Wide array of profitable, rare programs offered at UH

In recent weeks Kaytie Curttright (2009 BSChE) has been settling into work as an engineer with Samsung Austin Semiconductors.

The position, which has her responsible for ensuring the quality of materials at the Austin-based manufacturing plant, is exactly the job Curttright had hoped for upon graduating from UH in May.

Scott T. Poage, emeritus professor and former chairman of the University of Houston Department of Industrial Engineering, passed away May 13, 2008 in Waco, Texas. He was 76.

Poage graduated from Texas Tech University with a Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering, received his Master of Science from Texas A&M University and doctoral degree from Oklahoma State University.

NSF grant will fund more than 30 students over the next five years

The University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering has won a $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to provide scholarships for students in the college’s accelerated B.S. to graduate degree program.

Hamid Parsaei, professor and chair of industrial engineering with the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering, recently received the UPS Award for Minority Advancement from the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE).

The award, which was presented at the group’s Annual Conference in May, is given “for innovative development of programs/products directed to the advancement of women, minorities or people with disabilities within the field of Industrial Engineering.”

When Yamile Cendales Jackson (2000 PhD IE) gave birth to her son Zachary, he was 12 weeks premature and weighed only one pound, 15 ounces. Now Zachary is a thriving four year old, and Jackson used her experience to develop a hand mimetic device, the Zaky, which is named after her son, to help premature babies and their mothers feel closer to each other.

There aren’t enough hours in the day for this year’s recipient of the University of Houston’s George Magner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Academic Advising.

Christopher Chung, associate professor of industrial engineering (IE), couldn’t feel more honored for this recognition of his efforts outside the classroom.

While engineers with a background in elementary education are not ordinary or plentiful, the 2001 scholarship committee still named Rebecca Ginsburg as the first winner of the John Lienhard “Engines of Our Ingenuity” Scholarship Endowment. Ginsburg’s unique situation is one that corresponded with the scholarship committee’s quest for a creative thinker, and with a description of creativity shaped by John Lienhard, M.D.

An interdisciplinary team of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering students from the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering placed third in the 2003 American Society of Mechanical Engineers Design Competition.

Members of the winning group are Paul Sommerfield, Marcos Flores, and Jamie Suarez, senior mechanical engineering students, and Robert Whitaker, a senior industrial engineering student.

University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering students Dimple Pajwani and Monica Greak were recognized as outstanding engineering students by the Texas Society of Professional Engineers during their annual Outstanding Students Engineers Week ceremony at the UH Hilton Hotel.