Kumar Named Computing Research Association Honorable Mention Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher

Engineering undergraduate Nishanth Kumar '21 (Computer Engineering) was among four Brown University students to earn a prestigious Honorable Mention Award for his research by the Computing Research Association (CRA).

This award program recognizes undergraduate students in North American colleges and universities who show outstanding research potential in an area of computing research.

Nishanth KumarKumar is a Research Assistant for Professors Stefanie Tellex and George Konidaris within Brown's Computer Science Department. His work has focused on developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms for collaborative robots and has led to numerous publications at notable conferences. He was nominated for this CRA Award by his research advisors and Engineering Professor Iris Bahar, who was familiar with his work. Previously, Kumar won a 'Best Plenary Presenter Award' at the Ivy League Undergraduate Research Symposium last April.

Deniz Bayazit '20 (Computer Science), Rigel Galgana '20 (Computational and Applied Mathematics) and Esteban Safranchik '20 (Applied Mathematics, Economics and Computer Science) also received honorable mention accolades. Each will receive formal recognition in the mail to commemorate this achievement, and the January 2020 issue of Computing Research News will include an article on the awards.

CRA is supported by Microsoft Research and Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs (MERL) who sponsor the Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award program in alternate years. MERL is the sponsor of this year's awards.