The Woodruff School is pleased to announce that four individuals will represent Mechanical Engineering as they receive recognition at the Sigma Xi Spring Awards Banquet on April 21.

Associate Professor Baratunde Cola has been selected to receive the "Best Faculty Paper" award. In addition, graduate students Guillermo Amador (advisor David Hu) and Alireza Mahdavifar (advisor Peter Hesketh) have been selected to receive "Best PhD. Thesis" awards. Lastly, graduate student David Reilly (advisor Devesh Ranjan) will receive the "Best Master's Thesis" award.

The Woodruff School is deeply saddened to hear that alumnus James Chambers died tragically in a house fire on March 13. Dr. Chambers who received both his bachelor's and Ph.D. degrees from the Woodruff School, was the associate dean for research and graduate programs in the School of Engineering at the University of Mississippi. 

The University of Mississippi released the statements below:

Dr. Robin Murphy, who received her undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech in 1980, as well as M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science, was recently named one of 30 most innovative women professors alive today by Best Master's Degrees (bestmastersdegrees.com). Dr. Murphy, the Raytheon Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, studies the relationship between humans and robots.