ASME Members Selected as New Faces of Engineering Winners
ASME Members Selected as New Faces of Engineering Winners
April 7, 2017
ASME member Emily Worinkeng and student member Meredith Burke were among the 21 engineers and engineering students who were selected as the 2017 class of the New Faces of Engineering program, which is administered by DiscoverE and sponsored this year by NCEES and Lockheed Martin. Each year, the New Faces program spotlights the accomplishments of early career engineers and engineering students and the contributions they make to the profession and to society.
Worinkeng was named as ASME’s winner in the Professional category, which recognizes the achievements of practicing engineers up to the age of 30. Burke was selected as the Society’s winner in the College Edition category, which is open to third-, fourth- and fifth-year engineering students. Worinkeng and Burke were among the six New Faces finalists from ASME announced in February during Engineers Week. The winners of this year’s New Faces competition were announced during a webinar on April 5, the second annual Global Day of the Engineer.
Worinkeng, who has been an ASME member since 2012, is an assembly and automation engineer at The Boeing Company in North Charleston, S.C., where she helped develop new safer and more efficient processes for installing and aligning airplane wing flaps and supervised a team that developed an innovative accelerated curing system for the company. She received a bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics in 2011 from Berea College, Berea, Ky., and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Clemson University in 2013.
Worinkeng, who has possessed a passion for aeronautics since childhood, has realized her dream as an engineer at Boeing. “What gets me excited about going to work is the knowledge that I acquire about the process of making airplanes as well as working alongside the smartest people in the world,” Worinkeng wrote in her New Faces application essay. “As I crawl inside the wings of an airplane, I realize this is something not everyone gets to do. It is fascinating to see the 787 airplanes flying and delivered to our customers and to know that I helped make that happen. Being a part of the team that delivered Japan's ANA Star Wars-themed Dreamliner was an unforgettable experience.” She went on to add, “Today, I am doing exactly what I like, which is solving problems and finding efficient ways to improve processes.”
Burke, ASME’s 2017 New Faces-College Edition winner, is a mechanical engineering major at Southern Methodist University. Burke, who is also studying math and art as her second and third majors, plans to forge a career in engineering that incorporates elements of these other interests. In addition to her studies, Burke has been active in a number of clubs and activities at SMU, including the Lyle School of Engineering’s ambassador program, the Theta Tau Engineering Fraternity chapter, and the university’s marching band.
“Engineering is different from other majors because of the immediate connection to real-world applications,” Burke said in her application. “Engineering, at its core, hinges on helping other people and making the world a better place. Engineering … challenges me intellectually and has taught me how to problem-solve. It is definitely invigorating to consider all the yet-unsolved problems that only an engineer has the mindset and expertise to tackle. Engineering reinforces the lesson that failure is not necessarily bad, just a perfect learning opportunity to further my understanding about the world, in a way that cannot be replicated in other fields.”
To see the entire list of 2017 New Faces of Engineering winners from each of this year’s participating organizations and read their profiles, visit www.discovere.org/our-programs/awards-and-recognition.
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