(Music Playing) Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

My name is John Papapolymerou.

I'm the interim dea of the College of Engineering.

As we get underway this afternoon, we ask you to join our graduates and faculty in singing of the Star Spangled Banner.

Amira Coleman, doctoral student in the College of Music.

We lead the singing, and she requests you join her and sing with enthusiasm.

Would you please all stand?

If you're able to do so and face the American flag.

Gentlemen, please remove your hats.

O say can you see by the dawns early light What so proudly we haild at the twilights last gleaming Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight Oer the ramparts we watchd were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets red glare the bomb bursting in air Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave Oer the land of the free and the home of the brave Thank you.

Please be seated.

I would like to welcome everyon to this very special ceremony, where we pay tribute to thos who have successfully completed the requirements for bachelor's degree in engineering and to alumni, family and friends receiving special recognition for their outstanding career achievements.

This is a joyous but also solemn occasion out of respect to those speaking and those being recognized.

I ask you to hold your applause and celebration until the en of each segment of the program.

You're also reminded to please silence your cellphones.

I also request tha when we get to the recognition of individual graduates you remain in your seats to hear the names of all students crossing our stage today.

Each one of our students worked very hard to get here today and deserves our respect as they recognize.

Today's ceremony represent the culmination of discipline, intellectual work, and creative imagination.

Certainly no small accomplishment for many of you and your families here today.

The sacrifices have been long and great.

The degree you have earned acknowledges your success and honors those who have encouraged.

Our wish i that you will always be leaders who generously use you intelligence and your knowledge to improve the quality of lif for your community, to advance the common good, and to renew hope in the human spirit.

I would like now to ask a member of the 2025 graduating class to reflect on his engineering undergraduate experience.

I'm pleased to introduce Samuel Rabick electrical engineering graduat who was selected by the faculty and the engineering Student Counci to provide the student address.

Samuel is from Kalamazoo, Michigan and would like to thank his parents, Greg and Meredith Rabick as well as the rest of his family, for supporting him here today.

Thank you, Dean Papapolymerou, and a war welcome to everybody here today.

Friends, family, faculty and all those here today to help celebrat the engineering class of 2025.

My fellow graduates, congratulations.

Yeah.

This is a very exciting time.

And I think at a time of such tremendous transition in one's life, it's reasonable to have a lot of questions.

What comes next for all the long hours and late nights?

Worth it.

Why are we wearing glorified rain ponchos?

And who's this guy on stage?

And what does he think he's going to tell me about my degree?

Well, thank you for asking.

I am Sam Ray, and my qualifications include being a beacon of wisdom and a wellspring of insight.

Just ignore anything you may have seen or heard me do on MSU game days or, halal Weekend or, Saint Patrick's month.

Just all of March.

Ignore it.

besides that, though, beacon of wisdom and seriousness, I think one of the great parts of college is being exposed to new people and perspectives at an institution like MSU that needs perspectives from all around the world.

And as part of that process, you also learn about what makes your own perspective unique.

And so I volunteered to be here today just to share my perspective on this moment and hope it is appreciated.

So back to those questions I was talking about.

I think it's especially reasonable in a crowd like this one for there to be a lot of questions filled with young engineers.

As engineers, we have to ask question have to be a little bit cynical.

The first step to problem solving, after all, has to be problem recognition.

And so as engineers and critical thinkers, it is our gift and our burden to look at the world and see the inefficiencies, the suboptimal parties, and in some cases, the outright flaws, that can be a discouraging way to look at the world.

But ask anyone who knows me well, and they'll tell you that I'm somebody who tries to maintain a positive outlook.

And I certainly love to celebrate, which explains the occasional lapse in being a beacon of wisdom.

But that positive outlook is something I got from my family, in my community growing up.

And those are als the reason that this celebration in particular means a great deal to me.

I come from a family of educators.

My mother taught special education as a third an a generational line of teachers.

My father, a computer engineer by profession, volunteered to help support Stem education programs around our county.

And my sister, a fairly recen graduate in chemical engineering herself, is already giving back, helping host youth events with the local chapte of Society of Women Engineers, giving every great min the opportunity to fall in love with this field to whic we have all dedicated ourselves.

Beyon my nuclear family are countless others who have dedicated parts of their personal and professional lives to the next generation through education.

