Deadline: Monday, April 28 by Midnight.
Students may apply or be nominated for the following awards:
Excellence in Research and Innovation Award: Demonstrated the ability to conduct original research at Lyle and evidence of scholarly contributions. This award recognizes individual(s) who have made significant contributions to advancing knowledge and understanding through their research projects, publications, patents, or innovative solutions to engineering and computer science challenges.
Teaching and Academic Leadership Award: (PhD and MS/MA students only) Demonstrated excellence in teaching effectiveness beyond normal expectation for a graduate student or demonstrated contributions and voluntary/ compensated initiatives to benefit Lyle School of Engineering and the SMU community, and/or demonstrated leadership and professional effectiveness in a manner that exceeds the normal expectation for a graduate student.
Community Engagement and Impact Award: Demonstrated excellence in active contributions to improving the lives of others through their involvement in community service projects, outreach initiatives, or leadership roles in student organizations. Awardee(s) exhibit a strong sense of social responsibility, empathy, and a desire to use their engineering skills to address real-world challenges and make a positive difference in society.
Engineering as Art Award: Open to all Lyle students to share visual images based on their scientific research. This should be a single visual image (e.g., image, photograph, illustration, informational graphics generated by computer programs). The student authors of the best arts will be announced during the event and will receive both certificate and a gift card.
Research Poster Award: Open to all Lyle students to share a title, pptx, and physical poster based on their scientific research. This should be a digital representation of your poster (via PowerPoint) and a 3×5 physical poster to present. The winner of the poster presentation will be announced during the event and will receive both certificate and a gift card.
Eligibility Criteria and submission guidelines
Excellence in Research and Innovation Award
- Eligibility
- To be a PhD, MS, MA or BS student in good standing at Lyle.
- Previous recipients of the same award are not eligible.
- Application Materials
- A summary of accomplishment related to the award’s type as well as all educational degrees and certificates received (maximum 2 pages)
- Research Advisor’s letter(s) of support (maximum 1 page per letter)
- Submission
- Complete package containing above documents, for each category, must be combined into ONE PDF file and emailed to Dr. Ali Beskok before midnight on Monday, April 28, 2025.
- Submit all materials here.
- Rubric
- See award rubric here.
Teaching and Academic Leadership Award
- Eligibility
- To be a PhD or MS student in good standing at Lyle.
- Have served as graduate assistant or graders for at least 2 semesters within the last 2 academic years.
- Previous recipients of the same award are not eligible.
- Application Materials
- A summary of accomplishment related to the award’s type as well as all educational degrees and certificates received (maximum 2 pages)
- Research Advisor’s letter(s) of support (maximum 1 page per letter)
- Submission
- Complete package containing above documents, for each category, must be combined into ONE PDF file and emailed to Dr. Ali Beskok before midnight on Monday April 28, 2025.
- Submit all materials here.
- Rubric
- See award rubric here.
Community Engagement and Impact Award
- Eligibility
- To be PhD, MS, MA or BS student in good standing at Lyle
- Demonstrated involvement in student organizations, service in the community, Lyle, and/or SMU.
- Previous recipients of the same award are not eligible.
- Application Materials
- A summary of accomplishment related to the award’s type as well as all educational degrees and certificates received (maximum 2 pages)
- Research Advisor’s letter(s) of support (maximum 1 page per letter)
- Submission
- Complete package containing above documents, for each category, must be combined into ONE PDF file and emailed to Dr. Ali Beskok before midnight on Wednesday April 23, 2025.
- Submit all materials here.
- Rubric
- See awards rubric here.
Engineering as Art Award
- Eligibility
- To be PhD, MS, MA or BS student in good standing at Lyle
- Previous recipients of the same award are not eligible.
- Application Materials
- Please submit a visual image. This could be any real photo, image, computer graphics or illustration. The image must be 1024×768 pixels.
- The visual art must not have any write-up, or annotations reference to the student’s name, their advisor, research group or even disciplines.
- The visual art should have a short running title (not to exceed 60 letters) and a description (not to exceed 100 words) with the student’s name and affiliation.
- Submission
- A final visual image (in JPEG, TIFF, or PPT) must be submitted before midnight on Monday April 28, 2025 to this folder.
- Both short running title and description must be included in the body of the email.
- Submit all materials here.
Research Poster Award
- Eligibility
- To be PhD, MS, MA or BS student in good standing at Lyle
- Previous recipients of the same award are not eligible.
- Application Materials
- Please submit the title of your research presentation as a word document and a digital pptx version of your poster here.
- If you are nominated, please bring the physical poster with you to the awards ceremony. The poster must be 3 feet horizontally x 5 feet vertically.
- Submission
- Please submit title and pptx by midnight on Monday, April 28, 2025 to this folder.
If students have any trouble submitting via the email to Box, they can email their submission directly to Dr. Ali Beskok with STUDENT AWARD SUBMISSION in the subject line, all caps.
Top finalists and their special guests will attend the awards luncheon where the winners will be announced.