Out of over 150 nominations, PhD candidate Maria Eugenia Cabrera and PhD student Maithilee Motlag both received honorable mentions for the award.

Cabrera's advisor, Juan Wachs, associate professor in industrial engineering, and peers from the ISAT lab in which she works nominated her. Motlag (SNMN Lab) was nominated by students she mentored when she served as an Academic Mentor for the Minority Engineering Program and as an Academic Consultant for the Academic Success Center, and also by her IE 590 students. They were honored at a banquet on May 7.

Cabrera also recently won the 2018 Outstanding Research Award for Industrial Engineering from the College of Engineering.