This spring, the Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) held its inaugural Alumni Awards ceremony, which featured four awards focused on honoring the extraordinary achievements of CISE alumni. These awards celebrated individuals who have made significant contributions to their field of expertise, demonstrated outstanding personal accomplishments, or shown exceptional service to our department and the college.
The department honored Pedro Guillermo Feijóo-García, Ph.D., Amit Dhurandhar, Ph.D., Chris S. Crawford, Ph.D., and Dustin Karp for their exceptional contributions. The awards presented were the Distinguished Alumni Award for Academic Excellence, the Distinguished Alumni Award for Career Achievement, the Distinguished Young Alumni Award, and the Distinguished Alumni Award for Entrepreneurship.
Pedro Guillermo Feijóo-García, Ph.D.
Distinguished Alumni Award for Academic Excellence
Feijóo-García was recognized for his outstanding contributions to the field of education, research, and human-centered computing. He is a lecturer at Georgia Tech’s School of Computing Instruction. A Colombian scholar and Fulbright alumnus, he teaches software design, engineering, and human-computer interaction. He has taught numerous courses in human-centered computing and programming in both the U.S. and Colombia. Previously, he served as a faculty member at the University of Florida and Universidad El Bosque, where he received multiple teaching awards.
At Georgia Tech, he was named to the 2024 Course Instruction Opinion Survey Honor Roll for teaching excellence. He leads the PARCE Lab, researching computer science education and human-AI interaction. In 2024, he secured a $2 million National Science Foundation grant as principal investigator for a project on hidden curricula in computing education. Feijóo-García holds degrees in systems and computing engineering, mechanical engineering, and a Ph.D. in human-centered computing from the University of Florida.
Amit Dhurandhar, Ph.D.
Distinguished Alumni Award for Career Achievement
Dhurandhar was recognized for his exceptional contributions to the field of artificial intelligence. His research focuses on understanding AI through its statistical and output behaviors, with applications across diverse industries such as healthcare, retail, and semiconductor manufacturing. His current work emphasizes enhancing trust in AI systems, gaining recognition in top venues like NeurIPS and media outlets such as Forbes and PC Magazine. He has contributed to groundbreaking research in olfaction, with publications in Science and Nature Communications, drawing extensive media attention.
Dhurandhar’s achievements include multiple awards such as The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Deployed Application Award and Best of ICDM. He co-led the development of IBM’s AI Explainability 360 open-source toolkit and has been an invited speaker at notable events like ACM CODS-COMAD 2021. Dr. Dhurandhar’s contributions have also influenced IBM products, earning him prestigious internal awards. He actively contributes to the AI community through roles in top conference committees, National Science Foundation panels, and IBM’s invention disclosure team, and is listed in Marquis Who’s Who 2024.
“One of the classes that stood out to me was Advanced Machine Learning with Arunava Banerjee. He was an exceptional teacher and could explain the most difficult and obscure concepts to us, mere mortals,” Dhurandhar said when asked about impactful memories from UF. “I remember in one of his classes a lot of us actually cried because we couldn’t believe we actually understood some pure math concept that none of us had any background in. It was an emotional experience.”
Chris S. Crawford, Ph.D.
Distinguished Young Alumni Award
Crawford was recognized for his outstanding contributions to the field of Computer Science and his pioneering research in human-robot interaction and Brain-Computer Interfaces. He is an associate professor at the University of Alabama’s Department of Computer Science. He directs the Human-Technology Interaction Lab. His research focuses on human-robot interaction and Brain-Computer Interfaces. He has investigated systems that provide computer applications and robots with information about a user’s cognitive state. He previously developed a brain-drone racing system that was featured on over 800 news outlets, including Discovery, USA Today, the New York Times, and Forbes. Along with investigating brain-robot interaction applications, Crawford also developed Neuroblock, a tool designed to engage K-12 students in neurofeedback application development. He has received multiple awards for his research, including the National Science Foundation CAREER award.
“The biggest piece of advice I would give to someone looking to succeed in my industry is to be willing to take risks and think outside the box,” Crawford said when asked about advice for current students looking to succeed. “It is also important to be able to work in a team and be able to collaborate with others.”
Dustin Karp
Distinguished Alumni Award for Entrepreneurship
Karp’s vision and entrepreneurial spirit have made a significant impact in both the business and education sectors. While studying at the University of Florida, Karp founded Perch, a marketplace connecting Gator fans with local driveways and businesses for game day parking. What began with flyers and a street sign has scaled to thousands of reservations across 10 college campuses, becoming a core part of the game day experience for fans across the country.
Also while at UF, Karp co-founded Edugator, a platform reinventing how computer science is taught. Built with Amanpreet Kapoor, an assistant instructional professor in the UF Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering, Marc Diaz, and Prayuj Tuli (both students at the time), Edugator enables instructors to create hands-on, interactive courses. It’s powered by AI tools for grading, personalized tutoring, and automatic problem generation. To date, it’s helped thousands of learners and graded over 100,000+ submissions.
Karp has spent time in Gainesville, Boston, San Francisco, and New York—currently building product at Polymarket in New York City.
During the CISE Alumni Awards ceremony, student awards were also presented. These awards highlight graduate and undergraduate students who are the next generation of leaders, innovators, and problem solvers. The student award recipients are listed below:
Undergraduate Awards
Matthew Martin Memelo Memorial Scholarship
Kenneth Chew
Marty and Heather Abbot Scholarship
Samantha Bennett, Ananya Sista
Nieten Award
Sara Lin
Gartner Group Scholarship
Saeed Ansari, Luke Barcenas, Jason Chen
CISE Scholarship
Jack Gordon, Kevin Jin, Camila Menendez, Rohan Pherwani, Nicolas Slenko, Yuyang Sun
LAC Scholarship
Roberto Carrero Salazar, Laurence Georges, Daniel Gomez, Patrick Leimer, Julio Leonardi, Daniel Monzon, Alexis Morales Amaro, Jorge Ramirez, Vivian Rincon
Graduate Awards
Harris Graduate Fellowship
Mollie Brewer, Sarah Brown, Jennifer Sheldon, Patriel Stapleton
Gartner Group Scholarship
Jayetri Bardhan, Sri Hrushikesh Varma Bhupathiraju, Xuan Nhat Hoang
Gartner Group Graduate Fellowship
Abhishek Kulkarni, Amogh Mannekote, Sahan Nelundeniyalage, Hoang Ngo, Mohammadali Serajian, Tingsong Xiao, Zelin Xu
LAC Scholarship
Rodrigo Calvo, Bria Smith
By Drew Brown
Marketing and Communications Specialist