Congratulations CHCI students and their advisors who received VTURCS and CoE Research Excellence Awards!

May 9, 2023

CHCI students and their advisors were among the winning teams this year at the Virginia Tech Undergraduate Research in Computer Science (VTURCS) symposium, organized by Sang Won Lee, and were also among the recipients of the Paul E. Torgersen Graduate Student Research Excellence Awards from the College of Engineering.

Paul E. Torgersen Graduate Student Research Excellence Awards

CHCI student members Uma Sushmitha Gunturi, Master’s student in Computer Science advised by Eugenia Rho, and Md Momen Bhuiyan, PhD student in Computer Science advised by Sang Won Lee and (CHCI Alumni) Tanushree Mitra, won the second place in the Master’s track and the third place in the PhD track respectively in the Oral Presentation category of the Paul E. Torgersen Research Excellence Awards this year from the College of Engineering. Gunturi presented her MS thesis on ”Linguistically Differentiating Acts vs Recalls of Racial Microaggressions on Social Media”. Bhuiyan presented on “Combating misinformation and filter bubbles using dual-process theory of mind.”

The Virginia Tech College of Engineering Graduate Student Committee held the 2023 Paul E. Torgersen Graduate Student Research Excellence Awards on April 19th at the Graduate Life Center. The annual competition showcases the top research performed by graduating master’s and doctoral students from the College of Engineering.

VTURCS Symposium

CHCI student members who are among the winning Virginia Tech Undergraduate Research in Computer Science (VTURCS) teams this year are: Sraavya Gudavalli, Grady Orr, Joseph Bae, and Roshni Saxena. CHCI faculty members who are advisors to winning VTURCS teams include: Nicholas Polys, Brendan David-John, Scott McCrickard, and Sang Won Lee. We highlight below the winning teams, their projects and advisors (CHCI members are indicated in bold).

The VTURCS symposium highlights the research and capstone projects of CS undergraduate students during the past year. VTURCS is supported by Virginia Tech’s Computer Science Resources Consortium (CSRC), a consortium of companies that partner with the Department of Computer Science to further the department's teaching and research missions.

Research Category

3RD PLACE - Towards gaze-based prediction of the intent to interact in mixed reality (Authors: Sraavya Gudavalli, Anish Narkar/Advisor: Brendan David-John).

3RD PLACE - Enhancing Brain Flow Visualization with Automated 3D Data Processing: A Study on fMRI Data from Mice with Tumors (Authors: James de Chutkowski, Daniel Park, Hun Liang/Advisor: Nicholas Polys).

Capstone Category

2ND PLACE - Without a Trace (Authors: Katie Geibel, Sasha Holt, Grady Orr, Matthew Soohoo/Advisor: Scott McCrickard)

2ND PLACE - Hokie Bucketlist (Authors: Ross Shaffer, Kevin Yang, Jordan Rudman, Karthik Nair/Advisor: Scott McCrickard)

3RD PLACE - Beat Defense (Authors: Ross Shaffer, Joseph Bae, Stephanie Grover, Ethan Homoroc/Advisor: Sang Won Lee)

Industry Category

2ND PLACE - Broadband Data Kit: Automating Broadband Reporting In Underserved Areas (Authors: Roshni Saxena, Brooke Ritter, Rayhan Biju, Michael Peters/Advisors: Margaret Ellis and Shaddi Hasan).