Category: Awards and Prizes

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Creativity Meets Technology: Inside &hacks XII at William & Mary


On September 26 and 27, William & Mary hosted &hacks XII, a 24-hour event where students team up to build software projects from scratch. Bringing together over 270 students from seven universities, this year’s event challenged participants to create new technologies based on the theme of “Imagination.”

Students spent the fast-paced weekend creating apps and tech solutions for real-world challenges while building AI and coding skills through hands-on workshops.

Washington and Lee students brought home multiple awards!

DiatoMeter (Aditya Thakur ’30, Menilik Deneke ’28, and Damir Syrlybayev ’29) earned Gold in the Nano Bio Lab track as a tool that helps analyze microscopic biological samples more quickly and accurately.

Lingo (Paula Yaniz Macia ’28, Anh Nhu’28, Danilo Sindric ’29, and Devin Upadhyay ’29) earned Silver and the Best Use of ElevenLabs award for building an AI-powered language-learning tool designed for ESL learners to master spoken English pronunciation and linguistics.

Psst (listed on Devpost as Accountability App), developed by Connor Sweeney ’27, earned Silver for developing an AI accountability app that helps users stay on track with goals and habits.

A big congratulations to all the W&L students on their impressive success at the hackathon!

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2026 Computer Science Degrees, Scholarships, Prizes and Awards

Congratulations to the Computer Science Class of 2025 — majors and minors alike — for their outstanding achievements!
Below are their accomplishments, listed along with those of select CS undergraduates, as they appear in the Commencement Bulletin.

2026 Graduates:

Majors:

  • Sylvia Agatako – Bachelor of Science
  • Janeet Bajracharya- Bachelor of Science, (Thesis “An Empirical Evaluation of Learning-Augmented Combinatorial Auction Algorithms”)
  • Brandon Wayne Bishop-Bachelor of Arts
  • Trey Alejandro-Duke Custodio- Bachelor of Arts
  • Elias Dakhoul- Bachelor of Science
  • Justin Adrian Gomez- Bachelor of Arts
  • Julie Junehee Ham- Bachelor of Arts, Honors in Art History (Thesis: “The digital is Real: Understanding Skawennati and Virgil Ortiz’s Digital Approaches to Art”)
  • Joseph Reynolds Holden- Bachelor of Science, Honors in Computer Science (Thesis: “Using field Programmable Gate Arrays to Accelerate the Computation of Financial Risk Metrics”)
  • Wonjun Joe- Bachelor of Science, Phi Beta Kappa; magna cum laude
  • Timothy Daniel Johns – Bachelor of Arts, cum laude
  • Michael Kharadze – Bachelor of Arts
  • Nicholas James Lagges- Bachelor of Science, cum laude
  • Austin McBride– Bachelor of Arts
  • Ciel Reine Morrill- Bachelor of Arts, Phi Beta Kappa; Honors in East Asian Languages and Literatures (Thesis: “Obscured in English: The Cultural Logic of Communication in Japanese”)
  • Quyen Thuc Pham- Bachelor of Arts
  • Edward Lewis Ross- Bachelor of Science
  • Kate Meredith Sacerdote- Bachelor of Arts
  • Anthony Justin Thomas – Bachelor of Arts
  • Micah Brian Tongen – Bachelor of Science, cum laude
  • Nisha Prashant Walvekar- Bachelor or Science
  • Nabil Rater Nabil Abbas Youssef- Bachelor or Science
  • Vincent Ziccardi- Bachelor or Science

Minors:

  • Samuel James Bready- Bachelor of Science; cum laude
  • Marsha Chung- Bachelor of Science, Phi Beta Kappa; magna cum laude
  • Arun MIchael Ghosh – Bachelor of Arts
  • Cailen Robert Graham-Bachelor of Arts
  • Chelsea Edie Hyland- Bachelor of Science, Phi Beta Kappa; summa cum laude
  • Abid Farhan Jeem- Bachelor of Science,Honors in Physics (Thesis: “Low-Latency Gravitational-Wave Sky Localization: Optimization and Machine Learning Extensions of the NorthStar Pipeline”)
  • Rihards Paradnieks- Bachelor of Arts, Phi Beta Kappa; summa cum laude
  • Kriya Nandkishor Shah- Bachelor of Arts, Phi Beta Kappa; magna cum laude
  • Elizabeth Marie Trubeck- Bachelor or Arts
  • Kevin Thomas Warren I- Bachelor or Science

