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