College of Engineering Hosts Homecoming 2015 Activities

September 14, 2015

Engineering alumni from The University of Texas at El Paso will kick off their 2015 Homecoming celebration with a civil engineering luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Oct. 2 in the Chemistry and Computer Science Building courtyard.

Other Homecoming events will include the UTEP Distinguished Alumni dinner and the engineering breakfast. Alumni will have the opportunity to visit the College of Engineering, rekindle friendships and share memories during these various events. The annual celebration will also recognize outstanding alumni from the College of Engineering.

The Distinguished Alumni dinner will be held at 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2 in the Don Haskins Center.

Engineering Gold Nugget award recipients will be recognized at 8 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 3 during the annual Engineering Alumni and Gold Nugget breakfast. This lively, tradition brings alumni, faculty and current students together to celebrate the college's heritage and future.

The 2015 engineering Gold Nugget recipients are electrical engineers Hilda C. Galvan, who graduated in 1985, and Juan Rivera, Ph.D., who was part of the class of 1975.

Galvan currently works at the Dallas branch of an international law firm called Jones Day. As partner-in-charge, she has successfully represented clients in some of their most important lawsuits. Galvan has also tried complex intellectual property cases before courts across the country for more than 20 years. She cites one of her greatest accomplishments as having obtained a degree in electrical engineering from UTEP during a time when few women did so.

Native El Pasoan Rivera was a first generation college student who began his path toward excellence in engineering at UTEP. Rivera is currently the director of Mission 1 Advanced Technologies and Applications at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. He is responsible for the development of electronic and payload space and airborne technologies for the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (IST) programs. He is also vice chairman on the board of directors for Great Minds in STEM, a national non-profit encouraging science, technology, engineering and math education in under-represented communities.

To purchase tickets for the Engineering Alumni and Gold Nugget breakfast, visit the following website: http://engineering.utep.edu/homecoming/. The breakfast will be held in the Tomás Rivera Conference Center on the third floor of the Union East Building.

For more information about general 2015 Homecoming events, visit https://alumni.utep.edu/homecoming.