BUCS celebrated the Class of 2024 at the annual Computer Science Convocation ceremony.
Last Friday marked a momentous occasion for Boston University Computer Science, as over 600 Bachelor's and Master's candidates – the department's largest ever graduating class –graduated from the CS department. Over 350 walked across the stage, donning their caps and gowns, ready to receive their diploma in-person!
This Spring over 600 B.A. and M.S. degree candidates graduated from CAS Computer Science. Of these graduates, over 350 students joined the CS faculty and staff for the 2024 departmental convocation ceremony, last Friday. These individuals have been equipped with the skills and expertise to tackle the complex challenges of our rapidly evolving world. From artificial intelligence to cybersecurity, from software engineering to data science, they are poised to make meaningful contributions to society and drive innovation forward.
At 9 am sharp on May 17, 2024, the Computer Science faculty and degree candidates began their procession into the BU Track and Tennis Center for the 2024 CAS Computer Science Convocation ceremony. Once everyone was seated, Computer Science Department Chair Abraham Matta took to the podium to welcome the graduates and their loved ones to the special occasion.
Professor Matta then went on to present the annual department awards. The department recognized Anming Gu as the recipient of the 2024 College Prize in Computer Science; Mohammed Aldahmani, Yuchen Lu, Jonas Raedler, and Katherine Rimey as the recipients of the 2024 Department Prize for Academic Excellence; and Karim Mattar, Ph.D., as the 2024 recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus in Computer Science.
College Prize recipient Anming Gu then addressed his classmates as this year’s student speaker. Anming began by congratulating his fellow graduates and went on to reflect on his time at BU. He recalled that he and many other undergraduate students in the Class of 2024 began their university experience amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and expressed his pride that he and his peers were able to navigate the post-pandemic academic world together. He closed with a charge to use these experiences to take on the working world.
"These skills will carry over to whatever you do in the future. So the advice I give to graduates today is to never stop learning and pursue your interests: whether that be research, javascript/typescript web development, efficient C++, or computer graphics."
Karim Mattar, the 2024 Distinguished Alumnus in Computer Science recipient, then took the podium to give his remarks, which centered around his own experiences since graduating from Boston University with his PhD in 2010. Dr. Mattar reflected on the past fourteen years, shared the story of how he came to work at Uber, and encouraged the graduating class of 2024 to take chances. He also inplored them to be mindful of all life has to offer and to balance personal and professional growth along the way.
"Remember. It is a marathon. Not a sprint. If you want to continue working on problems that you are passionate about, you will want to pace yourself and have a long-term outlook. Finding that balance can sometimes be a challenge. It is important that you always think about that, at every stage in your career."
He closed by to impress upon the graduates that kindness and humility are valuable parts of one’s character and predicted that their journeys to come will reinforce that message.
At the conclusion of the speeches, Professor Matta resumed the podium to begin the reading of names and presentation of diplomas. Professor Matta invited Professor Andrew Wood to read the names of the degree candidates for the M.S. in Computer Science, M.S. in Computer Science with a Data-centric concentration, M.S. in Computer Science with a Cyber-security concentration, the M.S. in Artificial Intelligence, and Joint B.A./M.S. in Computer Science Programs.
Following the presentation of diplomas to Master’s candidates, Professor Matta called Professor Wayne Snyder to the podium to read the names of the degree candidates for the B.A. in Computer Science, the B.A. in Computer Science and Economics, the B.A. in Mathematics and Computer Science, the B.A. in Statistics and Computer Science, the B.A. in Linguistics and Computer Science, and the B.A. in Physics and Computer Science. Once all the graduates had crossed the stage, Professor Wayne Snyder asked all the degree candidates to rise, look for their friends and families in the stands, and thank them for their support throughout their degree.
To close out the ceremony, Professor George Kollios took a moment to recognize Department Chair Professor Abraham Matta and presented him with an award of Distinguished Service for his tenure as chair, which will conclude in July. Professor Matta thanked the department and the students for their hard work, and then led the recession of students and faculty to the reception.
The Department of Computer Science thanks Derek Briand, Mary Dangora, Chelsea Houlihan, Mary Dangora, Giovanna Karlovic, George Kokkinogenis, Mairead Leahy, Natasha Patel, Arthur Peterson Alice Rugoletti, Juliana Walsh, Tiffany Wu, Giovanna Karlovic, George Kokkinogenis for all their hard work for this special event.
Video recordings of the speeches from Anming Gu and Dr. Karim Mattar are available below.
2024 Computer Science Convocation Student Speech by Anming Gu
2024 Computer Science Convocation Alumni Speech by Dr Karim Mattar