James Bornholt has been awarded second place in the prestigious 2013 ACM Student Research Competition.
James, who graduated from the PhB in Computer Science (Honours) in 2013, was invited to compete in the grand final after winning first place in the undergraduate division in June last year. The competition was strong and the final few rounds saw James competing against students from UC Berkeley and Harvard.
His winning paper, ‘Uncertain < T > A First-Order Type for Uncertain Data’, was written as part of his internship with Microsoft Research.
Those who placed first in their division last year, moved onto judging for the grand final. The finalists, a mix of undergraduate and postgraduate research students were required to present a final paper to be judged in this prestigious competition. Three undergraduates and three graduates were chosen as the SRC Grand Finals winners.
James has been invited, along with his supervisor, Steve Blackburn to attend the annual ACM Awards Banquet, where they will receive formal recognition.
Steve says that he is immensely proud of the work James has put into this competition.
“He was one of just eleven students worldwide to make it to the grand final. To be placed second within such a competitive field is fantastic. His work was no ordinary undergraduate project; the work will change the way products are built and he has successfully published the work at ASPLOS, one of the most prestigious and competitive publication venues in computer science.”
James says that he is looking forward to attending the banquet in Seattle later this year.
“We’re delighted that our work on Uncertain < T > has been recognised in this way. The grand final submissions came from diverse fields of computer science, and so this second place result tells us we are working on important problems.”
When asked what he thinks contributed to his success, James is quick to mention his supervisors.
“Personally, I’ve been very lucky to have the support of ANU, and particularly my advisor Steve Blackburn, both during my degree and since graduation. I’m also lucky to have wonderful collaborators from Microsoft Research in Kathryn McKinley and Todd Mytkowicz.”
View James’ winning paper Uncertain < T >.