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DAVID ERICKSON: Welcome, everyone. Our first in-person Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in-person graduation since 2019, so congrats, welcome, everyone.
[APPLAUSE]
So I'm David Erickson. I'm the director of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering here. And this is also my first in-person graduation. So, yeah, I'll take that. I'll take that, absolutely.
So I thought what I would start off with, since this is sort of a historic class and a historic moment, in a sense, I thought I would start off with a little bit of history.
What became the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering here began at Cornell and around the 1870s, not too far, actually, from this very spot. At that time, concept of a mechanical engineer as opposed to a civil engineer or something like that, was relatively new, somewhat new. But we forged ahead.
And we started offering our first bachelor's degrees in mechanical engineering in about 1873, 1874. OK, so to give you a sense of how new it was at that time, about 10 years later, 1885, fully one in five mechanical engineers in the United States were trained here at Cornell, one in five.
[APPLAUSE]
So that makes-- if you do the math, that makes this class about the 144th class of mechanical and now aerospace engineers graduating from the Sibley School. So that really deserves--
[APPLAUSE]
And each of those 144 classes has their own story, of course. And each of them had their own something happening in the background of their education. Some of them experienced war. Some of them experienced social strife. And all of them-- and many of them experienced any number of natural disasters, and so forth.
But I want to call attention to this crowd, the graduates from around the 40th to the 42nd class. And those are the graduates that graduated in about 1918 through about 1920. And those graduates, that's about the 40th and the 42nd classes, as I say. Those graduates from just over 100 years ago will forever share a common bond with this class, because they had their education disrupted also by a worldwide respiratory pandemic, the great influenza, sometimes called sometimes mistakenly called the Spanish flu, which I'm sure you've all heard of.
They, of course, didn't have the luxury of PCR testing or the curse of Zoom meetings that we all had. But if you read back in history, it's pretty remarkable how similar many of the ways they were disrupted mirror what this class has gone through. Isolation, physical distancing, masking, and all those things that this class had to deal with, that class had to deal with as well.
So what I thought might be interesting here today is just find a few, pull up a few names of those Cornellions that graduated from that 40th through 42nd class, and went on to do what they went on to do. And so if you're interested, you can look back. There's a great article by Lorenzen called The Cornellians who emerged from the last pandemic. And I encourage everyone here to look at that.
So I'll list a few here. So first one, EB White, class of 1921, in arts, went on to become one of the great American writers, writing children's books, including one that I'm sure most many people here are familiar with, Charlotte's Web. Isadore Rabbi, I hope I'm saying that right, class of '19 entered as a Cornell engineer, eventually graduated with a science degree. So you know, can't have everything, right?
But he went on to win the 1944 Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance. Albert Castle, class of 1919, degree in architecture, had his studies interrupted by service in France, but returned to become a prominent architect in the United States, designing many buildings, including those for the Tuskegee Institute and Howard University.
And finally, Mary Donlon class of 1920 in law, was the first woman editor-- the first woman to be the editor-in-chief of a major law review in the United States and became one of its first female judges. And she is, of course, the namesake of Donlon Hall here on the Cornell campus.
So much like I'm sure those faculty 100 years ago were proud of those graduates and all the graduates of that time, we here in the Sibley School are proud, equally proud, of all of you and for everything that you have gone on to do and will go on to do. You will go on to do great things in the same way that many of them did.
And so whether it was that you had your-- when we first had to go online, three years ago, to 2 and a bit years ago, when we first had to figure out hybrid education, or the disruptions we've had since returning in person, whether it's figuring out how to keep your doctoral research going when you couldn't get back into the lab, or whether it's figuring out how to complete a project when you couldn't see your teammates, all of this group here adapted and persevered.
And so as we hopefully emerge from the pandemic, this event being one of the ones that is, I think, most exhilarating for many of us, and your time at Cornell comes to a close, I'm going to ask you to remember two things.
