Waas, a rising senior, won the scholarship for the 2017-18 academic year. "I was delighted to hear that I had won the scholarship," she said. "It is scholarships like these that enable me to attend Purdue and be a part of organizations such as IISE. I'd like to thank IISE for the consideration and Steve Duket [Purdue IISE Advisor] for the nomination."

The Dwight D. Gardner Scholarship is awarded to qualified industrial engineering undergraduate students enrolled in any school in the United States and its territories, Canada, and Mexico, provided the school's engineering program or equivalent is accredited by an agency recognized by IISE.

Another IE rising senior, Nick Perkins, won first place in February at the IISE Great Lakes Regional Conference in the Technical Paper Competition for "An Automation Tool for Long-range Capacity Reports", and was a finalist at the national conference in May.