Special Events: Commencement 2005: An outdoor celebration to remember

The rain held out as Stevens celebrated its 2005 commencement, May 26, in an outdoor setting specially set up for the occasion. This year, 377 undergraduates and 845 graduate students received degrees, including the first graduating class of MBA recipients, and close to 100 were awarded graduate certificates.

Dressed in traditional caps and gowns, most of the graduates participated in one, or in some cases, both, of the two ceremonies. Three distinguished guest speakers gave commencement addresses and received honorary degrees, while many hundreds of family members and friends enjoyed the day and were provided excellent views from a large-screen video monitor near the outdoor stage.

Trumpeters heralded the procession. This year’s commencement was the second consecutively to be held outdoors. Organizers worked hard to create a new venue for the festivities in the 8th Street parking complex, and all agreed the day was a phenomenal success and commencement attendees were well accommodated.

At the 2005 undergraduate ceremony, held in the morning, two guest speakers received Doctor of Engineering Honoris Causa degrees: Rep. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), the congressman for New Jersey’s 13th District (in which Stevens is located); and Dr. Kevin M. Cahill, M.D., a highly accomplished physician in the field of global medicine and an advocate for the use of technology for humanitarian action.

Congressman Menendez is the third-ranking Democrat in the US House, the highest-ranking Hispanic in Congressional history, and the only Hispanic ever elected to a leadership position, in either chamber, by either party. In addition to being the first Democratic House Member from New Jersey elected to a Leadership post, he is also the youngest member of the elected Democratic Leadership.

During his commencement address, Menendez told graduates that “technology can be a vehicle for humanity’s progress and well-being.”

“Democracy itself – the core principle of our nation – has spread through technology,” he said. “The Internet, and all forms of modern communication, has made it much tougher for oppressive regimes to hide the hope and promises of freedom from their citizens.

“Technology has become the ultimate connector of people to people, society to society, culture to culture, and with that, liberty and democracy are communicated across traditional borders. Having family myself who fled an oppressive regime to come to this country seeking freedom, anything that makes freedom more accessible is dear to my heart and soul. I hope you keep it dear to yours as you move out into the world.”

Cahill is University Professor and Director of The Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs at Fordham University, Director of the Tropical Disease Center at Lenox Hill Hospital, Clinical Professor of Tropical Medicine and Molecular Parasitology at New York University School of Medicine, and Chief Medical Advisor for Counterterrorism, NYPD, as well as holding numerous other prestigious positions.

“Education should have brought you to an appreciation of your own individual wonder, and given you the confidence to share, even if there are dangers in exposing your vulnerabilities,” said Cahill. “Without that courage nothing good happens – people wouldn’t fall in love, they wouldn’t sacrifice to make other lives better, and they wouldn’t grow, gently and generously, accepting other’s faults as well as their virtues.”

Merrick, Long Island native Andrew Corrigan graduated “first in class” with a degree in Computational Science. (See below.) He plans to continue his education in the fall at Stevens. Corrigan’s wife, also a student at Stevens, will enter her senior year in the fall semester.

The honorary degree recipient and speaker for the graduate ceremony in the afternoon was Dr. C.K Prahalad, the Harvey C. Fruehauf Professor of Business Administration at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Prahalad specializes in corporate strategy and the role of top management in diversified, global corporations. He has been ranked among the Top Ten management thinkers in every major survey for more than 10 years. BusinessWeek has said that Professor Prahalad may well be “the most influential thinker on business strategy today.” He is a member of the blue ribbon commission of the United Nations on Private Sector and Development. – PB

Special Events: Andrew Corrigan, Stevens’ perfect 4.0

This year, Andrew Corrigan had the honor of finishing first in his graduating class.

Corrigan, of Merrick, L.I., received the degree of Bachelor of Science in Computational Science, with a concentration in Computer Graphics.

A veteran of the Stevens Scholars Program, over the past two summers he worked in the Visualization Laboratory in the Computer Science Department, assisting with research performed by Professors George Kamberov and H. Quynh Dinh. He continued working with professor Dinh after last summer, earning senior research credits.

“I wanted to study computer graphics,” said Corrigan when asked about his chosen field of study, “but I didn't want to be a Computer Science major. Computational Science majors have the option of doing a concentration in Computer Vision & Graphics. Therefore, I chose Computational Science.

“At the same time I wanted to have a background in the basics of computer science and enough experience to be a competent programmer. Luckily for me, the Stevens Computational Science program provided me with the necessary background to handle computational problems."

This summer he will work as an intern with Siemens Corporate Research in Princeton, N.J. This fall he will continue at Stevens working on a master’s degree in Computational Science, with Professor Dinh as his advisor. – PB