USC Viterbi School Faculty and Students Receive Honors

 

Milind Tambe, associate professor of compuer science, has been named the recipient of the ACM/SIGART Autonomous Agents Research Award.  ACM/SIGART is the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Artificial Intelligence.  The distinction is annually awarded to a researcher who has made exceptional contributions over the preceding five years to the discipline of artificial intelligence “agents,” computer programs that can perform autonomously reacting to complex situations.  

  

Firdaus E. Udwadia, professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering, has been elected a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering.  The grade of fellow is conferred upon an ASME member with at least 10 years of active engineering practice who has made significant contributions to the profession.  Udwadia is also a professor of civil engineering, of mathematics and of information operations.

 

Jennifer Lynn Russell, a doctoral  student in the Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering  is the 2005 recipient of the WTS’ (Women in Transportation Seminar) highest academic  award. She will receive a $6,000 Helene M. Overly Memorial Graduate Scholarship at the WTS National Conference in May in Scottsdale, Arizona.  Russell is also a 2004 WTS-Los Angeles scholarship  recipient and is a recent Eno Transportation  Foundation Fellow who received the 2004 National Metropolitan Transportation Research Center’s Student of the Year Award. 

 

The Franklin Institute is honoring USC Viterbi School namesake Andrew J. Viterbi, who is a professor of electrical engineering, with the Benjamin Franklin Medal in electrical engineering. The institute cites his algorithm used cellphones, digital-image transmissions from space and other wireless communications.

 

Behrokh Koshnevis, professor of industrial and systems engineering,

Has been elected a Fellow of the Society for Modeling and Simulation. Fellows of the Society must have demonstrated unusual professional distinction in the field of simulation and allied computer technology that is worthy of special recognition and the total number of fellows does not exceed more than 2% of the SCS membership.  Koshnevis is also the recipient  of the 2005 Melvin R. Lohmann Medal. The Lohmann Medal honors a graduate of the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology at Oklahoma State University who has made "outstanding technical  or managerial contributions to his or her profession.