Sara Stevens, Ryan Horton, Naman Munot, Nicole Franda. Photos courtesy of Juli Legat.
On Monday, May 4, the USC Viterbi School of Engineering recognized the achievements of its star graduate students at the 2020 Viterbi Master’s Student Awards. Conducted via Zoom, the ceremony celebrated USC Viterbi master’s students who have demonstrated excellence in their respective fields.
USC Viterbi Dean Yannis C. Yortsos kicked off the “historic and unprecedented” event by speaking about COVID-19 and the invaluable role that these engineers will play in addressing the pandemic and other challenges in the future.
“If there is anything we have learned from this unprecedented experience,” said Yortsos, “it is that only through science and engineering can we conquer such calamities. You will be the generation that will accomplish this.”
Jatin Choudhary, winner of the Outstanding Mentor Award. Photo courtesy of Juli Legat.
Awards were given for outstanding work in research, mentorship, academics and more. The Department of Computer Science, for example, presented the Best Research Award to Nicole Fronda for her work in robotics. She was part of a team pursuing resilient techniques in multi-robot systems, or coordinating behavior among a group of robots to function even when the environment presents unanticipated challenges.
More than 120 people attended the celebration of achievement, including awardees, their families and friends, and USC Viterbi faculty members.
Pictures of the awardees can be found here.
Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Academic Excellence Award
Varun Palahalli
Department of Astronautical Engineering
Rocket Scientist of the Year Award
Matthew Tinkey
Ryan Horton
Ulubilge Ulusoy
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Academic Excellence Award
Eleanor Mina Sung
Service Award
Niloufar Rajabshirazi
Department of Computer Science
Best Research Award
Samar Haider
Edward Hu
Seung Hee Yoon
Nicole Fronda
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Excellence in Service and Achievement Award
Yihong Feng
Outstanding Student Award
Udit Dangarwala
Spandan Kachhadiya
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering
Master’s Student of the Year Award
Sara Stevens
Xueer (Snow) Zhuang
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science
Master’s Student Achievement Award
Kenmond Pang
Aoyan Liang
Musab Al Ameer
Tynan Bradley
Sonny Astani Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Research Award
Qin Dong
Service Award
Aishwarya Sambasivan Iyer
Jiaqi Wang
Zou Yunjia
Viterbi Admission & Student Engagement
Outstanding Mentor Award
Jatin Choudhary
Naman Munot
Viterbi Graduate Student Association
Leadership Award
Abhilash Pandurangan
Published on May 8th, 2020
Last updated on May 8th, 2020
