Six undergraduate students from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University have received seven honorable mention awards over the past two years as part of the Computing Research Association’s (CRA) Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Awards.
Five of the awards went to students who have done research with the Sketch Recognition Lab (SRL) at Texas A&M led by Dr. Tracy Hammond, director of the Institute for Engineering Education and Innovation.
“I am proud of the hard work and dedication demonstrated by these outstanding researchers and believe they will serve as role models for future students,” said Hammond.
The CRA, which is a coalition of more than 200 North American organizations, recognizes exceptional undergraduate researchers from universities in the United States and Canada for their potential in an area of computing research. The 2019 and 2020 awards were sponsored by Microsoft Research and Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, respectively.
Angel Pina
Pina, who has now received honorable mentions for the second year in a row, is currently a senior pursuing a computer science degree with a minor in statistics. As part of the SRL, he used the Python scikit learn package to perform machine learning and data analysis on eye-tracking data. His project was part of a National Science Foundation-funded grant that used eye-tracking to determine how likely an industry recruiter is to select a candidate while reviewing resumes.
“I have enjoyed working on this project and look forward to submitting a first-authored journal publication on this work with Dr. Hammond next month,” said Pina
Lina Zhang
Zhang was honored in 2020 for her research on how users can recognize numerical values in messages from a wearable device using overlapping vibrotactile patterns. She also worked on vibrotactile communication and haptics research as part of the Undergraduate Research Scholars program with Hammond as her thesis advisor, and mentors Josh Cherian and Dr. Paul Taele.
“I’m very honored to receive this award and grateful to have a community of mentors and educators that inspire me to pursue research,” said Zhang.
Benton Guess
Guess was honored in 2019 for developing an automated system for grading the Rey-Osterrieth complex figure (ROCF) test while working at the SRL under Hammond. The ROCF test is an examination administered by neuropsychologists to assess the mental state of patients, testing visuospatial abilities, memory, attention, planning, working memory and executive functions. He said his research dealt with “computers and psychology, which, in [his] perception, is an intersection where we will build the systems of the future.’’ Guess completed his thesis with Hammond, was mentored by Raniero Lara-Garduno and recently submitted a paper on computer-human interaction with his mentors on this work.
“This was a very rewarding experience that let me not just learn about academic research, but also meaningfully contribute to the project,” said Guess. “I really enjoyed getting to know the research process and development work, which is very different from regular class projects.”
Justin Lovelace
Lovelace was honored in 2019 for his work in researching the intersection of natural language processing and interpretable machine learning for medical research, including datasets from intensive care units to develop predictive models for readmission and mortality outcomes. He started in research early in his undergraduate career, first working in the SRL under Hammond as a freshman and sophomore, and then working with Dr. Bobak Mortazavi in his later years. His research focuses on the development of machine-learning models that handle structured time series data as well as unstructured text data in the form of medical notes, to estimate clinical outcomes after patients leave the intensive care unit. This work and his undergraduate thesis earned him an Outstanding Undergraduate Honors Thesis Award in 2019.
“I am thrilled that he joined Systems and Technology for Medicine and IoT (STMI) Lab in 2018 and I know he will do great in his Carnegie Mellon University graduate program,’’ said Mortazavi.
Reginald Frank
Frank was honored in 2020 for his research on synchronizing clocks in a distributed computer system, which needed to overcome uncertain delays in communication. He is currently a senior with a dual major in computer science and applied mathematics working with Dr. Jennifer Welch and Dr. Dmitri Loguinov. He also won the 2018 Dean’s Excellence Award in Engineering.
“It's really incredible to get recognition for my work in parallel and distributed computing,” said Frank. “I feel very fortunate to have worked with both of my advisors, and getting this recognition makes me want to work more to see where that might take me next.”
Kexin Feng
Feng was honored in 2019 for researching the development of computational models of human behavior through signal processing and machine learning techniques with applications in well-being and education working with Dr. Theodora Chaspara. Feng, who is has been part of the HUman Bio-Behavioral Signals Lab since spring 2018, said he wanted to “understand the connections between basic emotions...to help with diagnosing and alleviating mental health-related problems.’’ As part of his undergraduate work, he published two conference papers and submitted one journal paper as a first author.