Outstanding Thesis and Dissertation Award Winners
grad award
Two former computer science students, Anushman Misra and Jaykumar Kakkad, received the 2024 UIC Outstanding Thesis and Dissertation Awards from the Graduate College.
The awards are presented to former students who earned their doctoral or master’s degrees during the previous academic year. Each graduate program can nominate one or two master’s thesis and dissertations for consideration; based on the size of the program.
This year, only five awards were given:: Kakkad received the only outstanding thesis award, and Misra was one of four outstanding dissertations across the university.
Misra earned his degree in the summer of 2024 and was advised by Professor Ajay Kshemkalyani. Misra’s dissertation,Team Decision Theory of Switched Static and Dynamic Systems, considers the decentralized control of switched linear systems with parameter dependent cost and system matrices. This fall, he joined Purdue University as an assistant professor.
Kakkad was advised by Assistant Professor Sourav Medya. In addition to his MS from UIC’s computer science department, he holds a Master’s in analytics from Georgia Tech, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst, and has over a decade of experience in the investment industry. After earning his degree last spring, Kakkad joined Fiserv as a java developer.