Some of the 40+ MS and PhD degree candidates celebrated during the April 30 Recognition Ceremony.

Against the backdrop of a now empty campus, the Class of 2020 from the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering filled the airwaves with ambition and promise as they came together, April 30 and May 1 for two online Recognition Ceremonies.

• You can view the April 30 MS PhD Ceremony now.
• You can view the May 1 Undergraduate Ceremony now
• Check out the Video Graduation Card that the faculty & staff made for the graduates.

Altogether more than 170 bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree candidates were recognized during the two ceremonies, which were broadcast via the same video-conferencing software that was used to conduct the final six weeks of the Spring 2020 semester classes. The Institute has announced that it will schedule an in-person commencement ceremony later this year.

AE Chair Mark F. Costello, Ph.D. AE '92 began both ceremonies by encouraging graduates to not be unduly detoured by the COVID 19 crisis, but to, instead, remain passionate and curious about the challenges that are before them.

"You're graduating with an aerospace engineering degree and you are trying to find out exactly what you want to do going into the future, and I can honestly say there's not been a more exciting time in aerospace

Abigail McClain

Harrison Delecki

engineering in the past 30 years," he told the undergraduates on Friday morning.

"Look at space exploration. Your generation is going to be the generation that lives, works, and plays on the moon mars and other planetary bodies. It's just going to be incredible to see that technology develop and Georgia Tech engineers are going to be big contributors to that technology."

Introducing the names of the 2020 graduates were Dr. Stephen Ruffin and Dr. Mitchell Walker, associate school chairs for undergraduate and graduate programs, respectively.

Two outstanding AE undergraduates were announced as the recipients of $1,000 scholarships inspired and

Prof. Joseph H. Saleh Voted Most Valuable Professor 2018, 2019, 2020

endowed by the late Donnel W. Dutton, an AE alumnus who served as the second chair of the Daniel Guggenheim School (1943-1963.) Abigail McClain was chosen to receive the Aerospace Engineering Outstanding Senior Scholar Award an honor that annually goes to a graduating senior with has both complted 112 or more credit-hours of coursework and who has achieve the highest cumulative GPA.

McClain earned a 4.0 GPA student while pursuing a double-major in aerospace engineering and physics. Her research experiences include development of electric rockets systems at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the High Power Electric Propulsion Laboratory. She also conducts research in the Autonomous Control and Decision Systems Laboratory and is a member of Georgia Tech’s Goldrush Dance Team.

The Donnell W. Dutton Outstanding Senior in Aerospace Engineering Award was presented to Harrison Delecki. This award is presented annually to a senior student who has attained high academic achievement within the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering.

Delecki earned a 4.0 GPA student while pursuing a major in aerospace engineering and a minor in computer science. His research experiences include algorithm development for space domain awareness at MIT Lincoln Laboratory as well as building an attitude determination and control system for a small satellite at Georgia Tech. He plans to pursue graduate studies in fields related to astrodynamics, navigation, and autonomy. In is free time, he enjoys cycling and playing the cello.

The students of Sigma Gamma Tau selected  Dr. Joseph H. Saleh to receive the Most Valuable Professor (MVP) award. The comments that accompanied Saleh's nomination give some indication as to why he has earned this honor for three years:

"… He exhibits not just passion in his research or subject of the class, but in the whole learning process. He engages with students enthusiastically both in and out of the classroom and truly inspires his students to strive," said one student.

"…He gave us real world examples and explanations and makes me want to follow in his footsteps," wrote another.

Another wrote, quite simply:

"… He makes learning fun."

As a final gift to the Class of 2020, several of the AE School's faculty and staff used their cell-phones to videotape a Virtual Graduation Card, which was played at both ceremonies.