SALISBURY — Dr. Enyue (Annie) Lu, Salisbury University professor of computer science, has earned SU’s 2024 Outstanding Research Mentor Award.

Presented at the 22nd SU Student Research Conference (SUSRC), the honor celebrates faculty who are excellent supervisors of student research or creative work.

Lu, who began teaching at SU in 2004, was nominated by Dr. Xiaohong (Sophie) Wang, chair of the Computer Science Department in SU’s Richard A. Henson School of Science and Technology.

In the past 20 years at SU, Dr. Lu has mentored 76 students in undergraduate research and internship projects.

“She believes that teaching and research are inseparable, and one should bring positive impacts on the other,” said Wang. “Involving students in her research has been effected to enhance their critical thinking, self-learning and problem-solving skills, as well as future professional career development.”

Lu’s students have presented multiple times at the Super Computing: IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, and well as the National Conference on Undergraduate Research and several SU research events.

Many have gone on to pursue graduate study at top-tier institutions, such as Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Virginia, among others. In the workforce, her former students hold positions at the National Security Agency, NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense.

They also have earned prestigious honors, such as being named a Seibel Scholar (recognizing the most talented students at the top 29 graduate schools in business, computer science, bioengineering and energy science in the U.S., China, France, Italy and Japan) and receiving the Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists Presentation Award.

“Dr. Lu always tries her best to attract female, minority and first-generation college students, especially in science and engineering, to be involved in undergraduate research and provide them with high-quality research experiences,” she said.

In addition to her work as a student mentor, Lu has brought $1.5 million in grant funding to SU as the principal investigator for the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates “Explore Emerging Computing in Science and Engineering” (NSF REU EXERCISE) program. The initiative has attracted 114 students from across the U.S. to conduct summer research at SU since 2012.

She also is a sub-contract principal investigator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s $10 million “Transforming Shellfish Farming with Smart Technology and Management Practices for Sustainable Production” initiative, providing opportunities for undergraduate research on smart farming at SU. In addition, she has collaborated with other faculty to support undergraduate students through the “Mission Planning Laboratory” project funded by the Mid-Atlantic Institute for Space and Technology (MIST) and NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. She also has helped students apply for internal SU research grants and awards.

Lu’s undergraduate research mentoring experience also has been recognized nationally. She has been invited to discuss the topic at the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Conference on Computational Science and Engineering, and at NSF REU CISE principal investigator meetings. SU’s REU EXERCISE site project, under her directorship, placed fourth in the nation among 69 sites in 2013.

She also was showcased in the 2019 Bustle magazine feature “What It’s Like to Be an Asian American woman in STEM Today.”

Learn more about SU and opportunities to Make Tomorrow Yours at www.salisbury.edu.