The two Florida A&M University – Florida State University (FAMU-FSU) College of Engineering students (Photo by Famu Forward) won awards at the 2018 BEYA STEM Conference in Washington D.C. They are both working to diversify and educate the environmental movement on Earth.

The Black Engineer of the Year Student Leadership and Academic category awards are given to students who are contributors to their schools and communities.

Since being at FAMU-FSU, Daziyah Sullivan has pursued interests developed at a renewable energy summer camp.

“During the green energy summer camp, I was able to put together solar toys and wind power toys. It was really interesting because these are toys that run off of the sun rather than the batteries. I was thinking if it is this easy to put it in a toy why can’t we put it this into a refrigerator or a microwave within a household?” Sullivan told Cierra Richardson for The Famuan, the voice of the students of Florida A&M University.

“There are so many ways to incorporate renewable energy resources into people lives– it needs to be cheaper so people can afford it and implement it,” the second-year mechanical engineering student also told the Florida State University’s Trisha Radulovich.

In 2016, Daziyah was honored by one of the oldest black societies in the country. She was recognized as one of the African American students who scored in at least the ninetieth percentile in math in one of Florida’s major metropolitan district.

Latarence Jarvis Butts is no stranger to national awards either.

In 2015, he was one of nine students from Palm Beach County to be selected as finalists for the National Achievement Scholarship Program, an academic competition that provides recognition for outstanding African-American high school students.

Latarence stayed in Florida for college, so he took advantage of the merit scholarship for Florida high school graduates who achieve the National Merit or National Achievement Finalist designation.

More recently, he was recognized as a Tau Beta Pi Electrical Engineering Scholar for 2017-18.

Latarence also serves as vice president of the FAMU-FSU Tau Beta Pi engineering society chapter. Tau Beta Pi is the only engineering honor society representing the entire engineering profession.

Latarence’s research interest involves high-frequency devices and circuits and plans on continuing graduate studies there after graduation. His internship experiences include H2Engineering, Inc. and Northrop Grumman.

Some of his projects include analysis of cathodic catalysts in lithium-air batteries for increased performance, and capacity fade analysis of pulse charged lithium iron phosphate batteries.

After graduating, he will be returning to San Diego to work as an intern for Northrup Grumman Corporation in the summer of 2018, he told