COE Seniors Recognized for Outstanding Achievements
The Outstanding Senior Awards categories are Citizenship & Service, Humanities, Leadership and Scholarly Achievement. Seniors are nominated by their respective academic departments, and winners are chosen by a selection committee made up of faculty and staff members in the college.
May 14, 2026 
Staff
Four College of Engineering students were honored with Outstanding Senior Awards at the 2026 Engineering Awards Banquet for their achievements during their time at NC State University.
The banquet was held on April 29 in Duke Energy Hall in the James B. Hunt Jr. Library. The College of Engineering’s Office of Academic Affairs recognized students, faculty members and partners from around North Carolina.
The Outstanding Senior Awards categories are Citizenship & Service, Humanities, Leadership and Scholarly Achievement. Seniors are nominated by their respective academic departments, and winners are chosen by a selection committee made up of faculty and staff members in the college.
Congratulations to the winners: Connor Moore for Citizenship & Service, Grace Jaeger-Sandruck for Humanities, Kaitlyn Gainey for Leadership and Noah Siekierski for Scholarly Achievement.
Outstanding Senior Awards
Citizenship & Service
Connor Moore
Lampe Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at NC State University
Connor Moore, a graduating senior in the Lampe Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at NC State University and UNC-Chapel Hill, Moore lost his mother the summer before his junior year to an aggressive form of blood cancer. Ever since, he’s been dedicated to helping patients and families with similar stories.
In his time at NC State, Moore founded the #JennyStrong team through Blood Cancer United, raising more than $52,000 for vital research and advocating for patients. Moore also volunteers with the Duke Cancer Institute. There, he recruited donors, worked directly with patients and raised awareness about life-saving transplant options.
On top of that, he won a National Science Foundation grant for his work with the Advanced Wound Healing Laboratory, led by Professor Ashley Brown. He also served as a campus ambassador and maintained his spot on the dean’s list each semester.
Citizenship and Service Nominees
- Megan Aljian, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
- Riley Corn, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Josie Gonzalez, Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering
- Matthew Jones, Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Cole Malinchock, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
- Jacob Martin, Department of Nuclear Engineering
- Kaitlyn Rosenberg, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Dania Swelam, Department of Computer Science
Humanities
Grace Jaeger-Sandruck
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
In her time at NC State, Grace Jaeger-Sandruck studied abroad in Portugal and Prague, designed display visuals at Eli Lilly, learned Python and more, all because she wanted to visit the Eiffel Tower as a child.
Convinced she had to learn French to do so, Jaeger-Sandruck threw herself into doing just that. By the time she realized she didn’t have to learn French to go to France, Jaeger-Sandruck was already committed to the language, inevitably majoring in it at NC State.
This led her to industrial and systems engineering, her second major. Like she does with the French language, Jaeger-Sandruck uses her industrial engineering skills to solve complex problems.
This past fall semester, she completed a research project in which she examined the evolution of wax printed textile production in Côte d’Ivoire. Putting both her industrial engineering and French majors to use, she studied how changes in manufacturing reflected the evolution of colonization and decolonization from the French Empire.
Humanities Nominees
- Campbell Depken, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Lauren Dunlap, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
- Alicia Equan, Lampe Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering
- Elizabeth Gillikin, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
- Grant Johnson, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
- Youssef Kozman, Department of Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science
- Sylvia Snyder, Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering
- Cindy Sun, Department of Computer Science
Leadership
Kaitlyn Gainey
Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering
A Caldwell Fellow, a student team lead for the annual Engineering Career Fair and a student ambassador with the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, Kaitlyn Gainey knows what it means to lead.
Gainey believes the best leaders are those who help others. This is especially evident in her volunteer work with the Feed the Pack food pantry, Habitat for Humanity and the Christian United Outreach Center.
In addition to her leadership roles, Gainey has excelled in her classes, landing on the dean’s list every semester and graduating with a GPA of 3.98.
Gainey plans to continue to care for the College of Engineering community through her involvement with the Alumni Association.
Leadership Nominees
- Ava Armstrong, Lampe Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering
- Grace Harvey, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
- Silver Hyatt, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
- Britton Janet, Department of Computer Science
- Nicolas Jimenez, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
- Teresa Mulligan, Department of Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science
- Ryan Sedlacek, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Willard Sheets, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Ashton Sumpter, Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Scholarly Achievement
Noah Siekierski
Department of Electrical and Computer Science
On top of maintaining a 4.0 GPA, Noah Siekierski, computer engineering major, spent his time at NC State publishing multiple papers in prestigious journals, winning first place in the Physics Olympiad and opening doors for researchers by creating a new, functional AMP-based QST solver.
Professors applauded not only Siekierski’s mathematical prowess, but also his tenacity, leadership and inquisitive nature.
Off campus, Siekierski has positioned himself at the forefront of cutting-edge quantum research at Sandia National Laboratories, where he has interned since May 2024. In the last two years, he developed a tool for creating scalable quantum algorithm benchmarks and an open-source Python package for characterizing noisy quantum processors, among other projects.
Scholarly Achievement Nominees
- Sofiia Asadchykh, Department of Nuclear Engineering
- Megan Corrigan, Department of Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science
- Sreenidhi Elayaperumal, Lampe Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering
- Jameson Hill, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
- Madeline McDaniel, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
- Eli Rodrigues, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
- Parker Stone, Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering
- Cameron Sivilla, Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Anastasiia Steksova, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Ethan Telep, Department of Computer Science