Froede named 2017 PSMES Outstanding Early Career Award winner

April 5, 2017

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Erick Froede, a 2010 (BS) and 2013 (MS) mechanical engineering graduate, received the Penn State Mechanical Engineering Alumni Society's (PSMES) 2017 Outstanding Early Career Engineering Award. The award, in its third year, recognizes a high-achieving mechanical engineering alumnus who is within 10 years of his or her terminal degree.

Froede accepted the award at the Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering department Senior Recognition Reception and Banquet and also gave the keynote address.

Speaking to the undergraduate students in the room about to embark on their own careers,

Froede offered this advice: “If you create a master plan for your life, it’s going to get changed as soon you step out into the real world. Don’t ever think you have to have it all figured out. It’s OK to let your passion find you.”

A global product manager at Siemens Healthcare, Froede has been with Siemens since 2013, when he joined its graduate program, a two-year leadership rotational position. Starting with the healthcare diagnostics division in Boston, he then moved to Sao Paulo, Brazil and then New York City. In these roles, he worked with executives across the supply chain management, sales, and strategy organizations. Today, he is with the point of care business unit and is responsible for critical care equipment in emergency rooms worldwide.

As an undergraduate, he focused on product design and joined the Engineering Leadership Development Program (ELDM), participating in humanitarian projects across Hungary, Morocco, and Benin. This international experience culminated in a product management internship with a solar company in Germany. In addition, he co-chaired a Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon (THON) organization, served as the professional liaison for American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and held several student envoy positions with the mechanical and nuclear engineering department.

While a graduate student, he was part of the Vertical Lift Research Center of Excellence, designing an innovative helicopter gear train. Pursuing his passion for ELDM, he also began teaching in the program, helping expand its reach to Saudi Arabia and Senegal. Furthermore, he participated in Global Engineering Teams, leading a project in South Africa to design a next generation mobile healthcare clinic. The prototype was commissioned by the government's Medical Research Council and it is being actively used to treat rural patients in the Western Cape.

Over the course of six years at Penn State, he was an invited member of Tau Beta Pi and Golden Key honor societies, an Applied Research Lab Eric A. Walker Fellow, as well as a Lagoa, Ray, and Monkowski Graduate Award winner. In addition, he has been featured in the Daily Collegian, Penn State Newswire, MNE News, and College of Engineering Magazine.

PSMES intended the early career award as a complement to the Penn State Outstanding Engineering Alumni Awards, bestowed by the College of Engineering. The goal of the award is to celebrate the exceptional career accomplishments of recent graduates, especially technical or research advancements, leadership contributions, academic achievements, community involvement and humanitarian contributions.

 

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MEDIA CONTACT:

Chris Hennessey

cjh46@psu.edu

 
 

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With more than 60 faculty members, 330 graduate students, and 1,000 undergraduate students, the Penn State Department of Mechanical Engineering embraces a culture that welcomes individuals with a diversity of backgrounds and expertise. Our faculty and students are innovating today what will impact tomorrow’s solutions to meeting our energy needs, homeland security, biomedical devices, and transportation systems. We offer B.S. degrees in mechanical engineering as well as resident (M.S., Ph.D.) and online (M.S.) graduate degrees in mechanical engineering. See how we’re inspiring change and impacting tomorrow at me.psu.edu.

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The Pennsylvania State University

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Phone: 814-865-2519