And so one of the many things my family's always most eager to support and celebrate is academic milestones.

At the same time.

I grew up in a communit where far too many are precluded from the opportunities fo education I have available to me a fact that's accompanied by a great many somber statistics and individual stories.

But one perhaps surprising consequence of that fact is, I believe that our high school graduation was more fun than most, which saw steep obstacles faced so many around us we could not possibly take that milestone for granted.

It demanded celebration.

And so despite and in many ways in honor of the obstacles faced by so many of our peers and those of our peers for whom the obstacles they faced proved too great to be overcome.

In that time, we celebrated and we celebrated ardently.

This was not a golf clap sort of event.

It is some combined influence of my family and my community that instilled in me a bone deep appreciation of the achievement, privilege and opportunity that is higher education.

And it is that same combination that instilled in me a positive outlook because it taught me the first step of proble solving is problem recognition.

Short.

But that doesn't get anything done.

The second step is to say that a problem is worth it to us to solve, and that we believe we possess the capacity to make an impact on that problem, to improve lif for all those who come after us.

So yes, engineering requires a little bit of cynicism and an abundance of humanity and an abundance of hope.

Only after that second step can we even begin.

Or cycles of design, build and test.

And at the end of those cycles at the end of a job well done, it is that hope and humanity that compels us to celebrate.

We are here today at the end of a pretty substantial job well done, if I may say so myself.

And so I return to the first of those questions I posed earlier.

What comes next?

After all the names have been called, we will have one final moment togethe before going our separate ways.

And I ask then tha what comes next for each of us to celebrate?

Celebrate for yourselve and your friends from all across the university, graduating this weekend for the tremendous accomplishment you have earned and celebrate the families, educators, and communities tha have helped you to this moment.

After that, find problems worth solvin and you'll know what to do next.

That concludes my shift as a beacon of wisdom.

I intend to take a very long break.

Which means if you see me on Grand River later tonight.

No, you didn't.

And in case I don't see you later, I leave with this short toast.

But you do good things, do grea things, take care of yourselves and take care of each othe to good times and good company.

Thank you.

Thank you, Samuel, for your very thoughtful comments on behalf of all engineering graduates.

Turning now to our award i recognition part of the program.

We begin first with the Claude Ericsson Distinguished Alumni Award.

This award is given annually to a graduat of the College of Engineering, who has attained the highest level of professional accomplishment, provide a distinguished and meritorious service to the College and the engineering profession, and engaged in voluntary service at the local, state, national or even international level.

The award is named for Claude Ericsson, who received four engineering degree from Michigan State University, beginning with a bachelor's of science in 1922.

He also studied law and was qualified to practice before the United States Supreme Court.

Continuing the same speed with which Claude leaves his life.

We gather here today to honor another distinguished alumnus and add him to the list of those the college holds forth as examples for our graduates.

I'm pleased now to introduce Mr. Bob Nuber, chair of the Engineer Alumni Board, who will introduce this year's recipient.

Hello.

As chair of the College of Engineering Alumni Board, it is my honor to congratulate you as graduating Spartan engineers and welcome you to the alumni family.

We're proud of your accomplishments, and we encourage you to stay engaged.

There are tens of thousands of us that you can seek out, find, teach, and learn from.

It is my honor and pleasure to introduce to you the 2025 Claude, our Erickson Distinguished Alumni Award winner, Mr. David Pahl.

Dave is vice president and head of investor relations at Texas Instruments, where he oversees communications with its investor community.

Dave graduated from MSU with a degree in electrical engineering and has over 38 years of experience beginning his career as an application engineer in Dallas, Texas.

He then worked in sales and sales management in Silicon Valley for eight years.

His customers include a lon list of Silicon Valley startups, as well as some of the company's largest customers.

Dave returned to Dallas as a marketing manager and then moved to Houston a a product development manager.

There, he managed the development of more than a dozen embedded processors with teams based in Houston, Dallas, Tokyo and Bangalore.

Later, he served as busines manager of several product lines in what is now his embedded processing segment.

Dave has a long history of service to the College of Engineering, and we look forward to many more years of involvement.

Congratulations, Dave.

Thank you.

Bob.

good afternoon and congratulations.

You all made it.

It's great.

You survived.

