Wallapak Tavanapong, Professor of Computer Science, was awarded the Lange Faculty Excellence Award by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University. Created by alumnus Gene C. Lange, the Lange Faculty Excellence Award recognizes top faculty in the college who have demonstrated excellence in teaching or research. This award was given to Tavanapong for her leadership of the NSF National Research Traineeship Award #2152117, her work on broadening participation in computer science, and more.
Wallapak Tavanapong received her B.S. degree in Computer Science from Thammasat University in Thailand in 1992 and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Central Florida in 1995 and 1999, respectively. She joined Iowa State University in 1999 and is currently a Professor of Computer Science. She is a co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of EndoMetric, a software company offering computer-aided colonoscopy technology. She received a National Science Foundation Career grant, the 2006 American College of Gastroenterology Governors Award for Excellence in Clinical Research for “The Best Scientific Paper,” “Top Teaching Award” from the Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication 2017 Conference, and a US patent on Colonoscopy Video Processing for Quality Metrics Determination.
Tavanapong’s current research interests include applied machine learning with applications in biomedicine and healthcare, responsible and trustworthy data science/AI, multimedia in healthcare, multimedia and database systems. Tavanapong was awarded twenty-six grants over her faculty career, including support from the National Science Foundation, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the Mayo Clinic Rochester, the Iowa Department of Economic Development, and EndoMetric. She has served as an NSF panel reviewer, a program committee for international conferences, and a referee for conferences and reputable journals.