Cruz named aerospace engineering student marshal
4/19/2018
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Arthur Melo Cruz has been selected as the student marshal for the aerospace engineering baccalaureate degree program at the Penn State College of Engineering spring commencement ceremony on May 4. Cruz will receive a bachelor of science degree in aerospace engineering and a minor in information sciences and technology for aerospace engineering.
He has chosen Jose Palacios, assistant professor of aerospace engineering, to be his faculty escort at the ceremony.
College of Engineering student marshals are selected for their outstanding academic achievements and contributions to engineering student life.
A 2013 graduate of Colégio Santo Inácio in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Cruz is the son of Josemar Cardoso and Tereza Cassia Melo da Cruz of João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil.
Cruz’s academic honors include the President’s Freshman Award, the President Sparks Award and the Evan Pugh Scholar Award (both junior and senior years).
He has also been the recipient of multiple scholarships while at Penn State: the College of Engineering Research Initiative (CERI) Scholarship, the Donald G. and Jayne L. Steva Scholarship in Aerospace Engineering and the David J. Peery Memorial Scholarship.
As part of the CERI program, Cruz conducted undergraduate research on the study of users’ responses on privacy implications for human-drone interactions under the advisement of Alan Wagner, assistant professor of aerospace engineering. He was also coauthor of a research paper and poster titled “Earth-Pluto Interplanetary Trajectory Design and Orbital Analysis on the Pluto-Charon System” while working under the supervision of Puneet Singla, associate professor of aerospace engineering.
While earning his undergraduate degree, Cruz has been an active member of several Penn State Aerospace Engineering and engineering-related organizations, including the Penn State chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, LionTech Rocket Labs, the Penn State 3-D Printing Club and the Penn State Robotics Club, for which he served as president from spring 2017 to spring 2018.
Cruz’s extracurricular activities included being a teaching intern for the dynamics and controls of aerospace systems class, orientation leader for Penn State International Student Orientation and a College of Engineering Career Envoy.
His internship experience includes PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), where he worked as an advisory start intern assisting on a management consulting project, and as a technology consulting intern working on a Salesforce-based technology configuration/implementation project for an aerospace client.
Following graduation, Cruz will return to PwC in a full-time position as a technology consultant.
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Senior Arthur Melo Cruz
