Special Announcements

PRA Travel Award Application

James Dods — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 15:29:06 +0000

PRA Travel Award Application James Dods Mon, 08/31/2026 - 09:29

To encourage ICS Professional Research Assistant (PRA) participation in interdisciplinary study and research, the Institute provides funds to attend and present at interdisciplinary conferences. The award is administered by a student committee.

PRAs in any ICS department or lab may apply for funds. Travel funds may be applied for whether the PRA is presenting at or simply attending an interdisciplinary conference.

If you have questions that have not been answered below, please email us at icsStudentAwards@colorado.edu

Eligibility for Travel Awards

The PRA should be currently employed at at least .50 FTE in an ICS lab.
The PRA should explore all other possible sources for funding that might be available from their lab/PI and/or research grants BEFORE approaching the ICS awards committee.
The PRA should apply for funds BEFORE the conference.
- An exception can be made if the PRA found out about or decided to attend a conference after the previous funding deadline but before the next funding cycle, or if there are other extenuating timing issues. Such requests for an exception must be explained in the application.
Conferences must be interdisciplinary in nature.

Examples of conferences counted as interdisciplinary:

Cognitive Science Society Conference
Human-Computer interaction Conference
Artificial Intelligence Conference
American Educational Research Association
Computer Support for Collaborative Learning
ACL: The Association for Computational Linguistics Conference
Coling: International Committee on Computational Linguistics Conference
HLT: Human Language Technology Conference
EMNLP: Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing

Timeline/Schedule

	Call for Applications	Deadline	Notification
Fall	Mid September	3 weeks later	3 weeks after deadline
Spring	Mid January	3 weeks later	3 weeks after deadline
Summer	Mid May	3 weeks later	3 weeks after deadline

The committee will meet as soon as possible after the deadline. Decisions will be emailed to all ICS members announcing awards as soon as possible after the meeting.
Once you have been notified of receipt of an award, contact the ICS Operations Manager (Danielle.Franklin-1@colorado.edu) for details on how to proceed.
If a PRA is not awarded money for any reason, an email will be sent to that PRA only explaining why s/he did not receive an award.
The ICS Operations Manager will be sent the names and amounts awarded for each semester.
Awardees have up to one year from the award date to turn in receipts (and meet any other requirements) to receive a reimbursement.
- Please note that reimbursements can be taxed if they are submitted more than 60 days after the travel/purchase dates.

Funding Limits Per PRA

Award Type	Condition	Maximum Amount
Travel	Max per award	$800
Travel	Max lifetime	$4000

There is no limit on the number of times a PRA may apply for a travel grant in a given year (following the fiscal year, July 1 – June 30th)
PRAs should not apply if they have already received and used their maximum in a year
If a PRA received an award but was not able to use it within the year, the student is encouraged to apply again

How are awards decided?

The funds are administered by a Student Travel and Research Award Committee consisting of one representative from each member department. Each department selects its own method for choosing a student representative. This committee is responsible for announcing the award each semester and allocating available funds.

The funding committee will strive to fund as many PRAs as possible within the guidelines and the amount budgeted.
First and foremost, an application must meet all the criteria listed on the appropriate pages.
If requests for funding exceed the amount budgeted, however, the committee will rank applications based loosely on the following preferences:
- Preference is given to PRAs presenting a talk or poster over those just attending a conference.
- Preference to first-time applicants in a given year over those who have already been awarded money that year
- Preference to first-time applicants over applicants who have received money in past years

Obligations of Awardees

All awardees present their funded work during an ICS Friday colloquium in the spring. These times will be announced via email by the ICS directors. Awardees are expected to be aware of their obligation to sign up for a time to present and watch for these announcements.

Poster session for all who presented posters at conferences in the last year, including for funds awarded in summer (and even spring) of the previous year if the conference was after the previous ICS awardee poster session.
One or more Friday afternoon ICS sessions will be reserved for those who gave talks to give the talk or something more updated (e.g., 15 or 20 minutes apiece, just as at a conference)

Apply for a PRA Travel Award

The application for the ICS PRA Travel Award is available to ICS PRA members through any of the committee members, the ICS office, or the links below.

ICS PRA Travel Award Application

To apply, submit an electronic copy of all application materials as an email attachment to: icsStudentAwards@colorado.edu. In your email submission, please use the following in the subject line: [Your Name] ICS Grant Application.

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Lalita Suwatee, ICS Graudate Student, is the recipient of the Dibie ICS Summer Fellowship award! Congratulations, Lalita!

Yvette Cullum — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 15:36:39 +0000

Lalita Suwatee, ICS Graudate Student, is the recipient of the Dibie ICS Summer Fellowship award! Congratulations, Lalita! Yvette Cullum Mon, 06/08/2026 - 09:36

ICS is thrilled to announce the recipient of the Dibie ICS Summer Fellowship award - Lalita Suwatee, 3rd year PhD student in Computer Science. Lalita is supervised by Dr. Tammy Sumner and her current research lies at the intersection of Data Science, Human-Computer Interaction, and the Learning Sciences. She is collaborating closely with a team of scholars working with rural school districts in Colorado to develop engaging, place-based learning opportunities in computing and artificial intelligence for middle school students. Community-oriented, place-based learning opportunities have been shown to promote interest, engagement, and persistence in STEM for rural students. She completed her first co-design workshop with middle school teachers in the summer of 2025. During that weeklong workshop, she and teachers developed a series of learning experiences enabling students to use programmable sensors to study growing conditions in high altitude mountain towns with the aim of increasing food yields from community gardens that are providing produce to local food banks. Congratulations, Lalita!

