Four Students Recognized for Outstanding Achievements
Four Jonsson School students have been honored recently for their accomplishments.
A junior in electrical engineering, Nicole Halper has been named the outstanding student member of IEEE in Region 5, which stretches from Texas to Wyoming.
Nicole is chair of the IEEE Student Branch at UTD, which earlier this year held its first-ever Student Professional Awareness Conference, or S-PAC. She organized the S-PAC and has been invited to discuss it in a presentation at the annual IEEE national conference.
“No university has ever been invited to present on this topic at the conference, so this is pretty awesome,” she said
In addition, UTD’s IEEE Student Branch has been named the outstanding large student branch in Region 5. The award recognized the UTD chapter’s continuing growth, its first S-PAC and its founding of a Robotics and Automation Society Chapter.
Nicole has been involved with UTD’s IEEE student organization since her freshman year and not only redesigned the student branch’s Web site but also helped create a new mentoring program at the Jonsson School. She intends to pursue a career focused on microelectronics and R&D when she graduates.
Brenda Gutierrez, also an electrical engineering major, was one of three local engineering students recently honored by the Technical Club of Dallas. The club recognizes outstanding graduating engineering students from SMU, UT Arlington and UT Dallas at a luncheon each spring.
Brenda has accepted a position as a DLP design engineer at Texas Instruments. She plans to pursue her master’s in electrical engineering part-time at UTD.
Patrick Hampton, president of the UT Dallas student chapter of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), was named Outstanding Student Organization Leader of the Year at UTD’s recent Student Leadership Awards Reception.
A senior in computer science who’s graduating in December, Patrick has been instrumental in reactivating the student chapters of both ACM and the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), and he’s a regional board member of NSBE.
Laura Shagman — a freshman majoring in electrical engineering — was also honored at the awards reception, where she received the Community Service Award for exceptional dedication to the community. As service chairman of Kappa Alpha Theta, she has implemented several service projects, including a mentoring program for girls at a local junior high, weekly opportunities to help at Special Olympics basketball and soccer practices, and, most recently, participation in Walk for Lupus Now. Her involvement in Special Olympics dates back to 2005 and has involved both coaching and mentoring. “I truly believe that the best character growth comes from service!” she said.
