EECS 2026 Awards
From right to left: Rob Miller, Education Officer; Asu Ozdaglar, Department Head; Rachel Wright, Executive Assistant; Karl Berggren, Faculty Head of Electrical Engineering; Sam Madden, Faculty Head of Computer Science. Photo credit: Myron Freeman
It’s the summer of 2026, and we want to celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of our incredible EECS community by sharing some of the awards given by the department this year. Congratulations to all the winners!
EECS Outstanding Educator Award
Sara Beery, Assistant Professor
Jerome H. Saltzer Award for Excellence in Teaching
Adam Hartz, Senior Lecturer
Burgess (1952) & Elizabeth Jamieson Prize for Excellence in Teaching
Jesus Del Alamo, Donner Professor of Science
Burgess (1952) & Elizabeth Jamieson Prize for Excellence in Teaching
Phillip Isola, Associate Professor
Burgess (1952) & Elizabeth Jamieson Prize for Excellence in Teaching
Daniel Sanchez, Elihu Thomson Professor of EECS
Louis D. Smullin (‘39) Award for Excellence in Teaching
Mengjia Yan, Associate Professor
Kolokotrones Education Award
Andrew Wang, Lecturer
EECS Digital Innovation Award
Shen Shen, Lecturer
Department Head Special Recognition Award
Anthony Pennes, Technical Instructor
Department Head Special Recognition Award
Myron “Fletch” Freeman, Manager of Departmental Computing
Richard J. Caloggero Award
Rachel Wright, Executive Assistant to Asu Ozdaglar, Department Head
2026 Ruth and Joel Spira Award (Electrical Engineering)
Farnaz Niroui, Associate Professor
2026 Ruth and Joel Spira Award (Computer Science)
Gabriele Farina, Assistant Professor
Paul L. Penfield Student Service Award
Hope Dargan
Carlton E. Tucker Award for Teaching Excellence
Titus Roesler
Carlton E. Tucker Award for Teaching Excellence
Josh Brunner
Carlton E. Tucker Award for Teaching Excellence
Ishan Ganguly
Carlton E. Tucker Award for Teaching Excellence
Victor Butoi
Harold L. Hazen Award for Teaching Excellence
Xander Morgan
Harold L. Hazen Award for Teaching Excellence
Disha Kohli
Harold L. Hazen Award for Teaching Excellence
Jan Strzeszynski
Harold L. Hazen Award for Teaching Excellence
Maggie Yao
Frederick C. Hennie III Award for Teaching Excellence
Eagon Meng
Frederick C. Hennie III Award for Teaching Excellence
Agi Villanyi
Frederick C. Hennie III Award for Teaching Excellence
Andrew Huang
Frederick C. Hennie III Award for Teaching Excellence
Malick Sere
Frederick C. Hennie III Award for Teaching Excellence
Muhammad Abdullah
Frederick C. Hennie III Award for Teaching Excellence
Hans Gaensbauer
Special Recognition for Course Development Award
Chao-Chung (John) Huang
Special Recognition for Course Development Award
Dingyu (Dean) Shen
Special Recognition for Course Development Award
Reed A. Foster
Special Recognition for Course Development Award
Francesca Incalza
Undergraduate Award for Teaching Excellence
Raphael Dylan Dalida
George C. Newton Undergraduate Lab Prize
Calvin M. Rodrigue
George C. Newton Undergraduate Lab Prize
William Y. Feng
Northern Telecom/BNR Project Award
Charles A. Resicher
Northern Telecom/BNR Project Award
Matthew A. Taylor
Ernst A. Guillemin Thesis Prize for outstanding SM thesis in Electrical Engineering.
Beatriz Yankelevich
Supervisor: William Oliver
Thesis title: Towards a Modular Superconducting Quantum Processor using Chiral Waveguide Quantum Electrodynamics
William A. Martin Memorial Thesis Prize for outstanding SM thesis in Computer Science.