So the first thing is I want you to remember everything we taught you. OK, that's the first thing. So remember, don't forget about that part. Like to be a good engineer, you really do have to know thermodynamics. So don't forget about that, OK?
But the second thing I really want you to do-- I really want you to do is remember how the skills that you developed during your time here, how you were able to adapt and persevere through your time here, think about how you can use those skills to be able to, in your professional lives and in your personal lives, understand all that and be able to take those skills and do it, and use them.
So today, be proud of yourself. This is your big day. This is your big accomplishment. You made it. You should own it. Congratulations to all the graduates.
[APPLAUSE]
So we'll start out today with presentation of awards. So first prize goes to is the Thomas J. and Joan Kelly Prize. This award is given to the student who shows excellence in aerospace engineering as demonstrated as demonstrated through coursework or an innovative design project. The awardee must show clear evidence of being well-rounded person with outstanding non-engineering contributions to Cornell and/or the greater community. And the winner is Evan Wilt--
[APPLAUSE]
--conducting research with Professor Savransky on structural thermal optical analysis for state estimation of satellite imaging constellations.
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Congratulations. Second award, the Outstanding Senior Award for Distinction and Leadership and Engagement. This award is made possible by Matthew O'Connor, ME 1981, MN 1982 ASME chapter president 1980 to '81, award goes to Mohammad Ali Moghaddasi.
[APPLAUSE]
Congratulations.
[APPLAUSE]
Next award, the Walter Werring Prize for Excellence in Studies-- Walter Werring for whom the prize is named graduated from Cornell in 1922, so one of those people who was here the last time we did this, with a degree in mechanical engineering. This award was established to recognize talented and dedicated undergraduate Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering students who have enhanced the Cornell community, excelling in a manner befitting the reputation of the Sibley School. And the winner is Andy Tan.
[APPLAUSE]
Congratulations.
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The Frank Ellenwood Prize-- this prize is donated by an alumnus who wishes to remain anonymous in honor of the late Sibley Professor Frank Ellenwood. Professor Ellenwood co-authored a classic three-volume text on heat power. This award is presented to the seniors with the highest composite award in heat and power-related engineering courses. And the awardee is Nate Thompson.
[APPLAUSE]
Congratulations. [APPLAUSE]
And finally the McManus Design Award-- this award is named in honor of Howard McManus, BSEE '84 and EE '85, Cornell and PhD '97, who was an outstanding Sibley professor in both thermal and design aspects of engineering. Professor McManus believed strongly in teaching engineering design. After his untimely death in 1974, his friends established the fund, which supports this annual award, judged on integrity and engineering skill as an original as an original solution to a design problem or project and the winners are [INAUDIBLE], Alex Dary, Cathy Nguyen, LM Nawrocki, Jerry Jin, Tina Zhang, and Elaine Zhing. So congratulations.
[APPLAUSE]
And that is for their project "Creating Better Food Cabinets" with Professor Zhang, so congratulations to all.
[APPLAUSE]
Congratulations.
And so congratulations to all the winners. And with that, I'll turn it over to Professor Andarawis-Puri, director of Graduate Studies for the Sibley School.
NELLY ANDARAWIS-PURI: Thank you, David.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you, Professor Erickson. It's my pleasure to get to share in this defining moment in the life of each one of our graduating MS and PhD students. I'm going to keep this very short. But I just want to say a few things.
As faculty, we have the best job in the world, because we get to witness your professional and personal evolution that sets you up to become leaders, innovators, educators, and game changers. As you forge your path in this next chapter of your career and as life inevitably presents its next set of challenges to test your mettle, I encourage you to rely on the memories that you have of all that you have accomplished and overcome to arrive at this critical moment.
