UTEP Celebrated the Second Annual E-Week College of Engineering Awards Banquet
FABIOLA TERRAZAS DUARTE | March 1, 2019
Oscar Mondragón, Ph.D., and Sukie Quezada
For more than three decades The University of Texas at El Paso has been participating in the celebration of the National Engineers Week, commonly referred to as E-Week.
In preparation for the E-Week celebration in 2018, Theresa A. Maldonado, Ph.D., dean of the College of Engineering, came up with the idea of doing a banquet to celebrate the achievements of the individuals in the College.
During this year’s E-Week, which was celebrated from Feb. 17–23, the E-Week College of Engineering Awards Banquet was held on Feb. 21, where professors, staff, and students were recognized for their accomplishments.
This year’s awards went to three faculty recipients and one staff member. A group of students were also recognized for their academic excellence, research and leadership within the engineering community.
Virgilio Gonzalez, Ph.D., associate professor and associate chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering won The Dean’s Award for Excellence in Service. “I was very excited, and I was very grateful for the recognition for several years of being involved with all of the outreach activities,” said Gonzalez.
Oscar Mondragón, Ph.D., associate professor of Industrial, Manufacturing and Systems Engineering won The Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching for his leadership in developing the new Online Master of Science in Systems Engineering (MSSE) and the Systems Engineering Boot Camp course co-developed with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. “It has been really rewarding and I’m pretty happy about it,” said Mondragón.
Raymond Rumpf, Ph.D., professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering won The Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research. “I felt honored. I felt humbled.” said Rumpf, “I think of it as an award for the whole lab and even our alumni that already graduated that contributed to where we are.”
Each of the faculty members was given a plaque for their outstanding work and a check for $1,000.
Sukie Quezada, administrative secretary of the Engineering Edge Center received The Dean’s Award for Staff Excellence. “Do what you love and you will never work a day in your life,” said Quezada.
The undergraduate engineering students that were awarded the Alpha Phi Omega (APO) Social Fraternity Endowed Fund were Daniel Robles from Mechanical Engineering, Ivan M. Montes Ramirez and Christina Pickett from Metallurgical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering.
Isa Villagomez was announced as this year’s St. Pat. As noted on the College of Engineering website, St. Pat, is a senior engineering student that takes on the duties to participate in designated engineering events throughout the year (e.g., Homecoming Breakfast) and lead the participants on TCM Day starting with a grand entrance called The Coming of St. Pat.
The following Anita Mochen Loya fellows were recognized during the E-Week Banquet:
Funds from the Anita Mochen Loya Graduate Fellows Program in Engineering have been distributed since 2014. Resources from this fund have allowed the College to provide fellowships to our outstanding students pursuing their graduate studies in engineering. As of this academic year (2018-19), the endowment has allowed the college to support and recognize a total of 118 engineering students.
Civil Engineering
- Prathmesh Deepak Jichkar
- Ali Morovatdar
- Edgar Daniel Rodriguez Velasquez
- Mahsa Beizaei
- Denis Iran Vieira Souza
Computer Science
- Swapnil Suresh Samannt
- Md Mahmudulla Hassan
- Julio Cesar Urenda
- Maliheh Zargaran
Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Julio Alberto Reyes Munoz
Electrical Engineering
- Enrique Anguiano Chavez
- Luis Eduardo Valerio Frias
- Ana Cecilia Chavez Lopez
Manufacturing Engineering
- Yasser Alberto Davizon Castillo
Materials, Science and Engineering
- Na Gong
- Abhilash Aditya
Mechanical Engineering
- Monica Denisse Pinon Martinez
- Luis Fernando Rodriguez
- Christopher Jasiel Minjares
- Paul Alfredo Perez Iturralde
- Christopher Minjares
Metallurgical and Materials
- Diego Francisco Bermudez Ayala
The Eloise and Patrick Wieland Graduate fellow was Fabian Alvarez Primo from the Materials, Science and Engineering program.
The Eloise and Patrick Wieland Graduate Fellowship Program serves to provide competitive fellowships to graduate students to further their research within the fields of engineering or science. Recipients of this endowment are officially known as Wieland Fellows.
The recipient of this fellowship besides having an outstanding academic record needs to demonstrate that he or she is performing research work for the benefit of human health and wellness.