Stevens Institute of Technology: SSE Celebrates Undergraduate, Master’s and Doctoral Students with Annual Awards
As the 2021-22 academic year comes to a close, the School of Systems & Enterprises (SSE) applauds students from all levels who have added impact to the SSE community through their exceptional projects and dedication to their systems education. The School expresses immense pride in its undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students and awards them respectively for their distinguished academic achievements.
“Congratulations to all,” remarked Interim Dean Anthony Barrese. “You are the interdisciplinary engineering leaders and architects of our future, and each and every one of you deserves to be recognized.”
“Hard work always pays off,” said Dr. Safa ElKefi, winner of the Fabrycky-Blanchard Award and recent graduate of the engineering management doctoral program. “I have always believed that success comes from being involved, practicing leadership and multi-tasking in the Stevens community.”
Dr. Batyr Charyyev, winner of the Exceptional Achievement Award, believes his academic accomplishments at SSE helped him acquire his new tenure stream faculty position at University of Nevada, Reno.
“Joining the Systems Engineering Ph.D. program at Stevens was the right path to become a systems thinker and provided me with an environment to grow,” said Batyr. “I acquired skills to produce efficient, and robust solutions to complex problems dealing with complex systems.”
Undergraduate Awards
This year, SSE has selected eight recipients across its annual awards categories and is proud to announce the following 2022 undergraduate student award winners:
Frederick Winslow Taylor Award for Engineering Management
Given in memory of the most influential thinker in modern management theory and application, this award is presented to the graduating senior who did the most to promote engineering management in the undergraduate program at Stevens.
Winner: Philip Jamison
Hans J. Lang Award for Excellence Accounting and Business Analysis
This award is presented annually to a member of the junior class in engineering management who has distinguished themself in these topics.
Winner: Anthony Abbruzzese
Humphreys, Ennis, Lesser Award
This award, along with a year-long subscription to the Engineering Economist is given to the graduating seniors with the highest grade point averages in the engineering economics core courses.
Winners: Victoria Agaliotis and Kayleigh Kubit
John Mihalasky Award
Memorializing Dr. John Mihalasky, the longtime director of the Bachelor of Engineering in engineering management program, this award is given to the Senior Design team in engineering management who has distinguished themselves in developing a comprehensive project that reflects that standard of professionalism that John Mihalasky taught his students.
Winners: Team Opioid Tracking System — Sanjana Chopra, AnaMaria Laccetti, Fiona Matthews and Abigail Neel
Graduate Awards
SSE has selected 16 recipients across its master’s and doctoral student awards categories, which broadly recognizes students for superb academic achievement in degree programs, capstones and theses, as well as leadership and service.
Academic Achievement in a Doctoral Program
This honor is awarded annually to a student who displays outstanding academic achievement and professional promise in an SSE doctoral program.
Winner: Daniel Appel
Academic Achievement in the Engineering Management Program Award
This honor is awarded annually to a student who displays outstanding academic achievement and professional promise in the engineering management master’s program.
Winners: Lauren Chew, Antony Cruz and Dante Volpe
Academic Achievement in the Software Engineering Program Award
This honor is awarded annually to a student who displays outstanding academic achievement and professional promise in the software engineering master’s program.
Winner: Aboudacar Diawara
Academic Achievement in the Systems Engineering Program Award
This honor is awarded annually to a student who displays outstanding academic achievement and professional promise in systems engineering.
Winner: Tyler Gibson
Raif Bucar (right) was recently hired as a data scientist at Janssen Pharmaceuticals after completing his doctoral studies under the guidance of SSE’s Professor Yeganeh Hayeri (left).
ASEM Outstanding TA Award
This award is given to the best TA in SSE graduating each spring semester as determined by the undergraduate ASEM executive board. It is decided by the ASEM local chapter.
Winner: Raif Bucar
Best Master’s Thesis Award
This honor is awarded annually to a graduate student in SSE who has submitted the best master’s thesis as determined by a panel of faculty.
Winner: Hojat Behrooz
Best Student Paper Award
This award is given annually to graduate students in the School of Systems and Enterprises who have distinguished themselves in the conduct of scholarly literature.
Winner: Maximilian Vierboeck
Distinguished Leadership by a Master’s Student Award
This award is given annually in recognition of outstanding leadership and service to the school, university and SSE community.
Winner: Savannah Bergen
Distinguished Leadership by a Ph.D. Student Award
This honor is awarded annually in recognition of outstanding leadership and service to the school, university and community in the School of Systems and Enterprises doctoral programs.
Winner: Raif Bucar
Donald N. Merino Award for Academic Excellence
Given to a graduating engineering management student at any level whose paper is considered by the engineering management academic committee to achieve the highest academic excellence of all the papers submitted for that year. This award is meant to provide an incentive for students to present innovative and entrepreneurial concepts and methodologies that would further the advancement of engineering management knowledge.
Winner: Hojat Behrooz
Exceptional Achievement Award
This honor is awarded annually to a graduate student in the School of Systems and Enterprises who has demonstrated exceptional academic achievement and outstanding contributions beyond the classroom.
Winner: Batyr Charyyev
Fabrycky-Blanchard Award
This award is given in recognition for exemplary academic performance, excellence in research and promise in the study and practice of systems engineering
Winners: Safa Elkefi, Meng Jiao, Mostaan Lotfalian Saremi and Jordan Stern
Outstanding Dissertation Award
This honor is awarded annually to a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Systems and Enterprises who has distinguished themselves in the conduct of research.
Winner: Avishek Choudhury