Draw from the friendships you formed and the community that you enriched while pursuing a very challenging degree to bring excellence to your next adventure, and elevate those that you in turn become entrusted to nurture. I know that I speak on behalf of all of the faculty here when I say that we are very proud of you. Congratulations. [APPLAUSE]
And now we will begin our hooding ceremony for our graduating PhD students. During this traditional ceremony, each graduating PhD student will have their doctoral hood placed over them by their doctoral dissertation advisor. This important moment signifies successful completion of their very hard-earned PhD degree. And so without further delay, it gives me great pleasure to present to you our graduating PhD students.
[APPLAUSE]
All right, so first we have Cameron Aubin. Cameron's field is mechanical engineering. His advisor is Professor Robert Shepherd. And his dissertation title is "Increasing the Embodied Energy and Power Density of Robots via Multifunctional fluids." And he will be hooded by Professor Savransky.
[APPLAUSE]
Beatriz Asfora, her field is aerospace engineering. Her advisor is Professor Mark Campbell. And her dissertation title is "Multi-agent Planning Under Uncertainty."
[APPLAUSE]
Aditya Bhaskar, her field is theoretical and applied mechanics. Her advisor Professor Alan Zehnder. And her dissertation title is synchronization his-- I'm sorry-- his dissertation side title is in Synchronization and Coupled Optothermal Silicon MEMS Limit Cycle Oscillators."
[APPLAUSE]
Next we have Xiangkun Elvis Cao. His field is mechanical engineering. His advisor is Professor David Erickson. And his dissertation a title is "Light Fluidics and Their Applications in Global Sustainability and Health."
[APPLAUSE]
Steven Ceron, his field his mechanical engineering. His advisor is Professor Kirsten Peterson. His dissertation title is "Enabling Local to Global Behaviors and Collectives Across Length Scales."
[APPLAUSE]
Jiajun Gu, her field is mechanical engineering. Her advisor is Professor Max Zhang. And her dissertation title is "Data Driven Exploration at the Nexus of Energy and the Environment."
[APPLAUSE]
Scott Hamill, his field is mechanical engineering. His advisor is Professor Hadas Kress-Gazit. And his dissertation title is "Gate Synthesis and Resilient Task Planning for Emulating Soft Robots."
[APPLAUSE]
Aneesh Heintz, his field is aerospace engineering. His advisor is Professor Mason Peck. And his dissertation title is "Intelligent Estimators for Autonomous Optical Navigation."
[APPLAUSE]
Dean Keithly his field is aerospace engineering. His advisor is Professor Dmitry Savransky. And his dissertation title is "Evaluating and Scheduling Exoplanet Direct Imaging Missions."
[APPLAUSE]
David Camano, his field is mechanical engineering. His advisor is Professor Shefford Baker. And his dissertation title is "The Strength of Braced Single Lap Joints."
[APPLAUSE]
Alap Kshirsagar, his field is mechanical engineering. His advisor is Professor Guy Hoffman. And his dissertation title is "Robot Controllers, Gaze Behaviors and Human Motion Data Sets for Object Handovers."
[APPLAUSE]
Kristine Lai, her field is mechanical engineering. Her advisor is Professor Ankur Singh. And her dissertation title is "Immune Organoids to Study Antigen Presentation."
[APPLAUSE]
Zachary Lee, his field is mechanical engineering. His advisor is Professor Max Zhang. And his dissertation title is "Scalable Data-Driven Control of Grid Interactive Buildings."
[APPLAUSE]
Keith LeGrand, his field is aerospace engineering. His is advisor is Professor Silvia Ferrari. And his dissertation title is "Random Finite Set Information Theoretic Sensor Control for Autonomous Multi-sensory Multi-object Surveillance."
[APPLAUSE]
Adam Pacheck his field is mechanical engineering. His thesis advisor is Professor Hadas Kress-Gazit. And his dissertation title is "Automatically Encoding, Modifying, and Finding Robot Skills to Repair High-Level Tasks."
[APPLAUSE]
Yu Ran, her field is mechanical engineering. Her thesis advisor is Professor David Erickson. And her dissertation title is "Research on Automated Drug Delivery in Digital Agriculture and Aflatoxin Assessment in Point of Care."
