CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Five students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have received the 2004 Siebel Scholars award for their outstanding work in the computer science graduate program.
Ellick Chan, Robin Dhamankar, Trevor Donarski, Julia Dragan-Chirila and Timothy Eriksson were honored based on academic merit and leadership excellence. Each received a $25,000 cash award to defray tuition costs and expenses for their second year of graduate study.
Chan is in the five-year bachelor’s/master’s program. His research interests include using ubiquitous computing in the form of mobile smart phones to aid in team collaboration and education.
Dhamankar earned a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from V.J. Technological Institute, affiliated with Mumbai University. Dhamankar is working with the databases and information systems research group at Illinois.
Dragan-Chirila earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Northern Illinois University with a minor in mathematics. Her master’s degree is focusing on software engineering.
Donarski is also in the computer science five-year bachelor’s/master’s program. His research is on operating systems.
Eriksson earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Illinois. His research interest is in real-time computing systems.
The award stems from the Siebel Scholars Program established at graduate schools of business or computer science at Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern, Stanford, University of California at Berkeley, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania and Illinois.
Siebel Systems Inc., an eBusiness application software provider, donated $2.6 million to each institution for the Siebel Scholars program. The investment proceeds of the endowment were designed to support the program indefinitely. Siebel Systems employees, including chairman Thomas M. Siebel, have assisted Siebel Scholars through providing mentoring services, job search assistance, and helping with business and public service initiatives.
