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Awards

Orrin E. and Margaret M. Taulbee Graduate Award for Excellence in Computer Science

In 1966, Dr. Orrin Taulbee founded Pitt’s Department of Computer Science and served as its chair until 1984—an amazingly long time to hold that position. In October 1989, the four sons of Dr. Taulbee initiated this award in memory and honor of their parents.

  • 2025 recipient: Paras Sharma, winner
  • 2024 recipients: Joey Hou, winner; Brian T. Nixon, runner up; Modhumonty Das, runner up.
  • 2023 recipients: Brian T. Nixon, winner; Yue Dai, runner up.

Outstanding Undergraduate Award

This award is presented each year to the Computer Science major or majors who best represent the Computer Science Department and its standards of excellence both inside and outside the classroom.

  • 2025 recipient: Jeffrey Zheng
  • 2024 recipients: Stephen Arndt, Anna Baskin, and Griffin Hurt

Russell “Rusty” A. Howard II Memorial Scholarship:

In 2019, Cornelia “Cookie” Howard created the first named scholarship in the School of Computing and Information (SCI). Her $50,000 pledge over the following five years (2020-2025) will support the school’s graduate students and honors her son, Russell “Rusty” Howard. The scholarship provides support for tuition & other education-related expenses for graduate student(s) pursuing a master's degree in Computer Science or Information Science.

  • 2021 - 2022 recipient: Sara Amato
  • 2020 - 2021 recipient: Zachary Hable

CS 50 Fellowship

The CS 50 Fellowship was created in 2021 to honor the department's 50th anniversary.