Awards and Recognition

Funding

• National Science Foundation (NSF) Award 2506612 ($900,000 | 3 years)

  • Project Title: Towards a Large Language Model-based Smart Learning Hub for Computing Education
  • Project Team: Sorin Lerner (PI), Ramamohan Paturi (co-PI), and Gerald Soosairaj (co-PI)
  • Project Duration: October 2025 - September 2028
  • Funding Agency: NSF’s Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL)
  • Award Link: Link to NSF Award 2506612

• California Learning Lab Foundation Award ($1,500,000 | 3 years)

  • Project Title: Improving student engagement and outcomes equitably with course-specific open-sourced AI-tutors
  • Project Team: Ramamohan Paturi (PI), Sorin Lerner (co-PI), Gerald Soosairaj (co-PI), Sam Lau (co-PI), Gena Sbeglia (co-PI, SDSU), Gail Heyman (co-PI), Stanley Lo (co-PI), Trevor Bonjour (co-PI), and many others
  • Project Duration: January 2025 - December 2027
  • Funding Agency: California Learning Lab Foundation
  • Institutions Involved: University of California San Diego (UCSD), San Diego State University (SDSU), California State University San Marcos (CSUSM), and Palomar College
  • Project Link: Link to California Learning Lab Grant

• National Science Foundation (NSF) Award 2417531 ($300,000 | 3 years)

  • Project Title: Improving Student Comprehension of Programming Components within Large Code Bases
  • Project Team: Gerald Soosairaj (PI) , William G Griswold (co-PI), and Anshul Shah (lead PhD student)
  • Project Duration: October 2024 - September 2027
  • Funding Agency: NSF’s Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE)
  • Award Link: Link to NSF Award 2417531

• National Science Foundation (NSF) Award 2417787 ($300,000 | 2 years)

  • Project Title: Generation and Evaluation of Culturally Relevant Computing Resources for Latines in Introductory Programming
  • Project Team: Gerald Soosairaj (PI), Ismael Villegas Molina (lead PhD student), and Audria Saravia-Montalvo (second lead PhD student)
  • Project Duration: September 2024 - August 2026 (tentative)
  • Funding Agency: NSF’s Division of Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF)
  • Award Link: Link to NSF Award 2417787

• National Science Foundation (NSF) Award 2315909 ($300,000 | 3 years)

  • Project Title: BPC-DP: Improving Computing Education for Incarcerated College Students
  • Project Team: Leo Porter (PI), William G Griswold (co-PI), Gerald Soosairaj (co-PI), and Emma Hogan (lead PhD student)
  • Project Duration: October 2023 - September 2026
  • Funding Agency: NSF’s Division of Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF)
  • Award Link: Link to NSF Award 2315909

• Course Development and Instructional Improvement Program (CDIIP) Award ($38,273 | 1 year)

  • Project Title: (More) Free, Interactive, Open Educational Resources for Lower-Division Programming Courses
  • Project Team: Niema Moshiri (PI), Joe Politz (co-PI), and Gerald Soosairaj (co-PI)
  • Project Duration: July 2021 - June 2022
  • Funding Agency: Course Development and Instructional Improvement Program (CDIIP)

• National Science Foundation (NSF) Award 2044473 ($299,973 | 3 years)

  • Project Title: Determining the Effectiveness of Live Coding on Student Learning in Introductory Programming
  • Project Team: Gerald Soosairaj (PI), Bill Griswold (co-PI), Leo Porter (co-PI), and Anshul Shah (lead PhD student)
  • Project Duration: Jan 2021 - Dec 2023
  • Funding Agency: NSF’s Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE)
  • Award Link: Link to NSF Award 2044473

• Google ExploreCSR Award ($18,000 | 1 year)

  • Project Title: Introducing Community College Women to 4-Year University Research Opportunities
  • Project Team: Christine Alvarado (PI) and Gerald Soosairaj (co-PI)
  • Funding Agency: Google
  • Project Duration: July 2019 - June 2020

• US Department of Education Award U411C190048 ($3,993,941 | 4 years)

  • Project Title: CS for English Learners (CSforEL)
  • Project Team: Jake Baskin (project director), CSTA Chapters, Deborah Costa Hernandez (co-PI), Beth Simon (co-PI), CRLP staff/facilitators, Megan Hopkins (co-PI), Gerald Soosairaj (collaborator), and many others
  • Funding Agency: US Department of Education
  • Project Duration: July 2019 - June 2023

• Scott Kloeck-Jenson Fellowship ($4,500 | 3 months)

  • Project Title: Effect of Bilingual Education and Live-Coding on Student Learning and Engagement in Teaching and Learning Computer Sciences
  • Project Team: Gerald Soosairaj (Ph.D. Candidate), Jignesh Patel (co-advisor), and Richard Halverson (co-advisor)
  • Funding Agency: Scott Kloeck-Jenson Fellowship at University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Project Duration: July 2018 - September 2018
  • Link to Project Report: SKJ Fellowship Report

Honors and Awards

• Best Paper Award: For our research paper titled Needles in a Haystack: Student Struggles with Working on Large Code Bases at the ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (ICER). August 2025.
  • Authors: Anshul Shah, Thomas Rexin, Anya Chernova, Gonzalo Allen-Perez, William G. Griswold, and Adalbert Gerald Soosai Raj
  • Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1145/3702652.3744218
• Best Student Paper Award: For our research paper titled Faculty Identities and Their Effects on Implementing Culturally Relevant Pedagogies at Hispanic-Serving Institutions at the ACM Global Computing Education Conference (CompEd). December 2025.
  • Authors: Ismael Villegas Molina, Emma Hogan, Nawab Mulla, Josue Martinez, William G. Griswold, Leo Porter, and Adalbert Gerald Soosai Raj
  • Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1145/3736181.3747163
• Best Undergraduate Teacher Award: Department-wide teaching award for excellence in undergraduate teaching in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at University of California, San Diego. 2022-23.
  • Award Link: https://jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/faculty/best-teacher-awards
• Best Paper Award: For our research paper titled Live-coding vs Static Code Examples: Which is better with respect to Student Learning and Cognitive Load? at the Australasian Computing Education (ACE) Conference. February 2020.
  • Authors: Adalbert Gerald Soosai Raj, Pan Gu, Eda Zhang, Arokia Xavier Annie R, Jim Williams, Richard Halverson, and Jignesh M. Patel
  • Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1145/3373165.3373182

• Capstone Ph.D. Teaching Award: University-wide teaching award in recognition of outstanding achievement as a graduate student instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. March 2019.

• Best CS Graduate Student Instructor Award: Department-wide teaching award for excellence in teaching as a graduate student instructor in Computer Sciences at University of Wisconsin-Madison. May 2018.

• UW-CS Thank You Award: UW-Madison Computer Sciences Department’s Thank You Award for Efforts in Increasing Diversity in Computer Sciences. May 2018.

• UW-CS Thank You Award: UW-Madison Computer Sciences Department’s Thank You Award for Creating Pathways for Women to Major in Computer Sciences. May 2017.

• Cisco’s CAP Award: Cisco’s Achievement Program (CAP) award for outstanding contributions to Diameter Credit Control Protocol (DCCA). January 2012.

• Cisco’s Star Award: Cisco’s Star performer award for developing a successful technical on-boarding program for new hires. April 2011.

• CEG Alumni Association Endowment Award College of Engineering Guindy (CEG) Alumni Association’s Endowment Award for outstanding performance during the first two years of undergraduation in Information Technology. February 2008.