Every year, the Computer Science Department recognizes some seniors for having shown academic excellence during their career at SIUE. This year, the CS faculty committee selected John Hawthorn and Nate Mikeska from the senior class to receive this honor.

John Hawthorn is currently enrolled in the first semester of his senior project on the CryptKeeper team. He has not decided where he wants to work when he graduates, but he will be placing a higher value on doing something he enjoys than on making more money. His favorite computer science activity is programming. He says that, "it gives a sense of accomplishment and the finished product is something meaningful that you can be proud of."

Nate Mikeska is currently enrolled in the second semester of his senior project. His team, called CLIP, is creating an application to help chemistry students learn how chemists organize data. Nates favorite computer science topics are artificial intelligence and computer graphics. He is currently job hunting, but is seriously considering working for Boeing in St. Louis.

John and Nate are just two of the CS honorees this year. Watch the SIUE CS News site over the next week for further stories about exceptional students.