[APPLAUSE]
Pushan Sharma, his field is mechanical engineering. His advisor is Professor Pepiot. And his dissertation title is "Computationally Efficient Particle PDF Simulations of Turbulent Combustion Using Pre-partitioned and Dynamically Partitioned Adaptive Chemistry." And he'll be hooded by Professor Olivier Desjardins.
[APPLAUSE]
Vikram Shree, his field is mechanical engineering. His advisor is Professor Mark Campbell. And his dissertation title is "Collaborative Scene Perception with Multiple Sensing Modalities"
[APPLAUSE]
Michael Suguitan, his field is mechanical engineering. His advisor is Professor Malte Jung. He'll be hooded by Professor Savransky today. And his dissertation title is "At Least Be Human, Humanizing the Robot as a Medium for Communication"
[APPLAUSE]
Geoffrey Sward, his field is mechanical engineering. His advisor is Professor Max Zhang. And his dissertation title is "Modeling Tools for Wind and Solar Integration and Air Quality Co-benefits in Zero-carbon Future."
[APPLAUSE]
Lam Vu, his field as mechanical engineering. His advisoris Professor Olivier Desjardins. And his dissertation title is "Multiscale Modeling and Control of Liquid Gas Flows with a Focus on Spray Atomization.
[APPLAUSE]
Brian Wang, his field is aerospace engineering. His advisor is Professor Mark Campbell. And his dissertation title is "Perception and Planning for Autonomous Navigation and Unstructured Environments."
[APPLAUSE]
Nialah Wilson-Small, her field is mechanical engineering. Her advisor is Professor Kirsten Peterson. And her dissertation title is "Embodied Physical Interactions for Robot-to-robot and Robot-to-human Communication."
[APPLAUSE]
Dowa Yudalon, their field is aerospace engineering. Their advisor is Professor Mason Peck. And their dissertation title is "Autonomous Navigation of Relativistic Spacecraft Theory and Applications."
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you, PhD students. And [APPLAUSE] congratulations.
[APPLAUSE]
And now it's my honor to present to our graduating MS students. Shonak Bhattacharya. His field is mechanical engineering. His advisor's Professor Atieh Moridi. And his thesis title is Designing Porous Structures for Orthopedic Applications Using Additive Manufacturing.
[APPLAUSE]
Rahul Kumar Ravi. His field is mechanical engineering. His advisor is Professor Hadas Kress-Gazit. And his thesis title is Timing Controller for Human Robot Object Handover Implementation and Evaluation.
[APPLAUSE]
Ruby Shu. Her field is mechanical engineering. Her advisor is Professor Robert Shepherd. And her thesis title is Sensing Plant Soil Interface with Bioinspired Robotics.
[APPLAUSE]
[INAUDIBLE]. His field is mechanical engineering. His advisor's Professor Sylvia Ferrari. And his thesis title is High Level Tasks for Swarm Automatic Correct Redistribution of Robots to Satisfy on the Fly Requests.
[APPLAUSE]
Congratulations once again to our MS students.
[APPLAUSE]
Lastly, before I relinquish the floor, I want to take a moment to once again thank Marcia Sawyer, our graduate field administrator for all her invaluable contributions to our graduate program. Marcia is a tremendous force for good, for both faculty and students. And I know that the experience of our graduate students would have suffered without her.
She has helped us navigate uncharted terrains throughout the pandemic, as if she has read some non-existent playbook and was a source of strength, stability, and order during a time that challenged us in every way possible. I'm repeatedly humbled and awed by her unquestionable dedication to our students and our program. Thank you, Marcia.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you, Marcia. And I now would like to introduce Matt Ulinski, our master of engineering program director, who will address the MEng graduates.
[APPLAUSE]
MATT ULINSKI: I am pleased to be able to announce the 2022 and some '21 graduates of our master of engineering program. These students represent both the aerospace and mechanical engineering programs. But before I start, I would like to take a moment to thank somebody, too, who's been incredibly helpful to us and me during these COVID years and really, obviously, for all the years that I run the program.
