The annual Chancellor’s Honors Banquet is a showcase of the best and brightest at the University of Tennessee, and the 2014 edition proved to be quite a night for students and faculty of the College of Engineering.

James McConnell Professor and associate head of the Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) Syed Kamrul Islam took home the Alexander Prize, named for former UT president and current US Senator Lamar Alexander and his wife, Honey. It recognizes excellence in teaching and research, and is only given to one faculty member across the entire campus each year.

Also on the faculty side, and also in the EECS department, associate professor Bruce MacLennan received an Alumni Outstanding Teacher award, given by the UT Alumni Association to those who best exemplify teaching excellence.

Another James McConnell Professor in the EECS department, Aly Fathy, took home the Excellence in Graduate Mentoring and Advising, given to graduate advisors and faculty members who have distinguished themselves as being highly committed to the advising and mentoring of graduate students.

The college had three faculty members win Research and Creative Achievement awards as Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering professor Lee Han took one award for his research into transportation safety, EECS professor Michael Langston won one for his work advancing high-performance computing and related applications, and Department of Nuclear Engineering assistant professor and UCOR Faculty Fellow Jason Hayward earned a Professional Promise award for the research into nuclear safety, arms control and nonproliferation.

Another EECS spotlight came when the Success in Multidisciplinary Research award went to the Infant-Inspired Robotic Systems team, which includes MacLennan, associate professor Itamar Arel and professor Lynne Parker as members, along with two faculty members from psychology.

The National Society of Black Engineers chapter—recently named the top chapter in the country at its annual conference—was the only group on campus to win an Extraordinary Community Service award, given for their efforts in reaching out to schools and children in an effort to generate interest in engineering-related activities.

Elsewhere on the student side, Vols’ swimmer Carl Svagerko, a Materials Science and Engineering major, won a Scholar Athlete Award. A participant in fly and freestyle events, Svagerko was a two-time SEC Academic Honor Roll member during his two years at UT.

Yi Ying Chin, of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Joseph R. Creekmore, a Materials Science and Engineering major, Gabrielle Knoll, an Industrial and Systems Engineering major, Henry McCall, an Industrial and Systems Engineering major, and Samantha Webb of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering all took home Extraordinary Academic Achievement awards.

Top Collegiate Scholar awards went to Samantha Ann Hawks and Rebekah Kathryn Patton, both of whom are Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering majors.

More than twenty others won Extraordinary Professional Promise awards:

From Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Rebekah Patton

From Civil and Environmental Engineering: Taekwan Yoon

From Electrical Engineering and Computer Science: Margaret Drouhard, Sang Hyeb Lee, Ifana Mahbub, Khandaker Abdullah Al Mamun, Charles A. Phillips, Terence Cordell Randall, Sisi Xiong, Yao Xu, and Yanjun Yao.

From Industrial and Systems Engineering: Isaac Atuahene, Victoria Chamblee Collier, Nathan Cole Irwin, Harshitha Muppaneni, Nathaniel Truett Siler, Kaveri Ajit Thakur, and Girish Upreti.

From Materials Science and Engineering: Haoling Jia and Shuangcheng Tang.

From Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical: Sean F. Elverd, Jason Charles Howison, and Lu Huang.

Read the university-wide list of winners at the Office of the Chancellor website »