Missouri S&T won several awards from the American Society of Engineering Management (ASEM) at its recent international conference in Philadelphia.

The awards included Founders Awards for both best graduate program and best undergraduate program for Missouri S&T’s department of engineering management and systems engineering (EMSE). Missouri S&T has won the award for best graduate program for several consecutive years, but this is only the third time in nearly 20 years that Missouri S&T has won the award for best undergraduate program.

“These are highly competitive categories with quite a few programs entered,” says Dr. Suzanna Long, department chair and professor. “As more and more schools become aware of the importance of standing out from their peer institutions, more of them enter the competition.”

To enter, programs submit updated statistics including their number of publications, grant totals, graduation rates and curriculum. The statistics are based on a four-year rolling average and take about 80 hours of effort to update each year.

EMSE students and recent graduates also earned a number of awards this year at ASEM.

Dr. Samareh Moradpour, one of Long’s former students,was recognized with the Best Dissertation Award. ASEM gives the award each year for the dissertation that best presents research in the discipline of engineering management. Moradpour now has the opportunity to submit an article for publication in Engineering Management Journal, ASEM’s primary publication.

Samuel VanFossan, a Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellow and Ph.D. student in systems engineering from Excelsior Springs, Mo., won the Merl Baker Award for Best Student Paper and may now submit an article for publication in Engineering Management Journal.  Baker was a founding member of ASEM and was the first chancellor of the University of Missouri-Rolla, now Missouri S&T. VanFossan also won the Graduate Scholarship Award. There are several criteria required to apply for the $500 scholarship, including academic qualifications, service to campus and community, and engineering management career goals. VanFossan’s advisor is Dr. Benjamin Kwasa, an assistant professor in the engineering management and systems engineering department.

Missouri S&T’s student case-study team placed second out of 10 teams in competition. Four senior engineering management students made up the team:

Lauren Barclay from Springfield, Mo.,
Emma Thompson from Columbia, Mo.,
Aubrey Howell from Summersville, Mo., and
Emily Allen from Gibson City, Ill.

The undergraduates were given four hours to analyze an engineering management-based case study. They then had 20 minutes to present their recommendations to a panel of judges.

“The breadth and depth of excellence and experience among the faculty and students within Missouri S&T’s engineering management and systems engineering department becomes more apparent each year,” says Long.