She's helped me and my students through these tough years. And with her guidance in planning and support, our program has been very successful. Please join me in recognizing Judy Thoroughman, my assistant director.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you. MEng students, what a journey you've been on. Your academic careers have been unique, to say the least. I think if anything, you have learned to be very resilient. My hope for you when you came into the program, was not only that you'd be able to be on campus and in the labs, but you'd be challenged and do things that inspired you.
Getting to know you in your programs, I think that we've been very successful. I hope this is just one step toward a fulfilling engineering career and a lifelong journey into learning. My advice for you going forward is simple. Have a plan. Be open minded. Be courageous. And above all, make a difference. Show the world that engineers can lead and make the change that we need.
The centerpiece, for me, anyway, of the MEng degree is the projects that you do. So when I announce your name, I will also be announcing your project title and the advisor that you worked with, which I am ready to do now.
[LAUGHTER]
Our first graduate is [INAUDIBLE]. Design of a C Book Coefficient and Electrical Conductivity Apparatus for Measuring Thin Film Thermoelectric Materials. Zhiting Tian is her advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Hamza Akik. Human Robot Collaborative Design. Guy Hoffman, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Pietro Bernardini. Cislunar Explorer. Maize Peck, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Van Cates. Geometry Cross Collaboration of Orbiting Satellite Swarms. Dmitry Savransky, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Christopher Kavanagh. Active Grid 3D Printing Turbulence. Greg Bewley, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Arthur Chadwick. QCM Temperature Frequency Characterization for Plume Measurement Applications. Elaine Petro, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Christopher Chan. Autonomous Flight Control of RC Aircraft. Andy Ruina, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Brian [INAUDIBLE]. Bat Robot. Sunny Jung, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Christopher Amodi. Analysis of Bolted Connections and Tribology. Mostafa Hassani, Santiago DelPuerto from ASML, and Matt Ulinski, advisors.
[APPLAUSE]
Grace Falanga. Additive Manufacturing of Ceramics for High Pressure in Thermal Shock Aerospace Applications. Sadaf Sobhani, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Chase Fang. Highly Agile and Shock Absorbent-Wheeled Robot for a Bio-Hybrid Control. Robert Shepherd, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
David Ferris. Integration and Automation for a Custom Metal 3D Printer. Atieh Moridi, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Jared Gershowitz. Defensive Maneuvering of Spacecraft Without Propellant. Timothy Sands, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Maria Gonzalez Montaner. Data Acquisition System for ASTRO Lab. Elaine Petro, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
William Hintlian. Cislunar Explores Electrical Harness Design. Mason Peck, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Benjamin Inbar. CFD Analysis of Triaxial Gas Puff Valve. Perrine Pepiot, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Jonathan Luzinsky. Designing a Drop On Demand Additive Manufacturing Machine. Mostafa Hassani, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Connor Lee. Preliminary Analysis of TCAD Driving Efficiency Optimization. Al George, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Alexander LoCicero. Robust Automated Tower Spectrometer Control System. Joseph Skovira, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Emily Logan. Quantification of Red Blood Cell Damage in the Norwood Surgery. Mahdi Esmaily, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Harris Mandell. Mechanics of Biological Composites. Nikolaos Bouklas, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Alberto Mentuti. Morphing Wing. Rob Shepherd, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Lineker Ono-Lozano. A Passive Heat Exchanger for a Compressible Turbulence Pressure Vessel. Greg Bewley, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Anthony Ordañe Cuéllar. Skewed Shear Layer Turbulence. Greg Bewley, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
[INAUDIBLE]. Robotics. Kirsten Petersen, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Gina Park. Designing a Soft Mobile Interface for Multimodal Human Robot Interaction. Kirsten Petersen, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Andre Patella. Optimal Control of Solar Sails. Timothy Sands, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Srita Prem. Performance Analysis and Charge Optimisation of Electric Buses in Ithaca. Max Zhang, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Carla Reigosa. Autonomous Trajectory Generation Comparison for Deorbiting with Multiple Collision Avoidance. Timothy Sands, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Gabriele Rampichini. Bolted Joints Project, ASML Cornell Collaboration. Mostafa Hassani, Santiago DelPuerto from ASML, and Matt Ulinski, advisors.