Thermodynamics.

differential equations, group projects where I'm sure you did all the work.

Yeah, and at least one professor who taught partial credit was just a sign of weakness.

Now, I know it wasn't the Final Four finish we had hoped for this year.

To make it worse, as I have a very good friend of mine whose son went to, went to Auburn and it's hard to say that name, but now I have to listen to him for a whole year so we all know what that's like.

But hey, unlike the bracket, you all, actually finish something this spring, and I graduated over 40 years ago.

and back then, the cloud was just something that ruined your tailgate.

I actually met some someone with actual intelligence.

and a portable tech was a phone you carried around in a briefcase.

So, one of the projects I worked on at Texas Instruments was a dedicated processor to improve the picture quality on phones.

And I remember thinking, who's going to want a camera on their phone?

I just couldn't imagine that.

It just seemed ridiculous at the time.

But that processor ended up being part of a product line that, generated over $1 billion of, of annual sales a year for the company.

So, yeah, I missed calling that one.

And honestly, I missed a few other, technologie that I wouldn't have called for.

but if I go back and tell my younger self one thing, it would be, wouldn't be technical advice.

It would be this.

Don't underestimate the quiet moment you have the hallway conversations, the mentors who see something in yo before you do the weird project, the unusual project that you almost turned down.

sometimes your best ideas won't come from a lab.

They'll come from listening or failin or helping someone else succeed.

But that's the point.

The future doesn't always show up with a big banner.

Sometimes it sneaks in disguises, a weird side project, or a bug that somehow turns into a feature and you'll be the ones that spot it.

You're stepping into a world with just mind blowing tools.

But the real challenge really hasn't changed.

Solve real problems.

Make things work.

Improve life for the people.

You'll likely never be.

There'll be tons of setbacks.

projects have flopped.

Budgets have vanish.

Bosse who think engineering just means changing the font on a PowerPoint.

But you'll keep going because that's what us engineers actually do.

We debug.

We iterate, an we just design our way forward.

And here's one thing I want you to remember.

Your work may not always make the headlines, but it will always matter.

Engineers don't just dream about the future, we actually build it.

Maybe one circuit at a time.

One line of code.

you know what?

What are we thinking?

Ideas that come to us.

So we need your contributions.

the future will be built by people like you.

not just with tools, but with values.

Curiosity, integrity, grit.

And that's what Spartans are made of.

So go out there, build, blow boldly, fail proudly.

And if it breaks, make sur you've got good vision control.

Go green.

Thank you so much, Dave.

We are proud of your accomplishments as an outstanding Spartan engineer.

The College of Engineerin has a long list of distinguished alumni graduating from each of our academic departments.

This year's recipient were honored at a formal dinner last evening, and we would also like to recognize several of them at this ceremony as an example and inspiration inspiration to our new graduates.

Will the Alumni Award winners please stand and accept our congratulations?

Thank you.

Your achievements are an inspiration to all of u and a hallmark of everything MSU strives to achieve in its graduates.

Michigan State University is hom to incredibly talented faculty, and those in the Colleg of Engineering are no exception.

It is my pleasure to recognize faculty and staff who have won the 2025.

We throw teaching, scholarship and student service awards through the generosity of Jack and Dorothea Withrow.

We established awards for engineering faculty and staff to recognize our standing, teaching, scholarship, professional service, and service to students with those faculty and staff.

Awardees.

Please stan and accept our congratulations.

On behalf of MSU engineering students and the college, thank you so muc for your excellence in teaching, research, professional service, and most of all, outstanding service to our students.

It is now my privilege to recognize the special accomplishments of graduates who have distinguished themselves for their outstanding academic achievement.

We pay tribute to graduates who not only completed their academic program successfully, but who have the distinction of having maintained the highest grade poin averages in the class, thereby emerging a 4.0 grade point average.

Names of the 4.0 students are on the screen behind me.

And to be eligible for a 4.0, at least three fourths of the credits for the degree must be earned in residence at Michigan State University.

these honorees designated by the green, white and gold braided cor worn with, the academic, robe.

this semester, 40 engineering graduates earned, a four point average.

So I would like again to ask these students to please rise and remain standin to accept our congratulations.

Thank you.

On behalf of your classmates, the faculty, the administratio and trustees of the university, I congratulate you and wish you the best.

