SHASS senior Nony Otu Ugwu receives Outstanding UROP Student Award

Senior Nony Otu Ugwu has received the 2026 Outstanding UROP Student Award from the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program for the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS).

Otu Ugwu is a Course 21E (Humanities and Engineering) major, whose studies focus on Computer Science and Comparative Media Studies/Writing.

“Throughout my major and my extracurriculars, I’ve primarily focused on the field of human-computer interaction,” Otu Ugwu says.

For her UROP, Otu Ugwu worked on “Transnational Stages,” a digital humanities project that aims to create a way for theater historians, performance studies scholars, and others interested in theater in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world to compare performance practices in different theatrical venues, and to trace the mobility of authors, performers, and repertory across national boundaries.

“I ultimately chose to join the team because it seemed like a perfect fit when it came to being able to use and hone my technical skills in an interdisciplinary environment between the humanities and computer science,” she says.

“It was a pleasure to work with Nony these past two years on the Transnational Stages project,” says Jeffrey Ravel, Professor of History, Emeritus, and co-leader of the project. “She became our unofficial team leader, working with other team members to solve problems and implement new solutions.”

After graduation, Otu Ugwu will join NASA as a software engineer, helping to build software to support communications.

“I credit this UROP with giving me the opportunity to develop a lot of both the technical and interpersonal skills that I am going to take with me into my career,” she says.