SCS Honors Faculty and Staff at Founders Day

Thursday, April 13, 2023 - by Kayla Papakie

The SCS community gathered earlier this month to celebrate its faculty and staff at Founders Day.

Each year, the School of Computer Science holds a special day to reflect on its recent achievements while celebrating the legacies of Allen Newell (TPR'57), Herbert A. Simon (H'90) and Alan Perlis (S'42), who are considered the founders of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University.

On Tuesday, April 4, the SCS community gathered in Rashid Auditorium in the Gates-Hillman Centers for the 12th Annual Founders Day presentation, where awards were given to honor current SCS faculty and staff members whose work exemplifies the ideals established by Newell, Simon and Perlis.

Congratulations to this year's Founders Day award winners:

Academic Award Recipients

  • Joel and Ruth Spira Teaching Award (sponsored by Lutron): Matthew Gormley, associate teaching professor, Machine Learning Department.

  • Newell Award for Research Excellence: Guy Blelloch, professor and associate dean for undergraduate programs, Computer Science Department; Laxman Dhulipala (University of Maryland, formerly CMU); and Julian Shun (MIT, formerly CMU).

  • Simon Teaching Award: Michael Taylor, assistant teaching professor, Computer Science Department.

Service Award Recipient

  • Nico Habermann Educational Service Award: Greg Armstrong, senior research technician and AI Maker Space manager, Robotics Institute.

Staff Recognition Award Recipients

  • Outstanding Teamwork: Allison Blair, Language Technologies Institute.

  • Outstanding Staff: Ally Ricarte, Computational Biology Department; and Cindy Tipper, Human-Computer Interaction Institute.

  • Individual Dedication: Ben Cook, Computer Science Department; and Christian Olmeda, SCS Computing Facilities.

  • Sustained Excellence: Brian Staszel, Robotics Institute.

  • Rookie of the Year: Angelica Stowers, SCS Dean's Office; and Amelia Baisley, Human-Computer Interaction Institute.

  • Citizenship: Dabney Schlea, Software and Societal Systems Department.

For more information, Contact:
Aaron Aupperlee | 412-268-9068 | aaupperlee@cmu.edu