Special Honors:

  • Rihards Paradnieks- Valedictorian

Fellowships Received:

  • Ciel Reine Morrill ’26 – Boren Scholarship, Japanese
  • Brandon Wayne Bishop ’26  – U.S. Department of State Critical Language  Scholarship

Scholarships Awards and Prizes:

  • Saad Ahmed Khan Ghori –  The James D. Davidson Memorial Fund Scholarship
  • Kidus Tegene – The  James McDowell Scholarship

Departmental Awards:

  • Chelsea Edie Hyland – The Business Administration Department Award
  • Janeet Bajracharya – The Computer Science Department Award
  • Rihards Paradnieks – The Garrett Economics Prize, The Williams Prize in Mathematics
  • Brandon Wayne Bishop – Certificate of International Immersion
  • Gabriel Thomas Hogan ’27 – The Lenfest Center of the Arts Award, The John W. Elrod General of the Year Award
  • Abid Farhan Jeem – The H. Thomas Williams Jr. Undergraduate Research Award
  • Gaby White ’27 – The Madison Montgomery Shinaberry ’16 Outstanding Student Leadership Award
  • Toluwalope Bakare ’27  – The Michael K. and Linda Gorman Award
  • Nick Lagges- Captain Dick Smith Baseball Award
  • Cooper Tinsley ’28 – William J. Stearns Improved Swimmer
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2025 Computer Science Degrees, Scholarships, Prizes and Awards

Congratulations to the Computer Science Class of 2025 — majors and minors alike — for their outstanding achievements!
Below are their accomplishments, listed along with those of select CS undergraduates, as they appear in the Commencement Bulletin.

2025 Graduates:

Majors:

  • Desire Nkoro Asinya – Bachelor of Arts, cum laude
  • Naka Alounkou Reine Assoumatine- Bachelor of Science, cum laude
  • Jenna Marie Bernstein-Bachelor of Science, cum laude
  • Aiden Phillip Boeshans- Bachelor of Arts
  • Barrett Michael Bourgeois- Bachelor of Science
  • Medaly Cardenas Retamozo- Bachelor of Arts
  • Elle Taylor Coffman- Bachelor of Science
  • Payton Crawford – Bachelor of Arts, Honors in Economics (Thesis “Understanding Increases in Black Firearm Deaths from 2015-2022:  Evidence from Firearm Sales, Laws and State-Level Characteristics”)
  • Mohamed Soliman Elhussiny*- Bachelor of Arts
  • Matthew Thomas Fritz-Bachelor of Science, cum laude
  • Tyler Jordan Halliday*- Bachelor of Science
  • Allison Hildago- Bachelor of Science
  • Mark Thomas Holden- Bachelor of Science
  • Han Ngoc Huynh- Bachelor of Arts, cum laude
  • Elizabeth Delia Kent- Bachelor of Arts
  • Connor Lehman – Bachelor of Science
  • Bezawit Mengistu – Bachelor of Science
  • Fekry Mostafa- Bachelor of Arts
  • Edward Reese Nelson IV- Bachelor of Science, magna cum laude
  • Hoang Phuong Linh Nguyen- Bachelor of Science, Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude
  • Michelle Serena Nguyen- Bachelor of Arts
  • Bedford Henley Scott- Bachelor of Arts
  • Lakpa Finju Sherpa- Bachelor of Science
  • Eric John Sorenson III- Bachelor of Science
  • Alexandra Maria Thorpe- Bachelor of Science
  • Ignas Volcokas – Bachelor of Science, Honors in Computer Science (Thesis “MAchine Learning for Democracy:  An Exploration of AI Driven Representation”), Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude
  • Weichao Xia – Bachelor of Science
  • Lydia Zijing Yang- Bachelor or Arts, Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude
  • Runze Zhu- Bachelor or Science, Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude* degree conferred on December 31, 2024

