Tau Beta Pi is the oldest engineering honor society and the second oldest collegiate honor society in the United States. Engineering students from the top 1/8 of the junior class or top 1/5 of the senior class are invited to become members of their institution’s chapter. Each academic year, the national Fellowship Board of Tau Beta Pi awards scholarships based on competitive criteria of “high scholarship, campus leadership and service, and promise of future contributions to the engineering profession*.” For the 2019 -2020 academic year, the TCNJ chapter of Tau Beta Pi had five scholarship winners, the largest group of scholarship winners in the chapter’s history. Read more about each of the TCNJ scholarship winners here.
Blake Capella is a senior electrical engineering major and physics minor. He has completed research at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute and spent a semester abroad at the University of Newcastle in Australia. After graduating, he plans on pursuing either a Ph.D. in control system engineering and robotics within the US or a master’s degree in Robotics, Systems and Control from ETH Zurich.
Randolff Carpenter is a senior biomedical engineering student and is president of the TCNJ chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society and vice president of TCNJ’s chapter of Tau Beta Pi. His research analyzes the effects of simulated space radiation on the mechanical properties of femurs. The work has led to opportunities including working at Ohio State in their Injury Biomechanics Research Lab serving as a research assistant. Post-graduation Carpenter wants to get a Ph.D. specializing in injury biomechanics.
Christopher Mulqueen is a senior majoring in mechanical engineering. Christopher served as secretary for the Society of Automotive Engineers last year and is the president this year. Chris interned at Ingersoll Rand as an operations intern and participated in a variety of rapid improvement events that benefited the company. Chris has accepted a full time position at Ingersoll Rand after graduation and is looking forward to putting his mechanical engineering skills to use. In addition, Chris looks forward to pursuing an MBA.
Jared Posselt is a senior biomedical engineering student and works as an undergraduate research assistant in Dr. Christopher Wagner’s tissue engineering laboratory. He serves as president of TCNJ’s chapter of Tau Beta Pi. For the summer of 2019 he interned at Allergan, where he now works part-time, and upon graduation he hopes to pursue a career in the tissue engineering industry or to attend graduate school.
Brian Rentsch is a senior computer engineering major. He currently does research in the fields of software-based neural networks for image classification, sustainable embedded systems and long-range radio communication. Brian is particularly interested in creating software and plans to pursue an industry position as a software developer after graduation.
*Source: The Bent of Tau Beta Pi, Fall 2019.