North Texas Beta Eta
Denton, TX 76203
ANNUAL SUMMARY REPORTS
2022-2023: Ethan Nall - President
The North Texas Beta Eta Chapter of Pi Tau Sigma has rebranded itself as an active and thriving organization. Through the leadership of Chapter President Ethan Nall and Vice President Pumulo Bonna, the club initiated a record breaking 26 members in one semester. This relaunch was successful with the help of Advisor Dr. Xiaohua Li and the University of North Texas engineering faculty. The unprecedented number of people joining will provide a base which we will build upon.
Next year will consist of modifying the fundamental operations of how the club works. We will offer more positions to allow opportunities for leadership and professional development among members. Additionally, guest speakers from industries will be invited to help demonstrate the scope in which how broad and deep our chosen profession is. This wave of initiates offers a wide range of professional development, so a new initiative will be crafted to help with resumes and how to obtain an internship. Some students are pre-senior design ranging to final semester of senior design. Offering mentoring and coaching on how to approach challenges that arise in senior design should be valuable to the organization. The future is bright for the North Texas Beta Eta Chapter
2021-2022: William Crowe - President
This semester, we initiated 6 new members to the University of North Texas Pi Tau Sigma organization, as well as 2 additional faculty sponsors. For the student members, the requirements to join were a 3.25/4.00 GPA and a B or higher in statics or mechanics of materials, alongside a b or higher in a thermodynamic course. For our two faculty sponsors, we inducted Dr Taeyul Theo Choi and Dr. Richard Z. Zhang to help further aid the direction of our organization. Our initiation was held on Friday April 22nd at the University of North Texas Discovery Park campus, with both physical and virtual options for attendance available. President William Crowe and Vice President Jacob Kramer conducted the initiation ceremony and all members and faculty advisors were initiated under their guidance.
Throughout the year, UNT Pi Tau Sigma engaged in many on campus volunteer opportunities. We led a student tutor session for FE exams to help prepare more graduates of our university to pursue their FE and EIT licenses. These weekly tutoring sessions were promoted alongside our campus ASME club to help better prepare our future STEM students and leaders. Alongside this similar vein, we volunteered at the UNT Stem@thepark event. We hosted a large group of high school students, and explored the usage of open source microcontrollers in mechanical systems. Additionally, we conducted a Balsa bridge building competition to help introduce the concept of truss structures to our future stem members. These activities, as well as intricate involvement between our organization and our faculty sponsors were discussed at our weekly members meetings. Moving forward, we plan to partner more strongly with the UNT ASME club to further promote visibility and membership for the Pi Tau Sigma branch of this university. Under the guidance of future president Isiah Sears, we plan to see continuous growth in our chapter.
2020 - 2021: Noel Winslow - President
The North Texas Beta Eta chapter has undergone significant growth during the period of restructuring afforded us from the pandemic. Membership had been slowly dwindling and new recruitment had been stagnating for several semesters. As part of the 2020-2021 academic year the NTBE chapter appointed a new advisor, Dr. Xiaohua Li, whose involvement has been a catalyst for growth in the society. The combined efforts of the new officer administration, led by President Noel Winslow, pushed community involvement and creating a fun, academic space for honors engineers to showcase and brainstorm their ideas. A tutoring service has been launched, providing a combination goal of both security to the posterity of the chapter through aiding fellow students, but more importantly fostering the academic integrity of UNT's students to help secure their future success.
A road map has been drafted, with the next President Armando Castillo carrying the torch to a chapter now quadrupled in size , up from 7 active members to nearly 30. The future goals of increasing non-member engagement, growing awareness of the the society, and representing excellence in UNT's Mean Green spirit remain steadfast, and the new administration aims to continue the momentum.
2019 - 2020: Israel Brown - President
For this year it was a year of planning and hopeful revitalization. We created plans for the future in how we would reach out to the department and other engineering organizations to make a more inclusive engineering campus. The main thing that we worked on this semester was setting up a study session for the classes that we have already completed to help students that are coming up behind us. Only one session was held and that was held between a few Pi Tau Sigma members; they hosted it over zoom and studied for a test. Even though it was only a few members it is a start towards a better future in the ideas we have.
The chapter has grown in size and spirit. With the additions of so many new members the ideas that were brought in that were used to plan for the next year. As the executive board was changed the ideas were kept available and ready. An online information drive was created for the board to utilize and grow, with hopes that we can make this chapter even better.
2018 - 2019: Hamza Hasham - President
The chapter’s advisor (Dr. D’Souza) and the chapter President (Hamza Hasham) set a date for initiation to take place on the 4th of April, 2019. The inductees, Vice President, and President met in front of the Mechanical and Energy Engineering Office in the North Texas Honor Garden. The participants of the meeting then performed the Pi Tau Sigma rituals as found on the PTS website.
The president sent an email out to the graduating 2018-2019 members of the North Texas Beta Eta Chapter to order regalia. Interested students replied and fees for regalia were collected, the regalia form was filled out, and the proper documents were submitted along with the total amount due to the national secretary.
There was a Skype call held with Dr. D’Souza, Hamza Hasham, and the Vice President of Pi Tau Sigma 2019. This meeting was to ensure that the Pi Tau Sigma year of 2019-2020 would be one that would be successful in growing chapter-student body affiliation, member participation and success, and community involvement.
