On Class Day, the department celebrates the accomplishments of graduates

The Department of Computer Science honored its 216 graduating seniors in a Class Day ceremony on Monday, May 27, conferring honors and awards for outstanding academic achievement.

“Many congratulations to the outstanding Class of 2024! We’re so proud of everything you’ve accomplished here at Princeton, and we’re excited for you to go out and apply your talents in the wider world," said Szymon Rusinkiewicz, David M. Siegel ’83 Professor and chair of computer science. 

The department's top honor for academic excellence, the Phillip Goldman '86 Senior Prize in Computer Science, was awarded to Alex Zhang.

Liam Esparraguera won the Accenture Prize, which recognizes academic excellence in computer science through the end of junior year.

Of the 216 graduates, 156 earned a bachelor of engineering degree and 60 earned a bachelor of arts degree. Of all the graduates, 46 earned the University's academic honors; 48 more earned high honors; and 23 students earned highest honors.

151 of the graduates were inducted into an honor society: Sigma Xi, for distinguished scientific research or Tau Beta Pi, recognizing outstanding engineering achievements. 5 students won the Sigma Xi book award, in recognition of their outstanding research. 

The School of Engineering and Applied Science held a separate ceremony to recognize the graduating seniors. SEAS selected four computer science students for awards:

David Shustin received the Jeffrey O. Kephart '80 Prize in Engineering Physics, awarded to the outstanding student in the Engineering Physics program as determined by the Engineering Physics faculty.

Owen Travis received the Tau Beta Pi Prize, awarded to the graduate who has significantly contributed a major part of his or her time to service to the school. 

Yenet Tafesse received the Joseph Clifton Elgin Prize, awarded to a senior who has done the most to advance the interests of the school in the community at large.

Marina Mancoridis received the Calvin Dodd Maccracken Senior Thesis Award, for the senior thesis or project work that is most distinctive for its inventiveness and technical accomplishment.

The Great Class of 2024

Bachelor of Science in Engineering

*January 2024 Graduates 

Bachelor of Arts

Honors and Awards

Highest Honors

High Honors

Honors 

Phillip Goldman ’86 Senior Prize in Computer Science

Alex Zhang

Accenture Prize in Computer Science

Liam Esparraguera

Outstanding Computer Science Independent Work Prize

Evan Dogariu: "Meta-Optimization in Deep Learning via Nonstochastic Control"
Archibald McKenzie: "Histories.ai"
Michael Tang: "Retrieving by Finding Shortcuts in Representation Space"
Andrew Tao: "Parallel Sequences in Multicore OCaml
Evan Wang: "CompGPT: Probing the Compositional Understanding of Visual Language Models"

Outstanding Computer Science Senior Thesis Prize

Tanushree Banerjee: "Inverse Neural Rendering for Explainable 3D Perception”
  Vicky Feng: “An Accessibility-driven, Web-based Graphical User Interface for Deep Learning Tools in Cryo-EM Image Analysis”
  Marina Mancoridis: “Publish or Perish: Simulating How Researcher and Publisher Behaviors Impact Science”
  Christine Sun: “Language-Driven Video Editing Agents: Human-AI Creative Collaboration Dynamics Across Interface Modalities”
  Yenet Tafesse: “The Swarm Garden: Wearable Device Integration for Human-Swarm Collaborative Dance Improvisation”
  Alex Zhang: “Leveraging Language to Enhance Decision-making AI”

Sigma Xi Book Award

Ava Crnkovic-Rubsamen: “Retrieving Diverse Data with Large Language Models Using the Vendi Score”
Kira Fitzgerald: “From Child Speech to Computational Insights: Exploring the Syntax of Bilingual Language Acquisition”
  Quan Shi: “Towards Memory Augmented Code Agents”
Emmy Song: “braids.social: A User-Defined Tool for Rules-Based Feed Curation in Decentralized Social Media”
  Owen Travis: “Don’t Go There: Investigating the Move Locality of Human Go Players”

George A. Miller Prize in Cognitive Science

Ioana Marinescu: "Distilling Symbolic Priors for Concept Learning into Neural Networks"

Schwarzman Scholarship

Thomas Hughes

Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship

Victoria Graf

Henry Richardson Labouisse '26 Prize Fellowship

Ananya Grover

2024 Spirit of Princeton Award

Archika Dogra

Princeton Research Day: Outstanding Presentation Award

Yenet Tafesse

Princeton Research Day: FitzRandolph Gate Award

Tanushree Banerjee

Princeton Research Day: Innovation and Entrepreneurial Mindset Award

Nikhil Ajjarapu

Computing Research Association Award - Honorable Mention

Yenet Tafesse
Michael Tang

Outstanding Student Teaching Award

Sydney Berry
Jane Castleman
Dimitar Chakarov
Kira Fitzgerald
Victoria Graf
Theresa Lim
Archibald McKenzie
Lauren Okamoto
Dwaipayan Saha
Michael Scornavacca
Andrew Tao
Tri Giao Vu Dinh
Brett Zeligson

Computer Science Service Award

Evan Dogariu
Nada Elfazary
Vicky Feng
Elise Kratzer
Jimin Lee
Arti Schmidt
Michael Tang
Mohamed Amir Touil
Mary Tsahas
Harvey Wang
Jiatong Yu
Alex Zhang

Sigma Xi Membership

Tau Beta Pi