Congratulations to the winners of the 2023 Workers Excellence Awards, the Judith A. Pitney Workers Service Profession Award and the Workers-College Partnership Award!
Award recipients are chosen based mostly on their exemplary work or particular achievements. Particular person winners obtain $3,000 prize cash, and groups obtain $2,000 prize cash for every crew member.
Winners are acknowledged on the Michigan Engineering Workers Excellence Awards Program’s annual ceremony and reception, which might be held this yr on Might 25.
Merely put, our persons are the glue that holds every little thing collectively all through our establishment, mentioned Alec D. Gallimore, Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering, Richard F. and Eleanor A. Towner Professor, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and an aerospace engineering professor. Workers usually work behind the scenes and these awards are a welcome alternative to spotlight their vital contributions.
Private Excellence Award
Michelle Chapmann
Senior Supervisor of Analysis Administration, Electrical and Pc Engineering
Chapman is a longtime member of Electrical and Pc Engineering (ECE), with greater than 30 years of service within the division. As Analysis Supervisor, he supplies robust constituent help, meticulous consideration to compliance insurance policies, and inclusive and empathetic management with workers. He has helped develop university-wide insurance policies and procedures within the analysis area, saving the ECE Division and Michigan Engineering tens of hundreds of {dollars}. Chapman can be the Finance Administrator of the Engineering Training Analysis (EER) program. Beneath his management, the EER program is prospering and broadly revered amongst Michigan Engineering companions.
Brian Ebi
Lead Technician, College of Michigan Transportation Analysis Institute – Organic Sciences Group
Eby has 33 years of service within the Biosciences group on the College of Michigan Transportation Analysis Institute (UMTRI) and has contributed to the development and/or design of all the customized equipment and devices used of their analysis laboratories at the moment. His major function is the lead technician within the machine store, the place he serves as an skilled on all of the instruments within the store and has nice persistence in educating others about correct use and security. Eby is resourceful and might construct one thing that meets analysis wants with restricted path, time and price range, reusing supplies or utilizing scrap supplies in-house. His many skills have enabled the group to stay aggressive within the pursuit of recent and ongoing analysis funding.
Kate Kusiak Galvin
Senior Challenge Supervisor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Kusiak-Galvin supplies administration management for a number of multifaceted tasks within the Division of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), the place she has not solely superior the collective analysis and educating efforts, however has performed so by embracing the mission of the folks of Michigan Engineering and within the service of society. Kusiak-Galvin’s technical experience and mission administration expertise are unmatched and he or she has a confirmed observe file of driving analysis tasks to completion on time, on price range and to a excessive customary. In the summertime of 2022, he oversaw a large deployment of stormwater sensors throughout the state, collaborating with native stakeholders to allow, outline and deploy sensors that now underpin flood and high quality decision-making of the water. She can be expert at bringing folks collectively and fostering a way of group, notably amongst college students.
Dan Newmann
Communication specialist, robotics
Newman was instrumental within the profitable launch of the College’s new division and key to a few of their most vital initiatives. He was instrumental in creating landmark paperwork illustrating the rationale, significance, and potential influence of a robotics division for the Michigan College of Engineering and created distinctive 360-degree video and audio excursions of the Robotics Constructing. Newman has additionally been a frontrunner in robotics outreach efforts, creating and internet hosting GitHub websites for brand spanking new faculty school rooms accessible to each UM college students and companions at Morehouse and Spelman Schools, two Traditionally Black Schools or Universities (HBCUs) in Atlanta, in Georgia. This was a big step ahead within the departments’ efforts to broaden entry to robotics training and analysis.
Melanie Ordway
Recruiting Coordinator, Engineering Profession Useful resource Heart/Pupil Affairs Workplace
Ordways’ work on the Engineering Profession Useful resource Heart (ECRC) helps college students and employers to efficiently have interaction in campus recruiting actions. Present nice initiative and persistently exceed expectations with the standard of service supplied to college students and employers. Ordway has helped implement new processes as recruiting actions have modified to happen remotely and every semester creates step-by-step guides to assist all shoppers efficiently navigate recruiting occasions. She was integral to ECRC’s transition to a brand new profession companies platform in 2022 and continues to exhibit creativity by figuring out methods to enhance the system.