Our next group of honorees are students nominated by a member of the MSU engineering community for their service to the college.

When your name is called, please stand and remain standing.

Nora Dailey, Electrical Engineering.

Java.

No doubt.

Biosystems engineering.

Maddie Grant, civil engineering.

Allison Hotchkiss, chemical engineering.

Walter Kratzer, chemical engineering.

Irene School of Mechanical engineering.

Jackson Larkin, mechanical engineering.

Jade Person environmental engineering.

Rachel Kink, material science and engineering and mechanical engineering.

Sonia Cena, computer science.

Ryan Stearns, chemical engineering.

Zachary Zeller, materials science and engineering.

Congratulations.

Please join me in offering our collective tribute to the students.

Please be seated.

Engineering students wh are also graduating from the MSA Honors College have completed a rigorous set of enriched courses during their engineering curriculum and are identified by their wide color stone with the HCC designation.

Would all members of the Honor College stand for recognition?

This?

License.

Please be seated.

Co-ops and internships are extremely important for many of us in the college.

Students who completed at least three co-op or internship experiences, along with completing EGR 42 experience, are wearing orange and white cords.

Could you please stand to be recognized?

Finally, MSU is a national leader in the development of international programs through both student and faculty participation in these programs.

We continue to play an important role in enhancing global understanding and building an international community of scholars.

Would all students who have participate in an education abroad program or international research or work opportunity please stand for recognition.

At this time, we will take a brief departure from the presentation for a special piece of music honoring our graduates.

Conductor Eugene Jones and the MSU Symphony Band will perform fantasy on MSU songs.

(Music Playing) Thank you.

Okay, so now, here is the moment, everybody has been waiting for.

So we shall now confer the baccalaureate degrees upon candidates from the major programs of the college.

So the candidates from the major of applied engineering sciences will be presented by Doctor Laura Genik, director of the program.

With the candidates.

Would the candidates for the degree of applied engineering Sciences please stand and remain standing?

Dean Papapolymerou.

My apologies.

On behalf of the applied engineering faculty, I present to you these candidates for the awarding of the bachelor's degree in applied Engineering sciences.

Thank you so much, Doctor Genik.

The candidates from the major of Biosystems engineering will be presented by Doctor Brad Marks.

Chairperson of the department.

But the candidates for the bachelor's degree in bio system engineering.

Please stand or remain standing.

Dean Papapolymerou.

I'm pleased to present on behalf of all the bioscience and hearing faculty, these candidates for the awarding of the baccalaureate degree.

Thank you.

Doctor Marks.

The candidates from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science will be presented by Doctor Christina Chan, Chairperson of the Department.

Will the candidates.

With the candidates for.

For the degrees in Bachelor.

Sorry.

Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering.

Please stand and remain standing.

There we go.

Dean Papapolymerou.

On behalf of the Chemica Engineering and Material Science engineering faculty, it is my pleasure to present to you these outstanding candidates for the awarding of the baccalaureate degree.

Thank you, Doctor John.

The candidates from the Department of Seal and Environmental Engineerin will be presented by Doctor Pete Savolainen chairperson of the Department.

Designers.

Builders.

Dreamers.

Would the candidates for the bachelor's degrees in civil engineering and environmental Engineering please stand and remain standing?

Dean Papapolymerou.

On behalf of the Faculty of Civi and Environmental Engineering.

It brings me great pleasure to present you with the candidates for the baccalaureate degree.

Thank you.

Doctor, I have a line up.

The candidates from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering will be presented by Doctor Abdol Esfahanian, chairperson of the Department.

With the amazing candidates for bachelor's degree in Computer science and Computational Data science, please rise.

If able.

Dean Papapolymerou.

These smart, talented candidates are ready to change the world for better.

On behalf of the Computer science faculty, I am pleased to present them to you for the awarding of their degree.

Thank you, Doctor Ross for hanging.

The candidates from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering will be presented by Doctor Nelson Sepulveda, chairperson of the Department.

With the candidates for the, will candidates for the bachelor's degree in computer engineering and electrical engineering, please stand up and remain standing.

Dean Papapolymerou, on behalf of the faculty of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, I present to you the class to be awarded their bachelor's degree.

Their bachelor's degree.

Thank you.

Doctor.

