Cyrus Omar receives 1938E Award

Cyrus Omar, assistant professor of computer science and engineering, has been selected to receive the College of Engineering 1938E Award. This prestigious award honors outstanding young faculty members who demonstrate excellence in teaching, mentoring, and contributing to the educational growth of the College.
Omar is celebrated for his innovative approach to teaching programming languages, most notably through his course EECS 490: Programming Languages, which he has redesigned from the ground up and taught ten times to over 100 students per semester. His teaching style makes complex subjects accessible and engaging, using thoughtfully designed assignments to help students navigate the challenging material.
Jean-Baptiste Jeannin, associate professor of aerospace engineering and associate professor of EECS at U-M, expressed strong support for Omar’s nomination, noting, “Cyrus is a devoted teacher and passionate educator, whose research focuses on programming interfaces and how to best teach computer programming.”
In addition to his teaching, Omar leads the Future of Programming Lab, which is notable not only for its innovative research but also for its unique mentorship model. Over the past five years, more than 150 undergraduate students have participated in the lab’s research projects, supported by a structured onboarding process that provides students with a consistent set of tasks, including a research coding project, to prepare them for more advanced projects. Many undergraduate students in his group have gone on to co-author papers published at top conferences such as OOPSLA and POPL. His lab’s approach has been key in preparing students for successful careers in academia and industry, with many going on to PhD programs.
One student emphasized the profound influence of Omar’s mentorship: “He has helped me find my place in this community and realize my research goals, inspiring me to join academia and propel CS research and human knowledge forward.”
Beyond his teaching and mentorship, Omar’s research in programming languages is pioneering. His work on live programming environments addresses critical areas in programming interface design, allowing for reasoning about and running incomplete programs, and for more seamless collaborative programming. His research has garnered significant recognition, earning him prestigious awards including the NSF CAREER Award and multiple Distinguished Paper Awards at top conferences. Omar completed his PhD in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, after which he served as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Chicago before joining the CSE faculty at U-M in 2019.