Outstanding Asian Americans Are Recognized by Asian American Engineer of The Year Award During 2017 National Engineers Week

Asian American Engineer of the Year (AAEOY) is a platform to honor and recognize outstanding Asian American scientists, engineers and corporate leaders and celebrates their exceptional contributions in their respective fields. They have changed the world through invention, innovation and their dedication to their companies, communities and the nation.

Seattle, Washington (February 25, 2017) – In conjunction with the National Engineer Week and in its 16th year, 2017 Asian American Engineer of the year (AAEOY) Award was held at the Westin Hotel, Bellevue, WA on the February 25, 2017. Twenty distinguished recipients along with other 1,000+ guests, including executives from Fortune 500 companies like Boeing, Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, Texas Instruments, General Motors, Verizon Wireless, Huawei and AT&T were participated in the award celebration.

 

As a part of celebration activities, four professional conferences were held in the afternoon during the event date. These conferences were focused on leadership skills /career development, the advancement in areospace, the frontiers in informaiton technology and the advancement in biomedicine and biotechnology.

A Pacific NorthWest STEM & Business Career Fair was also organized at Westin during the afternoon from 9AM to 3PM. Participating companies include Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Huawei, Amazon, Eaton, US Army, US Navy, China Telecom, Northeastern University and others.

Past AAEOY honorees include nine Nobel Laureates including Dr. Steven Chu (1997, Physics & former Secretary of Energy), Dr. Roger Tsien (2008, Chemistry), and Dr. Shuji Nakamura (2014, Physics), and top industrial, academic and government leaders, including Late Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien and former Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta.

More than half of the 20 AAEOY Award winners this year are immigrants born outside the United States. They came from 6 Asian heritage countries - Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Korea and Philippines. Their success, achievement, and their integration to the nation make them live models and source of inspiration for all of us and our future generations.

Dr. Harry Shum, the Microsoft Executive Vice President, Artificial Intelligence and Research Group, and John Hamilton, the Boeing Vice President of Engineering for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, delivered keynote speeches during the award ceremony.

Among the 20 award recipients this year, in summary, we had 2 Distinguished Awards, 4 Executive of the Year Awards, 10 Engineer of the Year awards and 4 Most Promising Engineer of the Year Awards.  they are (for the profile and YouTube video of each of 2017 AAEOY award recipient, please visit 2017.aaeoy.org, tab “2017 Awardees”):

Distinguished Awards:

Professor Nam Pyo Suh, former President of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and a Professor of M.I.T., is the recipient of 2017 Distinguished Science & Technology award. In 1980s during the Reagan administration, Professor Suh served as a presidential appointee at the National Foundation (NSF) in charge of engineering. His major awards include the NSF Distinguished Service Award, ASME Medal, the General Nicolai Award, the Ho Am Prize, and others.

Lifetime Achievement Award went to Dr. Chin-Pao Huang, a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering from University of Delaware. Prof. Huang is known globally for his research contributions in environmental engineering. He has received numerous honors especially the Gorgon Maskew Fair Medals from Water Environment Federation (1999) and the American Academy of Environmental Engineers (2012).

Asian American Executive of the Year Awards:

·       Tony Chang, Vice President of US R&D Competence Center, Corporate R&D Tools Planning &Test Authority, Huawei Technologies

·       Dr. David Ku, Corporate Vice President, Information Platform Group, Microsoft Corporation

·       Jenette Ramos, Vice President and General Manager of Boeing Fabrication, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, The Boeing Company

·       Dr. Benson Shen, Co-founder &Chief Executive Officer, Lightel Technologies

Asian American Engineer of the Year Awards:

·       Dr. Guozhong Cao, Boeing-Steiner Professor of Materials Science & Engineering, University of Washington

·       Joy Chik, Corporate Vice President, ECM Engineering, Microsoft Corporation

·       Seema Deshpande, Director, Components and Systems Technology Development, Texas Instruments

·       Dr. Ireena A. Erteza, R&D S&E, Electronics Engineering, Sandia National Laboratory

·       Ambrose Kam, Project Specialist Senior Staff, Lockheed Martin Corporation

·       David Lu, Vice President, Common Platforms & Technology Services, Technology Development, AT&T

·       Dr. Ye Ouyang, Fellow, Wireless Big Data Analytics,Verizon Wireless

·       Gaurav Sareen, Corporate Vice President, Outlook Engineering, Microsoft Corporation

·       Dr. Guijun Wang, Technical Fellow and Chief Architect of Boeing for Advanced Manufacturing and Factory Automation, The Boeing Company

·       Sipex Sun, Project Manager, US Army

Most Promising Engineer of the Year Awards:

·       Alexandra Abad, Research Engineer/Scientist,Lockheed Martin Corporation

·       Jack Suen, Advanced Technical Leadership Program – Embedded Software Engineer Senior, Lockheed Martin Corporation

·       Tony Sumcad, Testing Manager – Vehicle and Infotainment Center of Excellence GCCX, General Motors

·       Dr. Xiaoxi Wang, Material and Process Engineer – Principal Investigator, Boeing Research & Technology, The Boeing Company

This historical 16^th AAEOY event has received strong corporate, community, academia, and government support. Sponsors include:

Boeing	Lockheed Martin	Microsoft
General Motors	Huawei Technologies	Lightel Technologies
Sandia National Laboratories	Texas Instruments	Eaton
Verizon Wireless	Seattle Chinese Biomedical Association	Nanhai Seattle
Seattle Technical Forum	Northeastern University	WPI Real Estate

Boeing Asian American Professional Association

Chinese Entrepreneurship Network, University of Washington

Society of Chinese-American Aerospace Engineers