[APPLAUSE]
Lucy Raymond. Strain Mapping of Double and Single Braised Lap Joints with Digital Image Correlation and our Instagram social chair. Jeff Baker, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Isabel Richter. MDO for Complete Fastening in Fast Paced Manufacturing. Sharish Karuppasamy, advisor, from Tesla.
[APPLAUSE]
Charlie Robinson. Spacecraft Systems Engineering and Management. Mason Peck, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Kayla Rossi. Finite Element Analysis of Mounting Design for the Alpaca Instrument on Arecibo. Matt Ulinski, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Hunter Sadaf. Modeling Electrolysis-Based Propulsion of a Cislunar Satellite. Mason Peck, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Matt [INAUDIBLE]. GE Aviation Advanced Mobility Design Project. Greg Bewley, Matt Ulinski, and Chris Kroeger from GE Aviation, advisors.
[APPLAUSE]
Niharika Shukla. Single Particle Ejection System for Micro-Sized Metal Powders Used in Digital Energy Deposition Additive Manufacturing. Atieh Moridi, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Alexandra Siskovic. A Model for Vine-Like Self-Weaving Robots. Kirsten Petersen, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Colin Sullivan. ASML Bolted Joints. Mostafa Hassani, Santiago DelPuerto from ASML, and Matt Ulinski, advisors.
[APPLAUSE]
Ethan Valentine. Design for Human Robot Interaction and Child Development. Keith Green, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Nicole Wang. Fixture to Measure Pull Out Force for Mouse Knee Implant. Chris Hernandez, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
[INAUDIBLE] Wang. Surface Wave Generator. Chris Roh, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Evan Wilt. Structural, Thermal, and Optical Analysis for State Estimation of Satellite Image Constellations. Dmitry Savransky, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Kimberly Yap. Combined Solar Heating and Thermoelectric Generation. Zhiting Tian, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Christine [INAUDIBLE]. Sensor Balls for Surface Exploration and Rover Path Planning. Josh Ravich, advisor, from JPL.
[APPLAUSE]
And I have one more, but I can't see. It's Emerson. Hang on. Emerson Braithwaite. [INAUDIBLE]. Andy Ruina, advisor.
[APPLAUSE]
Please join me-- oh, wait a minute. OK. Please join me in congratulating our 2022 and some '21 master of engineering graduates.
[APPLAUSE]
I'm now going to pass the podium over to Professor Brian Kirby, associate director for undergraduate affairs, who will announce the undergraduate degrees, and I'm sure a little bit more.
[APPLAUSE]
BRIAN KIRBY: Well, good morning, everyone. My name is Brian Kirby, and I'm the associate director here. This is really a joyous day. And it really warms my heart to see so many students here and to see so many friends and family, faculty, and staff. We saw the hooding of the PhDs. We saw the masters of science students and the masters of engineering students. And now we'll do the bachelor students.
Before we read the names, I want to take a moment to thank three different people. And so I propose to mention them, and then I'm expecting a standing ovation for them when I'm done. The first person is Professor Betta Fisher.
Better Fisher was the associate director for the first 2 and 1/2 years of the journey of these students, which means that she was the associate director when everything went down in March of 2020. And I don't know how-- some people know, but there aren't that many people who know the magnitude of the efforts that she went through to make sure that we managed things in the spring, that we managed things as time proceeded. And so her impact on the trajectory of these students really just can't be overstated.
