The University of Missouri-Rolla’s student chapter of the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers has been honored with the 2007
Outstanding Student Branch Award.

UMR’s student chapter of IEEE received the award Dec. 1 during the St.
Louis Section’s annual Christmas and Awards Banquet at the Lake St. Louis
Club.

“The UMR chapter definitely merited the award this year," says Dr. Jim
Bornholdt, chair of the St. Louis Section of IEEE. “The students have been
very, very active, and I think they’ve had some innovated activities."

In particular, Bornholdt said the UMR chapter has done an excellent job
recruiting professional speakers to come to campus.

“The student branch has gone out of its way to get people to come and talk
to members about their internship programs and new technologies," Bornholdt
says. “This is really an outstanding thing the chapter is doing with these
speakers."

The UMR chapter also has toured Boeing and Anheuser-Busch facilities in St.
Louis, participated in the St. Louis Section’s Black Box Competition and
attended the Antenna Measurement Techniques Association (AMTA) conference.

Chapter President Joe Schaefer, a senior in electrical engineering, attended
Saturday’s banquet to accept the award. Schaefer agrees that chapter’s ability
to bring in quality professional speakers has set it apart during the past
year.

“It’s a unique thing for our school because we’re able to get so many
companies to come here," Schaefer says. “We have companies volunteering to
come here, while other schools are having trouble bringing in people."