College of Engineering to Graduate Largest Class in Its History

05/12/2016

The College of Engineering will graduate the largest class in the College’s history on Friday, May 13, at 8 p.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

At the College-specific diploma ceremony, 702 students—including 619 bachelor’s degree, 47 master’s degree, 17 Ph.D. and 19 post-baccalaureate certificate candidates—will be awarded.

Among those graduates:

  • Sixty-six will graduate with honors, including six who will receive University Medals for graduating with the highest undergraduate grade-point average in the class.
  • Nineteen will be honored with the LSU Distinguished Communicator Award. These students earned this honor by meeting high standards set by faculty and by the LSU Communication across the Curriculum program. The students earned high grade-point averages in communication-intensive courses—based on written, spoken, visual and technological communication—and have built digital portfolios displayed as public websites that include their communication projects from courses, internships, leadership roles and public service. 
  • Thirty-three are veterans, and five are active military

Other notable graduates include:

  • Katie Hogan, a biological engineering graduate from Choudrant, Louisiana, who received a 2015 Goldwater Scholar honorable mention and was named a 2016 NSF Graduate Fellow. Hogan, a member of the LA-STEM Research Scholars Program, will pursue an M.D./Ph.D. at Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University.
  • Kurt Ristroph, a chemical engineering graduate from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who was named a 2016 NSF Graduate Fellow. Ristroph, an LSU Discover Scholar, will attend graduate school in bioengineering.
  • Mollie Smoak, a biological engineering graduate from Lafayette, Louisiana, who was named a 2015 Goldwater Scholarship recipient and a 2016 NSF Graduate Fellow. Smoak, who is a member of the LA-STEM Research Scholars Program, will attend graduate school at Rice University in bioengineering.

The keynote speaker at this event will be electrical engineering graduate Daniel Lepkowski. Lepkowski, a native of Virginia Beach, Virginia, also recently received an NSF Graduate Fellowship, and after graduation, he will pursue his Ph.D. at The Ohio State University, focusing on semiconductor materials for next generation solar cells.

The College-specific diploma ceremony will take place hours after the University-wide commencement exercise, where more than 4,000 students are expected to receive degrees, at 8 a.m. on Friday in the same location.

At the main ceremony, which has open admission, LSU President F. King Alexander will deliver the keynote address. Doctoral candidates will receive their diplomas individually, and degrees will be conferred for all other students.

For more information about the University’s main ceremony, visitwww.lsu.edu/commencement.

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For more information, contact communications manager Sydni Dunn at 225-578-5706 or at sydnid@lsu.edu.

 

 

  

 

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