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Gala Honors Six High Achievers
By
Erin D. McKenzie
Agrawal
Agrawal
Dennis
Dennis
Randall
Randall
Shieh
Shieh
Bueno
Bueno
Tran
Tran

Following a more than two decade old tradition, select University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering graduates were honored Friday at the 2010 Alumni Awards Gala.

This year’s event, which dates back to 1987, recognized six individuals not only for their contributions within the community, but also to the engineering profession. Honored were:

Durga Agrawal’s (1969 MSIE, 1974 PhD IE) accomplishments more than qualify him as the first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award. New this year, the award celebrates a person whose career has impacted their community, society and profession through demonstrated leadership, ingenuity and service.

Beyond serving as president and CEO of Piping Technology & Products Inc., and its four subsidiaries, Agrawal gives time to his community. At UH, he sits on a variety of boards and has established an endowed scholarship in the department of industrial engineering. He is also the founding president of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston and India House Inc. And last year, Gov. Rick Perry appointed him as a member of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Soon, Delvin Dennis (1980 BSCE) and John Randall’s (1975 BSEE, 1977 MSEE, 1981 PhDEE) portraits will join the 47 others hanging in the Hall of Distinction in Engineering Building One. The newest recipients of the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award, both were honored for their significant contributions to society.

A native of Houston, Dennis has spent his entire career with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). Though he’s held a variety of positions, for nearly two years he has served as district engineer where he overseas operations for the Houston District—the largest district in the state. He has held his professional engineer license for Texas since 1985.

Outside of TxDOT, he has served multiple terms as State President for the Texas Public Employees Association and is active with his church.

Throughout his career, Randall has brought to market leading nanotechnology products. Early on at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, he developed high-resolution techniques such as masked ion beam lithography. Later, it was quantum dot diodes, resonant tunneling transistors and a resonant tunneling integrated circuit at Texas Instruments. In total, Randall's work has earned him 24 patents and more than 1,400 publication citations.

Now the vice president of Zyvex Labs, he is developing atomically precise manufacturing.

Leang-San Shieh (1967 MSEE, 1970 PhD EE) is the 20th recipient of the Abraham E. Dukler Distinguished Engineering Faculty Award. Established in 1990, the award is named after the former dean of the Cullen College and recognizes a person that has made significant contributions to society and whose career has brought credit to the university.

Throughout close to three decades with the Cullen College, Shieh has been the faculty supervisor for more than 60 master’s students and the dissertation advisor for more than 30 doctoral students. He has co-authored more than 290 peer reviewed journal articles and earned more than 10 outstanding teaching awards—including the Flour Daniel Faculty Excellence Award, the highest given by the Cullen College.

Sheih is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UH. Since 1988, he has served as the director of the Computer and Systems Engineering Program.

Only 16 others have earned the Distinguished Young Engineering Alumnus Award prior to Carlos de Aldecoa Bueno (1997 BSIE). As president of Maximus Coffee Group and Cadeco Industries, Bueno has made coffee a big business in Houston.

He spearheaded an effort to amend the Texas constitution to exempt green coffee from inventory tax that once hindered industry growth—securing New York Board Trade designation for Houston as a green coffee and cocoa exchange port. He currently runs Cadeco Industries, the largest and most diversified independent bulk coffee processing facility in North America, and Maximus, North America’s largest integrated roasting, decaffeination, soluble and packaging facility.

Bueno has worked with community leaders to form the Greater Houston Coffee Association and serves as a board member for the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

The award recognizes those 40 and younger that have made significant contributions to society.

Tranh Tran (1995 MSEE, 2001 PhD EE) was honored as the first recipient of this year’s new Entrepreneur/Innovation Award. It is given to alumni who have accepted risk to pursue a venture that introduces new methods, techniques and technology into the industry.

An engineering manager at Texas Instruments, Tran has more than 25 years experience in audio, video, computer and communication systems design and application. He holds 22 patents and has published more than 20 contributed articles. Throughout his career, he has held design positions at Compaq, ReplayTV, Eagle Wireless Inc., Bose Corporation and Zenith Electronics Corp.

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