Professor Gini wins award for championing underrepresented members in computer science

Department of Computer Science and Engineering Professor Maria Gini has recently received the A. Nico Haberman Award. This award is given to a person who has made outstanding contributions toward increasing the numbers and/or successes of underrepresented members in the computing research community.

As a researcher and professor at the University of Minnesota, Professor Gini has helped increase the number of women and underrepresented minorities in the Department.  Additionally, she has gone above and beyond to ensure that CS&E is an inclusive environment for everyone. Gini is an advocate for the need of diversity in computing and has consistently recruited and retained students from underrepresented groups across the world to pursue a career in computing. When Professor Gini joined the University of Minnesota, she was the first female faculty member in the Department. Because of her efforts, this is no longer the case.

Throughout her years with CS&E, Gini has graduated 34 Ph.D. students, nearly one hundred Master's students, and mentored countless undergraduate researchers. Her efforts to encourage students and guide young difference-makers has resulted in hundreds of students choosing to pursue careers in research. Professor Gini’s research is in the area of intelligent agents, multi-agent systems, and robotics has been prolific and is highly respected in those fields. She has created and run a number of programs both for women and minority men in high school, regularly organizes and mentors robotics and AI students at conferences, and created and continues to run the Minnesota Regional Celebration of Women in Computing.

Please join the Department of Computer Science and Engineering in congratulating Professor Gini on this outstanding achievement. Her work in our department has not only been impactful for the areas we research, but for the people who research them.

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