UA Alumna Selected as One of the New Faces of Engineering Campaign

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.– Stephanie Horne Swindle, a 1999 mechanical engineering graduate of The University of Alabama, has been selected by the National Engineers Week Foundation as one of its top 14 candidates for the 2005 Engineers Week New Faces of Engineering campaign. National Engineers Week is celebrated Feb. 20-26.

The New Faces of Engineering campaign is designed to enhance the public perception of engineering by highlighting interesting and unique work of young engineers and their resulting impact on society. These young engineers are two to five years out of school and have demonstrated outstanding abilities in their chosen disciplines.

Swindle is an active member of the Society of Women Engineers, which is the organization that nominated her. She works for Alabama Power at the EC Gaston Steam Plant in Wilsonville as a maintenance team leader. She manages 70 people and has coordinated major plant upgrades while supervising the power generation at the plant, which is responsible for providing power to a large portion of Alabama and Georgia.

Her skills have been applied to company Web site development, safety program coordination, development of plant system graphical interface programming, regulatory and compliance assurance, and outage support. Additionally, Swindle is a participant on the Alabama Power president’s advisory team for the 6,000 employee company.

While in school at UA, Swindle was named an Honorable Mention USA Today All-USA College Academic Team member. Since 1991, The University of Alabama has placed 31 students on this annual team, and UA has led the nation in the total number of students selected for the team in two of the last three years.

In 1837, The University of Alabama became the first university in the state to offer engineering classes and was one of the first five in the nation to do so. Today, the College of Engineering has about 1,800 students and more than 95 faculty. It has been fully accredited since accreditation standards were implemented in the 1930s.