On May 28, the UCSB Academic Senate recognized four members of the Department of Computer Science as award-winners in their annual recognition of excellence in teaching and mentoring. Computer science professor Rich Wolski has received a 2026 Outstanding Graduate Mentoring award; assistant teaching professor Ziad Matni and professor Frederic Gibou — the latter holds joint appointments in mechanical engineering and mathematics —  have received 2026 Outstanding Teaching awards; and fifth-year PhD student Junrui Liu has received a 2026 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. 

“We’re delighted by the Academic Senate’s recognition of the strength of our department’s teachers and mentors, highlighted by these awardees and their enthusiasm for and commitment  to their students,” said Divyakant Agrawal, distinguished professor and chair of the computer science (CS) department in The Robert Mehrabian College of Engineering. 

Rich Wolski: Outstanding Graduate Mentoring

For Wolski, mentoring means allowing students’ pursuits to shine. “I try to figure out what the student needs to achieve their ambitions and then provide that mentoring, regardless of whether or not those ambitions are appealing to me,” he said — and regardless of whether the student wants to stay in academia or work in industry. “I've had a lot of graduate students in my career,and I think that's partially because they know that if I become their advisor, whatever they want to do next, without judgment, I'll help them do.” Many of these students, he said, have gone on to prominent careers in the private sector. 

Wolski’s own prominent academic career has focused on cloud computing, operating systems, and computer systems software, and how these systems can be applied to address real-world problems, particularly in agriculture and ecology. With computer science professor Chandra Krintz, he has developed practical, impactful tools that are used by farmers, resource managers, and ecologists. Now, Wolski and his colleagues are developing software that makes use of AI to further enhance tools for weather forecasting, physical modeling, and other scientific forecasting. 
 
In 2016, Wolski received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Computer Machinery/Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in High Performance Distributed Computed; two years later, he became the inaugural Duval Family Presidential Chair in Energy Efficiency at UCSB. He has also previously received multiple awards for his teaching and his research, both from the Computer Science Department and the Academic Senate.  

Speaking to the mentoring that earned him his most recent award, Wolski said, “I think you have to come to each student and understand that you're not leading and you're not pushing — you're helping.”

Frederic Gibou: Outstanding Teaching

Gibou has long been known for his outstanding teaching; as a PhD student at UCLA, he won the Robert Sorgenfry Distinguished Teaching Award. (In less official, but possibly equally influential, recognition, student reviews often refer to Gibou as “the goat”).

“I’ve always enjoyed teaching,” Gibou said. He encourages his students to participate, whether that means asking questions in class or visiting his office hours. “It’s when they start interacting that they make progress.”

These interactions — and teaching — also happen in the lab. Gibou, whose work spans mechanical engineering, computer science, and applied mathematics, leads a multidisciplinary research group, the Computational Applied Sciences Laboratory, which brings together multiple researchers across UCSB and the world. He has published more than 100 papers in academic journals, and his research has received support from agencies including the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, and the U.S. Department of Energy. 

Gibou and his team of both graduate and undergraduate students focus on discovering novel materials and using machine learning to speed up that discovery process. A team of four undergraduate students and one PhD student is working on accelerating simulations, while another team of four undergraduates and one PhD is working on flows in porous media. He encourages his students to be part of the lab’s publications, an important step, he says, as they seek out jobs after graduation.

Both in the classroom and in the lab, Gibou wants to help students learn more not only about the science they’re studying, but also about potential careers, internships, and what life might look like after graduation. “I like being with young people,” he said. “It keeps you in the real world.”

Ziad Matni: Outstanding Teaching

“The simple fact that I was nominated for the award by someone in my department means a lot to me,” said Matni, who, along with teaching, directs the CS Early Research Scholars Program (ERSP) and co-directs the Undergraduate Learning Assistants (ULA) program “And the fact that I won is the cherry on top of the sundae.” 

Matni, who has taught more than 6,500 students since he arrived at UCSB in 2016, aims to tailor his teaching to reach learners with a range of backgrounds — from a first-time coder to a student who breezed through AP Computer Science in high school — with an emphasis on connection and compassion. “I want students to be in a good headspace,” he said “When they’re stressed out, it competes with their ability to learn.”

As a result, his office hours are often packed with students. “They can come in and talk with me about the class material, or life in general, get career advice or grad school advice — I’m very open,” he said. 

An electrical engineer by training, Matni emphasizes how important it is for engineers to understand technology from both software and hardware perspectives, “because it’s all part of the same system, and it makes sense once you learn how these things are connected.” 

One of his courses, CS64, Computer Organization and Digital Logic Design, is often the first course in which undergraduate engineers start working with hardware and how it interacts with software, Matni said. “A lot of my students have told me — after the fact — that they really enjoyed that class, because initially, they’d believed that hardware wasn’t their thing.”  Thanks to Matni’s teaching, they had the confidence to learn something new.

Junrui Liu: Outstanding Teaching Assistant

Liu, who received his master’s degree from Yale, is working with assistant professor Yu Feng on helping programmers build provably correct, efficient software using techniques from programming language and formal methods. He has been a teaching assistant for a number of courses, starting in Fall 2021, and also been the instructor for several courses, including CS 162, Programming Languages.

“I’ve always been motivated by the idea that learning should be both joyful and empowering, and that belief shapes almost everything I do in the classroom,” he said. “It’s so validating to see that students are not only having ‘fun,’ but are also building confidence and resilience through the challenges we tackle together.”

The department and The Robert Mehrabian College of Engineering have already taken notice of Liu’s efforts. In 2023 and 2024, he received the college’s Outstanding Teaching Assistant award, and last year, he was named the CS Teaching Assistant of the Year. 

Now, Liu said, the recognition from the Academic Senate “serves as inspiration to continue evolving my practice, finding new ways to enhance the student experience, and helping students to become the best learners they can be.”