MARIETTA - The Georgia chapter of the National Society of Professional Engineers have selected Southern Polytechnic State University students Ronald Rodriguez and Troy Galloway as their 2011 Engineering Student and Engineering Technology Student of the Year, respectively.

It is the first time SPSU has received both of the student awards and possibly the first time the NSPE has awarded both of these awards to the same institution, according to SPSU.

On Saturday, Rodriquez and Galloway were honored at the annual Georgia Engineering Alliance awards banquet at Georgia Tech Hotel & Conference Center in Atlanta.

Rodriguez is a senior pursuing a bachelor's degree in mechatronics engineering. This spring, he will be among the first graduates to receive a degree in the new program, which studies the building of industrial products and processes. Someday, he said he would like to pursue a doctorate and teach.

"I like picking up something and figuring out how it works," said Rodriquez, 22, of engineering. At age 7, he emigrated from Guatemala to the U.S. with his family.

Rodriquez, who said he has a 3.89 GPA, said he believed he received the award for his hard work and extracurricular activities.

He has served as president of the SPSU student chapter of the International Society of Automation and assistant student director of the Georgia BEST Robotics. In 2010, he was selected as a summer scholar at the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute, where he helped develop a curriculum to give students a hands-on experience to 3-D laser scanning technology.

Rodriguez was also named the Mechatronics Engineering Student of the Year in 2009 by the SPSU engineering faculty. He has been the recipient of numerous ISA scholarships, as well as multiple honors scholarships and Goizueta Scholarships through SPSU.

"I think it's a good honor. I come from a small town so I never saw me doing this," Galloway, 21, of Cleveland in northwest Georgia, said of his award. "I worked hard to do it."

Galloway is a senior pursuing a degree in civil engineering technology. He participated in the construction of SPSU's entry in the 2010 American Society of Civil Engineers concrete canoe competition. In 2008, he interned with the Georgia Department of Transportation's traffic operation in Gainesville to learn about traffic signals and intersection design.

"I want to do transportation," said Galloway, who said he has a 3.79 GPA. "I like efficiency because you can't really expand the roads anymore because of space in Atlanta."

He is a member of Tau Alpha Pi and Alpha Chi Honor societies, both organizations for high academic performers. He has also completed volunteer work in Tennessee and Honduras.