Ovo Dibie is a graduate of ICS’ dual degree program, graduating with a PhD in computer science and cognitive science and advised by Prof. Tammy Sumner. He currently works at Netflix as an Engineering Manager and is a long-time and generous supporter of ICS’s mission to provide impactful and meaningful education in cognitive science.

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Bhuvana Narasimhan, ICS Fellow, is recipient of this year's "The Best Should Teach" Gold Award at CU �Ǹ�Թ�! Congratulations, Bhuvana!

Yvette Cullum — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 16:38:36 +0000

Bhuvana Narasimhan, ICS Fellow, is recipient of this year's "The Best Should Teach" Gold Award at CU �Ǹ�Թ�! Congratulations, Bhuvana! Yvette Cullum Wed, 04/08/2026 - 10:38

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Theodora Chaspari, ICS Faculty, was recognized with the Graduate School's Exceptional Graduate Faculty Mentor Award! Congrats, Theodora!

Yvette Cullum — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 18:22:30 +0000

Theodora Chaspari, ICS Faculty, was recognized with the Graduate School's Exceptional Graduate Faculty Mentor Award! Congrats, Theodora! Yvette Cullum Tue, 03/31/2026 - 12:22

This award, established by the Graduate School, honors outstanding faculty who serve as trusted mentors to graduate students. Nominations are driven by students, who submit the nomination letter and letters of support. Theodora's students consistently highlighted the inclusive, supportive, and collaborative lab environment she fostered, as well as her commitment to developing them into independent and empowered researchers tackling complex, interdisciplinary problems in collaboration with others. They shared personal examples of her individualized support, accessibility, and reflective mentoring approach. Congratulations, Theodora!

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Nicholas Reinholtz, ICS Fellow, received the Provost’s Faculty Achievement Award. Congratulations, Nicholas!

Yvette Cullum — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 19:18:55 +0000

Nicholas Reinholtz, ICS Fellow, received the Provost’s Faculty Achievement Award. Congratulations, Nicholas! Yvette Cullum Thu, 09/25/2025 - 13:18

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Cinnamon Bidwell, ICS Interim Faculty Director, was selected as a 2025 Outstanding Postdoc Mentor of the Year Award recipient! Congratulations, Cinnamon!

Yvette Cullum — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 18:46:07 +0000

Cinnamon Bidwell, ICS Interim Faculty Director, was selected as a 2025 Outstanding Postdoc Mentor of the Year Award recipient! Congratulations, Cinnamon! Yvette Cullum Wed, 09/03/2025 - 12:46

Cinnamon Bidwell, ICS Interim Faculty Director, has been selected as a 2025 Outstanding Postdoc Mentor of the Year Award recipient.

Those who nominated Cinnamon described her as “the pinnacle of a capable, compassionate and creative leader who comports herself with utmost professionalism.” As leader of a lab of nearly 30 researchers, her commitment to supporting postdocs was highlighted – particularly her instrumental mentorship through the complex process of seeking NIH-funded K and R funding.

Congratulations on this amazing achievement, Cinnamon!

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ICS Fellows Alaa Ahmed and Phil Fernbach are the newest CU �Ǹ�Թ� fellows selected for the 25th CU Excellence in Leadership Program! Congrats, Alaa and Phil!

Yvette Cullum — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 16:32:38 +0000

ICS Fellows Alaa Ahmed and Phil Fernbach are the newest CU �Ǹ�Թ� fellows selected for the 25th CU Excellence in Leadership Program! Congrats, Alaa and Phil! Yvette Cullum Wed, 08/27/2025 - 10:32

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iHUB is partnering with the Colorado Department of Education to provide science teachers around Colorado with professional learning opportunities!

Yvette Cullum — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 14:06:58 +0000

iHUB is partnering with the Colorado Department of Education to provide science teachers around Colorado with professional learning opportunities! Yvette Cullum Tue, 08/05/2025 - 08:06

The Colorado Department of Education is collaborating with the �Ǹ�Թ�’s InquiryHub to provide K-12 science teachers with professional learning aligned to the science standards.

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Tammy Sumner, ICS Director, appointed interim dean of University Libraries and Cinnamon Bidwell, CUChange Director, serving as ICS Interim Director! Congratulations, Tammy and Cinnamon!

Yvette Cullum — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 16:37:35 +0000

Tammy Sumner, ICS Director, appointed interim dean of University Libraries and Cinnamon Bidwell, CUChange Director, serving as ICS Interim Director! Congratulations, Tammy and Cinnamon! Yvette Cullum Wed, 06/25/2025 - 10:37

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Robert McDonald, ICS Fellow, accepts senior vice provost and director position at the University of Texas. Congratulations, Robert!

Yvette Cullum — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 17:57:57 +0000

Robert McDonald, ICS Fellow, accepts senior vice provost and director position at the University of Texas. Congratulations, Robert! Yvette Cullum Fri, 06/13/2025 - 11:57

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