2021 College-wide awards for EECS undergraduate students

The Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science congratulates the recipients of the 2021 College of Engineering Undergraduate Student Awards. These awards recognize students who excel in multiple areas, including scholarship, service, leadership.

A.D. Moore Award

Awarded to an outstanding second- or third-year student. $2500 stipend.

Sanjeev Raja

Sanjeev is a junior majoring in Data Science and Chemical Engineering. He holds a GPA of 3.96 overall and 4.0 in his major studies. Fascinated by the intersection between the physical and computational sciences, he believes that future advances in scientific computing and deep learning will be driven by individuals possessing both scientific domain knowledge and computational expertise, which is why he has chosen his double major. This fall, Sanjeev was part of a team of six students that represented U-M in ProjectX, an international machine learning research competition focused on climate change solutions in which many of the top universities in North America and Europe competed. The team won the Best Paper Award and $20,000 prize. He has completed internships at Wolfspeed, where he designed a deep segmentation pipeline in TensorFlow for scratch detection on silicon carbide wafers, and the Rochester institute of Technology, where he designed an early warning system to predict electric power grid failures using computational and machine learning approaches.

Charles F. Barth, Jr. Prize

Presented to an outstanding sophomore who has demonstrated academic excellence, leadership qualities and outstanding contributions to the University and/or community. $7,500 stipend.

Maia Herrington

Maia is not only planning to graduate with a double major in Computer Engineering and Aerospace Engineering, she is Vice President of Michigan Autonomous Aerial Vehicles (MAAV), is a research assistant for the Michigan Exploration Laboratory (MXL), and served as an instructional aide for AEROSP 495: Systems Engineering Leadership. She also developed a payload code and flight electronics for a satellite mission. AEROSP 495 was a new course, and Maia developed 3 of the 5 new labs. The course was highly successful, and Maia was asked to contribute to a paper on pedagogy submitted to the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).

Distinguished Achievement Undergraduate Award

Presented to the outstanding undergraduate in each degree program. Criteria considered by the department awards committee include academic achievement, exemplary character, leadership in class and activities, and potential for success in future endeavors. $500 stipend.

Beste Aydin

Beste is majoring in Computer Engineering. She has an entrepreneurial spirit that led her to participate in, and win, the Castle Placement Capital Madness Startup Pitch Competition, as well as the MIT Reality Virtually Hackathon Fidelity Data Visualization Award & Underscore VC Mentorship Prize. She has contributed her expertise in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) as a researcher with the Ross School of Business and the School of Nursing, and she is co-president of the Alternate Reality Initiative, which brings students opportunities in VR/AR technology. Her interest in this area was inspired by her work as a volunteer at her high school’s special needs department. Through the U-M group MedLaunch, she built a device to improve sleep for PTSD patients and is currently working on a therapeutic VR game for stroke patients. Beste will graduate with a minor in entrepreneurship, and plans to continue her education as a master’s student in the area of embedded systems, while contributing to medical device research. 

Jeremy Latham

Jeremy is majoring in Electrical Engineering, and has excelled in and out of the classroom. His near-perfect GPA is combined with a wide  array of extra-curricular activities, including being a varsity member of the Michigan Men’s Rowing Team. He participated in graduate-level research with Prof. Michael Flynn’s research group, and has interned at TI Automotive and ZF Axle Drives during the summer. He received the Caviston Oar Award, that recognizes leadership, dependability, and ability among novice rowers, and is a member of the honor society, HKN. Jeremy received the 2020 William Harvey Seeley Prize, which goes to the individual with the highest academic standing after their first year, and received the William J. Branstrom U-M Freshman Prize.

Yi (Zack) Zhang

Zack is majoring in Computer Science and Data Science. He states that “my life mission is to democratize AI for all.” He’s held internships in the financial, networking, and software app development spheres and has seen how technology is deployed and how he would like to make an impact in promoting free open-source AI solutions. Zack served as Vice President of Education in the Michigan Data Science Team and helped to host the MIDAS Fall 2019 Data Challenge. Among the many projects he has undertaken, his proudest achievement in the past year was to have managed a team of four to successfully develop bots pro bono for a Discord study server that has 54 thousand members as of early early February.

