Graduates win engineering society's highest honors

Two recent mechanical engineering graduates, Fionna Murray '97 and Scott Wenger '97 received two of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)'s highest awards from among 23,000 individuals for their work as Virginia Tech students.

"For our student section, winning both of these awards is like winning the World Series and Super Bowl in the same year," said Charles Reinholtz, Virginia Tech mechanical engineering professor and faculty advisor of the Tech section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

Murray, now an engineer with General Electric Aircraft Engines in Fairfield, Ohio, received the Charles T. Main Award for leadership, dedication, and outstanding service to ASME, the organization's highest individual distinction awarded to student members. Under Murray's leadership as membership chair, the Tech section grew to almost 500 members, becoming the largest student chapter in the U.S. Murray also planned and presented a series of leadership workshops for regional ASME student members.

Wenger, an engineer at Corning in Wilmington, N.C., won ASME's Old Guard Technical Presentation Award. During the national contest in Dallas, his presentation, "Test Drive an Autonomous Vehicle," placed first over top regional entries from 12 other universities.

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