October 16, 2024
By Patricia Waldron
All students in the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science have ambitious dreams for their future, but some of those dreams take a little extra help to come true. That's where the Dream Grants program comes in.
Each semester, students from across the college can receive up to $1,000 to advance their dream, whether they want to develop an app, found a startup, present their research at a conference – or something entirely new.
Established by alumni Parag Tole, M.S. ’01, Ph.D. ‘03, and Adam Kravetz ’02, the Dream Grant fund is designed to "help students walk their own paths." Students can apply each semester through the Cornell Bowers CIS Student Services office, with the next application window opening in Spring 2024.
A dozen students received Dream Grants during the 2023-2024 season, including those listed below:
Getting scrappy with green tech
Elizabeth Moon '25, a senior majoring in information science and member of the Cornell GreenClub, had a dream to use technology to drive sustainability and combat climate change. With support from a Dream Grant, and in partnership with the Ithaca City Council, she led a team that developed a device to monitor food waste in restaurants.
The device, called Glimpse, attaches to the bottom of waste bins and uses Internet of Things (IoT) technology to wirelessly transmit data on the weight of discarded food. Restaurant staff then see their food waste over time on an online platform, which can help them make better choices that save money and prevent waste.
Moon and her team presented a prototype of Glimpse at the Bits On Our Mind (BOOM) technology showcase in the spring, where they presented their work and received outside input.
In future iterations, Moon plans to incorporate data on restaurant sales and foot traffic into the platform, so restaurants can better plan their purchases and meal preparation. The platform could also offer information on local composting options and even work with food delivery apps to give discounts on meals with ingredients that will soon go bad.
Next, they hope to put Glimpse to work in actual restaurants.
“Our ultimate goal is to actually pilot our device within Collegetown or local Ithaca restaurants," Moon said. "I really like that [we'll] be able to see a tangible impact of [our] work on [our] direct community."
Safe and sound: Wearable tech that uses acoustic signals
When Vipin Gunda '25, a senior majoring in computer science and math, applied for a Dream Grant, he already had a major achievement under his belt, he just needed funding to share it. He had collaborated with the Smart Computer Interfaces for Future Interactions (SciFi) Lab to develop a new piece of wearable tech. Their wristband device uses sound signals to detect a person's hand positions and has applications for improving accessibility.
"For people who can't use traditional forms of input, such as a keyboard or mouse, they can use this device as a way to interface with a computer," Gunda said.
Through support from a Dream Grant, Gunda attended the Undergraduate Research Technology Conference at MIT Oct. 11-13, where he presented a poster on his work.
Gunda also presented two other research projects at the conference, including one on network dynamics when multiple entities compete to spread the most influence across the network, which received a Top 5 Paper Award and a Best Paper Honorable Mention out of 154 papers.
“I think for a lot of students, the opportunity to attend a conference, especially as an undergrad, and be able to pay for conference fees is sort of a big hurdle,” Gunda said. "These opportunities are not necessarily afforded at other colleges… and also really expands who can get involved at Bowers."
The entire experience has shaped his career goals, Gunda said. He plans to attend graduate school and to pursue research, either in industry or academia.
Programming in Kazakhstan
The Dream Grant program also helped one team of students take advantage of an unusual opportunity: competing at the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) World Finals in Astana, Kazakhstan.
The team, including Yi Xu, a second-year doctoral student in the field of computer science, Omkar Bhalerao '23, M.Eng. '24, and Tenghao Li '23, M.Eng. '24, with coach Haobin Ni, Ph.D. '24, placed first at the ICPC Greater New York Regional Contest, held October 29, 2023 at Columbia University. They went on to compete at the North American Championship on May 26 in Orlando, where they placed 16th out of 50 teams. Their performance earned them a place at the World Finals along with their new coach, Stephanie Ma ‘24, a masters student in the field of computer science.
At the contests, teams of three work together using only pencils, paper, and a single computer to solve a series of tricky math and coding problems, competing to solve more problems than other teams and in less time.
This was the first time since 2020 that a Cornell team had qualified for the World Finals, and they were able to travel to Kazakhstan through support from the Dream Grant program and the Dean's Office. While they didn't place in the competition, the contestants enjoyed finding solutions to challenging problems and meeting people from all over the world.
“Most of the participants enjoy the competition, so they are here not for money, or for job chances, but because they think this competition is interesting," Xu said.
Likewise, all of the Dream Grant winners are motivated not just by their goals but by the experience of attaining them.
Perhaps Ma summed it up best: “The thing that attracts us is the challenge itself.”
Patricia Waldron is a writer for the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science.