his year, 166 students completed the requirements for a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (B.S.E.) degree (see graph on page 15 for statistics by department).

Graduates of the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), their families, friends, and professors huddled under a tent outside the Friend Center for Engineering Education on a gray, rainy day to celebrate their achievements and receive awards.



Several faculty members volunteered to stand at the tent’s edges, enduring the cold droplets on their backs as the rain politely pattered about the tent.

Peter Bogucki, SEAS associate dean for undergraduate affairs, with genuine pride, presented academic prizes to graduating seniors. Kyle Vanderlick and Sanjeev Kulkarni, associate deans for academic affairs, presented faculty awards.

Maria Klawe, dean of the SEAS, spoke of the newly launched SEAS Strategic Plan and how it will impact the graduating seniors as they cross the border from students to alumni.

“The education that B.S.E.s receive here is only going to get better,” Dean Klawe said. “In the coming years, you, as alumni, are going to feel even prouder to be B.S.E.s than you are today.”

She assured the students that they already were “better prepared to be an engineer than any engineering student from any other university in the country.”

Dean Klawe also urged the students to write her letters and e-mails and let her know how they put their Princeton education to use.

The following prizes were awarded at Class Day:

• Joseph Clifton Elgin Prize: Corey Sanders (CS). This award is given to the student who has done the most to advance the interests of the school in the community at large. The prize honors the late Professor Emeritus Joseph Clifton Elgin, who was dean from 1954 to 1971.

• James Hayes-Edgar Palmer Prize in Engineering: Brian Tsang (CS). This award was established in 1968 by Zilph H. Palmer, Class of 1895, and Edgar Palmer, Class of 1903, and is awarded to the seniors who have manifested
excellent scholarship, a marked capacity for leadership, and the promise of creative achievement in engineering.

• Jeffrey O. Kephart ’80 Engineering Physics Award: Jonathan Fan (EE). This prize is awarded to the outstanding student in the engineering physics program as determined by the faculty.

• Calvin Dodd MacCracken Senior Thesis/Project Award: Michael Tibbets (molecular biology), Erica Gralla (MAE), and Naomi Chow (MAE). This award honors Calvin Dodd MacCracken ’40, and was established by his family to recognize the senior thesis or project work that is most distinctive for its inventiveness and technical accomplishment.

• J. Rich Steers Award: Elliott Holland (CEE) and Elizabeth Louis (MAE). Given by the New York City Post Society of American Military Engineers to reward scholastic performance that demonstrates potential for further engineering study and practice.

• Tau Beta Pi Prize: Abhinav Agrawal (EE) and Miriam Okun (ChE). This award is given to a senior class member, or members, who have significantly contributed a major part of his or her time in service to the SEAS.

• Lore von Jaskowsky Memorial Prize: Abhinav Agrawal (EE) and Katy Milkman (ORFE). This award was established in 2002 under the will of Woldemar F. von Jaskowsky, a researcher in MAE, to provide an award to a senior who has participated in research that’s resulted in a contribution to the field, whose interactions with other students, faculty, and staff have added to the quality of university life, and who intends to pursue a career in engineering or applied science.

• George J. Mueller Award: Elliott Holland (CEE). This award was established in 1991 by SEAS faculty and staff in memory of Dean George J. Mueller to honor the graduating senior who, over his or her four undergraduate years at Princeton, has most evidently combined high scholarly achievement with quality performance in intercollegiate athletics.


Teaching skills lauded
Sharing in the glow of the graduating seniors, Sanjeev Kullkarni, associate professor of electrical engineering, graciously accepted the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s (SEAS) Distinguished Teacher Award on Class Day.

Professor Kulkarni has made his mark in SEAS and across campus with his devotion to students, approachable nature, and dedication to the mission of integrating engineering and liberal arts education.

Professor T. Kyle Vanderlick, department chair of chemical engineering, presented the award. The two professors have served together as SEAS associate deans for academic affairs during the past year.

Professor Kulkarni has earned the admiration of electrical engineering students, other SEAS students, and even A.B. students from various departments such as English and religion. His class, ELE 201: Introduction to Electrical Signals and Systems, has become popular across
campus.

“His renown at being able to make technical information accessible to everyone has served to draw 52 nonmajors into his class [out of 76 students],” Professor Vanderlick said.

Professor Kulkarni also worked with Professor of Philosophy Gil Harman to create and teach the interdisciplinary course ELE 218/PHI 218: Epistemology and Learning Theory.

Professor Kulkarni has five E-Council Excellence in Teaching Awards, including one for the very first class he taught at Princeton. Professor Vanderlick noted that Professor Kulkarni clearly has the most important trait for a teacher, which is that he values his students’ opinions and education above all else.

