Posted on April 10, 2026 by Anastasia Cisneros-Lunsford
College of AI, Cyber and Computing faculty, staff and students earn top honors during Graduate Student Appreciation Week for their impact on graduate education and student success.
Recognized for excellence in graduate education and support, several faculty and students from the College of AI, Cyber and Computing have received Graduate School Excellence Awards as part of Graduate Student Appreciation Week.
The Graduate School recognized seven students, faculty and staff from the college, each receiving a $2,000 honorarium and a citation presented during Graduate Student Appreciation Week.
Recipients were nominated by current or former graduate students, graduate advisors, other graduate faculty, and department chairs. A faculty panel from each college then evaluated the nominations using several criteria that highlighted how each nominee has positively impacted graduate students and the overall graduate program.
Recipients included:
Outstanding Dissertation Award
Xingmeng “Stella” Zhao, PhD in Information Technology, Class of 2025, "Responsible AI for Healthcare and Community Well-being From Ethical Design to Practical Deployment"
Outstanding Graduate Advisor of Record Award – Master's Award
Hongyi Zhu, PhD, Assistant Professor, Information Systems and Cybersecurity, and Graduate Advisor of Record for Information Technology MS
Outstanding Graduate Advisor of Record Award – PhD Award
Dakai Zhu, PhD, Assistant Department Chair and Professor, Computer Science
Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award
Min Wang, PhD, Department Chair and Professor, Statistics and Data Science
Xiaoyin Wang, PhD, Professor, Computer Science, and Graduate Advisor of Record for Computer Science MS
Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award
Ðorđe Klisura, a PhD candidate in Information Technology
Outstanding Graduate Program Coordinator/Support Staff Award
Erica Powell, Assistant Dean for Fiscal Administration
In addition to the award recipients, Erfan Nourbakhsh, a PhD student in Computer Science, received the Outstanding and Innovative Research Award (People's Choice) for his research poster at the symposium.
— Anastasia Cisneros-Lunsford
