Cameron Alberg, an engineering mechanics undergraduate student, will receive the College of Engineering William Schowalter Award, presented to a student based on Dean Schowalter's outstanding character, creativity, and enthusiasm, as well as his dedication to students and faculty.
Written by College of Engineering
Cameron Alberg, an engineering mechanics undergraduate student, will receive the College of Engineering William Schowalter Award, presented to a student based on Dean Schowalter's outstanding character, creativity, and enthusiasm, as well as his dedication to students and faculty. The recipient of this annual award reflects those traits through their leadership, creativity, encouragement of others, and dedication to the College.
Thanks to Alberg, the University of Illinois has a new and improved inventor’s club on campus. The junior mechanical engineering major took a fledging idea that had been tried before and made the registered student organization, Makers UIUC, a reality.
Alberg handpicked a group of students for the initiative, which uses teamwork and networking for successful product development. The projects have included a motorized Nerf gun, a bike seat protector and a full-body 3D scanner. As president of Makers at UIUC, Alberg coordinates multiple design teams and earlier this month, helped plan a “Makeathon,” where teams had 28 hours to create a physical prototype for senior accessibility.
A native of Chicago, Alberg is project manager for CUBE Consulting, which provides engineering and business students the opportunity to connect classroom learning with real-world business projects. Through CUBE, the first Junior Enterprise in the United States, Alberg worked with IntelliWheels to design a mechanical machine to automatically package their latest product.
Cameron is pursuing a bachelor of science degree in engineering mechanics, specializing in product design mechanics. This summer he will be working as a mechanical engineering intern at Watchfire signs.
Through iFoundry, Alberg has been active in proposing design-based curriculum to undergraduates. He is described as having “genuine warmth and a spirit of generosity to his peers” and as a leader “making people feel comfortable by giving them hope through his words, actions and determination to make things work.”
The award will be presented at the college’s award ceremony on April 18.