The Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering has recognized seven students for their standout college careers with Senior Leadership Awards.

The annual awards celebrate undergraduate students’ success in academics, service, research, and professional experiences. They’re designed to recognize outstanding students for their cumulative achievements over their bachelor’s degree studies, and they go to students who graduated in Fall 2021 or are on track to finish their degrees in Spring or Summer 2022.

Nominations for the awards come from faculty and staff members as well as other students. Nominees submit applications and letters of support. As is the case every year, the selection committee noted in announcing the awards that there were far more remarkable and deserving nominees than the awards can recognize.

This year, the awards honor:

McKenzie Tuttle 

Outstanding Academic Service 

This award honors graduating seniors who have challenged themselves through involvement inside and outside the classroom and contributed to the student educational experience at Georgia Tech. Tuttle served as a teaching assistant in BMED 1000, Introduction to Biomedical, as well GT 1000/2000 classes, and she has been a tutor at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta hospitals. Tuttle also served as a BME FUTURES ambassador, leading informational tours for prospective Coulter BME students.

Maria Liu  

Outstanding Community Service 

This award honors graduating seniors who have made service an integral part of their college experience through their commitment and significant contributions to the community. Liu traveled to hospitals in Kenya with Samaritan’s Purse to work with local medical staff on preventive maintenance and repair of anesthesia machines and other surgical equipment. Their work helped open more operating rooms for patients and increase the longevity of donated equipment. Liu also has worked as a Georgia Tech Student Ambassador and with first-year students as a Coulter BME orientation leader.

Mary Kate Gale 

Outstanding Research 

This award honors graduating seniors who have demonstrated outstanding research skills and shared their work with the broader research community through peer-reviewed publications or presentations at local, regional, or national conferences. Gale worked in Lewis Wheaton’s Cognitive Motor Control Lab and Shella Keilholz’s Mind Lab as an undergraduate researcher, contributing to multiple published articles and presenting at conferences. She also participated in the Nakatani Research International Experience.

Prathic Sundararajan 

Outstanding Industrial Experience 

This award honors graduating seniors who have performed exceptional work in, and demonstrated significant commitment to, the biomedical engineering industry through internships, cooperative education, or international work experiences. Sundararajan pursued multiple internship, co-op, and industry experiences, including at Edwards Lifesciences, HealthCare Evolution, and Vena Vitals.

Cassandra McIltrot 

Outstanding Entrepreneur 

This award recognizes a student or student team who has demonstrated entrepreneurial spirit and initiative and who has made significant progress toward turning their innovative ideas into reality. McIltrot is co-founder of StrideLink Inc., which created a wearable device and custom algorithm to help physical therapists perform gait analysis. Their approach removes subjectivity from the process, helping identify abnormalities for patients with physical or neurological injuries that affect their ability to walk. 

Kevin McCoy 

Outstanding Senior 

This award honors students who have exemplified all-around excellence through their significant accomplishments in several of the following categories of activities: service, academics, research, industry, and entrepreneurship. McCoy has had a diverse mix of experiences as a student, including as a researcher in the labs of Vahid Serpooshan and Cassie Mitchell and an intern at PepsiCo., where he worked on the Nitro Pepsi project. He has served as an emergency medical technician in the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps and as a Georgia Tech Undergraduate Research Ambassador.

Adith Srivatsa 

Outstanding Academic Achievement 

Srivatsa received the President’s Undergraduate Research Award twice at Georgia Tech. He conducted research at the Mayo Clinic and the University of California, Davis, and he worked for four years with Omer Inan’s lab at Tech. Srivatsa’s research resulted in 14 presentations and publications.