Distinguished Leadership Awards

Presented to students who have demonstrated effective leadership.

Kirtana Choragudi

Kirtana is majoring in Computer Science and Business Administration. She has worked as an Instructional Aide for EECS 183 for three years, teaching over 1,000 students per semester. Her involvement has gone beyond teaching as she has helped to orchestrate the tools, processes, and communication that has enabled this extremely large class and its project showcase to succeed.

Kirtana also played a primary role in developing MI Symptoms, the state’s COVID-19 symptom screening application and the state’s COVID vaccination dashboard for local public health officials, where she became the main communicator between all involved parties, which included faculty from the College of Engineering, School of Public Health, and School of Information, as well as State of Michigan officials from Health and Human Services, Labor and Economic Opportunity, and the Department of Technology, Management & Budget.

Kirtana is President of Seven Mile, a nonprofit that brings U-M students to Detroit to offer free music, coding, and arts enrichment, with after-school and summer programs.

Atharva Talpade

Atharva is majoring in Computer Science. He discovered a love of entrepreneurship and inspiring creativity in others during his first year at Michigan. He and two friends launched Sizzl, a subscription-based discount service for students and a marketing and analytics platform for local restaurants to help them compete against national rivals. Post Sizzl, he was recruited into Contrary Capital as a venture partner to help develop UM-related entrepreneurial projects. He also cofounded MProduct, a UM Product Manage student community, which is now near 100 members. Seven startups have come out of MProduct. Atharva also created the best ML model in a DARPA competition for classification accuracy of Thyroid disease amongst students from U-M, Brown, MIT, and other researchers.

Eileen Shiau

Eileen is majoring in Computer Science. She has a cumulative 3.98 GPA and a 4.0 in computer science, and has been recognized as a US Presidential Scholar, a National Merit Award Winner, a Regents Merit Scholarship Award recipient, and a recipient of the William J. Branstrom Freshman Prize. She originally entered college planning to study medicine, but the problem solving aspect and the satisfaction associated with creating a successful program soon drew her to computer science instead. From January to December 2019, Eileen worked as a research assistant at the U-M Center for Translational Pathology. In the summer of 2020, she was a software intern at Duo Security. Eileen notes that, “There can be so much more enjoyment in studying when I focus on the way that academia unlocks the doors to the intricacies of our world and to an impactful future.”

Roger M. Jones Fellowship

This annual Fellowship abroad provides a graduating UM engineering student the opportunity to study the humanities at a European university to broaden and deepen their education in the College of Engineering. The Fellowship includes living expenses, travel stipend, and tuition for one year.

Hannah Kempel

Hannah is majoring in Electrical Engineering. After receiving her degree in electrical engineering, with a minor in history, Hannah plans to pursue a study of history in Europe. Her interest in historical research was piqued while taking a course on Hellenic history. The professor did not assign a specific textbook, saying he would write one himself if he had the time. Hannah offered to help so the textbook could become a reality, and has been working on it ever since as a historian. Her plan is to pursue a master’s degree in history at a university in England, Ireland, or Scotland. Hannah spent many years as a member of the Haslett Robotics Club, and her team won the highest award worldwide in the 2014 competition. She continued to contribute to robotics as a summer camp mentor and a judge.

Tom S. Rice Tau Beta Pi Award

This award is presented by the Michigan Gamma Chapter of Tau Beta Pi to an outstanding Tau Beta Pi student for their continued commitment to the pillars of the society including academic achievement and community leadership.  $750 stipend.

Cameron Kabacinski

Cameron is majoring in Computer Engineering. He has served as an instructional aide for EECS 373: Introduction to Embedded Systems, and as a research assistant for Prof. Ed Olson’s APRIL Robotics Laboratory at Michigan. He is an active member of Tau Beta Pi, and has taken on several leadership roles for the U-M Autonomous Robotic Vehicle Team. He co-authored “The Masked Mapper: Masked Metric Mapping,” which was presented at the 2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). Cameron is also a member of the leadership team of the Polish Student Association, and says he is proud to give back to the communities that have shaped his college career.