Political science major Dominique DiSpirito of Woonsocket, Rhode Island is the 2022 University of Maine valedictorian and Maxwell Burtis of Brunswick, a mechanical engineering major, is this year’s salutatorian. Both are students in the UMaine Honors College.
“Dominique and Maxwell are truly outstanding members of our community and their UMaine student experiences are what the state’s R1 research university is all about,” UMaine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy said. “Both took advantage of UMaine’s breadth and depth to not only excel academically, but get engaged and make their own contributions.”
Burtis is a mechanical engineering major with a neuroscience minor. His numerous academic honors include the Thomas P. Hosmer Scholarship in Mechanical Engineering and the J&M Gorman Mechanical Engineering Scholarship.
Since 2018, Burtis has been the co-founder and chief technology officer of Ferda Farms LLC oyster farm on New Meadows River. He started the company with help from UMaine’s Foster Center for Innovation to experiment with the husbandry techniques of emerging viable species, and to create the machinery needed to make the raising of farmed seafood more efficient and accessible. Burtis is responsible for most of the farm’s daily operations management and long-term development strategy. At the 2019 Maine Business Challenge, he won the $10,000 first place and $5,000 innovation prize for his work in developing this cutting-edge company.
On campus, Burtis has been a member of the Maine Bound Adventure Center trip staff and a member of the UMaine chapter of Engineers Without Borders. He is a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, president of the UMaine chapter of Pi Tau Sigma Honor Society, and has had leadership roles on the Class of 2022 Council, Student Alumni Ambassadors and Maine Effective Altruism. In summer 2018, Burtis was a mechanical engineering intern with Starc Systems.
As a student researcher, he designed a small-scale solar-powered oyster upweller, and in the Juneau Icefield Research Program, an eight-week Earth science field research expedition into the Alaskan backcountry, he investigated the use of drones for arctic research and examined bedrock fracture density and orientation using photogrammetry models. His research received multiple funding awards, including two Center for Undergraduate Research (CUGR) Fellowships, a College of Engineering Research Award and a Thomas E. Lynch Honors Thesis Scholarship. Burtis’ Honors thesis is “The Performance Assessment of a Small Lighter-than-Air Vehicle for Earth Science Remote Sensing Missions.”
In addition to leading Ferda Farms, Burtis plans to pursue graduate school to study data science.
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