College of Engineering undergraduate commencement was held Saturday, May 14, at the Marriott Hotel and Convention Center, Coralville, IA.

Scott Hagen (BSE 1993 in civil engineering) gave the charge to the graduates.  P. Barry Butler, UI executive vice president and provost, conferred the 291 degrees. 

Amanda Smith gave the graduating senior address. 

Jeremy Marks of the Engineering Student Council presented the graduating senior award, chosen through nomination by the senior class, to Sailahari Ponnaluri.

Candidates graduating with highest distinction were Eric Bechtold, Molly Berringer, Elijah Dahlstrom, Brandon Decker, Nickolas Grimsman, Matthew Johnson, Mollie Knake, Kathryn Langenfeld, Douglas Lindner, Ava Lynn, Sarah Mazur, Tyler Parker, Ryan Simons, and Kasra Zarei.  Graduating with highest distinction requires a cumulative grade point average of 3.85 or higher.

Graduating with high distinction were: Daniel Davies, Nicole Felderman, Emily Glanz, Emily Hannan, Jacob Klinker, Tyson Massey, Alexis Miller, Mitchel Wantock, and Ricardo Zamudio. Graduating with high distinction requires a cumulative grade point average of 3.75-3.84.

Graduating with distinction were Zachary Behrendt, Carl Beranek, Ian Boysen, Austin Brenner, Wei Chen, Eric Clasen, Aaron Dannen, Mengzhe Guo, Brandon Hendrickson, Maverick Hovey, Hannah Infelt, Ashley Mills, Ian Nessler, Laura Shepherd and Victoria Utter. Graduating with distinction requires a cumulative grade point average of 3.65-3.74/4.0.

Students graduating with University honors were Daniel Davies, David Donovan, Jena Edwards, Bailey Hadnott, Jill Hauer, Matthew Johnson, Paul Johnson, Mollie Knake, Ava Lynn, Alexis Miller, Ian Nessler, Nicole Nitschke, Sailahari Ponnaluri, Paul Puglisi, Laura Shepherd, Victoria Utter, Mitchel Wantock and Kasra Zarei. 

Students graduating with honors in their major were  Emily Glanz, Bailey Hadnott, Shiqin He, Hannah Infelt, Adam Johns, Matthew Johnson, Janelle Lala, Kathryn Langenfeld, Lu Liu, Alexis Miller, Ian Nessler, Kevin Nguyen, Nicole Nitschke, and Kasra Zarei.

Five students earned dual degrees Alex Junk, BSE in industrial engineering and BBA in finance; Aaron Kaplan, BSE in industrial engineering and BA in computer science; Kathryn Langenfeld (BSE in civil engineering and BS in mathematics); Nicholas Nielsen (BSE in biomedical engineering and BS in human physiology); Ramya Puliadi (BSE in biomedical engineering and BS in computer science.

Kasra Zarei earned four degrees – BSE in biomedical engineering, BS in biochemistry, BS in mathematics and a BA in psychology; minored in chemistry, computer science and biology; earned three certificates – Technological Entrepreneurship; large data analysis and clinical translational science, and was a Grand Challenges Scholar.  As noted above, he is graduating with honors in his major, university honors, and with highest distinction. 

155 graduates earned at least one minor in one of 22 different areas. Fifty-one had two minors and three had three minors.