The Computing Research Association (CRA) recently recognized three Queen’s students as part of its 2013 Outstanding Undergraduate Research Awards.

Mattea Welch (Cmp’13) received the runner-up prize for the Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award (female), while Eric Moult (Sc’13) was named to the shortlist of finalists and Gregory Allan (Cmp’13) received an honorable mention for the male award.

“Queen’s is thrilled to have three of our promising undergraduate researchers recognized by the CRA,” says Selim Akl, Professor and Director of Queen’s School of Computing. “Mattea, Eric and Gregory have worked very hard on their research and their success is well earned. Congratulations to each of them.”

Mattea Welch

Both Ms. Welch and Mr. Moult worked in Professor Gabor Fichtinger’s Laboratory for Percutaneous Surgery (Perk Lab), which develops technology to enable less invasive surgical techniques through the skin. Ms. Welch previously won the Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA) from the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and received an NSERC-CREATE scholarship to conduct summer research in relation to image-guided spinal needle intervention training. Unfortunately, she had to decline the scholarship as a USRA recipient. Mr. Moult will begin his doctoral studies this year in medical engineering and medical physics at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology.

Mr. Allan worked with Professor Randy Ellis, who applies computer technology and biomechanical engineering to improve surgical procedures. He is also the recipient of an NSERC-CREATE scholarship.

The CRA is an association of more than 200 computing-related academic departments across North America, aimed at advancing computing research and education. The competition for the 2013 Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Awards included entries from students across Canada and the United States.