CS Awards 2024
CS Awards 2024
CS Medallion Award : David Choo
David Choo represents the highest standard of academic excellence with achieving the 2024 Computer Science Nhan Huynh Medallion Award. She has contributed to numerous projects both in and out of the classroom including work on her own open-source tool. As one of only a few current students to do so, she has also supported the CS Department’s high school programming contest by helping to proof solve the original problem and by judging the submitted solutions. After graduation, David plans to pursue a career in the tech industry as a software engineer and to continue her dedicated work with open-source projects.
Dean's Outstanding Senior Award (DOSA): Izhar Ali
Izhar Ali is a dual major in Computer Science and Math along with a Bantivoglio Honors Concentration. His strong leadership skills serve him well in his roles as President of Upsilon Pi Epsilon (UPE) Honor Society as well as a Community Assistant for Residential Living. For the past 5 semesters, he has contributed to the Rowan-Bristol Myers Squibb research team with Dr. Vasil Hnatyshin working on Natural Language Processing. In the fall, Izhar will continue his graduate studies in the CS Combined Advanced Degree Program (CADP) in Data Science and plans a career as a Software or Machine Learning Engineer.
Dean's Outstanding Senior Award (DOSA): Yekaterina Saburova
Yekaterina (Kat) Saburova is completing her BS in Computer Science with a Bantivoglio Honors Concentration. She has served in numerous leadership positions including Vice President of ACM, Secretary of UPE, National Liaison for ACM-W, and Public Relations for WINGS. Her co-authored work from a computer graphics final project earned her team Best Graphics in the ACM Game Jam competition. She has also interned at BioDome Inc. and worked with the CS GenCyber camps. Kat will be returning in the fall as part of the CS Combined Advanced Degree Program (CADP) and plans to work as a Software Engineer after graduation.
CS Outstanding Senior Award (CS OSA): Emma Dougherty
Emma Dougherty is graduating with her BA in Computing & Informatics, minor in CS, and a CUGS in MIS. She has served in numerous leadership positions such as Treasurer for ACM-W & UPE along with President/President Emerita for ACM-W. At Lockheed Martin, she gained in-field experience during her 2 summer internships and participated in the CS Co-op Program as well. After graduation, she has been offered a full-time position to continue working at Lockheed as a Systems Engineer – where she hopes to continue her graduate studies, to volunteer through the Women’s Impact Network, and to give back by possibly teaching future students.
CS Outstanding Senior Award (CS OSA): Million Haileyesus
Million Haileyesus is graduating with his BS in Computer Science and a minor in Mathematics. His various leadership positions include serving as Vice President of UPE, Senator for the Cybersecurity Club, and AI Committee Head for ACM. He has actively volunteered as a CS Tutor helping other students. He has also contributed to research on the Rowan-Bristol Myers Squibb team and published a poster at Computing Sciences in Colleges, Northeastern Region (CCSCNE). He plans to continue with his graduate studies in the CS Combined Advanced Degree (4+1) Program and eventually pursue a career as a Software Engineer or Data Scientist.
CS Outstanding Senior Award (CS OSA): Stephen Piccolo
Stephen Piccolo is completing his BS in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics. His various research publications and papers with Dr. Shen-Shyang Ho on collaborative Artificial Intelligence (AI) included a presentation at the 2023 ACM/IEEE Symposium on Edge Computing, where he had also earned the ACM Student Travel Award. He was on the first-place team for the Microsoft & Seton Hall Solar Power Platform Hackathon. As a Data Analyst Intern for Cincinnati Insurance, he helped train and improve computer vision models that interpret satellite images. After some time in industry post-graduation, he hopes to return for his graduate studies.
CS Outstanding Graduate Award (CS OGA): Steven Arroyo
Steven Arroyo returned for his Rowan MS in Computer Science after his previous BS in CS and starting his career at ASRC Federal. He conducted research with Dr. Shen-Shyang Ho and attended the 21st IEEE International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA) to present on Novel Anomaly Detection Algorithm. His thesis on Federated Anomaly Detection Systems is being submitted to the journal on Science Directs Expert Systems and Applications (ESA). At ASRC Federal, he worked on anomaly detection applications and co-authored a white paper on the topic. Steven plans to develop more technically before heading for a doctoral degree.
CS Outstanding Graduate Award (CS OGA): Tarun Kairamkonda
Tarun Teja Kairamkonda is completing his MS in Computer Science while serving as a CS Graduate Teaching Fellow. His thesis work is on Martingale-based Change-Point Monitoring and Explanation for an Evolving Graph using Multiple Features. He has also contributed to Dr. Shen-Shyang Ho’s research and publications on Spatio-Temporal Data Science and New Approaches for Dynamic Graph Anomaly Detection, Prediction, and Explanation. Tarun is a member of the ACM Special Interest Group on Applied Computing (SIGAPP). He has also received the competitive ACM Student Travel award and plans to transition into the software industry after graduation to apply his gained knowledge.
