Ryan Lovett, SCF Systems Administration Manager has been selected as one of this year’s recipients of the Staff Achievement Award for his outstanding contributions in support of the educational and research mission of the campus. The College of Letters & Science Achievement Award is awarded by the Deans to recognize sustained, exceptional performance and/or significant contributions reflective of the Campus Operating Principles.

Specifically, Ryan received this award for his integral role in the success of the new Foundations of Data Science course. Ryan took the initiative to create a new hosted computing environment and led development of the platform through two installations and expanded it to support more that 500 students. Not only was his support throughout invaluable, he has set up the system to extend beyond its initial intended use and is now being used for new courses by other faculty members.

Professor Ani Adhikari, who led the award nomination, had this to say about Ryan’s contribution in her letter to the award committee:

“The duration of course development was very short - starting with nothing but ideas in April, we were teaching over 100 students in August. In the Fall, course materials were developed day by day, problems were ofter unanticipated and there was relentless pressure to solve those problems swiftly so that the students’ experience would remain unaffected.  Not only did Ryan attend to all the details, he did so in his usual unflappable, cheerful, collegial, and diplomatic manner, Such was his calm competence that I had to remind myself that his work on the project was over and above his regular work in our department, and that therefore I should try not to keep going to him for help - but he ended up helping anyway, because often he took care of problems before I had ever noticed their existence.”