Aug 14, 2009 - Claremont, Calif. -

Computer science major Xuexin (Alice) Zhu '10 was honored with an award and cash prize for her achievements in computing research at the Grand Finals of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Student Research Competition (SRC) on June 27 in San Diego, Calif.

In the undergraduate category, all three finalists presented their research at the 2008 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women and Computing. Entries—from colleges and universities in the U.S., Canada, Japan and India—were judged on the quality and significance of the work, as well as the quality and clarity of the oral and visual presentations of results. Zhu received first place for her research on diagram creation and editing for pen-based interfaces. Second place went to Neha Singh of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in India for her contributions to scaling artificial intelligence for use in computationally intensive games. The third place finisher was Sara Loos of Indiana University for her relabeling of Strassen’s matrix multiplication for computer programming.

Zhu received a total of $800, award plaques, a two-year complimentary ACM membership with a subscription to ACM’s Digital Library and an invitation to ACM's annual Awards Banquet.

Her award-winning research stems from work she is doing with Christine Alvarado, assistant professor of computer science, which critically analyzes different people's sketching styles under dissimilar conditions. The work could potentially impact how sketch recognition systems are built.

"I became interested in computers, and from there, computer science, because I love problem solving and games," said Zhu. "Once I started taking computer science courses, I realized that CS involves solving extremely interesting problems, and this is exactly what intrigues me. Furthermore, watching and playing computer games also developed my interest in programming and design. I hope that one day I can contribute to the development of a game that I also love to play."

Earlier this year, Zhu was named one of 20 recipients of the 2009 Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship, a $10,000 award.

ACM's Student Research Program is sponsored by Microsoft Research as a way to encourage students to pursue careers in computer science research. “Microsoft Research is delighted to sponsor the ACM’s Student Research Program,” said Tony Hey, Corporate Vice President for External Research at Microsoft. “We are committed to creating exciting opportunities for students, researchers and leaders of tomorrow, ultimately helping to ensure the future of scientific discovery and innovation.”

The competitions were held at 10 major ACM Special Interest Groups conferences within the last year. Each SRC featured research projects produced by an international array of graduate and undergraduate students in computer science. Nearly 200 students applied to participate in the SRC events this year. By offering the experience of a real-world conference to prepare and present research to the community, these competitions give students an opportunity to demonstrate success in problem-solving projects with early practice and preparation of their research.

For more information, see http://awards.acm.org/2009 and www.acm.org/src.