Senior computer science major
wins honors at home & abroad

The U.S.-Ireland Alliance has awarded UD senior Matthew Huenerfauth, a 2001 Mitchell Scholarship to study and conduct research at the University College of Dublin (UCD) for a year, starting in October. The prestigious Mitchell scholarship was followed by his being named to USA Today's All-USA College Academic First Team.

As one of 20 students across the nation to be selected for USA Today's college first team, Huenerfauth received a $2,500 award, a trophy and the opportunity to participate in a virtual roundtable discussion with other members of the first team. Photos and biographies of each of the first team winners appeared in USA Today Feb. 15 and an edited version of the roundtable discussion ran Feb. 21.

In addition to these honors, he was offered a three-year British Marshall Scholarship that he declined in order to accept the Mitchell award.

Graduating in May with bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science, Huenerfauth has focused his academic career on natural language processing and artificial intelligence. His 4.0 grade point average ranks him at the top of the 2001 graduating class of 4,569 students.

The Mitchell scholarship program, now in its second year, is a direct result of the U.S. role in securing a peace accord between the British government and the Republic of Ireland.

Huenerfauth said he accepted the Mitchell award because it's a one-year program with a generous "living" stipend coupled with a separate travel allowance that will enable him to see Europe while he studies at UCD, the "MIT of Ireland." He didn't want to wait three years to begin his doctoral studies in the U.S. and has already started applying to schools here.

But, Huenerfauth has a more personal reason for accepting the Mitchell. "I'm one-quarter Irish, and my uncle's wife, Ann, grew up in Ireland. She's told me all about it, and I have a list of people to visit while I'm there," he said. His family ties have made him more aware of the problems between Northern Ireland and the rest of the country. "I'd like to see peace over there," he said. The Mitchell Scholarship program was created for that purpose.

The US-Ireland Alliance was formed in 1998 to help cement and enhance relations among the U.S., Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in order to reinforce the peace process. The scholarships are named in honor of former U.S. Sen. George J. Mitchell, who chaired the peace negotiations in Northern Ireland after he retired from the Senate in 1995. In 1998, under Mitchell's leadership, the governments of England and Ireland reached an historic accord, ending decades of conflict. Mitchell's work bringing about the peace accord earned him worldwide praise and a Nobel Peace Prize nomination.

Mitchell scholars receive a $11,000 stipend, tuition and board, an allotment for travel within Ireland, England and the rest of Europe and the opportunity to study or conduct research at institutions of higher learning with an emphasis on the seven universities in the Republic of Ireland and the two in Northern Ireland. Since the goal of the Mitchell Scholarship is to interest the next generation of American leaders in Ireland, students are encouraged to take part in social activities offered to them by members and friends of the US-Ireland Alliance, something that especially interested Huenerfauth.

"We'll be socializing with members of the British and Irish governments, and each time they interact with someone from the U.S. it will reinforce our role in the peace process," he said. Huenerfauth said students have been offered a trip to Belfast and he intends to go.

The Mitchell Scholarship is offered to students who have shown "a record of intellectual distinction, leadership and extracurricular activity, along with the personal characteristics of honesty, integrity, fairness and unselfish service to others," all characteristics that Huenerfauth's professors said they see in him.

He was valedictorian when he graduated from Devon Preparatory School in Pennsylvania, scored 1,600 on his SATs and won National Merit and National Advanced Placement Scholarships.

An honors student at UD, Huenerfauth received a Eugene duPont Memorial Distinguished Scholarship, providing him with full tuition, room, board, fees and books. His honors at UD have included being named an Alison Scholar, the computer and information sciences department's outstanding sophomore for 1999 and outstanding junior for 2000, the Alumni Book Award from the College of Arts and Science, and a first-year honors certificate. This academic year, he won honorable mention in national competition for the Computing Research Association's 2001 Outstanding Undergraduate Awards competition.

In 1999, he acted as teaching assistant and research coordinator for the Pennsylvania Governor's School of Excellence for the Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. He's also designed and acts as webmaster for the UD Honors [http://www.udel.edu/ honors/] and Pathways [http:// www.udel. edu/pathways/] Programs' web sites.

Sandra Carberry, computer and information sciences, who has been Huenerfauth's adviser since his freshman year, said, "Matt has been outstanding in his quest for academic enrichment." She describes him as "a brilliant student" who "unlike many students with outstanding academic credentials... can relate well to all students and is very sensitive to individual concerns."

Carberry said he has never been satisfied just with outstanding performance in the classroom but has "sought other opportunities to increase his knowledge and abilities."

One way he did that was to work as a program manager intern for the Microsoft Corp. in its natural language group during the summer of 2000. He performed research and prepared specifications for new Microsoft software that uses natural language technology.

Carberry also cited the impressive work Huenerfauth has done as Kathleen McCoy's teaching aide and assistant in UD's Artificial Intelligence/ Natural Language Processing Laboratory and the countless number of hours he's spent on activities that combine helping others with learning more about his discipline.

McCoy, computer and information sciences, whose research focuses on natural language generation or making computers talk, can't say enough good things about her student.

She has nothing but praise for the work he's done on a project called ICICLE, (interactive computer identification and correction of language errors). It's a program designed for the deaf who speak in American Sign Language (ASL). ICICLE is a grammar checker and tutorial that would help the deaf learn how to translate ASL to correct English.

As a junior, Huenerfauth helped McCoy teach an honors introductory computer science course, and even though TAs are usually graduate students, she said he was exceptional in the way he interacted with her students and the leadership role he took in organizing student labs.

McCoy said she believes Huenerfauth is a gifted leader able to find, on his own, the information needed to get from one point to another in his research and in life. She said he took a leadership role in the research lab because he understood how to integrate the separate parts of ICICLE to understand the total system.

McCoy ended her letter of recommendation, "I expect that his contributions have only begun."

Huenerfauth said, he would like to program computers so that "they speak our language instead of us having to speak theirs."

In addition to his academic achievements, Huenerfauth chairs the Senior Fellow Program, has been the UD representative to the National Association of Campus Activities, regional and national conferences treasurer of the UD chapter of Omicron Delta Kappa, competed in the Association for Computing Machinery's programming competition team and was a Spirit Ambassador. He also sings and acts and helped found the a capella group Vocal Point. In addition to a full course load in his senior year, he's begun learning Gaelic so that when he meets his relatives in Ireland, he won't mispronounce their names.

"I want to try everything along the way," Huenerfauth said.

–Barbara Garrison