Kati Provence, UNC Asheville CS student, has been announced as the recipient of the 2025-26 Manly E. Wright Award. The Manly Wright Award is UNCA’s valedictory award, given to the student who ranks first in scholarship.
Some of Kati’s many accomplishments during her time at UNCA include:
- Working with Prof. Sarah Van Wart on her NSF-funded “BRAID” (Brain-Inspired Dynamics for Engineering Energy-Efficient Circuits and Artificial Intelligence) research project in neuromorphic computing.
- An internship at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) in summer 2025.
- A major contributor in the Industry Team Project course.
- Supplemental Instructor for CSCI 202 Data Structures (Spring 2025).
- Student Community Coordinator in the CS department in 2024-2025.
- Vice President of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Student org.
- Board member of Meet the Geeks, a local tech meetup group.
- Provided free tech support to visitors at the Enka-Candler and East Asheville public libraries as part of the Community Digital Literacy and Tech Support course in Spring 2026.
The recipient of the Manly E. Wright Award gives a speech at the commencement ceremony on May 9 and receives their diploma on a silver platter!
