Systems and Industrial Engineering senior wins Outstanding Senior Award

Valerie Washington, a Systems and Industrial Engineering major, has won the Outstanding Honors Senior award. The award recognizes a student from each campus who exemplifies the highest ideals of the University Honors Program.

In addition to noteworthy achievement in the classroom, completion of honors coursework and a fully-approved capstone proposal, finalists for the award must have substantive scholarly, creative or service-related accomplishments shared with publics beyond the classroom. From 21 student nominations and applications, one winner is named from each campus.

She has plans to attend graduate school after graduation. She has demonstrated her excellence in all the engineering courses by securing good grades throughout her undergraduate career. She has been active within the campus community through membership in the Society of Women Engineers and being the founding president of Student Division of the International Council on Systems Engineering. In 2016, Valerie was named Engineering Student of the Year for the state of Georgia by the Georgia Society of Professional Engineers. Valerie has published two pieces in collaboration with faculty and has presented at at least seven conferences in her academic career. She has been accepted to two PhD programs: Georgia Tech's Industrial Engineering program and the University of Michigan's Industrial and Operations Engineering program. Valerie's capstone supervisor is Dr. Adeel Khalid.

Adeel Khlaid had the following to say about Valerie: "Valerie has been my student for over two years and has taken several courses with me. Valerie has shown keen interest in the subject matter from the very beginning. She has demonstrated in the courses that I have taught that she can not only handle the upper level engineering course work efficiently but also excel in any course material presented to her. She shows interest in learning and performing well in class. She demonstrates similar enthusiasm in other advanced courses and projects. In the senior design project, she is optimizing the bus routes for the Kennesaw State transportation system (BOB). She set the bar high and is the student that I compare other students to to determine their performance level. I am impressed by her willingness to work above and beyond what is required from her. I find her ready to take on challenges. She has demonstrated her excellence in all the engineering courses by securing good grades throughout her undergraduate career. Given her strong work ethic and zeal, I am confident that she will do very well in graduate school and be an asset to any organization she becomes a part of."