Tau Beta Pi Announces 2004 Laureates

Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society, has named a Laureate in the Association’s annual program to recognize gifted engineering students who have excelled in areas beyond their technical majors.

The 2004 Tau Beta Pi Laureate is Matthew C. Rodrigue who graduated this year from the University of Maine with double degrees in electrical and computer engineering. In addition to his outstanding scholastic accomplishments, Rodrigue is lauded for his diverse achievements. He joins 56 other exceptional Tau Bates who have been named Laureates since 1982.

The Laureate Program exists to further Tau Beta Pi’s second fundamental 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.

Rodrigue will be honored with other 2004 national award winners on October 9, 2004, at the 99 th annual Convention to be held in Orlando, Florida. Tau Beta Pi President Dr. Matthew W. Ohland will present Rodrigue with a $2,500 cash award and a commemorative plaque. His biography follows:

Matthew C. Rodrigue was nominated by the Maine Alpha Chapter at the University of Maine, in Orono, for his diverse achievements in academics, athletics, and humanitarian service.

A native of Farmington, Maine, Matt entered the University of Maine on a full scholarship as high-school valedictorian, an outstanding scholar, athlete, and leader.

In college, Matt sought to create humane collegiate practices and environments. He became a student senator in his freshman year and was elected to the position of president pro-tempore. He was nominated by the governor to Maine System’s board of trustees, where he was the sole representative of 34,000 students across seven campuses. As a junior, Matt was elected to the presidency of the UM student government with a landslide 79 percent of the popular vote. During his tenure, he advanced and received approval for a $25 million campus recreation center, organized a voting program, and re-established both the yearbook and the senior council.

In 2000, Matt helped restart the fraternity Sigma Phi Epsilon (SPE), inactive since 1994. As chartering president in 2002 he sought to invalidate the pervasive fraternity stereotype. SPE was recognized as the fraternity of the year in 2003, the same year Matt was elected to its national board of directors.

Matt was a Rhodes scholarship finalist last year and is a Senior Skull (UM’s honor society for the top 1 percent of the senior class). He has completed three internships in industrial settings, and had a 3.98 GPA in electrical engineering and a 4.0 in computer engineering. Matt was named the Alton T. Zerby and Carl T. Koerner outstanding electrical engineering student by Eta Kappa Nu. He served as chapter treasurer of IEEE, treasurer of his Tau Beta Pi chapter, and is a member of Eta Kappa Nu, Pi Mu Epsilon, and Phi Kappa Phi.

Matt acts as a mentor to younger members of student government, engineering peers, and student athletes. He was a varsity letterman in cross country and overall champion in intramural track, cross country, and triathlon events. He has been honored as UM’s student leader of the year and fraternity man of the year.

“Matthew has been an invaluable member of our community, serving this university and his fellow students in numerous capacities, all while doing exemplary work in the classroom. His passions are directed to higher order issues: student privacy, student scholarships, student leadership, community fairness, and efficiency of government” said Robert A. Kennedy, interim president of the University of Maine.

Matt has accepted a job as a controls engineer with consulting firm Woodard & Curran.