Undergrad Student Awards

Andrew Gangstad received the Purdue G.A. Ross Award.

The 2024 G.A. Ross Award is presented annually to just one outstanding senior in honor of their contributions to Purdue University. 

Gangstad will receive a $2,000 award, medallion and his name permanently inscribed on the award marker in the Purdue Engineering Mall.

Dean Stornello received the Bruce Helfert Memorial Award

This award is given each year to an outstanding junior in the College of Engineering to recognize the student’s academic excellence and demonstrated social concern. The Helfert Family established the Bruce Helfert Memorial Award in memory of their son Bruce, a physician, who graduated from Purdue’s College of Science in 1964. Stornello was nominated for this scholarship by Professor Sherry Harbin for his leadership skills, work ethic, curiosity and independence.

“There is absolutely no question in my mind that he will achieve his dream of becoming a physician-engineer, where he can continue to make significant contributions to the engineering-medicine community and positively impact society,” shared Harbin.

Kyle Heaton and Sarah Staller received the Havel-Decker Outstanding Biomedical Engineering Junior

The Havel-Decker Scholarship was established in 2005 by the Decker family in honor of their daughter Emily and her husband Bill Havel, both Purdue graduates. Bill is a graduate of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Emily is a graduate of the School of Agriculture. The Havel-Decker Biomedical Engineering Scholars are selected based on outstanding achievement in academics, scholarly research and service to Purdue University and the community.

Joshua Sexton and Winston Ngo received the Haselby Outstanding Biomedical Engineering Senior

This prestigious award is given to the student, or students, who exemplify the Weldon School values of Scholarship, Leadership, Service and Character.

Matthew Margraf and Sarah Staller received the Grubbs Summer Fellowship

Awarded to an undergraduate engineering student to support a summer of research training in biomedical engineering. Established in 1996 by David S. Grubbs and joined by Stephen, his brother in 2001. Both David and Stephen Grubbs received their BS degrees in Chemical Engineering. David received his MS in Mechanical Engineering. Both are now MDs; David is a cardiologist and Stephen is an oncologist. Both found that a summer of research training in biomedical engineering was the most valuable and instructive event in their time at Purdue and they wanted other undergraduate engineers to have the same experience.

Owen Jones and Nicole Nagel received the Weldon Senior Class Scholarship

The inaugural BME undergraduate Senior Class of 2007 established this scholarship to honor Junior BME students who exhibit outstanding service to the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University and the greater community.   

Deniz Eksioglu, Kara McCrindle, Nathan Petrucci and Samantha Stebbings receive the Charles Wayne Sullivan Scholarship.

The scholarship is awarded to rising Juniors who have just completed a successful Sophmore year. This scholarship aims to recognize and support students who have demonstrated exceptional scholastic achievement and hold promising potential for future academic success.

Grubbs Undergraduate Research Scholarship

Students who have successfully fulfilled the requirements of BME 498 and have further showcased their research findings by presenting at a recognized conference receive this award. This reward serves as a recognition of their scholarly achievements and contributions to the field of Biomedical Engineering.

Noah Jasinkiewicz

Aavya Srivastava

Molly Dye

Shiv Shukla

Samantha Campbell

Aaron Coppeta

Sarah Grev

Jean-Paul Pertuit

Dalton Aaker

Tyler Merrill

Undergraduate Teaching Awards

Joshua Sexton – Student Choice Award for Undergraduate Teaching

A few words from some of his nominators: Josh Sexton is an outstanding gentleman who helps so many students. He is always willing to help, is extremely knowledgeable about the class projects and stays after resource room hours to make sure everyone gets their questions answered. He often draws out diagrams and prepares examples to ensure students fully understand the material. He goes out of his way to make sure you know you can email him if you need anything.

Arden Shen – Innovative Approaches to Undergraduate Teaching Award

Arden Shen was critical in the success of BME 460 by scheduling and expanding clinical shadowing for 26 students. She worked closely with our IU Health Methodist Hospital partners to ensure paperwork was completed, students knew where to go and feedback was collected. From the outset of her work as an undergraduate TA, Shen demonstrated a remarkable ability to work with patients, healthcare professionals and her fellow students. Her empathy and emotional intelligence allowed her to build strong rapport, putting patients at ease and facilitating open communication. Shen possesses a genuine desire to understand each student's unique experiences and was organized enough to make sure they had experiences in the clinic that were most beneficial.

Kunlun Wang – Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award

Kunlun Wang's dedication, expertise and exceptional teaching skills have significantly enriched the students' learning experience in BME 366. Throughout the semester, Wang led technical lectures that effectively simplified complex applications of machine learning algorithms to multi-omic data associated with human disease. Wang's ability to provide real-world applications from human datasets and discuss the procedures for pre-processing data demonstrated a deep understanding of the subject matter. Wang's innovative approach to reducing the matrix size of gene expression data makes it more accessible for students to run code on published databases. Moreover, Wang’s provision of example codes in MatLab, Python and R played a crucial role in guiding students by offering practical solutions and lowering the coding challenges and troubleshooting barrier.

Graduate Student Awards

Elnaz Ghajar-Rahimi received the Bilsland Dissertation Fellowship.

Bilsland Dissertation Fellowship is awarded by departments and colleges to PhD students who will enter the final year of their program. Recipients are expected to devote full-time effort to completing all requirements necessary to receive their doctoral degree after the year of funding. 

Barrett Davis and Zachary Davis received Graduate School Summer Research Grants.

Graduate School Summer Research Grants are designed to provide research support for doctoral students who served exclusively as teachers in the two preceding academic semesters.  

Aditya Shangavi, Emilee Madsen, Ankit Shah and Folk Narongrit received Lamp Graduate Scholarships for Excellence in Teaching.

The Lamp Award is presented to graduate students for excellence in teaching and always going above and beyond in educating future biomedical engineers.

Brock Beauclair received the Teaching Academy Graduate Teaching Award.

This award honors graduate students with teaching responsibilities from across campus for their dedication to Purdue students and outstanding teaching contributions. Recipients are selected by each academic department for their commitment to undergraduate education. The Graduate Teaching Award is sponsored by the Teaching Academy and the Office of the Provost.

Scott Malloy and Victoria Sinfield received the Magoon Award for Excellence in Teaching.

The Magoon Award for Excellence in Teaching is given to outstanding teaching assistants in memory of Estus H. and Vashti L. Magoon who have influenced the lives of many engineering educators early in their careers through this award.

Seokkyoon Hong received the Outstanding Research Award.

The Outstanding Research Award goes to students who have demonstrated excellence and leadership in research through publications, participation in professional organizations, and willingness to mentor others.

Juan Mesa received the Outstanding Service Scholarship.

This scholarship is presented to engineering graduate students who have provided outstanding service to the graduate student community, the School, the College and/or the University.

Ana Claure Dips received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions.

Fellows are anticipated to become knowledge experts who can contribute significantly to research, teaching, and innovations in science and engineering.

Haripriya (Priya) Sakthivel becomes a Draper Scholar

Draper Scholars conduct research and apply it to real-world challenges in space systems, biotechnology systems, electronic systems and strategic systems, under the guidance of a Draper supervisor and a supervisor from Purdue.

Draper Scholars have access not only to Draper facilities but also can tap into the broad wealth of knowledge of Draper’s talented staff. A multidisciplinary team pursues a systems approach to problem-solving collaboratively.

Draper works to have a cohesive learning environment to help scholars grow into the next generation of innovators. Scholars and supervisors meet on a regular cadence to ensure scholars are on the right track and receiving the right type of support.

Faculty Awards

None of these awards happen without great mentors' hard work and dedication.

Taimoor Hassan Qazi received the Outstanding Mentor of Engineering Award.

The Outstanding Mentor of Engineering Graduate Students is given to faculty by students in each School of Engineering in recognition of the exceptional mentoring qualities he or she demonstrates.

Asem Aboelzahab received the Sandra K. Monroe Award.

The Sandra K. Monroe Excellence in Student Services Award is given annually to one student-facing professional for their policy advocacy and/or exemplary service to students.

Tamara Kinzer-Ursem received the Dean H.T. Yang Faculty Excellence Award for Leadership in Service.

The Dean H.T. Yang Faculty Excellence in Award for Leadership in Service is an award that recognizes faculty for their excellence in internal service that has a significant positive impact within Purdue Engineering.

Jacqueline Linnes received the Faculty Excellence Award for Graduate Student Mentorship.

The Faculty Excellence Award for Graduate Student Mentorship is an award that recognizes a faculty member in the College of Engineering for excellence in the mentoring of graduate students.

Congratulations to all our winners!