ALABAMA DELTA UPSILON

During the spring of 1977, Professor D. B. Wallace initiated interest among students to establish a chapter of Pi Tau Sigma at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Correspondence was begun with the National Council and a petition prepared for consideration by the Pi Tau Sigma chapters. The petition was granted, and the Alabama Delta Upsilon Chapter was formally installed on October 21, 1978, by National President S. Chandra and National Secretary-Treasurer H. Hewitt. Jr.

To promote cooperation within the Mechanical Engineering Department, the Delta Upsilon Chapter works with the student section of A.S.M.E. Members also work on tutoring sessions organized with other engineering honor societies and participate in the annual Open House held at the University.

ANNUAL SUMMARY REPORTS

2022-2023, Dr. Babak Shotorban, Advisor

Following the initiation ceremony, elections were held and the chapter’s officers were elected on April 11, 2023. New officers are Grayson Fulmer (President), Stephen Haun (Vice President), Catherine Sultz (Treasurer) and Tanner Cowart (Secretory). Other than the election event, no other events/university projects were held during the 2022 – 2023 semesters. The other activities were lacking mainly because no initiations were held in the previous two years and all undergraduate initiates in the chapter now have been newly initiated late in the Spring semester. The lacking of initiations in the previous years was mainly because of the fact that two previous academic advisors left UAH within one year from each other.

2018-2019 Grant Sgarlata, President

There were a few key activities this year for our chapter. The first of which took place during our school’s week of welcome, which is a one-week wind-up to the school year primarily to welcome freshman to the campus. Our chapter set up a booth in conjunction with Engineers Without Borders to speak to new freshman and help them with any questions they might have about the school. In addition, the PTS section of the booth was used to talk to people about interview etiquette, teach them how to tie ties and bowties, and inform them about ongoing research on campus so they could see what their professors do as engineers. We also gave out information about what Pi Tau Sigma is, how to get involved, and what the requirements are to be invited to join.
Another activity our chapter participated in was attending a research presentation by Dr. Masatoshi Hirabayashi who is a researcher involved in a joint mission between NASA, ESA, and JAXA along with many universities to investigate a top shaped asteroid. This was very interesting and really showed some incredible applications of our studies.
In addition to these on-campus activities, our chapter resumed attending the National Convention after not attending last year, and had many chapter meetings with our advisor to discuss growing the organization and improving things like our website, outreach, and involvement.
One other important facet of this year was our record enrollment this Spring, a larger number of members should allow our organization to more aggressively pursue outreach and functions for members.