Distinguished engineers 2024

Frenae Smith, B.S. ‘05, M.S. ‘10, is the manager of corrosion control at DTE Energy, where she has worked for the last 25 years. In 2009, she led the Gas Laboratory to become the first energy lab in the U.S. to earn ISO 17025 accreditation from the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation. In 2012, she helped facilitate and design the first distribution pipeline to accept processed landfill gas in Michigan for DTE. Smith is a member of the American Gas Association, the National Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Women Engineers and DTE’s Women’s Leadership Forum. She volunteers with various outreach groups including the Engineering Society of Detroit (ESD), United Way and My Sister Circle. Smith is an ESD Fellow and has been awarded for her work to promote diversity in STEM fields. She holds two degrees in chemical engineering from Wayne State, and is active on the Engineering Alumni Council and the Department of Chemical Engineering Industry Advisory Board.

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Carrie Turner, M.S. '98, is a principal and senior water resources engineer at LimnoTech, an environmental science and engineering firm headquartered in Ann Arbor. Turner has worked coast-to-coast to develop innovative, affordable and sustainable solutions for communities facing human health, environmental and economic impacts from extreme rainfall and high-intensity storms. Throughout her 26-year career, she has championed cutting-edge monitoring and modeling strategies such as microbial source tracking and metagenomic methods, wastewater-base epidemiology, field testing of new water quality sensor technologies, and pharmaceutical and personal care product environmental impact evaluations. She is a co-founder of LimnoTech's Women: Inspiring, Supporting, and Engaging (LT-WISE) group to support the company’s female employees. Turner has a B.S. in chemistry from Miami University and an M.S. in civil engineering from Wayne State University.

Computer Science

Mary Carleton-Smith, B.S. ’89, is a senior data architect in vehicle engineering and quality at General Motors, where she designs enterprise data solutions for key engineering initiatives and leads project teams in the process of application data development and management. Carleton-Smith has worked in various roles of IT since 1985, and in 19 years at GM she has been critical in creating globally integrated architectures and innovations increasing data quality, performance, governance and security. In the community, she is a member of the Oakland County Task Force on Poverty and Homelessness, coordinating food distribution to metro Detroit families with food and housing insecurities. Carleton-Smith received a B.S. in computer science and linguistics from Wayne State, and an M.S. in project management administration from Central Michigan. She remains connected to the College of Engineering through participation in the Industry Mentor Program, the Women’s Executive Leadership Society and the Department of Computer Science’s Industry Advisory Board.

Rahul Garg, M.S. ‘94, is vice president for Siemens Digital Industries Software. He is responsible for defining and delivering the key strategic initiatives and solutions for Industrial Machinery and SMB businesses. His team works closely with industry-leading customers to provide thought leadership on new and emerging issues faced by the machinery industry. In his prior role, Garg guided industry marketing and delivered the Siemens Corporate PLM vision and strategies to the global machinery, energy, high tech electronics and automotive industries. Over his 25-year career, he has enjoyed success in profit and loss management, technology leadership, operations management, startups, business development, sales and services. Garg holds a bachelor’s in computer engineering from Bombay University, and an M.S. in computer science from Wayne State University.

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Malik Zakaria, M.S. ’97, is the founder and CEO of FieldEngineer.com, a marketplace of on-demand telecommunications workforce. The company provides business customers delivering telecommunications services ― including communications service providers, hardware manufacturers, value-added resellers, managed service providers and retail chains ― a network of field engineers, high-level network engineers, project managers and network architects in nearly 150 countries around the world. Zakaria launched FieldEngineer in 2016 to solve the supply and demand gap for engineers in the telecommunications industry, presenting his customers with opportunities to build cross-border teams and outsource niche services. He holds a master’s in computer engineering from Wayne State University.

Engineering Technology

Mark Rotary, B.S. ‘86, M.B.A. ‘97, has worked for 23 years at ZF North America, where he is currently the head of race engineering. His prior role with the company was chassis systems engineering manager. Leveraging his extensive background in welding, Rotary has volunteered for the annual American Welding Society’s (AWS) Detroit Section High School Welding Contest since 1995. He serves on the AWS Board of Directors and is a second-generation AWS Life Member, having maintained more than 35 years of continuous membership. He is an advisor to Wayne State University’s welding and metallurgical engineering technology undergraduate program as well as other local college and high school welding programs. Rotary received the AWS Detroit Section Robert Lee Wilcox Academic Scholarship in 1983 and attended the Wayne State’s engineering technology program. He earned his M.B.A. from Wayne State in international business and marketing.

Industrial and Systems Engineering

James McNicol, B.S. ’90, M.S ’98, Ph.D. ’07, is a senior manager of consulting services at Autodesk where he works closely with Global 100 customers to plan, negotiate and deliver all aspects of strategic software solutions. He has held senior leadership positions at Autodesk, MicroStrategy and PTC where he was responsible for the direction and success of its professional services organizations. At PTC, McNichol served as chief architect and director, overseeing enterprise-wide software deployment. McNichol has chaired the Wayne State University Industrial Engineering Advisory Board since 2019, and partners with faculty and industry contributors to shape the direction of the department. He holds three degrees, including a Ph.D., in industrial engineering from Wayne State, where his research focused on making better decisions leveraging historical data in concept development phases.

Mechanical Engineering

Constantine Mastory, Ph.D. '14, an engineering manager at Stellantis, leads a global and multicultural group of software developers and engineers responsible for the development of advanced driver assistance and automated driving systems. His career began at the Schaeffler Group, a German Tier 1 supplier, as an advanced product development engineer and later a systems engineer specializing in mechatronics and advanced chassis actuation systems. In 2019, Mastory joined FCA as a senior systems safety and controls engineer focused on ensuring safe and reliable systems development for drivers, passengers and others in close proximity to vehicles. Soon after, he was promoted to lead the software development team in North America. He has authored several published papers and holds two international patents. He is also a trained medic, serving the Lebanese Red Cross corps before moving to the USA in 2009. Mastory has a B.S and M.S. in mechanical engineering from Lebanon, and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Wayne State University.