FAU Engineering and Computer Science Outstanding Leaders Honored at 2014 Talon Awards Ceremony

FAU hosted its annual Talon Awards ceremony as part of Homecoming 2014, to recognize outstanding leaders from the community, alumni, faculty and student body constituencies. Co-sponsored by the FAU Alumni Association (FAUAA) and FAU Student Government, the ceremony and reception took place at the Marleen & Harold Forkas Alumni Center on FAU’s Boca Raton campus. The engineering and computer science honorees were, Ralph de la Vega ’74, president and chief executive officer of the newly created AT&T Mobile & Business Solutions and Juan Ramirez, a senior in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

De la Vega received the Alumni Talon Award. As president and CEO of AT&T Mobile & Business Solutions, he has overall responsibility for the company’s wireless and business services operations. During his career he has held numerous executive positions, including president & CEO of AT&T Mobility, chief operating officer of Cingular Wireless and president of BellSouth Latin America. As the COO of Cingular Wireless, de la Vega was responsible for the integration of AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless, following the largest all-cash merger in U.S. history at the time.

Ramirez was the recipient of the Student Talon Award, honored for his academic excellence and commitment to the university and community. An electrical engineering student, Ramirez is the founder and facilitator of Applied Electronics Bootcamp, a program created to help engineering students gain hands-on experience. He has also served as president of the engineering honor society Tau Beta Pi and student vice president of The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, in addition to belonging to many other academic organizations. He was awarded first place for oral presentation at FAU’s Undergraduate Research Symposium and has more than 170 volunteer service hours with the Office of Students with Disabilities.

The Talon Leadership Awards ceremony was established in 1997 and is co-sponsored by the FAU Alumni Association and the FAU Student Government Homecoming Committee. It unites alumni, students, campus and community leaders in a celebration of leadership, support and service to FAU. Talon Awards are presented in four categories: the Alumni Talon Award, the President’s Talon Award, the Student Talon Award and the Faculty Talon Award.

Select here to see the historical list of the College of Engineering and Computer Science alumni and honorary doctorate recipients.

For more information about the FAU Alumni Association, call 1-888-FAU-ALUM (328-2586) or visit www.faualumni.org.

Photo from left: Juan Ramirez, Howard Schnellenberger, FAU Alumni Board Chair Ben Dickinson ’04, FAU President John Kelly, Ralph de la Vega ’74, and Dr. Philomena Marinaccio ’93