{"425101":{"#nid":"425101","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Class of 2014 gets great advice from AIAA chief Sandra Magnus","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGraduation season unofficially kicked off April 2 as the AE Class of 2014 bestowed honors and celebrated its legacy during the Senior Banquet.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAIAA executive director Dr. Sandra Magnus headlined the event, regaling her audience with equal parts warmth, wisdom, and practical advice.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The aerospace engineering community is a small one,\u0022 she told the seniors, who were packed into the Gordy Room of Wardlaw for the gala.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ctable width=\u0022250\u0022 border=\u00220\u0022 cellspacing=\u00221\u0022 cellpadding=\u00225\u0022 align=\u0022right\u0022\u003E\u003Ctbody\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd\u003E\u003Cem\u003EDr. Sandy Magnus, center, spent much of the evening talking with AE students and faculty, including Dr. Lakshmi Sankar, right.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003C\/tbody\u003E\u003C\/table\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022So look around you. These are the people you are going to be going through your career with. Everybody knows everybody in aerospace.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESigma Gamma Tau President Joseph Mattingly mc\u0027d the event, announcing several student-generated awards from the podium.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShane Lympany was voted by his peers to receive the 2014 Outstanding Senior Award. Lympany was lauded for his undergraduate research under the direction of both Dr. Massimo Ruzzene and Dr. Ahuja.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EQuoting Lympany\u0027s nomination, Mattingly said \u0022[Lympany] is extraordinarily intelligent and humble\u2026[he is] a great teacher and a great friend.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ctable width=\u0022225\u0022 border=\u00220\u0022 cellspacing=\u00221\u0022 cellpadding=\u00225\u0022 align=\u0022right\u0022\u003E\u003Ctbody\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd class=\u0022rtecenter\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u0026nbsp;AE\u0026nbsp;senior Joseph Mattingly, left, and Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year,\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003EDr. Mike Mello, right.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003C\/tbody\u003E\u003C\/table\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERecognized by the Class of 2014 as the Most Outstanding Faculty Member of the year was Dr. Mike Mello.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022This year\u2019s honoree is an incredible friend of the student,\u0022 the nomination read. \u0022Whether to help solve a problem or just to have a friendly conversation, [Mello] is always willing to speak with students and make their days just that much better...if you need help after normal business hours, you can usually find him willing to help.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Class of 2014 also recognized the talents and ambitions of an up-and-coming classmate, Cleary Mahaffey, who was named Outstanding Sophomore.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs excited as the seniors were to be in the final leg of their Georgia Tech career, they were more enthusiastic to hear what Magnus had to say about life in the real world.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ctable width=\u0022200\u0022 border=\u00220\u0022 cellspacing=\u00221\u0022 cellpadding=\u00225\u0022 align=\u0022right\u0022\u003E\u003Ctbody\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd class=\u0022rtecenter\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EOutstanding Senior awardee Shane Lympany, left, and SGT\u0026nbsp;President Joseph Mattingly\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003C\/tbody\u003E\u003C\/table\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor Magnus, a veteran of three space missions, the real world was one that requires teamwork, leadership, and a lifelong love of learning.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022As an astronaut, you have to love academics because you will never be out of the learning mode. I had to learn how to draw my own blood, how to speak Russian. There are going to be tasks they\u0027ll ask you to do 10 years from now that we are not even considering today.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMagnus also predicted that many of the graduating senior\u0027s most arduous challenges would later be remembered more fondly.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022I\u0026nbsp;call it Type\u0026nbsp;II\u0026nbsp;Fun: it\u0027s the kind of fun that you don\u0027t realize you\u0027re having until you\u0027re done with it. Then, it\u0027s something you can laugh about or be proud of.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPerhaps Magnus\u0027s biggest gift to the students (and AE)\u0026nbsp;were two cardboard boxes, full of the flight manuals that taught her how to handle the complex systems on her three NASA\u0026nbsp;missions. Stapled and clipped together like ordinary class handouts, these guides were her mainstay as a young astronaut.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022They are a part of history,\u0022\u0026nbsp;she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe manuals are being digitized and will be accessible to the campus community later this year.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ctable width=\u0022400\u0022 border=\u00221\u0022 cellspacing=\u00221\u0022 cellpadding=\u00221\u0022 align=\u0022center\u0022\u003E\u003Ctbody\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd\u003E\u003Cem\u003EMagnus didn\u0027t blink when one of the AE\u0026nbsp;students at Wednesday night\u0027s banquet asked her to sign his laptop\u003C\/em\u003E.\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003C\/tbody\u003E\u003C\/table\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022rtecenter\u0022\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003ESee more photos from Magnus\u0027s visit on the GT-Aerospace\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/GT-Aerospace\/185777213430\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EFacebook\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u0026nbsp;page\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u0026nbsp;","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"AIAA executive director Dr. Sandra Magnus headlined the Senior Banquet regaling her audience with equal parts warmth, wisdom, and practical advice."}],"uid":"27456","created_gmt":"2015-07-15 14:54:22","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:19:04","author":"Britanny Grace","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-04-03T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-04-03T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1239","name":"School of Aerospace Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"130","name":"Alumni"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"2082","name":"aerospace engineering"},{"id":"167549","name":"Sandra Magnus"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":["communications@ae.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}