Contact: Bob Ratliff
For the second consecutive year, Mississippi State's mechanical engineering students hold the top regional honor of a national engineering society.
The university's student section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers recently received the 1998 Allied Signal Award for a region that includes Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and western Tennessee.
Also, section chair Pete Umbdenstock has been named Outstanding Student Leader for the Southeastern region. The Gulfport senior will compete in November with other regional winners for national honors at the International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in Anaheim, Calif.
Presented by Allied Signal, a New Jersey-based Fortune 500 technology and manufacturing company, the chapter award is the highest honor bestowed on an ASME student organization. Last year, MSU shared the award with chapters from Christian Brothers University in Memphis and the University of South Florida in Tampa.
The 145-member MSU group also earned 1998 honors for attendance and leadership activities.
The MSU chapter of the 118-year old national organization was chartered in 1926, making it one of the school's oldest continuous student organizations. Mechanical engineering professor Richard Forbes is chapter adviser, a service he has performed most years since 1968.