Bagley College senior recognized for engineering excellence
December 8, 2016
(photo by Russ Houston / © Mississippi State University)
STARKVILLE, Miss – A civil engineering major’s outstanding performance in academics, leadership and service has earned university-wide recognition.
Senior Emily Farrar received the Harry Charles Simrall Award for Engineering Excellence, presented by Mississippi State University’s Association of Retired Faculty.
As one of the highest awards a Bagley College of Engineering student can receive, the annual Simrall Award recognizes one student each year who epitomizes its namesake, a former dean of Mississippi State’s College of Engineering. Selection criteria includes academic performance, professional leadership and service efforts, both locally and globally.
“We want to honor someone with similar values to Dean Simrall,” said Robert Green, Bagley College of Engineering’s undergraduate coordinator. “So I always try to picture the student being able to have dinner with Harry.”
While pursuing a civil engineering degree with a concentration in environmental engineering, Farrar took part in re-establishing MSU’s chapter of the Soil and Water Conservation Society before serving as vice president. She is also a member of MSU’s Society of Scholars and Chi Epsilon. The Shackouls Honors College member has worked as both a researcher for civil engineering faculty and as an environmental intern with Gulf Power in Pensacola, Florida.
“Even with all of this excellent work, I think perhaps Emily’s greatest accomplishment has been her work with Engineers Without Borders,” said Green. “She became a leader in that organization and was instrumental in accomplishing some truly wonderful things.”
Her dedication to MSU’s Engineers Without Borders chapter led to a global hands-on engineering experience when the MSU group supervised the digging of several wells in Zambia, providing clean water to over 10,000 residents in the area.
The Harry Charles Simrall Award for Engineering Excellence was established in 1999 to honor Simrall. During his 44-year career, the award’s namesake served as an electrical engineering professor, dean of engineering, president of the National Society of Professional Engineers and, following his 1978 retirement, a charter member of ARF.
To learn more about the Harry Charles Simrall Award for Engineering Excellence, visit http://library.msstate.edu/arf/studawards.asp.
The Bagley College of Engineering is online at bagley.msstate.edu. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by searching for @msuengineering.
By: Amanda Meeler