The Department of Mechanical Engineering recognized the achievements of numerous students at an awards luncheon on May 16. All students are mechanical engineering majors unless otherwise noted.
Mechanical Engineering Service Awards for dedicated service to the department were presented to graduate student Katie Lilienkamp of Cambridge and Stephanie Praster , a senior from South Williamsport, Penn.
The Meredith Kamm Memorial Award for outstanding performance in the mechanical engineering graduate program were presented to Aimee Angel of Portland, Ore., and Ephrat Most of Cambridge. Jason Melvin , a graduate student from Portland, Ore., won the Carl G. Sontheimer Prize for excellence in innovation and creativity in design.
The Padmaker P. Lele Student Award for academic excellence for an outstanding thesis was presented to Sebastian Heersink , a junior from Dothan, Ala. The Padmaker P. Lele Student Award for outstanding UROP project was presented to Stephen Samouhos , a sophomore from Ridgewood, N.J. The Padmakar P. Lele Student Award for outstanding and dedicated service as an undergraduate teaching assistant were presented to Mark Jeunnette , a senior from Denver; Carla Pienknagura , a senior from Quito, Ecuador; and Praster .
The Luis De Florez Award for outstanding ingenuity and creativity was presented to William Fienup , a junior from St. Louis; Grant Kristofek , a senior from Evanston, Ill.; Nicholas Powley , a junior from Weston, and Daniel Benhammou , a junior from Colorado Springs, Colo.
Seniors Jennifer Fiumara of Winchester and Sofy Tarud of Barranquilla, Colombia received the Peter Griffith Prize for an outstanding experimental project.
AMP Inc. Awards for outstanding performance in 2.008 (Design and Manufacturing II) were presented to Nur Aida Abdul Rahim , a junior in the Cambridge-MIT Institute program from Pulau Pinang, Malaysia, and Malima Wolf , a junior from San Francisco. Rahim was also a winner of the Whitelaw Prize for originality in design for 2.007 (Design and Manufacturing I); the other winner was Erin Hult of Carlisle.
International Design Competition Awards for outstanding design and performance in the 2.007 (Design and Manufacturing I) "Schwing" contest were presented to mechanical engineering sophomores Angela Chen of Florence, S.C., Margaret Cho of Franklin, Emily Cofer of Millis, Eric Dominguez of Hobbs, N.M., Henry Hilton of Del Rio, Texas, Aaron Parness of Dekalb, Ill., and Justin Ruflin of Gates Mills, Ohio; Martin Jonikas , a sophomore in aeronautics and astronautics from Berkeley, Calif.; Nicholas Powley , a junior in mechanical engineering from Weston; and Eric Tung , a sophomore in electrical engineering and computer science from Columbia, Md.
Wunsch Foundation Silent Hoist and Crane Awards for achievements on work related to materials handling were also presented. The award for outstanding performance in an undergraduate project related to materials handling was presented to Andrew Wallace , a senior from Lynchburg, Va.
Wunsch awards for outstanding performance in an undergraduate thesis related to materials handling went to seniors Jennifer Cooper of Westport, Conn., Veronica Garcia of Pacoima, Calif., Federico Gutierrez of El Paso, Texas, Basilia Huang of Los Angeles, Michael Roberts of Waterville Valley, N.H., Abraham Schneider of Justin, Texas, and Mary K. Thompson of N. Huntington, Penn.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on June 5, 2002.
