Computer Science Undergrad Earns Top Honors in Prestigious Competition–a First for UC San Diego
Three other UC San Diego engineering students received honorable mentions
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University of California San Diego computer science and engineering undergraduate Venkataram Sivaram is the first student from the university to receive the prestigious Computing Research Association (CRA) Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award. He is one of eight standout student researchers recognized by the association this year for demonstrating remarkable research potential in computing.
The highly competitive CRA program also selected eight runners-up, 24 finalists and a large cohort of honorable mentions that include UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering students Sonia Fereidooni from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Hyun (Joe) Jeong from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Kyle Smith from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Sivaram was honored for his research in the “graphics and visualization” category.

“These awards are national, across all areas of computing. I am delighted Venkat has been named one of the recipients of the CRA Undergraduate Research Award, an extraordinary and well-deserved accomplishment,” said Ravi Ramamoorthi, the Ronald L. Graham Professor of Computer Science and director of the UC San Diego Center for Visual Computing.
Sivaram, who is advised by Ramamoorthi, is a third-year student at the university and a part-time undergraduate research assistant, investigating state-of-the-art techniques for differentiable rendering and neural graphics. More specifically, Sivaram’s research focuses on methods to accelerate rendering of complex scenes in video games and movies. For example, he developed a new approach for representing complex geometries for real-time rendering of complex meshes.
He was part of teams that submitted numerous papers to SIGGRAPH, a prestigious computer graphics conference, related to neural geometry fields and parameter-space ReSTIR.
Outside of research, Sivaram has been a junior counselor for the Rose Mathematics Program and a tutor for computer graphics. In the summer of 2024, he was a 3D Graphics Software intern at NVIDIA.
CRA awards are given annually to undergraduates at North American universities who are nominated by faculty members for exemplifying outstanding research capabilities and a commitment to advancing the field of computing. According to the CRA:
"A number of nominees were commended for their contributions to multiple research projects, several authored or coauthored multiple research papers, many presented their work at large-scale conferences, and others produced software artifacts that are now widely used. The nominee pool featured multiple nominations for students who successfully completed summer research or internship programs, and many students served their community as teaching assistants, tutors, and mentors."
In 2018, CSE student Julia Len was named a runner-up, securing the university’s highest place in the CRA competition until Sivaram’s achievement this year. CSE students Kabir Nagrecha and McKenna Lewis received honorable mentions in 2021.
2025 CRA honorees from UC San Diego include
CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Awardee
Student: Venkataram Edavamadathil Sivaram
Advisor: Computer Science and Engineering Professor Ravi Ramamoorthi
Research Area: Graphics and Visualization
CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Honorable Mention
Student: Sonia Fereidoon
Advisor: Computer Science and Engineering Associate Professor Rose Yu
Research Area: Machine Learning
CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Honorable Mention
Student: Hyun (Joe) Jeong
Advisor: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Assistant Professor Sylvia Herbert
Research Area: Robotics
CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Honorable Mention
Student: Kyle Smith
Advisor: Electrical and Computer Engineering Assistant Professor Yatish Turakhia
Research Area: Bioinformatics / Computational Biology
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