About the scholarship
Dr. Robert Akl, President and Owner of Ashum Corporation and Associate Professor of Computer Science & Engineering made this gift in honor of Dr. Krishna Kavi, Professor of Computer Science & Engineering, with gratitude for Dr. Kavi having hired him at UNT in 2002 as a young Assistant Professor.
Dr. Krishna Kavi joined UNT as the Chair of the Department of Computer Science & Engineering in 2001 after previous successful academic appointments at University of Texas at Arlington (1982 – 1997) and then as an endowed Chair Professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (1997-2001). He also served two years as Program Manager for the National Science Foundation (NSF) research programs in Systems Software and Compilers. His research has focused on computer architecture, memory systems, high performance computing, embedded systems, hardware / software security, and cloud security. He was honored as UNT Regents Professor in 2019 for his outstanding contributions to UNT research and education. He earned a BE degree in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Science, and MS and PhD degrees in Computer Science & Engineering from Southern Methodist University.
Requirements
To be eligible for consideration, an applicant for the Scholarship must meet the following criteria:
- Meet the minimum entrance and continuing academic performance standards of the University (or its successor) in effect at the time of any award;
- Maintain full-time enrollment as established by the University, unless the student is nearing completion of their degree program and does not need full-time enrollment;
- Enroll as a full-time student in majoring in computer engineering (or its successor) at the University; in the event no applicant meets this criterion, then students enrolling full-time in any computer science degree program at the University will be eligible for consideration;
- Demonstrate eligibility for need-based financial assistance as determined by completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) (or its successor), which includes an application process that contains written release from the student to share FAFSA information between University departments and donors coordinating related award processes;
- Be classified as a sophomore or junior at the time of any award;
- Have a UNT GPA as defined by the University of at least a 2.75 on a 4.0 scale (or its equivalent); and
- Be a member in good standing of the UNT student chapter of Society of Women Engineers, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, National Society of Black Engineers or UNT's Women in Computing organization (or their successors) or similar societies that may come into existence for the purpose of enhancing the inclusion and success of students who are otherwise under-represented in the discipline of computer engineering.