∫ archive ∫ Outstanding Undergraduate Researchers
2001 Sponsor: Microsoft Research
Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs and Microsoft Research are sponsors in alternate years.
2001 Selection Committee
Gregory Andrews, University of Arizona (Chair); Lori Clarke, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; and Michael Scott, University of Rochester.
2001Lisa Anthony
∫ Female Awardee ∫
Fourth Year at Drexel University
Lisa Anthony is majoring in computer science at Drexel University. She is in the fourth year of a five-year Bachelor of Science/Master of Science program.
Lisa is a research assistant in the Geometric and Intelligent Computing Laboratory at Drexel. She has helped to develop a computer-aided conceptual design environment and is currently working on the use of decision-theoretic and case-based planning techniques for the control of distributed, multi-agent systems. Lisa has co-authored four papers and presented two papers at major conferences. She has also been a summer researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Lisa has received numerous honors at Drexel, including the 1999 Award for Outstanding Industry, Leadership, and Academics in Computer Science; and the AT&T Undergraduate Research Fellowship for 2000. She has also been an assistant Webmaster for her department.
2001Kevin Zatloukal
∫ Male Awardee ∫
Senior at University of Washington.
Kevin Zatloukal is a senior majoring in both computer science and mathematics at the University of Washington.
Kevin has developed a new algorithm for nearest-neighbor searches in data compression. He has also worked on several aspects of data caching with colleagues at Microsoft Research, where he has spent three summers. This work includes algorithm design and structure layout for improved cache performance and a cache-conscious Web server. Kevin’s work has resulted in three papers and a patent. He is now working on problems in computational molecular biology.
Kevin has been a teaching assistant for four courses, a mentor to disabled high-school students, and a tutor for the Women in Engineering program. He has been named a University of Washington Undergraduate Scholar, a Mary Gates Scholar, and a Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholar.
2001Litza Stark
∫ Female Runner-Up ∫
Senior at University of Delaware
Litza Stark (Runner-Up) is a senior at the University of Delaware. She is majoring in computer science and Spanish, with minors in cognitive science, linguistics, and psychology.
Litza’s research interest is in human-computer interaction, particularly natural language processing. She has done experimental research on language acquisition and is interested in analyzing the mental representation of language with the goal of modeling it. She has co-authored a paper and is currently working on an honor’s thesis. Litza has been a research assistant for projects in both computer science and cognitive science, and she has worked two summers at AT&T Research Labs.
Litza has received the Delaware Academy of Science Award, several academic scholarships, and departmental awards as the outstanding junior and outstanding female. She is a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Upsilon Pi Epsilon. Litza is currently a teaching assistant, and she has helped to develop a program to attract high-school girls into computer science.
2001Russell Cox
∫ Male Runner-Up ∫
Fourth Year at Harvard University
Russell Cox (Runner-Up) is a fourth-year student majoring in computer science at Harvard University. He expects to receive both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in June 2001.
Russell is interested in the use of file system abstractions to simplify programs and the interfaces between them. He has worked at Bell Labs for four summers. His accomplishments there include creating the first demonstrations of what is now AT&T’s “instant answers” service. He has also worked on several aspects of the Plan 9 operating system, including graphics subsystems, terminal emulators, and installation software. His senior thesis is exploring ways to improve the performance of the Plan 9 graphics subsystem. At Harvard he has worked on the implementation of concurrent languages and systems, and he has helped to revise a programming languages textbook.
Russell has been a teaching fellow for introduction to theory of computing (three times) and survey of programming languages (once). For the past two years he has also been a coach for the US Computing Olympiad for high-school students.
Finalists (Female)
Finalists (Male)
Honorable Mentions (Female)
Deborah Abel, Harvard University
Kimberly Jackson, Xavier University of Louisiana
Meredith Ringel, Brown University
April Slayden, Millsaps College
Sara Smolensky, Mississippi State
Virginia Volk, University of Virginia
Elizabeth Walter, Dartmouth College
Honorable Mentions (Male)
Matt Bell, Stanford University
Michael Brown, University of Waterloo
Benjamin Carlson, University of Nevada Reno
Scott Carter, New Mexico University
Billy Chen, UC Berkeley
Tim Danner, Rice University
Gunes Ercal, University of Southern California
Tal Garfinkel, UC Berkeley
David Hauver, University of Virginia
Matt Huenerfauth, University of Delaware
Frederick Koopmans, U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
David Latham, Dartmouth College
Ondrej Lhotak, University of Waterloo
Dan Maynes-Aminzade,Carnegie Mellon University
Thomas Murphy,Carnegie Mellon University
Matthew Rosencrantz, University of Washington
Krishna Roskin, UC Santa Cruz
Andrew Schwerin, Brown University
Joseph Wong, University of British Columbia
Steve Zhang, University of Washington
