Eight Seniors Honored with 2026 Outstanding Undergraduate Achievement Awards
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Eight graduating seniors were selected by the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences (CICS) to receive its 2026 Outstanding Undergraduate Achievement Awards, the college’s highest honor given to undergraduates. This year’s recipients, recognized for outstanding performance in the classroom, in research, and in the community, are Muhammad Zaeem Chaudhary, Sarang Kale, Archimedes Li, Larry Liu, Om Mehta, Shiven Umeshbhai Patel, Aaron Tian, and Lucy Zhang.
Outstanding Undergraduate Achievement Award Winners
Muhammad Zaeem Chaudhary
Computing for the Common Good
Muhammad Zaeem Chaudhary has made a strong impact through work at the intersection of artificial intelligence, accessibility, and real-world problem-solving. His research at the Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval has focused on making AI assistants more responsive to individual user needs, while his work on sign language recognition reflects a commitment to building technology that supports accessibility in realistic conditions. He has also applied his skills in industry settings through internships at Microsoft and Marriott International, where he built AI tools to simplify complex workflows. Beyond research and internships, Zaeem has pursued projects designed to benefit the public, including a wildfire detection system and a campus-focused initiative to reduce food waste.
Sarang Kale
Community Service
Sarang Kale is being recognized for his leadership, research contributions, community engagement, and commitment to innovation within the undergraduate community at UMass Amherst. Through his honors thesis research, he developed and evaluated AI-integrated search systems that explore how artificial intelligence is changing the way users retrieve, trust, and interact with information online. Beyond academics, Sarang has demonstrated a strong commitment to service through his role as a Resident Assistant and through more than 250 hours of community service, including work with the Milford Youth Center and the Dwelling House of Hope in Lowell. As an E-board member of massAI and an active campus leader, he has consistently balanced research, mentorship, leadership, and service.
Archimedes Li
Academic/Research
Archimedes “Arky” Li is an undergraduate researcher working at the intersection of music, machine learning, and sustainability. For his honors thesis, he is developing VocaloFlow, a novel singing voice conversion system that generates natural-sounding singing from highly controllable Vocaloid audio. As a researcher in the Sustainability, Optimization, Learning, and Algorithms Research Lab, he contributed to work on multi-objective optimization of rooftop solar installations, helping improve carbon offset and income equity compared with existing approaches. This work was accepted to the ACM BuildSys 2025 conference and the ACM SIGMETRICS 2025 AI Crossroads Workshop. Beyond research, Arky has earned multiple hackathon awards and contributed to projects ranging from deep reinforcement learning for poker to 3D renderer development at MIT’s Scheller Teacher Education Program.
Larry Liu
Student Leadership
Larry Liu has worked to build the CICS community and provide students with practical, hands-on experience through his leadership of the UMass Cybersecurity Club. As club president for two and a half years, he coordinated weekly workshops, helped prepare student teams for cybersecurity competitions, and led major events at UMass, including MinutemanCTF and UMassCTF. He also supported the UMass Collegiate Penetration Testing team as it placed third in the world twice in the last three years and led the UMass Collegiate Cyber Defense team to the Northeast regionals. In addition, Larry helped establish and advise the Women in Cybersecurity chapter at UMass, extending scholarship and career opportunities to women entering a traditionally male-dominated field.
Om Mehta
Academic/Research
Om Mehta is being recognized for his broad and rigorous undergraduate research experience across computer science, mathematics, statistics, and computational biology. A graduating senior double-majoring in computer science and mathematics, Om has conducted research in several areas, including an REU project applying statistics to sports data, computational genomics and machine learning research at Harvard Medical School’s Broad Institute, and an honors thesis in theoretical computer science on prophet inequalities. He has also contributed to undergraduate education as a peer tutor and a two-semester Undergraduate Course Assistant, supporting fellow students while pursuing advanced research across multiple disciplines.
Shiven Umeshbhai Patel
Student Leadership
Shiven Umeshbhai Patel has demonstrated a deep commitment to robotics research, peer mentorship, and student leadership. In the DaROS Lab, his research focuses on enhancing navigation safety for robotic guide dogs designed to assist people who are visually impaired. His impactful work earned him the university-wide 2024 UMass Rising Researcher Award and the Best Poster Award at the ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing. Beyond the lab, Shiven has been dedicated to elevating his peers across CICS, serving as president of CICSoft, director of technology for HackUMass, and a Head Undergraduate Course Assistant. Having found his own start in the Early Research Scholars Program, he is passionate about mentoring underclassmen and fostering a collaborative, growth-oriented environment within the college.
Aaron Tian
Academic/Research
Aaron Tian’s work has centered on the design and analysis of fast, scalable algorithms for modern data science and machine learning. His current research is in randomized numerical linear algebra, where he studies efficient algorithms for large-scale matrix problems. He has also held research positions at Princeton University and in the Department of Mathematics at UMass Amherst. Beyond research, Aaron is a long-standing Head Undergraduate Course Assistant for COMPSCI 311: Introduction to Algorithms and helped launch the UMass Theory Club, supporting a broader undergraduate community around theoretical computer science. After graduation, he will begin a PhD in computer science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
Lucy Zhang
Student Leadership
Lucy Zhang has made a significant impact on undergraduate education through her work as a supplemental instruction leader and Head Undergraduate Course Assistant for core computer science courses, including algorithms, data structures, and programming methodology. During her time as an undergraduate, she supported more than 1,000 students, with many of her regular supplemental instruction participants going on to become SI leaders and UCAs themselves. She also oversaw a team of undergraduate and graduate student staff as Head UCA for COMPSCI 240. Beyond CICS, Lucy has interned with the Committee for Public Counsel Services, volunteered with women’s shelters, and written about technology misalignment issues for Transparency Coalition.ai, bringing visibility to emerging concerns in AI and society.