BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Seven individuals were recognized for career and lifetime achievements at the School of Informatics and Computing Alumni Awards Dinner on Thursday, April 3 at the Skyline Club in Indianapolis.
Those who were honored include:
- Torsten Hoefler, Assistant Professor at ETH Zurich
- Sandosh Vasudevan, Software engineer at Etsy, Inc.
- Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder.com
- Debora ‘Ralf’ Shaw, former Dean of the School of Library and Information Science and Chair of IU Department of Information and Library Science
- Pete Beckman, Director, Exascale Technology and Computing Institute
- Julie Meek, Clinical Associate Professor at Indiana University
- Denny Sponsel, President of RJE Knoll Business Interiors
The event honored those who have contributed to the School of Informatics and Computing as a whole, including both the Bloomington and IUPUI campuses.
Here is more about those being recognized:
Young Alumni Award
Recognizing outstanding early career achievement
Torsten Hoefler
Torsten Hoefler´08 Ph.D., computer science, is receiving recognition from his peers as an outstanding academic researcher.
His honors, particularly this year’s Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Young Achievers in Scalable Computing and the 2012 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics/SIAG Supercomputing junior scientist prize, are among the highest and most respected in his field.
He now is assistant professor at ETH Zurich, consistently one of the highest-ranked universities outside of the U.S. and U.K., and among whose alumni is Albert Einstein.
Sandosh Vasudevan
Sandosh Vasudevan, a 2008 recipient of a master’s degree in Human Computer Interaction at IUPUI, is currently a software engineer at Etsy, Inc. In his position, he implements user interfaces and experiences of its iOS apps. Prior to joining Etsy, he worked at Formspring for three years where he was instrumental in launching two iOS apps.
His entrepreneurial stpirit showed early: as a student at IUPUI, he co-founded a software development company in Indianapolis, developing an app to manage and track hourly employees. As an intern at Yahoo!, he received recognition for developing a movie widget on movies.yahoo.com that is still in use.
Distinguished Service Award
Celebrating a non-alumna/alumnus for their outstanding service to the School and University
Matt Ferguson
Matt Ferguson came by his dedication to excellence and innovation quite naturally, having grown up within the influence of Bloomington entrepreneur and visionary Bill Cook.
His perceptive views on economic trends make him a sought-after commentator on such shows as CNN Money, Bloomberg TV, and the Today Show. His accomplishments have earned him recognition as, among others, Crain’s Chicago Business “40 Under 40.”
Matt generously extends his entrepreneurial vision to the School. He was a key leader in establishing the Building Entrepreneurs in Software Technology (BEST) competition, the world’s largest for students at a single university. Encouraging collaboration, BEST nurtures the brightest IT companies to life with the resources, both financial and experiential, to succeed.
Debora “Ralf” Shaw
As catalogs gave way to databases and books and documents to the cloud, Debora ‘Ralf’ Shaw (Ph.D. ’83) has helped navigate the journey in the School of Library and Information Science, now the Department of Information and Library Science in SoIC. As both a beloved professor working with students and conscientious administrator serving a long-term vision, Dr. Shaw has given outstanding service to SLIS, to SOIC, and to Indiana University since 1988.
While teaching, she took on increasing School responsibilities, serving as associate dean, interim dean, and, finally, becoming dean in 2011. In this latter role, she helped shepherd the momentous merger of SLIS with SoIC in 2013. By keeping true to her dedication to students, alumni, and the field of library and information science, Dr. Shaw helped make the case for the mutual strengthening of these two successful schools.
Career Achievement Award
Recognizing those whose career encompasses outstanding innovation and contributions on the national stage
Pete Beckman
Since completing his Ph.D. at IU in 1993, Pete Beckman has focused his attention on building software and architectures for large-scale parallel and distributed computing systems. From the basement of Lindley Hall in Bloomington to Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico and back to the Midwest at the Argonne National Laboratory, Pete has been at the forefront of research and engineering. While at Los Alamos he founded a lab responsible for the world’s first dynamic provisioning system for cloud computing and high performance computing (HPC) clusters.
He is now director of the Exascale Technology and Computing Institute and a senior fellow at the University of Chicago Computation Institute. He has also been director of engineering and chief architect for TeraGrid, where he was responsible for creating the most powerful Grid computing system linking production HPC computing centers for the National Science Foundation. As Director of the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, he oversaw deployment of the world’s fastest open science supercomputer at the time. Most recently, he co-founded the International Exascale Software Project.
Dean’s Award
Recognizing those who have given exceptional philanthropic leadership and service
Together they chaired the IUPUI IMPACT Campaign. Between 2011 and 2013 raised a record number of gifts and dollars for the School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI, in its first significant fundraising campaign.
Julie Meek, Ph.D.´93, R.N., whose professional experience ranges from start-up founder to clinical professor, joined the School’s Dean’s Advisory Council in 2008. When invited to co-chair the Impact Campaign in 2011 she didn’t hesitate to say yes. Julie is a successful businesswoman and tireless worker with a contagious cheerful outlook. With these qualities, she has opened doors and built strong support for SoIC throughout the Indianapolis community.
Citing generosity as a key to building a strong community, Denny Sponsel, president of RJE Knoll Business Interiors in Indianapolis, would appear to devote as much time to serving his community as he does his business. He joined the Dean’s Advisory Council in 2007, the same year he co-chaired a successful community United Way campaign. He believes that philanthropy allows one to grow, and he successfully promoted the importance of SoIC’s position in the community, that of providing education to fuel the State’s economy, to a successful end for the Impact Campaign.
Together Julie and Denny raised the profile of the School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI in the Indianapolis community, forging lasting important relationships and cultivating a culture of success.