The 2026 Penn Engineering Student Choice Awards

Penn Engineering is pleased to announce the faculty recipients of the 2026 Student Choice Awards. Each year, the Penn Engineering undergraduate student body thoughtfully selects the recipients of these awards for their dedication in teaching, mentorship and student advocacy.

This year’s winners are Vanessa Chan, Sid Deliwala, Samantha McBride, Alejandro Ribeiro and Anthony Sigillito.

Michael L. Barrett (ENG’89) and Traci Barrett (W’91) Faculty Award for Student Advocacy

Vanessa Chan

Vanessa Chan, Jonathan and Linda Brassington Practice Professor in Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) and Penn Engineering’s Vice Dean of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, is the recipient of the Michael L. Barrett (ENG’89) and Traci Barrett (W’91) Faculty Award for Student Advocacy, which recognizes a member of the faculty for their exceptional support of undergraduate students and their outstanding commitment to building community.

Chan’s students commented that she is “a deeply committed and generous mentor who invests extraordinary time and care in her students,” in particular highlighting her dedication to “empowering students, especially those from underrepresented and first-generation backgrounds, to navigate Penn with confidence.”

Chan is the inaugural Vice Dean of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Penn Engineering, with a career that spans co-leading McKinsey’s innovation practice and serving as the U.S. Department of Energy’s Chief Commercialization Officer in addition to her time on the faculty.

Hatfield Award for Excellence in Teaching for Faculty in the Lecturer and Practice Professor Track

Sid Deliwala

Sid Deliwala, Alfred Moore Senior Fellow and Lecturer in Electrical and Systems Engineering (ESE), has received the Hatfield Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Lecturer and Practice Professor Track, which recognizes outstanding teaching ability, dedication to innovative undergraduate instruction and exemplary service to the School in consistently inspiring students in the engineering and scientific profession.

Students in Deliwala’s classes shared that he “is among the most approachable, engaging and devoted educators at Penn whose passion for engineering and teaching has inspired countless students,” and that “he consistently goes above and beyond for every student he works with.”

In his role as Director of Lab Programs in ESE, Deliwala oversees and develops the Department’s hands-on laboratory education, managing critical teaching spaces like the Detkin, Africk and ESE Senior Design labs.

Ford Motor Company Award for Faculty Advising

Samantha McBride

Samantha McBride, William K. Gemmill Term Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, has been awarded the Ford Motor Company Award for Faculty Advising in recognition of her dedication in helping students realize their educational, career and personal goals.

Students expressed appreciation for how McBride “fosters a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement,” and that she “creates an environment where undergraduates feel genuinely supported, appreciated and capable, making her an exceptionally encouraging and invested mentor.”

McBride’s research focuses on using interfacial physics and fluid mechanics to design advanced materials and processes for water treatment, desalination and sustainable resource recovery.

S. Reid Warren, Jr. Award

Alejandro Ribeiro

Alejandro Ribeiro, Solomon and Sylvia G. Charp Professor of ESE, is the recipient of the S. Reid Warren, Jr. Award in recognition of outstanding service in stimulating and guiding the intellectual and professional development of undergraduate students in the School.

Ribeiro’s students commented that he is “an exceptionally dynamic and dedicated educator whose high-energy teaching style makes complex material genuinely engaging,” and that “his deep care for students extends beyond the classroom through thorough answers to follow-up questions, shared research papers and personal check-ins long after the course has ended.”

Ribeiro’s research is organized around the theme of Distributed Collaborative Intelligence, with the goal of developing the technology that is necessary to build groups of intelligent autonomous agents.

Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award

Anthony Sigillito

Anthony Sigillito, Assistant Professor in ESE, has received the Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award in recognition of outstanding research mentorship of undergraduate students through the fostering of creativity and independent thought through all facets of academic research which embody the University’s missions for inquiry and discovery.

Students praised Sigillito’s efforts to “provide undergraduate researchers with truly formative experiences, offering opportunities to speak at conferences, contribute to publications and generate meaningful experimental data, all while personally discussing both research specifics and broader career goals.”

Sigillito’s research interests are in working to engineer the next generation of quantum computing hardware based on nuclear and electronic spins in semiconductors.

See the past recipients of the Student Choice Awards here.