²⁰¹³Vera Khovanskaya

∫ Female Awardee ∫

Senior at Cornell University

Vera Khovanskaya is a Senior at Cornell University in the Department of Information Science.

As an undergraduate researcher in Cornell’s Interaction Design Lab, Vera brings a synthesis of computer science and social science skills to her projects. Vera’s research combines critical reflection on issues in the collection and processing of data for personal informatics with the design of technologies. She has assisted with the development of a mobile phone application to improve health behaviors and health awareness, and a mobile phone application that generates music in response to a user’s physical movements in order to foster creative expression.

Vera also has also worked as a teaching assistant, and helped develop an introductory programming course for non-majors.

²⁰¹³Matthew Bryan

∫ Male Awardee ∫

Senior at University of Washington

Matthew Bryan is a Senior at the University of Washington majoring in Computer Science. Matthew’s research is highly multidisciplinary – spanning the fields of robotics to brain-computer interfacing.

Matthew’s state-of-the-art research helps make brain-computer interfacing more adaptive to the ongoing needs of users, who are often paralyzed or disabled. As an undergraduate research assistant, Matt took on the challenging problem of developing a brain-computer interface for controlling an assistive humanoid robot using brain signals. Matthew’s novel approach allows the user to teach the robot new commands on the fly by training the robot to perform new behaviors using brain signals. 

In addition to formulating research hypotheses, developing and implementing algorithms, and presenting research results at international conferences, Matthew also mentors at-risk youth.

²⁰¹³Zhengyuan Zhou

∫ Male Awardee ∫

Bachelor of Science at University of California, Berkeley

Zhengyuan recently received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Zhengyuan has an exemplary record of research results, and a drive to work on deep and meaningful problems in computer science. He has co-authored several papers building on open-loop frameworks for differential games, with an emphasis on control and optimization. In addition to theory and algorithm design, Zhengyuan is a skilled programmer.

Zhengyuan also gained experience as an undergraduate student instructor and tutor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and worked on problems in Algebra with researchers in the Mathematics Department.

²⁰¹³Mattea Welch

∫ Female Runner-Up ∫

Senior at Queen’s University in Ontario

Mattea Welch is a Senior at Queen’s University in Ontario, majoring in Computer Science with a specialization in Biomedical Computing.

Mattea is passionate about using computing and logic to solve real life problems, and her projects are multidisciplinary - involving computer scientists and clinicians. She has organized research in the Laboratory for Percutaneous Surgery specializing in computer-assisted surgery.

She is also a Research Assistant and Vice-President of the Queen’s Association for Technology in Medicine and Biology, which provides a platform to discuss and explore the changing role that technology plays in medicine and biology. It promotes the idea that traditionally separate fields of technology, medicine and biology have much to gain through a collaborative and multidisciplinary approach to problem solving.

²⁰¹³Frank Ong

∫ Male Runner-Up ∫

Senior at University of California, Berkeley

Frank Ong is a Senior at the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences.

As a Research Assistant, Frank investigated a novel way of denoising blood flow data using divergence-free wavelet transform. During the project, he had the opportunity to collaborate with radiologists in Stanford University, which motivated him to allow complete user control on the denoising process, because algorithms may cover up some details that radiologists want to see.