The candidates from the Department of Mechanical Engineering will be presented by Doctor Minami Yoda chairperson of the Department.

Will the candidates for the bachelor's degree in mechanical Engineering please stand and remain standing?

Mechanical engineers keep the world moving.

Dean Papapolymerou, on behalf of the Mechanical Engineering faculty, it is my pleasure and privilege to present these candidates to you for the awarding of the baccalaureate degree.

Thank you, doctor Yona.

Okay.

On behalf of the president who has delegated to him the authority of the stat of Michigan, vested in the Board of Trustees, I confer upon each of you the degrees for use for which you have been recommended with all rights and distinctions to which they entitle you, according to the custom.

You may now move your tassels from the right side of your caps to the left.

Congratulations, MSU alumni!

Please be seated.

Okay.

This act represents the conclusion of a great achievement and marks the beginning of a lifetime of dedicated service to your fellow citizens.

It is an achievement worthy of celebration.

And we're here this afternoon to celebrate the fact that more than 880 students have this semester completed the academic progra of their choice in the College of Engineering.

At this time, the new graduates will be escorted to the stage by their academic advisors.

Would the advisor please stand and be recognized?

The students will be introduced by Jamie Paisley and Scott Pohl from WKAR Broadcasting Services as they walk across the stage to receive a token diploma.

Students who attaine grade point average between 3.98 and 4.0 are awarded University High Honor.

University honor is awarde to students when the grade point average is between 3.89 and 3.97.

These honors are designated by the gold cord added to their academic roles.

Before we get started with the fun part, I'm giving our students one last assignment.

I promise it's the last one.

Pleas show respect to all your fellow graduates and remain in the arena through the reading of all of the names.

For the rest of the audience, please keep your individual applause brief so that the names of each of ou graduates can be heard by all.

So will th graduates from the Environmental Engineering major please come forward.

From the Department of Environmental Engineering.

(Conferral of Degrees, Reading Graduate Names) From the Department of Civil Engineering.

(Conferral of Degrees, Reading Graduate Names) From materials science engineering (Conferral of Degrees, Reading Graduate Names) From the Department of Biosystems Engineering.

(Conferral of Degrees, Reading Graduate Names) From the Department of Applied Engineering Services.

(Conferral of Degrees, Reading Graduate Names) From the Department of Electrical Engineering.

(Conferral of Degrees, Reading Graduate Names) From the Department of Computer Engineering.

(Conferral of Degrees, Reading Graduate Names) From the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

(Conferral of Degrees, Reading Graduate Names) From the Departmen of Computational Data Science.

(Conferral of Degrees, Reading Graduate Names) One more time.

Congratulations to all of our graduates.

Well deserved.

Okay, we're almost at the finish line.

there's a large group o individuals who have contributed with their love, their understanding, and their financial support to the achievements that we recognize today.

So, accordingly, we'd like to ask all members of the immediate families of the graduates to rise and give all of us an opportunity to express our deep thanks and appreciation.

So, family members, please stand so we can recognize.

I would als I would also like to introduce a very important group of people who have the ultimate responsibility for the education that you have received with the representatives of the faculty of the College of Engineering.

Pleas rise and accept our gratitude.

So I would like to ask everybody now to please join us in singing the alma mater, the MSU Shadows, MSU Symphony Band, conducted by Benjamin Horn, will accompany us.

MSU we love thy shadows When twilight silence falls Flushing deep and softly paling Oer ivy covered halls Beneath the pines well gather To give our faith so true Sing our love for Alma Mater And thy praises MSU.

Thank you Amira.

Please be seated.

I would like to thank Scott Pohl and Jamie Paisley of WKAR radio for reading graduates names.

I would also.

Thank you.

I would also like to thank Andrea Cleaver for providing our real tim captioning of today's ceremony.

Thank you.

Andrea.

Please remain seated while the platform part and the faculty leave the arena.

Once the platform party has left, please remain in your seats for one additional special number from the MSU Symphony Band.

In honor of our graduates.

After the recessional, families and friends may meet the graduates on the ground level.

To all of our graduates, we're extremely proud of all of yo completing your work here today.

We know that you will accomplish great deeds in the future, and we want to hear from you often.

The best to all of you.

And one more thing go green.

Go green.

(MSU Fight Song)