Virginia Tech Department of Computer Science Alumni Awards

Distinguished Alumni Award

The CS@VT Distinguished Alumni Award is given to a department alumnus or alumna who has demonstrated extraordinary leadership in the computing field in their career, in industry, government, or academia. This award recognizes outstanding achievements and contributions in research and/or practice. It is expected that the awardee will visit the department to receive their award and give a presentation to faculty and students.

Previous CS@VT Distinguished Alumni Award winners with the year of their award:

Greg Lavender (2010) – faculty member at UT Austin (served as associate chair); manager at Sun Microsystems; CTO for cloud architecture and infrastructure engineering at Citibank; Senior VP and CTO at VMware (now).

Lucy Nowell (2012) – professor at Lynchburg College and chaired the CS department; Chief Scientist at PNNL; Computer Science Program Manager for Advanced Scientific Computing Research in the Office of Science of the Department of Energy, leading a new initiative in "extreme neterogeneity" planning for the supercomputers to come from 2025-2040. (now)

Bo Begole (2013) – researcher at Sun Microsystems, Principal Scientist and Director of Ubiquitous Computing at Xerox Parc, Senior Director UX innovations lab, Samsung Research America, Vice President and Global Head Media lab at Huawei Technologies, Apple (now)

Jamika Burge (2015) - adjunct professor of computer science at Howard University, Senior Behavioral Computer Scientist/ DARPA SME at Information Systems Worldwide, Director of Assessment Technology Product and Research at Smarter Balanced (UCLA), Head Research Curriculum and Outreach and Experience Design Research at Capital One, Tech Founder and Principal at Design and Technology Concepts (now) and co-founder of blackcomputeHER in Washington DC (now).

Keith Sturgill (2017) – Chairman of the Board of Directors of America's SAP User Group, VP and CIO, Information technology and Corporate Six Sigma for Eastman Chemical Company(now).

David Lavery (2018) – systems analyst, founder of Havabanana Productions, Exective Advisory Board, Game Designer, Animator at FIRST, Founder of Curt's Ride to Cure Cancer, NASA Scientist and Program Executive of Mars Science Laboratory (now);

College of Engineering Outstanding Recent Alumni Award

This award is limited to graduates of the College who have been awarded a degree in engineering within the previous 10 years.

Membership in the College of Engineering Academy of Excellence

Admission to the Academy requires clear evidence of visible outstanding leadership in the alumnus's or alumna's field of engineering during their career.CS@VT alumni members currently in the Academy of Excellence: Greg Lavender, Mary Miller, Lucy Nowell