We started the "Dr. Gopal Gupta Undergraduate Scholarship for Computer Science established by ACM 2020" in honor of its namesake: Dr. Gopal Gupta served as the Computer Science (CS) department head at UT Dallas from 2009-2020.

What inspired the scholarship?

Our scholarship wasas inspired by the actions and leadership of Gopal Gupta (CS Dept Head 2009-2020). During this time, the department grew immensely and is now the 3rd largest CS department in the United States. In addition to fostering a culture of undergraduate academic excellence, Dr. Gupta placed a large importance on the role of student organizations within the department and the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science more broadly. One graded assignment for all incoming freshmen in CS is that they attend an event outside of class where they must talk to representatives from many CS student organizations. Furthermore, Dr. Gupta encouraged students to listen in on department meetings, provide feedback on programs within the department, and present goals and events to faculty members. Finally, Dr. Gupta initiated efforts to start HackUTD, a university hackathon, which has grown to be one of the largest in the U.S.