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Ph.D. graduate wins National Academy of Engineering prize

Mabry receives the Best Video Overall award in the Engineering for You 3 video contest from the National Academy of Engineering.
Mabry receives the Best Video Overall award in the Engineering for You 3 video contest from the National Academy of Engineering.

An NC State civil engineering graduate has won first place in a National Academy of Engineering (NAE) contest for videos promoting the field of engineering.

Dr. Nehemiah J. Mabry took first place in the NAE’s Engineering For You video contest. His submission won Best Overall Video alongside the People’s Choice Award, amounting to a total prize of $30,000.

Mabry earned a Ph.D. in structural engineering and mechanics in 2015 and holds a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from Oakwood University and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. While studying for his Ph.D. at NC State, Mabry founded STEMedia (STEMedia.org) as a personal project to support the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines. Today, STEMedia has transformed into a business, becoming a digital media company that provides creative and inspirational STEM content for students and educators, and works with companies seeking to hire STEM talent.

The NAE contest included a variety of categories, ranging from a middle school level to the graduate level. The prompt was “mega-engineering,” and entries were required to address “important needs of large populations and/or societies, require teams working across countries and cultures on a solution, and involve at least three disciplines including engineering” in a one- to two-minute video. Video entries were judged based on creativity of content and presentation, appeal to wider audiences and how effectively the video addressed the prompt. Mabry’s entry focused on sustainable cities and “smart” structures, such as bridges with sensors that can detect cracking or other structural instabilities, delivered in the form of a slam poem. Infrastructure health was also the subject of Mabry’s graduate research, and he now works for Simpson Engineers & Associates in Cary as a bridge engineer.

“There’s something inspiring about inspiring,” Mabry says when asked why he entered the contest. “The more I inspire other people the more I am inspired to go back to my field of engineering and do my best.”