SET Annual Awards

The 2023 SET Outstanding Industry Partner Award was awarded to GeoEngineers, Inc.

The School of Engineering and Technology recognizes Industry Partners who have made a significant impact on the success of our programs and our students through the Dean’s Industry Partners award. 

Recipients have demonstrated their impact on a multitude of levels of interaction including our student projects, internships, hiring, research support, outreach to the community, support of our programs, labs and events as well as feedback and support in the development and ABET accreditation of our curriculum. 

The 2023 recipients of the SET Outstanding Community Partner Award are Joe Burianek and Tom McGoogan. 

The School of Engineering and Technology (SET) recognizes Community Partners who have made a significant impact on the success of our programs and our students through the Dean’s Community Partners award.

Dr. Jie Sheng, Associate Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, is the first recipient of the JEDI award. Dr. Sheng was awarded for her standard of teaching for both herself and her colleagues, and her hard work to make sure that all students, regardless of their background, are able to make progress towards the course learning goals each quarter. 

Sikha Pentyala, Ph.D. in Computer Science and Systems student, is the first recipient of the JEDI Student Award. 

"Sikha teaches introductory programming to undergraduate students (TCSS143). She does this with the kind of enthusiasm and care that is helping these students find their way to a major in computer science, thereby having a far-reaching impact on their careers and lives. As an instructor in TCSS143, she makes students from underrepresented groups in STEM understand that they belong, an important factor in deciding whether to pursue the Computer Science major."

Dr. Seyyed Babak Hamidi is a postdoctoral scholar, who presented their work in the 2023 SET Research Showcase and was awarded the Best Poster Award. 

"Seyyed has shown tremendous growth as a Postdoctoral Scholar working on multiple NASA funded projects that have been impressive to external collaborators" 

The 2023 Andrew and Julie Fry Innovation Award was awarded to the PPML Huskies Team, which included students Dean Kelley (MSCSS), Sikha Pentyala (Ph.D. CSS), and Steven Golob (Ph.D. CSS). Dean, Sikha, and Steven worked together to turn discussions and ideas into a concrete implementation. 

“It was their persistence that enabled PPML Huskies team to make it through Phase 1 & 2 of the competition-despite many technical difficulties imposed by the competition organizers”

The PPML Huskies team were recently announced as a winner of the US-UK PET's Prize Challenge, with a press release announcing their win released from the White House in March 2023. 

Kira King, Lead Academic Advisor, was awarded the 2023 SET Staff Award for her incredible work done for SET. “Kira is incredibly organized and efficient in everything she does. She is also one of the most collaborative people I have ever worked with. She is a great team player. She is always willing to jump in and help with anything anyone in our team needs. She keeps us all in the loop whenever she acts on behalf of the team. She is always focused on equity and can be counted on as a trusted and supportive colleague.”

“Kira's empathy is a bright light in the office - she cares deeply, and uses her privilege to advocate for lower level staff and students to the "higher ups." She is a strong and positive voice in SET, always thinking of others and how we can better serve students.”

“Kira is a great individual to brainstorm with, her experience at UWT gives her plenty of ideas and resources. She is constantly looking for ways to improve processes to make sure that student are having the best experience they can. Kira is constantly looking at current practices and asking the hard questions to make sure that they are "best practices" for our students and our unit. Student success is very important to her.”

“Kira has been on the DEI council and not just talks but walks the walk. She cares about the students, staff and faculty and shows compassion and understanding. She signs up for workgroups and committees to learn outside of SET.”

Dr. Chris Marriott, Associate Teaching Professor in Computer Science and Systems, was awarded this year for his continued dedication to teaching and his students. 

“Professor Marriott constantly promoted projects in class. He did that by showcasing previous students’ work especially research projects. He even motivated us further by making it a part of the class.”

“Professor Marriot loves competitive programming. He promoted this activity in the classes and even hosted a competition locally for us UWT Students to join… Most companies look for achievements in these competitions as they are where it is concentrated. By participating, we can gain their attention and get to see for ourselves the insider insight in the industry.”

Sophia Elmobdy (BS Mechanical Engineering)  is described by her nominators as a key leader in SWE, who helped build community amongst the current Mechanical Engineering cohorts and future cohorts. “Sophia helped facilitate SWE members attending the local conference in Seattle this quarter, which allowed members to build stronger relationships with one another, build connections between other institutions, and expand professional networks.”

Vinial Kumar (BS Civil Engineering) won the 2023 Outstanding Student Service Award for their help establishing a welcoming community for the first cohort of Civil Engineering students. "Vinial worked tirelessly to help create a new club with faculty, and advocates for fellow peers."  

Isabel Ramos (BS Information Technology) was awarded for being a key member of the UW Tacoma community, and working to create community during her Freshman core courses. Her nominators mention that Isabel "continues to demonstrate what she has learned academically at UW Tacoma throughout various ways in the local community" and “in addition to service to our campus community, Isabel supported Stadium High School with drafting cyber kill chain scenarios.”

