2019 UChicago CS Siebel Scholars include:
Adam Holmes is a Ph.D. candidate at UChicago CS, advised by Fred Chong, the Seymour Goodman Professor in the Department of Computer Science. His research interest is in constructing full-stack quantum computing systems, including quantum error correction protocol design and evaluation, device-aware compilation, and system architecture design. Holmes also co-founded a non-profit organization which conducted gift drives to benefit children’s hospitals and book drives to benefit underprivileged elementary and high-schools in his hometown of the greater Sacramento area.
Haopeng Liu is a Ph.D. candidate at UChicago CS, advised by associate professor Shan Lu. In his research, he designs and builds program analysis tools that automatically discover and fix reliability and efficiency problems in cloud systems. Earlier this year, Liu received the William Rainey Harper Dissertation Fellowship, one of the highest UChicago honors for graduate students. Liu mentors high school and undergraduate students, participates in industry collaboration projects and technology transfers, and in his spare time, runs marathons.
Emma Nechamkin is a second-year student in MS-CAPP. As a data scientist, she has worked on a predictive model that assesses risk of police misconduct with the University of Chicago Crime Lab, analyzed patterns of loss and aggression in the social media of at-risk youth with Columbia University's SAFE Lab, and helped predict zoning code data from county building assessments with the Urban Institute. Before graduate school, Nechamkin taught high school chemistry in Chicago with Teach for America and worked as a healthcare consultant at Simon-Kucher and Partners.
Alena Stern is a second-year student in MS-CAPP. Stern has worked with the Sunlight Foundation, combining econometric analysis and natural language processing to assess how open data and freedom of information policies create transparent and responsive governance, and AidData, where she worked with eleven national governments to implement aid information management systems to improve the effectiveness of programs fighting global poverty. Stern co-leads the Civic Scopeathon to address technical challenges facing nonprofits on Chicago’s south side, as well as the Community Action Bureau, a Harris student organization that provides pro-bono consulting services.
Zihan Tan is a Ph.D. candidate at UChicago CS, advised by Julia Chuzhoy, Professor at Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, and co-advised by Professor László Babai, George and Elizabeth Yovovich Professor of Computer Science and Mathematics. His research interests include algorithms, combinatorial optimization and computational complexity. Tan has received several awards for his academic excellence and leadership activities, including the McCormick Fellowship, and was the captain of the Chinese U21 Bridge Card Team.
“Every year, the Siebel Scholars continue to astound me with their commitment to academics, research and influencing our collective future. This year’s class is exceptional, and once again represents the best and brightest from around the world,” said Thomas M. Siebel, Chairman of the Siebel Scholars Foundation, in a news release. “It is my great pleasure to welcome these men and women into this ever-growing, lifelong community, and I personally look forward to seeing their impact and contributions unfold.”
