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CUE 2007
Distinguished Engineering Alumni Awards

The College of Engineering and Applied Science is pleased to honor the following individuals with the 2007 Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award. The awards will be presented at the 42nd annual Engineering Awards Banquet on April 20.

Adam Beguelin (MS CompSci '88, PhD '90) — Research & Invention
As an academic researcher and then an entrepreneur, Adam Beguelin has created a substantial number of large and complex software systems. He won the R&D 100 Award for the PVM portable parallel programming environment, to which he was a major contributor, and he developed fundamental technology for audio-video streaming that eventually led to the purchase of his start-up company by AOL.

After completing two degrees at CU-Boulder and two post-doctoral positions, Beguelin seemed bound for a regular faculty position at a leading university. In fact, he did teach in the highly ranked computer science department at Carnegie Mellon University for a few years before he was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug.

In 1996 he was recruited to join Inktomi Corp., where he made substantial contributions to the then-dominant web search engine and its web caching system. He then moved onto some other start-ups and changed his focus to streaming technology. In 2004, he co-founded Truveo, which launched a successful video streaming product. He and his partner sold Truveo to AOL in late 2005, and Beguelin is currently an AOL vice president.

Scott Donnelly (ElCompEngr '84) — Industry & Commerce
Scott Donnelly began his career as a design engineer developing advanced computer architecture for special purpose processors and systems. He joined GE as a manager in 1989 and now serves as president and CEO of GE Aviation, the world's leading producer of large and small jet engines for commercial and military aircraft. A business unit of General Electric based in Cincinnati, Ohio, GE Aviation has about $12 billion in annual revenues and 30,000 employees worldwide.

Donnelly has worked in GE's senior management since 1997, when he was appointed vice president of technology for GE Medical Systems. He also served as senior vice president of GE Global Research for from 2000 to 2005, overseeing 1,000 researchers working on a broad range of technologies in the United States, India, China, and Germany.

He has given numerous talks and invited lectures on technical topics, mostly in the area of molecular imaging. He was a founding member of the Center for Minimally Invasive Therapy at Massachusetts General Hospital as well as the Global Climate and Energy Project at Stanford University. He serves on the Engineering Advisory Councils at CU-Boulder, Cornell, and Stanford.

As vice president, Drew drives a large portion of the company's new technology, future vision, and investments, while looking for opportunities to integrate communications and connect military resources, and developing new markets such as homeland security and disaster response. Among these are SBInet, the government's effort to secure 6,000 miles along its northern and southern borders.

She is active in community and professional service as a member of the Board of Directors of Washington State's Special Olympics and Tiger Woods Learning Center, as well as the National Academy of Sciences' Air Force Studies Board. She also serves on the Engineering Advisory Council at CU-Boulder.

James Harris (CivEngr '68) — Private Practice
A recognized leader in the modernization of building design load standards for safer and more reliable structures, Jim Harris has led his own successful consulting practice, J.R. Harris and Co., since 1984.

After receiving his bachelor's degree at CU-Boulder, he worked as a structural engineer for about five years and then went onto earn a doctorate in civil engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He worked at the National Bureau of Standards in Gaithersburg, Maryland, for several years before returning to Denver to become a principal in a structural engineering firm and subsequently start his own practice.

Harris has designed or evaluated hundreds of structures, including both high-rise and long-span structures, and he is a recognized expert on specialty loads on structures from wind, snow, earthquakes, and soil vibration. With his extensive experience, he also has made numerous contributions to the advancement of codes and standards for structural design over nearly three decades, including noteworthy work on earthquake resistance. He also served as a member of the team that investigated damage to the Pentagon during the 9/11 attack. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2005.

Evi Nemeth — Special
Evi Nemeth served as an associate professor of computer science at CU-Boulder for more than 20 years before her retirement in 2001. She is an internationally recognized teacher and scholar, who also played a leading role in the development of CU's computer connectivity and the acquisition of cutting-edge equipment for teaching and research.

She received her PhD in mathematics at the University of Waterloo in 1971, and taught at Florida Atlantic University and the State University of New York before joining the computer science department at CU-Boulder in 1980. She also served as manager of the College of Engineering's computing facility for several years, and was active in establishing industry connections with Sun, HP, and other companies.

She is a world expert in computer systems administration and computer networks, and wrote the "bible" of system administration, Unix System Administration Handbook in 1989. She recently finished a related book, LINUX Administration Handbook. She also taught and mentored many talented young undergraduates in the college as well as several from middle and high school who worked with her to support computing activities in the college.