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CRA's Outstanding Undergraduate Awards Program recognizes undergraduate students in North American universities who show outstanding research potential in an area of computing research. A cash prize of Up to four CRA Undergraduate Researcher Awards will be made each year.  Each award recipient will receive financial assistance of up to $1,500 will be awarded to each of two undergraduate students for travel to a major conference. A small number of other outstanding candidates will be recognized as Runners-Up and Finaliststo attend a research conference of their choice.   In addition, some nominees will be designated as runners-up, finalists, and honorable mentions.  The award recipients, runners-up, finalists, and honorable mentions will be announced by e-mail in mid-December, will receive certificates of their awards, and will be recognized on CRA’s website..

Eligibility: Nominees must attend a university or college located in North America, be enrolled as an undergraduate for the entire 2021-2020 academic year (i.e. both semesters), and must be nominated by one faculty members and recommended by the chair of their home department. In the past, preference has been given to students in their senior year.

No more than four candidates can be recommended by the same department chair in the same year.

Applications

1. Your resume; list any publications. (2-page maximum length.) The resume should contain information on the nominee’s academic record and service, and it must indicate each research project in which the nominee has been involved.  For each such project, the resume should include specific information. See guidelines at the bottom of the first link.
2. Research Summary. (1-page maximum length) The research summary gives the nominee the opportunity to describe research project(s) in detail.  While the award committee comprises computer science professors, it’s likely that most of them will not have expertise in the specific field in which the nominee worked.  So, while one can use well-known concepts without defining them (e.g., names of data structures and terms like “NP-completeness”, “compiler”, or “k-means clustering”), one should imagine writing to a computer science professor who works in a different subdiscipline.
3. Personal Statement: (Not to exceed 300 words) should address interests and activities outside of research (e.g., club leadership, teaching, peer tutoring) and/or special circumstances or adversity that the student has confronted.
4. Unofficial transcripts. Unofficial transcripts can be obtained for free at: https://apps.uillinois.edu/selfservice/
5. Letters of support: One letter of recommendation (up to three pages long) from a faculty member (we recommend your faculty advisor).  The faculty recommender need not need to be from the same department or institution as the nominee.  The letter should explain the problem that the nominee worked on, its significance to the field and/or society, what was challenging about the work done, and – most importantly – the nominee’s contributions.  Be specific and precise, as it is critical for the awards committee to understand and evaluate the individual contributions of the nominee; if the project involved other people, it’s important that the nominee’s particular contributions to that project be described explicitly.   The letter may also address the nominee’s service (e.g., club leadership, teaching, peer tutoring) or other relevant factors. Letters can be submitted directly to Hannah at hpgorrie@illinois.edu.
   Note: Students, submit ONE PDF named "Last Name, First Name - 21-22 CRA Undergrad" (example: Gorrie, Hannah - 21 - 22 CRA Undergrad).  

Materials should be submitted by ____________ to Hannah Gorrie.

See:In addition to recognizing excellence in undergraduate research, CRA is committed to broadening the participation of individuals in traditionally underrepresented groups in computing fields.  CRA recognizes that students in different academic environments have different opportunities for research.  The selection committee will consider these factors in its evaluation; nominations can describe these factors in nominees’ personal statements or recommenders’ letters.  CRA strongly encourages departments to consider all aspects of diversity when selecting their nominees.

Departments that grant Ph.D.s in a computing field may nominate up to four students per year.

Apply via Blackbaud by Sunday, October 10, 2021 at 11:59 PM. If you are a new Blackbaud user, please consult this instructions page. Please contact Hannah Gorrie (hpgorrie@illinois.edu) with any questions.

For complete details, see: http://cra.org/crae/awards/cra-outstanding-undergraduate-researchers/
         http://www.cra.org/awards/undergrad-current/