Morton Student Paper Contest History
The Morton Contest began in 1959 after a $2000 gift to the then Lehigh Valley Section of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE). C.S. Brangan of Philadelphia donated the money in memory of his close friend, Walter B. Morton, who was the chief electrical engineer of PP&L Company and who had a distinct interest in student activities through the AIEE. Brangan stipulated that the money was to provide a prize for a contest to be held among the undergraduate colleges with AIEE student branches in the Lehigh Valley Section; at the time of the gift, those colleges were Bucknell University, Lafayette College, and Lehigh. Brangan specified that the money was to last for 20 years, so there was one prize awarded in 1959 of $100. The Lehigh Valley section has continued to support the contest beyond the initial 20 years, and starting in 2012 prizes were raised to $500 for first place, $300 for second and $100 for third place. In 2021 the Lehigh Valley Section raised the prize values to $550 for first place, $350 for second, and $150 for third. The branch of the first place prizewinner also gets a plaque for display.
The Lehigh Valley section now consists of four branches: Lafayette College, Lehigh University, Wilkes University and the University of Scranton. Bucknell was removed from the Lehigh Valley section in 1963 but was grandfathered into contest participation by the Section Executive Committee, however has not participated in several years making four total participating branches in the contest.
First place finishers over the 60-year history of the Morton Student Paper Contest:
| Year | Name | School | Title of Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | D.L. Talhelm | Lehigh | Signal Flow Graphs |
| 1960 | W. Just & A. Durling | Lafayette | |
| J, Ondria & A. Dally | Lehigh | ||
| 1961 | R.C. Emerson | Lehigh | |
| 1962 | W.L. Baldwin & C.R. Cooke | Lehigh | |
| 1963 | W.H. Crowell | Lehigh | |
| 1964 | J. Grason | Lehigh | |
| 1965 | D. Atkins | Bucknell | |
| 1966 | J. Watson | Lehigh | |
| 1967 | C.T. Baumgartner | Lehigh | |
| 1968 | R.G. Innes & J.S. Renninger | Lehigh | |
| 1969 | S. Eaton | Lehigh | |
| 1970 | P.E. White | Lehigh | |
| 1971 | P.C. Camana | Lehigh | |
| 1972 | G.J. Schevey | Bucknell | |
| 1973 | D.R. Frey | Lehigh | |
| 1974 | B. Wells & D. Unger | Bucknell | |
| 1975 | N.L. Greenough | Lehigh | |
| 1976 | J. Baran | Lehigh | A Digital Instrument for Aircraft Navigation Using the 'VOR' System |
| 1977 | A. Kalekos | Lafayette | |
| 1978 | S. MacMinn & E.J. Modugno | Lehigh | |
| 1979 | |||
| 1980 | |||
| 1981 | J.P. DeMont | Bucknell | The Design of an Automatic Sensing Chessboard |
| 1982 | Charles Mills | Lafayette | |
| 1983 | W R Griesbach | Lafayette | Design of a Digital Integrated Circuit Test Set |
| 1984 | R. Shah | Lafayette | The Creation of a Special Purpose Language for a Microprocessor Controlled System |
| 1985 | Philip Heffelfinger | ||
| 1986 | David Kliebhan | ||
| 1987 | Robert Doran | ||
| 1988 | S.E. Love | Bucknell | Simplifying Hardware Design by Using a Special_Application Microprocessor |
| 1989 | D. Scott | Lehigh | Computer Audio Spectrum Analyzer |
| 1990 | R. Platt & S. Gabrielle | Lehigh | Micro-Computer and LORAN C Based Moving Map Display |
| 1991 | J.D. Harry, S.M. Marcin, C. Ungvarsky | Wilkes | An Innovative Design of a Surface Mounted Device Repair Station Using Focused IR Light |
| 1992 | S. Athalye | Lafayette | A Voice Activated Hands-Free Calculator Using a Neural-Network Speech Recognition |
| 1993 | J. Reynolds & J Romaine | Lehigh | Second Harmonic Distortion Digital Amplifier |
| 1994 | K.S. Khouri | Bucknell | Design of Change Sensitive Circuits for Neural Networks |
| 1995 | NO CONTEST | ||
| 1996 | P. Boothby, B. Kelly, Z. Kulis, K. Miller | Bucknell | The MIDI Bears |
| 1997 | S. Spano | Scranton | Obstacle Detection anad Collision Avoidance for Autonomous Robots |
| 1998 | J. Schwendt II | Lehigh | QuasiApp: Integrating Home-Automation with the World Wide Web |
| 1999 | A. Jervis & J. Young | Lafayette | Wireless Model Rocket Launcher |
| 2000 | M. Wycheck | Bucknell | Electrocardiograph Filter and Amplifier |
| 2001 | M. Wycheck | Bucknell | A Multi-channel Fetal Electrocardiogram Enhancement Technique |
| 2002 | J.P. Hunter & J.M. Roe | Bucknell | The Autonomous Lawn Mower Project |
| 2003 | B. Cochenour & C.Chai | Lafayette | Sensitivity of High OrderLoudspeaker Crossover Networks with All Pass Response |
| 2004 | E. Geissenhainer | Lafayette | A Practical Implementation of a High-Efficiency Amplifier that Retains the Performance |
| Attributes of Lower-Efficiency Class A/B Topologies | |||
| 2005 | F. Ahmed | Lafayette | Kernel Extensions to mC/OS-II Real-Time Operating System on the Motorola 68HC11 |
| 2006 | J. Porter | Lafayette | Mathematical Modeling of a Rotary Ventricular Assist Device |
| 2007 | D. Papada & J. Shilinski | Scranton | Automated Sensor Driven Parallel Parking System |
| 2008 | Jonathan M. Their | Lehigh | Pressure Controlled Alarm Clock System |
| 2009 | Eileen Mazzochette & Kenny Blanchette | Lehigh | Automatic Feedback Control for Audio Systems |
| 2010 | Alice Gonzales Cavalcanti de Araujo & | Lehigh | Wireless Headphones |
| 2011 | Sean Kelly & Kyle Lampert | Lehigh | TaxiNet, Automated Taxi Cab Dispatch System |
| 2012 | Basel Alnajjab & Christopher O'Lone | Lehigh | Chesstastic |
| 2013 | Alexandra Dryer & Caitlin Fowler | Lehigh | Endurance Hydration Meter |
| 2014 | Stephanie Gordon & Ian Miller | Lehigh | A.M.P. Ariel Multi Role Platform |
| 2015 | Haley Garrison | Lafayette | Application of the Brain-Computer Interface to Robotics Control |
| 2016 | C. Drazba & N. Trevilis | Lehigh | Magnetic Monkey: Magnetic Surface Scaling Robot |
| 2017 | Brandon Smith | Lafayette | Wheelchair Navigation Using a Brain-Computer Interface |
| 2021 | Zhanfan Yu | Lafayette | Efficient Predictive Control Scheme for Optimized Five-Level Four-Switch Inverter |
| 2022 | Marwa Saleh | Lafayette | Multimodal Person Identification Through the Fusion of Face and Voice Biometrics |