Graduate Student Awards

These annual awards recognize excellence in research, teaching and leadership among our graduate students, and are presented at the Year-end Awards Reception held in late April each year.

Selected students receive a plaque and a $500 cash award. To be nominated, students must be in good standing, meet the eligibility criteria, and (PhD nominees only) must have submitted their academic progress reports for the academic year in which the nomination is submitted.

Faculty nominators are encouraged to consult with the awards committee and DGP for advice and support in making nominations.

Outstanding TA Award

Recognizes superior contributions by TAs in the classroom or lab.

  • Who Is Eligible: any student who has served as Graduate Teaching Assistant for at least one semester during the previous calendar year. A student may receive this award only once.
  • Qualities to consider in making nominations: in-depth knowledge of subject taught, enthusiasm for teaching, superb communication skills, responsiveness and availability to students, teaching evaluations/student comments.
  • Award amount: $500
  • Who may nominate: Faculty

Winners

2024

Alex Raposo & John Marsden

2023

Jiaqing Yuan

2022

Kai Presler-Marshall

2021

Amanul Haque

2020

Mark Abdelshiheed

2019

Chinmaya Dabral

2018

Tripti Samal & Tyler Stocksdale

2017

Hui Guo

2016

Lingnan Gao

Outstanding Research Award

Recognizes outstanding research contributions.

  • Who is Eligible: any Doctoral student for research contributions in the previous calendar year.
  • Criteria: publications, best paper awards, artifacts (e.g., software tools), invention disclosures, research presentations
  • Award amount: $500
  • Who may nominate: Faculty

Winners

2024

Xiaojian Wang & Kara Schatz

2023

Nusrat Zahan & Zhikai Gao

2022

Samiha Marwan

2021

Yuanchao Xu

2020

Niki Gitinabard & Hui Guo

2019

Lingnan Gao

2018

Markus Eger & Aurora Pedicord-Liu

2017

Nirav Ajmeri

2016

Yufei Ding & Pradeep Murukannaiah

Outstanding Dissertation Award

Recognizes and encourages exceptional research and writing, and impact on the field.

  • Who is Eligible: any Doctoral student who has successfully defended their Dissertation in the previous calendar year.
  • Criteria: originality, novelty and creativity, scholarly excellence, significant contribution to the field.
  • Winner may be nominated for ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award
  • Award Amount: $500
  • Criteria: Publications, Best Paper Awards, Artifacts (e.g., software tools), Invention Disclosures, Research presentations
  • Who may nominate: Faculty

Winners

2024

Yuanchao Xu

2023

Samuel Christie

2022

Onkar Patil

2021

Nicholas Lytle

2020

Akond Rahman

2019

Nirav Ajmeri

2018

Veronica Catete & Yufei Ding

2017

Pradeep Murukannaiah

2016

Savera Tanwir

Masters Research Award

Recognizes exceptional research by a Masters student.

  • Who is Eligible: any Masters student for research contributions in the previous calendar year.
  • Criteria: publications, best paper awards, artifacts (e.g., software tools), invention disclosures, research presentations
  • Award amount: $500
  • Who may nominate: Faculty

Winners

2024

Divya Sundaresan

2022

Chaitanya Bandikatla

2021

Parth Diwanji

2018

Eric Horton

2017

Aditya Virmani

2016

Debanjana Nayak

Graduate Student Leadership Award

Recognizes graduate student leaders who have made positive difference in their scholarly work, the department, campus, and community.

  • Who is Eligible: any graduate student for contributions made in the previous calendar year.
  • Criteria: leadership skills, engagement and efforts at the departmental, university, local, and national levels, impact
  • Award amount: $500
  • Who may nominate: Faculty

Winners

2024

Lauren Alvarez

2023

Amanul Haque

2022

Amy Isvik

2021

Adam Gaweda & Sathvik Prasad

2020

Amy Isvik

2019

Jennifer Tsan

2018

Veronica Catete

2017

Russell Meredith

2016

Amir Bahmani