The Toppel Awards were created by the Toppel Career Center to identify, through peer nominations and a selection committee, students, administrators, recruiters, and employers who are deserving of recognition for their dedication to impacting the future careers of UM students.
In addition to recognizing student career champions, the ceremony also celebrated the partnerships across and beyond campus that have been essential to placement success.
A team led by Manny Miranda (BSME ‘82), Executive Director of Power Delivery for Florida Power & Light Co. (FPL), the company received the 2019 Employer of the Year Award. Under Manny’s leadership FPL sponsors the CoE senior design capstone project, recruits students, and provides mentorship opportunities for engineers and other STEM majors at the U. The Toppel Career Center has enjoyed a long-standing relationship with FPL for the past two decades, maintaining a consistent recruiting presence on campus. The award is presented to FPL for their significant contributions to the entire UM community through support of career programs, sponsorship of events, and recruitment of our students and alumni.
Haluk Damgacioglu, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Industrial Engineering and a research assistant in the Simulation and Optimization Research Laboratory, and Tyler Busby (BSIE ’19) both received the Student of the Year Award. The award is presented to a graduate and undergraduate student who are nominated for their personal achievements, contributions to their organization, demonstration of personal and/or professional growth as well as evidence of leadership and academic record.
Among the many “career champions” in attendance, Damgacioglu echoed the importance of mentors as he accepted the award for Graduate Student of the Year.
Damgacioglu was recruited into the UMCoE PhD program in 2014 and in that time has published six journal papers, five conference papers and two book chapters. His academic achievements are equally impressive, having received exceptional scores in all his courses. Damgacioglu also has made outstanding research contributions in developing a comprehensive learning approach for high-dimensional data and a publicly available user interface.
As a student who goes above and beyond with his commitment to his work, Busby stresses leaving a positive impact everywhere he goes.
He is a role model on campus as well as in past internship experiences. He has taken a strong leadership role within Tamid Group – a program designed to offer experiential business learning. Busby also exhibits a desire to leave an organization better than when he arrived. He seeks to improve and expand upon the benefits of membership, learn and pass on best practices, as well as network with members at other chapters across the country to gather ideas.
Busby maintains a high level GPA while taking six engineering classes and is involved in multiple organizations, while also holding a job on campus.
