[Faculty] Engineering Valedictorian Vote

Thu Apr 16 15:56:40 PDT 2015

I completely agree with Yusuf. Dustin is truly an outstanding student 
with leadership skills. He is also very personable and courteous. I 
highly recommend him for Engineering Valedictorian.

Best regards,
Ashkan

On 4/16/15 1:56 PM, Yusuf Ozturk wrote:
>
> Engineering Faculty,
>
> I like to add  that Dustin Wright has been a leader among his  friends 
> and in my lab over  the period he worked with me as a researcher. He 
> managed a group of undergraduate students he recruited for building 
> components of a research project  and  worked closely with several 
> graduate students enabling them to make advances in their projects.  
>  As an undergraduate student his research productivity was at a level 
> expected from a Ph.D. student.  In addition, he was the IEEE student 
> chapter secretary  for two years.  Not only he was an exceptional 
> student but also he is an exceptional person that brings joy to the 
> work environment.
>
> Best regards
>
> Yusuf Ozturk
>
> *From:*Faculty [mailto:faculty-bounces at engineering.sdsu.edu 
> <mailto:faculty-bounces at engineering.sdsu.edu>] *On Behalf Of *Donovan 
> Geiger
> *Sent:* Thursday, April 16, 2015 11:48 AM
> *To:* faculty at engineering.sdsu.edu <mailto:faculty at engineering.sdsu.edu>
> *Subject:* [Faculty] Engineering Valedictorian Vote
>
> Engineering Faculty:
>
> As the departmental outstanding graduates have now been selected, the 
> Engineering Valedictorian vote will now take place. Please select one 
> and email me your choice by*_12:00pm tomorrow, Friday March, 17th_. *
>
> The candidates are:
>
> *
> **Ryan Scurlock
>
> Major GPA 3.89, CUM 3.85, Summa Cum Laude (1st honors rank)*
>
> I’m from San Diego. I chose to study mechanical engineering because I 
> wanted to challenge myself and I enjoy math/science. During my time at 
> SDSU,I have performed research into wind turbines under the 
> supervision of Dr. Luciano Demasi. Professor Demasi has been an 
> unbelievable mentor and I have greatly enjoyed my time working with 
> him. He is by far my most influential professor.
>
> I have also worked in the Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) under Dr. 
> Beyene. Next Fall, I will attend the University of Texas at Austin to 
> pursue a master’s degree in Engineering Mechanics.
>
> I’m an avid San Diego State basketball fan and regularly attend home 
> games.
>
> _______________________
>
>
> *Dustin Wright
>
> MAJOR GPA 4.00, CUM 3.97, Summa Cum Laude (1st honors rank)*
>
> Dustin Wright studied electrical and computer engineering with a minor 
> in computer science from fall 2010 to fall 2014. Through this, he was 
> exposed to a breadth of courses spanning basic electrical hardware 
> implementation to digital signal processing, object oriented 
> programming, algorithms, and numerical analysis.
>
> He worked three summer internships during his time at SDSU at BAE 
> Systems, San Diego Gas and Electric, and Hewlett-Packard. Dustin was 
> actively involved in research on campus under Dr. Yusuf Ozturk. In his 
> research, he investigated cognitive and scalable online video 
> streaming with learned user preferences, dynamic energy rate 
> adaptation using a closed loop cloud to mobile system, and 
> concentration detection enabled by electroencephalography. Through 
> this, he authored and co-authored 3 peer reviewed conference papers, 
> delivering a technical presentation at UC Berkeley for the 2015 
> International Conference on Soft Computing and Software Engineering, 
> and has 2 conference and 2 journal papers currently under review. In 
> addition, he presented his initial research work at the 2014 SDSU 
> student research symposium and was a participant in the first Center 
> for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering hackathon at the University of 
> Washington.
>
> He is currently a software engineer at BAE Systems and hopes to 
> eventually attain a Ph.D. with his research focusing on machine 
> learning and brain-computer interfaces.
>
>
> ______________________________
>
>
> *Tanner Verhoeks
>
> Major GPA 4.00, CUM 3.89, Summa Cum Laude (1st honors rank)*
>
> My name is Tanner Verhoeks; I was born and raised in San Diego so 
> becoming an Aztec was an easy choice. After graduating from high 
