CS Student Steve Mussman Wins Prestigious G.A. Ross Award
11-21-2024
Writer(s): Jesica E. Hollinger
The CS Department congratulates Steve Mussman – winner of this year’s G.A. Ross Award.
Steve Mussman is a senior completing six different majors with a minor in Physics, maintaining a 4.0 GPA. His majors include: Computer Science, Mathematics-Computer Science, Mathematics Honors, Statistics Honors, Applied Mathematics, and Mathematics/Statistics with Honors.
CS Professor Greg Frederickson said he witnessed Steve’s exceptional abilities in the classroom as an undergraduate student.
"It's been a pleasure to have Steve as a student in my Theory of Computation and graduate Algorithms classes,” Frederickson said. “His enjoyment and mastery of challenging course material is just wonderful," he added.
The G.A. Ross award is a university honor granted to each year’s most outstanding senior male. The award is decided by a committee of undergraduate peers and recognizes one graduating male who has outstanding character, a minimum 3.0 graduation index, and exhibits a commitment to scholarship, leadership, and service.
Steve grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana where he was homeschooled through high school as one of seven children. In addition to his hefty scholastic load, he is a Purdue Science Ambassador, president of the Math Club, and a member of Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity.
Steve’s academic achievements at Purdue have been significant, having received the Jerison Memorial Award, the Baxter Award, the V.L. Anderson Award, and the Bruce Helfert Award. He also was a finalist for a Churchill Scholarship, one of only 25 other students nationally nominated, and one of only two at Purdue.
Steve also has been active in research during his time at Purdue. His projects have been with the Department of Mathematics, The Center on the Science of Information (CSoI), and The Center for Research in Computer Vision at the University of Central Florida. Steve is a Channels Scholar at CSoI and has conducted machine learning research with CS Associate Professor Jennifer Neville on statistical network models, and worked with CS Associate Professor Alan Qi on Gaussian processes.
Steve also has gained experience in industry, having worked at both Rolls-Royce and Bloomberg. Last summer, Steve served as an intern with Bloomberg working on software development. This summer he is scheduled to intern with Google (San Francisco Bay) where he will work to apply machine learning to privacy systems. His future plans include graduate school to pursue a PhD in computer science either at Stanford University or Carnegie Melon University.
The G.A. Ross is named for a 1916 graduate who stipulated that the award be presented to a graduating senior male. The recipient receives a $500 award, a medallion, and his name inscribed on the award marker of the Purdue Mall.