Recognizing Excellence in Engineering

The 2011 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize winners have been announced. One student each from MIT, RPI, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Caltech, were chosen.

Caltech’s Guoan Zhen for disease diagnostics, Harvard-MIT’s Alice Chen for drug development of human cells, R.P.I.’s Benjamin Clough for boosting sound waves, and U.I.U.C.’s Scott Daigle for wheelchair mobility. Read this article for information on each winner

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The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has awarded the 2011 Turing Award to Leslie Valiant for “fundamental contributions to many aspects of theoretical computer science.”

Valiant is currently a professor at Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. For more about Valiant’s work and the Turing Award, click here

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Engineering students at Virginia Tech College of Engineering have bestowed the Sporn Award for Teaching Excellence in Engineering to professor Mark Pierson. The award is the highest college-wide accolade given to an engineering professor.

Pierson is an associate professor of mechanical engineering and responsible for the nuclear engineering program at Tech. In support of his selection the Student Engineers Council (SEC) said, “There were several great nominees this year, each exemplifying a superb dedication to undergraduate education. Dr. Pierson goes above and beyond, and the SEC is pleased to help commend his excellence.” Read the press release

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