Mr. Amal Patel has been selected as the IEEE Florida West Coast Section "Student Engineer of the Year." Mr Patel was born in Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania and arrived to the U.S. when he was seven. He graduated Cum Laude from the University of South Florida in December 2007 with a double major resulting in a B.S.E.E. and a B.A. in Economics. He is also a graduate of the USF Honors College. Mr. Patel has been awarded several scholarships including the USF Presidential Scholarship, the Allan Gondeck Scholarship, the Honors Seide Scholarship, and Florida Bright Futures - Florida Academic Award Scholarship. He is currently working on an M.S.E.E. with a focus in Communication Systems. In addition, he is also working part-time as a Technician and Web Developer at Student Government Computer Services.

Mr. Patel has been very active in the USF IEEE Student Branch as Treasurer and Vice Chair and was instrumental in increasing Student Government annual funding and helping to create a very energetic IEEE Student Branch. He has worked with IEEE-USA nationally along with two graduate students to advertise a video competition aimed at awakening the interests of high school and middle school students in an attempt to push more young adults into engineering. He has also served in Student Government as Senate Budget Chair and Chair of the Activity and Service Fee Recommendation Committee responsible for allocating over nine million dollars to the Marshall Center, SG agencies, and student organizations.