Faculty and Staff Honored at 2024 ICS Awards Celebration
This summer, the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) recognized faculty and staff at its annual ICS Awards Celebration. Dean Marios Papaefthymiou welcomed new staff, announced the recipient of the Jim McKenzie Staff Leadership Award, presented the Dean’s Faculty Awards and recognized a variety of faculty members for recent accomplishments.
The 2024 Jim McKenzie Staff Leadership Award
The late ICS Assistant Dean Jim McKenzie was a champion for staff, striving to create an atmosphere of inclusiveness. Launched in 2017, the McKenzie Award honors an outstanding ICS staff member who leads and inspires others, influencing without authority and often putting the interests of others ahead of their own. The outstanding staff member recognized for 2024 was Jason King, Director of Corporate Relations.
“Jason was nominated independently by multiple faculty and staff,” said Dean Marios, highlighting King’s various contributions to the ICS capstone programs, coordination of the Industry Showcase event and leadership on the ICS Staff Wellness Committee. Feedback from the nominations included comments about how King “goes above and beyond the call of duty” and has a “passion for his work [that] reflects a deep commitment to both the school’s mission and its people.” His efforts aim to “improve the overall ICS environment and experience.”
The Dean’s Faculty Awards
Dean Marios also recognized various faculty members, presenting awards for innovative research, dedicated service, exemplar student mentorship and exceptional teaching. Each award comes with a $500 discretionary account.
The Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research went to Gloria Mark, Professor Emerita of Informatics. Her 2023 book, Attention Span, presents two decades of research on the science of attention, outlining why people are so distracted and offering tips for restoring balance, happiness and productivity. Her research has appeared in popular media outlets, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, The Atlantic, the BBC, and many others.
The Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mid-Career Research went to Informatics Professor Kylie Peppler, recognizing the widespread impact of her research at the intersection of computer science, education, and design. She often conducts her work on informal learning spaces — such as libraries, museums, and after-school programs — with community partners. Her lab in CalIT2 includes novel robotic looms, which offer a radically different approach for learning computer science.
The Dean’s Award for Service went to Babak Shahbaba, Statistics Professor and UCI Chancellor’s Fellow. His outstanding service includes his work as Director of the Data Science Initiative, a cross-campus initiative that has been key in disseminating data science skills across campus and promoting interdisciplinary scientific research. This has led to new research projects in areas such as energy, environmental studies, neuroscience, and smart health, all involving interdisciplinary teams of scientists.
The Dean’s Award for Graduate Student Education and Mentoring went to Computer Science Professor Chen Li for his outstanding advising and mentoring of no fewer than 12 Ph.D. students as principal advisor over the past two years, with four of them graduating and moving on to coveted positions at Microsoft, Google, Observe Inc, and King Saud University. Chen has also been the director of the Master of Computer Science professional program for the past few years, a critical ICS program.
The Dean’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching went to Daniel Epstein, Associate Professor of Informatics, in recognition of his high quality of undergraduate teaching and efforts to improve the human-computer interaction courses and the overall Informatics major. Students “absolutely love” taking his course, saying it’s one of the “most applicable” and “rewarding” at UCI. He also just received tenure.
Recognizing Faculty Accomplishments
Dean Marios also honored the following faculty members for their academic accomplishments:
- Shannon Alfaro: Lecturer of the Year
- Anne Marie Piper: Digital Accessibility Innovator
- Constance Steinkuehler: Dean’s Honoree for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
- Marco Levorato: Emerging Innovator of Year
- Daniel Epstein: NSF Career Award
- Sharad Mehrotra: ACM Fellow
- Padhraic Smyth: IEEE Fellow
- Daniel Gillen: AAAS Fellow
- Gene Tsudik: Guggenheim Fellow
- Gillian Hayes: SIGCHI Academy
More generally, the Awards Celebration recognized and honored all ICS faculty and staff for their continued dedication and service!
— Shani Murray