Minors:

  • Charlotte Carmichael Baker- Bachelor of Science
  • Elijah Uno Christopher- Bachelor of Science
  • Chaz Noah Jackson – Bachelor of Science
  • Sarah Jean Lathrop- Bachelor of Science, Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude
  • Ngoc Anh Le- Bachelor of Science, cum laude
  • Austin Hunter Molitor – Bachelor of Science, Honors in Mathematics (Thesis “Algorithmic Approaches to Constructing Riesel Numbers, Sierpinski Numbers and Riesel-Sierpinski Numbers in the Polyhedral Integer Sequences”), Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude
  • Declan Joseph Treacy- Bachelor of Science
  • Benjamin Luke Weller – Bachelor of Science
  • James Michael Wiater- Bachelor of Science

Special Honors:

  • Sarah Jean Lathrop – Valedictorian
  • Lydia Zijing Yang – Valedictorian

Fellowships Received:

  • Samuel David Cook ’27 – Boren Scholarship, Chinese
  • Alexander Bousman ’28  – U.S. Department of State Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship

Scholarships Awards and Prizes:

  • Kidus Alemayehu Tegene –  The Vincent L. Bradford Scholarship
  • Austin Hunter Molitor – The Robinson Award in Mathematics and Science

Departmental Awards:

  • Ignas Volcokas – The Computer Science Department Award
  • Desire Neoro Asinya – The Linda Cooper and Bobby Henderson Prize
  • Payton Crawford – The Linda Cooper and Bobby Henderson Prize, The Kim Family Prize in Economics
  • Slasbil Abdelkawy Hassan ’28 – The First-Year Writing Award
  • Lydia Zijing Yang – Certificate of International Immersion
  • Gabriel Thomas Hogan ’26 – The Lenfest Center of the Arts Award, The Excellence in Artistic Management Award
  • Austin Hunter Molitor – The Williams Prize in Mathematics
  • Nicholas McClelland Tussing ’24 – The Captain Jay W. Stull Memorial Award, US Marine Corps
  • Colin Patrick Looby ’24 – The Todd D. Jones ’85 Memorial Scholarship
  • Alexander Bousman ’28  – The Physics and Engineering First-Year Award
  • Han Ngoc Huynh- The David Novack Prize for Excellence in Sociology and Anthropology and the Study of Gender and Sexuality
  • Elijah Uno Christopher- The Falcon Award
  • Mark Troni ’26 – J.C. Peebles Memorial Wrestling Award
  • Vinny Ziccardi ’26 – Gary R. Franke True Blue Award
  • Cat Caples – I Am 3rd Award
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2024 Computer Science Degrees, Scholarships, Prizes and Awards

Congratulations to the Class of 2024 Computer Science Majors and Minors for their outstanding achievements!   Their accomplishments, along with the accomplishments of certain CS undergraduates  are listed here, as they appear in the Commencement Bulletin.

2024 Graduates:

Majors:

  • Timileyin John Adekola – Bachelor of Science
  • Giorgio Louis Antonacci- Bachelor of Arts
  • Mohammed Danish Bokhari- Bachelor of Science,  Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude
  • Joseph Anthony Bosco- Bachelor of Arts, cum laude
  • Andrew Joseph Condie Jr.- Bachelor of Science
  • Malachi Chad Eberly- Bachelor of Science
  • Bennett John Ehret- Bachelor of Science
  • Petra Ilic- Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude
  • Jackson Kemper Jacobs- Bachelor of Science,  cum laude
  • Ngoc Bao Le- Bachelor of Arts
  • Jose Armando Mendez- Bachelor of Arts
  • Julia Susan Raskin- Bachelor of Science, Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude
  • Renan Viera Silva- Bachelor of Science
  • Matthais Stock **- Bachelor of Arts
  • William Ryan Tobin – Bachelor of Science
  • Nicholas McClelland Tussing- Bachelor of Arts
  • William Xue- Bachelor of Science, Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude
  • Kathryn Marie Yurechko- Bachelor of Science, Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude

Minors:

  • Jack Wilford d’Entremont- Bachelor of Science
  • Jacob Nicholas Jackson- Bachelor of Science, Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude
  • Andrew Harris Larsen- Bachelor of Science
  • John Dabbs Schleider, Jr.- Bachelor of Arts, Honors in Economics (Thesis: “Systematic Risk and Measures of Monopoly Power”), cum laude
  • Jonathan Taft Symonds III- Bachelor of Science

Special Honors:

  • Kathryn Marie Yurechko  – Valedictorian, The Algernon Sydney Sullivan Medallion

Fellowships Received:

  • Julia Susan Raskin  – Fulbright U.S. Student Program, Germany
  • Austin Hunter Molitar ’25 – Goldwater Scholarship
  • Kathryn Marie Yurechko –  Marshall Scholarship
  • Brandon W. Bishop ’26 –  U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship, Arabic

Scholarships Awards and Prizes:

  • Kathryn Marie Yurechko –  The James McDowell Scholarship

Departmental Awards:

  • Kathryn Marie Yurechko – The Computer Science Department Award
  • Gabriel Thomas Hogan ’26 – The Lenfest Center for the Arts Award
  • Gabriel Thomas Hogan ’26 – The Excellence in Artistic Management Award
  • Kathryn Marie Yurechko – The Young Scholarship in Philosophy
  • Kathryn Marie Yurechko – The John and Mimi Elrod Fellowship
  • Gabriel Thomas Hogan ’26 – The Michael K. and Linda Gorman Award
  • Jack Wilford d’Entremont- The Coaches and Captains Basketball Award
  • Matt Fritz ’25- William J. Sterns Improved Swimmer
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Danish Bokari ’24, Lakpa Sherpa ’25 and Mohamed Soliman ’27 are winners at the SOLVE 2024 Hackathon!

The first ever W&L SOLVE Hackathon was held in the IQ Center, May 12-13, 2024.

A hackathon is an event where individuals or teams come together to collaboratively work on solving problems or creating innovative projects within a limited time frame.  The SOLVE 2024 event was an interdisciplinary student-focused gathering for any undergraduate student from W&L.

A grand prize of $1,000 was awarded to three separate teams judged to have created the best products or for embodying the spirit of the competition. Danish Bokhari ’24, Lakpa Sherpa ’25 and Mohamed Soliman ’27, who created EcoEats, a food app designed to revolutionize the way we eat and live sustainably, were one of the three winning teams.

Congratulations Danish, Lakpa and Mohamed!

Click here to read the full Columns article:

https://columns.wlu.edu/wl-holds-inaugural-solve-2024-hackathon-event-on-campus/

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2024 PBK Inductions

Phi Beta Kappa (PBK)  was founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary.   Its motto is “Love of learning is the guide of life.” The Gamma of Virginia Chapter was chartered at W&L in 1911.

Washington and Lee University’s PBK chapter welcomed 54 members of the junior and senior classes at the Convocation on Friday, April 5.   The honorees were inducted into Phi Beta Kappa based on their exceptional academic achievements in the arts and sciences.  Following are the computer science initiates from the Class of 2024 and 2025:

2024
Danish Bokhari
Julia Raskin
Will Xue

2025
Sarah Lathrop
Linh Nguyen
Ignas Volcokas
Lydia Yang

Congratulations!

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CS Prof. Liz Matthews’ Advisor awarded National Award from President Biden!

Juan Gilbert, a University of Florida professor and graduate school advisor to Professor Matthews, received the prestigious National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Biden.

His pioneering designs in election technology aim to make voting more secure and accessible and, ultimately, protect our democracy.

