Engineering Major Tapped
For Northeastern U. Award

Matilda Urie of Brookfield was selected last month as one of eight Presidential Scholars at Northeastern University in Boston.

The Presidential Scholar program awards full tuition to students with outstanding records in their majors, in liberal arts courses, and in cooperative education placements.

Urie, in the midst of her junior year at Northeastern, is a mechanical engineering major with a minor in international relations.

In her major studies, Urie has focused on wind power, which was also the topic of her senior project at Randolph Union High.

Because her studies at Northeastern include three "co-op" placements, each six months long, it will be two or three years before her daughter graduates, Beth Urie said this week.

Urie’s first co-op placement was with General Electric in Schenectady, N.Y., where she worked on a coal-powered turbine project. It was good experience, but Beth Urie noted that the huge turbines are very different from the "alternative-powered" turbines that most interest her daughter.

At the end of this semester, Urie will head to Glasgow, Scotland, for her second co-op, with Scottish Water. There, she will work on a hydro-power project, and also do a feasibility study on wind power.

For her final co-op, Urie hopes to work exclusively on wind-powered turbines.

This month, Urie is spending her spring break—for the second year in a row—working on a water supply project in a remote area of Honduras, with Engineers without Borders.

According to a release from Northeastern University, more than 300 students applied for the Presidential Scholar award. Applications had to be supported with letters from professors in the student’s major, from a liberal arts course, and from a co-op employer.

"The review committee was extremely impressed with how competitive the group of applicants was, and at the powerful ways they integrated experiential and in-class learning," said Susan Powers-Lee, vice provost of undergraduate education.

Founded in 1898, Northeastern University is a private research university located in the heart of Boston. It is a leader in interdisciplinary research, urban engagement, and the integration of classroom learning with real-world experience.

The university's distinctive cooperative education program allows students to alternate semesters of full-time study with semesters of paid work in fields relevant to their professional interests and major.

____________