College Wins Multiple Awards for Excellence
Staff, faculty and students at the College of Engineering recently won three Science & Engineering Excellence awards. The awards were presented at the SEE banquet in April 2009.
The SEE awards recognize individuals and organizations at The University of Arizona who have exhibited an outstanding commitment to increasing diversity and inclusiveness in science, technology, engineering and math.
College winners were the Engineering Ambassadors, who are organized by Susie Bowers, assistant director for recruiting and outreach; Professor Supapan Seraphin of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Ray Umashankar, director of the multicultural engineering program.
Engineering Ambassadors volunteer their time to support recruiting and outreach among middle and high school students. About 60 percent are from groups that are underrepresented in engineering: women, Hispanics, African-Americans and Native Americans. They represent all majors in the College of Engineering and provide would-be engineering undergraduates with a student’s-eye perspective of university life. Ambassadors will meet with individual students and parents, give engineering lab tours, and represent the engineering student body at industry and alumni functions.
Professor Supapan Seraphin runs the electron microscopy and x-ray facility in the Materials Science and Engineering Department. She is widely known for the weekly Thai-food lunch she prepares for undergraduate students, as well as for her outstanding student mentoring programs. Each summer leads a group of students and teachers on a study program at King Mongkut's University of Technology in Thailand. Seraphin makes a special effort to support minority students, and faculty often discover that members of the new freshman class have been acquainted with her since they were in junior high school.
Ray Umashankar, director of the multicultural engineering program and assistant dean for industrial relations, runs the Summer Engineering Academy and the Summer Engineering Robotics Camp. He believes that creating enthusiasm for math and engineering is important when students are in middle school because that’s when many students lose interest in technical subjects. The fundamental idea behind the Summer Engineering Robotics Camp is to show prospective engineers exactly how an idea becomes reality. Students build robots from Lego Mindstorm kits and compete in design team challenges that test their models for speed, endurance and other technological abilities.
The SEE banquet is a collaborative effort between Women in Science & Engineering, Women in Biological Sciences, and the Society of Women Engineers. The banquet unites groups and individuals across campus who are committed to scientific mentorship and outreach. The event also encourages more interaction between faculty members and students who are underrepresented in the sciences.