Four undergraduates were honored by the Computer Research Association in the 2025 CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award — the largest recognition of the department’s undergraduate research yet.
Four undergraduate computer science researchers were recognized by the Computer Research Association in the 2025 CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award — the largest recognition of the department’s undergraduate research yet.
“It's a very competitive national competition among undergraduate researchers in computing, and recognition at any of these levels is a major honor and a certification that one is among a handful of undergraduates who have done the best computing research projects of the year,” UTCS department chair Don Fussell said. “Our department has one past Winner (2008) and a few Finalists, but we've never had so many awardees in a single year.”
Prasann Singhal, whose research primarily focuses on enhancing the capabilities of large language models, earned Outstanding CRA Undergraduate Researcher. Alan Baade, who works on speech-language models, was named a finalist. Lusia Mao and Yahya Sohail, who focus on autonomous robots and formal verification and computer architecture, respectively, earned honorable mentions in the (YEAR) awards. Together, the group has been cited over 200 times all before they walk across the stage for graduation.
“Congratulations to all four students and advisors for (the) outstanding work,” Fussell said. “The department is very proud for demonstrating the excellent quality of research done here at UTCS.”