Click on the link to see the details.

https://youtu.be/jWRJHD7nR4g?t=1630

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2023 Computer Science Degrees, Scholarships, Prizes and Awards

Congratulations to the Class of 2023 Computer Science Majors and Minors for their outstanding achievements!   Their accomplishments, along with the accomplishments of certain CS undergraduates  are listed here, as they appear in the Commencement Bulletin.

2023 Graduates:

Majors:

  • Abdelraham Hesham AboEitta – Bachelor of Science, Honors in Computer Science ( Thesis: “Hyperdimensional Computing for Gesture Recognitiion Using a Dynamic Vision Sensor”), Phi Beta Kappa; summa cum laude
  • Praise D. Apata – Bachelor of Science
  • Sujana Basnet- Bachelor of Science,  magna cum laude
  • Madison E. Clubb- Bachelor of Arts
  • Carson Brent Cooley- Bachelor of Science,  magna cum laude
  • Jared Alexander Cordova- Bachelor of Science
  • Ana Sophia Estrada Hamm- Bachelor of Arts,  Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude
  • Dario Fumarola- Bachelor of Arts
  • Selihom Gobeze- Bachelor of Science
  • Daniel Kenji Kung- Bachelor of Science
  • Leslie Taylor Le- Bachelor of Science
  • Grace Murphy MacDonald- Bachelor of Science,  Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude
  • Nobel Sintayehu Manye- Bachelor of Science
  • Ryan Davis Messick- Bachelor of Arts
  • Cong Danh Nguyen- Bachelor of Science, Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude
  • Nicholas Q. Nguyen- Bachelor of Science
  • Mesoma Ifechukwu Okolocha- Bachelor of Science
  • Jorge Baunner Soto-Ventura- Bachelor of Arts
  • Robert Taylor Tucker- Bachelor of Science, cum laude
  • Virginia Slater Weston- Bachelor of Science

Minors:

  • Peter McNulty Clyne- Bachelor of Science
  • Caleb Minjae Choe- Bachelor of Science
  • Harry Dodd Crutcher, Jr.- Bachelor of Science,  cum laude
  • Carl Lucas Erdmann- Bachelor of Arts
  • Sarah Louise Martin- Bachelor of Science
  • Robert Warren Seeds- Bachelor of Science
  • Nicholas Ransom Steinert- Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude
  • Colin James Whiting- Bachelor of Science, cum laude
  • Yoseph W. Wolde- Bachelor of Arts

Fellowships Received:

  • Ana Sophia Estrada Hamm ’22 – Fulbright U.S. Student Program, Israel

Departmental Awards:

  • Carson Brent Cooley- The Luther Seevers Birely Scholarship
  • Kathryn Marie Yurechko ’24- The James McDowell Scholarship
  • Grace Murphy MacDonald – The Computer Science Department Award
  • Nobel Sintayehu Manaye- The H. Thomas Williams, Jr. Undergraduate Research Award
  • Mesoma Ifechukwu Okolocha- Senior Bonner Scholars
  • Jackson Jacobs ’24- Richard Miller Cross Country Award
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2023 CS Phi Beta Kappa Initiates

Phi Beta Kappa (PBK)  was founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary.   Its motto is “Love of learning is the guide of life.” The Gamma of Virginia Chapter was chartered at W&L in 1911.

The PBK chapter at Washington and Lee University welcomed 49 members of the junior and senior classes at the Phi Beta Kappa/Society of the Cincinnati Convocation on March 31.  Of those initiates, the following computer science majors are from the Class of 2023 and 2024:

2023
Grace MacDonald
Dan Nguyen

2024
Katie Yurechko

Congratulations!

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2023 ODK Computer Science Inductee – Katie Yurechko

W&L’s Alpha Circle of Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK), the national leadership honor society, held its spring induction ceremony on March 16.  Computer Science major, Katie Yurechko ’24, was among the 50 new members.

Congratulations, Katie!

To learn more about the ODK ceremony, click the link:
https://columns.wlu.edu/odk-holds-spring-initiation-for-wl-honorees-3/