The second person that I want to mention is Kae-Lynn Wilson, who manages our undergraduate program office. She also was around when everything went down in 2020. And her partner in crime, who she had worked with for a long time, actually ended up leaving our department, it turns out, just two weeks before that happened.
So Kae-Lynn supported all of the students for at least a full year, basically doing the job of two people in the middle of the pandemic. I can tell you that when I sent notes to her at 7:00 AM, I got a response. When I sent notes to her at 11:00 PM, I got a response. I don't really know what Kae-Lynn was doing other than working for an entire year.
The third person is Ashley Blank, who then joined us later-- joined Kae-Lynn in the undergraduate program office and then has continued to support the students. And she has teamed up with Kae-Lynn and really made that undergraduate program office a special place for the students. So I hope that we can all take a moment to give, again, a standing ovation for Professor Fisher, Kae-Lynn Wilson, and Ashley Blank.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you so much. So the next order of business is reading the names. So I don't know if you've ever been in Bailey Hall when the bouncers come to kick you out, but it's unpleasant. So because we do have to manage time, we ask that you hold your applause during the individuals, as they come across.
I've done many of these. I know how this works. I ask you to hold your applause, and then some of you listen to me. But please be aware. What we can do to help people efficiently move across the stage will allow me to give a very long-winded set of remarks at the end.
[LAUGHTER]
All right. We proceed. The 2022 bachelor of science graduates are as follows.
[READING NAMES]
There are a number of students who couldn't be here today, and I'd like to read their names, as well.
[READING NAMES]
[APPLAUSE]
All right. You're not done with me because I have a few remarks. As many of the students here know me-- and the students who know me might be expecting stories about my battles with the Soviet Chess Federation or my adversarial relationship with the Ithaca police.
[LAUGHTER]
But instead, I'd like to begin my remarks by telling you about a dream I had a couple of weeks ago about my mother. See, you're laughing. You don't know what the next line is.
[LAUGHTER]
[SIGHS] My mother died when I was a teenager. She was an intellectual, but she didn't live to see me go to college. She didn't live to see me graduate. She didn't live to see me get my PhD. She didn't live to see me become a professor at Cornell. She didn't live to see me give commencement addresses about teaching and learning and the joy of discovering and sharing new knowledge.
And I dream about her from time to time. And it happens most often when graduation is coming. These dreams never really make any sense. They usually have fond memories of things we did together, but they're usually combined with the fear and confusion I felt when she was sick. They usually involve an intense desire that I always had as a child, to make her proud of me.
And the dreams usually don't make any sense. They don't coherently connect to anything. They're not really pleasant or unpleasant. They're just a thing.
But this dream I had a couple of weeks ago, it played out a specific scene of my mother and me. And it's a third-person view that I've seen on an 8 millimeter film that my father took. And the scene is my mother teaching me how to ride a bicycle.
And the dream was incoherent. My brain-- I don't know what it was thinking. It played the scene forwards and backwards. It played it in color. It played it in black and white. Sometimes it was grainy like the film. Sometimes it was clear, like I was still there.
It was just like the 8 millimeter film, in that it didn't have any sound. But while it played in my dream, I experienced this crescendo of certainty, that what was happening was important, that it somehow meant everything, that it somehow had the answer. And then I woke up.
I presume that this was incipient sleep apnea caused by a combination of advancing age, high blood pressure, a worsening overbite--
[LAUGHTER]
--and weight gain.
[LAUGHTER]
So my dream had no answer, but the scene from that film stayed with me. And I found myself thinking about it in recent days, as I thought about our graduating class, and as I thought about what we've been doing over the last four years. So I'd like to talk to you, the family and friends, who are here. And I'd like to tell you what the students have been up to. And I'd like to talk to you, the students, about what I think it means.
To the family and to the friends, you should be so proud of these students today. They've completed a deep and rigorous and empowering four year curriculum. They've engaged in innumerable classes. They've spent late nights working on problem sets. They came to know websites like Blackboard and Canvas and Piazza and Ed Discussion, these perpetual frenemies.