She cited an example that she said “describes perfectly his dedication to teaching.” When writing a brief biography of himself, Professor Kulkarni mentioned his E-Council awards, which are given by the student body, in the same sentence as a very prestigious research award.

Professor Kulkarni accepted the honor with few words, assuring the audience that Princeton’s hard working, engaged students make his work very easy and fun.

“My biggest thanks go to the students,” Professor Kulkarni said, “and to the parents who gave us these bright students.”


Second time in SEAS history an engineer is named class salutatorian

Brian Tsang, a computer science major, is the second engineer in the history of the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) to be named salutatorian of his class. John Schier ’73 was the first.

Brian is clear about why he took four semesters of Latin at Princeton: “I just felt that to get a complete education you need to know a little bit of Latin,” he said.

He delivered the salutatory address, which at Princeton is traditionally given in Latin, to his classmates at Commencement on Tuesday, June 1.

Brian, who is from Ellicott City, Md., knew he wanted to be a computer science major when he enrolled.

In his first course, COS 126: General Computer Science, he quickly outpaced the rest of the class and began rewriting and greatly enhancing a piece of software used in the course to simulate the workings of the major hardware components in a computer.

At the same time, Brian started taking Latin.

“In the past, all science and math papers were written in Latin, which is why I respect Latin so much,” he said. “I kept going because all of my professors along the way had really interesting stories to tell about the Romans. They really kept me engaged.”

Academic excellence
During his four years, Brian won the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence and the Pyka Prize in Physics. He was named a Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society member and received B.S.E. Academic Achievement awards.

For his senior thesis, Brian worked with a group of two other computer science majors and two mechanical and aerospace engineering majors to create soccer-playing robots in an effort to advance Princeton toward participating in an annual international competition called “RoboCup.”

His adviser, Robert Schapire, called it “an extraordinarily ambitious project.” Professor Schapire said Brian’s thesis combined computer science with geometry and physics.

In addition to his academic work, Brian served as Web
editor for The Daily Princetonian, a position he described as “better than any programming course” in the number of challenging real-world problems it presented. He plans to work for Microsoft next year before deciding whether to return to school for an advanced degree.

Brian is soft-spoken when it comes to describing his accomplishments. More than a week after he learned he was selected as salutatorian, he had not told his roommates or advisers of the honor.

“It’s not the sort of thing that just comes up in conversation,” he said.

More honors, awards for Class of ’04

Nineteen engineering students were elected to membership in the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society, and 87 were elected to membership in the Society of Sigma Xi. Engineering students also claimed a number of University-wide prizes, awards, and honors, as well as awards in nonengineering departments. These include:

General Prizes
• Class of 1883 English Prize: Amie Ko ’07 (first), Lester Mackey ’07 (second), and Ritu Kamal ’07 (third)
• Harold Willis Dodds Achievement Award: Corey Sanders (CS)
• Willard Thorp Thesis Prize in American Studies: Katy Milkman (ORFE)
• Applied and Computational Mathematics Independent Project Prize: Matthew Tanner (ORFE)
• Gregory T. Pope ’80 Prize for Science Writing: Alexis Schulman (CEE)
• Francis LeMoyne Page Theater Award: David Kahlil Bengali (CS), Noah Burger (CEE), and Melanie Velo-Simpson (ChE)
• Fulbright Grant: David Junichi Follette (MAE)
• National Science Foundation Fellowships: Jonathan Fan (EE), Orion Crisafulli ’03 (MAE), Abbie Liel ’02 (CEE), Eileen Higham ’01 (ChE), Amanda Bonneau ’99 (CEE), Celeste Fowler ’94 (CS), and Ketan Dalal ’92 (EE)

Commissions and Military Science Prizes

Departmental Prizes

ChE
• Central Jersey Section, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Award for Overall Excellence in Chemical Engineering: Miriam Okun
• Central Jersey Section, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Ernest F. Johnson Distinguished Service Award: Patrick Beattie
• Michelle Goudie ’93 Senior Thesis Award: Melanie Velo-Simpson
• Richard K. Toner Thermodynamics Prize: Miriam Okun
• Ticona Senior Thesis Award: Thomas Reichel
• Merck and Co. Senior Thesis Award: Rebecca Jangraw
• Proctor and Gamble Award for Outstanding Design Project: Miriam Okun and Thomas Reichel, and Patrick Beattie and Sasha Rao
• Sigma Xi Book Prize: Thomas Reichel

CEE
• W. Mack Angas Prize: Elliot Holland and Katy Liu
• David W. Carmichael Prize: Mary Lisbeth Blaisdell and Joshua White
• Achievement Award of the New Jersey Chapter of the American Concrete Institute: Thomas Mandecki
• Moles Award: Colin Brown
• The CEE Book Award: Matthew Bussman
• Sigma Xi Book Prize: Noah Burger
• Christine Trmal Prize: Allison Pieja and Michael Hyatt

