It takes a village to make a big impact in the world, and the Department of Computer Science has built one such community.

Each spring, the department honors that community by choosing two Distinguished Alumni Award winners. This year’s honorees, Mike Austin, ‘91, and Elena Nadolinski, ‘14, attended the spring banquet, where they met with faculty and students.

"Through their contributions to the field of computer science and their continued work for our students and the quality of our programs, Mike and Elena epitomize the Hokie spirit of service to others and our department's tradition of giving back,” said Cal Ribbens, department head. “I am so pleased to help recognize their commitment to innovation, excellence, and service to others."

Distinguished alumni

Mike Austin, a former chair and member of the Virginia Tech Computer Science Advisory Board, is a professor of practice in the Department of Computing at East Tennessee State University. But that’s his second career.

A 1991 computer science graduate of Virginia Tech, Austin worked for 30 years at Eastman Chemical Company becoming a Global IT executive. He held leadership positions in information technology, finance, and corporate strategy. He has led digital transformation efforts in finance, supply chain, manufacturing, integrated business planning, and information technology. Now he is pursuing two of his passions: teaching and building the next generation of IT professionals.

Austin’s commitment to Ut Prosim (That I May Serve) shows itself in his extensive volunteer work as a Virginia Tech alumni and supporter of computer science student success, as well as service to his church and mission work that has taken him as far afield as Ecuador and Romania. He received this year’s Distinguished Alumni award.

Elena Nadolinski, founder and CEO of Iron Fish, a privacy-first cryptocurrency company, currently serves on the technical advisory board for CS/root, a project of the Virginia Tech Department of Computer Science, with funding from a GO Virginia Region Two grant. This program provides technical advisors to help entrepreneurs plan and develop business concepts and intellectual property for the market.

Nadolinski grew up in Volgograd, Russia, and graduated from Virginia Tech in 2014. She then worked as a software engineer at Microsoft helping develop Cortana, the company’s Windows 10 virtual assistant. She went on to roles at Tilt.com and Airbnb. In 2019, she founded Beanstalk Network, a crypto company later launched as Iron Fish. Nadolinski received the department’s 2024 Distinguished Early Career Alumni award.

Faculty, staff, and student honors

The department also recognized a number of faculty, staff, and students for outstanding work:

Faculty and staff

• Outstanding contributions in teaching: Sally Hamouda 
• Outstanding contributions in faculty service: Sara Hooshangi 
• Outstanding contributions in administrative service: Paige Johnson 
• Outstanding contributions in administrative service: Teresa Hall 
• Rising Star Faculty award: Huaicheng Li

Graduate students

• Ph.D. research: Matthew Corbett (Advisor: Bo Ji)
• Ph.D. research: Jianfeng He (Advisor: C.T. Lu)
• Master of Science research award: Ashrith Reddy Thukkaraju (Advisor: Jin-Hee Cho)
• Service award: Daniel Manesh
• Instructor of record: Shawal Khalid

• Graduate Teaching Assistant award: Rifat Mansur

Undergraduate students

• Outstanding senior: Joseph O’Such
• Undergraduate Service award: Noah Provenzano
• Undergraduate Teaching Assistant award: John Zhao 
• Undergraduate Teaching Assistant award: Jamie Whiting 
• Outstanding student ambassador: Brianna Brown
• Outstanding student ambassador: Aaron Lambert 
• David Heilman Research award: Xandra McCoy