Graduate Students Win Top Tufts Awards

On April 22, 2010, Tufts President Lawrence S. Bacow recognized Tufts students with the Presidential Award for Citizenship and Public Service. Graduate students Adam Carberry and Sampathkumar Veeraraghavan received the awards for their research and "outstanding civic achievement."

"Education for active citizenship is a signature strength of Tufts. The Presidential Awards are an opportunity both to recognize outstanding student accomplishment and to celebrate the diverse meanings of citizenship and public service that Tufts seeks to support," writes President Bacow. "The winners of the Presidential Awards all share a tremendous dedication to service, which they put into action in innovative and inspiring ways," said Bacow."I always leave the awards breakfast feeling more optimistic about our shared future."

Graduate student Adam Carberry (center) receives a 2010 Presidential Award for Citizenship and Public Service from Tufts President Larry S. Bacow (right) for his work with STOMP and his research examining and characterizing student perceptions, beliefs, traits, and self-concepts of learning through service in his work at the CEEO with director Chris Rogers (left).
Credit: Tufts Photo

Adam Carberry (G'05) received the Citizenship and Public Service award for his role as the program manager of the Student Teacher Outreach Mentorship Program (STOMP). STOMP is a program that creates partnerships among science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) experts and K-12 teachers in developing and implementing interactive STEM lessons. Carberry also examines and characterizes student perceptions, beliefs, traits, and self-concepts of learning through service, for example, through STOMP.

His research is part of a larger NSF-funded study working with Professor Chris Swan in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Chris Rogers, Director of the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO), and other collaborators to measure the effectiveness of engineering service experiences as methods for teaching engineering. This research also examines how these experiences attract a more diverse set of engineering students than is currently represented in the population of engineering students. Carberry successfully defended his doctoral thesis on this research as part of the Engineering Education track in the Math, Science, Technology, and Engineering (MSTE) Education program administered through the Department of Education.

Engineering graduate student Sam Veeraraghavan (second from right) receives a 2010 Presidential Award for Citizenship and Public Service from Tufts President Larry S. Bacow (right) for his work keeping track of the underrepresented disabled population in India with a system he developed in Professor Karen Panetta's (second from left) SimLab.
Credit: Tufts Photo

Sampathkumar Veeraraghavan created the Information System on Human and Health Services, the first online database in India to collect and analyze information on the physically and mentally disabled. Working under the advisement of Professor Karen Panetta in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering's Simulations Laboratory, Veeraraghavan implemented his system across all 31 districts of the state, collecting information about nine different areas, including family history, background and education. For this work, Veeraraghavan was awarded an IEEE Achievement Award for "outstanding leadership and contributions toward the development and implementation of IEEE humanitarian projects, which engage IEEE members and geographic units in India." He also received two other IEEE awards—"Outstanding Student Humanitarian Prize" and a "People's Choice Prize"—as part of the inaugural IEEE Presidents' Change the World Competition, which recognizes students who use engineering, science, computing, and leadership skills to develop solutions to real world problems.

The Tufts' Presidential Award was established in 1999 by then President John DiBiaggio. All Tufts students are eligible for nomination.

[story posted on May 4, 2010]