UA Engineering Alumni Honor Outstanding Senior

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Eric S. McVay, a senior at The University of Alabama, recently received the 2015 Capstone Engineering Society Outstanding Senior Award.

Along with the award, McVay was given a $500 stipend to honor his achievements. He accepted an award at a ceremony honoring alumni, faculty and students earlier this month at Embassy Suites in downtown Tuscaloosa.

McVay, who lives in Tuscaloosa, is set to graduate this spring from UA with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering.

A native of Portland, Oregon, he served three tours of duty with the Army National Guard before transferring to UA in 2012. A Cadet in the UA Army ROTC, McVay is also a member of the Alabama Army National Guard.

“Eric McVay is the ideal recipient for this award,” said Dr. Richard Branam, an assistant professor of aerospace engineering and mechanics and a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force. “He has demonstrated his leadership, dedication, initiative and performance during his undergraduate education and U.S. Army career through his tireless pursuit of a University of Alabama education.”

When transferring to UA, McVay earned several scholarships including the UA ROTC Alumni Memorial Endowed Scholarship and the NASA Space Grant Scholarship. A double major in aerospace engineering and physics, McVay was selected for the UA Outstanding Transfer Student Award in 2013, and he is a member of Sigma Gamma Tau honor society.

He has also been active as an undergraduate researcher. He designed and built a test platform to examine the effects of dynamic stall on an oscillating hydrofoil, presenting his findings to the 66th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics.

He also interned as a test engineer on a classified project at Dynetics Inc. in Huntsville during the summer of 2014, and he plans to intern this summer with NASA Langley Research Center as part of the Space Mission Analysis Branch.

McVay helped develop RocketSat, a senior-design project that required the team to build a rocket to deploy a scientific payload at 1,000 feet. McVay is also president of the UA chapter for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and is vice president and co-founder of the campus chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space.

McVay served three tours of duty in Baghdad, Iraq; Muscat, Oman; and Active Guard Reserve Training NCO while earning the rank of sergeant as a member of the Oregon Army National Guard from 2007 to 2012.

With the UA Army ROTC, McVay is a company commander, and he was recognized by the Army this year as a Distinguished Military Graduate. McVay will be receiving his commission as a United States Army Officer this May.

A part of the University Scholars program, McVay is already taking classes toward earning a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from UA, and he plans to graduate in May 2016.

After completing his graduate degree, he intends to continue professional development in the field of astronautics. His long-term career interests include space mission analysis, space propulsion, space systems engineering and manned space flight.

The Capstone Engineering Society, the alumni association for the College of Engineering, was established in 1973. CES is dedicated to maintaining relationships with UA engineering alumni to ensure the College is able to provide UA engineering and computer science students with a superior educational experience.

The CES began the Outstanding Senior Award in 1986 to honor an exceptional student who deserves distinction among his or her peers. An outstanding student is selected from the 11 academic programs in the College, and the overall winner is determined by a selection committee after assessing each student’s academic performance, professional and technical activities, College leadership, external leadership and other activities.