Rachel Cohn (BS Civil Engineering), was awarded the 2023 Outstanding Student Leadership Award for her work spearheading the establishment of a student chapter for the American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) at UWT, and for her service as the newly-appointed Student Representative on the UWT's Chancellor's Student Advisory Board. Rachel is described by her nominators as a “kind and dedicated person, who has a ruthless focus on doing your best and being a service to your friends and classmates”

Toàn Nguyễn (BS Computer Science and Systems) has served as the President of the Google Developer Club, and helped run/market the SET programming contests for the last two years. Toàn eagerly pitched programs and activities to enrich the student experience at UWT, and is described by his nominators as a "strong leader among students." 

Daniil Filienko, Trevor Tomlin, Kyler Robison, and Yudong Lin (all BS in Computer Science and Systems students), also known as the "Dream Team" were one of the groups awarded the Undergraduate Research Award in 2023 for their excellent team work in the "Pushback to the Future Challenge," a machine learning competition hosted by NASA. “Daniil, Kyler, Trevor, Yudong are very talented undergraduate students who work together in an exemplary symbiotic manner that seems to come natural to them.”

Rick Zhang (BS Mechanical Engineering), was awarded the 2023 Undergraduate Research Award for their impactful research on wave impacts on Tacoma sea walls, as a result of sea level rise predictions to climate change. “Rick has a clear passion and ability to do quality research, contracted to do a grant-funded research project that seeks to understand the best practices for course-based undergraduate research experiences for engineering education." 

Bryce Fukuda, Ph.D. in Computer Science and systems student was awarded the 2023 Outstanding Graduate Research Award for his work as a Research Assistant, where he has been working on multiple funded projects that have been impressive to external collaborators. “Bryce is a top Ph.D. student both inside and outside the classroom, highly motivated, sincere, hardworking, diligent, detail-oriented, and eager to learn new concepts.”

The PPML Huskies Team, consisting of Dean Kelley (MSCSS), Sikha Pentyala (Ph.D. in CSS) and Steven Golob (Ph.D. in CSS), was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Research Award for their impressive teamwork that led them to win the US-UK PETs Prize challenge. 

“Dean, Sikha and Steven worked together to turn discussions and ideas into a concrete implementation, a few lines of code at a time.”

“It was their persistence that enabled PPML Huskies team to make it through Phase 1 & 2 of the competition-despite many technical difficulties imposed by the competition organizers”

Joseph Casebeer, BSCES '22, has worked diligently to promote entrepreneurship within SET and has consistently brought in industry representatives and company founders to the campus to speak with the students. He kept the SET Entrepreneurs Club moving forward through the pandemic and has provided momentum to propel it into next year, promoting membership across the campus, including students from other disciplines. All while building his green solution platform Terrestrious.

Recent graduate Natalie Hong, BSCSS '22, is a shining example of students involved in research and development at the undergraduate level having real world impact Undergraduate student work with our entrepreneurial faculty is fundamental to building out innovative business solutions that grow companies and the economy. Natalie is highly motivated and eager to learn new skills. She often volunteers to do more work by joining new projects. She picks up new skills quickly, takes feedback seriously and works well with other interns.

Marife Tabao, Program Coordinator, is one of the most dedicated people on the SET staff and is always eager to help and support new staff, continuing staff, faculty, and students with a smile on her face. She conducts her work from a place of care, empathy, and passion for higher education and student success, and serves as a touchpoint for everyone in SET and always helps guide you to the correct answer.

Mike McCourt, Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering, is an excellent teacher who has demonstrated his abilities both inside and outside of the classroom. He shows passion for every aspect of teaching and he is committed to the success of his students. He works to extend the learning experience for students beyond the classroom through hands-on projects and research and his students appreciate his approach to teaching which includes well organized lectures and an enthusiasm for the topics he teaches. "Teaching is his gift."

Heather Finch, BSCSS '22, is active in RSO’s such as Women in Computer Science (WiCS) and HusciiCoding club and she held a senator position at the campus level. She is a high achieving student and a great role model for the other students.

Lourdes Tolmich, MCL '22, has a long and successful career in information technology and cybersecurity ahead of her. She has exhibited professional behavior and a commitment to learning and success in her career, exceptional leadership skills, communication abilities and personal fortitude.

James Wedum, BSCSS/BSCES '22, represents multiple programs in SET. He is a motivated student who wants to work on assistive robotics in the future. He is starting a Ph.D. program in Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin Madison in the fall where he will continue to be a leader in his future education and future career.

Kumiko Dunn, BSCSS '22, is always prepared and asks intellectually stimulating questions. She puts in major effort in researching the background and learning technical skills for the project, and is a star in undergraduate research.

Since joining UWT as a graduate student in 2019, Sikha Pentyala, MSCSS '22, has truly excelled in her studies and research. She has turned every research project that she worked on into a success due to her exceptionally high level of creativity, intelligence, and ambition, combined with a level of professional maturity far above that of her peers.

Shishir Reddy, MSCSS '22, has demonstrated excellent proficiency in programming, bash, Docker, cloud computing, machine learning, data science and genomics workflows. In addition, he is very dedicated, motivated, intelligent, diligent, mature, responsible, and demonstrated excellent communication skills.