The 2020 CSE departmental awards are based on evidence from CY2019 Annual Evaluations and data provided by the college. They are:

Junior Researcher (Assistant or Associate Professor) Award: Pooyan Jamshidi

Senior Researcher (Full Professor) Award: Amit Sheth

Undergraduate Teaching Award: Jose Vidal

Graduate Teaching Award: Song Wang

Service Award: Jason O’Kane

Most Valuable Professor (MVP) Award: Csilla Farkas

Pooyan Jamshidi had an excellent year with a strong combination of research expenditures, new research awards, new funding proposals, and refereed publications.

Amit Sheth also had an excellent year as he continued to build the AI Institute; he had an excellent combination of research expenditures, new research awards, new funding proposals, and refereed publications – all of which were among the highest in the department.

Jose Vidal continues to make substantial and invaluable contributions in undergraduate teaching – including teaching our huge capstone courses, leading the Undergraduate Committee, handling undergraduate student requests (e.g., overrides, course substitutions, prereq waivers), and contributing to the department’s ongoing ABET efforts.

Song Wang receives excellent teaching evaluations for his graduate-level courses. He also manages a large research group (~10 Ph.D. students) and spends a lot of time and effort leading that group. He has also graduated several doctoral students.

Jason O'Kane has served so many critical service roles for the Department over the last few years including service as the CSE Associate Chair of Academics and as a junior faculty mentor; participation on the CSE Graduate Committee, CSE Qualifying Exam Committee, and CSE Assessment Committee; and representation of UofSC CSE at the Computing@SEC workshop. At the university level, he served as a member of the Carolina Judicial Council and as a Carolina Scholar mentor. Jason has done this and much more in support of the Department, College, and University.

Csilla Farkas has contributed substantially to all fronts – research, teaching, and service. She has a strong research record with substantial research expenditures and many refereed publications. She teaches critical cybersecurity courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels with excellent course and instructor ratings. She also recently graduated 3.5 Ph.D. students (that is, she was the co-advisor of one student). Of course, Csilla’s service to the department, college, and university continues to be stellar.