Graduate Engineering Council (GEC)
| Office: CPE 2.704A | Phone: (512) 471-1050 |
| Email: Rick Naething | URL: http://www.engr.utexas.edu/gec |
For nearly four decades, the Graduate Engineering Council (GEC) has been representing the engineering graduate student body to the faculty, staff, and students of the Cockrell School of Engineering, to the University as a whole, and to industry partners. The GEC became an official University-sponsored student organization in 1970 under the leadership of Mr. William Evans, a graduate student in Petroleum Engineering.
Although the GEC has had very diverse leadership over the years, the principal aim of the council has always been to provide support to engineering graduate students, and to improve the graduate engineering experience, by representing the interests of the graduate engineers here at the University of Texas at Austin. The GEC fulfills this purpose by serving as a liaison between the Office of the Dean of Engineering, the Office of the Dean of Graduate Studies, and the graduate engineers in the Cockrell School of Engineering.
Additionally, GEC represents and connects engineering graduate students to industry partners through the annual Graduate and Industry Networking Conference (GAIN), a graduate student-run research conference. The goals of the conference are to promote graduate research and to provide networking opportunities for graduate engineers, while apprising industry representatives and recruiters of the cutting-edge engineering research underway at the University.
Furthermore, GEC hosts a series of other events throughout the year to encourage personal growth for graduate engineers. For example, GEC invites companies who are heavily involved in R&D to give presentations on breakthrough technologies, as well as government representatives to give seminars on various policies (such as energy). GEC also encourages interaction between the engineering students by organizing social events such as monthly Study Breaks, Happy Hours, and the Leadership Luau.
For more information about the Graduate Engineering Council, or for a calendar of upcoming meetings and events, please visit the GEC website at: http://www.engr.utexas.edu/gec/
2008 - 2009 GRADUATE ENGINEERING COUNCIL OFFICERS
| Name | Position |
| Siyavash Motealleh | President |
| Nathan Malcolm | Vice President |
| Rick Naething | Financial Director |
| Ted Song | Secretary |
| Khalid Miah | Senate Representative |
| Prinda Wanakule | Public Relations Director |
| Tianyi Wang | Special Events Director |
| Jessica Ventura | IT Director |
| Lei Liu | I2P Representative |
| Ryan Newcomb | GAIN Co-Director |
| Jude Osara | GAIN Co-Director |
| Tim Erickson | Energy Seminars Director |