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Awards and Certifications From September 28

Four Alumni Named To Wayne State Engineering Hall of Fame: Four distinguished alumni of Wayne State University have been selected for induction to the Wayne State Engineering Hall of Fame. The alumni are Doug Szopo, of Northville, a Ford Motor Co. executive; Tobenette Holtz, of Huntington Beach, Calif., an aerospace engineer manager; Laxmi Narayan Bhuyan, of Riverside, Calif., a professor of computer science and engineering; and Paul Sgriccia, of Livonia, an engineering manager for an international engineering services firm. The four will be officially inducted at the Night of the Stars, the college's annual celebration and fundraiser honoring those who have contributed to excellence in the field of engineering. Saturday, Oct. 2, at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Holtz, a 1959 graduate in aeronautical engineering, is a retired manager with TRW Inc. in San Bernardino Calif., where she worked with clients on site in both the Los Angeles area and in New Mexico. Previously in her career she was a project engineer and staff engineer at various other California-based aerospace companies, including the Aerospace Corp., the Acurex Corp., McDonnell Douglas Corp., Northrop Corp. and at North American Aviation where she started her career in 1954. Szopo, a 1978 industrial engineering graduate, is executive director of Global Product Planning & Strategy for Ford, a position he was appointed to in February 2007. During his 30-plus-year career with Ford, he has held a variety of positions in manufacturing, product engineering, and business planning. Most notable of these prior positions was plant manager of the Dearborn Engine and Fuel Tank Plant, design manager for Duratec Engine, and pre-program manager for Advanced Powertrain Systems Engineering. Bhuyan, who earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1982, is a distinguished professor and chairman of the Computer Science and Engineering Department at Bourns College of Engineering at the University of California at Riverside (UCR). Prior to joining UCR in January 2001, he was a professor of computer science at Texas A&M University (1989-2000), and program director of the Computer System Architecture Program at the National Science Foundation (1998-2000). His research interests are network computing, multiprocessor architectures, router and web server architectures, parallel and distributed processing, and performance evaluation. And Sgriccia, who earned a masters in computer and electrical engineering in 1997, is the U.S. Waste Sector Leader for Golder Associates Inc. an international ground engineering and environmental services consulting firm. He began his career in 1977 with Ford's Environmental and Safety Engineering staff, then joined City Management Corporation and was vice president of Engineering responsible for engineering and construction projects. During his career, Sgriccia has been involved in environmental management and compliance activities at manufacturing facilities as well as siting, design, construction and operation of solid and hazardous waste management facilities.

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