Dean Randal E. Bryant announced a number of faculty and staff awards at the School of Computer Science's second annual Founders' Day celebration Jan. 31 in Rashid Auditorium.

David Andersen, associate professor of computer science, was a double winner, receiving both the Herbert A. Simon Award for Teaching Excellence and a share of the Allen Newell Award for Research Excellence. The Newell award cited work by Andersen, Intel's Michael Kaminsky, and students Jason Franklin, Amar Phanishayee and Vijay Vasudevan on energy-efficient, data-intensive computing, a project known as Fast Array of Wimpy Nodes.

Also winning the Newell Research Award were Sara Kiesler, professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute; Jodi Forlizzi, associate professor in HCII, and students Carl DiSalvo, Min Kyung Lee, Bilge Mutlu and Cristen Torrey, for elucidating the fundamental principles of human-robot interaction and its associated research methods.

Other awards:

• Krista McGuigan, business manager in the Language Technologies Institute, was named Outstanding Staff Member.
• The award for Outstanding Staff Team was presented to the SCS Reappointment and Promotion System Team of Michael Nikithser, assistant director of computing facilities; Rachel Shackelford, administrative manager/analyst in the dean's office; and Dale Shanefelt, application/business process engineer for SCS computing.
• Kathy McNiff, administrative assistant in the Computer Science Department, was honored for Sustained Excellence.
• Debbie Tobin, art director/special events manager for the Robotics Institute, was cited for Citizenship.
• The Rookie of the Year Award was shared by the SCS Help Desk Team of Brie Gordon, Myke Kubiak and Beth McKee.
• Nicole Willis, HCII masters program coordinator, was honored for Individual Dedication.

Bryant gave special recognition to Robert Cosgrove, who recently retired as computing facilities director, for his contributions over the past 11 years.

Dean Bryant's presentation from the event may be downloaded here.