May 22, 2017

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

The nearly 400 Hajim School graduating seniors who crossed the stage at Kodak Hall yesterday should be very proud of themselves. Their families, their friends, and Hajim School faculty members, staff, and alumni should take pride as well for helping our students reach this important threshold in their lives.

Our diploma ceremony was also an opportunity to recognize Jannick Rolland, the Brian J. Thompson Professor of Optical Engineering, with this year’s Edmund A. Hajim Outstanding Faculty Award, and Cynthia Gary, our assistant dean for grants and contracts, with the Hajim Outstanding Staff Award.

It was also an opportunity to recognize several outstanding students who received Hajim School awards this year:

William Green of mechanical engineering received the Charles L. Newton Prize for showing special proficiency in an engineering subject and conducting research, giving a presentation, or publishing a paper.

Melissa Becker of chemical engineering, S. Yvonne Bodell of optics, Christina Engler of chemical engineering, Nicholas Graham of electrical and computer engineering, Raymond Lopez-Rios of optics, Justin Schumacher of biomedical engineering, Karan Vombatkere of electrical and computer engineering, and Runxuan Zhao of biomedical engineering received the Donald M. Barnard Prize, awarded to junior or senior engineering students on the basis of personal qualification and achievement.

Rahima Bah of chemical engineering received the Richard Eisenberg Engineering Award, which recognizes hard-working undergraduates who have an interest in metallurgy.

Wendy Snyder of mechanical engineering and Joyce Zhu of computer science received the Robert L. Wells Prize for demonstrated competence in both engineering and the humanities, based on the highest-ranking seniors in the Hajim School as of the fall of their senior year.

Jessica Bernstein of optics received the Tau Beta Pi Award, which is given to Tau Beta Pi seniors who, through academic achievement, proven leadership, and sterling character, have excelled and inspired fellow students.

Edward Ruppel III of biomedical engineering received the G. Harold Hook Prize for demonstrating outstanding interest in engineering.

(Click here to see recipients of department awards as well.)

Congratulations as well to:

Sarmishtha “Ruki” Prathivadhi-Bhayankaram ’20 of computer science and anthropology, who has received a USDA Wallace-Carver Fellowship to research fatty acid cells in relation to the sustainability and nutrition of the American diet in hopes of curbing global hunger issues.
Justin Schultz of optics, who is the winner of the 2017 AS&E Outstanding Dissertation Award in engineering for “Singular Atom Optics Via Stimulated Raman Interactions in Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensates.” Andrew Shubin of biomedical engineering received commendation for “Poly (Ethylene Glycol) Hydrogels for Salivary Gland Regeneration.”
Two teams that tied for first at the Mark Ain Business Model Competition. The teams, both of which include Hajim students, receive $7,500 each and space at the UR Student Incubator at High Tech Rochester. Team Meliora (Ibrahim Mohammad ’17 mechanical engineering, Omar Soufan ’17 biomedical engineering, Edgar Alaniz ’17 biochemistry, and Carlos Yuki Gonzalez ’17 financial economics) plans to provide refugees with homes made from recycled plastic. This team, you may recall, won an undergraduate excellence award at the New York Business Plan Competition, placed third in the Forbes Entrepreneurial Competition, and has been accepted as a wild card entry in the Hult Prize Summer Accelerator program. Proteus Medical, which placed second at the Forbes competition, is the result of a biomedical engineering senior design project by Connor McBride, Edward Ruppell III, and Chandler Woo. They have developed a novel endoscopic retrieval device for veterinarians.
Tristan Ford ’17 of biomedical engineering, who is recipient of the New York State College Health Association’s 2017 Outstanding Student Award for his contributions to the health and safety of college students at our University, and at the state and national level. Tristan led the efforts to gain student support for our University to become tobacco-free.

The Class of 2017 is not only one of the largest in our recent history, it is also one of the most diverse.

Of the 388 seniors who were eligible to receive their diplomas yesterday, 33.2 percent are female, 20.4 percent are international students, and 10.6 percent are underrepresented minorities. Nearly one in five — 19.9 percent — studied abroad.

Computer science accounted for 26.8 percent of those eligible to graduate, followed by mechanical engineering with 18.3 percent and biomedical engineering with 18 percent.

Chemical engineering had the highest percentage of female graduating students, at 43.4 percent; 27.3 percent of our underrepresented minority graduates are electrical and computer engineering majors.

Special thanks to:

President Joel Seligman and Edmund Hajim, former chairman of the Board of Trustees and Hajim School benefactor, for sharing their thoughts on a special day.
Lisa Norwood, for once again doing a superb job of organizing all of our commencement activities.
Abdulwahab Alhaji, Monsurat Fabanwo, Rahul Manay, and Xueqi “Sophie” Zhang of electrical and computer engineering, the senior design teammates who used radio frequency identification to show the individual displays of ECE and audio and music engineering graduates on the overhead screen as they each crossed the stage. We have high hopes of using this program for all our graduates next year.

It was a memorable day indeed!

Have a great week.

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman