Purdue Engineering names 11 Dean's Leadership Scholars
The Dean's Leadership Scholars, within Purdue University's College of Engineering, recognizes and nurtures the talents of a group of undergraduate students. Established in 2019, the program selects students based on academic and leadership accomplishments to serve in an external advisory role to the dean. This year, 11 new students were selected for the 2024-2025 cohort, joining nine existing scholars.
Bringing together some of our outstanding undergraduate engineering student leaders to help shape our strategic priorities is the goal of the Dean's Leadership Scholars, said Arvind Raman, the John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering. Their insights are instrumental in driving forward the colleges initiatives and making a substantial impact in the broader engineering community.
The role of a Dean's Leadership Scholar extends beyond the traditional boundaries of a student. Meeting with the dean two to four times annually, the scholars serve as a high-level sounding board, offering critical insights and feedback on various college initiatives, including the dean's Vision 2030, Purdue Engineering's strategic plan to make Purdue the most consequential engineering college in the nation. Additionally, students have the distinctive opportunity to interact with the Engineering Advisory Council and meet distinguished alumni and industry leaders.
These are the newest cohort of Dean's Leadership Scholars:
Haddy Alchaer
Senior, Computer Engineering
As president of the Autonomous Robotics Club (ARC) of Purdue, Alchaer has propelled the club to over 150 active students, making it the university's largest robotics student organization focused on advanced robotics research. He organized the inaugural Robotics and Intelligence Systems Expo (RISE), attracting over 200 students in a showcase of cutting-edge robotics research from all of Purdue.
He is the co-founder of VidLabs.ai, a successful AI software startup, that won funding from Purdue and Microsoft to develop industry-level generative AI cloud software. His research explores the intersection of machine learning, quantum computing and robotics as well as the real-world applications that emerge as a result. Currently Alchaer is optimizing content creation software for one of the largest content monopolies on TikTok.
He was named in 2021 as a U.S. Presidential Scholar by the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars.
Atharva Awasthi
Junior, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering
Awasthi is president of the Purdue Space Program, a 500-member interdisciplinary student organization within the Purdue chapter of Students for the Discovery and Exploration of Space (SEDS). In addition, he is an undergraduate research assistant in Purdue's Center for Integrated Systems in Aerospace (CISA) Laboratory and interned with Johnson & Johnson, where he led a team of interns in a new AI initiative and designed a robotic arm for a new product aimed to increase manufacturing capabilities using Siemens NX. He is currently a space operations intern at Comprehensive Space Operations Center (ComSpOC), whose mission is to deliver systems that advance knowledge of the space domain.
In high school, Awasthi and his friends started a free chemistry tutoring circle that expanded into a 401c3 nonprofit called For Young By Young.
Zazeric (Zaz) Bell
Senior, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering
Bell became part of EPIC's learning community where he was elected by his peers to be the Design Lead on a collaboration with Lafayette Habitat for Humanity to optimize profits at their ReStore location.
He served as the manufacturing technical lead for the Purdue Aerial Robotics Team (PART) managing the airframes manufacturability as well as the organization's safety and organization during the manufacturing and design phase. That led to his current position as PART's Business Management Division Lead. In this role, membership is open to any student seeking a hands-on learning opportunity and has increased by nearly 300%. He is also a member of the Purdue Engineering Presidents' Council (PEPC), an organization of engineering presidents working together to support engineering and technical organizations on campus.
Kathryn Bingenheimer
Senior, Chemical Engineering
Bingenheimer has held numerous positions with Purdue Engineering organizations beginning in her freshman year when she served as a member of the Undergraduate Research Committee helping to plan events aimed at getting undergraduate students involved in research. In her sophomore year, she served as a Davidson School of Chemical Engineering Ambassador and operations director of the Purdue Society of Women Engineers (PSWE). She continued her leadership and service within PSWE as vice president of external relations where she expanded corporate sponsorship of the club and increased connections with corporate partners.
This past year she joined the Purdue College of Engineering Ambassadors where she shared her perspective as a student with numerous alumni and industry partners.
Paige Bryan
Sophomore, Mechanical Engineering
Bryan is an active member of the Purdue Engineering Student Council (PESC) taking on the role of public relations coordinator within the Industrial Roundtable (IR) Committee. Her primary responsibilities include managing the IR scholarship that is awarded to undergraduate engineering students who display exceptional work ethic and promise. In her role, she reaches out to judges, writes applications and markets opportunities to fellow students. She also oversees planning IR Prep Week, which includes several events designed to better prepare students for the career fair.
In addition, she is an industrial relations associate for Purdue's Chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) working to establish partnerships between Purdue and leaders in the industry and has been active with Purdue's Society of Women Engineers (SWE). Bryan also volunteers at BoilerMAKER Labs helping students and community members with 3D printing and design software.
Addison Clauss
Senior, Industrial Engineering
Clauss has held multiple roles with the Purdue Engineering Student Council (PESC) and currently serves as vice president overseeing the seven committee heads and all major events held by the council. She has implemented a new archiving system, ensuring continuous improvement for all council events in the future. In addition, she served on a faculty search committee for the hiring of a director for the CARES Hub, a student wellness initiative for Purdues College of Engineering established by PESC.
She currently serves as one of two representatives for the School of Industrial Engineering for Purdue's College of Engineering Ambassadors program and is employed by the Women in Engineering Program as a peer tutor.
Catherine Clisham
Senior, Industrial Engineering
Clisham is vice president of programs on the Executive Board of Purdue Alumni Student Experience (PASE) where she applies her skills as an industrial engineer to allocate volunteers, money and other resources to ensure events occur on time and on budget. She has taken on the role of mentor where she led six Industrial Engineering students and, through the Purdue Society of Women Engineers, she mentored a freshman in engineering providing guidance as she transitions to her desired major.
In December, Clisham completed her initiation into the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society signifying her standing within the top 1/8th of students in her class.
Robert Dalton
Senior, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering
During his time at Purdue, Dalton has been involved in Pi Kappa Phi, Purdue Orbital and the Purdue Space Program. As a leader in Pi Kappa Phi, he has served as treasurer, membership development chair and academic chair. As treasurer, he was responsible for managing over half a million dollars ensuring a good quality of living for 55 members living in the house and a good fraternity experience for the 100 who lived elsewhere. As membership development chair, he has provided bi-weekly learning sessions for members to improve their professional documents and profiles. And as academic chair, he helped members who did not meet the minimum GPA requirement to upgrade their study habits and skills. As a result, 10 out of 16 members on probation achieved their target GPA.
Working with Purdue Orbital, Dalton was responsible for designing a test stand to withhold 550 lbs. of thrust from their motor, and as a fluids systems engineer with the Purdue Space Program, he worked on the lower plumbing system of the PSP Liquids rocket named CraterMakerSpecial (CMS) at Zucrow Laboratories.
Karina Kejriwal
Junior, Industrial Engineering
As a project manager and consultant with Scope Consulting, Kejriwal leads a group of consultants who work with clients from the Lafayette area on a project related to business intelligence. Her responsibility is to advise, delegate tasks and offer feedback to the team regarding their project output and presentation skills.
She also serves as director of communications for Purdue Student Government (PSG) where she works alongside other PSG members on social media and marketing for campus wide relations. In addition, she is working with Thermo Fisher Scientific-US on a data science-based project for one of their capacity centers.
Jessica Mu
Senior, Electrical Engineering
Mu is president of the Purdue Student Engineering Foundation (PSEF), the college's largest outreach organization to prospective students. She represents the organization in external affairs with the Office of Future Engineers (OFE) to boost prospective student interest, applications and yield. In 2023, she served as the industrial relations committee director for PSEF as the primary liaison between PSEF's industry partners and alumni network.
Since January 2024, she has served as co-president of the Purdue Engineering Presidents' Council (PEPC) alongside the Purdue Engineering Student Council president. She has led the planning of E-Week 2024 and discussions about the integration of Purdue Indianapolis students into engineering student organizations in West Lafayette. In addition, she serves as president of the Purdue Equestrian Team, where she serves a similar advisory role between the Agriculture Department to organize funding, logistics and care for our team and its horses.
The nine existing scholars are Luke Ford, Maitri Pandya, Sajon Seaberg and Olan Sodunke, all seniors studying mechanical engineering; Aditya Arjun Anibha, a computer engineering senior; Ronith Dasari, a biomedical engineering senior, and Evan Rittner, a 2024 graduate in aeronautical and astronautical engineering; and juniors Amareah Bead, Erin Blasingame and Kaltra Woltz majoring in civil engineering, aeronautical and astronautical engineering and civil engineering, respectively.