UW Student Receives Top National Engineering Award |  
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Sept. 25, 2007 -- University of Wyoming electrical engineering student Julie Sandberg of Albin received the Scholar of the Year award from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC).
Sandberg was notified for the honor at the recent annual ACEC meeting in Washington, D.C. The award includes a $10,000 scholarship for the 2007-2008 academic year and a trip later this semester to the association's 2007 fall conference in Maui, Hawaii, for the official presentation.
Prior to receiving the award, Sandberg was selected by the ACEC of Wyoming to receive one of three $2,000 scholarships. ACEC of Wyoming is an association of 67 companies providing engineering and surveying services in Wyoming.
ACEC of Wyoming, like all association state member organizations, is allowed to sponsor only a single applicant each year for one of two national scholarship awards for $10,000 and $7,500.
The scholarship program is administered by an ACEC fellows committee. The committee consists of three individuals who grade the applicants based on a strict set of grading criteria. Students are nominated based on leadership, academics and activities.
Roger Jacobson, ACEC committee chairman, says Sandberg's accomplishments made her the unanimous choice for the top award.
"What really stood out with Julie was her involvement in so many extracurricular activities; her work schedule outside the classroom, along with her academic success. She was the unanimous selection on each score sheet from all three judges," he says.
Sandberg is involved in many UW College of Engineering and Applied Science activities and on campus. She is an active member of Tau Beta Pi, involved in the Delta Delta Delta sorority and the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers student chapter.
She enjoys math and science, and before college, she attended academically-related camps that inspired her to study engineering.
One particular camp that sparked her interest was UW's Engineering Summer Program.
"I was able to interact with 29 other high school students interested in engineering. College professors taught us short courses in basic engineering concepts," Sandberg says.
During her spare time Sandberg enjoys reading novels, running and learning about the latest scientific research and technology developments. For the past three summers she has participated in different internship programs.
After her UW sophomore year, Sandberg conducted research at the University of Central Florida's College of Optics and Photonics where she designed and built a working laser wave front sensor.
Following her junior year, she attended the NASA Academy at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, where she studied the Earth's magnetosphere, listened to many guest speakers, visited NASA centers and aerospace companies and completed a group project with the other 19 interns.
This summer she worked in the robotics group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., where she helped develop the electronics system for a Martian tunneling rover prototype. Sandberg says she is interested in space exploration and hopes to work for NASA to develop technology similar to what she is doing at UW. After her last semester on campus this fall, she plans to attend graduate school in electrical engineering.
Sandberg's family resides in Albin, a small farming community 42 miles northeast of Cheyenne. She says her greatest support comes from her family, including parents Terry and Joanne Sandberg, sister Lori, also a UW College of Engineering and Applied Science student, and grandmother Bertha Sandberg.
"All the people in Albin are more like family than friends," Sandberg, says.
Photo:
Julie Sandberg. Posted on Tuesday, September 25, 2007
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