The Braden Engineering-Communication contest is made possible by the generosity of donors to the Robert S. Braden Endowment Fund, administered by the UT Cockrell School of Engineering. In fall of 2003, the first call for papers was sent out to undergraduate students at the School, and on April 1, 2004, the first set of Braden-contest winners presented their papers at a School-wide event. Each year, the contest will follow this pattern of events.

Mr. Robert Skeen Braden, known as Bob to his friends, was born August 2, 1931. He grew up in the Texas Panhandle and attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he graduated with a BS in Civil Engineering in 1953. He went on to receive his Masters in Civil Engineering from MIT. Bob moved back to Texas and went to work in Fort Worth for a consulting firm by the name of Frieze, Nichols and Turner. Years later, that firm would become what we know today as Turner, Collie & Braden. Clearly Bob’s influence in the company was powerful.

Bob had many passions in his life, from bird hunting to photography to writing. He has written many personal essays and has published two books, “Lock, Stock & Barrel: Making an English Shotgun” and “As I Look Back: Musing of a Bird Hunter.” After his death in October, 2001, friends and family members of Bob’s endowed the Robert S. Braden Fund in Technical Communication. The fund provides annual scholarships for undergraduate students who excel in technical communication, as well as School-wide program enhancements such as the Braden Engineering-Communication contest.