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UT Knoxville College of Engineering Holds Spring 2013 Commencement

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.–The College of Engineering Spring 2013 graduation ceremony took place on Wednesday, May 8, with over 284 engineering graduates participating in the ceremony. A group of approximately 2,600 parents, friends and relatives attended the event, which took place in Thompson-Boling Arena on the UT-Knoxville campus at 11:30 a.m.

Dr. Wayne T. Davis, dean of engineering, and Dr. Jimmy G. Cheek, University of Tennessee provost, led the academic procession that signaled the beginning of the ceremony. The procession included associate deans, department heads and faculty representatives.

Mr. Dwight Hutchins, the Global Managing Director of Washington, D.C.-based Accenture’s Health and Public Service Strategy practice, was the ceremony’s keynote speaker. Hutchins, a 1986 UT chemical engineering alumnus, leads project teams around the world at Accenture, helping clients define their strategy, reorganize, increase effectiveness, reduce costs, and transform their operations to become high performing public sector organizations.

Dr. Joseph DiPietro, president of the UT System, was also a special guest speaker at the event.

The college’s top students, Jordan Richard Kreitzman, an aerospace engineering major, and Scott Michael Strickler, a biomedical engineering major, were recognized. Three National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Grand Challenge Scholars were also saluted during the ceremony for completing additional challenging academic requirements as stipulated by NAE: Morgan Raney Baltz, a chemical engineering major; Ethan Zachariah Cansler, an aerospace engineering major; and Katelynn Elizabeth Hasse, a nuclear engineering major.

In addition to the commencement activities, the event also featured an ROTC ceremony, where Lt. Colonel Brian Delamater, a professor of aerospace studies at UT, officially commissioned two COE graduates into the U.S. Air Force. The new second lieutenants are Joseph Andrew Applebee and Thomas David Winter.

In recent years, the university’s colleges have been conferring diplomas during smaller, more individualized graduation events. For more information, contact Kim Cowart at (865) 974-0686/kcowart@utk.edu.