The CIE-USA was founded in 1917 and provides professional STEM outreach and networking opportunities. This year, the Seattle Chapter hosted the AAEOY awards at the Hyatt Regency in Renton, Washington on September 28th, 2024. The Asian American Engineer of the Year Award recognizes the leading engineers across the United States to acknowledge and celebrate their contributions to the community.
Throughout the day there were a variety of events to recognize the achievements of professionals in various engineering disciplines and fuel the interest of Asian Americans in STEM with the Career Fair and Technical Sessions.
In the afternoon, Mr. Liangzong Wang presented the CIE-SEA 22nd Annual APA Youth Scholarship Awards to the ten young awardees. These awards aim to promote the educational and professional development of Asian Pacific American youth in STEM fields, and the winners are scored by a panel of judges based on their academic achievement, volunteer and community services, extracurricular activities and accomplishments, and their essay. The overall winners from the Undergraduate College Category and the 10th to 12th Grade Category were invited to stay for the AAEOY dinner and listen to the motivational speakers and honorees.
The evening began with attorney general of Washington State, Bob Ferguson, who shared a few opening remarks about the necessity of innovation and rising engineers that the AAEOY celebrates. In addition, keynote speaker Lan Ye; Corporate VP of Microsoft Teams Calling, Meeting, and Devices; provided a motivational statement about the world of engineering and CIE-SEA.
Throughout the dinner, awardees from the US Army Corps of Engineers to the National Cancer Institute to the University of Washington, inspired us to pursue paths in engineering for the success for our communities. Notably, Dr. Feng Zhang, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was awarded the Distinguished Science and Technology Award. In a series of seminars before the dinner, Dr. Zhang explained his work with pioneering and discovering new genome editing technologies as well as his work with optogenetics. Another distinguished awardee was Honorable Heidi Shyu, Undersecretary Department of Defense for Research and Engineering, who was awarded the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award. Ms. Shyu has made numerous contributions to not only the US military but across the Department of Defense regarding DARPA, Missile Defense Agency, and the DoD Laboratory and Engineering Center Enterprise. Dr. Zhang and Ms. Shyu are amongst the many inspirational Asian American leaders recognized during the event.
The evening ended with closing remarks by Mr. Howard Wu and the transfer of the AAEOY Seal to the 2025 AAEOY team, the Chapter of New Mexico. Alburquerque. This successful event could not have been possible without the tireless work of the 2024 AAEOY Planning Committee led by Mr. Stephen Lee and Mr. Howard Wu, volunteers who graciously donated their time to plan and run the event, and the sponsors who allow this event to keep running.
More videos and photos can be viewed at https://gallery.aaeoy.org.
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