1999 Laureates

Tau Beta Pi, the National Engineering Honor Society, has named two Laureates in the Association’s annual program to recognize gifted engineering students who have excelled in areas beyond their technical majors. The 1999 Tau Beta Pi Laureates are: Tracey C. Ho, 1999 graduate in electrical engineering of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, lauded for her athletic achievements; and Rikke U. Pedersen, 1999 graduate in civil engineering of Northern Arizona University, also feted for her athletic accomplishments. They join 47 other outstanding Tau Bates who have been named Laureates since 1982.

The Laureate Program exists to further Tau Beta Pi’s second basic purpose as stated in the Association’s Constitution: ". . . to foster a spirit of liberal culture in engineering colleges." The primary concern of the society is to recognize students of superior scholarship and exemplary character and to honor eminent practicing engineers. The society also encourages excellence in engineering education and in the ethical practice of engineering.

The Tau Beta Pi Laureates will be honored on October 9, 1999, at the 94th annual Convention to be held in Madison, Wisconsin. President Douglas M. Green, P.E., will present each winner with a $2,500 cash award and a commemorative plaque. Their biographies follow:

Tracey C. Ho

Tracey C. Ho entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1995 after attending Raffles Junior College in her native Singapore. There, she was one of four students annually to receive a president’s scholarship and one of 36 in the Asia-Pacific region to be awarded an AT&T Asia Pacific scholarship. Even though she has excelled in music, sports-journalism, service, and art, she was never able to compete athletically until she attended MIT. She had, however, competed in piano competitions, national physics, chemistry and mathematics contests, and in international mathematics olympiads.

At MIT, she chose to become involved in women’s pistol sports. Her rise to excellence was meteoric, considering she had no previous shooting experience. Because Tracey is completing both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in four years instead of five and has heavy course loads, her added effort and practice time is extraordinary. Practice is officially two hours a week Monday through Thursday, and she frequently devoted time on Fridays as well. Home and away matches occur two-to-three weekends each month. Tracey was able to make significant contributions to her team after only four months. She helped her team to acquire first-place status at the 1995 Massachusetts State Junior Olympic pistol championship. Later that season she even qualified individually in women’s air pistol. Her sophomore year, she was on the varsity team and was scoring in women’s air and women’s sport pistol at nationals.

During her sophomore year, Tracey took part in the traditionally male free-pistol event because several team members had recently graduated. The structure of pistol events is somewhat complicated. Each competition has five events: women’s air, open air, women’s sport, standard, and free pistol. An air gun is used in women’s air and open air, whereas a standard gun is used in women’s sport and standard. The free pistol event, however, uses a gun with a hair trigger and a long barrel, making free pistol the most exhausting physically because of its greater difficulty, longer duration, and more distant targets.

Tracey became among the best shooters nationwide during her junior year, placing first in free pistol and women’s air pistol and second in open air pistol. She was the only female free-pistol qualifier in the traditionally all-male event, and her qualifying score for women’s air pistol was the nation’s highest. She won an individual gold in women’s air pistol and propelled the MIT team to first place. She won these events even though she completed the grueling two-hour free pistol immediately before the women’s event and while suffering from the flu.

Tracey’s perseverance galvanized alumni, who endowed a national trophy for women’s air pistol, which was presented for the first time at the national championships this year. For her 1997-98 season performance, she was named to the All-American first team for women’s air pistol, voted the most outstanding female athlete at the institute, and received the 1998 Betsy Schumaker trophy from the athletic department.

In her final season, Tracey continued to improve her average and personal best scores, placing first in open air pistol, women’s air pistol and women’s sport pistol, and second in free pistol in the sectionals in February. The team qualified in all events except sport pistol.

Having graduated from MIT, Tracey has returned to Singapore, where she has been asked to join the national squad.

Rikke U. Pedersen

A remarkable young woman, Rikke grew up in the countryside on a farm just half an hour from Copenhagen, Denmark. She joined a track club at the age of eight under the guidance of one of the most brilliant coaches and team leaders in the country, and her talent was apparent early. She would compete in every event in a meet: the 100 meter, 3,000 meter, long jump, high jump, and heptathlon. She won 12 gold medals. In 1994, Rikke was the youngest member of the Danish national team and was chosen to run the last leg of an ekiden into the Olympic Stadium in Seoul, South Korea. It was then she realized that she wanted to pursue her dream of being an Olympian.

Her family would sail the Scandinavian seas for weeks at a time, camping on their own land and throughout Europe. Rikke has skied in the Swiss, Italian, French, and Austrian Alps and explored more than 25 different countries. She speaks Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, German and English and comes from a family of engineers. She was the top graduate at her junior high school and her Danish gymnasium and American high school. During her year as an international exchange student in Simi Valley, California, she set numerous track records.

In 1994, Rikke returned to the United States and began her college career with the Northern Arizona University Lumberjacks. During her five years there, her many achievements were unprecedented. A civil engineering major with a perfect 4.0 GPA, Rikke’s list of achievements, primarily as a long-distance runner, is impressive. She is a 12-time individual Big Sky Conference champion, five-time conference team champion, eight-time NCAA finalist, two-time NCAA All-American, five-time NCAA and GTE academic all-American first team, and conference and Danish national record holder in the indoor 3,000 meters.

Rikke’s greatest rewards cannot be conveyed by a list. She reports, "the skill to work on a team is of great importance in my engineering study as well as the rest of my life. It is my greatest pleasure to set goals with my teammates and achieve these goals. The ability to deal with adversity, to master time management, and to live in an international environment are all attributes that I use in all aspects of my life." Her favorite event of the year occurs during red ribbon week in Flagstaff, where she leads teams of student-athletes and speaks at rallies of hundreds of elementary and middle-school children about the dangers of taking drugs and what it takes to succeed in reaching your goals. Her warm personality makes her popular with her teammates and staff. She was elected a centennial team captain of her track and field team.

Rikke’s love of running, dedication, and enthusiasm are hallmarks of her success. She has spent 5,200 hours in weight training, drills, distance runs, and interval sessions, and her dream of becoming a European champion awaits her. She has already made the Danish national team.

In September, Rikke begins her graduate program at the Technical University of Denmark, where she will be studying planning and technology management.