross, Fayetteville, Arkansas; Laurel Trimarco Piper, Western Springs, Illinois; Siegfried Gustav Schlunk, Brentwood, Tennessee; Eliza Ann Stedman, Charlotte, North Carolina; and Ahbid Zein-Sabatto, Nashville, Tennessee.
Nicholas Steven Cicciari, Ramsey, New Jersey, and James Bui Mansfield, Lisle, Illinois, are recipients of the American Institute of Chemists Award, given on the basis of leadership, ability, character, scholastic achievement and potential for advancement in the chemical professions.
The W. Dennis Threadgill Award is given for outstanding achievement in chemical engineering in honor of a former faculty member and department chair. The award is shared by Madison Lee Stott, Knoxville, Tennessee; Pranjal Bodh Gupta, Glen Allen, Virginia; and Daniel Joseph Laky, Villa Park, Illinois.
The Robert D. Tanner Undergraduate Research Award is given to a senior who has conducted the best undergraduate research project in chemical engineering. The recipient is Camden Clay Cutright, Raleigh, North Carolina.
The Walter Criley Prize is awarded for the best paper written on an advanced senior project in electrical engineering. The award is shared by Sheralia Ufairah Abdullah, Chukai, Malaysia; Taylor Jonathon Almeter, East Amherst, New York; Mark Hanson Chambliss, Birmingham, Alabama; Ilham Hasnul, Putrajaya, Malaysia; and Alexandra Elizabeth Eugénie Polak, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.
The William A. Ma Award is given to an outstanding senior majoring in chemical engineering on the basis of a demonstrated record of leadership and scholastic achievement. The recipient is Madison Lee Stott, Knoxville, Tennessee.
Class of 2016 members of Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society are:
Tyler Matthew Anetsberger, Lombard, Illinois
Taylor Marie Cannon, Greensburg, Pennsylvania
Ziyuan Chen, Shenzhen, China
Nicholas Steven Cicciari, Ramsey, New Jersey
Robert Nathaniel Cohen, Boca Raton, Florida
Christopher Lowe Dougan, Kingsport, Tennessee
Katherine Emily Ferraro, Savannah, Georgia
Michael Blessey Fullan, Mountain Brook, Alabama
Kevin Thomas Groll, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Pranjal Bodh Gupta, Glen Allen, Virginia
Sanjid Md. Halim, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Olivia Kathryn Hurd, Lebanon, Tennessee
Meredith Clingan Huszagh, Lake Bluff, Illinois
Mahaliah Eden Hyde, Covington, Kentucky
Sara Burnette Keller, Palos Verdes Estates, California
Zachary Myles Kovar, Tenafly, New Jersey
Michael Joseph Kremer, Saint Peters, Missouri
Adam Jeremy Levinson, Westport, Connecticut
Barry Davis Linden, Denver, Colorado
Maria Elizabeth Linn, Excelsior, Minnesota
Jianing Liu, Nanjing, China
Mackenzie Scharff Lucas, Media, Pennsylvania
James Bui Mansfield, Lisle, Illinois
John Ernesto Mendoza, Boca Raton, Florida
Muhammad Azeem Mohd Yunus, Kulim, Malaysia
Nurul Nadiah Nordin, Kuantan, Malaysia
Matthew Wilson Owens, Atlanta, Georgia
Elvin Park, Boulder, Colorado
Harrison Richard Paul, Johns Creek, Georgia
Justin Stuart Paul, Prospect, Kentucky
Amy Catherine Pickens, Memphis, Tennessee
Zhongdi Qu, Wuhan, China
Rebecca Anne Riley, Homewood, Alabama
Julie Anne Schnur, Fenton, Missouri
Alexander Tyler Smith, Great Neck, New York
Madison Lee Stott, Knoxville, Tennessee
Adarsh Subbaswamy, Amherst, Massachusetts
Sophia Marie Swago, Vienna, Virginia
Kaitlyn Marie Taylor, Middlebury, Indiana
Wan Muhammad Najmie Wan Sabri, Paka, Malaysia
Alison Jo Williams, Moorhead, Minnesota
Dzul Afieq Zulkifli, Taiping, Malaysia
Contact:
Brenda Ellis, (615) 343-6314
Brenda.Ellis@Vanderbilt.edu
Twitter @VUEngineering