Peter Bailis '11 wins Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award

Peter Bailis '11, a senior concentrating in computer science, has been named a 2011 Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher by the Computing Research Association (CRA). Linfeng Yang '11 also received an honorable mention.

This year's award is given to only three undergraduates in all of North America, for "outstanding research potential" in the field of computer science. As a first-prize winner, Bailis will receive a $1,000 cash prize, as well as a travel grant to attend a major computing research conference.

During his time at Harvard, Bailis has explored computational methods of reducing cooling requirements in large data centers. He also works on the NSF-funded Micro Air Vehicles Project at SEAS, helping to develop sophisticated models of colony behavior, as well as a distributed operating system, for a swarm of Robobees.

"Peter is one of those students who makes teaching here so rewarding," said Margo Seltzer, Herchel Smith Professor of Computer Science and a Harvard College Professor. "It's wonderful to see that those outside Harvard recognize his talents and accomplishments."

Yang, a senior concentrating in computer science with a secondary field in economics, was also recognized by the CRA for his "exemplary" research.

His work at Harvard has explored the existence of the phenomenon referred to as "six degrees of separation"—not only among people, but among all proper nouns. In collaboration with another Harvard student, he implemented an application that identifies meaningful connecting paths between pairs of terms.

"We think this can be used to discover hidden relationships between pieces of human knowledge, and to make suggestions for relevant topics—for example, in search engines," Yang said.

For more information about the Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award, visit the CRA website.