Arthur Nishimoto, a PhD student in the UIC Computer Science Department and a Research Assistant at the UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), is a recipient of the 2016 UIC Chancellor’s Student Service Award. He will be honored, along with other students who have made exceptional contributions to the campus, at the 44th Annual Chancellor’s Student Service and Leadership Awards (CSSLA) Ceremony this evening.

The CSSLA recognizes outstanding student leaders and student volunteers who, while maintaining high academic achievement, demonstrate a commitment to the UIC community through participation in student organizations and campus activities and throughout the greater Chicagoland area through active service and community engagement.

Nishimoto was recommended by Professor Daria Tsoupikova, Associate Professor of Design Technology in the UIC College of Architecture, Design and the Arts, and an EVL faculty member. While Nishimoto has been collaborating with Tsoupikova for several years on several virtual-reality art projects, most recently “Hearts and Minds: The Interrogations Project,” she recommended him for this award based on his long-term contributions to the success of EVL, the Computer Science Department and to UIC. Specifically, she noted his “competence, creativity, personal initiative, commitment to his work, dedication to the success of the Lab, Department and University, as well as his research and academic achievements.”

Among Nishimoto’s extracurricular activities, he was a member of the student delegation sent to Washington DC to present the UIC Obama Presidential Library Proposal to Congressional staffers; he converted architectural plans for a new UIC College of Engineering building into the CAVE2 virtual environment; he developed a procedure to port interactive 3D programs written in the Unity programming language into the CAVE2 environment, which is now used in several computer science courses; he has mentored many EVL undergraduates; he never tires of assisting EVL with numerous demos and tours; and, his virtual-reality tribute to the Star Trek Enterprise, developed in his spare time, is a major highlight of EVL’s CAVE2 demos. Also, Nishimoto has received Honorable Mention in the 2014 and 2011 UIC Graduate College’s Image of Research contests for his work on graphical user interfaces and on a multi-user electronic paint program.