Founders’ Day is a celebration of the exceptional accomplishments of UCF’s faculty, staff and students. This year, nearly 50 members of the College of Engineering and Computer Science have been recognized for excellence in teaching, research, academics and service. Twelve of the honorees are from the UCF Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
The university lauded these individuals during the Founders’ Day award ceremonies, which took place on April 1. The university recognized employees who reached milestone years of service, along with those recently retired or about to be. UCF also presented a Champion of Student Success and Well-Being Award and excellence awards in recognition of employees who made exceptional contributions to benefit the campus community.
“We celebrate your service, your dedication, and the impact you make across this university. But behind that recognition is something even more powerful: the daily commitment, the steady work, and the consistency that build momentum over time,” says UCF President Alexander N. Cartwright. “The future we talk about at UCF is not something that begins someday. It is already taking shape in the work you do, in the systems you support, and in the experiences you create for our students. Thank you.”
This year, the ECE department had the highest number of recognitions, including a Reach for the Stars awardee, three Order of Pegasus recipients and the recipient of this year’s Medal of Societal Impact. The full list of college awardees is below:
Medal of Societal Impact
Zhihua Qu, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Reach for the Stars Awardees
Hao Zheng, Department of Electrical Engineering
Excellence in Graduate Teaching
Wei Sun, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Order of Pegasus
Megan Bailey, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Akash Hari Bharath, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Kyle Coutray, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
20 Years of Service
Aman Behal, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Jun Wang, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
30 Years of Service
W. Linwood Jones, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
35 Years of Service
Issa Batarseh, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
40 Years of Service
Michael Georgiopoulos, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Kalpathy Sundaram, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Written by Marisa Ramiccio ’11 | April 1, 2026