Professor Samir Khuller receives 2020 CRA-E Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentoring Award

The Education Committee of the Computing Research Association (CRA-E) awarded Professor Samir Khuller the 2020 CRA-E Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentoring Award. The award recognizes his incredible efforts in mentoring Undergraduate students on their research over the last decade.

Over the last 12 years Khuller has mentored 32 undergraduate students (approx. 16 from UMD) with diverse backgrounds of which approximately fifty percent of his mentees are women. Several his mentees have matriculated into top tier graduate programs including Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, UC Berkeley, Georgia Tech, University of Washington, Princeton University, Duke University, CalTech, Harvard University, Carnegie Melon University, University of Illinois and University of Maryland.

“Indeed - UMD has a lot of talented students. I met scores of brilliant students both from University of Maryland, as well as the NSF funded REU CAAR program that Bill Gasarch and I ran for 6 years, and it was a delight to work with him”, said Khuller. “I am also delighted to see that the program continues with Bill Gasarch and John Dickerson at the helm", he added.

Khuller’s mentees award list includes the National winner of the CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award, several honorable mentions and NSF Graduate Research Fellowships.Khuller has an outstanding record of completing undergraduate research experiences into publications that appear at very good conferences and journals.

The selection committee chaired by Denys Poshyvanyk (William & Mary) included Eric Aaron (Colby College), Chandra Krintz (University of California, Santa Barbara), and Jennifer Rexford (Princeton University).

Khuller is currently the Barris professor and chair of Computer Science within the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Northwestern University.