Four MechSE students named to the 2014 Senior 100

MechSE's Matt Condon, Marc Deetjen, Julia Huynh, and Kendall Rak have been named to the Senior 100 Honorary.

The Senior 100 Honorary is a program of the University of Illinois Alumni Association that recognizes notable seniors across campus for both their past achievement and future commitment to the university. The program honors what the students have accomplished and acknowledges the great impact they will have on the world at large after graduation. Only 100 seniors from the entire campus are chosen.

Condon will graduate this month with a major in mechanical engineering and a minor in technology and management. He is the president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and a member of the Dean’s Student Advisory Committee. In Fall 2013, he served as the lead engineering learning assistant for MechSE. He is also a member of the Illinois men’s volleyball team. After graduation, he plans to work as a hardware engineer at Microsoft.

Deetjen is a senior majoring in mechanical engineering with a minor in mathematics. He is an undergraduate research assistant under Assistant Professor Randy Ewoldt. He is a James Scholar, a member of ASME, a study group leader within Cru Christian Community, and an intramural soccer team captain. He was part of a Senior Design-winning team and won a travel award to attend the 2013 American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics Conference in 2013. He was named a 2012-2013 BP Scholar and has won the Outstanding Scholar Award in MechSE all four years. He plans to continue his research in graduate school and will be working toward his PhD.

Huynh is a senior with a major in mechanical engineering and a minor in computer science. She is an active member of the Society of Women Engineers and currently serves as the secretary for the Illinois SWE chapter. She is the service director of Pi Tau Sigma and a CARE tutor, and served this past year as the middle school design contest director for the Engineering Open House central committee. She has spent her summers interning at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. She is a James Scholar, an Engineering Visionary Scholar, and a MechSE Outstanding Scholar. She has won various awards, including the Boeing Engineering Diversity Scholarship and the Washington Academy of Sciences Isaac Newton Award for Outstanding Projects.

Rak, who will also graduate this month, has been involved at St. John’s Catholic Newman Center. He is a member of the intercollegiate bowling team and plays in the University Orchestra. He will remember his years at Illinois as “years of great growth and blessings,” and is grateful for the help he has received from the department’s TAs.