IEEE Orlando Section Honors Eight Section Members at 2015 Awards Banquet

by Mike Orlovsky, 2015 IEEE Orlando Section Awards Chair

The awards program is an important activity in the IEEE. It provides the approach to recognize the efforts of members to improve our organization, and to bring merit to our profession. Section awards are presented to recognize deserving members of our local community. The Section each year forwards our award recipients names and citations upwards to the IEEE Florida Council, IEEE Region 3, and IEEE-USA Awards Programs. We also forward the award recipients to the Florida Engineering Society for consideration in their awards program that coincides with Engineers Week in February 2016. We encourage all members to nominate candidates for appropriate awards.

The Orlando Section awards six awards. OUTSTANDING SERVICE, OUTSTANDING ENGINEER, OUTSTANDING ENGINEERING EDUCATOR, and OUTSTANDING ENTREPRENEUR, and two parallel student awards for OUTSTANDING GRADUATE STUDENT and OUTSTANDING UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT. The Orlando Section also awards one year Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarships.

This year we will make three awards one each for OUTSTANDING ENGINEER, OUTSTANDING ENTREPRENEUR, and OUTSTANDING GRADUATE STUDENT, plus five Graduate/Undergraduate Scholarships.

Our first award is OUTSTANDING ENGINEER. This award recognizes superior professional and technical achievements within the IEEE and to the Engineering Profession.

 The Outstanding Engineer is awarded Dr. Scott Clary, Senior Member of the IEEE, Electromechanical Engineering Manager for LM MFC BSME, BS Business Management from UCF, MS Engineering Management and MS Management of Technology from Florida Institute of Technology, Ph.D in Operations Research from FIT. Dr. Clary’s innovations in the areas of electronics packaging and process improvement have resulted in enhanced reliability and improved cost effectiveness of several aerospace products. He is also involved in a variety of engineering-related community service endeavors where he volunteers his time to support activities such as science fairs (ISEF), national quality awards (Malcolm Baldrige), and college program accreditation (ABET).

Our next award is OUTSTANDING ENTREPRENEUR. This award recognizes a self-employed member of IEEE Orlando Section who, through his/her consulting abilities has made outstanding contributions to the electro-technology profession.

The Outstanding Entrepreneur is awarded to Dr. Mohammad Umar Priacha (Phonetic - "Peracha") Member of the IEEE BS Engineering Science for the GIK Institute MSEE from USC MS Optical Science and PhD in EE from UCF. Dr. Priacha joined FAZ technology as employee 1 as part of the UCF Incubator. He cofounded Multicore Photonics that is developing high temperature sensors. He has five patents, one pending patent, seven invention disclosures, ten published papers, and twenty-one conference publications. He has been treasurer of the IEEE Photonic Society and a reviewer for the IEEE Photonic Journal. Recommend Dr. Priacha for Senor Membership in the IEEE.

Our next award is OUTSTANDING GRADUATE STUDENT. This award recognizes graduate academic accomplishments in the area of studies, research, and professional contribution that benefits the engineering profession.

The Outstanding Graduate Student is awarded to Daming Xu Graduate Student Member Daming is studying under the guidance of Dr. Shin-Tson Wu and the UCF College of Optics and Photonics Daming is a truly outstanding engineering graduate student. He has authored a book chapter, 22 journal publications, and 13 conference papers. He has served as an invited speaker at 2015 Photonics West. He won SID distinguished student paper awards three years in a row. The selection process is very competitive. This May, Daming won SPIE DJ Lovell scholarship; the highest student award SPIE can offer. Meanwhile, he is also actively engaged in society services. He is a rising star in the field of optics and photonics and we are privileged to have him at UCF and contributing the technology base in Central Florida. Daming Xu is honored to receive the award but was unable to attend. He is celebrating his marriage and is on honeymoon in China. Fellow graduate student Guanjuan Tan and Jiamin Yuan will pick up the award.

The Orlando Section presents Undergraduate / Graduate Scholarship Awards each calendar year to student members in good standing, currently enrolled as undergraduate / graduate student in an engineering program located in Orlando Section's 5 county (central Florida) area as well as at time of the award. Successful candidates show strong potential for significant impact in the academic and engineering profession as a thought leader, developer of ground breaking research, or creator of revolutionary technology.

We will award two Graduate Student Scholarships this year.

Daming Xu
Graduate Student Scholarship Award
Graduate Student Member
Student at UCF
Studying Optics and Photonics

Ricardo Lovato
Graduate Student Scholarship Award
Graduate Student Member
Student at UCF
Studying Electrical Engineering

Undergraduate Student Scholarships
First time in quite awhile and nice to see the renewed interest at the undergraduate level.
Three awards this evening.

Johnathon DeFour
Student Member
Student at Valencia College
Studying Electrical & Computer Engineering Technology

Emanuel Montanez
Student Member
Student at Valencia College
Studying Electrical and Electronic Systems

Akash Jinandra
Student Member
Student at University of Central Florida
Studying Electrical and Computer Engineering

We also recognize the awards review and scholarship review committees. As usual during the awards and scholarship nominating process, this year's committees had before them a much larger number of qualified candidates than there were available awards and scholarships. This is a terrific sign of active professional and academic communities but it is also a situation that inevitably results in the committee’s inability to select many great candidates. We wish the candidates not selected for awards this year continued success in their research, academic, and professional careers.

Michael C. Orlovsky, SM-IEEE
Junior Past Chair, IEEE Orlando Section
2014 Awards Chair, IEEE Orlando Section
Chapter Chair, AESS Orlando Section
Region 3 Representative, IEEE-USA Committee on Transportation and Aerospace Policy
410.979.0476 (Cell)
407.909.0956 (Home)
mcorlovsky@ieee.org

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