Demba Komma (left), Roya Gordji, Ethan Baker and Shawn Wesley Skinner
Four University of Mississippi seniors have been named recipients of the 2015-2016 Outstanding Senior Leadership Award in the School of Engineering
This year’s recipients are Ethan Baker of Trumann, Arkansas; Roya Gordji of Oxford; Demba Komma of the African nation of Gambia; and Shawn Wesley Skinner of Mandeville, Louisiana.
Each was selected through a competitive nomination process in his or her respective department based on their records of academic achievement, leadership, professional development and community service. Nominees also delivered a presentation to the selection committee about their undergraduate experiences while pursuing their engineering degrees.
Named to Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges, Skinner is pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering with an emphasis in manufacturing and a minor in Chinese. He is a member of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College and is recipient of the Doris Raymond Scholarship.
Skinner is also a member of the Haley Barbour Center for Manufacturing Excellence, where he serves on the CME Student Advisory Board, Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society, Phi Kappa Phi honor society and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and is a School of Engineering Ambassador. He completed a NASA Space Grant summer internship with the Stennis Space Center.
A former member of the Chinese Flagship Program, Skinner was named Outstanding Student in Chinese in 2015 and has placed in various Chinese Speech Competitions. He has also volunteered with Habitat for Humanity.
Skinner is also working on multiple projects, including his CME Capstone project to design a product to sell to Ole Miss alumni and friends, an Honors College thesis through the National Center for Physical Acoustics focusing on limiting noise pollution in manufacturing plants, and an ASME Design Project.
Besides the leadership award, he was named the university’s representative to the Mississippi Engineering Society’s Outstanding Senior award program in Jackson. Skinner plans to attend Georgia Tech for graduate school where he will pursue a master’s degree in aerospace engineering and will be a research assistant in the school’s Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory.
Baker was named a 2015 Taylor Medalist and has maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA while studying civil engineering. He was named to Who’s Who and received the Distinguished Senior Scholarship and was the recipient of the Outstanding Junior Award from the civil engineering department.
A member of the Honors College, Baker served as president of Chi Epsilon civil engineering honor society, interned with McNeese Surveying and has been an undergraduate researcher in the university’s multi-function dynamics lab. He has served as surveying team captain for the American Society for Civil Engineers and as a School of Engineering Ambassador. He also worked as a summer orientation counselor, assisting incoming engineering students with registration.
Baker’s volunteer experience includes work with Living Independently for Everyone, the Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Oxford Humane Society. He plans to attend graduate school to study construction or structural engineering.
A member of the Honors College, Gordji is pursuing a degree in general engineering with an emphasis in pre-med and a minor in neuroscience. She has earned membership in Tau Beta Pi and Phi Kappa Phi.
She has served as a School of Engineering Ambassador and was a member of the Engineering Student Body Leadership Council. Gordji volunteers with Oxford Elementary School and the Jackson Free Clinic, and is a certified emergency medical responder. She participated in a clinical shadowing program sponsored by the Honors College where she shadowed physicians in the emergency medicine and anesthesiology departments.
Gordji is working on an honors thesis focusing on identifying overactive neural pathways in individuals with ADHD. She also presented research on optimized nanoparticle design targeting tumor cells at the Mid-South Annual Engineering and Science Conference.
Gordji has been admitted to the UM Medical Center, where she will enroll this fall.
Komma is an electrical engineering major and member of the Honors College. He has earned membership in Phi Kappa Phi, Tau Beta Pi and Golden Key honor societies.
Komma has been selected for the Mississippi Power Association Scholarship and is the recipient of the Outstanding Junior and Senior awards in the electrical engineering department. He has served as president of the Institute for Electronics and Electrical Engineers, and vice president of Eta Kappa Nu electrical engineering honor society and is a School of Engineering Ambassador and member of the Engineering Student Body Leadership Council.
Komma has worked as a student engineer with SOAIIR LLC at Insight Park and conducted research focusing on efficient application of signal processing algorithms on ARM Digital Signal Processors. He plans to attend graduate school in fall 2017 after spending a year working.