ECE Undergrads Honored at Awards Ceremony

ECE students were honored tonight at the A. James Clark School of Engineering Honors & Awards Ceremony, an annual event that recognizes undergraduates for excellence in academics, leadership and service. A total of ten students from the Electrical and Computer Engineering department received awards, which were presented by ECE Professor Dr. Jon Orloff.

Aaron M. Silverman and Sayanan V. Sivaraman received the Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding Electee Award, presented to new members of Eta Kappa Nu, the Electrical Engineering (EE) honor society, for outstanding performance in the electee program and for participation in student activities.

Silverman, a double major in Computer Engineering and Marketing, has been enrolled in the College Park Scholars program and earned its Business, Society and the Economy citation. He has also been a very active participant in ECE open houses, serving as the student remarker. He currently serves as Eta Kappa Nu’s events chairman and will be vice president of Eta Kappa Nu next year.

Sivaraman is majoring in Electrical Engineering and pursuing a minor in Spanish Language and Culture.

The Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding Senior Award, presented to seniors in Electrical Engineering for outstanding scholastic achievement and service to the society and department, was awarded to Eric Y-C Chen and Bradley H. Hall.

Chen, a double major in EE and Computer Science, served as recording secretary for Eta Kappa Nu this year and will be Eta Kappa Nu’s president next year. He also serves on the ECE Undergraduate Student Advisory Council and the Engineering Student Council’s restructuring committee. He will be doing research through the MERIT program this summer.

Hall, who is pursuing an EE degree with a Physics minor, will graduate in December 2006. He will serve as historian for Eta Kappa Nu next year. He has worked as an RF engineer through a co-op position with Digital Receiver Technology. He plans on attending graduate school to study electromagnetics or RF design.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Outstanding Student Award, presented to members who have shown outstanding commitment to the organization and electrical engineering, was awarded to William W. Lee, Yang Lin and Josef L. Yeager.

Yeager is a Computer Engineering major who has been president of IEEE for the last two years. Yeager has made significant contributions towards revitalizing the University of Maryland's IEEE chapter, which had previously been dormant. His significant contributions in this area were recently recognized by the National Capital Area Northern Virginia and Washington Sections of IEEE, who selected him to receive their Past-President’s award for his outstanding contributions to the University of Maryland (UMD) Student branch. Yeager has worked as an intern with the FCC for the past 2 summers and was also a member of the Graduate Student Team that won the 2005 UMD New Venture Challenge business plan competition.

Lee, an EE major who will graduate this spring, served as IEEE vice president this year and Engineering Student Council VP last year. He has also participated in the GEMSTONE program. He interned at the Lincoln lab and SAIC and published and presented papers as part of these experiences.

Lin, also an EE major who will graduate this spring, will attend University of Michigan, Ann Arbor for graduate work in EE this fall. She served as secretary for IEEE and has participated as a Clark School Ambassador. She has been a member of both the ECE and College of Engineering Honors programs, and has worked on research with ECE Professor Bruce Jacobs.

Yang Lin was also one of three Clark School recipients of the Outstanding Engineering Co-Op/Intern Award, presented to students who have demonstrated scholastic excellence, exceptional work performance, and remarkable potential for a successful career in engineering.

Chetan R. Bansal was awarded the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering's Outstanding Academic Performance Award, presented to a junior for academic excellence.

Bansal is an international student from Gujarat, India. Outside of school, he volunteers for the Association for India’s Development, a non-profit organization with chapters throughout the U.S. He serves as treasurer for the College Park chapter. He plans to attend graduate school after completing his B.S. degree.

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Chair's Award, presented to a graduating electrical engineering student for outstanding academic performance, was awarded to Amir Ali Ahmadi. Ahmadi will graduate in August with a double major in EE and Math. He participated in the University Honors and ECE Honors programs, and has maintained a 4.0 GPA at UMD. Ahamdi has been actively engaged in research, participating in both the MERIT program, where he earned runner up honors for his project, as well as the TREND program, where he earned first place for his work. He has published his research and presented papers at the Optical Fiber Communications conference and International conference on chaos and non-linear dynamics. He will be attend MIT in the fall to pursue a Ph.D. in Control theory. Amir is also an accomplished tennis player , playing since the age of 8. He was a member of the Iranian National Junior Tennis Team and was intramural tennis champion here at Maryland last fall.

Finally, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Chair's Award, presented for outstanding academic performance to a graduating computer engineering student, was awarded to Michael N. Horak.

Horak will attend graduate school next year here at Maryland in the ECE department to study computer engineering. He has been a member of the University honors program and ECE Honors program. He has held executive positions in Greek and religious groups on campus during his four years at UMD.

See photos from the event

Published April 24, 2006