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Brian Taff is an interdisciplinary scholar with a double major in mechanical engineering and electrical engineering and a minor in materials science and engineering. He has maintained a perfect 4.0 overall GPA, even with these two demanding majors. He has served on the Scholar’s Council and was secretary of the Order of Thirty and Three Honor Society. His honors include membership in Phi Kappa Phi, Golden Chain Society, Golden Key Honor Society, Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Fraternity, Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society, and Eta Nu Electrical Engineering Honor Fraternity.
Brian has demonstrated his wide range of talents in some very interesting summer jobs. He served as interpreter for Spanish-speaking guests in the Walt Disney World College Program in summer 1998 and worked as a technical consultant for the Ath-a-bas-kan Native Community of Fort Yukon, Alaska, where he designed strategies for economic development involving energy resource management and improved Web access.
Brian currently conducts research in solid state pH sensors under the direction of Drs. Dennis M. Maher and H. Troy Nagle. He also works as an undergraduate teaching assistant in the University Scholars Program and works at the Engineering Research Center for Advanced Electronic Materials Processing. His career goal is to work as a research and design engineer in micro-electrical-mechanical systems
Brian also received the 2001-02 College of Engineering Faculty Senior Scholarship for his “academic excellence, intellectual breadth and depth of character.”
Brian is an excellent choice for the Senior Award for Scholarly Achievement. We wish him well in his future endeavors.
Meghan Wutkowski is an outstanding student whose scholarly achievements are many: she has a 4.0 GPA and is a Park Scholar, a Byrd Scholar and a University Scholar. She is a member of Phi Kappa Phi, Gamma Beta Phi, Golden Key, and Phi Eta Sigma. Meghan participates in the NC State Fellows Program. She is active in student leadership activities and service organizations such as Science Olympiad and Service Raleigh. In addition she spent one semester at Lund University in Lund, Sweden.
Meghan has created a solid professional foundation even though she’s still in school. She is a student researcher in Dr. Orlin Velev’s laboratory, where she is working to develop microfluidic devices. She has also worked with Dr. Robert Kelly and Dr. Alan Tonelli. For two summers Meghan has participated in the Ford Motor Company Engineering Information Internship, an opportunity to learn about and contribute to engineering librarianship. Her professors and supervisors describe Meghan as bright, talented, diverse, well educated, and hard working.
Meghan is a true scholar and promising researcher. She intends to carry this interest into a master’s in chemical engineering next year. We wish her all the best.
“Good citizen” can mean many things, and in the case of Kim Goodwin, being a good citizen covers a wide range of service activities as well as a deep sense of community involvement. Kim is a double major in chemical engineering and Spanish literature and languages. An excellent student in both her engineering and language courses, Kim maintains a 3.9 GPA and is a member of numerous honor societies. She has used her analytical mind and language talents to best advantage for the university community and beyond.
Kim has promoted NC State through a variety of activities, including NC State University Student Ambassadors, the College of Engineering Spend-a-Day program, and Tau Beta Pi National Engineering Honor Society. She is also an active participant in the American Institute for Chemical Engineers NC State chapter and in Service Raleigh. In addition she has conducted chemical engineering research at NC State and has won several research awards.
Kim’s fluency in Spanish has given her the ability to make a unique contribution to the community. As a volunteer North Carolina supreme court translator, she has translated several forms for use by the Spanish-speaking citizens of the state. While an exchange student in Buenos Aires, Kim participated in a march to protest human rights violations.
Kim’s other service activities include volunteering with MathCounts, Special Olympics, Habitat for Humanity, and Adopt-a-Highway.
Kim gives her time, her talents, and her heart to social causes, and we wish her all the best as she carries out into the world her enthusiasm for helping others.
Leif Johnson’s remarkable cross-disciplinary and academic achievements make him the ideal candidate for the Humanities award. He is a multiple major in computer science, applied mathematics, and multidisciplinary studies, with a minor in French. A Benjamin Franklin Dual Degree scholar and a University scholar as well as a member of several honor societies, Leif has established academic excellence at NC State in both humanities and engineering with a 3.9 overall GPA. Indeed, he is one of only three students graduating this May with honors in multidisciplinary studies.
Leif has studied in three institutions that reflect the diversity of his talents and interests: The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, the Université Pierre Mendes France in Grenoble, France, and NC State University. While in France as an exchange student, he concentrated on philosophy and French as well as conducted research in the genetic evolution of neural networks. All of these activities were accomplished entirely in the French language.
After visiting Buddhist monasteries in the Himalayas, Leif wrote a thoughtful paper comparing the differing approaches to art and architecture within Buddhism and Christianity. The paper was described as “remarkable” by the professor for whom it was written.
He hopes to combine his interests in philosophy, psychology, French, computer science, and cognitive science into a career applying the neuropsychology of language to artificial intelligence. We wish him the best of luck in this and all future endeavors.
Michael Donaghy is a student with extraordinary leadership abilities and a strong drive to achieve — a combination that has led to many successes at NC State. He will graduate in May with a major in computer science and a minor in business management. Michael has a 3.8 GPA and is a member of several honor societies.
He has held leadership positions at NC State, including president, treasurer, and publicity chair of the Association for Computing Machinery/Association of Information Technology Professionals (ACM/AITP) student chapter; computer science student representative to the Engineers’ Council; and Webmaster for the Linux Users Group. These roles do not tell the full story of Michael’s leadership gifts, however. More telling are the comments of his advisors and professors as they describe his interactions with other students in classes and associations.
They commend him for, among other activities, his leadership in the Student-Owned Computing Task Force, the ACM chapter’s provision of computers to a middle school in the North Carolina mountains, and the College of Engineering’s Computing Committee. One professor describes Michael as a “strong leader …who will eventually become one of our college’s most valuable graduates.”
Michael is well organized, spirited, and articulate. He plans to complete his master’s in computer science in the combined BS/MS program, and we wish him well as he embarks on the next phase of his career.
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