November 22, 2021

Two students from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Mizzou have been awarded scholarships from Upsilon Pi Epsilon, the International Honor Society for the Computing and Information Disciplines.

Arun George Zachariah, a PhD student, received a UPE Scholarship Award, and senior Rebecca Shyu received a UPE Executive Council Award.

Recipients are selected from a large number of applications and are chosen for academic excellence, contributions to their local UPE chapters and long-term plans in the profession.

Zachariah is pursuing a PhD in computer science. He’s part of the Scalable Data Science Lab, and his work intersects scalable systems design, data science and machine learning in hopes of further developing large-scale systems to enable rapid access to big data.

“I am truly honored to have received the UPE Scholarship Award. And I like to take this opportunity to particularly thank my department chair, Dr. (Kamrul) Islam, Ph.D. advisor, Dr. (Praveen) Rao, and UPE chapter advisor, Dr. (Michael) Jurczyk, for their constant support and motivation.”

This past summer, he completed an internship at Arm, a leading semiconductor and software company, which allowed him to learn more about open-source tools and core systems design.

A former technology analyst and consultant to Apple, Zachariah plans to enter academia as a tenured track faculty member.

Shyu, president of Mizzou’s UPE chapter, is also studying computer science. She has conducted undergraduate research with the Missouri Cancer Registry and Missouri Telehealth Network. During internships with Harvard Medical School, she worked on research on health care policy and using telemedicine to address substance abuse issues.

Shyu is a Goldwater Scholar and last semester presented at Posters on the Hill, a Washington D.C.-based event that showcases top undergraduate research. Last month, she represented undergraduate research at the grand opening of the Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health building.

“We’re thrilled to have two recipients of the UPE scholarship,” said Islam, who is also chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. “Both Arun and Rebecca are outstanding students and exemplify excellence in scholarship and research.”