UTDallas CS Department Honors the Fall 2016 Graduating Class
Last December, family and friends came together at the University of Texas at Dallas campus to celebrate and honor the hard-earned accomplishments of the newest graduating class. Approximately 283 students earned degrees in computer science and software engineering this fall, including 107 bachelor’s students and 165 master’s students. The department also graduated 11 doctoral candidates. All together, the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science had 499 graduating candidates.
Overall, more than 2,400 UT Dallas students earned degrees this fall, including 1,221 bachelor’s students and 1,160 master’s students. Fifty doctoral candidates were also awarded degrees. UT Dallas has awarded nearly 110,000 degrees since the University’s inception in 1969. The recognition of the graduates began with the doctoral hooding ceremony. During this event, faculty members and students are dressed in traditional academic regalia, with family members and friends in attendance. One by one, each student’s adviser places the doctoral hood over the head of the graduate, signifying his or her successful completion of the doctoral program.
Each year as a UT Dallas tradition, students choose one of their group to serve as their commencement speaker. The fall 2016 computer science graduating class chose Trenae Johnson, who graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science. During her time at UT Dallas, Ms. Johnson interned with JPMorgan Chase and most recently, JCPenney, where she has accepted a full-time position. In her address, Ms. Johnson provided words of encouragement to her fellow graduating students as they moved on to the next phase in their lives. You can read her speech online by clicking here.
Following the commencement ceremonies, UT Dallas CS/SE graduates along with their family and friends were invited to celebrate their accomplishments at their last UT Dallas CS sponsored luncheon. During the luncheon both Dr. Gopal Gupta, UT Dallas CS department head, and Prof. Shyam Karrah, Director of Graduate Studies, spoke to the graduating class and their family members. “I want you to use your imagination to create even better software and even better systems. I want you to change this world. Be a leader and make us all proud! So once again, congratulations on all your hard work and we hope you stay connected with UT Dallas,” noted Dr. Gupta in his congratulatory speech.
At the end of every graduation luncheon Professor Shyam Karrah, director of graduate studies and Dr. Gopal Gupta distribute the awards for academic excellence. The following graduate students were recognized for their academic achievements (GPA of 3.95 or above): Pranjal Patni, Sharan Babu Paramasivam Murugesan, Pratyusha Reddy Velama, Neel Vijaybhai Parikh, Yaozhang Xu, Parveen Chhikara, Hao Guo, and Somdeb Sarkhel. The following undergraduate students were recognized for their academic achievements (GPA of 3.85 or above): Sean Harris, William Bush, Richard Fisher, Linh Ngoc Khanh Huynh, Nazeera Siddiqui, Brandon Lizana, Kyle Tillotson, and Tim Fiebrantz.
Click here to view photos from this year’s UT Dallas Computer Science Graduation Celebration Luncheon.
Click here to view UT Dallas’ Glimpse of Graduation Photo Album.
ABOUT THE UT DALLAS COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
The UT Dallas Computer Science program is one of the largest Computer Science departments in the United States with over 2,100 bachelor’s-degree students, more than 1,000 MS master’s students, 150 PhD students, and 86 faculty members, as of Fall 2016. With The University of Texas at Dallas’ unique history of starting as a graduate institution first, the CS Department is built on a legacy of valuing innovative research and providing advanced training for software engineers and computer scientists.