Athrey Nadhan named Knight of St. Patrick

 

MechSE senior Athrey Nadhan was awarded as a Knight of St. Patrick for 2016. This award recognizes 10 students in different departments within the College of Engineering. 

 

The Knight of St. Patrick is an annual award given to students who represent leadership, excellence in character, and individual contributions to the College of Engineering. It is one of the college’s highest honors. 

 

Nadhan has been heavily involved in the college and has held a number of leadership positions. 

 

He is a four-year member of ASME and served as the internal vice president and president of Pi Tau Sigma, the mechanical engineering honor society. He served as the senior representative to the MechSE Advancement Student Committee Undergraduate Advisory Board and was a tour guide for the department for the last three years. 

 

The experience that has arguably influenced him the most is the time he has spent with iRobotics. Nadhan got involved in the program his freshman year and played a key role in outreach programs with local middle schools. 

 

“I really love to work with the kids and get them excited about science and engineering,” Nadhan said. “My most memorable college experience will always be when one of the middle school students I was working with came up to me and asked, ‘Can I watch you guys build robots? I really want to do engineering now!’”

 

He has overseen the iRobotics mentoring program for FIRST Lego League teams and has volunteered, and judged several tournaments. 

 

Nadhan is preparing to graduate in May and he will begin a career with Northrop Grumman as part of the electronic systems sector. Through his experiences at Illinois, Nadhan said he feels well-equipped to join the working world. 

 

“I have learned to lead by working alongside my team rather than above my team,” Nadhan said. “As a leader, I try to lead by example, connecting with my team members personally, and always being there to help. I've also learned to adapt my style of leadership to the specific goals of different teams and organizations.” 

 

Caite McCarthy, Aerospace

Margaret Barbero, Bioengineering

Mallory Schroeder, Bioengineering

Ashley Williams, Bioengineering

Nick Connolly, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Jay Bensal, Computer Science

Srini Srikumar, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Katharine Mehan, Materials Science and Engineering

Athrey Nadhan, Mechanical Science and Engineering

Shanna Bobbins, Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering