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Outstanding Achievement and Advocacy Award Recipients

The College of Information and Computer Sciences established the Outstanding Achievement and Advocacy (OAA) Award program to recognize the remarkable accomplishments of graduates of the college's degree programs and to acknowledge the support of important friends of the college. Awards are presented annually in various categories.

The 2018 OAA Award Recipients are:

  • Outstanding Contributions to Society: Esha Sahai (UMass Amherst BS '02, MS '04)
    Venture Partner  
  • Outstanding Achievement by a Young Alum: Shiraj Sen (UMass Amherst MS '07, PhD '12)
    Lead Scientist, GE Global Research
  • Outstanding Achievement in Technology Development: Subhabrata "Shubho" Sen (UMass Amherst MS '97, PhD '01)
    Lead Inventive Scientist, AT&T Labs Research  
  • Outstanding Achievement in Education: Rahul Simha (UMass Amherst MS '86, PhD '90)
    Professor of Computer Science, The George Washington University 
  • Outstanding Achievement in Research: Lisa Zurk (UMass Amherst BS '85)
    Program Manager, Strategic Technology Office, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency 

2018 OAA Recipient bios
Photos from 2018 OAA Awards Banquet

The 2017 OAA Award Recipients are: 

  • Outstanding Contributions to Society: Shashi Buluswar (UMass Amherst CS MS '95, PhD '02)
    CEO, Institute for Transformative Technologies 
  • Outstanding Achievement in Research: Jamie Callan (UMass Amherst CS MS '87, PhD '93)
    Professor of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University 
  • Outstanding Achievement in Management: Rajesh Jha (UMass Amherst CS MS '90)
    Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Office Live and Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft
  • Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship: Tareef Kawaf (UMass Amherst CS, Math '94)
    President, RStudio 
  • Outstanding Achievement in Technology Development: Brian Kettler (UMass Amherst CS BS '87)
    Chief Scientist, LM Fellow, Lockheed Martin 
  • Outstanding Achievement by a Young Alum: Sarah Osentoski (UMass Amherst CS PhD '09), Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer, Mayfield Robotics

2017 OAA Award recipient bios
Photos from 2017 OAA Awards Banquet 

The 2016 OAA Award Recipients are:

  • Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship: Alden DoRosario  (UMass Amherst CS MS '04), Co-founder, Chitika
  • Outstanding Achievement in Management: Elaine C. Haney (UMass Amherst CS BS '84), Chief Operating Officer, Legacy.com 
  • Outstanding Achievement by a Young Alum: Shaun Kane (UMass Amherst CS BS '03, MS '05), Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado Boulder 
  • Outstanding Achievement in Education: Steven Levitan (UMass Amherst CS MS '79, PhD '84), John A. Jurenko, Professor of Computer Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Pittsburgh 
  • Outstanding Achievement in Research: Badri Nath (UMass Amherst CS PhD '89), Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science, Rutgers University
  • Outstanding Achievement in Technology Development: Tom Wagner (UMass Amherst CS PhD '00), Entrepreneur and Former CTO, iRobot

2016 OAA Award Recipient Bios

The 2015 OAA Award Recipients are:

  • Outstanding Achievement in Education: Kevin D. Ashley (UMass Amherst CS PhD '88), Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Professor, Graduate Program in Intelligent Systems, and Senior Scientist, Learning Research and Development Center
  • Outstanding Achievement in Technology Development: Eric W. Brown (UMass Amherst CS PhD '96), Director of Watson Algorithms for IBM Watson Group Innovations
  • Outstanding Contributions to Society: Janice Cuny (Former UMass Amherst Faculty Member), NSF CISE Program Director for Computing Education; Program Director for NSF's Broadening Participation in Computing Alliance Program 
  • Outstanding Achievement in Management: Peter F. DiGiammarino (UMass Amherst BDIC '75), Chairman of Compusearch and CEO of IntelliVen, LLC
  • Outstanding Achievement in Research: Lixin Gao (UMass Amherst CS PhD '97), Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst.
  • Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship: Ziv Gillat (UMass Amherst CS BS '95) Co-founder and Evangelist at Eye-Fi, Inc.
  • Outstanding Achievement by a Young Alum: Meck Khalfan (UMass Amherst CS BS '05), CEO and Co-founder of Puku LLC

2015 OAA Award Recipient Biographies
2015 site with event photos

The 2014 OAA Award Recipients are:

  • Outstanding Contributions to Society: Randy E. Ellis (UMass Amherst CS Ph.D. '87), Professor in the School of Computing, Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Department of Surgery at Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario
  • Outstanding Achievement in Education: Donald H. House (UMass Amherst CS Ph.D. '84), Professor and Chair, Division of Visual Computing in the School of Computing at Clemson University
  • Outstanding Achievement by a Young Alum: Vanessa Murdock (UMass Amherst CS M.S. '05, Ph.D. '06), Principal Applied Researcher, Microsoft Bing, Relevance Sciences Group
  • Outstanding Achievement in Management: Mary-Ellen Prescott (UMass Amherst CS B.S. '84), New Technology Program Manager at Bose Corporation
  • Outstanding Achievement in Research: Zhi-Li Zhang (UMass Amherst CS M.S. '92, Ph.D. '97), Qwest Chair Professor and McKnight Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota
  • Outstanding Support for the School: EMC Corporation

2014 OAA Award Recipient Biographies
2014 site with event photos

The 2013 OAA Award Recipients are:

  • Outstanding Achievement in Education: Laura K. Dillon (UMass Amherst CS MS '81, Ph.D. '84), Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Michigan State University
  • Outstanding Achievement in Management: Wayne W. Duso (UMass Amherst CS BS '85), General Manager, AWS New Cloud Initiatives at Amazon.com
  • Outstanding Contributions to Society: Arthur I. Karshmer (UMass Amherst CS MS, '74, PhD '78), a Professor and Department Chair in the School of Management's Department of Analytics and Technology at the University of San Francisco
  • Outstanding Achievement in Technology Development: Rakesh (Teddy) Kumar (UMass Amherst CS Ph.D. '92), Director of the Vision Technologies Center at SRI International
  • Outstanding Achievement by a Young Alum: Jennifer Neville (UMass Amherst CS BS '00, MS '04, Ph.D. '06), Associate Professor of Computer Science and Statistics at Purdue University
  • Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship: Aaron St. John (UMass Amherst CS BS '03, MS '05), Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of HitPoint Studios
  • Outstanding Achievement in Research: Richard S. Sutton (UMass Amherst CS MS '80, Ph.D. '84), Professor and iCORE Chair in the Department of Computing Science at the University of Alberta

2013 OAA Award Recipient Biographies
2013 site with event photos

The 2012 OAA Award Recipients are:

  • Outstanding Achievement by a Young Alum: Justin Borgman (UMass Amherst CS B.S. '02) - Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Hadapt
  • Outstanding Support for the Department: Frederick W. Byron Jr. - retired Vice-Chancellor for Research of the University of Massachusetts Amherst ('94-'04) / Dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics ('79 to '93)
  • Outstanding Achievement in Education: Claire Cardie (UMass Amherst CS Ph.D. '94) - Professor in the Departments of Computer Science and Information Science at Cornell University and Co-Founder and Chief Scientist of Appinions
  • Outstanding Achievement in Research: Edmund Durfee (UMass Amherst Ph.D. '87) - Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and in the School of Information, at the University of Michigan
  • Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship: Andrew Merlino (UMass Amherst CS B.S. '85) - President and Founder of Pixel Forensics
  • Outstanding Support for the Department: Ken Schmidt - Academic Relations Director for Yahoo!
  • Outstanding Achievement in Research: Henning Schulzrinne (UMass Amherst Ph.D. '92) - Julian Clarence Levi Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University and Chief Technology Officer of the Federal Communications Commission
  • Outstanding Achievement in Technology Development: Edwin (Ted) Selker (UMass Amherst CS M.S. '81) - Associate Director of Mobility Research and Visiting Professor at Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley
  • Outstanding Contributions to Society: Elliot Soloway (UMass Amherst CS Ph.D. '78)- Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in the College of Engineering, the School of Information and the School of Education at the University of Michigan

2012 Award Recipient Biographies
2012 site with event photos

The 2011 OAA Award Recipients are:

  • Outstanding Achievement in Research: Ronald Craig Arkin (UMass Amherst CS Ph.D. '87) - Regents' Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Space Planning in the College of Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology. He is also the Director of the Mobile Robot Laboratory.
  • Outstanding Achievement in Management: Renu Chipalkatti (UMass Amherst CS M.S. '87) - Global Head, Vertical Industry Solutions: Product Management at Verizonbusiness
  • Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship: A. Anthony Gee (UMass Amherst CS B.S. '90) - co-Founder and Managing Partner of Carthage Capital Group
  • Outstanding Achievement by a Young Alum: Irene Ros (UMass Amherst CS B.S. '06) - Research Developer at the Visual Communication Lab, a group within the Collaborative User Experience group at the Center for Social Software at IBM Research
  • Outstanding Achievement in Public Service: John L. Woods (UMass Amherst CS Ph.D. '80) - retired in 2006 as President and General Manager of TRW's Electromagnetic Systems Laboratory
  • Outstanding Achievement in Education: Wei Zhao (UMass Amherst CS Ph.D. '86) - Rector and Chaired Professor of the University of Macau
  • Outstanding Achievement in Technology Development: Michael Zyda (UMass Amherst CS M.S. '78) - Director of the Game Pipe Laboratory and a Professor of Engineering Practice in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Southern California

2011 Award Recipient Biographies
2011 site with event photos

The 2010 OAA Award Recipients are:

  • Outstanding Achievement in Education: Carla Brodley (UMass Amherst CS Ph.D. '94), Professor of Computer Science, Tufts University
  • Outstanding Achievement in Public Service: Jody Daniels (UMass Amherst CS Ph.D. '97), Director of Advanced Programs, Lockheed Martin, and Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves
  • Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship: Andrew Singer (UMass Amherst CS Ph.D. '79), Chief Scientist, Edison Labs LLC, and previously Founder, CEO, and CTO of Rapport  Incorporated
  • Outstanding Achievement by a Young Alum: Sanjay Tandon (UMass Amherst CS B.S. '01), Founder and CEO, Paramount Defenses Inc.
  • Outstanding Support for the Department: Sidney Topol (UMass Amherst Physics B.S. '47), President of The Topol Group
  • Outstanding Achievement in Management: Steve Vinter (UMass Amherst CS Ph.D. '85), Director, Google Cambridge
  • Outstanding Achievement in Research: Alexander Wolf (UMass Amherst CS Ph.D. '85), Professor of Computing, Imperial College London

2010 OAA Award Recipient Biographies
2010 site with event photos

The 2009 OAA Award Recipients are:

  • Outstanding Achievement in Management: P. Anandan (UMass Amherst Ph.D. 1987), Managing Director of Microsoft Research India
  • Outstanding Achievement in Technology Development: Carol A. Broverman (UMass Amherst Ph.D. 1991), Senior Corporate Manager, Enterprise Medication Informatics and Decision Support, Clinical Informatics Research and Development, Partners Healthcare Systems, Inc, Boston, MA
  • Outstanding Achievement in Research: Michael J. Franklin (UMass Amherst B.S. 1983), Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Computer Science Division, University of California Berkeley, and co-Founder of Truviso, Inc.
  • Outstanding Support for the Department: Joyce L. Plotkin, President Emerita, Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council
  • Outstanding Achievement in Education: Debra J. Richardson (UMass Amherst Ph.D. 1981), Professor of Informatics and the Ted and Janice Smith Family Foundation Dean of the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine
  • Outstanding Achievement in Research: Tuomas Sandholm (UMass Amherst Ph.D. 1996), Professor of Computer Science and Director, Agent-Mediated Electronic Marketplaces Laboratory, Carnegie Mellon University, and Founder of CombineNet, Inc.
  • Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship: Steven Willis (UMass Amherst B.S./BDIC 1978), Founder of Wellfleet Communications and Argon Networks
  • Outstanding Contributions to Society: Bryant W. York (UMass Amherst Ph.D. 1981), Professor, Computer Science Department and Co-Director, Laboratory for Learning and Adaptive Systems, Portland State University

2009 OAA Award Citations and Recipient Biographies.
2009 site with event photos