Student Awarded in WSE Paper Competition

Results of the 2004 Young Engineer Prize (YEP) College Student Paper Competition conducted by WSE, the Washington Society of Engineers

1. WSE/YEP Undergraduate First Prize

WSE Award Certificate and $500.00 Check for the paper: "Effect of Electrode Shape, Length, and Spacing on Ion Wind Propulsive Efficiency for Micro Air Vehicle Applications" by Benjamin Berry, a Senior in Aerospace Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park

2. WSE/YEP Undergraduate Second Prize

WSE Award Certificate and $350.00 Check for the paper: "Brittle Cellular Materials: Potential Application in Seismic Hazard Reduction of Buildings" by David Nerbun, an Undergraduate in Civil Engineering, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC

3. WSE/YEP Undergraduate Third Prize

WSE Award Certificate and $150.00 Check for the paper: "Use of Image Analysis in Determination of Strain Distribution During Geosynthetic Tensile Testing" by Rita Sparacino, a Senior in Civil Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park

In addition to the above place awards, WSE Certificates of Honorable Mention will be awarded for these two papers: "Finite Element Analysis for Actuator with MSM Material" by Ran Chang, an Undergraduate in Electrical and Computer Engineering, UMD/CP "Organic Polymer-Coated Iron Oxide Nanoparticles: Synthesis and Growth Studies for in vitro Biomedical Applications" by Katie Gold, a Senior in Biological Resources Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park

"Blind" copies of the ten papers, that were submitted to WSE from 4 local Engineering Schools, were read, evaluated, and ranked by a panel of 3 WSE Judges comprising Dr Nahid Khoziemeh, Frank Winfield, P.E., and Dr Issa Khozeimeh, P.E., and Bob Efimba, Sc.D., P.E., WSE Past President and Chair of the Education Committee, served as non-voting Chair of the WSE panel of Judges.

Published February 13, 2004