Sixth Annual Outstanding Achievement and Advocacy Awards Banquet
Friday, May 2, 2014
Massachusetts Room, UMass Amherst Mullins Center
To recognize the remarkable accomplishments of graduates of the School's degree programs and to acknowledge the support of important friends of the school, the School established the University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Computer Science Outstanding Achievement and Advocacy Award (OAA) program, under which awards are presented annually in various categories.
The sixth annual Outstanding Achievement and Advocacy Awards Banquet was held on the evening of Friday, May 2, 2014 in the Massachusetts Room of the UMass Amherst Mullins Center.
Over 100 people joined us at the 2014 event to help celebrate the accomplishments of our award recipients and to reconnect with fellow alums.
View photos of the 2014 OAA Event.
The 2014 OAA Award Recipients are:
- Outstanding Contributions to Society: Randy E. Ellis (UMass Amherst CS Ph.D. '87), Professor in the School of Computing, Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Department of Surgery at Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario
- Outstanding Achievement in Education: Donald H. House (UMass Amherst CS Ph.D. '84), Professor and Chair, Division of Visual Computing in the School of Computing at Clemson University
- Outstanding Achievement by a Young Alum: Vanessa Murdock (UMass Amherst CS M.S. '05, Ph.D. '06), Principal Applied Researcher, Microsoft Bing, Relevance Sciences Group
- Outstanding Achievement in Management: Mary-Ellen Prescott (UMass Amherst CS B.S. '84), New Technology Program Manager at Bose Corporation
- Outstanding Achievement in Research: Zhi-Li Zhang (UMass Amherst CS M.S. '92, Ph.D. '97), Qwest Chair Professor and McKnight Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota
- Outstanding Support for the School: EMC Corporation
View OAA award recipient biographies.
The Graduate Student Award* Recipients are:
- Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award: Akshat Kumar (Ph.D. '13)
- Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award: Chao Li (Ph.D. '13)
- Outstanding Synthesis Project Award: Niall Emmart
- Outstanding Synthesis Project Award: Fabricio Murai Ferreira
- Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award: Aditya Sundarrajan
- Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award: Kyle Wray
The Undergraduate Student Award** Recipients are:
- Overall Academic Achievement: David B. Lowell
- Overall Achievement in Research: Daniel M. Stubbs
- Achievement in Networking: Kyle R. Hughes
- Achievement in Interdisciplinary Studies: Yael Kaufman
- Achievement in Computing Systems: Patrick N. Pegus II
- Achievement in Software Engineering: Elizabeth A. Staruk
- Achievement in Theory: Sofya Vorotnikova
- Achievement in Robotics: Jay Ming Wong
*The Graduate Student Awards are sponsored by Yahoo!
**The Undergraduate Student Awards are sponsored by Fiksu
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
| 2:30 - 3:00 p.m. |
- Computer Science Building Tour |
| 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. |
- Panel Discussion with our award recipients
Computer Science Building, Rooms CS 150/151 |
| 5:00 - 9:00 p.m. |
- Reception and Awards Banquet
Massachusetts Room, Mullins Center |
View list of prior OAA award recipients.