Awards and Scholarships in the Department of Computer Science

05-20-2026

Every spring, the Department of Computer Science honors students, faculty, and staff who have been chosen to receive fellowships, awards, and scholarships.

We offer our congratulations to this year's winners. We are proud of your accomplishments and look forward to your future contributions.

Photos of the event are available here

 

Maurice H. Halstead Memorial Award

Professor Maurice H. Halstead joined the computer science faculty in 1967. He was a pioneer in software engineering, and wrote some of the first books on compiling and decompiling of software. He is generally considered as the "father" of code decompilation. Professor Halstead is perhaps best known as the founder of the approach to defining and measuring software products and processes known as Software Science. Many people believe that his work, and that of former Professor Samuel Conte, was the true foundation for software metrics and software engineering. Following Professor Halstead's death, a memorial fund was established in 1979 by his students, family, and colleagues to recognize a Purdue student who has made exemplary contributions to software engineering research. The winner is selected by the CS Awards Committee based on nominations submitted by the faculty and presented with an engraved plaque. The recipient receives a $5,000 monetary award and a plaque.

This year, Xiangzhe (Alex) Xu is the recipient of the 2026 Halstead Award. Xu was nominated by Samuel D. Conte Professor of Computer Science Xiangyu Zhang. Alex is an exceptionally talented and industrious student, an outstanding Ph.D. researcher whose pioneering work in AI-driven software systems has earned top honors across leading conferences, a major international research award, and impactful collaborations with industry and academia—advancing the future of reliable and secure intelligent systems said Professor Zhang.

 

Zhe Zhou is the recipient of the Maurice H. Halstead Memorial Award

 

 

Raymond Boyce Graduate Teaching Award

The Raymond Boyce Graduate Teaching Award was established in 1975 by Sandy Boyce and friends in memory of Raymond Boyce who received his PhD in computer science in 1972 with high honors. Raymond passed away unexpectedly on June 18, 1974. This year the Boyce Graduate Teacher Award was awarded to Athina Terzoglou for the fall of 2025 and Jasorsi Ghosh for the spring of 2026. Their names will be inscribed on a permanent plaque in the display case by Room 3102 in Lawson Computer Science Building.

Sripath Mishra, winner of the Boyce Graduate Teacher Award for the fall of 2024.

Ethan Dickey, winner of the Boyce Graduate Teacher Award for the spring of 2025.

 

Emil Stefanov Memorial Partial Fellowship

Nathan Smearsoll won the Emil Stefanov Memorial Partial Fellowship. The fellowship was created in memory of Emil Stefanov, who earned his BS from Purdue in 2009 and passed away in 2014. This award is given to a domestic graduate student specializing in security who shows originality and creative thinking in research. Associate Professor Jeremiah Blocki nominated Smearsoll for the fellowship.

 

John R. Rice Partial Fellowship in Scientific Computing 

John R. Rice, the W. Brooks Fortune Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at Purdue, was one of the earliest faculty members of Purdue’s first-in-the-nation computer science program. This year, the John R. Rice Partial Fellowship in Scientific Computing was awarded to Christos Boutsikas. Lee was nominated by Associate Department Head Petros Drineas.

Jae Joong Lee won the John R. Rice Partial Fellowship in Scientific Computing.

 

Dr. Marcel F. Neuts Memorial Award

This award was created in memory of Dr. Marcel F. Neuts, a Belgian-American mathematician and probability theorist. This award goes to a domestic, 2nd year or later graduate student who has passed PhD core course requirements and made significant contributions in the area of AI, Deep Learning, Physical AI, Quantum or Healthcare. This year’s award recipient is Blake Holman. Holman was nominated by Associate Professor Jermiah Blocki.

Maxwell Jacobson won the Dr. Marcel F. Neuts Memorial Award.

