2025 coc_awards_booklet_v1

30th Ann

COLL COM

AW

34

th

ANNUAL

AWARDS CELEBRATION

VIRTUAL

Beginnin April 8, 2025

GTRI Conference Center GTRI Building, 250 14th St., Atlanta 30332

College of Computing 34th Annual Awards Ceremony April 8, 2025 11 am to 1:30 pm GTRI Conference Center, GTRI Building

Welcome Vivek Sarkar, John P. Imlay Jr. Dean, College of Computing and Chair Lunch Presentation of Awards Closing Remarks Dean Sarkar

2024 – 2025 College of Computing Awards Committee Calton Pu, chair Ronnie Howard Ashok Goel Cynthia Bryant Aditya Prakash Sharon Hamilton Lynn Dombrowski Nickie Cayce-Griffis Richard Vuduc Iris Hamilton Vijay Madisetti Ericka Burley Santosh Vempala Francella Tongue Frederic Faulkner Meg Chambers Dana Randall

Undergraduate Awards Outstanding 2nd Year Leadership Award Sofia Vempala Outstanding 3rd year EDS Leadership Award Prajval Manivannan Outstanding Legacy Leadership Award Sri Ranganathan Palaniappan Outstanding Undergraduate Head Teaching Assistant Award Kavya Selvakumar Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Award Lucas Zangari Aryan Patel Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award Zhujie Xu

Graduate Awards Outstanding MS Research Award Bianca Toto Neeraj Balkrishna Jadhav Outstanding Graduate Research Assistant Award Anish Saxena Outstanding Graduate Head Teaching Assistant Award Shail J Patel Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award Sunidhi Dhawan Rising Star Doctoral Student Research Award Aeree Cho Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award (ACM) He Jia Joanne Truong Jay Wang

Graduate Awards The Donald V. Jackson Fellowship Established by Jeannie Jackson in memory of her husband, Don Jackson, a 1971 master’s graduate of IS and a 1965 bachelor’s graduate of the math department. Don had an extremely successful career in the computing industry which included serving as CIO of Computer Products. The Donald V. Jackson Fellowship supports the master’s program and is awarded to a well-rounded, first-year student of computer science who best embodies Don’s values of academic excellence and leadership.

Neha Rajesh Lakhani (SCS) Pratham Darrpan Mehta (SCS) Sagar S Sadak (IC) The Marshall D. Williamson Fellowship Established by Billie L. Williamson in memory of her husband, Marshall Williamson, a 1969 master’s graduate of IS. Marshall had an extremely successful career, serving most recently as the general manager of the Garland Division of E-Systems. The Marshall D. Williamson Fellowship supports the master’s program and is awarded to a well-rounded, second-year student who best embodies Marshall’s values of academic excellence and leadership.

Dhyan D Gandhi (CS) Maulishri Bhandari (IC)

Parisa Babolhavaeji (CSE)

2024 Dissertation Awards He Jia – SCS Title: Robust Learning in High Dimension Advisor: Santosh Vempala Joanne Truong – SIC Title: Sim2Robot: Training Robots for the Real-World with Imperfect Simulators Advisors: Dhruv Batra and Sonia Chernova Zijie ‘Jay’ Wang – CSE Title: Democratizing Human-Centered AI with Visual Explanation and Interactive Guidance Advisor: Polo Chau

Faculty Awards Outstanding Mid-Career Faculty Research Award Yingyan (Celine) Lin William Perkins Outstanding Junior Faculty Research Award Alexey Tumanov Outstanding Research Scientist Award Animesh Chhotaray Rachel Baker Outstanding Post-Doctoral Research Award Seonjin Na Outstanding Instructional Associate Teaching Award John Hameier Susanta K Routray Outstanding Research Faculty Leadership Award Ketan Bhardwaj Outstanding Junior Faculty Teaching Award Frank Li Outstanding Faculty Leadership Award Neha Kumar The William D. “Bill” Leahy Jr. Outstanding Instructor Award Nimisha Roy The Monica Sweat Outstanding Lecturer in External Engagement Award Pedro Guillermo Feijoo Garcia William A. “gus” Baird Faculty Teaching Award This award is given to a faculty member who is recognized by his or her peers for excellence in teaching.

That’s not a typo in your program: gus baird had no pretense whatsoever. He never capitalized his name and we will follow his example. It is fitting that “gus” – “the man who wanted nothing more than to teach” – be remembered each time this award is presented. “gus” received his master’s degree from Georgia Tech in 1980 and was a favorite College of Computing undergraduate instructor for nearly 15 years.

Max Mahdi Roozbahani

Dean’s Office Awards James D. Lester III Family Award Established by Faye R. and James D. Lester III, this annual award is to recognize faculty members in the College of Computing whose research in Internet phenomena is deemed noteworthy.

(To be announced at ceremony) The Dean’s Award The Dean’s Award is selected by the Dean and presented to a member of the college who has contributed significantly to the success of the college this year.

(To be announced at ceremony)

Staff Awards Outstanding Staff Mentoring Award David Mercer

Reina Grundhoefer

The Ruthie Book Outstanding Staff Team Member Award Elijah Mastinu

Outstanding Staff Leadership Award Uwanna Smith Outstanding Staff Impact Award Deborah Davis Outstanding Academic Advising Award Daurette Joseph John Kirkbride Timothy (Tim) Brown Brittany Anderson Pearl Chiu Malcom Emerson Dena Gladney Pauline Glenn Briana Lampert Ishmela Lyons-Uko Ashley McDowell Christopher (Chris) Stevens Outstanding Staff Community-Building Award Anthony McCoy Daron Foreman Dominique King Lyubomir Lichev Greg Anderson Courtney Adams-Nelson

10 Years of Service Acknowledgement Munmun De Choudhury Mary Hudacheck-Buswell Meenatchi Maran Ruth Pierre Peter Swire Tiffany Ntuli

Alexander Endert Taesoo Kim Francella Tonge Srinivas Aluru Gwendolyn Kearney

25 Years of Service Acknowledgement Thad Starner Aibek Musaev Ling Liu

Connie Irish Calton Pu

Retirement Acknowledgement Sham Navathe – Retired FY24 01/01/25. Emeritus FY24 01/01/25.

Chrissy Hendricks – Retired – 06/01/2024

Thank You to Our Nominators The award ceremony appreciates the time and effort put in by all the nominators to recognize their fellow students, staff, and faculty in preparing the nomination packages. The awards committee would like to applaud ALL the nominators for their dedication to growing the excellence in the College of Computing.

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