We are proud to announce the winner of the 2017 Coast Guard Engineer of the
Year Award is SNAME Member Ms. Sarah Wickenheiser, a Naval Architect currently serving in the
Hull Engineering Branch at the Coast Guard Yard. Ms. Wickenheiser was selected
from a remarkable pool of nominees based on her educational, professional, and
personal achievements.
As a staff engineer in the Hull Engineering Branch, Ms. Wickenheiser
provides technical engineering solutions to Yard projects. During the modification
to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Vessel THOMAS JEFFERSON,
she identified design deficiencies in the ship's structure that could have resulted
in catastrophic hull failure. Her structural vulnerability analysis was used in the
construction and addition of new liquid storage tanks, allowing for a 50%
improvement in vessel operating efficiency. Additionally, to avoid hull
damage to CGC EAGLE while drydocked for sequential shell plating renewal,
Ms. Wickenheiser developed an innovative protocol using finite element analysis
to validate segmented sections of EAGLE's hull. Ms. Wickenheiser
is a graduate of Webb Institute, is a Registered Professional Engineer
in the State of Maryland and has served as the Membership Chair of the Chesapeake
Section of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers.
An awards ceremony will be held in Washington, DC on 17 February 2017 to
recognize the accomplishments of Ms. Wickenheiser. Additionally, as the Coast
Guard Engineer of the Year, Ms. Wickenheiser has been nominated for the National
Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) Federal Engineer of the Year Award.