Awards

Awards are given in the following categories to one undergraduate and one graduate:

• Computer and Information Sciences
• Engineering and Technology
• Health Sciences
• Humanities and Arts
• Interdisciplinary Topics, Centers and Institutes
• Physical and Life Sciences
• Social Sciences, Business and Law

Focus Awards

• COE Solution Awards – Engineering at Northeastern is about creating solutions for a high-velocity world. COE Solution Awards recognize COE students who demonstrate the mission of the College of Engineering, which is to create and translate knowledge through transformative research and remarkable innovation. These awards are given to COE students whose RISE submissions keenly reflect solutions that address global needs by identifying/developing novel approaches to problems within scientific, social, and/or entrepreneurial spheres. Sponsored by the College of Engineering
• CPS Resiliency and Sustainability Awards – CPS Resiliency and Sustainability Awards recognize CPS students (or teams) whose RISE presentation best applies research and communication to spotlight an important idea, problem, or challenge related to any of the wide range of topics within resiliency and sustainability — from leadership to regulatory affairs, from local to global, from environmental to technology – the range of disciplines reflects students’ programs and interests. Sponsored by the College of Professional Studies
• Creating Value with DATA Award – In an increasingly data-rich world inhabited by humans and machines, seamless data-driven transition between the physical and digital has become ubiquitous. The Digital, Analytics, Technology and Automation (DATA) Initiative is a cross-disciplinary, innovative hub of thought leadership committed to researching, developing and sharing new knowledge and approaches for transforming organizations into digital and data-driven businesses.The Creating Value with DATA Award recognizes the RISE presentation demonstrating the most creative and promising approach to creating value with data-driven and technology-enabled analytics and automation. Sponsored by DATA Initiative
• Data and Digital Storytelling Awards – Data and Digital Storytelling Awards recognize students whose RISE presentations deftly apply tools of design, data visualization, text mining or mapping, journalistic investigation, or creative storytelling to draw attention to an important idea, problem, or challenge. Jointly sponsored by the College of Arts, Media and Design & College of Social Sciences and Humanities
• Design Awards – Design as an interdisciplinary and integrative discipline – with its capacity to map the complex dynamics of an issue, foresee its evolution, and shape tangible and intangible interfaces, experiences, services and systems – can empower the network between and across disciplines. The Design Awards recognize students whose RISE presentation best exemplifies how design principles and the design process conceive of and shape innovative ideas and solutions to challenging, multi-disciplinary problems. Sponsored by the College of Arts, Media and Design
• Ethically Informed Research Awards – Ethically Informed Research Awards recognize RISE presentations that best incorporate attention to ethical considerations in research design and implementation, for example by addressing a significant ethical challenge, using value-sensitive project design, or demonstrating designing and implementing effective human research protocols. Sponsored by the College of Social Sciences and Humanities
• Graduate Innovator Award – Graduate Student Government (GSG) is the official liaison between graduate students and Northeastern University and is charged with: 1) organizing graduate students on a co-operative basis for advancing academic, professional and holistic interests; 2) facilitating services which supplement the academic experience, and developing a sense of community within the graduate body, the university community and beyond; 3) fostering a diverse and inclusive graduate student community; and, 4) safeguarding the interests of all graduate students including those from marginalized or underrepresented communities, building an environment free of systemic societal oppression. The Graduate Innovator Award recognizes a graduate peer who demonstrates remarkable innovation by identifying new approaches to problem solving for maximal social impact. Sponsored by Graduate Student Government
• Health Communication Awards – Communication is a critical tool in the health sciences. It includes crafting messages about health, developing strategies for promoting health-care services, and specific applications such as disease awareness and prevention. Health Communication Awards recognize students whose RISE presentation examines a specific, contemporary health communication challenge and proposes solutions to that challenge. Jointly sponsored by the College of Art, Media and Design & Bouvé College of Health Sciences
• Illuminating Complex Problems Awards – Illuminating Complex Problems Awards recognize RISE presentations, rooted in values of social justice, that effectively illuminate causes of, or suggest strategies for addressing, a complex and persistent social problem. Sponsored by the College of Social Sciences and Humanities
• Lux, Veritas, Virtus Award – Taking its name from Northeastern’s motto, this award recognizes a RISE project that exemplifies the values of light, truth, and courage by elevating our human capacities to engage with challenges through the methods and practices of the arts and humanities. Sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships
• Platform Economy Award – The sharing economy can be characterized as a system of dynamic decentralized networks that enables the increased utilization of assets by directly and nimbly matching supply and demand. Technology has enabled new platforms to flourish, disrupting traditional businesses and transforming the future of transportation, lodging, computing, energy, and other services. The estimated impact of sharing economy practices on society is striking, directly affecting the lives of more than a quarter of the adults living in the USA. However, the rapid pace of change has resulted in limited understanding of the dynamic interactions of these platforms with society, and the lag in understanding may be dangerous as disruptive changes continue to accelerate.SHARE envisions and works toward a world in which sharing economy platforms are intentionally engineered for socially desirable outcomes considering their long-term sustainability, cyber-security, resource usage efficiency, impact on the environment, workforce and community relations, interactions with public services, and value-creation. The Platform Economy Award recognizes the RISE presentation that demonstrates the most creative and promising approach to using technologies and algorithms for optimizing design, incentives, operations and security of sharing economy systems that enable socially desirable outcomes, such as sustainable growth, social equity and improved resilience. Sponsored by SHARE

RISE attendees select the winner of the $500 People’s Choice Award by casting votes for their favorite presentation during the Expo.