Prashanti Anderson
Supervisor: Sam Hopkins
Thesis title: A Geometry-Aware Exponential Mechanism for Private Estimation
Ernst A. Guillemin Thesis Prize for outstanding SM thesis in Artificial Intelligence and Decision Making
Flora Shi
Supervisor: Martin Wainwright
Thesis title: Sharp Results for Hypothesis Testing with Risk-Sensitive Agents
Charles & Jennifer Johnson MEng Thesis Prize for Computer Science
William Liu
Supervisor: Mengjia Yan
Thesis title: No More Instrumentations: A Framework to Leverage Static Analysis for Augmented Feedback in Kernel Fuzzing
Charles & Jennifer Johnson MEng Thesis Prize for Computer Science
Gabriel Manso
Supervisor: Neil Thompson
Thesis title: Beyond the Hype: Rethinking AI’s Transformative Role in Scientific Computing
Charles & Jennifer Johnson MEng Thesis Prize for Artificial Intelligence and Decision-making
Shaden Alshammari
Supervisor: Bill Freeman
Thesis title: I-Con: A Unifying Framework for Representation Learning
Charles & Jennifer Johnson MEng Thesis Prize for Artificial Intelligence and Decision-making
Semyon Savkin
Supervisor: Yury Polyanskiy
Thesis title: Quantization Methods for Matrix Multiplication and Efficient Transformers
David Adler Memorial MEng Thesis Prize for Electrical Engineering
Sarah Zhao
Supervisor: Manolis Kellis
Thesis title: Modeling Sequence Uncertainty in Comparative Genomics with a Probabilistic DNA Representation
David Adler Memorial MEng Thesis Prize for Electrical Engineering
Cole Paulin
Supervisor: Stephanie Mueller
Thesis title: SustainaPrint: Making the Most of Eco-Friendly Filaments
J. Francis Reintjes Excellence in 6-A Industrial Practice Award
David Lewis
J. Francis Reintjes Excellence in 6-A Industrial Practice Award
Kateryna Morhun
Jin Au Kong PhD Thesis in Electrical Engineering
Sayed Saad Afzal
Supervisor: Fadel Adib
Thesis Title: Wireless Systems for a Sustainable Future: From Battery-Free Subsea IoT to THz-Based Agriculture Monitoring
Jin Au Kong PhD Thesis in Electrical Engineering
Aziza Almanakly
Supervisor: William Oliver
Thesis Title: Quantum Networking using Waveguide Quantum Electrodynamics
Jin Au Kong PhD Thesis in Electrical Engineering
Soroush Araei
Supervisor: Negar Reiskarimian
Thesis Title: Reconfigurable and Interference-Tolerant Receivers for Next Generation Wireless Systems
George M. Sprowls PhD Thesis Award in Computer Science
Noah Golowich
Supervisor: Costas Daskalakis and Ankur Moitra
Thesis Title: Theoretical Foundations for Learning in Games and Dynamic Environments
George M. Sprowls PhD Thesis Award in Computer Science
Charles Yuan
Supervisor: Michael Carbin
Thesis Title: Foundational Abstractions for Quantum Programming
George M. Sprowls PhD Thesis Award in Computer Science
Allen X. Liu
Supervisor: Ankur Moitra
Thesis Title: Learning Theoretic Foundations for Understanding Quantum Systems
George M. Sprowls PhD Thesis Award in Artificial Intelligence + Decision-Making
Alexander Lew
Supervisor: Vikash Mansinghka and Joshua Tenenbaum
Thesis Title: Automatic Integration and Differentiation of Probabilistic Programs
George M. Sprowls PhD Thesis Award in Artificial Intelligence + Decision-Making
Jiayuan Mao
Supervisor: Leslie Kaelbling and Joshua Tenenbaum
Thesis Title: Learning, Reasoning, and Planning with Neuro-Symbolic Concepts
George M. Sprowls PhD Thesis Award in Artificial Intelligence + Decision-Making
Derek Lim
Supervisor: Stefanie Jegelka
Thesis Title: Symmetries in Neural Network Functions and Parameters
Jeremy Gerstle UROP Award (in AI)
Iliyas B. Noman
Supervisors: Yury Polyanskiy and Guy Bresler
Title: Global Minimizers of Sigmoid Contrastive Loss
Jeremy Gerstle UROP Award (in AI)
Michelle J. Wang
Supervisor: Pulkit Agrawal
Title: SoftMimic: Learning Compliant Whole-body Control from Examples
Morais (1986) and Rosenblum (1986) UROP Award
Raul E. Hernandez
Supervisor: Stefanie Mueller
Title: MMetaMix: A Multiclass Metamaterial Mixed Encoding for Interpolation and Geometry Generation
Anna Pogosyants UROP Prize
Noble Harasha
Supervisor: Nancy Lynch
Title: Modeling Feasible Locomotion of Nanobots for Cancer Detection and Treatment
Licklider UROP Award
Saathvik R. Kannan
Supervisor: Manolis Kellis
Title: Advancing Representations of Chemistry with Biological Context
Behring Foundation Prize
Caroline Moura Valle Costa
Behring Foundation Prize
Lucas Puig
2026 School of Engineering Infinite Mile Award
Ellen Reid, Assistant Director, Academic Programs Administration
2026 School of Engineering Infinite Mile Award
Rachel Wright, Executive Assistant to Asu Ozdaglar, Department Head
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