Chance Brown, Shu Lin, and Julie Sonneberg-Klein — all staff members in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineer — have been formally recognized for their exceptional work in the School during the College of Engineering’s (CoE) Staff Appreciation Day on August 4, 2022.

Brown, ECE’s director of operations, and Sonneberg-Klein, the assistant director of Tech’s Vertically Integrated Programs (VIP), formed a team that won the Staff Innovation and Process Improvement Award. The VIP Program was started in ECE in 2008, and while the program has grown to include schools and colleges across the Institute, VIP staff members are still recognized as ECE staff members. The Staff Innovation & Process Improvement Award is giving annually to recognize and celebrate staff members who have utilized creative thinking to develop and implement a process, plan, or solution benefitting the School, College, or Institute.

Brown and Sonneberg-Klein are being recognized for their reports and visualizations in Tableau — an interactive data visualization software — that have significantly improved business intelligence tools (data dashboards, reports, and automations) that support academic and business operations in ECE and CoE. Brown’s projects have enabled finance staff to better track available balances, view payroll charges, analyze salaries, obtain job and personnel information, generate standard letters, and manage facilities. Sonneberg-Klein’s projects have enabled staff and college leadership to access VIP enrollment information relevant to their roles, quantify VIP’s reach across campus, and monitor key indicators across the program.

Beyond helping their own unit, the duo’s projects have attracted attention across academic departments on campus, increasing interest in Tableau development and helping other units implement similar solutions.

“Julie and Chance are both data enthusiasts. They enjoy finding new solutions, proactively sharing their projects, and actively encouraging colleagues to dive into the Tableau-pool,” said Mitchell Walker, associate dean of Academic Affairs. “They have raised the bar for data use in the College of Engineering.”

Shu Lin, a grant administrator lead, was honored with a Soaring Jacket Award. Soaring Jacket Awards are given to exceptional employees who are self-motivated and critical thinkers that hold themselves accountable for the quality of their work and their interactions with others. The award seeks to recognize a staff member of each School who displays true exceptionalism through their professional traits and behaviors.

Lin is ECE’s only pre-award grant administrator, serving more than 100 faculty members. She is responsible for handling all complex budgeting requirements from various federal funding agencies and industry sponsors, involving a large team of PIs and lead/sub-institutions. Lin’s three faculty nominators praised her for her response time and her ability to balance complex budgeting requirements and proposal preparations.

“Shu has been a lifeline for ECE with regard to all things related to proposal preparation,” said Asif Kahn, onsemi Junior Professor. “Proposal preparation and submission are vital aspects for the success of the operation of Georgia Tech, and she goes above and beyond expectations to make sure that the process happens smoothly, no matter how many moving pieces there are.”