Xinyi Zhou
Computer and information science Ph.D. candidate Xinyi Zhou was selected as the first recipient of the Pramod K. and Anju Varshney Endowed Graduate Scholarship. Zhou’s research covers machine learning, data (text and graph) mining, social media mining and social computing with an emphasis on unreliable information. Currently, she is working on methods to achieve automatic, effective and interpretable fake news detection and intervention by incorporating techniques in the areas aforementioned with fundamental theories in psychology, social science and political science.
“It is my honor to be awarded the Varshney Scholarship. I would like to appreciate Prof. Pramod and Mrs. Anju Varshney for providing their support to doctoral students in the department and fuel to the technological evolution,” said Zhou. “I would also like to humbly thank the college community members for their recognition. I am also grateful for my advisor, my collaborators and my family for all their contributions.”
The scholarship was established by Pramod and Anju Varshney, who’ve been members of the Syracuse University community ever since Pramod joined the college as an assistant professor in the seventies. Pramod is now a Distinguished Professor of electrical engineering and computer science, director of Syracuse University’s Center for Advanced Systems and Engineering and an adjunct professor of radiology at Upstate Medical University. He has spent his entire professional life as a faculty member at Syracuse University. In their 43 years in Central New York, the Varshneys’ devotion to students in the classroom, and in life, has produced a worldwide community of alumni with a strong affinity for their alma mater.
The scholarship is intended to promote research by supporting a student in the midst of completing a computer/information science and engineering or electrical and computer engineering doctoral program.
“These fields will continue to evolve very rapidly. Our scholarship provides fuel to this technological evolution. When I first came to Syracuse University in ’76, there were no personal computers. It was all mainframe. Then came laptops, smartphones, autonomous vehicles, sensors everywhere, the internet of things. That is all because of research in these fields,” said Pramod.
The Varshneys hope that they will be able to increase the scope of their scholarship through the additional support of alumni gifts. If you would like to contribute to the Pramod K. and Anju Varshney Endowed Graduate Scholarship Fund, please make a gift online today.
