Fengyuan Xu received the 2013-14 Distinguished Dissertation Award
Dr. Fengyuan Xu received the 2013-14 Distinguished Dissertation Award in the Natural and Computational Sciences for his dissertation, Improving Energy Efficiency and Security for Pervasive Computing Systems, under the direction of Professor Qun Li. Each May as part of the commencement ceremonies, the award is given to a single Ph.D. student in the College of Arts & Sciences at the College of William & Mary for their exemplary achievement in graduate student research as demonstrated by the content of their dissertation.
In addition to his dissertation, Fengyuan has fifteen papers in his areas of research interest which include energy efficiency for smartphone systems, security & privacy for sensor networks and implantable devices, wireless access point association, vehicular networks, and social networks. While at William & Mary, Fengyuan was the recipient of an Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Mentoring (2011), and Star of Tomorrow Award from Microsoft Research Asia (2012) for his internship there. Upon graduation, Fengyuan joined NEC Labs America, Inc. in Princeton, New Jersey as a Researcher.
The College's Distinguished Thesis & Dissertation Awards were established by the Arts & Sciences Graduate Studies Advisory Board to recognize exemplary achievement in graduate student research. To receive a Distinguished Dissertation Award, a doctoral student's dissertation must be based on original research and contribute significantly to the discipline. Individuals must be nominated by their dissertation advisor in their respective department/program. A panel of scholars then judges the merit of the work. Each May, one award is given in the Natural and Computational Sciences (Applied Science, Computer Science, and Physics). The award carries a prize of $1000.
Fengyuan is the sixth Computer Science doctoral student (Gethers, 2012-1013; Wu, 2011-12; Gianvecchio, 2009-10; Chernikov, 2007-08; McCombs 2006-07) to receive the A&S Distinguished Dissertation Award in the Natural and Computational Sciences since its establishment in 2004-2005.
