Student Highlights

Shelby Wales

GOLDWATER SCHOLAR

Auburn Engineering senior Shelby Wales was named a Barry M. Goldwater Scholar, an honor bestowed on only 410 students nationwide in 2021. The scholarship is widely considered the most prestigious award in the United States for undergraduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Wales, originally from Sylacauga, Alabama, is majoring in chemical engineering and minoring in supply chain management. Wales was chosen from a field of more than 5,000 college students.

Her research investigates different pathways of implementing 3D printing to investigate geochemical reactions. Wales hopes that by producing 3D printing models of real rock structures that possess the same reactive properties, further insight may be obtained about the geochemical reactions that occur in conjunction with carbon capture and sequestration.

“I think the community of Goldwater Scholars I have already been connected to will be immensely helpful as I continue learning and begin my career,” Wales said. “I am incredibly honored to have been selected for this scholarship, and I hope it will put me in a position to continue doing work I enjoy with incredible people.”

Wales noted that assistant professor Lauren Beckingham in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering has supported her research interests and personal academic journey from the time Wales joined Beckingham’s research group in spring 2019.

“The open, collaborative environment fostered in our research group has been formative toward my perception of the value of scientific research,” Wales said.

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship Program was established to provide scholarships to outstanding students who intend to pursue careers in mathematics, natural sciences and engineering. Each scholarship covers eligible expenses up to a maximum of $7,500 annually for undergraduate tuition, fees, books and housing.

STUDENT

HIGHLIGHTS

Nathan Adkins, a junior majoring in aerospace engineering and minoring in computer science, was awarded the German Academic Exchange Service Scholarship, or DAAD Rise, to attend Furtwangen University in Tuttlingen, Germany.

Industrial and systems engineering seniors Caroline Allen, Annie Dorsey and Anne Curtis Giovanelli were the winners of the Southeast Regional Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers’ Technical Paper Competition.

The student chapter of the American Concrete Institute was awarded an Excellent University Award in the 2021 ACI Awards for University Student Activities. This is the sixth year in a row the student organization has earned ACI’s highest university honor.

The Autonomous Tiger Racing team placed in the top 3 among all university teams in the first three rounds of competition of the Indy Autonomous Challenge. The first rounds have included white papers, performance of passenger vehicles and race simulations ahead of the official race Oct. 23, 2021.

Industrial and systems engineering doctoral students Allison Brown and Mohsen Nikfar place second in a national 3D design competition hosted by Physna, a Cincinnati-based technology startup, for their design, Space Shuttle Launch.

Four Auburn Engineering students were chosen to partner with fellows at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution in conducting research and initiatives for the Alabama Innovation Corporation. The students are industrial and systems engineering senior Madeline Ellison, electrical engineering senior Shivam Patel, chemical engineering senior Emily Schramek and mechanical engineering junior Daniel “Trey” Sims.

Listen to our podcasts with Andrew McGehee, Emily Schramek, Shelby Wales and Zac Young and learn about the American Concrete Institute and Autonomous Tiger Racing at

eng.auburn.edu/ginning.

Christian Fauer, a senior in mechanical engineering, received the Duane Hanson Scholarship presented by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning as one of only seven $5,000 scholarship winners awarded by ASHRAE each year.

Recent graduates Bryana Harris, ’19 chemical engineering, Elizabeth M. Prior, ’19 civil engineering, and Tyler Toner, ’19 mechanical engineering, were awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

Andrew McGehee, a senior in software engineering, won the Best Poster Award in the 11th ACM Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology and Health Informatics for the poster “PolyFold: an interactive visual simulator for distance-based protein folding.” Fellow students Sutanu Bhattacharya and Rahmatullah Roche and computer and software engineering assistant professor Debswapna Bhattacharya were collaborators.

Pooriya Nezhadfar, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering, won the best student presentation, beating out more than 55 other students, at the 2020 ASTM International Conference on Additive Manufacturing.

Michael Norwood, a senior majoring in computer science and minoring in Asian studies, was awarded a Critical Language Scholarship from the U.S. Department of State to undergo study of the Japanese language.

Aerospace engineering doctoral student Roberto Perera and aerospace engineering sophmore Lila Saunders were awarded the Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship from the Department of Defense.

Zac Young, a senior in mechanical engineering, won the concept stage competition and a $25,000 prize in the Alabama Launchpad startup competition sponsored by the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama for his business idea called the Wave Timer, a small device that measures sag, tension and the temperature of power lines in a matter of seconds. As owner of Vulcan Line Tools, Young also won Auburn University’s 2021 Tiger Cage Business Idea Competition and the 2020 virtual Southeastern Conference Pitch Competition.

STARTUP SUPER STARS

Mit Patel and Daniel Mazur, seniors in mechanical engineering, recently won the Grand Prize in the 2021 Rice Business Plan Competition, the world’s largest and richest student startup competition.

The duo took home several awards, including the Business Angel Minority Association Investment Prize, and almost $450,000 in cash and in-kind prizes. Patel and Mazur beat out 53 other student startups, including teams from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

The two are among the first occupants of Auburn University’s New Venture Accelerator, where more than 8,000 square feet of office space is dedicated to fostering student startups.

Mit Patel (left) and Daniel Mazur

Patel and Mazur are co-founders of SwiftSku, a scan data solution that leverages business intelligence and machine learning for independent convenience stores.

SwiftSku is no stranger to pitching before judges. In 2020, the startup captured Auburn University’s annual Tiger Cage Student Business Plan Competition and secured $25,000 in capital funding.

The duo also recently took third place in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) U.S. University Startup Competition, earning up to $100,000 in AWS credits and $5,000 in cash. The AWS U.S. University Startup Competition is one of the premier student events of its kind in the country.

“We were delighted to see an Auburn student-team place third in this prestigious national competition,” said Lou Bifano, director of Entrepreneurship Strategy at Auburn University. “Mit and Daniel are bringing an exciting data analytics service to market for independent convenience store owners. They will be able to put their AWS winnings to good use.”