Neven “Nevine” Abou Gazala (right) and her husband, Mahmoud Elhaddad.

A Pitt computer science Ph.D. student has been awarded a 2006 Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship, for outstanding female undergraduate and graduate students completing their degrees in computer science or related fields.

Neven “Nevine” Abou Gazala was one of only 19 students in the country, out of more than 300 applicants, to receive a $10,000 award. Of the 19 winners, three—the only winners from Pennsylvania—are from Pittsburgh universities.

Abou Gazala did not expect to win the scholarship, but was encouraged to apply by her advisors in Pitt’s Department of Computer Science (CS), Professor Daniel Mossé and Professor and Chair Rami Melhem. She learned she had won while attending a retreat at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., with the other finalists. “It was a very great surprise,” she says. “To be a finalist was itself an honor. I was competing with people from M.I.T., from Stanford, and so on. The moral of the story is, you never know what you can accomplish until you actually do it.”

While at the retreat, Abou Gazala and the other scholars toured Google and participated in a workshop on educational and career issues of women in computer science. “Interacting with other female students and previous winners was an enlightening experience,” she says. “The scholarship has made me morally committed to increasing the involvement of females in the field.”

“It is a pleasure to work with Nevine,” says Melhem. “She is motivated and very keen on exploring new research frontiers. In addition to her dedication to her research, she never turns down a request for helping other people or getting involved in service activities. She is just a joy to have around.”

Abou Gazala’s research focuses on reducing computers’ energy consumption so that, for example, laptops will last longer when running on a battery. Her other awards include two Andrew Mellon Predoctoral Fellowships and the CS department’s Outstanding Student Citizenship Award. Abou Gazala earned the Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in computer engineering at the Arab Academy for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1996 and 2000, respectively.

The Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship was established to honor the legacy of Anita Borg, a computer scientist for such companies as Nixdorf, Digital/Compaq’s Western Research Lab, and Xerox PARC. In 1997, Borg founded the Institute for Women and Technology, now The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI). For more information on ABI, visit www.anitaborg.org. More information about the scholarship can be found at www.google.com/anitaborg.