2024 Undergraduate Awards for Bioengineering Students

Georgia Georgostathi accepts the Wolf-Hallac Award from Dean Vijay Kumar.

Each spring, awards are given to undergraduate students in the School of Engineering and Applied Science in recognition of outstanding scholarly achievements and service to the School and University community. The 2024 award recipients were recognized in a ceremony held on Wednesday, March 27, 2024 at the Penn Museum.

Read the full list of Bioengineering undergraduate award winners below.

The Wolf-Hallac Award: Georgia Georgostathi. This award was established in October 2000 to recognize the graduating female senior from across Penn Engineering’s departments who is seen as a role model, has achieved a high GPA (in the top 10% of their class), and who has demonstrated a commitment to school and/or community.

Alexandra Dumas accepts the Maddie Magee Award for Undergraduate Excellence.

The Maddie Magee Award for Undergraduate Excellence: Alexandra Dumas. This award is given to a Penn Engineering senior who best exemplifies the energy, enthusiasm, and excellence of Penn Engineering alumna Madison “Maddie” N. Magee (MEAM BS ’21, BE MS ’21).

The Hugo Otto Wolf Memorial Prize: Jude Barakat & Dori Xu. This prize is awarded to one or more members of each department’s senior class, distinguishing students who meet with great approval of the professors at large through “thoroughness and originality” in their work.

The Herman P. Schwan Award: Angela Song. This department award honors a graduating senior who demonstrates the “highest standards of scholarship and academic achievement.”

Penn Engineering Exceptional Service Awards recognize students for their outstanding service to the University and their larger communities: Srish Chenna, Daniel Ghaderi, Taehwan Kim and Daphne Nie.

Chaitanya Karimanasseri accepts the Bioengineering Student Leadership Award.

The Bioengineering Student Leadership Award: Chaitanya Karimanasseri. This award is given annually to a student in Bioengineering who has demonstrated, through a combination of academic performance, service, leadership, and personal qualities, that they will be a credit to the Department, the School, and the University.

Additionally, the Bioengineering Department  also presents a single lab group with the Albert Giandomenico Award which reflects their “teamwork, leadership, creativity, and knowledge applied to discovery-based learning in the laboratory.” This year’s group consists of Alexandra Dumas, Georgia Georgostathi, Daphne Nie and Angela Song.

A full list of Penn Engineering award descriptions and recipients can be found here.

BE award winners enjoy the ceremony reception in the Penn Museum.

Sharon Kuo Receives Inaugural Madison ‘Maddie’ Magee Award for Undergraduate Excellence

Sharon Kuo
Sharon Kuo

Sharon Kuo, a graduating senior in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM), is the inaugural recipient of the Madison “Maddie” Magee Award for Undergraduate Excellence.

Kuo, who is also minoring in Mathematics, comes to Penn from Taipei, Taiwan. Her interests within her major include mechanical design and product design, and she is passionate about space exploration and advancing human spaceflight.

This award will continue to be presented each year to a Penn Engineering senior who best exemplifies the energy, enthusiasm and excellence that was Maddie.

Read the full story in Penn Engineering Today.

The award for Undergraduate Excellence was established in honor of Madison “Maddie” N. Magee, who graduated with both a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM) and a master’s degree in Bioengineering (BE) in 2021. Maddie passed away while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail on May 28, 2022. Read more about this award here.

Announcing the Madison ‘Maddie’ Magee Award for Undergraduate Excellence

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Maddie MageePenn Engineering is proud to announce the establishment of the Madison “Maddie” Magee Award for Undergraduate Excellence, named in honor of the memory of Madison “Maddie” N. Magee, who graduated with both a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM) and a master’s degree in Bioengineering (BE) in 2021. Following her time at Penn, Maddie joined the Integrative Baseball Performance department of the Philadelphia Phillies, where she collaborated with a group in developing the next generation of baseball players by analyzing biomechanics data.

To establish this award, 130 donors, including the Philadelphia Phillies, came together in 2022 to raise over $50,000, meaning that undergraduate students will be able to receive this award in perpetuity. Recipients will be Penn Engineering seniors who “exemplify the energy, enthusiasm, and excellence that was Maddie.”

“Maddie was full of life and promise and brought unmatched passion and spirit to everything she did,” says Kevin T. Turner, Professor and Chair of MEAM. “It was impossible to not see the impact that she was having on our Department and the School.” Magee excelled as a student at Penn, working as a Teaching Assistant at both Penn and Drexel and providing countless hours of tutoring to fellow students.

It is with deep gratitude for Maddie’s profound and lasting impact on many students, faculty and staff that this award is established.

Maddie passed away while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail on May 28, 2022.

This story originally appeared in Penn Engineering Today.