Sara Owsley Sood '02 Receives Pomona's Distinguished Professor Award
June 22, 2010
June 22, 2010, Greencastle, Ind. — Sara Owsley Sood, assistant professor of computer science at Pomona College and 2002 graduate of DePauw University, is one of four Pomona faculty members to receive the 2010 Wig Distinguished Professor Award for Excellence in Teaching. The honor recognizes exceptional teaching, concern for students and service to the college and community. Recipients of the Wig Award are selected by the junior and senior classes and confirmed by a committee of trustees, faculty and students.
Sood majored in mathematics and computer science at DePauw, was a four-year member of the field hockey team and graduated magna cum laude. She received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Northwestern University and joined the Pomona faculty in 2007. At Pomona, she teaches artificial intelligence, computer science seminar, computing and cognition with laboratory, fundamentals of computer 
science, machine learning, and the senior seminar in computer science.
Dr. Sood's two major research goals are creating machines with increased emotional intelligence through text analytics that expose emotional state and how it changes over time, and connecting people within and outside of the blogsphere through the telling of personal stories.
"Professor Sood is a wonderful teacher and a fantastic mentor and role model," noted one student's testimonial. "She has given me many amazing and important opportunities during my time here, and I know she has done the same for many others." Another enthused, "This enthusiasm for the material and willingness to share make Professor Sood a very engaging professor. She makes difficult and challenging material more accessible and helps students grasp foreign concepts."
Read more about Sara Owsley Sood in this previous story.