> school in 2011 with 21 college units completed, I went on to obtain my 
> associates in Civil Engineering from Cuyamaca Community College and 
> Mathematics from Grossmont Community College.
>
> I started at the College of Engineering in the summer of 2013 and, 
> through determination and hard work, earned my Bachelors of Science in 
> Civil Engineering in December 2014.  During this time,  I was 
> fortunate enough to have the opportunities to initiate for Chi Epsilon 
> while acting as the project manager for our initiate project (where we 
> built a 4 foot, illuminated, aluminum builders transit that is sitting 
> in the department office today), participate in the ASCE student 
> chapter, and compete in PSWC 2014. During my senior year I was awarded 
> an internship scholarship from APWA and spent 6 month interning at 
> Atkins. I culminated my experience at SDSU with holding the position 
> of project manager for my capstone team and lead them to earn A's 
> which solidified my 4.0 campus GPA. Since March 2015, I have been 
> working at Hatch Mott Macdonald as an Engineer II on aviation and 
> tunneling projects.
>
> My plans are to continue to further my career as a Civil Engineer by 
> beginning my Masters next year in Engineering Management and then to 
> continue on to sit for my PE. My motivation in life is to have a part 
> in building our Country's infrastructure while providing for my 
> beautiful wife and soon-to-be child. I hope to give back to the 
> Engineering Community by participating in the Chi Epsilon Alumni 
> Association, ASCE's Younger Member Forum, as well as the American 
> Public Works Association. I would be very honored to be recognized as 
> the Outstanding Graduate for the CCEE Department and would like to 
> personally thank said department and respective professors for the 
> knowledge and experience that was passed on to me.
>
>
> _____________________________
>
> *Zac Ghanim Al Wakeel
>
> Major GPA 3.75, CUM 3.57, Cum Laude (3rd honors rank)*
>
> Zac Ghanim Al Wakeel who will graduate with honor and receive a 
> bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering in May 2015, was selected 
> as the outstanding student in the aerospace engineering class of 
> 2015.  Zac will be graduating with highest overall and major GPA in 
> his graduating class at SDSU.  While his academic record puts Zac in a 
> small distinguished group of SDSU graduates, his nomination for the 
> outstanding student award also a recognition of his hardwork, 
> motivation, dedication, perseverance and passion for aerospace 
> engineering.
>
> The path to graduation has been a long arduous journey for Zac.  Zac 
> came to the US in 2009 as his parents fled the war and persecution in 
> Iraq.  The strength and resolve Zac learnt in order to endure the 
> dreadful experience of war, served him as he had to adapt quickly to a 
> new and unfamiliar life in the United States. His singular focus in 
> his pursuit of becoming an aerospace engineer helped Zac overcome many 
> cultural, language and academic barriers he faced when he started his 
> studies in the US. Zac started his studies at Cuyamaca and Grossmont 
> community colleges before transferring to SDSU in 201 . Acceptance in 
> to SDSU aerospace engineering degree program was a child hood dream 
> come true.
>
> Zac is a hard working student with exemplary grades. He has been 
> selected to the Dean’s list several semesters. In addition to doing 
> well in his undergraduate course work, Zac has been involved with 
> research on composite structures under the guidance of Professor 
> Venkataraman. He also found time for service, and mentored many 
> immigrant Iraqi students at SDSU and served as a tutor for the Statics 
> course in the MESA program. As a tutor he earned high praise from his 
> students for his teaching and the care and attention he showed them. 
> In his senior year Zac was awarded a NSF scholarship at SDSU.  Zac 
> will be pursuing a master's degree in aerospace engineering at SDSU 
> specializing in Propulsion Systems and do research with Professor Jacobs.
>
> Best regards,
>
> *Donovan Geiger, MBA*
> Student Affairs
> College of Engineering
> San Diego State University
> 619.594.6079
>
>
>
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