Julia Tashjian
Head of College Consulting, IT and Engineering workplace
Tashjian is a change administration chief: Throughout her first yr as college advisory workplace supervisor, she persistently recognized processes that might be overhauled, revamped, or eliminated altogether. She constructed new procedures round numerous advanced administrative duties to streamline and simplify work and created extra infrastructure round one explicit problem for enrollment in a division that comprises over 3,000 college students majoring in Pc Science, Information Science, and Engineering informatics. Tashjian additionally launched the drop-in counseling idea to CSE, which has been nicely acquired by college students who recognize having the ability to drop in and ask a fast query as a substitute of ready for an extended formal appointment.
Crew Award: College Robotics Program Crew
Kayla Dombrowski, College coordinator
Denise Edmondo, Graduate Coordinator
Christina Hollis, Government Secretary
Virginia Neel, Pupil Providers Administrative Assistant
Dombrowski, Edmund, Hollis and Neal had been instrumental in creating the brand new college robotics program, constructing a college program from the bottom up and discovering options the place no earlier fashions existed.
Every crew member made a big contribution to the mission and supported one another of their efforts:
- Dombrowski introduced the transient of data to life within the proposal by collaborating with the college chair and creating real-world procedures, whereas connecting the crew with the mandatory instruments and sources, comparable to a scheduler and consulting file.
- Edmund helped with the preliminary setup and scheduling of the course and supplied steering on the construction of this system to make sure it aligned with established values.
- Hollis labored to fill useful resource gaps and assisted with replacements and clearances, helped schedule very important conferences, and carried out the preliminary purchases essential to run the preliminary programs.
- Neal performed a key function in taking the proposal from draft to last model, together with last-minute revisions, to make sure approval by the college and regulatory our bodies.
Establishing the college’s first robotics program among the many high 10 engineering colleges was a significant achievement and positioned the Faculty on the forefront of this thrilling new discipline.
Judith A. Pitney Workers Service Lifetime Achievement Award
The Judith A. Pitney Workers Service Profession Award acknowledges the numerous contributions of a single Michigan Engineering workers member with a minimal of ten years service at Michigan Engineering. The award honors Judith Pitney, who served as Government Director of Useful resource Planning and Administration from 1992 to 2006, in recognition of the extraordinarily excessive requirements she has generated all through the Faculty.
Rebecca Smith
Director, Monetary Operations, Useful resource Planning and Administration
Smith is a frontrunner with a 17-year profession at Michigan Engineering. He has labored in finance, analysis administration, division administration and management roles throughout his tenure. You search to enhance the working lives and, by extension, the non-public lives of those that work with and for you by creating collaborative options to administrative and operational issues and fostering an inclusive and modern group of service. Smith made an influence by means of his capacity to see an operation by means of a lens that permits for higher effectivity and higher inner controls. His accomplishments throughout his tenure embody constructing from scratch the monetary construction of the Info Know-how and Engineering divisions, co-developing and main the Michigan Engineering Workers Telecommuting and Associated Assets (STARR) program, and redesigning the monetary platform of the models Engineering Administration.
Workers-faculty partnership award
In help of the school’s values, the Workers-College Partnership Award acknowledges college who accomplice with workers to assist foster a tradition of boldness, management and inclusiveness.
Michael P. Flynn
Professor, Fawwaz T Ulaby Collegiate Professor of Electrical and Pc Engineering and Professor of Electrical and Pc Engineering, EECS – Division of Electrical and Pc Engineering
Flynn has served as affiliate chair for graduate training, chair of college analysis, government committee member, and common college member within the Electrical and Pc Engineering (ECE) Division. He’s identified for his collaboration and can usually collaborate with workers to make sure departmental targets are achieved and to create a various, equitable and inclusive house for the scholars he advises. As a member of the ECE Local weather Strategic Activity Power, Flynn has been a continuing advocate for workers, striving to make sure there was understanding between college and workers on workload, work-life stability and deadlines, and advocating for a enhanced skilled growth for workers. As chair of college analysis, Flynn first urged a method to contain workers in college analysis. Candidates had been grateful for the knowledge supplied by workers and workers recognize that their suggestions on candidates is successfully considered when bidding.