Faculty Awards & Honors
We are very proud of the faculty members in the UCF Department of Computer Science (CS) who have earned various honors and awards.
Hall of Fames
Yan Solihin: ISCA, HPCA, and Computer Architecture Total
National Academy of Inventors
Dr. Mubarak Shah, 2020.
Dr. Gregory Welch, 2021.
National Academy Members
James Baker is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Carolina Cruz-Neira is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Carolina Cruz-Neira was inducted to the NAE in 2018.
Elaine Weyuker is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Elaine Weyuker was elected to the NAE in 2002.
Fellows of Professional Societies
The following faculty members are fellows of various professional societies.
- Carolina Cruz-Neira, IEEE
- Kien Hua, IEEE
- Abhijit Mahalanobis, IEEE, OSA, SPIE
- Mubarak Shah, NAI, IEEE, AAAS, IAPR, SPIE, ACM
- Yan Solihin, IEEE
- Elaine Weyuker, ACM, IEEE
The following emeritus faculty are also fellows of various professional societies.
- Ron Dutton, Institute of Combinatorics and Its Applications
- Narsingh Deo, IEEE, ACM, AAAS, Institute of Combinatorics and Its Applications
- Avelino Gonzalez, IEEE, IEEE Power Engineering Society
Faculty Excellence in Mentoring Doctoral Students Award Winners
- Mubarak Shah, 2017
- Gita Sukthankar (Engineering and Sciences), 2012
NSF CAREER Award Winners
Several members of the department’s faculty have won the prestigious NSF CAREER award. Those who are currently faculty members at UCF are as follows.
- Yanjie Fu, “CAREER: Reinforced Imitative Graph Learning: Bridging the Gap between Perception and Prescription in Graph Sequences”, 2021
- Paul Gazzillo, “CAREER: Inferring and Securing Software Configurations through Automated Reasoning”, 2020
- Pamela Wisniewski, “CAREER: Safety by Design: Protecting Adolescents from Online Risks”, 2019
- Ryan McMahan, “CAREER: Leveraging the Virtualness of Virtual Reality for More-Effective Training”, 2016
- Haiyan (Nancy) Hu, “CAREER: A Computational Framework to Study Epigenetic Regulation”, 2012
- Liqiang Wang, “CAREER: Towards Scalable Error Detection for Parallel Software Systems on Emerging Computing Platforms”, 2011
- Gita Sukthankar, “ARRA CAREER: Modeling Group Dynamics in Multi-agent Systems”, 2009
- Joseph LaViola, Jr., “CAREER: Mathematical Sketching: Pen-based Tools for Conceptual Understanding in Mathematics and Physics”, 2008
- Pawel Wocjan, “CAREER: Algebraic Approach to the Design of Novel Quantum Algorithms”, 2008
- Yan Solihin, “CAREER: Intelligently Managing the Memory Hierarchy of Future High Performance Servers”, 2003
- Mark Heinrich, “CAREER: Flexible Architectures for Data-Intensive Computing”, 2000
DARPA Young Faculty Award
- Paul Gazzillo, 2021
- Abhijit Mahalanobis, 2019
W.T. Grant Scholars Program
Pamela Wisniewski was the first computer scientist (anywhere) to win a fellowship from the W.T. Grant Foundation Scholars Program.
- Pamela Wisniewski, 2018
SIGMM Award for Outstanding Technical Contributions to Multimedia Computing
Dr. Shah is the 2019 winner of the ACM SIGMM award for Outstanding Technical Contributions to Multimedia Computing, Communications and Applications.
Paper of the Decade Award
Kenneth Stanley won an award from the International Society for Artificial Life for writing the “paper of the decade” for 2002-2012.
Kurzweil Best Artificial General Intelligence Idea Prize
- Lotzi Boloni, 2014
Kenneth Stanley won an award from the International Society for Artificial Life for writing the “paper of the decade” for 2002-2012.
Elaine Weyuker has received the following awards:
- IEEE Harlan Mills Award for long-standing, sustained, and meaningful contributions to the theory and practice of the information sciences (2004)
- ACM SIGSOFT Outstanding Research Award for deep and lasting contributions and impact to software engineering as a discipline (2007)
- ACM President’s Award (2010)
- ACM SIGSOFT Retrospective Impact Paper Awards – (2009) For a highly influential paper that has continued to have impact on the field for more than 25 years.
- Anita Borg Institute, Technical Leadership Award for outstanding research and technical leadership (2008)
Young Faculty Awards
Several UCF faculty have won other prestigious young faculty awards.
