Dean Randy Bryant announced a number of faculty and staff awards at the School of Computer Science's first annual Founders' Day celebration Feb. 23:

• David Kosbie, assistant teaching professor in the Computer Science Department (CSD), won the Herbert A. Simon Award for Teaching Excellence.

• Eric Nyberg, professor in the Language Technologies Institute (LTI); Teruko Mitamura, research professor in LTI; Nico Schlaefer, who recently received his PhD in language technologies, and Hideki Shima, a PhD student in LTI, won the Allen Newell Award for Research Excellence for their work on question-answering systems, including their significant contributions to IBM's Watson.

• Mary Jo Bensasi, senior operations assistant in LTI, won the staff award for Individual Dedication.

• Mark Penney, SCS payroll specialist, and Indra Szegedy, administrative coordinator in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII), shared the Rookie of the Year staff award.

• Cleah Schlueter, administrative associate in the dean's office, received the staff award for Citizenship.

• The staff award for Sustained Excellence was presented to Catharine Fichtner, senior undergraduate program coordinator in CSD, and to Becky Klaas, associate business manager in the Robotics Institute.

• Kelly Widmaier, research administration assistant in LTI, was named the staff's Rising Star.

• The Outstanding Staff award was presented to Jo Bodnar, administrative associate in HCII, and to Jane Miller, associate director for foreign initiatives/program manager in the Institute for Software Research.