CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award Nominees

These students were nominated by the Tufts Department of Computer Science faculty for the 2024 Computing Research Association's (CRA) Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award. CRA is one of the leading professional organizations in computer science, and we congratulate all of our nominees for their contributions to research in this field. You can see more about these international awards on the CRA website here.

Eddy He, A24, major in computer science 

Under the direction of Associate Professor Remco Chang at the Visual Analytics Lab, Edward He’s work focuses on visual analytics and education, specifically comparing hypothesis-driven data analysis (HDA) to traditional exploratory data analysis (EDA). In a semester-long study, university students used either the EDA or HDA guideline, analyzing the differences in processes between the two approaches. In addition, He developed a hypothesis-first visual analytics system and guidelines for helping solve complex visual analysis problems, such as the IEEE Visual Analytics Science and Technology (VAST) Challenges. He was pivotal in the research and publication process, presenting preliminary findings to IEEE VIS as the first author. He received an Honorable Mention from CRA for his award nomination.

Kathy Quintanilla, A25, major in computer science

Katherine Quintanilla has worked as a research assistant at the Tufts Security and Privacy Lab since September 2022. Mentored by Assistant Professor Daniel Votipka and PhD student Sarah Radway, she was nominated for her work examining privacy gaps in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) that permit the sharing of student directory information without explicit consent. Initially focused on online directory harms, the project expanded to include third-party access to sensitive data. Researching 100 universities, the study found unclear opt-out processes and data mining companies accessing student information without consent. Quintanilla presented the findings at the Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security in August 2023, emphasizing the project's importance for student privacy, and had her paper about this work accepted at the ACM Conference in Human Factors in Computing Systems 2024. Quintanilla received an Honorable Mention from CRA for her award nomination.

Liam Strand, E24, major in computer science 

Under the mentorship of Professor Lenore Cowen in the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Lab and in collaboration with students in the Tufts Summer Scholars program, Liam Strand developed the MEDFORD metadata markup language to address challenges in contextualizing scientific data. The language combines the flexibility of handwritten notes with a machine-parsable structure. The project led to the creation of the MEDFORD Language Server, offering features such as dynamic syntax validation, contextual highlighting, and intelligent auto-completion for a user-friendly experience. Strand played a key role in designing the program architecture, implementing features, and resolving syntax discrepancies. He will be presenting the findings at the Metadata and Semantics Research Conference in Milan. Strand received an Honorable Mention from CRA for his award nomination.

 

Past CRA nominees:

2023:

Victoria Chen - Honorable Mention
Madeline McLaughlin 
Mary-Joy Sidhom

2022:

Jonathan Conroy - Honorable Mention
Hailey McKelvie
Madeline McLaughlin 
Jack Freeman

2021:

Derek Egolf - Honorable Mention
Lauren Labell - Honorable Mention
Jonathan Rodriguez - Finalist
Gian Marco Visani - Honorable Mention

2020:

Samuel Shaw – Finalist
Amel Hassan – Honorable Mention
Oliver Korten – Honorable Mention
Faizan Muhammad – Honorable Mention

2019:

Alexander Bock
Christopher Meierfrankenfeld
Marilyn Sun - Honorable Mention 

2018: 

Sarah Hall-Swan – Runner Up

2017:

Yisu Remy Wang – Finalist

2016:

Jennifer Hammelman – Honorable Mention (Female)
Tara Kola – Honorable Mention (Female)
Thomas Schaffner – Honorable Mention (Male)

2013:

Gregory Bodwin – Honorable Mention (Male) 
Ariel Hamlin
Max Smiley – Honorable Mention (Male)

2012:

Sarah Cannon – Female Awardee
Constantin Berzin – Honorable Mention (Male)
Connor Gramazio – Honorable Mention (Male)

2011:

Mark D. Leiserson – Male Runner-Up
Sarah Cannon – Honorable Mention (Female)
Sean Kelley – Honorable Mention (Male)

2009:

Jessie Berlin – Honorable Mention (Female)
Adam Raczkowski – Honorable Mention (Male)

2007:

Joshua Danziger
Brandon Lucia
Jennifer Tam 

2006:

Kathryn Seyboth – Finalist (Female)

2005:

John Hugg – Honorable Mention (Male)