AFOSR YIP Awards
The following faculty have won Young Investigator Program awards from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
- Sumit Jha, 2016
- Gita Sukthankar, 2009
- Mainak Chatterjee, 2007
DARPA Computer Science Study Group or Panel
The following faculty were made members of the DARPA Computer Science Study Group or Computer Science Study Panel.
- Gita Sukthankar, DARPA Computer Science Study Group, 2009, 2010
- Kenneth Stanley, DARPA Computer Science Study Panel, 2008
NASA Software Award
- Lotzi Boloni, 2006
UCF Awards Faculty Distinctions
Several of our faculty have achieved levels of professional distinction within the UCF faculty. These include the following.
- Mubarak Shah is a trustee chair professor.
- Elaine Weyuker is a university distinguished professor.
Pegasus Professor Award
We are very proud to have three faculty members who have received the distinction of being named Pegasus Professor at UCF.
- Avelino Gonzalez, 2015
- Kien Hua, 2013
- Charles Hughes, 2007
- Mubarak Shah, 2006
Reach for the Stars Award
- Pamela Wisniewski, 2019
- Joseph LaViola, Jr., 2014
- Kenneth Stanley, 2014
UCF Luminary Awards
- Hassan Foroosh, 2017
- Mubarak Shah, 2017
University Distinguished Researcher Award Winners
- Mubarak Shah, 2012
- Mubarak Shah, 2007
Excellence in Research Award
This university-wide award recognizes exceptional scholarship and impact in research.
- Mubarak Shah, 2017
- Charles Hughes, 2014
- Mubarak Shah, 2012
Excellence in Professional Service Award
This university-wide award recognizes excellence in service to the University of Central Florida and professional service.
- Damla Turgut, 2017
CECS Advisory Board Award
- Charles Hughes, 2013
- Mubarak Shah, 2011
Dean’s Research Professorship Award
- Charles Hughes, 2013
Research Incentive Award (RIA)
This award recognizes outstanding research and research impact.
- Hassan Foroosh, 2020
- Pamela Wisniewski, 2020
- Lotzi Boloni, 2019
- Damla Turgut, 2019
- Shaojie Zhang, 2019
- Joseph LaViola, Jr., 2017
- Hassan Foroosh, 2015
- Mubarak Shah, 2014
- Charles Hughes, 2013
- Gita Sukthankar, 2013
- Joseph LaViola, Jr., 2012
- Kenneth Stanley, 2012
- Pawel Wocjan, 2011
- Hassan Foroosh, 2010
- Mubarak Shah, 2009
- Mubarak Shah, 2003
Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award
This university-wide award recognizes outstanding excellence in teaching.
- Mostafa Bassiouni, 2013
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award
This university-wide award recognizes scholarship related to teaching and learning.
- Joseph LaViola, Jr., 2018
- Joseph LaViola, Jr., 2013
- Mubarak Shah, 2011
Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award
This university-wide award recognizes excellence in teaching at the undergraduate level.
- Sean Szumlanski, 2018
- Arup Guha, 2016
- Arup Guha, 2012
Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award
This award recognizes excellence in teaching at the Graduate level.
- Annie Wu, 2017 (at the college level)
Teaching Incentive Program (TIP) Award
This award recognizes excellent teaching and carries with it a salary increase. Past winners from the department are as follows.
- Hassan Foroosh, 2020
- Pamela Wisniewski, 2020
- Sarah Angell, 2019
- Arup Guha, 2019
- Annie Wu, 2019
- Thomas Nedorost, 2018
- Sean Szumlanski, 2018
- Mostafa Bassiouni, 2017
- Mainak Chatterjee, 2017
- Damla Turgut, 2017
- Shaojie Zhang, 2017
- Arup Guha, 2016
- Charles Hughes, 2016
- Mark Llewellyn, 2016
- Mark Heinrich, 2015
- Hassan Foroosh, 2014
- Niels da Vitoria Lobo, 2014
- Arup Guha, 2014
- Joseph LaViola, Jr., 2013
- Cliff Zou, 2013
- Mainak Chatterjee, 2011
- Mark Llewellyn, 2011
- Ali Orooji, 2011
- Sumanta Pattanaik, 2011
- Kenneth Stanley, 2011
- Mostafa Bassiouni, 2010
- Charles Hughes, 2010
- Kien Hua, 2010
- Damla Turgut, 2010
- Hassan Foroosh, 2009
- Mubarak Shah, 2003
- Mubarak Shah, 1996
Marchioli Collective Impact Innovation Award
The Marchioli Collective Impact Award recognizes innovations from across the university that help reach the goals laid out in UCF’s Collective Impact Strategic Plan.
Our winner is
- Pamela Wisniewski, 2020
Women of Distinction Award
This university-wide award recognizes achievements of outstanding women faculty at UCF.
- Damla Turgut, 2018