The Engineering Leadership and Entrepreneurism Program (ELEP), launched in the UH Cullen College of Engineering in Spring 2003, recently held its first Induction Ceremony and Jacket Investiture for students on Sept. 30.
David Cabello, senior partner of an intellectual property law firm that he helped establish and former senior vice president, general counsel and secretary for Compaq, addressed students at the ceremony. Cabello described how engineering graduates could be successful in the business world and their responsibilities as future leaders.
ELEP is one of only a handful of its kind in the country, and represents a recent trend toward incorporating business concepts into engineering programs. The program prepares engineering graduates to be more successful when assuming leadership roles in their companies and facing real-world business challenges. With the second program beginning in Fall 2003, there are now 46 students enrolled in the program.
An essential component of the program is the Mentor/Student Pairing, which matches an industry leader with a student. Current mentors include Bill Addington, Durga Agrawal (1969 MSIE, 1974 PhD IE), Brij Agrawal (1988 BSME), Charles Beyer (1972 BSCE, 1977 MCE), Rick Bowen, Terry Cheng (1970 BSEE, 1972 MSEE), Ty Eckley, William Fendley (1971 BSCE), Carlos Garcia (1997 BSChE), Ron Harrell, Robert Hawkins, Chuck Hendee, Rick Holdren, Kevin Hunt, Alok Jain, Larry Keast, Michael Lacy (1985 BSCE), Melvin Lesiker, Janet Peters, John Pothanikat (2001 BSChE), Allen Rhodes, Bill Rogers, Ashok Shah, Ravi Singhania and Dan Watkins.
The first students in the Engineering Leadership and Entrepreneurism Program include Nadia Aftab, Mazen Baltagi, Dirk Calderon, Hieu Cao, Sunil Chacko, Leonard Chandra, Rocco De Grazia, Michael Fatayergi, Kevin Helm, Oyindamola Johnson, Edward Jones, Torrey Leger, Daniel Lizmi, Keith Moreno, Adriana Murillo, Niraj Patel, Jonathan Richards, Joel Roberts, Jimena Santalla, Mary Saulog, Joel Severson, Marcha Thomas-Blades, Bret Thompson, David Warne and On-Na Yeung.
Fall 2003 Class: Abyar Aejaz, Kelechi Agim, Graham Bird, Bennie Cole, Shelley Daniel, Yassaman Ebrahimi, Mohamad Ghosn, Dhagash Joshi, Morolake Kuteyi, Hemang Makawane, Sabrina Meroniuc, Roxanna Mezquiti, Patricia Rushing, Nimit Shah, Sandeep Singh, Shilpa Singh, Gaurav Soni, Teang Ung, Lorena Vasquez, Amanda Wachel and Stephen Webb.