Sophia Tang Wins CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award

Sophia Tang (ENG’27, W’27), an undergraduate researcher in Penn Engineering, has been named a recipient of the CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award. The award, presented by the Computing Research Association, is widely regarded as the highest honor for undergraduate computer science students and recognizes exceptional research accomplishments and future leadership potential in computing. 

Tang conducts research in the lab of Pranam Chatterjee, Africk-Lesley Distinguished Scholar of Innovation in Engineering and Assistant Professor in Bioengineering at Penn Engineering, where she develops theoretical foundations for generative artificial intelligence systems applied to biological design. Her work focuses on building machine learning models that can reason about complex biological systems, with applications ranging from therapeutic peptide design to unified modeling of protein and cellular dynamics.

“Research is often a non-deterministic path, but receiving this award is a meaningful signal to myself and my family that I’m on the right track,” Tang says. “I’m grateful to the mentors who encouraged me to pursue independent ideas early on, and excited to continue exploring how theoretical machine learning and generative models can unlock new possibilities in biology.”

Since joining the Chatterjee Lab as a sophomore, Tang has made an extraordinary impact. She has co-authored more than six influential papers that establish new theoretical frameworks for solving fundamental design problems in biotechnology and her research has spanned multi-objective generation of therapeutic peptides, discrete diffusion models, and methods that connect molecular-scale and cellular-scale dynamics.

“Sophia is one of the greatest minds of her generation,” says Chatterjee. “Her work has inspired new application-driven directions for my Ph.D. students and postdocs, with many molecules from these models now validated in disease models in the wet lab. Sophia continues to be a pioneering AI researcher, as well as an incredible mentor and collaborator. I’m deeply proud of her and grateful that she chose to do this work in my lab.”

The CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award is given annually to a select group of students whose work demonstrates exceptional depth, originality and promise. Tang’s ability to contribute foundational theory, influence downstream experimental research and mentor incoming students distinguishes her as an exemplary recipient.

Read the CRA announcement here. Learn more about the Chatterjee Lab on their research website and more on Tang’s work in her blog post.

Yinuo Zhang (left), Pranam Chatterjee (center) and Sophia Tang (right) present a poster for their project, PepTune, at the International Conference of Machine Learning (ICML) in 2025.