EE News and Events
First Annual EE Awards Day
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On June 9, the Department of Electrical Engineering hosted its First Annual Awards Day in Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus. Awards Day serves as annual recognition of outstanding student, faculty and staff performance.
The UW Department of Electrical Engineering would like to thank the supporters of our First Annual Awards Day: Andrew Yang, Ph.D., Washington Research Foundation, Ford Motor Company, Accenture, and Preston Gates & Ellis, LLP.
The following awards were presented at the event (hyperlinked names will bring up photos of the award winners):
Student Awards
Yang Research Award
The $2500 Yang Research Award honors an active Ph.D. student who has done outstanding research in the field of electrical engineering at the University of Washington. Two finalists, Agnieszka Miguel and Carrie Sjaarda Cornish, were recognized for outstanding work. The winner of the 2000 Yang Research Award was Daniel Gatica-Perez.
Research Assistant Award
Tim Chinowsky is this year's Outstanding Research Assistant award winner. This $500 prize recognizes his outstanding contributions to research in the Department of Electrical Engineering.
"... on his qualifying exam ... he proceeded to give a presentation of the depth, breadth, and quality of insight that would have been hoped for from a senior professor with *years* of experience"
Teaching Assistant Award
This year's Outstanding Teaching Assistant $500 prize goes to Todd Chauvin. Todd is on track to finish his Ph.D. degree this summer.
Preston, Gates, Ellis "Intangibles Award"
Bart Nijssen, a Ph.D. candidate in Civil Engineering, won this $1000 certificate. Runners-up were Ryan Knuten, a M.S. student in Technical Communications, and Robert Lee Schlender, a senior who's double-majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Engineering.
Poster Contest - Accenture Senior Design Award
The first place prize, worth $1000, went to the LEGO Robotics Education project. Team members were Ken Sun, Michael Taylor, and Eddie Chan.
Second place was taken by Greg Daly and David McAbee with their WAVELAN project. This prize was worth $750.
The third place award of $500 went to the USB Audio Project - John Raid, Rene Pham, Brent Knopp, and MerryJane Bendico.
Poster Contest - Ford Embedded Computing Award for Undergraduates
First place, and $500, went to Michael Warren, Daniel Villa, and Simon Ortiz for their "Noise-Canceling Headset".
The second place prize of $300 was won by Ken Sun, Michael Taylor, and Eddie Chan for "LEGO Robotics Education".
Poster Contest - Ford Embedded Systems Award for Graduate Students
Greg Wood, Greg Darlington, and Brenda Cucci won the first place prize of $750 for "Performance Improvement of the SIR-15 DOF Manipulator".
The second place winners were Shane Cantrell and Jesse Dosher. They won $300 for their poster "Controlling a Pendulum-based Bipedal Robot".
Poster Contest - Best Poster Award for Graduate Students
The Best Poster Award was a tie between Agnieszka Miguel and Mark Curry. Agnieszka's poster was titled "Protection of Regions of Interest against Data Loss in a Generalized Multiple Description Network". Mark presented "Radar Imaging Using a Wideband Adaptive Array". Each received $400 for their excellent work.
Faculty Awards
Faculty Teaching Award
Students nominated faculty members for the Outstanding Teaching award. After the students' voted, the winner was Jim Peckol.
"Professor Peckol is one of the more demanding teachers - he certainly knows how to get hard work from his students. I think people thrive off this and it raises the level of the entire class, bringing out talents in students that you don't normally see."
Outstanding Research Advisor Award
Undergraduate and graduate students nominated the candidates for this award, and the winner was chosen by students as well. This year's winner was Professor David Allstot.
"As a student, interacting with a mentor such as Professor Allstot is essential. His list of professional achievements is lengthy; and his high standards for research, teaching, and coursework promote excellence in his own work and the students affliliated with him."
Staff Awards
Outstanding Staff Award
This award honors outstanding performance by an EE staff member. The nominees were Kathy Burch, Scott Campbell, Noel Henry, Mark Holl, John Hughes, Barbara Quick, and John Schulz. Kathy and John were specially recognized for performing above and beyond the call of duty, and were honored with a Special Projects Award. The winner of the Outstanding Staff Award was Noel Henry.
"Noel is a professional who is willing to assist us in a most courteous manner, even under the strain of tight deadlines and periods of personal duress. She will walk the extra mile to meet each of our needs, and always accomplishes her work in a timely fashion."
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John Schulz Award
John Schulz received special recognition for his long service to the EE department. John has been in the department for almost 40 years. He consistently has gone out of his way to help our students. John has been critical to the success of the department in many ways, including the design and repair of critical equipment.
Chair's Award
The Chair's Award recognizes an outstanding accomplishment within the department. This year, the award honors the UW/Bellarmine Team for the FIRST Robotics Competition 2000. Included in this honor are the following groups:
- Seattle Robotics Society - Kevin Ross, Larry Barello, and Ryan Wistort of Peninsula High School
- Ashlee Snodgrass and the Bellarmine Preparatory School team members
- University of Washington Engineering Students Dinh Bowman, Renee Pak, Jacob Parks, Ben Warrick, Joel Townsan, Bryant Esendencia, Eric Chu, Cindy Cheung, Sung Il U, Yimin Chen, Tuyen Do Vo, Michael Taylor, Tom Anderl, Ari Lumbantobing, Brian Alexander, and Jeremy King
- University of Washington Assistant Professor Alexander Mamishev
- University of Washington staff members John Hughes, Sandra Wells, Scott Campbell, and Rosemary Coleman
