CS End-of-Year Award Ceremony 2018-19

By Sandra Dieron, PR Assistant, Computer Science 

The Department of Computer Science End-of-Year Awards Ceremony 2018-19 was held on Friday, June 14. Professors Matthew Turk, Elizabeth Belding, Diba Mirza served as presenters at the ceremony, and Professor William Wang was an integral part of the organizing committee. Many of our undergraduate and graduate students and their families, along with our outstanding faculty and staff were on there to celebrate the wonderful accomplishments of our department.

Professor Amr El Abbadi, Distinguished Professor and former Chair of the department from 2007 to 2011, described the atmosphere of the award ceremony as festive, celebratory, and it had a real sense of achievement for a department on the rise. Likewise, Professor Turk noted that attendees of the ceremony were happy to celebrate the department’s accomplishments.

According to Professor El Abbadi, the recipients of the Graduate Student Award were especially admirable: “It was impressive to see how 3 students, all of them women, have gone way beyond the call of duty to promote both excellent research and the sense of community.”

Professor Turk appreciated the Alumnus Award recipient, Keval Desai, who traveled to Santa Barbara from the Bay Area to receive his award. Desai also provided advice to undergraduate and graduate students alike, as well as served as a fantastic model of the connections one may create by staying connected to the Computer Science department after graduation. Desai’s wife and son attended the ceremony with him and appeared very proud of his achievements.

“I really enjoyed Keval's Distinguished Alumni Award Speech. It reflected a true sense of belonging and appreciation for the achievements of the department, as well as what he has achieved,” remarked Professor El Abbadi, “I felt proud of him and remembered fondly when he was in my class about 30 years ago. A great moment.” 

Our End-of-Year Awards Ceremony was a great success and we would like to once again congratulate our students and their families, our staff, and faculty members on a fantastic year!