College of Computing Dean Recognizes Excellence in Research, Teaching, and Service

Illinois Institute of Technology College of Computing faculty, students, and staff excel in the areas of researching, teaching, and serving, and Dean Lance Fortnow recognized these efforts with the 2023 College of Computing Awards.

The Dean’s Award was given jointly to Shlomo Argamon and Calvin Nobles for their leadership in the college.

Argamon ran the Department of Computer Science as chair for four years, and under his leadership, Argamon hired eight tenure-track faculty and raised the department’s U.S. News & World Report ranking 16 spots. Argamon guided the department through financial challenges and led efforts for new degrees and online programs, such as those recently launched jointly with leading online platform Coursera. He also managed a department that has grown to be bigger than any other college on campus. Argamon has now taken on a new role as associate provost of artificial intelligence at Touro University.

Nobles served as Department of Information Technology and Management chair since 2021, a tenure that saw the department more than double its size and put a special focus on cybersecurity. Nobles worked to align the cybersecurity efforts across campus, grew ITM to nearly 900 students, and led the development of the university’s information technology degree with Coursera. Nobles accepted a new role as vice president and dean of cybersecurity and information technology at the University of Maryland Global Campus.

The Excellence in Research Award at the junior level was awarded to Kai Shu, Gladwin Development Chair Assistant Professor of Computer Science, for his contributions to the fields of data mining, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and social computing. He received his 10,000th citation as he eclipsed more than 100 career publications.

Igor Cialenco, professor of applied mathematics, earned the Excellence in Research Award at the senior level for being a leading expert in mathematical finance, including dynamic risk measures, dynamic performance measures, and time consistency in decision-making. He made additional contributions to nonlinear stochastic partial differential equations.

Excellence in Teaching Awards were granted to Matt Bauer, teaching professor of computer science; Michael Lee, associate teaching professor of computer science; and Yuhan Ding, associate teaching professor of applied mathematics. Bauer and Lee initiated innovative and effective work on P33-CS100, which gives students in their first semester a chance to comprehend, directly from high-tech professionals, the broad range of careers and the talents valued in computing. Ding is a consistently caring teacher, and took the leading role in the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program, which won the 2023 National Science Foundation’s Research Experience for Undergraduates award for the first time in the history of the Department of Applied Mathematics.

The Excellence in Service Award was presented to Gurram Gopal, interim chair of the Department of Information Technology and Management, for serving the department and the college through his contributions on the Grainger Computing Innovation Prize committee, the ITM Tenure Track Faculty Hiring Committee, and enabling ITM to meet ABET accreditation requirements. He also serves as a guide to students on forming and developing student clubs, such as the Google Developers Student Club.

Ann McBroom, computer science department coordinator, received the Excellence in Service Award for staff through her remarkable dedication and effective handling of the increased workload due to the unprecedented enrollment growth in the Department of Computer Science. This resulted in recruiting additional teaching and research assistants, adjuncts, and full-time faculty.

Excellence as Teaching Assistant was awarded to Jaime Cernuda Garcia for the new teaching methods and hands-on platforms that he introduced in the CS 553 Cloud Computing course.

Sean Cummings gained the Excellence in Undergraduate Research Award for his work in protocol mapping, high-throughput low-latency traffic processing, and network load measurement. He has presented his research results in conferences and co-authored a paper for publication.

The Excellence in Dissertation Research Award went to Yuzhang Shang for his contributions in efficiency and scalability in the AI field. Shang has published six first-authored papers in top-tier AI conferences.