They've taken countless exams, written exams, and oral exams. They learned and forgot many mathematical theorems. They've ideated and built machines and tools and robots and devices. Almost none of these devices worked.
[LAUGHTER]
But they had fun, and we thought it was hilarious.
[LAUGHTER]
The students did these things in packed rooms. They did these things in rooms where they were forced to be separated by 6 feet. They did it with masks on. They did it with masks off. They did it over the internet. They did it while they were sick, and they did it while they were healthy.
They did it during one of the most contentious presidential elections of our history. They did it during periods of senseless violence. They did it during inexplicable wars in foreign theaters. They did it while it often felt like the world was collapsing around them, and they did it when it felt like there was no hope.
But most of all, they did it with your support. You supported them. You cared for them. You helped them get here, and you helped them finish. You should be very proud of what the students have accomplished, and you should be very proud of the role that you played.
[APPLAUSE]
To the students, I want to come back to my dream and the scene. It starts with my wanting to get on the bike and my mother not letting me. Then I get on the bike, but she won't let me ride. Before I got to ride, I had to practice falling.
So she made me get on the bike, and then she tilted it so that I would fall. And she made me practice. And she made me get back up. I had to practice putting my foot out to catch myself. So she did that to the left. She did that to the right.
Then she pushed it a couple of feet and got me moving, and then she tilted it to the left. And then she tilted it to the right. And she made me practice. So I did this over and over again.
And after all this practice, my mother decided it was time to go. So now imagine the 8 millimeter film, the grainy film with no sound. So it's time to go, so I pedaled. And I knew that if I was going to fall, that I knew how.
And I remember my mother running along with the bike. I remember she was telling me, I'm holding on to the seat. You're not going to fall. I'm holding on to the seat. You're not going to fall. And I remember being excited, but I also remember feeling safe.
I remember, I knew that she was holding on to the seat, and I wasn't going to fall. And even if I did fall, she had already taught me how to fall and how to get back up, how to do it without getting hurt. If you go and you watch the scene, though, this grainy 8 millimeter film clip that played over and over again in my dream, what it shows is that she was never holding on to the seat because she didn't need to.
She had already taught me what I needed to know. All she was doing was running along with me and cheering. And I think this is what's been happening for the last four years. Those stupid math theorems, the problem sets, the test, the projects, the late nights, all those times when you felt like we were piling on more and more work, so much work that you weren't sure that you could do it--
All those times when it felt like we were your adversary, that we didn't understand why COVID sucked or why you were overwhelmed, when it felt like we weren't helping you, that all we were doing were setting assignments and grading you and judging you, when all that time, it felt like the world was falling apart in our way, as professors, as mentors, as engineers, we were teaching you how to fall. And we hope we were teaching you how to get back up.
So what are we doing today? Today's the day that all ends. Today's the day we congratulate you. We tell you how proud we are of you. And today's the day you get to ride your bike wherever you want to. Just know that when you do it, you might not see it, but we'll be running along behind you, cheering you on. And you won't need anyone to hold your seat.
My heartfelt congratulations to the class of 2022. Let's all give them around of applause.
[APPLAUSE]
DAVID ERICKSON: Thank you, Professor Kirby.
[APPLAUSE]
So one last thank you before we end today. Thank you again to Kae-Lynn, Judy, Ashley, and Marcia for organizing this fantastic event today. So we'll just give them one overall--
[APPLAUSE]
Thanks again to all of you that spent the last years here with us at Cornell. Thanks for all the parents for supporting everyone. Congratulations to everyone.
[APPLAUSE]
OK. So we're going to try to get a picture here. So we're going to ask the guests to remain seated for a few minutes while we-- until the faculty and graduating students exit. And they're going to meet in front here, right? And we're going to follow Judy and Kae-Lynn. Is that right? OK. Please follow Judy and Kae-Lynn.
[LAUGHTER]
[APPLAUSE]
Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Recognition Ceremony 2022
