EECS alumni Gene Luen Yang (CS B.A. '95) has been selected as the new national ambassador for Young People’s Literature. This literary ambassador program was created in 2008 “to raise national awareness of the importance of young people’s literature as it relates to literacy, education and the betterment of the lives of young people”. After graduating UC Berkeley in 1995, Yang went to work as a computer engineer for two years but came to the realization he was meant to teach. He left his job as an engineer to teach computer science at a high school. During this time he also wrote stories and began self-publishing comic books and in 2006 began winning awards and gaining notoriety for his graphic novels.

The Level Playing Field Institute (LPFI) honored Teaching Prof. Dan Garcia as a Tech Diversity Champion at their Annual Fairness Matters Forum 2015 held at Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco. LPFI is committed to eliminating the barriers faced by underrepresented people of color in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and fostering their untapped talent for the advancement of our nation. This event focused on the progress toward diversifying tech and celebrated those who are working to create a more inclusive tech ecosystem.

EECS alumni Michael George Luby (CS Ph.D. ’83), VP of Technology at Qualcomm is among the class of 2015 ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) Fellows. In 1996-1997, while at ICSI (International Computer Science Institute) he led the team that invented Tornado codes. He is recognized for his contributions to coding theory, cryptography, parallel algorithms and derandomization.

EECS alumni Jeffrey Forbes (Ph.D. ’00, advisor Prof. Stuart Russell) has been named Chair of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Education Policy Committee. Created in 2007, the ACM Education Policy Committee is a high-level committee of acclaimed computer scientists and educators dedicated to improving opportunities for quality education in computer science and computing education around the world. Prof. Forbes is an Associate Dean of the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences at Duke University and has served as Program Director for the Education and Workforce program in the National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering.

EECS Prof. Emeritus and alumni (Ph.D. ’69) Charles Shank is one of two scientists to receive the Enrico Fermi Award, one of the federal government’s oldest and most prestigious awards for scientific achievement. He was also director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from 1989-2004. Prof. Shank is recognized for “the seminal development of ultrafast lasers and their application in many areas of scientific research, for visionary leadership of national scientific and engineering research communities, and for exemplary service supporting the National Laboratory complex.”

An article featured in Bloomberg Business titled “Five of the Best Computer Science Classes in the U.S” has named EECS CS 61A in the top 5. The number of college graduates who got degrees in computer science in 2011 was 2,000% higher than it was in 1970 according to the U.S. Dept. of Education. This course is taught by Asst. Teaching Prof. John De Nero. A notable alumni of this program is Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, ’86.

EECS alumni Matei Zaharia (advisor Profs. Scott Shenker & Ion Stoica) and John Duchi (advisor Prof. Michael Jordan) have won ACM (Assoc. for Computing Machinery) dissertation awards. Matei won the 2014 ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award for his thesis “An Architecture for Fast and General Data Processing on Large Clusters”, and fellow AMPLab alum John Duchi won Honorable Mention for his thesis “Multiple Optimality Guarantees in Statistical Learning”. Matei and John are now faculty members at MIT and Stanford, respectively.

Tiffany Reardon,  Associate Director of EECS Diversity and Achievement,  has been selected to receive the 2015 Chancellor's Outstanding Staff Award. This is the highest honor bestowed upon staff by the Chancellor, in recognition of individuals and teams who, in addition to performing all their normal job duties with excellence, also demonstrate exceptional initiative in contributing to the UC Berkeley campus community. Tiffany has worked collaboratively across EECS to foster an inclusive and supportive community for students and staff, and has been a major factor in our successful efforts to increase student diversity in our undergraduate and graduate programs.

Dr. Sheila Humphreys, EECS Director Emerita of Diversity, has been named recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM). This award recognizes outstanding efforts of mentors in encouraging the next generation of innovators and developing a science and engineering workforce that reflects the diverse talent of America. Sheila is being recognized for her work which "improved the recruitment, retention and success of underrepresented groups in UC Berkeley's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences" and will receive her award at a White House ceremony later this year. One of Sheila's former mentees, EECS alumnus Gary May (now Dean of the College of Engineering at GeorgiaTech) also has been named among the individuals who are receiving this award, for increasing the participation of minorities in science and engineering.

Two EECS alumni have been chosen to receive distinguished alumni awards by the Cal Alumni Association (CAA). Steve Wozniak, (B.S. EE, ‘86) has been named 2015 Alumnus of the Year. He helped shape the computing industry with the design of Apple’s first line of products, co-founding Apple Computer Inc. with Steve Jobs. In 1987, Wozniak founded a new venture, CL 9, which developed and brought to market the first programmable universal remote control, and in 2001, he started Wheels of Zeus (WoZ) to create wireless GPS technology. A Builder of Berkeley, Wozniak has contributed in excess of $1 million to the University over the past 25 years, making a significant investment in technology and innovation at UC Berkeley.

Yoky Matsuoka, (B.S. EECS ‘93) has been honored for Excellence in Achievement. After receiving her Ph.D. from MIT in EECS, she became a professor at Carnegie Mellon and later the University of Washington. In 2009 she joined Google [x] as one of 3 founding members, then accepted a position at Nest as V.P. of technology. Currently Yoky is V.P. of Technology and Analytics at Twitter.