 

2025-2026 Herbold Scholars

• Alaina Hogan
• Muhan Lin
• Abhiram Manohara
• Kyle Asbury
• Kefan Cao
• Zhiyao Xu
• Wendi Wang
• Isaac Hubbard
• Jerry Yan
  
  

 

The Faculty Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Award 

The Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Award honors an undergraduate student for their work as a teaching assistant. This award is given to an undergraduate student who serves as a teaching assistant, faculty members nominate students they believe are deserving of special recognition. This year’s recipient, Cass Mitchell, was nominated by Professors H.E. Dunsmore.  Schwab assists with Walkthrough and Debugging, but, the role for which he is most valuable in CS 18000 is managing Ed Discussion. A 24 hour a day, 7 day a week discussion forum where students post questions about their homework and projects. "Daniel is not required to monitor this forum 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,but, he basically does," says Dunsmore. "He answers nearly every question and his answers are always succinct and easily understandable to students in CS 18000."

Daniel Schwab won the Faculty Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Award.

 

Outstanding Service to the Department by a Student

The Outstanding Service to the Department by a Student Award is determined by votes of computer science, data science, and artificial intelligence students. This year, Kartavya Vashishtha won the award.

Kian Kasad won the Outstanding Service to the Department by a Student Award.

 

Outstanding Research Effort by an Undergraduate Student

The Outstanding Research Effort by an Undergraduate Student went to Pranav Jadhav, who was nominated by Assistant Professor Zachary Kingston. Recognized as an exceptional undergraduate researcher who showed initiative from the start, pursuing advanced work in GPU computing that led to a first-author publication at a major IEEE conference, with multiple additional projects underway—truly one of the finest students we’ve had the privilege to mentor.

 

Peter Jin won the Outstanding Research Effort by an Undergraduate Student

 

 

Outstanding Student Awards

The department chooses students from each year in the computer science, data science, and artificial intelligence majors to honor the exceptional work they have contributed. The students are awarded Outstanding 1st Year, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior awards.

 

Outstanding Students in the Computer Science Major

Outstanding Students in the Computer Science Major

• William Zhou (Outstanding 1st Year)
• Rishit Agrawal (Outstanding Sophomore)
• Christopher Gou (Outstanding Junior)
• Medha Parhy (Outstanding Senior)

Outstanding Students in the Data Science Major

• Aryan Shahane (Outstanding 1st Year)
• Deeya Prabhu (Outstanding Sophomore)
• Yohaan Chokhany (Outstanding Junior)
• Shamita Yedlapalli (Outstanding Senior)

Outstanding Students in the Artificial Intelligence Major (new in fall 2023)

• Arjun Majety (Outstanding 1st Year)
• Layla Shihab (Outstanding Sophomore)
• Aaryan Wadhwani (Outstanding Junior)
• Amber Joneleit (outstanding Senior) 

 

Outstanding Staff Member

The award for Outstanding Staff Member is selected from staff nominations. This year's winners are Alyssa Cotton, Cathy Cobb, and Jaime Keyster.

Outstanding Staff Member Jamie Richards.

  

Purdue's Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Student Chapter Awards

The Purdue CS Student Chapter of the ACM provides awards for graduate and undergraduate teaching assistant plus a faculty award. This years winners are; Justin Zhang and Jiaxuan L. Wang for the ACM Graduate Teaching Assistant Award, Assistant Teaching Professor Andres Bejarano for the ACM Faculty Award, and Alejandro Griffith for the ACM Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Award.

Associate Teaching Professor Gustavo Rodriguez-Rivera won the ACM Faculty Award

 

 

Nidarshan Siddegowda won the ACM Graduate Teaching Assistant Award

 

Changxiang Gao, Aakash Patel and Kian Kasad won the ACM Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Award

 

Graduate Student Association's Awards

Ethan Dickey, president of the Graduate Student Association, presented award which were selected by graduate students. For the Most Influential Professor Award, Assistant Professor Alexandros Psomas was selected.

Professors Elisa Bertino and won the Most Influential Professor Award by the Graduate Student Association.

 

 

  

The Department of Computer Science congratulates all winners and thanks our corporate and scholarship sponsors.

Photo link.