Computer science and engineering Ph.D. candidate Ailie Fraser is one of five UC San Diego students accepted this week into the Bouchet Graduate Honor Society. Named after Edward Alexander Bouchet, the first African American to receive a doctorate in the U.S., the society recognizes outstanding scholarly achievement and promotes academic diversity and excellence.
“These five outstanding UC San Diego graduate scholars were selected from a dynamic group of nominees, all of whom demonstrate a commitment to the tenets of the Bouchet Society,” said Paul Yu, interim dean of the UC San Diego Graduate Division. “I congratulate them each for their continued contribution to not only bettering UC San Diego, but also higher education in general through their research, scholarship and leadership.”
Established in 2005 by Yale and Howard universities, the Bouchet Graduate Honor Society is developing a network of scholars who exemplify academic excellence and support traditionally underrepresented students. UC San Diego was the first university on the West Coast to establish a chapter.
Fraser works in the Design Lab, where she focuses on human-computer interactions. By harvesting existing expert content, she seeks to provide contextual help for people working with creative software packages, such as Adobe Photoshop, and other digital tools.
As president of Graduate Women in Computing (GradWIC) at UC San Diego, she helped secure funding to develop a graduate student mentorship program. She continues to serve on GradWIC’s board, as well as sitting on the diversity committee and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering’s Ph.D. admissions students committee. As an undergraduate, Fraser studied math, computer science and music. She loves playing and listening to music, singing and composing.