CS
• Accenture Prize in Computer Science: Joseph Barillari
and Brian Tsang
• Phillip Y. Goldman ’86 Prize in Computer Science: Jing Ge and Brian Tsang
• Computer Science Service Award: Joseph Barillari, Jing Ge, and David Silver
• Sigma Xi Book Prize: William Kiefer III
• Rotary Foundation Scholarship: David Silver

EE
• John Ogden Bigelow Jr. Prize in Electrical Engineering: Parag Shah
• G. David Forney Jr. Prize: Anthony Sun
• Charles Ira Young Memorial Tablet and Medal: Abhinav Agrawal
• Peter Mark Prize: Jonathan Fan
• Computer Engineering Award of Excellence: Steven Saar
• Sigma Xi Book Award: Michael Yang

MAE
• George Bienkowski Memorial Prize: Will Moore, Erica Gralla, Naomi Chow, and Johanna Kleingeld
• Donald Janssen Dike Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Research: Naomi Chow and Erica Gralla; second: Richard Clark; third: Corydon Jerch
and Elizabeth Louis; honorable mention: Randall Bly, Will Moore, and Alexander Quayle
• Sau-Hai Lam *58 Prize in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering: Leah Crider, Johanna Kleingeld. and Christina Mester
• John Marshall II Memorial Prize: Corydon Jerch and Elizabeth Louis; second: Randall Bly and Will Moore; third: Richard Clark
• Morgan W. McKinzie ’93 Senior Thesis Prize: Richard Clark
• Morgan W. McKinzie ’93 Senior Thesis Fund Prize: Leah Crider; second: Naomi Chow and Erica Gralla
• MAE Undergraduate Academic Support Award: Richard Clark
• Enoch Durbin Entrepreneurial Award: Christopher Carr
• Sigma Xi Book Award: Christina Mester

ORFE
• Dr. Frank S. Castellana Prize in Operations Research and Financial Engineering: Adam Shukovsky
• Ahmet S. Çakmak Prize: Alison Weingarden
• Kenneth H. Condit Prize: Avinash Rao and Joshua Saltman
• Sigma Xi Book Award: Wei Hung Vincent Ng, and Paul Stamas

158 certificates earned
Subjects include seven languages, linguistics, theater, dance
Once again School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) students displayed their appetite for a smorgasbord of scholarly endeavors. One hundred and fifty-eight certificates of proficiency—Princeton’s version of a minor—were awarded to engineering students this year.

The certificates of proficiency span 22 subjects, ranging from environmental studies to linguistics to musical performance. Wei Hung Vincent Ng (ORFE) earned four certificates: applied and computational mathematics (ACM), engineering and management systems (EMS), finance, and Japanese.

Three certificates
Students who earned three certificates include: Christian Asmar (ORFE) in EMS, finance, and robotics and intelligent systems; Warren Cheng (ORFE) in applications of computing, EMS, and finance; Katy Liu (CEE) in architecture, engineering biology, and Spanish; Christina Mester (MAE) in applications of computing, robotics and intelligent systems, and Russian; Adam Shukovsky (ORFE) in ACM, EMS, and finance; and Ann Verbin (ORFE) in EMS, finance, and French.

Two certificates
Students who earned two certificates include: Theo Brower (EE), Condon Lau (MAE), and Todd Templeton (EE) for applications of computing and robotics and intelligent systems; Parag Shah (EE) for applications of computing and finance; Jonathan Fan (EE) for ACM and engineering physics; David Silver (CS) for ACM and Portuguese; Noah Burger (CEE) for architecture and theater and dance; Ben Wukasch (CEE) for Latin American studies and linguistics; Randall Bly (MAE) and Will Moore (MAE) for engineering biology and materials science; Colin Ligon (MAE) for engineering biology and robotics and intelligent systems; Ezekiel Burke (MAE) for EMS and robotics and intelligent systems; John Swigart (MAE) for engineering physics and robotics and intelligent systems; Leah Crider (MAE) for robotics and intelligent systems and Spanish; David Bengali (CS) for theater and dance and Italian; Ashirul Amin (CS) for Near Eastern studies and robotics and intelligent systems; Thais Fabricio de Melo (CS) for Portuguese and robotics and intelligent systems; Jing Ge (CS) for Chinese and finance; and, from ORFE, Kate Barber, Sandhya Bondada, Elizabeth Bramwell, Michelle Breyer, Daniel Cohen, William Danford, John Paul Ference, Kelly Ann Gaydos, Nicholas Kalmbach, Whitney Karfeld, Melissa Maquilan, William Osnato, Timothy Releford, Joshua Saltman, Suzanna Sanchez, Nada Siddiqui, Devaushi Singham, Paul Stamas, Edward Tsui, Vippy Wong, and Aaron Zimmerman for EMS and finance.